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Release Year: 2004 Duration: 103 min
Availability:
In SUPER SIZE ME, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock unravels the American obesity epidemic by interviewing experts nationwide and by subjecting himself to a “McDonald’s only” diet for thirty days straight. His Sundance award-winning feature is as entertaining as it is horrifying as it dives into corporate responsibility, nutritional education, school lunch programs and how we as a nation are eating ourselves to death. “For 30 days, Morgan Spurlock consumed nothing but food from McDonald’s, an experiment in bad living that frames a jaunty critique of junk gastronomy and corporate power. Like a thinner, less aggressive Michael Moore, the director talks to consumers, experts and food-industry flacks, weaving alarming statistics about rampant obesity with visits to the doctor and double-quarter-pounder-with-cheese combo meals. The film is an entertaining statement of the obvious, though its big questions — do corporations serve our need or enslave our bodies and soul?, are public health problems caused by capitalist rapacity or personal choice? — are not as simple as Mr. Spurlock would have us believe.” — A. O. Scott, The New York Times |
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DOCUMENTARY FILMS
Documentary films often deal with subjects which are of both interest and value to us. With both of these thoughts in mind, we've added a few films for you to watch right here. The films' creators have given us permission and encourage free distribution over the internet for the purposes of educating an audience that might not otherwise see these films; not too many movie houses are jumping to add documentaries or indie films to their marquees, you may have noticed.
I've always loved indies and, certainly, a well-made documentary has always been on my favorites list. My special favorites? Grey Gardens and Salesman come immediately to mind, but so does Super Size Me. Enjoy. We'll add more as we review the vast universe of films available to us.
Fast food has become a staple for many people around the world, but one guy decided to see just how safe it would be to consume only fast food for one year. The results may set you back on your heels, so watch the Super Size Me and consider the consequences.
In SUPER SIZE ME, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock unravels the American obesity epidemic by interviewing experts nationwide and by subjecting himself to a “McDonald’s only” diet for thirty days straight. His Sundance award-winning feature is as entertaining as it is horrifying as it dives into corporate responsibility, nutritional education, school lunch programs and how we as a nation are eating ourselves to death.
SUPER SIZE ME
SUPER SIZE ME SELECT: GASTRIC BYPASS SURGERY
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Release Year: 2009 Duration: 3 min
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Examines the extreme measures that some have to resolve the drastic problems brought on by obesity by looking at gastric bypass surgery, which is often used as a last resort. This surgery is often seen as a cure for diabetes and hypertension, and it is reported that 75% of successful surgeries result in lower blood pressure and decreased insulin resistance. Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock interviews Laparoscopic Surgeons Adam Naaman, MD and Carl Geisler, MD about gastric bypass surgery, as well as patient Bruce Howlett, and shows portions of Howlett’s surgery. SnagFilms continues to find innovative ways to bringing documentary films to the public. Working with Morgan Spurlock, SnagFilms created four “Super Size Me Selects”, short “bite-sized” excerpts from the Oscar®-nominated documentary that carry key lessons about eating-related health issues that Spurlock entertainingly conveys in the film. Individual websites can now stream the lessons from Spurlock’s film from an embedded “virtual movie theater widget” on their pages on health, lifestyle and nutrition, without charge to the site or its visitors. |
WAR WITHOUT WINNERS
Release Year: 1983
Duration: 29 min
War Without Winners, hosted by Paul Newman was filmed by Award Winning Cinematographer Haskell Wexler.
One general advocates that the US could indeed fight and win a nuclear war. “If we had enough brains to walk for an hour and get behind a lilac bush we wouldn’t be hurt by that nuclear weapon,” he claims as we see dramatic images of the total destruction of a real nuclear blast.” A Russian woman in her babushka and an American teenager have no such illusions. “Even if I did survive,” says one child, “I’d probably die of sadness because everyone I know would be dead.” “The man-on-the-street is the smart-guy” says a retired CIA analyst, “He knows you can’t fight and win a nuclear war.”
Paul Newman brings common sense to this complex issue, and invites viewers to contribute to preventing World War III. As peace-minded Admiral Gene R. LaRocque says in the film, “A courageous statement by you of your outrage at the approach of nuclear war might save us. Your silence will doom us. You are our only hope.”
An earlier edition, released by the Center for Defense Information in 1978, was reedited by producer Arthur Kanegis in 1983, when he added the Paul Newman interviews. Kanegis arranged for it to be broadcast on PBS stations, and developed a campaign to use viewer contributions to broadcast the film on top commercial TV stations across the United States. Kanegis re-released it 2009 to remind us that in an era of proliferation, nuclear war prevention is more crucial than ever.
UNDER OUR SKIN
Release Year: 2008
Duration: 10 min
A dramatic tale of microbes, medicine and money, this eye-opening new film investigates the untold story of Lyme disease, an emerging epidemic larger than AIDS. Each year thousands go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, told that their symptoms are “all in their head.” Following the stories of patients and physicians as they battle for their lives and livelihoods, the film brings into focus a haunting picture of our health care system and its ability to cope with a silent terror under our skin.
THE LEAST OF THESE
Release Year: 2009
Duration: 62 min
The Least of These explores one of the most controversial aspects of American immigration policy: family detention.
As part of the Bush administration policy to end what they termed the “catch and release’” of undocumented immigrants, the U.S. government opened the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in May 2006 as a prototype family detention facility. The facility is a former medium-security prison in central Texas operated by CCA, the largest private prison operator in the country. The facility houses immigrant children and their parents from all over the world who are awaiting asylum hearings or deportation proceedings.
The facility was initially activated with little media attention or public knowledge. Soon, however, immigration attorney Barbara Hines was contacted by detainees seeking representation, and she became increasingly concerned about the troubling conditions there. She joined forces with Vanita Gupta of the ACLU and Michelle Brané of the Women’s Refugee Commission to investigate conditions and seek changes. Their efforts were initially hampered by a lack of openness and oversight within the Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) organization. Undeterred, the three attorneys attempted to bring about changes in both policy and conditions, by making their findings public, encouraging involvement by activists and the media, and ultimately by filing a historic lawsuit.
As these events unfold, the film explores the government rationale for family detention, conditions at the facility, collateral damage, and the role (and limits) of community activism in bringing change. The film leads viewers to consider how core American rights and values – due process, presumption of innocence, upholding the family structure as the basic unit of civil society, and America as a refuge of last resort – should apply to immigrants, particularly children.
THE KILLING OF A CHINESE COOKIE
Release Year: 2008
Duration: 75 min
For nearly a century, people have turned to this prophetic dessert for advice, inspiration and even winning lottery combinations. While the fortune cookie has been a source of fascination and a Chinese cuisine staple in North America, it remains nearly non-existent in China. THE KILLING OF A CHINESE COOKIE examines the heated debate over the true origin of the fortune cookie, the mixing of eastern and western cultures that produced it, and the cookie’s rise from a simple pastry to a pop culture phenomenon.
BETTIE: THE GIRL IN THE LEOPARD PRINT BIKINI
Release Year: 2004
Duration: 90 min
She was the quintessential 1950’s pinup girl, jet-black hair, sultry smile, flashing eyes, and a body that drove men wild. But, there was much more to Bettie Page than met the eye. Here is her story, from her small town beginnings to her worldwide acceptance as a pop culture icon. Featuring the vintage films, and pictures that made her a phenomenon, BETTIE PAGE, THE GIRL IN THE LEOPARD PRINT BIKINI, focuses on the life and times of the legendary model, the times in which she lived, and the impact her career had on the subsequent fifty years. Though her days as a photographer’s model and actress are over, and her time in the spotlight relatively brief, the young girl from Tennessee is more popular than ever. And now you can see why… BETTIE PAGE, THE GIRL IN THE LEOPARD PRINT BIKINI. Bonus Footage: This program includes uncut versions of some of Bettie’s best films from the 1950’s.
