An unpredictable documentary from a fascinating storyteller, Agnès Varda’s last film sheds light on her experience as a director, bringing a personal insight to what she calls "cine-writing," traveling from Rue Daguerre in Paris to Los Angeles and Beijing.
With "sealfies" and social media, a new tech-savvy generation of Inuit is wading into the world of activism, using humour and reason to confront aggressive animal rights vitriol and defend their traditional hunting practices. Director Alethea Arnaquq-Baril joins her fellow Inuit activists as they challenge outdated perceptions of Inuit and present themselves to the world as a modern people in dire need of a sustainable economy.
In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along with hundreds of paintings depicting The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glodeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Cased by the Child Slave Rebellion.
Jesus Camp is a Christian summer camp where children hone their "prophetic gifts" and are schooled in how to "take back America for Christ". The film is a first-ever look into an intense training ground that recruits born-again Christian children to become an active part of America's political future.
A documentary on the once promising American rock bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. The friendship between respective founders, Anton Newcombe and Courtney Taylor, escalated into bitter rivalry as the Dandy Warhols garnered major international success while the Brian Jonestown Massacre imploded in a haze of drugs.
Meet Tajikistan's answer to the Jackson family. Nearly 80, Allo "Papa" Alaev rules his celebrated folk music clan with an iron tambourine. Beginning with his unilateral decision to emigrate to Israel, the gifted musician micro-manages nearly every aspect of their lives, both on stage and off. From every meal made in his kitchen to what instrument each member will play, the patriarch accepts nothing less than total commitment and obedience. Every child and grandchild lives in their single-family house in Tel Aviv. All but one, that is. His only daughter, Ada, chose her own way in life, a sin her father will not forgive. As generations clash over new musical directions, competing personal interests and Papa's advancing age, the family show must go on—but who will lead the band? Set to a blazing tribal soundtrack, drama and drumbeats sing out from every entertaining exchange in this grand family affair.
Focuses on children and young adults from disadvantaged communities that learn to play an instrument. Through this learning process, they overcome limitations and assert themselves. This program serves as a prevention tool. The stories of these kids will take us on their personal journey and everyday struggle while they prepare for the big concert.
American citizens who are normally marginalized, forgotten and left to fend against toxic dumps and other violations, come to understand that the only way to survive and save their communities is to challenge the system head-on.
Why can't I hear the sound of sewing machines anymore? A meeting with my family and the history of all their sewing machines.
An airstrip, a hangar and a classroom somewhere in rural Ghana: This is the place where 18-year-old Lydia and 20-year-old Esther hope to achieve their dream: learning how to fly. They have joined the first aviation school for girls in West Africa. There, an ambitious Englishman wants to train young women from rural areas to become pilots. Yet, during training and everyday life at the Aviation Academy Western ideals collide with African values, and the girls gradually realize, that their dream of flying comes at a price.
An educational documentary spanning two continents, opening up a much-needed debate about traditional African spiritual systems; their cosmologies, ideologies and underlying ethical principles. Modern science no longer refutes the origins of mankind being in Africa and similarities in the cosmological ideologies of African esoteric systems with those found many established world religions today, suggest that it was not only people that migrated, but also concepts and themes that then provided bedrock for the formation of other systems of belief.
An intimate look into the lives of one of the most iconic folk-rock bands in America - the Indigo Girls. With never-before-seen archival and intimate vérité the film dives into the songwriting and storytelling of the music that transformed a generation.
Women workers stand up to the toxic flower industry in Colombia.
A poetic journey about the life and work of Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos.
This documentary presents the passion, the talents, the history, the struggles, and the local and international triumphs of the most renowned fashion designers in Puerto Rico. The history of garment making in Puerto Rico has marked our history, culture, and traditions forever. The exploitative history, as a labor manual industry, which served as the base for what we have today as a fashion industry is also portrayed.
Dr. Helen Caldicott, firebrand anti-nuclear campaigner, celebrated author, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, is too alarmed to retire. Certain that the White House's War on Terror is escalating the global nuclear arms race, she embarks on an explosive crusade across post 9/11 USA, armed with her fifth book, 'The New Nuclear Danger', and a furious determination to rally the American people against Star Wars and the new nuclear weapons labs before it is too late.
When Umi and Dwipa left Indonesia to work in an Ontario greenhouse as part of Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program, they hoped the jobs would provide the opportunity and income for a better life. They didn't expect that fixers and false promises would lead to deception and exploitation. Sadly, their story is not uncommon. Min Sook Lee continues to speak truth to power with her commitment to providing a voice to the silenced, fulfilling documentary's capacity as a powerful tool for social change.
From 1950 to 1953, one hundred thousand children were orphaned by the Korean War. With no resources to mend the wounds, the two sides, North and South, took different paths to find homes and families for the war orphans. While the children of South Korea were sent to Europe and the United States through ‘International Adoption’, the children of North Korea were distributed across Eastern Europe through a method called ‘Commissioned Education’. As a result, more than five thousand children from the North had to spend nearly a decade living in foreign lands across Eastern Europe. This story is a record of their lives, which used to be kept hidden from the rest of the world. There is a key to understanding how North Korea's closed political structure began and how the ‘Juche ideology’ was formed in this documentary movie. Understanding North Korea in the 1950s is an important way to understand North Korea at present.