Trudell

Collection of six very personal documentary shorts made by female directors.

A story about greed, politics and the land grab of the century, ZIPPER chronicles the battle over an American cultural icon. Small-time ride operator, Eddie Miranda, proudly operates a carnival contraption called the Zipper in the heart of Coney Island's gritty amusement district. When his rented lot is snatched up by a real estate mogul, Eddie and his ride become casualties of a power struggle between the developer and the City of New York over the future of the world-famous destination. Be it an affront to history or simply the path of progress, the spirit of Coney Island is at stake. In an increasingly corporate landscape, where authenticity is often sacrificed for economic growth, the Zipper may be just the beginning of what is lost.

Yingying Zhang, a 26-year-old Chinese student, comes to the U.S. to study. In her detailed and beautiful diaries, the aspiring young scientist and teacher is full of optimism, hoping to also be married and a mother someday. Within weeks of her arrival, Yingying disappears from the campus. Through exclusive access to Yingying’s family and boyfriend, Finding Yingying closely follows their journey as they search to unravel the mystery of her disappearance and seek justice for their daughter while navigating a strange, foreign country. But most of all, Finding Yingying is the story of who Yingying was: a talented young woman loved by her family and friends.

How does it feel to have your gender identity included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders? Diagnosing Difference is a documentary featuring interviews with 13 diverse scholars, activists, and artists who identify on the trans spectrum (transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, and gender variant) about the impact and implications of the Gender Identity Disorder (GID) on their lives and communities.

In the Spring of 2011, Senegal was pitched into crisis when President Abdoulaye Wade decided to change the constitution to allow for a third term. An artist-led youth movement erupted to protect one of Africa' oldest and most stable democracies.

Follows 7 young friends over 3 years after the war in Kosovo.

Some 200 women defiantly cling to their ancestral homeland in Chernobyl’s radioactive “Exclusion Zone.”

An unemployed American worker, a Tea Party activist, and a Chinese solar entrepreneur. But who wins and who loses the battle for power in the 21st century? Through interwoven character dramas spanning the U.S. and China, Catching the Sun explores the global economic race to lead the clean energy future.

Life as a prima ballerina over 30 is tough enough for Maiko when she decides to start a family....

A film portrait of the influential Bavarian actor, director and screenwriter who publicly confessed his homosexuality.

Valery Liashkevich is a homeless artist who lives at a railway station and for over twenty years has painted pictures in the streets of the town of Gomel in Belarus. For the natives he is no more than a local attraction. For art critics he is a phenomenon worth close attention.

In the late 1990s, Moncton's Acadian community was forever marked when death struck an high school. In a sweet impressionist film, Samara returns to the city she fled as a teenager to immerse herself in memories that are still buried there, in various places and in dusty boxes containing diaries, photos and VHS tapes. 1999 is not a ghost story, although it is populated by ghosts. The snow-covered streets, corridors and locker rooms of the school are intact, as in a dream, but the absence left by the wave of teenage suicides still resonates with unanswered questions, trauma and regret. Samara meets inspiring people who carry with them great pain and who, 16 years later, can finally comfort each other by breaking a long silence. In the end, the film interweaves different voices and gives rise to a collective reflection on the internalization of mourning and the need to learn to affirm one's desire to survive.

The real life story about two former enemies who become blood brothers for life. Was later expanded into a feature length documentary.

A documentary springing from the directors own relationship with her son who lacks a consistent relationship with his father.

A labor of love documentary, in which a daughter, with the help of various talking heads, looks back on the life work of her father.

The professional life of Roxanne Lowit, one of the greatest fashion photographers and a pioneer of backstage photography, covering her career from 1977 and the Studio 54 until now.

In 2012, one in three babies in America were delivered by c-section, despite the World Health Organization's recommendation that Cesarean births remain below 15 percent. How can these disturbing trend be reversed? In recent years, the idea of a collaborative care practice where doctors and midwives manage women's care together has begun to gain traction in the United States. The Mama Sherpas is a feature-length documentary film about women receiving their maternity care through midwife-doctor teams. We follow nurse midwives, the doctors they work with, and their patients to provide an investigative lens into how midwives work within the hospital system.

The Road to Home (2015), tells the story of Benny Wenda, the Nobel Peace Prize nominated West Papuan independence leader, in his ongoing struggle to free his people from Indonesian colonial rule. Since his dramatic escape from an Indonesian prison in 2002, where he was held in isolation and tortured as a political prisoner, Benny has been an unceasing crusader on the international scene, campaigning to bring about an end to the suffering of his people at the hands Indonesia's brutal colonial regime. Granted political asylum in the UK, Wenda's freedom of movement was restricted in 2011 when, at the behest of the Indonesian government, Interpol issued a 'red notice' putting him at extreme risk of extradition should he travel.

A man returns, after fifty years, to Chinatown to care for his dying mother. He is a librarian, a cataloguer and recorder, a gay man, a watcher, an impersonator. He passes his time collecting images - his witnesses and collaborators. Sitting in the dark, we look at them and share his cloak of invisibility, both a benefit and a curse.

Explores the only deadly clash between Native Americans and the Lewis and Clark Expedition, framed by the Blackfeet history and culture, the aftermath of the expedition’s arrival, and the challenges and triumphs of the Blackfeet people today.