HELL ON WHEELS
Release Year: 2009
Duration: 90 min
Before the Lonestar Rollergirls, before the Texas Rollergirls, before the emergence of 300+ rollergirl leagues across the globe… before all of this, there were the pioneers.
In 2001 a rowdy group of Austin women were determined to ressurect an old sport, but with a new spin. This is the beginning of a revolution:
HELL ON WHEELS is the ###-kicking documentary film telling the story of a group of Texas women who band together to resurrect roller derby for the 21st century. Emerging from the Austin music and arts scene, these women create a rock and roll fueled version of all-girl roller derby that has spawned the derby craze that’s sweeping the nation.
THE TSAATS OF MONGOLIA
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Release Year: 2007 Duration: 26 min Always on the lookout for interesting stories and great shots, they focused on nature, but also kept an eye out for cultural events as well as geological history. These films also feature emotionally touching background music and do not only appeal to nature lovers. Project Earth is classic Infotainment TV and will also be successful in typical entertainment slots because it arouses the people’s desire to travel to exotic places. A rich variety of stories not only introduces the audience to educational content but sometimes also captivates them with truly thrilling programs. No special effects, no tricks- just excellent camerawork. This is our philosophy – and it works |
INTO THE THUNDER DRAGON
Release Year: 2002
Duration: 47 min
Bring a rare, wild sport: extreme unicycling ... to a remote Himalayan kingdom: Bhutan ... and you have a recipe for unbelievable adventure! Get ready for a spell-binding road trip and an enchanting journey unicycling on perilous 1,000-year-old caravan trails through the mountains and valleys of Bhutan—along with an intimate look at its unique people and rich culture.
VIETNAM, LONG TIME COMING
Release Year: 1998
Duration: 120 min
In 1998, World T.E.A.M. Sports (The Exceptional Athlete Matters) organized a 16-day, 1,200 mile bicycle ride through once war-torn Vietnam. Able-bodied and disabled veterans, from the U.S. and Vietnam, travel across a landscape where they once killed to stay alive. The former enemies ride as one team, joined by well-known rider Greg LaMonde and Senator John Kerry, in an emotional journey of peace, reconciliation, and athletic achievement. The biggest handicaps turn out to be the ghosts of the past, with their nagging reminders of conflict, injury and loss.
SLAMMED
Release Year: 2004
Duration: 120 min
Warning! Not suitable for those with weak stomachs! Love watching hard falls? Broken bones? How about smashed boards? Then this video is a must have. Taken from all aspects of extreme sports, SLAMMED will leave you gasping for air while watching some of your favorite X-stars and no name amateurs in some their not-so-finer moments. Backed up with an extreme heavy-rock soundtrack, SLAMMED will make you rethink your choice participating along side these elite, extreme athletes.
ALICIA IN AFRICA, JOURNEY TO THE MOTHERLAND
Release Year: 2008
Duration: 45 min
During the spring of 2006 Alicia Keys embarked on a journey to Africa that changed her life forever. During her month-long trip, Alicia witness countless stories of people infected with HIV, who despite the odds, were overcoming personal hardships with astonishing bravery. Some of the communities that Alicia visited on her pilgrimage had an HIV prevalence rate of over 40%, but what she encountered were incredible accounts of resilience and triumph. Join Alicia on her journey and hear the compelling stories from those she encountered during her visit, making her even more galvanized in her commitment to publicly addressing the need for lifesaving drugs and ongoing care for these inspiring people.
THE TEHUACAN PROJECT
Release Year: 2009
Duration: 14 min
When little Lucia’s mother discovered her child was deaf, she was determined to do whatever she could to provide an education for her. This would prove to be a daunting task, since Lucia and her mother live in rural Mexico, and until recently there was no school in the country dedicated to educating deaf children.
This is the story of Lucia and others like her who have found their way to Tehuacan, Mexico and the “Casa del Ninos Sordo”, Mexico’s first school exclusively for deaf children. This is also a story of how a simple idea, determined parents and dedicated volunteers banded together to create something remarkable. in doing so they gave these kids hope for a viable future, where there was none before.
Come learn about Lucia and her classmates. be witness to these children confronting adversity and witness how their hearts and minds rise above the sounds of silence through The Tehuacan Project
AHMAD ZAHIR
Release Year: 2008
Duration: 3 min
Knows as the Elvis of Afghanistan, Ahmad Zahir died in a car crash in the 1970s, fueling decades of speculation as to what really happened. Beyond the mystery, though, Zahir’s music wafts from the windows of Afghans homes around the world, helping exiles and refugees stay connected to their tortured native land - and offering a sense of identity to their children who have never seen the country from which their parents fled.
AGING IN AMERICA
Release Year: 2008
Duration: 5 min
Availability: Worldwide
This short documentary follows volunteers from the Meals on Wheels organization as they explain the sometimes devastating effects of aging in America.
About Campus Movie Fest
Like the story from a classic Hollywood film, Campus MovieFest (CMF) came from a humble beginning. Seven years ago, a band of friends attending Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, thought it would be fun to give computers, camcorders and training to students to make their own movies and then share the five minute films the teams created. The four Emory students had no idea the project would change the course of their lives and the lives of countless students across the globe as the program grew to become the world’s largest student film festival.
WU TANG GRAN
Release Year: 2009
Duration: 8 min
Wu Tang Gran grew up in a party - the Communist Party - and has lived through some pretty tough times, but will this 70 year old and her crew be able to meet their greatest challenge yet - a break-dance battle against Beijing’s finest hip-hop crew?
THE ELLIS ISLAND IMMIGRATION MUSEUM
Release Year: 2002
Duration: 26 min
Between 1897 and 1938, immigration changed the face of America. More than 100 million citizens in the United States can trace their ancestry to an immigrant who landed at New York’s Ellis Island. Ellis Island is more than a museum, it is hallowed ground; it is the place where many immigrants from all over the world first touched American soil. Through the museum’s oral history project and through the everyday objects on display--a pair of boots, a cooking pot, religious artifacts and traditional clothing--the museum strives to “give voice” to people whose lives have not typically been seen as history.
SECRETS OF THE WILD PANDA
Release Year: 2008
Duration: 60 min
Learn the secrets of the wild pandas! Hear the outsized yelp of a four-ounce panda cub, and spy on hungry pandas who eat as much as 80 pounds of food a day.
YOU CAN CALL ME NIKKIE
Release Year: 2008
Duration: 7 min
An intimate portrait of a transsexual prostitute in Japan who is just trying to make money for her family.
About Doc Challenge
The International Documentary Challenge is a timed filmmaking competition where filmmakers have 5 days to make a short non-fiction film (4-7 minutes.) All of the registered participants make their films during the same time period (early March) and are required to ship the movie by the deadline. In addition to being restricted on time, the filmmakers must choose between 2 assigned documentary genres (such as Biography, Music, 1st Person, etc.) and are assigned a specific theme (such as “Freedom") that will dictate the content and direction of their film. The top 12 films (determined by a panel of judges) premiere at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival in Toronto where the Winners are announced. After the premiere, there are additional theatrical screenings in major cities, possible television exposure and a DVD release of the best films.
LORD OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
Release Year: 2002
Duration: 54 min
Join National Geographic on a quest to find out how the imaginary world of Middle earth reflects life in our world. Journey through history, myth, language and lore and explore real life parallels between history and fantasy. Includes exclusive footage from the Fellowship of the Ring, insightful interviews with cast and filmmakers, and provocative perspectives of explorers, anthropologists and archaeologists.
