| America: Freedom to Fascism | |
Determined to find the law that requires Americans to pay income tax, Aaron Russo (THE ROSE, TRADING PLACES) sets out on a journey. Neither left- nor right-wing, this startling examination exposes the systematic erosion of civil liberties in America. Through interviews with US Congressmen, a former IRS Commissioner, former IRS and FBI agents, tax attorneys and authors, Russo connects the dots between money creation, federal income tax, voter fraud, the national identity card (becoming law in May 2008) and the implementation of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to track citizens. A striking case about the evolving police state in America. |
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| American Bullfighter | |
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Realizing he had hit rock-bottom, filmmaker Alex LeMay did what anyone fighting a drug and alcohol addiction would do - learn to be a bullfighter. After he finds an ex-surfer-turned-bullfighting-instructor, Alex heads to San Diego and discovers that he is not the only one on a journey to redemption. A Korean teenager, a soft-spoken geneticist and a rocker from Los Angeles join him on an adventure that includes amateur bullfights in Mexico and Spain. But it is in Spain where Alex’s road to rehab takes a gut-wrenching turn - his father is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Now he must decide whether to return home or stay the course. |
| Angels In The Dust | |
Angels in the Dust is the inspiring story of Marion Cloete, a university-trained therapist who—with her husband and two daughters—fearlessly walked away from a privileged life in a wealthy Johannesburg suburb to establish Boikarabelo (formerly Botshabelo), an extraordinary village and school that provide shelter, food, and education to more than 550 South African children.
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| An Inconvenient Truth | |
If that sounds like a recipe for serious gloom and doom -- think again. From director Davis Guggenheim the film offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man's fervent crusade to halt global warming's deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it. That man is former Vice President Al Gore, who, in the wake of defeat in the 2000 election, re-set the course of his life to focus on a last-ditch, all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocable change.
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| An Unreasonable Man | |
In 1966, General Motors, the most powerful corporation in the world, sent private investigators to dig up dirt on an obscure thirty-two year old public interest lawyer named Ralph Nader, who had written a book critical of one of their cars, the Corvair. The scandal that ensued after the smear campaign was revealed launched Ralph Nader into national prominence and established him as one of the most admired Americans and the leader of the modern Consumer Movement. Over the next thirty years and without ever holding public office, Nader built a legislative record that is the rival of any contemporary president.
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| Biro | |
Directed and performed by Ugandan American actor and photographer Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine. It tells the story of one man's epic journey from a soldier in the Ugandan insurgency of 1979 to his HIV positive diagnosis in Cuba to a present day jail cell in Texas. It illuminates the plight that Ugandans have endured in the face of war, AIDS and dashed dreams.
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| Bloodline | |
BLOODLINE investigates the popular belief that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, who fled to southern France with their child. In a an adventure worthy of Indiana Jones, filmmaker Bruce Burgess and team make connections between the Knights Templar, the legend of Mary Magdalene, hidden clues found at the famed church at Rennes-le-Chateau and make some stunning discoveries: a buried chest with artifacts that date to first century Jerusalem and a tomb with a mummified corpse draped in a shroud bearing a distinctive red cross. |
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| Bush's Brain | |
Based on the novel by journalists James Moore and Wayne Slater, “Bush’s Brain” explores the journey of political Svengali Karl Rove from fierce debater and College Republican to Texas campaign manger and eventual presidential adviser to George W. Bush. Throughout his incredible rise in power, Rove left behind a legacy of dirty tricks and ruined careers in his never-ending zeal to squash the competition – i.e. Democrats. The 80-minute long documentary, directed by Michael Shoob and Joseph Mealey, does a nice job detailing Rove’s climb to national prominence using interviews with both friend and foe while underscoring events with file footage.
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| Caravan/Prague | |
A bicycle caravan -- with the theme, "Money or Life" -- travels 500 miles across Europe to join protests in Prague against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. The goal is to create a mobile utopian community which will be a living counter-example to the values of these powerful financial institutions. The landscape is beautiful, and bicycles possess their own poetry. But it's not always easy functioning without money; moreover, the authorities have their own ideas about policing the intersection of utopia and everyday life. And should the caravan succeed in getting to Prague, there's the matter of shutting down the World Bank/IMF meeting...
