On the Other Island

Tom Bosley hosts a documentary the looks into the story behind how one of cinema's greatest films It's A Wonderful Life was made.

A documentary about a beloved South Bronx matriarch and former "First Lady" of the Savage Skulls gang struggling to remain visible in a rapidly gentrifying community she helped rebuild in the 1980s. With one foot firmly grounded in the outlaw life and the other as an activist and spiritual advisor, Lorine Padilla straddles the complexities of multiple worlds.

Self-portrait of a 38-year-old mother from Abitibi, struggling with breast cancer.

The story of Leo Bretholz, who was born to Jewish parents in Vienna in 1921 and fled Nazi Austria in 1938 at the urging of his mother. Starting with this, the documentary depicts the community of Holocaust survivors in Baltimore, one of the largest in the United States, and creates a touching portrait of the Austrian-American and the Polish emigrant Bluma Shapiro.

An intimate, unconventional portrait of Marc Jacobs, crafted by Sofia Coppola to capture the genius and singular universe of the iconic American designer.

A survivor, provocateur and true original, Marianne has spent more than six decades defying expectations — releasing over thirty-five albums while constantly reinventing herself. Made with her full involvement, Broken English is an intimate and unflinching exploration of a fractured yet unbreakable life shaped by fame, creativity and relentless public scrutiny.

This hour-long documentary is a provocative look at a historical event of which few Americans are aware. In mid-January, 1893, armed troops from the U.S.S Boston landed at Honolulu in support of a treasonous coup d’état against the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen Lili‘uokalani. The event was described by U.S. President Grover Cleveland as an "act of war."

This short film follows Tonisha, Toneil and their family as they reclaim their Navajo history and reconnect with ancestors within the canyon walls.

This feature length documentary takes the viewer into the gray zone of the national animal welfare system where quality-of-life issues take center stage.

Maria Bethânia: Tempo Tempo Tempo Tempo

Based on years of research into the mass rapes committed by the Red Army at the end of the Second World War. In the second part of the documentary Helke Sander interviews former Soviet soldiers, and children born from rape, splicing their statements with material from archives. While avoiding an emotional presentation of the subject matter to rule out revanchist interpretations.

The mysterious world of the sleepless. Four insomniacs from around the world invite us to spend a night with them. While the rest of the world sleeps, they're awake.

In Rio de Janeiro, over many days, the director Maria Ramos witnesses and films the judgment of several teenagers accused of stealing, trafficking and murdering. Underage youths are protected by the Brazilian laws and their faces can not be exposed; therefore, they are replaced by teenagers from poor communities.

In 1972 a coal-waste dam owned by the Pittston Company collapsed at the head of a crowded hollow in southern West Virginia. A wall of sludge, debris, and water tore through the valley below, leaving in its wake 125 dead and 4,000 homeless. Interviews with survivors, representatives of union and citizen’s groups, and officials of the Pittston Company are juxtaposed with actual footage of the flood and scenes of the ensuing devastation. As reasons for the disaster are sought out and examined, evidence mounts that company officials knew of the hazard in advance of the flood, and that the dam was in violation of state and federal regulations. The Pittston Company, however, continued to deny any wrongdoing, maintaining that the disaster was an “act of God.”

Porto Alegre, 5 October 1984, front page of a newspaper: "Extreme left-wing activist holds up the home of an ex-consul of Paraguay, then commits suicide". The extreme left-wing activist was the director's father. The ex-consul was an ex-nazi whose past her father was investigating.

Edit from Sjöskogen in Dalsland, Sweden was born deaf. She lived alone in a cabin in the woods her whole life. She got money from many different jobs here and there and she was never a nuisance to society. But many mean spirited rumours were spread about Edit and when she died, 92 years old in 2010, no one had really known her. Rebecka Rasmusson started digging in the history of Edit's life. This is what she found.

Focusing on three women from vastly different backgrounds this film weaves together powerful moments from each of these Rosie's journeys of transformation.

The title does not refer to the American state, but to a cheap wine brand that flows liberally in this documentary. Socially, things look bad for the inhabitants of the Polish village Zagórki since the state farm they worked on went bankrupt a few years ago. It happened in 1990; since then, the 750,000-acre estate looks deserted and the former farm workers and cattle drivers are sitting at home, musing on the old days and complaining about the grievous wrongs suffered by them. From a flourishing, thriving community, the village is now reduced to a sad lot of embittered people, whose sole income is a small allowance and whose sole distraction is the muddled intoxication of the cheap Arizona wine. The camera mercilessly registers the dismal condition of the houses and streets, and the numerous candid interviews supply a poignant image of the blind-alley situation in this remote village.

One year in the life of Ragnar, who lives in Kestina, in the forests of Dalecarlia. The film portrays the everyday life of the retired forest worker without any narration. The life of this lonely man is regulated by the changing of the seasons and the weather just like in times past.

Nina Hedenius takes a personal look at our time with glimpses from her previous films, from 1965 until now.