THE GITS
Release Year: 2007
Duration: 81 min
In the early 1990s, Seattle was the focal point of an emerging musical underground. The Gits helped spearhead this new scene. Their sound was proto-grunge and all-out punk aggression. The earnest, blues wail of front woman Mia Zapata was its center. Mia was the very embodiment of riot grrrl intensity, talent, and humanity. Her uncompromised integrity epitomized a way of life that influenced an entire generation of female artists to follow. Upon returning from a successful European tour -and at the height of The Gits’ popularity- singer Mia Zapata was found raped and murdered, unfairly abbreviating the band’s fable. Incredibly, more than a decade later, new evidence would surface, Mia’s case file would be reopened, and a suspect would be brought to justice –as cameras rolled.
The Gits is an account of overcoming adversity, addiction, love, loss and pain. It’s a punk rock mystery, but not merely a tale of tragedy. It’s the mythic story of a great American Rock N Roll band.
CHURNING THE SEA OF TIME
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Release Year: 2006 Duration: 74 min One of the mythic journeys of our time, through the exquisite, complicated, surprising terrain of Vietnam and Cambodia to the great ruins at Angkor - the magnificent Khmer temples being painstakingly restored deep in the Cambodian jungle. It is a high definition odyssey up a river far distanced in time from the corridor into the heart of darkness portrayed in Francis Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.” Director Les Guthman travels by boat up the Mekong Delta, along the river whose raw beauty and power were celebrated by Marguerite Duras in the 1920s. But in our time it became known as “the river of evil memory” as it coursed through Southeast Asia in the second half of the 20th Century. |
THE WATERKEEPERS
Release Year: 2000
Duration: 47 min
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. leads the nation’s fastest-growing grassroots environmental organization, the Waterkeeper Alliance. Like an environmental “Neighborhood Watch” program, waterkeepers take polluters to court, respond to citizens’ complaints about water pollution, identify problems that affect rivers, bays, lakes and streams; devise appropriate remedies and act as living witnesses to the condition of local ecosystems. Waterkeepers have helped to clean up and protect hundreds of water bodies around the world from pollution and dirty industries.
THE WATERKEEPERS chronicles the heroic efforts of river, bay and soundkeepers from Alaska to North Carolina. Their hands-on public advocacy environmentalism has become a model for ecosystem protection: citizens defending the ecosystems in which they live.
EGYPT: QUEST FOR ETERNITY
Release Year: 2008
Duration: 60 min
Explore the great temples of Luxor and Karnak. Cross the Nile to the land of the dead, and enter the elaborately decorated tombs where the kings and queens are buried. Join Egyptologists as they unravel and interpret the riddles of Egypt’s intriguing past.
MESSNER
Release Year: 2002
Duration: 44 min
Reinhold Messner, the world’s greatest mountain climber, looks back over his career with surprising candor and self-revelation. It is the career of a man who began climbing with his father in the exquisite Italian Dolomites, but whose restless quest for self-knowledge through extreme adventures made him the most accomplished climber of modern times. “Messner” includes rare film of his astonishing climbs of the world’s highest mountains - without using bottled oxygen and often alone.
INSIDE MECCA
Release Year: 2003
Duration: 61 min
National Geographic presents an intimate and three-dimensional documentation of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca and sheds light on the universal principles of Islam during the days of the Hajj. Learn the historical significance of the city to Muslim and non-Muslim populations alike. And, experience the epic journey of a lifetime, the Hajj, as we witness the personal stories of the pilgrims and the mental preparation, physical strain and spiritual ecstasy they encounter on their life-altering pilgrimage of faith.
UNDER OUR SKIN
Release Year: 2008
Duration: 10 min
A dramatic tale of microbes, medicine and money, this eye-opening new film investigates the untold story of Lyme disease, an emerging epidemic larger than AIDS. Each year thousands go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, told that their symptoms are “all in their head.” Following the stories of patients and physicians as they battle for their lives and livelihoods, the film brings into focus a haunting picture of our health care system and its ability to cope with a silent terror under our skin.
VIOLENT EARTH
Release Year: 2006
Duration: 47 min
Where and when the next mega disaster will strike —volcanic eruption, earthquake, tsunami or hurricane—is the focus of VIOLENT EARTH. Join tsunami scientist Jose Borrero of the University of Southern California on his trip to visit Banda Aceh with a National Geographic film team, barely one week after the December 26, 2004, tsunami—a tsunami so strong it actually moved the island of Sumatra a hundred feet.
THE A FACTOR
Release Year: 2006
Duration: 60 min
Availability: Worldwide
THE A FACTOR is a documentary film shot on location in Nepal that chronicles the efforts of a committed doctor and local healthcare workers who are bringing life-saving Vitamin A capsules to the children of Nepal.
The film is narrated by Glenn Close and features the captivating journey of Dr. Alfred Sommer, who was the celebrated Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Sommer, has made a groundbreaking discovery that Vitamin A capsules can save the lives of two million children a year. This finding has led to the largest worldwide medical mobilization since the polio vaccine.
In this film, Sommer travels from Katmandu to the Terai region of Nepal. Along the way, he meets locals and Vitamin A volunteers and listens to their stories. Sommer shares tea with a local Lama, delivers Vitamin A to a night-blind pregnant woman, and attends the medical examination of a newborn.
A WORLD OF ART: THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
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Release Year: 2004 Duration: 50 min Availability: Worldwide Founded in 1870, and one of the architectural glories of New York City, the Met stretches four blocks along Fifth Avenue with over two million objects under one roof. The museum is a dazzling three-dimensional encyclopedia of world art, chronicling 5,000 years of art history. In this stunning production, the masterpieces of The Met come to life through high-definition videography and insightful interviews with Museum Director Philippe de Montebello and the museum’s dedicated curatorial staff. |
GIRL 27
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Release Year: 2007 Duration: 86 min
Availability:
Hollywood 1937—Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the world’s most prestigious and powerful movie studio, tricks 120 underage chorus girls into attending a stag party for its visiting salesmen. When dancer Patricia Douglas tries to flee, she is brutally raped; defying the studio’s order for silence, Douglas files a landmark lawsuit while MGM launches the biggest cover-up in Hollywood history-until six decades later, when author-screenwriter David Stenn stumbles upon the story. Stenn’s decade-long search for the truth leads to Patricia Douglas herself, nearly ninety and still in hiding. Will she go public once again, or will Hollywood’s best-suppressed scandal die with her? |
STOLEN
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Release Year: 2006 Duration: 85 min
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In 1990, in
the early morning hours after St.
Patrick’s Day, thieves disguised as
policemen gained access into Boston’s
Isabella Stewart Gardner museum and
successfully executed the largest art
heist in modern history. STOLEN brings
the audience on a journey to understand
not just a crime, but also the nature of
beauty itself - its fragility and its
power. |
DARKEST HOURS
Release Year: 2007
Duration: 56 min
In “Darkest Hours: The Crisis in Children’s Mental Health Care,” parents, teens, advocates and providers all share their horror stories about the lack of a system for children’s mental health care. While the documentary focuses on Connecticut, this is a national crisis: kids spending night after night in the emergency room because of the lack of psychiatric beds in the state; waits of up to six months to get an appointment with a psychologist because of escalating demand; families dealing with managed care companies that continually deny coverage for necessary treatment. All of this - combined with the raw emotion of accepting the fact that their child is mentally ill and will likely face a lifetime of medication and therapy.
WOMEN OF THE SAND
Release Year: 2008
Duration: 52 min
WOMEN OF THE SAND is a documentary about nomad Islamic women in the Sahara desert. Filmed in Mauritania, it follows the day-to-day activities of women, documenting their work, family and community life, expectations and emotions.
With its cinema-verité style, the film allows the women to tell their own stories in a candid and intimate way. The stunning photography captures the immensity of the desert and the giant sand dunes which have already covered ninety per cent of the country and are threatening the very existence of the nomadic lifestyle. Ultimately, the documentary is a tale of women’s resilience and a poignant portrait of a vanishing way of life.
