From behind the closed doors of women's washrooms, The Powder Room reveals women sharing intimacies in the privacy of each other's company. Originating from the director's observation that women trade secrets with friends and strangers in public washrooms, this innovative and candid documentary takes us to high school bathrooms, seniors centres' powder roooms, Newfoundland dance halls, New York nightclubs, a sauna in Copenhagen, a Casablanca hamman and country-and-western bars in Texas. In each location, as women are filmed in verité sequences, they confess their joys, their frustrations and their pain about love, sex, relationships with men and friendships with each other.
A documentary that examines whether a charity organized by Pat Robertson to aid Rwandan genocide refugees was a front for diamond mining.
Alanis Obomsawin tells the story of Shannen’s Dream, a national campaign to provide equitable access to education for First Nations children, in safe and suitable schools. She brings together the voices of those who have successfully brought the Dream all the way to the United Nations in Geneva.
In 1972, John Wojtowicz attempted to rob a Brooklyn bank to pay for his lover’s sex-change operation. The story was the basis for the film Dog Day Afternoon. The Dog captures John, who shares his story for the first time in his own unique, offensive, hilarious and heartbreaking way. We gain a historic perspective on New York's gay liberation movement, in which Wojtowicz played an active role. In later footage, he remains a subversive force, backed by the unconditional love of his mother Terry, whose wit and charm infuse the film. How and why the bank robbery took place is recounted in gripping detail by Wojtowicz and various eyewitnesses.
A 3D feature film about Sir Edmund Hillary's monumental and historical ascent of Mt. Everest in 1953 - an event that stunned the world and defined a nation.
Filmmaker Penny Woolcock spent eight months in a parallel world, the world of the homeless, befriending people and finding out where they eat, sleep and socialise. While making her film, Woolcock realised that the very real problems of homeless people have very little to do with the lack of a roof over their heads or a bed to sleep in. Their problems come from their past lives - and are less easy to remedy. Despite the efforts of different charities to move people into homes, the streets are often where they feel safe and what they know best. In this moving documentary, Woolcock gives the seen-but-unheard residents of London's streets a voice.
The Darkhad and Soyon Uriyanghai peoples live in a vast valley in Northern Mongolia, much as their ancestors have for centuries. "Taiga" is the record of a long period spent by the German filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger among these people.
Following their triumph with Manufactured Landscapes, photographer Edward Burtynsky and filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal reunite to explore the ways in which humanity has shaped, manipulated and depleted one of its most vital and compromised resources: water.
When his rented lot is snatched up by an opportunistic real estate mogul, Eddie Miranda and his Coney Island ride the Zipper become casualties of a power struggle between the developer and the City of New York over the future of the world-famous destination.
“Finding Hillywood” is an inspirational film about the making of the Rwandan film industry and the power of film to change and heal individuals and communities. It tells the story of how a nation, still healing from the 1994 genocide, creates a film industry as both an outlet for the pain and a way to bring entertainment and a new industry to the population. Hillywood, which is named for Rwanda’s hilly terrain, is a traveling film festival that screens films made by, about, and for Rwandans. The festival goes from town to town, setting up public, outdoor screenings, on inflatable screens, to showcase Rwandan films.
Madame Ondine performs a serpentine dance surrounded by big cats.
The film takes the form of a documentary report in which the director Claire Denis follows Les Têtes Brulées, a group of five musicians from Yaoundé in Cameroon, as they tour France.
Heddy Honigmann returns to her birthplace of Lima, Peru to reacquaint herself with a place and people dear to her heart. It is about a forgotten city, a forgotten history and a forgotten people. With irony as their loved weapon for survival, they have to forget as well, in order not to give way to cynicism, hatred and grief. It is about remembering the old days when life - despite class differences, corruption and violence - was still good: waiters, bartenders and shopkeepers who are fighting a losing battle and have lost everything. It is also about the children who manage to survive by mastering the art of street life and who reveal the country in it's true colours. Just like the dogs they share the streets with, they have no good memories to forget.
An unpredictable documentary from a fascinating storyteller, Agnès Varda’s last film sheds light on her experience as a director, bringing a personal insight to what she calls "cine-writing," traveling from Rue Daguerre in Paris to Los Angeles and Beijing.
How did Hollywood pitch movies about gays and lesbians between 1956 and 1977? Here are theatrical trailers for 27 mainstream and art-house films, presented chronologically from "Tea and Sympathy" to "Outrageous!" More than half are films released between 1968 and 1972. Half are dramas and half are comedies, with farce dominating the films released after 1971. At least three advertise X-rated films: "The Killing of Sister George," "Midnight Cowboy," and Visconti's "The Damned." There's no voice-over commentary for this compilation, but it does include advertisements for snacks and one warning against public displays of affection aimed at "her" to control "him."
The tobacco industry's conspiratorial efforts to market their products in the face of public health facts and public opposition.
A documentary about the three Woodstock music festivals.
In 1965, Patsy Takemoto Mink became the first woman of color in the United States Congress. Seven years later, she ran for the US presidency and was the driving force behind Title IX, the landmark legislation that transformed women’s opportunities in higher education and athletics.
This cinema-verite-style documentary interweaves the pregnancy and childbirth of a young woman with the lingering death of a cancer patient to comment on the celebration and tragedy of existence. The tenderness and intimacy of the young couple, and the mystery of birth are contrasted with the dignity of a man who faces his death without deception.
A cinema verite study of the world of the blue-collar worker and the economic and psychological bind in which he is caught.