THE PERFUMED GARDEN is an exploration of the myths and realities of sensuality and sexuality in Arab society, a world of taboos and of erotic literature. Through interviews with men and women of all ages, classes, and sexual orientation, the film lifts a corner of the veil that usually shrouds discussion of this subject in the Arab world. Made by an Algerian-French woman director, the film begins by looking at the record of a more permissive history, and ends with the experiences of contemporary lovers from mixed backgrounds. It examines the personal issues raised by the desire for pleasure, amidst societal pressures for chastity and virginity. The film discusses pre-marital sex, courtship and marriage, familial pressures, private vs. public spaces, social taboos (and the desire to break them), and issues of language.
In Istanbul, American writer James Baldwin muses about race, the American fascination with sexuality, insights into his interrupted writing decade in the country, the generosity of the Turks, and how being in another country, in another place, forces one to re-examine well-established attitudes about modern society.
Documentarian Jeffrey Morgan set out to the track one woman's search for the truth about her great-great-aunt's 1908 murder. But his film quickly became a fascinating study of racism, revenge and family secrets. In the process of uncovering information about her ancestor's violent death at the hands of an African-American suspect, the woman learns that her family tree might have also produced a few murderers.
The story of an Eskimo father and son who train and groom a sled dog team. When the father is lost on an ice floe, the son takes the unproven team on the search, and succeeds in finding his father.
More than 7,000 km from his home in the Jura Mountains, Sébastien dos Santos Borges is taking seventeen of his dogs on an extraordinary adventure between Yukon and Alaska, following in the footsteps of the adventurers of the Far North. He is one of the most respected mushers in the world and is preparing to set off on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, one of the most difficult dog sled races. An expedition into the heart of the wilderness, where the relationship between man and animal is essential to triumph over the cold.
Two actresses take us through a series of 'raps' and sketches about what it means to be beautiful and black.
Traces the making of UC-Davis professor Darrell Hamamoto's first-ever Asian American porn movie ("Skin on Skin") from planning to production. Hou interviews filmmakers Justin Lin ("Better Luck Tomorrow") and Eric Byler ("Charlotte Sometimes"), professor Elaine Kim and playwright David Henry Hwang to get at whether Asian America truly needs its own "porno practices" as a way of decolonizing the community's collective sexual imaginations and confronting how sexuality and masculinity are treated in the Asian American community.
Documentary covering the trailblazing career and tragically short life of Laurie Cunningham, the English football star of the '70s and '80s.
Documentary chronicling the sensational life and death of British footballer Justin Fashanu. Broadcast as part of the BBC series "Inside Story".
Which is faster round a racetrack - a Porsche 911 or the Yamaha R1? Would you rather have a Ferrari 360 Modena or the new Aston Martin DB7 Vantage? Which is the best road-going rocketship - the BMW M5 with Tiff Needell at the wheel or JC’s Jaguar XJR? Which of the new Japanese super tech cars is best? the Evo6 or the 22b? PLUS grimace as JC shows a Hyundai what it’s like to be eaten, marvel at the Lamborghini LM002 as it wreaks havoc on London’s traffic and check out the greatest race Silverstone has ever seen - Johnny Herbert in his Stewart Ford and Colin McRae in his full rally spec Focus...versus JC in a Cougar. (NEVER BEFORE SEEN ON TV)
In 1970, a British film crew set out to make a straightforward literary portrait of James Baldwin set in Paris, insisting on setting aside his political activism. Baldwin bristled at their questions, and the result is a fascinating, confrontational, often uncomfortable butting of heads between the filmmakers and their subject, in which the author visits the Bastille and other Parisian landmarks and reflects on revolution, colonialism, and what it means to be a Black expatriate in Europe.
In the Norwegian lands south of Trondheim, not far from the Swedish border, temperatures can drop to -50°C in winter. Yet this harsh climate lends the landscape a special beauty. Ella Kjosnes, 16, is a sled dog leader. She prepares her six huskies for the 200-kilometer Femund race. While the lakes and rivers freeze over, Jan Moen goes ice fishing in the mysterious Hessdalen valley. If he doesn't catch anything, he may be able to observe the strange and partly unexplained light phenomena that regularly appear in the valley's skies. Not far away, Tone and Rolf Eriksen run a hotel on a lake that is only accessible by plane in winter.
Lacey Schwartz grew up in a typical upper-middle-class Jewish household in Woodstock, NY, with loving parents and a strong sense of her Jewish identity - despite the open questions from those around her about how a white girl could have such dark skin. She believes her family's explanation that her looks were inherited from her dark-skinned Sicilian grandfather. But when her parents abruptly split, her gut starts to tell her something different. At age of 18, she finally confronts her mother and learns the truth: her biological father was not the man who raised her, but a black man named Rodney with whom her mother had had an affair.
Showcasing three short films by American writer James Baldwin, wherein he muses about race, sexuality and civil rights, among other topics, in Istanbul, Paris and Great Britain.
When a black teenager is shot and killed attending a bonfire party in Jay, Florida, the town's racist past becomes its present and leads to the uncovering of a shockingly similar murder in 1922 that changed the community forever.
Eddy L. Harris is the author of the lauded travel book “Mississippi Solo” (1988), which chronicled his canoe trip down the length of the Mississippi River, from its headwaters in Minnesota to its terminus in the Gulf of Mexico. In “River to the Heart,” Harris retraces that journey as a 60-year-old, and the film explores what he discovered about both the country that was and the country that is.
On November 3, 1979, members of the Communist Workers Party were holding a Death to the Klan rally in Greensboro, North Carolina. Suddenly a caravan rounded the corner, scattering the protesters. Klansmen and Nazis emerged from the cars, unloaded an arsenal of guns and began firing. Five people were killed in what became known as the Greensboro Massacre. Greensboro: Closer to the Truth reconnects 25 years later with the players in this tragedy—widowed and wounded survivors, along with their attackers—and chronicles how their lives have evolved in the long aftermath of the killings. All converge when the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission ever held in the United States is convened in Greensboro from 2004-2006 to investigate the Massacre. As the Commission struggles to uncover what actually happened and why, the participants confront the truth of their past, and struggle with the possibility of hope and redemption.
A 60th anniversary retrospective documentary on the influence and context of the 1962 film, To Kill a Mockingbird.
Everyone has a story to tell, and when you create opportunities for those stories to be told and listened to, something amazing starts to happen. In early 2018, men and women of color sat down at CTV Studios in Roseville, MN to speak about a time when they have been personally discriminated against and how that has shaped their lives. Moderated by Nyia Harris, these narratives have been turned into a documentary film.
Defending champions of the Master's league in the US Adventure Racing Nationals, team Odyssey sets out on the thirty hour race while facing ruthless weather conditions.