BEYOND GRAVITY
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Release Year: 2000 Duration: 49 min Availability: Worldwide One of the classic “new wave” ice, rock and alpine climbing films, narrated by renowned mountaineer and author Greg Child. “By far the best cinematography of any climbing film, bar none,” CLIMBING MAGAZINE. Eighteen of North America’s leading young climbers take on routes such as the stunning Emporer Face of Mt. Robson, towering icy fiords in Greenland and the magnificent Cardinal Pinnacle in the Sierras. |
GLOBAL FOCUS: IRELAND
Release Year: 2007
Duration: 5 min
Availability:
Ireland, where farmers in a remote village joined together to fight Shell Oil in the courts and on the picket lines.
GLOBAL FOCUS: MONGOLIA
Release Year: 2007
Duration: 5 min
Availability:
Mongolia, where the son of a herdsman has battled against the gold companies to save the Oonk River from contamination.
MUHAMMAD ALI: THE GREATEST
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Duration: 77 min
Availability:
The inside story on the life and career of one of the world’s most enduring and endearing heroes, from his early life in Louisville, Kentucky to his triumphant return to the international stage at the 1996 olympics in Atlanta. |
WE ARE THE CHILDREN (Michael Jackson)
Release Year: 2007
Duration: 57 min
Availability: Worldwide
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WE ARE THE
CHILDREN is a documentary film that
dives deep inside the world of a group
of Michael Jackson fans during the
2004-05 trial. The story delves beyond
the tabloidesque media coverage of the
crazy fan to uncover the human faces of
the dedicated supporter. Following a
group of California fans from dance
parties on Hollywood Blvd to court
proceedings in Santa Maria, and vigils
at Neverland, WE ARE THE CHILDREN brings
some three-dimensionality to people
often written off as humorous freaks.
The nonjudgmental, unflinching eye of
the camera documents fan club
gatherings, music collections and
impersonators, as fans tell personal
tales of inspiration about the King of
Pop.
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WE ARE WIZARDS (Harry Potter fans)
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Release Year: 2009 Duration: 79 min
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The magically energetic documentary which profiles some of the power players in the underground Harry Potter community. |
LAST STAND OF THE GREAT BEAR
Release Year: 2005
Duration: 56 min
Availability:
National Geographic embarks on a 250-mile adventure through unspoiled territory along the coast of British Columbia called the Great Bear Rain Forest. It is here that bear-hunting wolves take to the sea, grizzlies clash in titanic battles and wild salmon are the pulsing lifeblood of an entire ecosystem. As this precious habitat faces an uncertain future, threatened by chainsaws and fish farms, a team of dedicated scientists is racing to prove that it must be protected. Forming a wilderness detective squad, these experts are searching for the rare white spirit bear and collecting clues that will decipher the secret life of the forest’s elusive inhabitants.
BLIND SPOT
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Release Year: 2008 Duration: 86 min Availability: Worldwide Blind Spot is a documentary film that illustrates the current oil and energy crisis that our world is facing. Whatever measures of ignorance, greed, wishful thinking, we have put ourselves at a crossroad, which offers two paths with dire consequences. If we continue to burn fossil fuels we will choke the life out of the planet and if we don’t our way of life will collapse. |
LOST KING OF THE MAYA
Release Year: 2001
Duration: 60 min
Availability:
Sixteen hundred years ago, a mysterious left-handed warrior seized control of the Mayan city of Copán, founding a dynasty that would last for 400 years. Eventually the Maya abandoned Copán and all other Mayan cities, which lay undisturbed for over 1,000 years.
Then, in the 19th century, explorers John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood stumbled on the vine-strangled remains of huge complexes of temples and monuments covered with strange portraits and hieroglyphs. In this program, NOVA takes viewers deep into the Central American rain forest to the resurrected ruins of Copán, a once majestic jewel of Mayan civilization which was inexplicably abandoned over a thousand years ago.
In an ancient Mayan arena, enemies of notorious King Yax K’uk Mo square off in a ball game that appears much like modern soccer. But in this fateful contest, winners live—and losers lose their heads. From 200 to 900 A.D., Yax K’uk Mo’s dynasty of Blood Lords presided over the Maya city of Copan, conducting hallucinogenic vision quests, ritual warfare and human sacrifice. Join a team of archaeologists and historians who are piecing together the fascinating rise and fall of this ancient city, its legendary founder, Yax K’uk Mo and its amazingly advanced culture.
SECRETS OF LOST EMPIRES II: EASTER ISLAND
Release Year: 2000
Duration: 60 min
Availability:
The mute sentinels of Easter Island are mysteries locked in stone. Nearly 1000 haunting human sculptures are the only remaining citizens of a vanished culture that existed a millennium ago, 1500 miles from the nearest inhabited island. Weighing up to 80 tons each, the moai say nothing; but, with some investigation, they speak volumes. Take a look behind the stone faces and discover how such a remote society achieved monolithic greatness—and then disappeared. Discover how Easter Island’s massive monuments created peace, harmony—and ecological disaster.
COCK FIGHT
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Release Year: 2009 Duration: 45 min Availability: Worldwide A voyage into the underground world of rooster fighting. The film chronicles the harrowing and hilarious adventures of three wildly different characters. The first, Manuel, is a salty 73-year old who attends illegal cockfights in California and fights to preserve the ancient but embattled sport. The second, Clara, is a vibrant Latina who was forced to quit cockfighting when the sport was outlawed in Arizona. The third, Larry, is a firebrand ex-patriot exiled to Mexico where he fights roosters for a living. Cockfight pierces the veil of secrecy that cloaks this enormously popular yet controversial activity. |
BLOOD DIAMONDS (DIAMONDS OF WAR)
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Release Year: 2003 Duration: 64 min
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Long a symbol of love, affection, and faithfulness, the diamond is now increasingly linked with war, blood and brutality. In the diamond rich West African nation of Sierra Leone, rebels used the precious gems to bankroll a violent ten-year insurrection, leaving a terrorized population and a ravaged landscape in its wake. National Geographic correspondents follow the trail of illicit diamonds from their origin in the muddy pits of impoverished Sierra Leone, to the pristine cobblestone streets of Antwerp, Belgium, to their final stop in the glittering display cases of New York’s finest jewelry stores. |
HOLY WATERGATE
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Release Year: 2004 Duration: 56 min Availability: Worldwide Bearing witness to a dramatic unfolding of historic events, the filmmaker spends over four years gathering stories from all sides of the clergy sex abuse crisis. Resisting simplistic or sensational explanations, Holy Water-Gate instead bravely investigates disturbing and unanswered questions of this tragedy, providing razor sharp insight into the causation and consequences of the sex abuse in the Catholic Church. WINNER: CINE GOLDEN EAGLE for INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM; WINNER: BEST DOCUMENTARY 2005 Rhode Island International Film Festival. |
WOMEN OF VISION: 18 HISTORIES IN FEMINIST FILM AND VIDEO
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Release Year: 1998 Duration: 83 min Availability: Worldwide Women of Vision highlights 18 women and covers a period of time from the 50’s to the 90’s. The women chosen were selected because they represent the real diversity within both feminism and independent film and video. They range in age from 65 to 25. They are black, white, Puerto Rican, Yugoslavian, Asian American, biracial. They are straight, gay and bisexual. What they share is a need to express their own interpretations of what American culture is and could be and a belief that this work is made particularly powerful through the media. |
TREMBLING BEFORE G-D
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Release Year: 2001 Duration: 90 min
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Trembling Before G-d is an unprecedented feature documentary that shatters assumptions about faith, sexuality, and religious fundamentalism. Built around intimately-told personal stories of Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who are gay or lesbian, the film portrays a group of people who face a profound dilemma - how to reconcile their passionate love of Judaism and the Divine with the drastic Biblical prohibitions that forbid homosexuality. As the film unfolds, we meet a range of complex individuals - some hidden, some out - from the world’s first openly gay Orthodox rabbi to closeted, married Hasidic gays and lesbians to those abandoned by religious families to Orthodox lesbian high-school sweethearts. Many have been tragically rejected and their pain is raw, yet with irony, humor, and resilience, they love, care, struggle, and debate with a thousands-year old tradition. Ultimately, they are forced to question how they can pursue truth and faith in their lives. Vividly shot with a courageous few over five years in Brooklyn, Jerusalem, Los Angeles, London, Miami, and San Francisco, Trembling Before G-d is an international project with global implications that strikes at the meaning of religious identity and tradition in a modern world. For the first time, this issue has become a live, public debate in Orthodox circles, and the film is both witness and catalyst to this historic moment. What emerges is a loving and fearless testament to faith and survival and the universal struggle to belong. |
