Room 19 follows an elementary school teacher who uses an innovative art curriculum to inspire her students, and transform the way they see the world, and themselves. Room 19 is a third grade classroom at Tulita Elementary School in Redondo Beach, California, the home room of teacher Mrs. Julie Tamashiro. Mrs. Tamashiro has created an innovative learning environment which incorporates in depth arts activities and lessons in her daily curriculum.
A quietly devastating look at a family of Ponderai Native Americans as they travel to Yellowstone to preserve their treaty hunting rights.
Explores the marriage of a young couple with Down syndrome, and the family who strives to support their needs.
"The Pearl" explores the raw emotional and physical experience of being a middle aged to senior transgender woman against the backdrop of post-industrial logging towns in the Pacific Northwest. The film leans into the struggle of those who were reared and successful as men and have reached middle age or later with a burdensome secret that they can no longer keep.
My Louisiana Love follows a young Native American woman, Monique Verdin, as she returns to Southeast Louisiana to reunite with her Houma Indian family. But soon she sees that her people’s traditional way of life- fishing, trapping, and hunting these fragile wetlands– is threatened by a cycle of man-made environmental crises. As Louisiana is devastated by Hurricane Katrina and Rita and then the BP oil leak, Monique finds herself turning to environmental activism. She documents her family’s struggle to stay close to the land despite the cycle of disasters and the rapidly disappearing coastline. The film looks at the complex and uneven relationship between the oil industry and the indigenous community of the Mississippi Delta. In this intimate documentary portrait, Monique must overcome the loss of her house, her father, and her partner – and redefine the meaning of home. Her story is both unique and frighteningly familiar.
The world of gambling - from the fascination and personal fates to the dark sides such as addiction and illegal online offers. Those affected, experts and gamblers have their say and show how close thrills and the abyss are.
The film sheds light on the problems at school, the difficulties foreign youngsters have in finding their way between two cultures and languages, the impossibility of exercising the right to a good education.
An Iranian man and a French woman stroll around the city of Isfahan, Iran and find that their love is mirrored perfectly in the architecture and mosaics of the city's mosques.
Around the world, multinationals are taking advantage of carbon credits to allow them to burn their waste. Beneath the system’s environment-friendly veneer, entire ecosystems are under siege, human populations are in economic crisis, and greenhouse gases keep spewing into the atmosphere. Three years after making MYTHS FOR PROFIT, activist filmmaker Amy Miller follows up with this ambitious documentary (filmed on four continents) – a bold, highly intelligent work on the dark underbelly of green business. Even while working on a grand scale, she creates intimate portraits of numerous communities, never forgetting that global issues always affect individual lives. An essential appeal to conscience.
An animated feature-length documentary telling the story of the life of Crulic, a 33 year-old Romanian accused of having stolen a wallet from an important Polish judge. Crulic was brought to the Krakow Detention Center Custody prison. He decided to start a hunger strike from the day he was arrested, demanding a meeting with somebody from the Romanian Consulate.
A Road-Movie on rails, Ocean offers both a journey between Montreal and Halifax, as well as a sensory evocation of the intimate experience of travelling.
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.
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.
The courtship rituals of animals and plants are compared to those of contemporary society, with educational and frequently humorous results.
An intimate look at the extraordinary life of Master Lu Yi, hailed as the father of modern acrobatics, and the vast community of big-top lovers who share his dream of a thriving US circus industry.
FrackNation is a feature documentary that aims to address what the filmmakers say is misinformation about the process of hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking.
Never before seen Super 8 home movies filmed by Richard Nixon's closest aides - and convicted Watergate conspirators - offer a surprising and intimate new look into his Presidency.
A report on the oldest citizen of the GDR at the time, Emma Wagner from Gotha.
After surviving a violent assault by a serving soldier who was convicted but walked free with a suspended sentence, Natasha O'Brien refused to stay silent.
Director Kelly Anderson's personal journey as a Brooklyn 'gentrifier' to understand the forces reshaping her neighborhood along lines of race and class. The film reframes the gentrification debate to expose the corporate actors and government policies driving displacement and neighborhood change.