Breathing is about the thin space between life and death. 34-year-old Neil Platt plans his own funeral, muses about the meaning of life and the impossibility of terminating a mobile phone contract. With 5 months left to live, and paralyzed from the neck down by Motor Neurone Disease, he ponders how to communicate about his life in a letter for his baby son. How can he anticipate what he might want to know about his father in a future he can only imagine?
Marce, his wife Adriana, his two sons, Mario and Jacqueline, and groom it, Carmelo, are the only members of Aztlan Circus, who wanders through the villages of Texcoco, north of Mexico City. The tightrope is the history of resistance in this family that persists in taking forward an old-fashioned circus because she is convinced of the importance of his art.
Filmed over the course of two years, Our City Dreams is the story of a woman's struggles and successes as an artist in New York City. Told through five women artists, from youngest to oldest, the film features Swoon, Ghada Amer, Kiki Smith, Marina Abramovic, and Nancy Spero. From the studio to the streets of New York, from the canals of Venice to the alleys of Cairo and the beaches of Phuket, Our City Dreams takes us deep into the artists' worlds.
Circus Without Borders tells the inspiring story of two youth circuses from remote corners of the world – an Inuit village in Canada, and Guinea in West Africa. The film traces their intersecting journeys as troupe members confront heartrending challenges and become internationally-known performers who return home to transform their communities. We record the troupes’ triumphs and struggles, many of which are the enduring legacy of a history of colonization.
Nadine and Manu are two mad women, as tidy as can be, almost perfectionists. They have several things in common: extreme sex, drugs, beer and the trigger. They find the solution to their problems with guns and beware to those who dare to get in their way!
Renowned filmmakers D A Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus follow determined animal rights activist Steven Wise into the courtroom for an unprecedented battle that seeks to utilize the writ of habeas corpus to expand legal “personhood” to include certain animals. Wise’s unusual plaintiffs—chimpanzees Tommy and Kiko, once famed showbiz stars—are now living in filth, struggling to survive. Wise and his impassioned legal team take us into the field, revealing gripping evidence of such abuse and plunging us into the intricacies of their case as they probe preconceived notions of what it means to be a non-human animal.
Six blind Tibetan teenagers climb the Lhakpa-Ri peak of Mount Everest, led by seven-summit blind mountain-climber Erik Weihenmayer.
From dreamy aerial opening shots, we are sent on an expedition through the storied land of our fifth most populous state, Illinois, often called a miniature version of America. Deborah Stratman’s experimental documentary explores how physical landscapes and human politics can each re-interpret historical events. Eleven parables relay histories of settlement, removal, technological breakthrough, violence, messianism, and resistance. Who gets to write history—physical monuments, official news accounts, or personal spoken-word memories?
The unfinished documentary about the making of Dennis Hopper's mostly unseen feature film The Last Movie (1971).
After serving time for sexual assault, a disgraced cop finds work as a private detective and becomes enmeshed in a bizarre web that includes a gangster and his former girlfriend…the same woman who sent the cop to prison years before.
An intimate portrait of the woman whose groundbreaking books revolutionized our relationship to the natural world. When 'Silent Spring' was published in September 1962 it became an instant bestseller and would go on to spark dramatic changes in the way the government regulated pesticides.
In Los Angeles, a gang of bank robbers who call themselves The Ex-Presidents commit their crimes while wearing masks of Reagan, Carter, Nixon and Johnson. Believing that the members of the gang could be surfers, the F.B.I. sends young agent Johnny Utah to the beach undercover to mix with the surfers and gather information.
When a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.
Filmmaker Penny Woolcock spent eight months in a parallel world, the world of the homeless, befriending people and finding out where they eat, sleep and socialise. While making her film, Woolcock realised that the very real problems of homeless people have very little to do with the lack of a roof over their heads or a bed to sleep in. Their problems come from their past lives - and are less easy to remedy. Despite the efforts of different charities to move people into homes, the streets are often where they feel safe and what they know best. In this moving documentary, Woolcock gives the seen-but-unheard residents of London's streets a voice.
Fists of Pride follows Little Tiger and his fellow fighters as their Thai coaches prepare them for the annual Water Festival competition. In a boxing camp on the Thai-Burmese border the children of mostly illegal migrant workers fleeing Burma live and train for prize fights. In a region where combat sports have always been a matter of honor and money, the film reveals their daily struggles. Bets are open and as the hope of prize money rizes, the young boxers contemplate what it could mean for them and their families
A Zen priest in San Francisco and cookbook author use Zen Buddhism and cooking to relate to everyday life.
In a sweeping tale that spans 1000 years and multiple generations – from the distant past to the 19th century, the present day and a strange, dystopian future – this landmark collection traces the collective histories of Indigenous peoples across Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. Diverse in perspective, content and form, traversing the terrain of grief, love and dispossession, they each bear witness to these cultures’ ongoing struggles against patriarchy, colonialism and racism.
The portrait of a community as they face their country's economic recession.
Andy Warhol is a lyrical exploration of Warhol's creative process by filmmaker, painter, and actress Marie Menken. Using a hand-held camera, Menken captures Warhol and his assistants, including Gerard Malanga, as they work at the Factory. The result is an intimate portrait of the artist in the process of creating some of his most famous works, including the Brillo boxes, the Jackie series, and the Flowers silkscreens.
Filmed at the Alhambra in Spain in just one day, according to Marie Menken. Arabesque for Kenneth Anger concentrates on visual details found in Moorish architecture and in ancient Spanish tile. The date 1961 refers to the addition of Teiji Ito's soundtrack and its subsequent completion, but the film was likely shot in 1960 or earlier. - David Lewis