9/12: FROM CHAOS TO COMMUNITY
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Duration: 56 min
In the wake
of the World Trade Center attacks, New
Yorkers from all walks of life felt
compelled to overcome their sense of
powerlessness by volunteering to help
out in the recovery effort. They brought
in supplies, set up relief stations, and
for ten months fed and cared for the
recovery workers. Many deep and
unexpected, even unlikely relationships
developed as a result. |
WE WILL NOT DIE LIKE DOGS
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Release Year: 2008 Duration: 54 min WE WILL NOT DIE LIKE DOGS profiles AIDS activists from Nigeria, Uganda, Burkina Faso, and Zambia. Honest and provocative testimonies of individuals living with the epidemic include two HIV-positive women fighting stigma and discrimination, a doctor working to care for HIV-infected children in rural villages, and a reggae artist using his status among youth and the media to bring awareness to HIV/AIDS. Conceived of by two African medical students at Yale who were tired of African portrayed only as victims to the epidemic and directed by international health specialist, Lisa Russell, WE WILL NOT DIE LIKE DOGS helped launch the National Black Programming Consortium’s new television series AfroPop that focuses on contemporary pop culture in Africa. |
FIGHTING GOLIATH: TEXAS COAL WARS
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Release Year: 2008 Duration: 34 min Availability: Worldwide From the outset FIGHTING GOLIATH: TEXAS COAL WARS was intended to serve as a tool for raising awareness, inspiring action, and creating a meaningful dialogue about how to overcome one of the greatest threats to public health contributors to global warming faced by the U.S.—conventional coal-fired power plants. FIGHTING GOLIATH follows the story of farmers, ranchers and Mayors fighting against the construction of 18 new coal-burning power plants in Texas. TXU Corp. withdrew eight of the 11 permit applications shortly before the case went to court, when it was announced that shareholders would sell the utility to private equity firms. The film was produced by the Redford Center at the Sundance Preserve and Alpheus Media, and directed by Mat Hames and George Sledge. |
THE FUTURE OF FOOD
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Release Year: 2007 Duration: 88 min There is a revolution happening in the farm fields and on the dinner tables of America that is transforming the very nature of the food we eat. This well-researched documentary by Deborah Koons Garcia, the widow of the legendary Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, takes an in-depth look at the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decades. |
INDEPENDENT AMERICA
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Release Year: 2009 Duration: 52 min
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Is there room for independent retailers in an American landscape littered with big-box corporate chain stores? Husband and wife TV-news veterans Hanson Hosein and Heather Hughes set out on an epic, 32-state cross-country road trip to see how independent businesses are faring. Their rules: avoid interstate highways and try to patronize only locally owned establishments. In, the process they discover stories of ingenuity, self-reliance, community activism and a growing nationwide opposition to corporate uniformity. |
INSIDE RED CHINA
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Release Year: 2005 Duration: 49 min Availability: Worldwide In 1957 US
Army veteran Robert Carl Cohen was
studying Social Psychology in Paris.
While visiting the USSR he was assigned
by NBC-TV’s Moscow Chief Irving R.
Levine to film a group of young
Americans touring China in defiance of
the US State Dept.’s travel ban.
Arriving in Beijing after a 9 day 6,000
mile trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway,
he convinced the authorities to permit
him to air express his uncensored film
via Moscow to NBC in New York. During a
45 day tour he became the first American
to film China since the 1949 Communist
victory; documenting forbidden things
such as bridges, aircraft, tanks, & the
“brain washing” of political prisoners.
After appearing on the TODAY SHOW &
HUNTLEY NEWS, his reports were edited
into INSIDE RED CHINA, part of THE
SPECIAL OF THE WEEK Series. Highlights
of this unique film include: Beijing,
Guandong, Shanghai, The Great Wall,
Yangtze River, Nanking University,
Changchung Auto Plant, Slum & Sampan
dwellers, Modern Hospitals & Ancient
Acupuncture, Co-op Farms, Chairman Mao
Tze Tung, Premier Chou En-Lai, & former
Cal Tech & MIT rocket expert Dr. Chen
Tzu-Fen, ending with the million marcher
National Day Parade before the Forbidden
City & its giant fireworks finale.
Today, with foreign tourists & business
people able to visit a China rapidly
filling with modern factories & cities,
INSIDE RED CHINA provides a rare insight
into that vast nation’s tumultuous past.
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SO VERY FAR FROM HOME
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Release Year: 2007 Duration: 57 min Availability: Worldwide So Very Far From Home tells the stories of American, British and Australian children sent to brutal, overcrowded prison camps in Japanese-occupied China during World War II. While the war eventually ended, China still lives in their hearts today. For Patricia Dunn Silver, it’s the memory of July 4, 1943 when a group of imprisoned parents and children defiantly sang the one song their Japanese captors had forbidden—The Star-Spangled Banner. Shanghai was once seven year-old Ronald Morris’ playground, but during the war years hunger was his constant companion. For Pamela Masters, a brash British teenager, months of imprisonment brought her within seconds of taking her own life. The war meant it would be years before Mary Taylor Previte would see her parents again. What happens when the only world you ever knew is gone, and “home” is a place you’ve never seen? |
THREE CUBANS
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Release Year: 2005 Duration: 56 min Availability: Worldwide In 1963 & 1964 Robert Carl Cohen became the first US filmmaker authorized by both the US State Dept. & Cuban Foreign Ministry to film the daily lives of upper, middle and lower economic-class Cubans. Returning to the US, Cohen interviewed an upper class exile who, his aged parents remaining in Cuba, requested anonymity. The film’s production had to overcome obstacles such as Kodak’s selling the Producer defective raw stock & the loss of the work print from an insured Railway Express shipment. Its 1965 screening as “Three Faces of Cuba” on over 100 National Educational TV (NET) affiliated stations led to violent protests by anti-Castro exiles, hearings before federal agencies, & non-inclusion by the NET in the usual distribution of its programs to the schools. Despite having permits from both the State & Treasury Depts., Cohen’s 1963 through 1971 tax returns were audited by the Internal Revenue Service; which revealed no liability. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) files released in 1975 reveal possible CIA influence in NET’s refusal to distribute the film. THREE CUBANS provides one of the best documentations of the early effects of Castro’s revolution on the people of Cuba. AUDIENCE: Concerned Citizens, Students of History, Latin American Affairs, Social Psychology, International Relations, Sociology, Political Science, Communism. |
LIFE AFTER TOMORROW
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Release Year: 2008 Duration: 75 min LIFE AFTER
TOMORROW reunites more than 40 women who
played orphans in the Broadway
production Annie and reveals the highs
and lows of their experiences as child
actresses in a cultural phenomenon. Once
the curtain came down, many found it
could be a hard-knock-life, fraught with
out-of-control stage mothers, separation
anxiety, and worst of all, pubescent
growth spurts that could find the
moppets being replaced by smaller,
younger editions just waiting in the
wings. As one cast member in the film
remarks, “The younger ones are coming to
take your place and you’re 12. It’s not
like you are getting downsized at
50…you’re 12!”. While their lives moved
on, the impact of the experience
remains. Features behind-the-curtain
footage from the original Broadway
production and performances with the
re-united orphans. |
NOVA - SECRETS OF LOST EMPIRES II: CHINA BRIDGE
Release Year: 2000
Duration: 60 min
Availability:
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Countless items that we take for
granted in modern life
originated in ancient China,
from paper—printing, and silk to
gunpowder, kites, mechanized oil
wells and sophisticated medical
surgery. Nowhere did the Chinese
exhibit more skill and ingenuity
than in the creation of tens of
thousands of bridges that were
vital in unifying their diverse
land. Two thousand years ago,
their architects developed iron
suspension bridges and daring
arch designs that had no rivals
in the west until the coming of
the industrial age. Whether
spanning a yawning gorge or
crossing a placid canal, they
were masters at integrating
function and aesthetics in their
bridge construction.
