Black Is the Color highlights key moments in the history of Black visual art, from Edmonds Lewis’s 1867 sculpture Forever Free, to the work of contemporary artists such as Whitfield Lovell, Kerry James Marshall, Ellen Gallagher, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Art historians and gallery owners place the works in context, setting them against the larger social contexts of Jim Crow, WWI, the civil rights movement and the racism of the Reagan era, while contemporary artists discuss individual works by their forerunners and their ongoing influence.
The US detonated 67 nuclear weapons over the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands during the Cold War, the consequences of which still reverberate down four generations to today. "NUKED," is a timely new feature documentary focussing on the human victims of the nuclear arms race, tracing the displaced Bikinian's ongoing struggle for justice and survival even as climate change poses a new existential threat. Using carefully restored archival footage to resurrect contemporaneous islanders’ voices and juxtaposing these with the full, awesome fury of the nuclear detonations, NUKED starkly contrasts the official record with the lived experience of the Bikinians themselves, serving as an important counterpoint to this summer’s Oppenheimer.
Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office; even after his assassination in 1978, he continues to inspire disenfranchised people around the world.
La prohibition américaine, une aubaine française
When Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, he left behind a mountain of personal debt, which forced his heirs to sell his beloved Monticello home and all of its possessions. The Levys of Monticello is a documentary film that tells the little-known story of the Levy family, which owned and carefully preserved Monticello for nearly a century – far longer than Jefferson or his descendants. The remarkable story of the Levy family also intersects with the rise of antisemitism that runs throughout the course of American history.
Did you know that the first cowboys were black? Using magnificent archives and testimonies from historians, Cécile Denjean restores justice to African-Americans in the story of the conquest of the West.
Controversy erupts over a New-Deal-era mural of the namesake of San Francisco’s George Washington High School. The thirteen-panel artwork "The Life of Washington" by Victor Arnautoff offers a view of the Founding Father both celebratory and critical, referencing his involvements in slavery and Native American genocide.
This documentary celebrates the Black cultural renaissance that existed in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, OK, and investigates the 100-year-old race massacre that left an indelible, though hidden stain on American history.
Marijuana is the most controversial drug of the 20th Century. Smoked by generations to little discernible ill effect, it continues to be reviled by many governments on Earth. In this Genie Award-winning documentary veteran Canadian director Ron Mann and narrator Woody Harrelson mix humour and historical footage together to recount how the United States has demonized a relatively harmless drug.
In 30 years of a deeply committed career and 50 roles, Denzel Washington, double-Oscar winner, placed the figure of the Black man in all its complexity at the heart of the American paradoxes: from Black activist, rebel soldier to gangster torn between violence and charity. Voted best actor of the 21st century by the New York Times a few months ago, Denzel Washington, 65, has risen to the top of American cinema. As an Actor, director and producer, he has shaken up a "color line" as immutable as it is subtle. Often identified with his characters, he reveals himself to be disconcerting and paradoxical. As if he were holding up a mirror to America in which all of its contradictions and failings were reflected. A documentary that chronicles the extraordinary career of the world-renowned African-American actor.
The first American space station Skylab is found in pieces scattered in Western Australia. Putting these pieces back together and re-tracing the Skylab program back to its very conception reveals the cornerstone of human space exploration.
La grande prairie, le pacte du bison
In 1975, as America faced social and political upheaval, filmmakers turned chaos into art.
In a year of uprisings and political unrest, Stonebreakers documents the fights around monuments in the United States and explores the shifting landscapes of the nation's historical memory.
A descendant of the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history, filmmaker Katrina Browne explores the contemporary legacy of slavery by traveling with fellow descendents from Rhode Island to Ghana and Cuba, retracing the Triangle Trade route. Along the way, Browne and her companions meet with similarly interested travelers and discover the considerable importance slavery once had for Northern commerce.
Known as the most liberal U.S. senator and "Border Czar," VP Kamala Harris has a long track record of policy positions; an in-depth look.
Charlotte Biltekoff is the author of “Eating Right in America” where she traces the food reform movements throughout American history. She questions socially accepted ideas about “good and bad eaters” and what those assumptions reveal about food, culture, and the struggle over moral values.
With a mission of collecting, preserving and making accessible the materials of human culture, the New York Public Library plays a vital role in the cultural life of the Big Apple. This film provides a multifaceted portrait of the institution. Viewers will learn about the library's history, collections and research centers as well as the individuals charged with upholding its mission while always keeping an eye to the future.
November 2016 : The United States of America are about to elect their new president. AMERICA is a deep dive into the heart of Arizona, meeting the inhabitants of a little town crossed by Road 66, the broken inheritors of the American Dream who deliver us their hopes and fears.
So much more than simply the story of the Thanksgiving meal, the epic saga of the Pilgrims is one of the fundamental narratives of our nation. This ambitious documentary presents the definitive history of the Pilgrims and their journey to and colonization of the New World. A marriage of feature-film quality historical reenactments with the latest scholarship and analysis of original source material, this definitive look at the Pilgrims' progress will shed light on the reality of their experience.