Jeff Weise: My Personal Documentary

On November 5th 2017 the largest mass shooting in Texas history occurred inside a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Although 26 were murdered that day, more than half the people survived, some of them miraculously.

For more than 120 years, Mohawk ironworkers have raised America’s modern cityscapes. They are called 'sky walkers' because they walk fearlessly atop steel beams just a foot wide, high above the city. In this nuanced portrait of modern Native Americans' double lives, Jerry McDonald Thundercloud and his colleague Sky shuttle between the hard-drinking Brooklyn lodging houses they call home during the week and their rural reservation, a grueling drive six hours north, where a family weekend awaits. While the men are away working, their wives often struggle to keep their children away from the illegal temptations of an economically deprived area.

The story of an American hero and the Cherokee Nation's first woman Principal Chief who humbly defied all odds to give a voice to the voiceless.

In 2012 Dalya and her mother Rudayna fled Aleppo for Los Angeles as war took over. Months before, Rudayna learns a secret that destroys her marriage, leaving her single at midlife. Arriving in LA, Dalya enrolls as the only Muslim at Holy Family Catholic High School. Can mother and daughter remake themselves while holding on to their Islamic traditions?

A year in the life of an underdog competitive high school mariachi band in the Texas borderlands.

A documentary account by award-winning filmmaker John Ferry of the events that led up to the 1969 Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island as told by principal organizer, Adam Fortunate Eagle. The story unfolds through Fortunate Eagle's remembrances, archival newsreel footage and photographs.

A documentary film about Comanche activist LaDonna Harris, who led an extensive life of Native political and social activism, and is now passing on her traditional cultural and leadership values to a new generation of emerging Indigenous leaders.

An experimental look at the origin of the death myth of the Chinookan people in the Pacific Northwest, following two people as they navigate their own relationships to the spirit world and a place in between life and death.

In Penticton, BC, most students graduating from the only high school in town know that job opportunities and higher education lie elsewhere, most likely in Vancouver. So, for one memorable week, they go through a whirlwind of formal ceremonies, wild celebrations, hi-jinks and farewells that involve the whole population of this Okanagan Valley community.

American high school students from the privileged Silicon Valley travel to Manang, Nepal in this documentary about how travel and life experiences can change personal perceptions. Together with a group of Manangi high schoolers, the students expand their cultural knowledge and experience a slice of life as a citizen of the globe.

This is not a film about gun control. It is a film about the fearful heart and soul of the United States, and the 280 million Americans lucky enough to have the right to a constitutionally protected Uzi. From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of Oscar-winning NRA President Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes homemade napalm with The Anarchist's Cookbook to the murder of a six-year-old girl by another six-year-old. Bowling for Columbine is a journey through the US, through our past, hoping to discover why our pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence.

A meeting of the Far West Council elders inspires a discussion of Northwest Native American history and traditions, and the struggle to remember and honor their ancestry

A young Native American man on his way to visit his uncle learns about his Navajo heritage by attending tribal gatherings, traditional ceremonies and listening to old folktales.

Waters’ LIFT project, ᏗᏂᏠᎯ ᎤᏪᏯ (Meet Me at the Creek), is the fourth of a quartet of films, and focuses on interconnectedness and Cherokee values through the lifelong fight of Rebecca Jim, a Cherokee Nation citizen and waterkeeper warrior, as she leads the effort to restore Tar Creek in Miami, Oklahoma.

This film tells the stormy tale of a group of friends from Boulogne-sur-Mer, a French town hit by the financial crisis. A year between dreams and disillusion, imagined by teenagers from a working or middle class background, with songs that regularly add poetry, laughter, and emotion to reality.

An intimate and thrilling portrait of a young Siksika woman and the deep bonds between her father and family in the golden plains of Blackfoot Territory as she prepares for one of the most dangerous horse races in the world… bareback.

Black Snake Killaz is a feature-length documentary film about the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. This film explores actions taken by water protectors to stop the construction of the oil pipeline and highlights actions taken by law enforcement, military, and corporate mercenaries to quell the months-long protest. Black Snake Killaz timelines the historical events that unfolded in Standing Rock throughout 2016 and brings you the raw experience from many frontline actions to protect the water. Although the Dakota Access Pipeline is completed, the impact of the movement will be long-lasting. As fossil fuel extraction projects continue to impact some of the most vulnerable communities throughout the United States of America, the importance of the water protectors story grows.

The fascinating complexity of high school debate gives way to a portrait of the equally complex racial and class bias of American education in Greg Whiteley's riveting documentary.

Ramsey Denison investigates a terrifying pattern of police corruption and discovers that behind the shimmering surface of Las Vegas lies a police department with individuals willing to go to any lengths to cover up crimes.

Sardou, autoportrait