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| Cocaine Angel | |
Cocaine Angel captures a grinding and tragic week in the life of a weary young drug addict who is clinging to the remnants of his once hopeful existence amidst the stink, the sweat, and unforgiving heat of Jacksonville, Florida. Though this may seem like another hopelessly bleak film about the dangers of drug abuse, the director, Michael Tully, says it is meant to address a theme to which everyone can relate: the sad passage of time. How we wake up one day and realize that we're no longer the person we once were.
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| Conventioneers | |
CONVENTIONEERS follows MASSEY, a Republican delegate to the RNC who falls into an unlikely affair with a girl he knew in college -- LEA, a Liberal who has returned to the city to protest the Republican agenda. Both are political virgins, who have surrounded themselves with like-minded colleagues and have never really confronted the enemy in the flesh. At the same time, DYLAN -- a former protester who dropped out of the scene after becoming a father -- must also confront his dedication to the cause when he is hired as a sign language interpreter for the President's speech at the convention. When he tells his activist friends about the job, they try to convince him to stage a protest during the Presidents speech instead. The tension builds as Dylan reaches the convention floor itself, takes his place next to the President, while Massey and Lea try and find each other in the chaos outside. What follows will test their beliefs about politics, love and commitment, and will push buttons on both sides of the divide.
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| Darfur Diaries | |
In October, 2004 a team of three independent filmmakers – Aisha Bain, Jen Marlowe and Adam Shapiro – left for Darfur, Sudan and eastern Chad. After monitoring the worsening political and humanitarian crisis for months and recognizing that the mainstream media offered marginal and inadequate coverage, the team set out with the goal of providing a platform for the people of Darfur (both those displaced inside Darfur and those living in refugee camps in Chad) to speak for themselves about their experiences, their fears, and their hopes for the future. The conflict serves as the ongoing narrative in the film, but the focus is on the people who are living through what has been termed a “genocide.” Through the voices of refugees, displaced persons, and in particular women and children, who are always among the most vulnerable in any conflict situation, this film seeks to provide space for the marginalized victims of atrocities to speak and to engage with the world. |
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| Desert Bayou | |
In the wake of one of the worst natural and humanitarian disasters ever to visit American shores, nearly 600 African Americans were airlifted to the almost entirely white state of Utah… without their knowledge.With interviews from recording artist Master P, celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, evacuees, political and military leaders, and community and social figures, the questions of race, politics and religion hurdle towards each other in this truly American story: A story of loss and reunion, of sorrow and rebirth, of anger and rejoicing, but most of all… a story of hope.
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| Empire In Africa | |
The rebels who started the civil war in Sierra Leone fifteen years ago wanted only one thing: to reclaim the richness of the country from foreign corporations in order to end the exploitation of its people. In response, the international community decided to wage a war on Sierra Leone with bombs, executions, torture, rigged elections and manipulation of the international media. The result was the creation of one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the 20th century.
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| The Fall of Fujimori | |
In a nation besieged by bloody insurgents and appalling poverty appears a humble candidate who vows to fight for the poor and disenfranchised. Riding a crest of popular support, this political unknown storms into the elections and wins the Presidency. After being sworn in, the new President declares an all out War On Terror, which soon culminates in the capture of public enemy number one.
The country is Peru. The President is Alberto Fujimori. The year |
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| Giuliani Time | |
Kevin Keating’s chilling documentary examines Giuliani’s rise to power, his policies and his so-called turnaround of New York City. Interviewing journalists, activists, legal experts, and many of the city’s poor, “Giuliani Time” reveals that while the Mayor touted his Broken Windows, Quality of Life and Zero Tolerance policies, the reality on the streets was police brutality, violations of the First Amendment and racist actions.
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| Healing Cancer | |
Mike Anderson exposes the failings of conventional cancer treatments and how the medical establishment and the cancer industry wildly - and deceptively - exaggerate the benefits of treatments. Interviews with people who have beaten the disease demonstrate how cancer can be successfully healed with dietary treatments and natural supplementation. Participants in the DVD include: T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. - The China Study; Brian Clement, Ph.D. - Hippocrates Health Institute; Brenda Cobb - The Living Foods Institute; Mirea Ellis - The Kushi Institute; Charlotte Gerson - The Gerson Institute and many more. |
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| The Hole Story | |
Winter. Brainerd, Minnesota. Despite arctic temperatures sheathing hundreds of surrounding lakes in three feet of solid ice, a massive stretch of water opens up on the surface of North Long Lake. With repeated scientific investigations yielding no answers, the ‘Black Hole’ captures the heart of the nearby community while attracting national, even international attention. Alex decides to make a pilot episode of a television show here.Upon arrival however, this black hole mystery reveals itself to be much more disturbing and personal than expected, slowly engulfing Alex in an existential search.
