Miya Masaoka uses music to interact with plants and insects; Jon Rose turns fences into musical instruments with a violin bow in conflict zones ranging from the Australian outback to Israel; John Luther Adams translates geophysical phenomena in Alaska into music; and Bob Ostertag explores socio-political issues through processes as diverse as transcribing riots into string quartets, and creating live cinema with garbage. By contrasting the creative paths of these artists, and a connection between them by the world renowned Kronos Quartet, the film explores music not as a form of entertainment, career, or even self-expression, but as a tool to develop more deeply meaningful relationships with people and the complexities of the world they live in.
Vespasiano, in the interior of Minas Gerais, is home to one of the few national penitentiaries specifically for pregnant women and mothers with young children. Guided by these women, we entered fragments of the daily life of the prison unit: evangelical services, conversations, confessions, doodles, vanity, fear, censorship, punishment, longing, memory and the constant struggle for the experience of motherhood.
Joy grew up in a typical American family. She always wanted to be a ballet dancer and moved to Russia when she was 15 to follow her dream. Without a word of Russian, not completely fit for the physical requirements of Russian ballet dancers, Joy shows her strength and dedication to ballet and accomplishing her dreams. We follow Joy’s personal and professional life: from her daily challenges, injuries, performances to becoming a ballet dancer with Bolshoi Theatre group and then prima ballerina of Kremlin Ballet, where she has performance of her lifetime - Swan Lake, before closing this chapter of her life and leaving Russia to pursue new opportunities.
Joe Strummer was one of the most memorable figures of the 80's as singer for The Clash. His angry on-stage energy made him stand out as one of the most inspiration frontmen of all time.
LAST MAN FISHING is a cinematic look at the vastly changing seafood system through the lens of small-scale fishermen across the United States. Narrated by best-selling author Mark Bittman, the film explores the dichotomy between the industrial model and sustainable fishing methods that focus on conservation and quality.
Steve Talt used to bodyguard Farah Pahlavi, the exiled Queen of Iran. So when he discovers that her art was stolen by the Mafia in 1980, he sets out on a quixotic quest to recover it.
In this utterly heart-affecting and enthralling film, two Holocaust survivors in South Florida form a klezmer band and begin an extraordinary musical journey that celebrates life and the transcendent power of music to heal.
Ten-year-old Herb Gildin and his two older sisters were sent by their German-Jewish parents to live with non-Jewish families in Sweden to escape Nazi persecution. Two years later, they were reunited with their parents in America as refugees. Decades later, Herb visited Sweden to reconnect with the remaining family members who had taken him in.
A short documentary featuring waterman Kalani Lattanzi challenging the boundaries of Big Wave Surfing. Filmed in Nazaré and Rio de Janeiro, he faces the biggest waves in the world, in the most pure form of wave riding: bodysurf.
This broadcast special describes the manners by which we modern Americans might pursue a lifestyle that can only be described as “Full Bush”. Filmed at the gorgeous jewel box known as The Chicago Theatre.
Waging Change weaves the stories of individual workers such as Nataki Rhodes of Chicago and Naomi Debebe of Detroit with the efforts of thousands of restaurant workers across the country to demand respect and one fair wage.
EDDIE, an intimate look at the life of one of basketball’s most legendary coaches, takes audiences on a turbulent ride across Sutton’s five-decade career and provides an unprecedented off the court look at both the demons that haunted him and the relationships crucial to overcoming them. With a wealth of never-before-seen footage and interviews with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, a “who’s who” of college basketball, elite journalist, coaches and players, and even former President Bill Clinton, EDDIE is a complex story rooted in basketball, but exploring universal themes of substance abuse, tested relationships, and most importantly, perseverance.
A feature-length, environmental thriller that follows investigative journalist, Matt Blomberg, and ocean activist, Paul Ferber, in their dangerous efforts to create a marine conservation area and combat the relentless tide of illegal fishing. Along the way a new generation of Cambodian environmentalists are inspired to create a better life for their people.
In 1999 the old sport of skiing had just been given new life, and Level 1 was conceived to document its progress into the future. With twenty years in the rearview mirror it still stands true- new things never get old. Romance, the final chapter of annual films by Level 1, captures a modern-day Golden Age in skiing. Featuring a generation of talent that came of age in the best time to ever do it. Tweaking the formula, tweaking the grab, and in it for nothing but the love.