NYC PREMIERE The residents of a dying Colorado mining town pin their hopes for economic resurgence on the promise of a new uranium mill—the first to be built in three decades—even as they continue to feel the dangerous effects of the last uranium boom. In the face of legal injunctions by environmental activists from a […]
The never-broadcast prologue to Oliver Stone’s epic, ten-hour Showtime series The Untold History of the United States (“I cannot recommend it highly enough,” enthused The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald) deepens the provocative filmmaker’s exploration of how the United States became an empire. Focusing on events in the lead-up to World War II, this two-hour segment applies […]
NYC PREMIERE Though raised in a Modern Orthodox Jewish New Jersey household, director Anna Wexler rejected religion as a teen, finding friends with similar backgrounds. After they studied in Israel, however, these once-rebellious friends re-committed to their faith, puzzling her in the process. Teaming with Nadja Oertelt, who was raised secular, Anna follows three diverse […]
NYC PREMIERE Nearly 40 years ago, a California law stipulated that furniture manufacturers make their products non-flammable to curb the damage of house fires. Because of the state’s large market share, products containing chemical flame retardants have since spread to the rest of the US and Canada. But do these flame retardants actually work, or […]
NYC PREMIERE An unexpected consequence of the 2008 presidential election, the Tea Party emerged as an ostensibly grassroots conservative political movement focused on limiting government and a political force with which to be reckoned, as demonstrated by the midterm elections. With restraint and candor, Town Hall takes an impartial but pointed look at two impassioned Pennsylvania […]
NYC PREMIERE Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s observational film is a stunningly shot sensory immersion into the Grand Magaal, an annual Muslim pilgrimage which finds a million Sufis traveling to the holy Senagalese city of Touba to honor their ancestral leader and his code of non-violence. The three-day spectacle presents a unique and essential look at Islam—one […]
NYC PREMIERE A couple sets out to construct a livable 130-square foot house—no bigger than a standard parking space—part of a growing movement that is conscious of our environmental impact and rethinks our need for more and more stuff. As their small project slowly takes shape, they—and other tiny-structure dwellers—reflect on sustainable design, material culture […]
US PREMIERE After a celebrated theatrical run in Japan, Things Left Behind makes its US debut, exploring the transformative power of “ひろしまhiroshima,” the first major international art exhibit devoted to the atomic bomb. Renowned Japanese photographer Ishiuchi Miyako staged this exhibit of large-format color photographs of clothing once worn by those who perished. “The film […]
NYC PREMIERE In The Unknown Known, Academy Award-winning director Errol Morris (The Fog of War) offers a mesmerizing portrait of Donald Rumsfeld, the former Secretary of Defense whose career will cast a long shadow over the 21st century. Over multiple interviews, Rumsfeld and Morris engage in a verbal duel over recent history and even the […]
US PREMIERE Drawing from Che Guevara’s personal journals, his correspondence with family and friends, and the testimony of people who knew him best, this documentary focuses on Che’s second journey across Latin America in 1952 and 1953. Retracing his itinerary and the highs and lows of his voyage up to his history-making meeting with Fidel […]