NYC PREMIERE Sonia runs the Okutiuka orphanage in Huambo, Angola’s second largest city, nearly decimated by decades of civil war. Her boyfriend, Wilker, is a death metal guitarist. To raise awareness and funds for the orphanage, the industrious couple organizes the country’s first-ever national rock concert, tapping into the unexpected healing power hardcore music can […]
NYC PREMIERE The Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling lifted a century-long ban on corporate election spending. Academy Award-nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water) track its effects by following the standoff between Wisconsin state employees and Republican Governor Scott Walker, who was bankrolled by billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch. The New […]
NYC PREMIERE Bypassing the breastmilk vs. formula debate, Dana Ben-Ari’s film instead looks at the practical, societal, and biological realities faced by women who choose to breastfeed. Why are so few nursing mothers able to breastfeed exclusively? What has made a natural biological act into a taboo public activity? Where can an adoptive mother turn […]
NYC PREMIERE Linor Abargil is an Israeli beauty contestant who won Miss World. But she was also the victim of a violent stabbing and rape. Director Cecilia Peck (who made Shut Up and Sing with Barbara Kopple) follows Abargil as she speaks out about rape around the world. When her rapist comes up for parole, […]
When Orlando’s SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau was killed by the Orca whale Tilikum, it was reported as a freak accident. Blackfish digs deeper into the story to trace the history of captured Orcas—including Tilikum—who had killed before. This extraordinary investigation uncovers rare video footage obtained through lawsuits and meticulous research. Blackfish deepens our appreciation for […]
NYC PREMIERE What does it mean to be an American revolutionary today? Grace Lee Boggs is a 98-year-old Chinese-American woman in Detroit whose vision of revolution may surprise you. A writer, activist, and philosopher rooted for more than 70 years in the African- American movement, she has devoted her life to an evolving revolution that […]
NYC PREMIERE In 1970, a countercultural caravan left San Francisco to return to nature, ultimately landing in rural Tennessee and establishing The Farm under the guidance of guru Stephen Gaskin. Filmmaker siblings Rena Mundo Croshere and Nadine Mundo were born there, the children of the rocky union between a Beverly Hills Jewish woman and a […]
2013 VIEWFINDERS COMPETITION WINNER NYC PREMIERE “A doc that flips storytelling and Mideast-Arab clichés on their heads, while weaving an irresistible mood of amused melancholy.” (Variety). If Woody Allen made a film about a Palestinian refugee camp, it might come out like A World Not Ours. Director Mahdi Fleifel grew up in the camp of […]
NYC PREMIERE The green burial movement combines the consecration and mourning of the dead with a desire to correct centuries of pollution and exploitation of the environment through the creation of non-toxic, natural burials that also conserve wilderness. Drawing the viewer into an intimate but never macabre experience of death, A Will for the Woods […]
NYC PREMIERE In 2003, it was revealed that New York Times reporter Jayson Blair was a plagiarist, regularly cobbling together his articles from others found on the Internet or otherwise fabricating facts. This precipitated the lowest point in the Grey Lady’s history, leading to an editorial regime change, resignations, and a review of hiring practices. […]