Through the eyes of urban planners, community organizers, displaced youth, immigrant workers, and public housing residents, this verité-style documentary reveals how the story of New Orleans is the story of urban America: how democratic processes can fail us, how economic crisis can pull the rug out from under us, and how (im)migration can prove to be a complicated bargain. As cities all over the world struggle to recover from disaster, whether economic, natural, or man-made, the lessons of post-Katrina New Orleans have only become more urgent.
A cast of legendary New Orleans musicians share their Mardi Gras memories in an insider's look at some of the priceless traditions - off the beaten path for most tourists - that fuel the local Carnival spirit. Shot in New Orleans from 2001- 2003.
This highly-opinionated guide to eating, drinking, dancing, shopping and lodging in New Orleans was compiled by Chappy Hardy, John Goodman and their "friends" , seasoned New Orleans insiders- without the support of advertisers. Whether bound for Mardi Gras, the Jazz Festival or a meandering tour of one of the most unique cities in the world, A Friend In New Orleans will tell you what not to wear to Galatoire's, where to find crawfish pie (and how to pronounce it) which hotel has a basketball court and other such important miscellany.
Tells the story of New Orleans's black aristocracy as seen through the eyes of an African American debutante and her matriarchal family. This poignant coming of age story opens a lens to the wider struggle of black New Orleans's to shape an upper class society during the rise of the Jim Crow south.
More Than a Saint is an hour-long documentary about quarterback Drew Brees, highlighting his profound impact on the New Orleans community and his historic football career ahead of his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction.
Follows members of the Zulu Club, New Orleans’ first Black Mardi Gras, as they work to bring the Zulu parade back to the streets for Mardi Gras Day 2022, in the face of a global pandemic, hurricane Ida and the loss of members due to COVID and gun violence.
Under the tutelage of anthropologist Franz Boas (her former Columbia professor) and Harlem Renaissance arts patron Charlotte Osgood Mason, Zora Neale Hurston spent nearly two years, from 1927 to 1929, studying the folkloric customs, work songs, spirituals, and vernacular language of African American communities along the River Road and from New Orleans to Florida.
Separated from his incarcerated mother at birth, the filmmaker searches for her identity and uncovers deep ancestral bloodlines. As he gets closer to this life-altering truth, he navigates his way through systems designed to keep him in the dark.
New Orleans, 1981. Sonny Phillips, just discharged from the Army, returns home. The only life he's known is as a gigolo, working for his mother, but he wants to leave that behind. However, the job his Army buddy promised doesn't materialize, and he can't escape his past.
Follows 50-year-old Val, a devoted wife and stay-at-home mom who seeks to reignite the spark in her marriage after her child heads to college.
Disturbing and mysterious things begin to happen to a bartender in New Orleans after he picks up a phone left behind at his bar.
A former football hero cannot accept his career is over. He loses himself in alcohol and women.
Albert Fish, the horrific true story of elderly cannibal, sadomasochist, and serial killer, who lured children to their deaths in Depression-era New York City. Distorting biblical tales, Albert Fish takes the themes of pain, torture, atonement and suffering literally as he preys on victims to torture and sacrifice.
Gypsy's mother Rose dreams of a life in show business for her daughters, but Louise becomes a huge burlesque star. Stage musical loosely based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee.
Young Cuban Rafael just buried his mother, and comes to Houston to meet his father John for the first time. The difficult part is that John doesn't know he is Rafael's father. John runs a dance studio, and everyone prepares for the World Open Dance championship in Las Vegas. It soon becomes clear Rafael is a very good dancer, and Ruby is the biggest hope for the studio at the championship.
Unprecedented access into one of the world's greatest musical talents and his larger than life lifestyle: Elton John. With frank, funny, and touching filmmaking, this documentary is a fascinating and honest look at the complex character of a modern day composer and performing artist.
A promotional short for The Cincinnati Kid (1965) showcasing the card handling skills of magician and one-time gambler Jay Ose who was hired as technical adviser to instruct the actors on the techniques used by professional poker players.
This fascinating documentary explores the collaboration between Marion Mahony, the first registered woman architect in the world and the longest serving designer in Frank Lloyd Wright’s practice, and husband Walter Burley Griffin. Their struggle with unyielding bureaucracy, the philosophies that underscored their life and work, and their passionate commitment to an architecture that expressed a balance between society and the environment and an affinity between the human spirit and the natural world. The film weaves together their personal and professional lives, drawing on archival and contemporary footage of their work, an extensive collection of photographs, the couple’s own correspondance and writing, and interviews with prominent architects, social historians and the people who knew them.
The Dreamers (1985) is a posthumous short film assembled by Oja Kodar from unfinished footage directed by Orson Welles in 1982. Edited after Welles’s death, the film derives from fragmentary material intended for an uncompleted adaptation of stories by Isak Dinesen. The 1985 version represents an editorial assembly rather than a completed work authored by Welles, presenting selected footage in a reconstructed form for archival circulation. (Note: This is a posthumous editorial reconstruction. The original 1982 project exists separately as an unfinished Welles work and was never completed or released by him.)
If this were a letter, the return address would be: From the students and teachers of Sita School, Silvepura, Bangalore 560090, India. If this were a diary, it would contain entries between 5th June 2012 an 28th April 2013. I return to my first school and join with the present students and teachers in their everyday adventures of learning. Through the stories that unfold we enter imaginary worlds and intimate relationships. 'Small Things, Big Things' is a celebration of when Education becomes Art.