It's Criminal

A behind-the-scenes look at the most famous lawyer of his generation as scandal threatens his career and legacy.

Four young girls prepare for a special Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers, as part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C., jail.

American Gospel explores the core question of Christianity, 'What is the gospel?' Through the distorting lens of American culture.

In Denver, an intrepid activist runs for office with the aim of eliminating cash bail.

By the end of his illustrious career, Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves may well have been the preeminent lawman of the Old West. He brought upwards of 3,000 outlaws to justice and served in law enforcement for 32 years during Reconstruction after the Civil War. His story is one of an escape to freedom and the dangers of the West for a former slave who rose to become a legend of the law. Join us as we go in search of Bass Reeves.

A feature-length documentary about the Free Kevin movement and the hacker world.

Scott Panetti was tried for the capital murder of his parents-in-law on September 8, 1992 in Gillespie County, Texas. He was subsequently sentenced to death on September 22, 1995. Panetti has an extensive history of mental illness, including schizophrenia, manic depression, auditory hallucinations and paranoia. Panetti was hospitalized, both voluntarily and involuntarily for mental illness fourteen times in six different hospitals before his arrest for capital murder in 1992. Following his conviction, Panetti’s former wife, and daughter of the victims, Sonja Alvarado, filed a petition stating that Panetti never should have been tried for the crimes as he was suffering from paranoid delusions at the time of the killings.

Farang, the Thai word for foreigner, is the story of chef Andy Ricker and how he spun a 25-year obsession with Northern Thailand into the hit success that is his Pok Pok restaurant empire.

The Boys Next Door is a short documentary in which director Bobbie Fay Brandsen examines how she should live together with her new neighbors, Mootie from Syria, Meron from Eritrea and Salihou from Senegal. A film about integration, cultural differences, idealism but even more about the question: 'can we, despite all our differences, live together and if yes, how?' This film is one of the graduation documentaries from the class of 2017 made by a crew entirely consisting of students of the Dutch Filmacademy.

An investigative documentary that focuses on political activities in the 47th Ward of Chicago and on the relationship between party politics and the park district. Originally aired on local Chicago news station WBBM-TV in 1979, the documentary details machine politics, patronage, clientelism and bribery that ran rife in Chicago's 47th Ward under the helm of Democratic Party Committeeman Ed Kelly. The digitization of this program was made possible by a grant from The Brinson Foundation.

A documentary that follows two men. One resigned from factory work to study composition because of his love for music. He has more than 100 original songs and once had a music career in Beijing. Eventually he returned to his hometown, Xuzhou, to make a living performing by the roadside because he could no longer afford to eat. The other was born in Taiwan before moving to Xuzhou to stay with his father's family in Xuzhou when he was 15 years old. Soon after his father died he taught himself the piano, music composition, MIDI music production. He had many students, including idols and stars, even as he still lives in a low-rent house, gets by selling e-waste, and educates people who love music for free. They are misfortune, ordinary, dressed in ragged clothes, and sing the most beautiful songs.

Frustrated by the liberal left and what he deems the destruction of the country he risked his life for, reclusive veteran Quint North (Schneider) is ordered by the court to keep his distance from the local high school with the American flag on the back of his El Camino or face a fine and jail time. In an ultimate exhibition of patriotism, he sets forth a series of events that just may get him killed in his own front yard.

Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefenstahl created a celebration of the human form. Where the two-part epic's first half, Festival of the Nations, focused on the international aspects of the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, part two, The Festival of Beauty, concentrates on individual athletes such as equestrians, gymnasts, and swimmers, climaxing with American Glenn Morris' performance in the decathalon and the games' majestic closing ceremonies.

Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.

The unauthorized video documentary

Spies of Mississippi tells the story of a secret spy agency formed by the state of Mississippi to preserve segregation and maintain white supremacy. The anti-civil rights organization was hidden in plain sight in an unassuming office in the Mississippi State Capitol. Funded with taxpayer dollars and granted extraordinary latitude to carry out its mission, the Commission evolved from a propaganda machine into a full blown spy operation. How do we know this is true? The Commission itself tells us in more than 146,000 pages of files preserved by the State. This wealth of first person primary historical material guides us through one of the most fascinating and yet little known stories of America's quest for Civil Rights.

Part activist and part globe trekking photographer, Sebastião Salgado is most famous for recording the migration of people and culture around the world. In this extensive conversation, Sebastiao Salgado revisits his adventurous career via the breathtaking images he captured.

One of the greatest comedians of early television, Sid Caesar hasn't had his work shown in perennial reruns, so it's especially gratifying to see a collection of his classic sketches released on video, with Caesar himself introducing the material. Besides being a truly gifted comic, Caesar benefited from having some brilliant supporting players, including Carl Reiner, Imogene Coca, and Nanette Fabray. Some of his illustrious writers, including Neil Simon, Woody Allen, and Mel Brooks, appear in interviews setting up the sketches. The sketches themselves include some all-time classics such as Caesar and company playing the figurines populating a medieval town clock (a brilliant bit partly written by Neil Simon and his brother, Danny, who reminisce after the sketch).

Vienna’s Prater is an amusement park and a desire machine. No mechanical invention, no novel idea or sensational innovation could escape incorporation into the Prater. The diverse story-telling in Ulrike Ottinger’s film “Prater” transforms this place of sensations into a modern cinema of attractions. The Prater’s history from the beginning to the present is told by its protagonists and those who have documented it, including contemporary cinematic images of the Prater, interviews with carnies, commentary by Austrians and visitors from abroad, film quotes, and photographic and written documentary materials. The meaning of the Prater, its status as a place of technological innovation, and its role as a cultural medium are reflected in texts by Elfriede Jelinek, Josef von Sternberg, Erich Kästner and Elias Canetti, as well as in music devoted to this amusement venue throughout the course of its history.

From PBS and NATURE - From the wilds of Costa Rica to the suburbs of our own country, parrot owners, rescuers, breeders, and biologists involved in conservation programs share their stories and the stories of their parrots in this bittersweet and unforgettable film about the difficulties and consequences of keeping and caring for parrots as pets.