In China Bridge, NOVA explores the unexpected wealth of China’s bridge heritage. The show’s experiments will focus on an ancient design that baffles engineers and scholars—the Rainbow Bridge. Its blueprint derives from a renowned 12th century Chinese scroll painting that depicts life in the Song Dynasty capital of Kaifeng around 1000 A.D. It is a panorama that teems with more than a thousand tiny figures bustling about their daily life and involved in weddings, funerals, and war games. At the center of all this activity is the Rainbow Bridge. Lined with shops on both sides, the bridge is an avenue for food hawkers, fortunetellers and street peddlers. One Song Dynasty historian wrote, “the bridge has no piers, but giant timbers spanning the void, decorated with red paint and curved like a rainbow.” The design is neither an arch nor a beam, but rather a delicate hybrid of the two; a series of interlocking horizontal and cantilever beams form a graceful arc. It was a style never attempted in the Western world. How could such a daring and intricate structure have |
REFRIGERATOR MOTHERS
Release Year: 2003
Duration: 60 min
Availability: Worldwide
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It is America
of the 1950s and 1960s, when a woman’s
most important contribution to society
is generally considered to be her
ability to raise happy, well-adjusted
children. But for the mother whose child
is diagnosed with autism, her life’s
purpose will soon become a twisted
nightmare. Looking for help and support,
she encounters instead a medical
establishment that pins the blame for
her child’s bizarre behaviors on her
supposedly frigid and detached
mothering. Along with a heartbreaking
label for her child, she receives a
devastating label of her own. She is a
“refrigerator mother”.
Refrigerator Mothers paints an intimate portrait of an entire generation of mothers, already laden with the challenge of raising profoundly disordered children, who lived for years under the dehumanizing shadow of professionally promoted “mother blame.” Once isolated and unheard, these mothers have emerged with strong, resilient voices to share the details of their personal journeys. Through their poignant stories, Refrigerator Mothers puts a human face on what can happen when authority goes unquestioned and humanity is removed from the search for scientific answers. |
Inside Mecca
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Release Year: 2003 Duration: 61 min
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National Geographic presents an intimate and three-dimensional documentation of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca and sheds light on the universal principles of Islam during the days of the Hajj. Learn the historical significance of the city to Muslim and non-Muslim populations alike. And, experience the epic journey of a lifetime, the Hajj, as we witness the personal stories of the pilgrims and the mental preparation, physical strain and spiritual ecstasy they encounter on their life-altering pilgrimage of faith. |
Inside John Lennon
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Release Year: 2003 Duration: 80 min
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This unauthorized look at John Lennon’s life and career is a fascinating artifact on the former Beatle. Interviews with those closest to Lennon are featured, including family members, and footage of the man himself. In-depth and revealing, INSIDE JOHN LENNON provides a welter of detail on the now sadly deceased rock legend. Personal note: I had a private interview with John Lennon and Yoko in their hotel room in Toronto, Canada in the early 70s and, although I wasn't a Beatles fan, he impressed me greatly. He was gentle, gracious and as sincere a human being as I have ever met--and he loved Yoko unbelievably. |
Basketball Diplomacy from Mao to Yao
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Release Year: 2003 Duration: 45 min
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National Geographic host Lisa Ling
journeys to Houston, where she gets to
know NBA star, Yao Ming, the affable,
intelligent 22-year-old known as “The
Great Wall.” Then she travels to
Shanghai to better understand the unique
blend of globalization and cultural
exchange that brought this talented
center to American basketball and
American basketball to the Chinese
people. |
A PUG'S LIFE
Release Year: 2006
Duration: 45 min
Availability: Worldwide
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A PUG’S LIFE-
The “Dogumentary” is a fast and fun
filled 45 minute film by award winning
filmmakers Marilyn and Chuck Braverman.
The “Dogumentary” covers pugs and their
owners in California, New York, and
London. Frank, the pug star in “Men In
Black,” is featured along with his
trainers who tell us about pug training
and what it takes to be a star in the
world of Hollywood films. Lexi is a pug
owned by a precocious nine year old girl
who with her parents have taken their
fawn around the world. The dog show
scene is filmed featuring world renowned
pug breeder Blanche Roberts and her
award winning dogs. We learn some her
show winning secrets and hear about
importing pug semen from Sweden to breed
the best dogs. “Ices” is the prize #####
stolen out of a handlers trailer during
a dog show and the “Dogumentary” tells
the dramatic rescue story.
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NEW ENGLAND HOCKEY: LIFE AT THE RINK
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Release Year: 2006 Duration: 100 min Availability: Worldwide Winters in New England are long, dark and very cold; and for most New Englanders, the one thing that keeps them going is a sport that has roots deeper than any other - Hockey. NEW ENGLAND HOCKEY: A LIFE AT THE RINK is a look into the very close knit world; a world that is connected by family, tradition and passion. From the toddlers learning to skate for the first time at Pilgrim Ice Arena in Hingham to Mike O’Connell, General Manager of the Boston Bruins, everyone who shares in the sport of hockey is incredibly linked. a life at the rink begins with youth trying on their first pair of skates and ends with hockey has-beens living for one last game with the guys. It is a world that continues to both feed itself and the NHL with wonderful characters and talent. Up in Milton Massachusetts, a father balances fatherhood with coaching while his 11 year old son continues a family hockey tradition. A tradition similar to that of Situate Massachusetts natives, twin Brothers Mike & Joe Devin, where as Captains of the Catholic Memorial Varsity ice hockey team they are on target for yet another state title. The twins also learned to skate at Pilgrim Arena at age 4 and are both now committed to Cornell for next year. Yet they wait for this year’s NHL draft where they’ll see if they’ll get the opportunity, like so many others before them, to get cheered in the Garden, like another Situate Massachusetts native, Ted Donato. A local hockey hero, former Boston Bruin, and current Harvard Hockey Head coach, Donato looks to lead his alma mater back to Beanpot Glory. Finally, at the TD Banknorth Garden, by folks like 47 year old Paula Mattaliano, a 4’11” dynamo who leads section 307, a never say die faithful who, because of a love for the Bruins have become life-long friends, and a friendship that is stronger than their shared love for the Black and Gold jerseys of there beloved Boston Bruins. This is an intimate look from the cradle to the grave of what Boston Hockey looks and feels like. In New England, Hockey is what you do and the rink is where you live.
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IS IT REAL? DA VINCI'S CODE
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Release Year: 2006 Duration: 47 min
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It’s a tale of secret societies, murderous conspiracies and shocking revelations. But is there any historical truth behind the wildly popular novel The Da Vinci Code? Did Jesus and Mary Magdalene marry and have children, producing descendants that walk among us today? Did a furtive cult form to protect “the bloodline of Christ,” and did Leonardo Da Vinci hide clues about it in his best-known paintings? National Geographic takes you around the globe in a search for the reality behind on of the most controversial bestsellers. |
THE YUNNAN GREAT RIVER EXPEDITIONS
Release Year: 2003
Duration: 46 min
In a remote corner of Southwest China, three of Asia’s greatest rivers plunge off the Tibetan Plateau through steep canyons in the Himalayas thousands of feet deep. This stunningly beautiful film captures the incredible journey of a whitewater expedition, as it explores the upper Mekong, Salween and Yangtze rivers. More than a wild adventure, the two-month expedition was an ambitious partnership with the Nature Conservancy and the Chinese government to help protect one of the most biodiverse and culturally diverse regions in the world.
