The “Prophecy of the 7th Fire” says a “black snake” will bring destruction to the earth. For Winona LaDuke, the “black snake” is oil trains and pipelines. When she learns that Canadian-owned Enbridge plans to route a new pipeline through her tribe’s 1855 Treaty land, she and her community spring into action to save the sacred wild rice lakes and preserve their traditional indigenous way of life. Launching an annual spiritual horse ride along the proposed pipeline route, speaking at community meetings and regulatory hearings. Winona testifies that the pipeline route follows one of historical and present-day trauma. The tribe participates in the pipeline permitting process, asserting their treaty rights to protect their natural resources. LaDuke joins with her tribe and others to demand that the pipelines’ impact on tribal people’s resources be considered in the permitting process.
A child who just loved to skate from the age of eight, Poppy Starr Olsen became the number one female bowl skater in Australia at 14 and went on to take out bronze at the XGames at 17 - the ultimate competition in the world of skateboarding. The same year, skateboarding was announced as an official additional sport category at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Now faced with the opportunity to represent Australia on the world stage Poppy grapples with the transition from skater to athlete and the pressure of competition mounts in a way it has never done before.
Picking up the story first presented in I Don’t Know (1970), Hats Off to Hollywood (1972) brazenly and brilliantly mixes documentary reality with fully staged recreations/reimaginings of episodes in the lives of Jennifer and Dana, a loving, bickering couple who challenge the notion of homonormativity. Drugs, poverty, disease, bigotry and prostitution all figure into this disarmingly candid and often hilarious film, a remarkable work that is the apotheosis of director Spheeris’ early work, and a luminous signpost leading directly to The Decline of Western Civilization (1979-1997). Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.
Since 2013 more than 30,000 fighters from all over the world have joined the troops of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (Daesh) in Syria. Fighting against them as part of the YPO (Popular Protection Command) in Rojava—in the north of Syria and prevalently Kurdish—are some hundreds of Westerners. This is the story of three of them: a former American marine, an Italian anti capitalist activist, and a Swedish bodyguard.
The history of Italy in the 20th century is recounted through the typewritten pages of Vincenzo Rabito, a semi-literate former farm laborer born in the province of Ragusa in 1899, collected in the book Terra matta. The texts are read by actor Roberto Nobile and accompanied by music by Paolo Buonvino, footage from the Luce archive alternating with images of modern Sicily in the Monti Iblei area, and interviews with Rabito's family and fellow villagers.
An unauthorized biography. Take a dynamic look into One Direction from rare live performances singing in London and at NYC's Rockefeller Plaza for the Today show to lead singer Harry performing with White Eskimos, along with exclusive interviews offering unprecedented insight into One Direction's rapid rise from X Factor hopefuls to a genuine pop culture phenomenon. Interviews with: One Direction, Close friends and family including Harry Styles best friend Will Sweeny, Big Time Rush, Mindless Behaviour, The Wanted, Westlife, Simon Cowell & more.
Filmmakers Holly Dale and Janis Cole explore the culture of Davie Street, located in the underbelly of Vancouver, where dozens of prostitutes work and live every day. Surprisingly, they find that the sex trade there is stable and largely non-violent, and that the women who work on Davie Street meet daily to discuss safety and health issues and don't use pimps. The film also includes candid interviews with the prostitutes and footage of negotiations with potential clients.
Features the life of feminist Luisa Capetillo in late 19th and early 20th century Puerto Rico.
In July 1990, a dispute over a proposed golf course to be built on Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) lands in Oka, Quebec, sets the stage for a historic confrontation that would grab international headlines and sear itself into the Canadian consciousness.
This feature-length documentary by Alanis Obomsawin examines the plight of Native people who come to Montreal searching for jobs and a better life. Often arriving without money, friends or jobs, a number of them quickly become part of the homeless population. Both dislocated from their traditional values and alienated from the rest of the population, they are torn between staying and returning home.
Mid-August in Paris (the title is a date: August 15) in a sunny, quiet apartment a young woman talks, thinks, reflects about herself, everyday life and little events in a long, uninterrupted monologue. The camera pictures her and her gestures in long, fixed shots moving around the rooms, the space, the light and shadows of a summer day.
Images and poems of the celebrated couple Louis Aragon and Elsa Triolet. Elsa’s youth as recalled by Aragon, with commentary by Elsa.
What does being a woman really mean? How do women live the status society reserves for them? A group of women, beautiful or not, young or not, gifted with motherly instinct or not, answer before Agnès Varda's camera.
Documentary that explores the lives of 14 female U.S. senators and the uniquely feminine challenges they face, including the sometimes difficult balance between their roles as public servants and wives and mothers.
In September Zemfira organized a mini-tour in honor of the re-release of the first three albums. Solo performance at the Moscow concert hall "Crocus City Hall", September 17, 2010.
Joe Papp, the founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival and, subsequently, The Public Theater—arguably the most important theatre in North America—is profiled in this documentary that neither sanctifies nor vilifies him. He brought us free Shakespeare in the Park, Hair and A Chorus Line, and nurtured many of America’s greatest playwrights, directors and actors. His complex personality and mercurial behavior are much in evidence and spoken of with frankness through interviews with some of America’s most celebrated artists, including Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Kevin Kline, and James Earl Jones.
“I don’t sleep at night... What we call experience the younger generation calls a chain of mistakes,” reflects Israeli President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres. Here, his life and career are chronicled, in all their contradictions: his arrival in Israel, his experiences with Ben-Gurion, the Oslo Accords, his rivalry—and eventual cooperation—with Yitzhak Rabin, and his current status in Israel. “Ultimately, there is something very melancholy in this portrait. Peres, it seems, is both the dream and its shattering. Aware of his achievements, pained about his failures, he continues to look forward with eternal optimism.” (Jerusalem International Film Festival)
Drawing from ancient knowledge and cutting edge science, Symphony of the Soil is an artistic exploration of the miraculous substance soil. By understanding the elaborate relationships and mutuality between soil, water, the atmosphere, plants and animals, we come to appreciate the complex and dynamic nature of this precious resource. The film also examines our human relationship with soil, the use and misuse of soil in agriculture, deforestation and development, and the latest scientific research on soil’s key role in ameliorating the most challenging environmental issues of our time. Filmed on four continents, featuring esteemed scientists and working farmers and ranchers, Symphony of the Soil is an intriguing presentation that highlights possibilities of healthy soil creating healthy plants creating healthy humans living on a healthy planet.
A Documentary feature film directed by Lian Lunson celebrating the late Kate McGarrigle.
Who We Were