This documentary follows 8 teens and pre-teens as they work their way toward the finals of the Scripps Howard national spelling bee championship in Washington D.C.
Three children living in a displacement camp in northern Uganda compete in their country's national music and dance festival.
The sculptor Sergio Camargo died 20 years ago. If the bones left in the grave are in fact his remains, would his sculptures be living remains? What's ephemeral and what's lasting? Is there a possible eternity? We see the movie through the eyes of the daughter confronting both the artist and the man.
Using text from Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes and ancient Aztec and Mayan poetry, viewers are lead on a visual journey through this country's rich and varied past and present. Stunning images and a dramatic musical score by Daniel Valdez create a vivid, insightful portrait of the Mexican people and their culture
King Corn is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom – corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naiveté, two college buddies return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America. With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aide, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America’s modern food system in this engrossing and eye-opening documentary.
A look at the first years of Pixar Animation Studios - from the success of "Toy Story" and Pixar's promotion of talented people, to the building of its East Bay campus, the company's relationship with Disney, and its remarkable initial string of eight hits. The contributions of John Lasseter, Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs are profiled. The decline of two-dimensional animation is chronicled as three-dimensional animation rises. Hard work and creativity seem to share the screen in equal proportions.
An Irish doctor survived the atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki and was given a Samurai sword for the lives he saved. 70 years later his family searches for the origin of their father's sword.
More people are imprisoned in the United States at this moment than in any other time or place in history, yet the prison itself has never felt further away or more out of sight. This is a film about the prison in which we never see an actual penitentiary. The film unfolds a cinematic journey through a series of landscapes across the USA where prisons do work and affect lives, from an anti-sex-offender pocket park in Los Angeles, to a congregation of ex-incarcerated chess players shut out of the formal labor market, to an Appalachian coal town betting its future on the promise of prison jobs.
Short documentary on the making of Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula" (1992).
The sketches and drawings of iconic designer Yves Saint Laurent come to life in this documentary. Past colleagues and friends discuss his life and work while poring over some of the thousands of sketches the designer created in his lifetime.
Room 19 follows an elementary school teacher who uses an innovative art curriculum to inspire her students, and transform the way they see the world, and themselves. Room 19 is a third grade classroom at Tulita Elementary School in Redondo Beach, California, the home room of teacher Mrs. Julie Tamashiro. Mrs. Tamashiro has created an innovative learning environment which incorporates in depth arts activities and lessons in her daily curriculum.
A table tennis documentary about the work the Swedish national team did in the 70's and 80's leading trying to find a way to break the seemingly impenetrable Chinese Wall.
Stages is a documentary about show business by show business - featuring the likes of Brad Garrett and Emily Kinney, actors share their experiences and passion for their craft.
Dale Winton narrates a compilation of disastrous game show moments. Featuring contestants on The Million Pound Drop failing to pay attention to a question with a fortune at stake, the least successful player to appear on The Chase, the woman who broke her leg on The Krypton Factor and still finished third, Catchphrase host Nick Weir damaging his career by falling down the stairs, and the Princess Diana-themed episode of Channel 5 quiz show 100%.
Documentary following a mobile blood donation team travelling through rural Russia, where people sell their blood to make ends meet.
A documentary on the experiences of the Nubetya Yaptiks nomadic family in the Yamal Peninsula, Eastern Siberia, from 1992 to 2001.
Nebbishy filmmaker Joanna Arnow documents her yearlong relationship with an open-mic poet provocateur. What starts out as an uncomfortably intimate portrait of a dysfunctional relationship and protracted mid-twenties adolescence, quickly turns into a complex commentary on societal repression, sexuality and self-confrontation through art.
The film intertwines Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's lives with their famed 2008 Wimbledon championship - an epic match so close and so reflective of their competitive balance that, in the end, the true winner was the sport itself.
As children, British actor Paul Blackthorne and Australian photographer Mister Basquali both fell in love with America. Later they each fulfilled their dream to live here, but after two wars, a near economic collapse, and uncertainty about the country's direction, these two expats began to have doubts -- was America still the great place they once dreamed of? They drive across America to find out, interviewing random people about issues that affect and confront us all. From the ghetto to the gun show, the courthouse to the cattle yard, they are touched by the wisdom and insight of the people they meet. This American Journey is a cinematic postcard from the people to the people, teaching us that hearts can be healed at the most unexpected times and in the most unexpected places.
CORPUS explores the mass adulation and explosive posthumous recognition of Selena Quintanilla, the Tejano rock singer murdered by the president of her fan club in 1995. Pushing beyond the mainstream media's fascination with her violent death, Portillo interviews Selena's family and friends as well as the devoted fans that pilgrimage to Selena's grave in Corpus Christi, Texas, to pay homage to the slain star. Moving and provocative, this humble investigative portrait explores Selena's cultural significance as a pop icon and shines a light on the hopes, fantasies, fears, and realities of young Latinas today.