From the Mekong River’s hidden
Moon Gorge in the Himalayas to the towering canyon walls of
the Yangtze River’s Great Bend, an odyssey of exploration
and adventure and environmental activism.
CHRISTOPHER REEVE: HOPE IN MOTION
Release Year: 2007
Duration: 102 min
Christopher Reeve was the embodiment of Superman and, in fact, played this comic book character in film. His passion, unfortunately, was horseback riding, especially jumpers, and that led to a tragic accident which would initiate a crusade for research in spinal cord injury. The whole matter of stem cell research was called into question and Reeve paved the way along with his brave wife and children.
SHAOLIN ULYSSES: KUNGFU MONKS IN AMERICA
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Release Year: 2008 Duration: 54 min
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The famous fighting monks of China’s ancient Shaolin Temple have seen a resurgence in recent years – aided in part by popular movies and music – that has taken them throughout the world. The documentary Shaolin Ulysses follows the odyssey of a group of five Shaolin kungfu monks who came as immigrants to America during the 1990s. Their stories are as individual and varied as they are. All were Buddhist monks and kungfu stars at the famous Shaolin Monastery – the birthplace of Zen Buddhism and kungfu – but each has made a pilgrimage to America in search of something different. From Vegas shows to Olympic dreams to temples in Flushing, Queens, the film explores the cultural interface of Shaolin kungfu, Zen Buddhism, and America. Obliquely it poses the question, will Shaolin change America, or will America change Shaolin? |
DEEPER THAN Y
Release Year: 2007
Duration: 60 min
Availability: Worldwide
So, what's with women? What do they really want, what can they really do? Watch one woman's story in this documentary.
CHINA'S LOST GIRLS
Release Year: 2005
Duration: 43 min
National Geographic host Lisa Ling examines the
consequences of China’s two-decade-old, ‘’one child policy’’ designed to
curb the country’s exploding population. Due to cultural, social and
economic factors, traditional preference leans toward boys, so girls are
often hidden, aborted, or abandoned. As a result, tens of thousands of
girls end up in orphanages across China. Today, more than one quarter of
all babies adopted from abroad by American families come from China—and
nearly all are girls. Ling joins some of these families as they travel
to China to meet their new daughters for the first time. Along this
emotional journey, she shares in the joy of these growing families and
also witnesses firsthand China’s gender gap, its roots, and its possible
repercussions.
PETER JENNINGS REPORTING FROM THE TOBACCO FILE
Tobacco is still the number one killer in our nation. But as Peter Jennings reveals in this examination of the “tobacco wars,” the responsibility lies not only with tobacco companies but also with the government and prominent public health advocates who squandered an historic opportunity to settle with the industry, regulate tobacco, and save millions of lives.
PETER JENNIGS REPORTING: FROM THE TOBACCO FILE: STORIES OF BETRAYAL AND NEGLECT tells the story of a rare chance to reign in big tobacco at a time when the industry was under siege from government officials who wanted to regulate it and state Attorneys General who were suing it.
FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBERS
Release Year: 2005
Duration: 47 min
From Russia to Sri Lanka to the Middle East, women are increasingly turning their bodies into bombs, blowing up markets, schools and even jetliners. Who are these women and why are they dying to kill? Lisa Ling journeys to the war-torn streets of Chechnya and Israel’s occupied territories for an intense and moving look at the line where hopelessness begets rage, murder fuels martyrdom and women are increasingly dying to kill. National Geographic take a look at the latest group of suicide bombers; women.
DREAM IN DOUBT
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Release Year: 2008
Duration: 60 min
Availability:
(Excerpt from film site) "The film features Rana Sodhi, an Indian immigrant whose life is forever altered by the 9/11 terror attacks, not because he knew someone who died in the rubble, but because Rana’s turban and beard now symbolize America’s new enemy. Rana’s eldest brother was America’s first post-9/11 hate crime murder victim, and other attacks on Sikhs close to Rana soon follow.
IT'S NOT ABOUT SEX
Release Year: 2007
Duration: 8 min
Availability: Worldwide
This new Documentary Workshop release, It’s Not About Sex, takes a fresh look at the prevalence of sexual assault in our contemporary society. Shocked by the statistic that more than half of all rapes happen to people under 18, student producers search for the roots of the violence.
BRIGHT COLLEGE YEARS: SIXTIES LEGACY SERIES
Release Year: 1972
Duration: 120 min
Availability: Worldwide
Feature length documentary on the student
revolution in this “Sixties Legacy” series. Joseph E. Levine, Avco-Embassy
Motion Pictures. Gold Hugo, Chicago Film Festival, 1972
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best First-Feature Film, 1972
THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK
Release Year: 1984
Duration: 88 min
Availability:
The Times of Harvey Milk charts the political
rise and assassination of the first openly gay city official in the
United State, Harvey Milk. In the election that brings Milk to the board
of city supervisors, the people of San Francisco also elect his killer,
a former police officer and fireman named Dan White. After White shoots
both Mayor George Moscone and Milk, his defense lawyers convince the
jury that White was addled by depression and junk-food, resulting in a
conviction for manslaughter rather than murder. This Oscar-winning
documentary depicts not only Milk himself, but also the political and
social milieu in which he lived.
ASHRAY
Release Year: 2006
Duration: 6 min
Availability: Worldwide
Ashray, one of the project organizations that makes up the Committed Communities Development Trust, is Bombay’s first home for children who have either been infected or affected by HIV. The children at Ashray are there because their parents are unable to provide for them and often are very sick or have passed away. Ashray does not do any mandatory testing on any of the children. None of the over fifty children nor the staff know which youth are infected with the virus.
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A NOMAD'S LIFE
A young Tibetan family questions whether their nomadic traditions can survive against the challenges of a rapidly modernizing world.
ALIENATED: UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT YOUTH
In Alienated, we meet Licia, a determined young
woman from St. Vincent who commutes from Brooklyn to New Jersey to work
as a nanny for $4 an hour. Meanwhile, anti-immigrant groups rally around
lobbying efforts that seek to impose ever harsher policies and to
“protect our borders.” Through interviews with individuals on both sides
of the immigration debate, Alienated examines what it means to be young,
able and “illegal” in America.
WORKINGMAN'S DEATH
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WORKINGMAN’S DEATH is an unflinching
portrait of the state of manual labor in
the 21st century. In the Ukraine, a
group of men spend long days crawling
through cramped shafts of illegal coal
mines. Sulfur gatherers in Indonesia
brave
the smoky heat of an active volcano and
the treacherous trip back down. Blood,
fire and stench are routine for workers
at a crowded open-air slaughterhouse in
Nigeria. Pakistani men use little more
than their bare hands to dismantle an
abandoned oil tanker for scrap metal.
Steelworkers in China fear they could be
a dying breed. Today’s manual laborers
are no longer celebrated with hymns of
praise.
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THE RAPE OF NANKING
A powerful, emotional and relevant reminder of the heartbreaking toll war takes on the innocent, Nanking tells the story of the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China, in the early days of World War II. As part of a campaign to conquer all of China, the Japanese subjected Nanking – which was then China’s capital – to months of aerial bombardment, and when the city fell, the Japanese army unleashed murder and rape on a horrifying scale. In the midst of the rampage, a small group of Westerners banded together to establish a Safety Zone where over 200,000 Chinese found refuge. Unarmed, these missionaries, university professors, doctors and businessmen – including a Nazi named John Rabe – bore witness to the events, while risking their own lives to protect civilians from slaughter.
