Actress Sonja Sohn was unforgettable in HBO’s The Wire as Detective Kima Greggs. Now she takes on the role of documentary filmmaker to explore contemporary Baltimore. Set in the tense period after Freddie Gray was killed while in police custody, Baltimore Rising follows activists, police officers, community leaders and gang affiliates struggling to hold Baltimore […]
NYC PREMIERE America’s desire for cheaper, more convenient food has fueled the demise of traditional agriculture and the birth of factory farming. Based on the book by Jonathan Safran Foer and produced and narrated by Natalie Portman, this unflinching exposé features hidden-camera footage exposing animal abuse and the toxic conditions under which our food is produced. […]
NYC PREMIERE Wilma Mankiller rose from poverty to become the first female chief of the Cherokee nation. After a forced relocation from her native Oklahoma at 10, Wilma developed her activist chops in turbulent 1960s San Francisco, fighting for land rights during the Alcatraz Occupation. Back with her people, she organized around issues of social and […]
WORLD PREMIERE Award-winning filmmaker Julia Bacha (Budrus) chronicles the remarkable journey of Naila Ayesh, who played a key role in the nonviolent Palestinian uprising known as the First Intifada. When the uprising broke out in the late 1980s, Naila was living in Gaza. Faced with a choice between love, family and freedom, she embraced all […]
WORLD PREMIERE Combining archival footage and interviews with female activists, scientists and scholars in the US and Africa, director Harriet Hirshorn demonstrates the vital role that women activists have played and continue to play in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. An unexpectedly upbeat film about pressing global issues conveyed through intimate, evocative journeys, Nothing Without Us […]
NYC PREMIERE Acclaimed filmmaker Mila Turajlic (Cinema Komunisto) follows the recent troubled history of Serbia through the experiences of her mother, Srbijanka, a tireless dissident against multiple regimes. Over the course of several months, Mila and Srbijanka engage in probing and humorous dialogues over Serbia’s past, present and future. Their country has typically gained more […]
NYC PREMIERE In the mid-1980s, Bruce LaBruce and G. B. Jones, a pair of young Canadians, introduced the world to the burgeoning Toronto queer punk scene through homemade zines and scrappy films. In this pre-Internet era, there was no way of knowing that queercore consisted of just two people. Soon enough, their subversive creation spread […]
US PREMIERE Liberian activist Silas Siakor is a tireless crusader against illegal logging. He’s watched multinational corporations wreak havoc on the environment by enriching themselves and impoverishing Liberians. This kind of corruption has gone on for so long that it can induce fatigue. But Silas is a bracing wake-up call to the power of citizens […]
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE For the past 35 years, biologist Sandra Steingraber has tried to protect people’s health by safeguarding the environment. Branded a ‘toxic avenger’ by Rolling Stone, Steingraber emerges as a leader of New York’s biggest grassroots movement in decades. Shot over the last year of the historic fight against fracking in New York state, […]
WORLD PREMIERE In 1979, Curtis Sliwa, a McDonald’s night manager in the Bronx frustrated with rampant crime, decided to take a stand. Recruiting a diverse crew, and adopting a distinctive uniform of a white t-shirt and red beret, the Guardian Angels were born. Targeting lawlessness on the New York City Subway, the Guardian Angels attracted […]