The Powers of Congress

In 2018, a young bartender in the Bronx, a coal miner’s daughter in West Virginia, a grieving mother in Nevada and a registered nurse in Missouri join a movement of insurgent candidates challenging powerful incumbents in Congress. Without political experience or corporate money, these four women are attempting to do what many consider impossible.

In 1965, Patsy Takemoto Mink became the first woman of color in the United States Congress. Seven years later, she ran for the US presidency and was the driving force behind Title IX, the landmark legislation that transformed women’s opportunities in higher education and athletics.

For 200 years, the United States Congress has been one of the country's most important and least understood institutions. In this elegant, thoughtful and often touching portrait, Ken Burns explores the history and promise of this unique American institution. Using historical photographs and newsreels, evocative live footage and interviews with David Broder, Alistair Cooke, Cokie Roberts, Charles McDowell and others, the award-winning film chronicles the personalities, events and issues that have animated the first 200 years of Congress and, in turn, our country.

Captures the incident of January 6, 2021, when scores of Trump supporters clashed with police, interrupting a constitutional process by Congress to affirm the victory of the then President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in the election.

Told by her daughter Wendy, MINK! chronicles the remarkable Patsy Takemoto Mink, a Japanese American from Hawai'i who became the first woman of color elected to the U.S. Congress, on her harrowing mission to co-author and defend Title IX, the law that transformed athletics for generations in America for girls and women.

To test its top-secret Human Hibernation Project, the Pentagon picks the most average Americans it can find - an Army private and a prostitute - and sends them to the year 2505 after a series of freak events. But when they arrive, they find a civilization so dumbed-down that they're the smartest people around.

A biopic depicting the life of filmmaker and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes from 1927 to 1947, during which time he became a successful film producer and an aviation magnate, while simultaneously growing more unstable due to severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Bounced from her job, Erin Grant needs money if she's to have any chance of winning back custody of her child. But, eventually, she must confront the naked truth: to take on the system, she'll have to take it all off. Erin strips to conquer, but she faces unintended circumstances when a hound dog of a Congressman zeroes in on her and sharpens the shady tools at his fingertips, including blackmail and murder.

When a congressional aide is killed, a Washington, D.C. journalist starts investigating the case involving the Representative, his old college friend.

Years after his squad was ambushed during the Gulf War, Major Ben Marco finds himself having terrible nightmares. He begins to doubt that his fellow squad-mate Sergeant Raymond Shaw, now a vice-presidential candidate, is the hero he remembers him being. As Marco's doubts deepen, Shaw's political power grows, and, when Marco finds a mysterious implant embedded in his back, the memory of what really happened begins to return.

An elderly businessman (Frank Morgan) plans what he thinks is an innocent night on the town while his wife is away. Instead, he finds himself involved in a showgirl's murder.

The second of five programs about Davy Crockett involves him being bored with life, so he and Georgie plan to resettle their families and file their claims. In town, Davy wins a gunfight against the town bully, Big Foot Mason, and, as a result, he becomes the town lawman.

The story of U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson from his young days in West Texas to the White House.

Does being Jewish mean that Israel's policy must be systematically defended? Does criticizing Israel automatically make you an anti-Semite? Does declaring yourself anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian imply de facto that you are not racist? All these questions, Daniel Kupferman, whose membership in the Jewish community is in no way opposed to his humanism, has been asking himself for years and here he is asking them to eight quality people, a guarantee of a fruitful dialogue far from any hateful or partisan blindness.

Forty years ago, Wollongong’s Jobs for Women Campaign, with director Robynne Murphy among its leaders, took on Australia’s most powerful company BHP – and won. But when the 1980s steel slump devastated the city’s economy, the women were forced into the courtroom. Their struggle plays out against a background of societal changes: from anti-discrimination legislation, to the shifting roles of women in the home and workforce (particularly complex in Wollongong’s migrant, non-English speaking households). This fascinating account of the largely forgotten history of Australia’s Steel City was crafted over decades with support from local community volunteers and over 500 donors.   

The flying foxes that soar across Sydney each evening face many challenges: impacted by heatwaves, evicted from urban parklands, struggling to survive an ongoing loss of habitat. Bat carers save a handful here and there, and ecologists document their struggles, as threats escalate. Filmed over six years, The Weather Diaries reaches its climax in 2020, as temperatures soar, bushfires rage, and flying fox pups die in record numbers. Drayton ruminates on our failure to value these essential pollinators and the forests they sustain, and reflects on the implications for her daughter Imogen, a girl long inspired by Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke, who’s emerging from the classical confines of the Conservatorium High School to embark on a career as an electronic pop artist.

A compelling portrait of an extraordinary figure, Aboriginal WWI soldier Douglas Grant, featuring acclaimed Indigenous actor Balang Tom E. Lewis (in his final performance). Grant (c.1885-1951) was extraordinarily famous in his day, an intellectual, a journalist, a soldier, a reader of Shakespeare and a bagpipe player who could put on a fine Scottish accent. His life story connects Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Adolf Hitler, and Henry Lawson among other famous figures as he moved from Australia to Europe, UK and back. Lewis’s thoughtful and often playful reflections on Grant’s life, along with guest appearances from Max Cullen and Archie Roach, connect to the larger story of Australia’s tragic colonial history and its troubled relationship with First Australians.  

The world is crying out for a new model of leadership, but what is it? One woman thinks she has the answer. Australian CEO and ‘dreamer’ Fabian Dattner leads an international group of 76 female scientists on an Antarctic voyage designed to transform them “into the sort of leaders they want to be.” Her hope is that once these women are primed to lead in science, they will be able to make meaningful change around the world. But on board, as the women’s deeply personal stories of workplace gender biases and more are revealed, Dattner’s own leadership style and philosophy is severely tested. Set against the planet’s last untouched wilderness, The Leadership unearths the profoundly troubling systemic obstacles to women’s advancement in science and beyond.

Quem Luta, Conquista!

One day, a young Franco-Algerian discovered the songs of the famous Belgian singer Jacques Brel. This sudden passion changes his life forever. This film follows Abdel's dedication to performing the artist's songs, as well as his journey to reconnect with his Algerian roots, illustrating the human bond created through popular songs.