The story is told through deeply moving interviews with Chinese survivors, chilling archival footage and photos of the events, and testimonies of former Japanese soldiers. At the heart of Nanking is a filmed stage reading of the Westerners’ letters and diaries, featuring Woody Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway and Jurgen Prochnow. Through its interweave of archival images, testimonies of survivors, and readings of first hand accounts, the film puts the viewer on the streets of Nanking and brings the forgotten past to startling life.
Nanking is a testament to the courage and conviction of individuals who were determined to act in the face of evil and a powerful tribute to the resilience of the Chinese people – a gripping account of light in the darkest of times.
KICKING IT
In the summer of 2006, while the football world’s attention was focused on Germany, thousands of players around the globe were training hard and competing to be part of another World Cup ... The Homeless World Cup. It had been a wild idea by a Scot and an Austrian—to give homeless people a chance to change their lives through an international street soccer competition.Five years later, the annual Homeless World Cup had become an internationally recognized sports competition. 500 homeless players from 48 nations would ultimately be selected to represent their country in Cape Town, South Africa - coming from such disparate parts of the world as war torn Afghanistan, the slums of Kenya, the drug rehab clinics of Dublin, Ireland, the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina, the overflowing public shelters of Madrid, Spain, and the unforgiving city of St. Petersburg, Russia, where the homeless have no rights or identity. Win or lose, for these players it would be the journey of a lifetime.
Design: e2 - China: From Red to Green
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Release Year: 2006 Duration: 60 min
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The series moves to China, whose soaring population and rapid industrialization have created a boom in urbanization that is unprecedented in human history. In an attempt to tackle this global issue, the episode explores design solutions in both theory and practice, including Steven Holl’s Linked Hybrid Project, which when completed will be the largest residential, geothermal heating/cooling and greywater recycling system in the world. Also featured is architect, designer and winner of three U.S. Presidential Awards William McDonough. Recognized by Time magazine as “Hero of the Planet,” McDonough talks about his innovative plans to make China an entirely sustainable country and how it will demonstrate the ways architecture can be both profitable and environmentally intelligent. |
Chahinaz: What Rights for Women?
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Release Year: 2007 Duration: 53 min
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Chahinaz, a 20 year-old student in Algeria, has mixed feelings about the Western world and its values, but she admires the freedom of Western women. Through her curiosity and voyage of self-discovery, Chahinaz begins to wonder what life is like for women in other Muslim countries and around the world and why things are slow to change in Algeria. |
Iranian Kidney Bargain Sale
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Release Year: 2007 Duration: 52 min
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With an official kidney referral agency as the backdrop, IRANIAN KIDNEY BARGAIN SALE follows young Iranians through the organ trade process: from their first encounter to surgery and kidney removal. A co-production of Hysteria Film AB and the ITVS International Media Development Fund |
Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa
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Release Year: 2007 Duration: 64 min Availability: Worldwide Twenty-five miles from town, a million miles from mainstream society, a loose-knit community of eco-pioneers, teenage runaways, war veterans and drop-outs, live on the fringe and off the grid, struggling to survive with little food, less water and no electricity, as they cling to their unique vision of the American dream… |
9/12: From Chaos to Community
Jewels of the Caribbean Sea
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Release Year: 2008 Duration: 55 min Availability: Worldwide Tour the depths of the Caribbean Sea. In waters famed for hidden treasures, another kind of wealth lies in abundance. Witness an array of brightly colored, exotic creatures. |
The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg
Release Year: 1994
Duration: 82 min
Availability:
Visionary, radical, spiritual seeker, renowned poet, founding member of a major literary movement, champion of human rights, Buddhist, political activist and teacher-- Allen Ginsberg’s remarkable life challenged the very soul of America. For 25 years, Academy Award-nominated director Jerry Aronson accumulated more than 120 hours of film on Allen Ginsberg, resulting in this comprehensive and invaluable portrait of one of America’s greatest poets, author of HOWL and other ground-breaking poems. The DVD includes exclusive and revealing interviews with his friends, family and contemporaries, as well as never before seen materials made public because of the warm friendship that developed between Ginsberg and the filmmaker. This deluxe edition contains the Director’s Cut of the award-winning documentary that began filming in 1982 and is now complete, updated and re-mastered. Also included are many new interviews with the latest generation of artists influenced by Ginsberg. This compilation reveals the last 60 years of American culture beginning with the Beat era in the post war Forties and Fifties, continuing through the revolutionary Sixties and concluding with both the uncertainty and possibility of current times.
The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance - Birth of a Dynasty
Release Year: 2004
Duration: 60 min
Availability:
Europe, 1400: A continent torn apart by war and plague is dominated by the authority of the Catholic Church. In the towns and cities live merchants and entrepreneurs who sense that their world is changing. With increasing trade and wealth an appetite for enlightenment develops. No longer neglected in the shadows of the Church, classical philosophy, poetry, art and sculpture begin to reach a new audience. This is especially true in cosmopolitan cities like Florence, home of Cosimo de’Medici.
Dreams on Spec
Release Year: 2007
Duration: 86 min
Availability: Worldwide
Every year screenwriters finish tens of thousands
of scripts, but only a few hundred are made into
movies..
DREAMS ON SPEC takes an intimate look at how far
people will go - and how much they will sacrifice -
for the chance to pursue their dreams. This
feature-length documentary delves into the lives of
three aspiring Hollywood screenwriters as they pour
their hearts into their spec scripts, pitch their
ideas to anyone who will listen, go to meetings,
hold table reads, and work at low-level day-jobs in
the hopes of one day seeing one of their beloved
creations made into a movie.
Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire - The Way of the Samurai
Release Year: 2005
Duration: 60 min
Availability:
In the early 16th century, Japan is a warlike society ruled by samurai and their daimyo warlords. When Portuguese merchants arrive in 1543, they are the first Europeans to set foot in Japan. Missionaries quickly set out to convert the nation to Christianity. In the same year, a samurai boy named Tokugawa Ieyasu is born to a low ranking daimyo family.
Deadly Passion
Release Year: 2004
Duration: 34 min
Availability: Worldwide
DEADLY PASSION: TRAGEDY IN KATMAI investigates the fatal bear maulings of bear activist Timothy Treadwell and his companion Annie Huguenard that occurred in October 2003 in Katmai National Park, Alaska. This story unfolded in newspapers and magazines across the globe, reporting Treadwell’s passion for bears, delving into details of Treadwell’s life and outlining the personal cause that ultimately led to his death. However, the details of the story are a source of ongoing controversy and spans issues of bear-human relations that are far greater than the incident itself. DEADLY PASSION examines this tragic event within this context.
A Century of Black Cinema
Release Year: 1997
Duration: 120 min
Availability:
A 90-minute special celebrating the finest African-American entertainers ever to grace the silver screen featuring performances from PORGY AND BESS, LILIES OF THE FIELD, GONE WITH THE WIND, COTTON COMES TO HARLEM, WAITING TO EXHALE and many more.
“A CENTURY OF BLACK CINEMA celebrates the finest Black entertainers ever to grace the silver screen. This absorbing program takes you on an illuminating journey through the careers of the fortunate, the unfortunate, the ground- breakers, the spectacular, the musical, and the comical performers who have inspired millions of people since the first cameras rolled. Enjoy rare film footage ranging from turn-of-the-century independent director OSCAR MICHEAUX to modern day filmmaker, SPIKE LEE. The program features brilliant performances from scenes of PORGY AND BESS, LILIES OF THE FIELD, GONE WITH THE WIND, COTTON COMES TO HARLEM, WAITING TO EXHALE, to name a few, and priceless behind-the-scenes takes with RICHARD PRYOR, SIDNEY POITIER, and JAMES EARL JONES. A CENTURY OF BLACK CINEMA also includes interviews with superstars such as EDDIE MURPHY, WHOOPI GOLDBERG, DENZEL WASHINGTON, LAURENCE FISHBURNE, DANNY GLOVER and FAYARD NICHOLAS of “The Nicholas Brothers”, and the list continues.”