NYC PREMIERE In Elkhart, Indiana, 16-year old Blake Layman attempts to rob a home, only to see his friend and accomplice, Danzele, lose his life to the homeowner’s gun. Even though Blake did not pull the trigger, he faces a 55-year prison sentence under the felony murder rule. Directors Katie Green and Carlye Rubin chart […]
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 […]
NYC PREMIERE In confrontations between law enforcement and the mentally ill, the consequences are often traumatic, if not deadly. Recognizing that police officers are frequently the first responders to incidents involving people with mental illness, the San Antonio Police Department has developed an innovative mental health unit to divert the mentally ill away from jail and […]
WORLD PREMIERE The cost of college is forcing students to make choices that put eating regular meals and their education at odds. Director Geeta Gandbhir and executive producer Soledad O’Brien’s poignant film follows four college students as they navigate food insecurity in their attempt to change their lives for the better. Homelessness, abandonment and mental […]
NYC PREMIERE Taimaa and Nour are two pregnant Syrian refugees who find themselves navigating fresh marriages as they each enter motherhood while held in temporary camps. Competing with thousands of other refugees in Greece for resources, Taimaa and Nour find that parenting comes easier than either bureaucratic answers or marital bliss. Both women make desperate […]
NYC PREMIERE Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s latest film is a timely look at the deep roots of systemic inequalities that have made possible the ever-widening income gap that threatens the fabric of our democracy. Cultural critics, academics and other notables explore the gendered nature of core American values—with “masculine” traits like individualism, power and money prioritized over […]
WORLD PREMIERE Veteran educator Peter Bergson established the Natural Creativity Center on the outskirts of Philadelphia to offer an alternative to dehumanizing formal education. His unconventional method of “unschooling” favors self-motivation, empowering students to direct their own learning. After 30 years of success with suburban children, Bergson finds his philosophy and methods—and the assumptions they […]
WORLD PREMIERE Operation Infektion is a New York Times Opinion documentary that begins in the Soviet Union in 1959, when one of the world’s greatest disinformation engines was born. By way of animation and riveting interviews with Soviet disinformation agents, the series reverse-engineers the KGB playbook that concocted viral lies in a pre-Internet era. The film pulls […]
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE Alicia has been in the care of the Netherlands Child Welfare Bureau since she was one year old. Rejected, constantly moved and desperate for her mother’s affection, the child grows up in front of the viewer’s eyes in this raw and powerful portrait of institutionalized childhood. A gem of observational cinema, at […]
NYC PREMIERE As unthinkable as it may seem, under the right conditions, anyone could be compelled to make a false confession to a crime they have not committed. Ordinary individuals, innocent but vulnerable to manipulative—and surprisingly legal—police interrogation techniques, regularly fall prey to this fate. Dogged defense attorney Jane Fisher-Byrialsen wants to put a stop […]