EXTRA CREDIT
An after school improv class gives two teenagers much needed extra credit; it will also give them the chance to create new characters for themselves, onstage and off.
Education
INSIGHT
InSight sheds light on the stunning extra-sensory abilities manifest in children who practice a groundbreaking meditation technique taught at a holistic medical center in Bogotá, Colombia. Santiago Aviles teaches Extra Ocular Vision (EOV) which creates new synaptic connections and re-wires the brain. It enables individuals to enhance their creative output, foster mindfulness, and become more […]
6 WEEKS TO MOTHER’S DAY
WORLD PREMIERE Nestled in a remote jungle in Thailand is a unique school that is home for 150 underprivileged and orphaned children. The students of the democratic Children’s Village have as much voice as their teachers, participating in council meetings to make key decisions about their education and community, gaining empowerment in the process. As […]
ASK THE SEXPERT
NYC PREMIERE Dr. Mahinder Watsa, a 93-year-old retired gynecologist, is India’s foremost ‘sexpert.’ His daily newspaper column in the Mumbai Mirror dispenses practical, often humorous advice in response to some common and sometimes decidedly unusual questions about sex. