Murder at the Marathon

The history of the Boston Marathon from its humble origins starting with only 15 runners, to the first female runners, through the tragedy in 2013, and ultimately the triumph of 2014.

Immediately after the Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013, amateur detectives took the Internet chat rooms to try to find the culprits, looking for details in photographs uploaded to the sites that could point to the guilt of potential suspects.

In April 2013, chaos erupted in Boston near the finish line of one of the world's oldest and most prestigious marathons. It was the worst terrorist attack on the United States since 9/11 and led to one of the most extensive and public manhunts in American history. Now, as the one-year anniversary approaches, National Geographic Channel presents a special two-hour event, Inside the Hunt for the Boston Bombers.

Kathrine Switzer, Siila Watt-Cloutier, and Sharon Farmer. They are the first woman to run the Boston Marathon officially, the first woman to connect climate change to human rights, and the first woman to serve as Chief White House Photographer. These trailblazing women broke barriers in their time and continue to pursue their passions to this day. They’re living proof that you can follow your dreams and maybe change the world in the process.

A documentary about Boston and the technology involved to catch bombers

In 1980 Jay Helgerson shocked the world, becoming the first person to run a marathon a week for a year – each race completed in under three hours. For the last ten years, his daughter, filmmaker Alexandra Helgerson, followed him with a camera in order to understand the eccentric man who raised her. What she gets are his projected anxieties, his struggles with physical age and emotional distress, all while he endlessly trains for the Boston Marathon. But as Jay trains, the film is nearly derailed by Alexandra’s encounter with a life threatening illness. Ultimately, AGE GROUP WINNER is an affirmation of the will to live.

This Canadian made comedy/drama, set in Hamilton, Ontario in 1954, is a sweet and - at times - goofy story that becomes increasingly poignant as the minutes tick by. It's the fictional tale of a wayward 9th grader, Ralph (Adam Butcher), who is secretly living on his own while his widowed, hospitalized mother remains immersed in a coma. Frequently in trouble with Father Fitzpatrick (Gordon Pinsent), the principal of his all-boys, Catholic school, Ralph is considered something of a joke among peers until he decides to pull off a miracle that could save his mother, i.e., winning the Boston Marathon. Coached by a younger priest and former runner, Father Hibbert (Campbell Scott), whose cynicism has been lifted by the boy's pure hope, Ralph applies himself to his unlikely mission, fending off naysayers and getting help along a very challenging path from sundry allies and friends.

In the aftermath of an unspeakable act of terror, Police Sergeant Tommy Saunders joins courageous survivors, first responders and investigators in a race against the clock to hunt down the Boston Marathon bombers before they strike again.

A fictional film about a runner's relationship with his sister and brother as he tries to qualify for Boston. Available to stream for free on Vimeo

A rousing tale of the Korean athletes who ran the 1947 Boston International Marathon, the first international marathon held since World War II.

A victim of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 helps the police track down the killers while struggling to recover from devastating trauma.

The Hawaiian world view was once clearly reflected in a society created over 2000 years of existence in the islands. With the changes brought in the last 200 years, we who now live in the land of the Hawaiian may wonder: what does it mean to be Hawaiian in Hawaii today? A contemporary Hawaiian world view is shared here by 11 Hawaiians who have struggled with the question of maintaining cultural identity in this modern world, and who have each found their own answers. (Victoria Keith)

In memory of Brent Hinds 1974-2025

In Nauruan, Anubumin means "night"—and darkness is what the fourth joint film by Zanny Begg and Oliver Ressler begins with. The small and inconspicuous island of Nauru with close to 10,000 inhabitants lies in the Pacific at a great distance to the mainland. But Nauru is a tragic place steeped in history that has been overwritten by numerous narratives. The film addresses these different narratives, starting with the early exploitation of the island and its calcite and phosphate deposits by the colonial powers in the 19th century. After the golden 1970s, when the "Birdshit island" was flush with money, the phosphate was completely mined and the island state soon became insolvent. Since then, Nauru has turned into a gloomy place: 80% of the area is uninhabitable; the attempt to tap new sources of income led to the wide-scale practice of money laundering.

The film UMBRA deals with rare and common optical phenomena that occur in nature. These phenomena evoke familiar images such as shadows or reflections on a water surface; but also unusual ones like the "Brocken spectre" or the pinhole effect during a solar eclipse. These ancient and natural projections can be considered as precultural and independent of any apparatus. They occured even before mankind and are united by their intangible, ephemeral presence. In their immateriality and fragility, they are precursors of the cinema image. UMBRA develops a visual dialogue between phenomenon and apparatus, archetype and image, self and self-perception.

On the eve of postponed Congolese elections, two Congolese and two Belgian cineastes make a film about Kinshasa and its resistance against the legacies of colonialism. The four filmmakers want to tell a story together, but having grown up on other sides of history, they have different views on how to tell that story. What should it look like? Who should be in it? For whom is it made? Faire-part is the search of four filmmakers for a way to portray the city. Through filming artistic performances in public space, they paint a provocative picture of Kinshasa and its relations with the rest of the world.

Documentary about Givanchy and Audrey Hepburn.

A short documentary about pictures produced by Paramount in the 1950s, the directors who made them, and the stars in them.

"Beyond the Ararat" is the story of a woman of Turkish origin who embarks on a journey to better understand what makes up her identity. A road movie which brings her from her childhood neighborhood in Brussels to Turkey and Armenia. A quest where each woman she encounters could be the reflection of herself. Entering the land of her ancestors, Anatolia, she questions her cultural heritage. Stopping in her grandmother's village, she discovers the "Agit"; an antique oral tradition where women sing for their dead. The songs open a potential space for mourning, where Turkish, Kurdish but also Armenian women missing from that land, can sing "together". The confrontation with the "missing" from her memory, brings her farther eastward in Anatolia to the foot of the Ararat Mountain, and beyond.

A PBS documentary on the life and work of writer Raymond Carver. It features interviews with his family and friends, and provides an insightful look at his short stories and poems.