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| Jesus Camp | |
Jesus Camp follows several young children as they prepare to attend a summer camp where the kids will get their daily dose of evangelical Christianity. Becky Fischer works at the camp, which is named Kids on Fire. Through interviews with Fischer, the children, and others, Jesus Camp illustrates the unswerving belief of the faithful. A housewife and homeschooling mother tells her son that creationism has all the answers. Footage from inside the camp shows young children weeping and wailing as they promise to stop their sinning. Child after child is driven to tears. Juxtapose these scenes with clips from a more moderate Christian radio host (who is appalled by such tactics), and Jesus Camp seems to pose a clear question: are these children being brainwashed?
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| King Corn | |
King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat-and how we farm.
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| Meth | |
METH is a documentary film exploring the rising wave of crystal methamphetamine use within the gay population. It begins as an ecstatic, mind-blowing thrill ride where one finds himself on top of the world with feelings of superhuman power and collegial connectivity. As crystal’s power takes hold, however, it begins to call the shots, and the fun takes a turn for darkness.
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| Musica Cubana | |
Just a normal day in Havana. Barbaro, one of the city..s typical taxi drivers, picks up the Maestro Pio Leiva (85), a star of the BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB, who is late for a radio show. B..rbaro and P..o become friends and decide to put together a band with some of the best and most acclaimed young musicians living in Cuba today. All under the direction of the Maestro, of course. The film tells the story of the formation of the band. At the same time the film is also an authentic journey through the real lives of these incredibly talented young musicians. How do they live? What does traditional Cuban music mean to them? How do they see life in Havana today? What are their dreams? MUSICA CUBANA is a film about traditional and modern music in Cuba today. But it is also a journey into this very special and passionate country. A journey into its music and into the hearts of its people, equally full of passion, love and hope. |
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| No End In Sight | |
Written and directed by Charles Ferguson, this is the first film of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq’s descent into guerilla war, warlord rule, criminality and anarchy.The film provides a candid retelling of the events following the fall of Baghdad in 2003 by high ranking officials such as former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Ambassador Barbara Bodine (in charge of Baghdad during the Spring of 2003), Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, and General Jay Garner (in charge of the occupation of Iraq through May 2003) as well as Iraqi civilians, American soldiers, and prominent analysts.
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| Red Without Blue | |
Red Without Blue is an artistic and groundbreaking portrayal of gender, identity, and the unswerving bond of twinship despite transformation. An honest portrayal of a family in turmoil, RWB follows a pair of identical twins as one transitions from male to female. Captured over a period of three years, the film documents the twins and their parents, examining the Farley's struggle to redefine their family.
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| Sicko | |
Michael Moore's Sicko is a straight-from-the-heart portrait of the crazy and sometimes cruel U.S. health care system, told from the vantage of everyday people faced with extraordinary and bizarre challenges in their quest for basic health coverage.
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| Standard Operating Procedure | |
Is it possible for a photograph to change the world? Photographs taken by soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison changed the war in Iraq and changed Americas image of itself. Yet, a central mystery remains. Did the notorious Abu Ghraib photographs constitute evidence of systematic abuse by the American military, or were they documenting the aberrant behavior of a few bad apples? We set out to examine the context of these photographs. Why were they taken? What was happening outside the frame? We talked directly to the soldiers who took the photographs and who were in the photographs. Who are these people? What were they thinking? Over two years of investigation, we amassed a million and a half words of interview transcript, thousands of pages of unredacted reports, and hundreds of photographs.
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| War & Truth | |
War & Truth chronicles the history of embedded journalists from WWII to today. When the United States went to war with Iraq, more than two thousand journalists charged across the Iraqi desert to document history and send the story home. Not everything they saw made it into the newspaper or onto the television news. This film details the courage and frustrations of journalists who risk their lives on the front lines. It dares to bring to light the images you won’t see on the news and explores the true story of what it really means when a nation goes to war.
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| When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts | |
As the world watched in horror, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005. Like many who watched the unfolding drama on television news, director Spike Lee was shocked not only by the scale of the disaster, but by the slow, inept and disorganized response of the emergency and recovery effort. Lee was moved to document this modern American tragedy, a morality play witnessed by people all around the world.
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