NYC PREMIERE The Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma has a hard-hitting news outlet, Mvskoke Media, but reporter Angel Ellis has watched with concern as free press within her community becomes increasingly fragile. When she strives to expose corruption in her government, she runs headlong into censorship and threats, in a battle that has wide-ranging implications. – Jaie […]
Intertwining two nail-biting stories of dangerous escape attempts from North Korea, BEYOND UTOPIA shows us the reality of life in one of the most repressive totalitarian countries on Earth. Filmmaker Madeleine Gavin takes us on a harrowing journey, crosscutting between jaw-dropping cellphone video, and anguished cellphone audio, as she examines the high-stakes operation of an […]
Bobi Wine, a popular Afrobeats musician, directs his charisma to politics as he runs for office as Uganda’s presidential opposition candidate, challenging longtime leader Yoweri Museveni. The film unfolds like a thriller as Wine faces a brutal pushback. “It’s a gripping piece of film-making: a propulsive, kinetic account of a grassroots campaign captured at what […]
The term “intersex” covers a broad range of people who are born with reproductive anatomy that doesn’t easily fit the categories of male or female. Often their stories have been shrouded in mystery and shame by the medical establishment and media. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Julie Cohen (RBG) captures a new generation of intersex people who are […]
Nikki Giovanni is a trailblazing poet who rose to be a key figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and remains just as vibrant today. Filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson capture her artistry and spiky personality in this warm portrait. “She is a vibrant, prickly, unpredictable presence in both private and public […]
When Russia escalated its war against Ukraine in 2022, Polish director Maciek Hamela bought a van and volunteered to drive Ukrainian refugees – mostly women and children – on their quest to escape. From his passenger seat we meet the vanloads of people forced to leave everything behind. Today, as the war stretches on, it’s […]
From the film’s opening monologue about a sex worker wrestling with a client over a gun, KOKOMO CITY is riveting. Filmmaker D. Smith makes a stellar debut as director, cinematographer, editor, and composer as she profiles four Black transgender sex workers in New York City and Atlanta. The women are raw and hilarious as they […]
One of the greatest injustices ever committed on North American soil is examined in sweeping historical detail by filmmakers Jesse Shortbull and Laura Tomaselli. As American settlers moved west, the U.S. government signed treaty after treaty with Lakota and other Indigenous tribes, only to continually break their legal and moral commitments with complete impunity. As […]
Lisa Cortés’ Sundance opening night documentary tells the story of the Black queer origins of rock ‘n’ roll, exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator – the originator – Richard Penniman. Through a wealth of archive and performance that brings us into Richard’s complicated inner world, the film unspools the […]
Lawand is a deaf 5-year-old boy from Iraq whose extraordinary family goes to great lengths to move to England and enroll him at the Royal School for the Deaf Derby. There, he learns British Sign Language (BSL) and begins to blossom. But will the British government allow Lawand to stay and continue his education? Filmmaker […]