NYC PREMIERE In 2013 artist Ai Weiwei and curator Cheryl Haines created an interactive art installation on San Francisco’s Alcatraz Island. Formerly imprisoned by the Chinese government for his art and political activism, Ai uses his experiences as inspiration. Through a unique combination of kites, Legos and postcards, Ai and Haines pay tribute to prisoners of […]
Artist Alex Da Corte combines personal narrative, art-historical references and television characters to create a contemporary portrait of America in 57 parts.
2019 SHORT LIST: PRODUCING AWARD When Dayton, Ohio’s General Motors plant closed in 2008, thousands of blue-collar workers lost their livelihood in a community hard hit by the recession. Eight years later, a Chinese billionaire opens a new factory on the same site, bringing back jobs and inspiring newfound hope—until Chinese labor practices clash with […]
NYC PREMIERE Though they each came to New York City from different parts of the world, Aber, Shamsi, Kobir, Debbie and Mohamed share a common identity as Muslim Americans. In the age of Trump, they must also confront the reality of heightened Islamophobia. Tracking their experiences from the beginning of the Muslim ban to the Supreme […]
NYC PREMIERE Mo Scarpelli’s creative documentary focuses on a lonely, imaginative Ethiopian boy named Asalif. Displaced by condo developments, Asalif and his mother struggle to make ends meet. With sweeping camera work and light-filled frames, the film gently probes the young boy’s interior world as he processes isolation and displacement. Creating an alternative identity as a […]
2019 SHORT LIST: EDITING AWARD The story of man’s first trip to the moon in 1969 has been told in many versions, but this stunning new documentary, drawing upon never-before-seen NASA footage, brings a level of drama and suspense that makes it feel brand new. Director Todd Douglas Miller uncovered a trove of 65mm footage from the NASA […]
Dr. Ruth Westheimer may be over 90 years old, but she’s lost none of her energy, humor or candor on sexuality. This delightful documentary traces her remarkable life, from being saved as a German Jew by the Kindertransport to training as a sniper with the Jewish paramilitary Haganah. Director Ryan White was on the 2014 […]
In the remote hamlet of Arivat, Nunavut, trace Ataguttak’s coming of age as his elder brother teaches him to hunt caribou.
Bam and Rawls grab a slice.
NYC PREMIERE Director Kenneth Paul Rosenberg exposes the sobering truth behind America’s failure to properly care for the mentally ill over the past half-century. Offering both critical historical context and grounded contemporary profiles of individuals forced to reckon with the ineffectual status quo, from hospital and prison staff to the mentally ill and their families, Bedlam […]