Shows efforts on New York's Lower East Side to revive abandoned buildings through the work and persistence of the local, predominantly Latino residents.
Rafael - the minister of sports of an unrecognized country, and Natasha - a Russian opera singer, try living together in Abkhazia - a war-torn future-less country. Observing their difficult relations, we see life in a place marked by war and nationalism. The film portrays trapped people dreaming of peace, normality and happiness.
A documentary that resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women's movement from 1966 to 1971.
A poetic documentation of the Long Beach Island, NJ community as they battle local politics, cope with personal tragedy, and band together after Hurricane Sandy.
Controversial documentary about gay men purposely contracting the AIDS virus.
"Trouble the Water" takes you inside Hurricane Katrina in a way never before seen on screen. The film opens the day before the storm makes landfall--just blocks away from the French Quarter but far from the New Orleans that most tourists knew. Kimberly Rivers Roberts, an aspiring rap artist, is turning her new video camera on herself and her Ninth Ward neighbors trapped in the city. Weaving an insider's view of Katrina with a mix of verité and in-your-face filmmaking, it is a redemptive tale of self-described street hustlers who become heroes--two unforgettable people who survive the storm and then seize a chance for a new beginning.
"Plastic Paradise" is an independent documentary film that chronicles Angela Sun's personal journey of discovery to one of the most remote places on Earth, Midway Atoll, to uncover the truth behind the mystery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Along the way she encounters scientists, celebrities, legislators and activists who shed light on what our society's vast consumption of disposable plastic is doing to our oceans -- and what it may be doing to our health.
Set in the military outpost of San Antonio, Texas, AFTER FIRE highlights the challenges faced by the fastest-growing group of American veterans: women, who now account for one in five new recruits to the U.S. Armed Forces. Demonstrating courage during their military service and resilience in its aftermath, three women military veterans candidly confront the fallout of their experiences on their personal lives as they adjust to the civilian world. The film throws a spotlight on the human toll of military service - including military sexual trauma, combat injuries and bureaucratic dysfunction - telling a universal story about strength in the aftermath of trauma.
Kay Mander kept training and social issues to the fore in the 1940s with her innovative documentaries. Mander, now living in Kirkcudbrightshire, recalls her life and work, with clips from many of her films.
Home movies, photographs, and recited poetry illustrate the life of Tupac Shakur, one of the most beloved, revolutionary, and volatile hip-hop MCs of all time.
Jon Stewart performs a solo standup routine, telecast live from Miami, Florida.
Is the story of women that were guerrilleras in Uruguay at the beginning of the 70's. Under an intimate focus, the film shows the moments of decision and the personal crossroads that it involve. The documentary search the experience and the look of common individuals in exceptional situations and goes to the bottom of the load of tensions, fears, contradictions and personal costs that those labor instants of the History have.
The body of Sinbad the Diver turned up floating off the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. The mermaid had turned his soul into a turtle, and the turtle was the one who returned him to the world of men. Sinbad was born once more as a Miskito and was raised on the banks of the wonderful Coco River. When he grew up, nature took care of carrying him back to the sea, where the mermaid is waiting for him. The Mermaid and the Diver is a journey to Central America, to Nicaragua, to the Atlantic Coast, and to the Miskito people.
During the 1977 World Series, Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludtke was denied access to the players' locker room. After a very public fight, the door was opened, but the debate about female journalists in the male sanctum of the clubhouse remained. Through interviews with pioneering female sports writers, Let Them Wear Towels captures the raw behavior, humorous retaliation, angry lawsuits and remarkable resolve that went into the struggle for equal access for women reporters.
After forty years living in Mexico City, Antonia longs to go back to her home town, a Mazahua village in the state of Mexico. When she returns, she discovers many things, including that a scarcity of water threatens life in her community.
A documentary on the massacre of Planas in the Colombian east plains in 1970. An Indigenous community formed a cooperative to defend their rights from settlers and colonists, but the government organized a military operation to protect the latter and foreign companies.
A documentary about a beloved South Bronx matriarch and former "First Lady" of the Savage Skulls gang struggling to remain visible in a rapidly gentrifying community she helped rebuild in the 1980s. With one foot firmly grounded in the outlaw life and the other as an activist and spiritual advisor, Lorine Padilla straddles the complexities of multiple worlds.
In the mountains of Northern Thailand lies a boarding school. The students come from different tribes in the area and live together with their Thai teacher, grow their own crops and cook their own meals while continuing their education. The biggest question on their mind, having spent all their lives in the mountainside, is where the rivers running down the hills end. If they pass the final exams their reward is a trip to the end of the river, to the ocean itself. The children are poor, some orphans, and most of them only speak their tribe's language, but all try their best to pass the exams to be able to take the long-awaited trip. This trip is not only a journey from the children's villages to the ocean but also a journey that symbolizes the change from childhood to adulthood.
During the chaotic final weeks of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as the panicked South Vietnamese people desperately attempt to escape. On the ground, American soldiers and diplomats confront a moral quandary: whether to obey White House orders to evacuate only U.S. citizens.
Over seven decades, actor and activist George Takei journeyed from a World War II internment camp to the helm of the Starship Enterprise, and then to the daily news feeds of five million Facebook fans. Join George and his husband, Brad, on a wacky and profound trek for life, liberty, and love.