Popularly known as the “high priestess of soul,” Nina Simone was a singular talent. A classically trained pianist whose Carnegie Hall aspirations were thwarted by the prevailing prejudices of the 1950s, she instead triumphed with a singing career that blended gospel, pop and folk with classical music and songs that made her a civil rights […]
Winner of the People’s Choice Documentary Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, Winter on Fire supplies a visceral, in-depth look at the bloody Ukrainian uprising in 2013-14 that led to the overthrow of President Yanukovych. Filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky makes the complicated politics approachable with vibrant characters, brisk pacing and well-deployed graphics. He uses multiple […]
Against a backdrop of civil unrest and the radical transformation of American society in the mid-1960s, the black nationalist organization known as the Black Panthers emerged as leaders of the expected revolution. Interweaving fascinating archival material with gripping first-hand accounts from members of the group’s rank and file, director Stanley Nelson’s definitive history reveals the […]
NYC PREMIERE A South Bronx community takes a stand against gentrification. This plays before the film TESTED.
WORLD PREMIERE Inspired by militant black leaders like Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael, a new, radicalized generation of civil rights activists made up of young college students, Vietnam vets, musicians, and intellectuals emerged in Memphis in 1967. The Invaders espoused Black Power and, when pushed, did not limit themselves to non-violence. Prichard Smith uncovers the […]
NYC PREMIERE When Latina immigrants checked into Los Angeles County hospital to give birth in the 1960s and ’70s, the last thing they expected was to leave sterilized. Was there informed consent, as the physicians who performed the procedures maintain, or was this part of an insidious, racially motivated plan to limit the population of […]
NYC PREMIERE “I want to tell people how I became this woman with razor blades between her teeth.” So says Sonia Sanchez, a seminal figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, a poet who has harnessed her gift for words as a champion against racism, sexism and war, fusing art and activism over the past […]
NYC PREMIERE From filmmaker and cancer survivor Meghan O’Hara (producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine and Sicko), comes a daring and intimate film that seeks to change the way we think about cancer. O’Hara investigates the connection between the current cancer epidemic and our western lifestyle, including medical professionals’ tendency to treat only the symptoms and not the underlying […]
WORLD PREMIERE When the federal government bans a chemical, deeming it harmful to the well-being of its citizens, few know that they actively encourage the manufacturer to export it abroad for profit. Evan Mascagni and Shannon Post’s pointed exposé reveals this disturbing practice, focusing on the global trade in banned pesticides, their devastating environmental and […]
A portrait of art used as a revolutionary weapon. This film is followed by, THE INVADERS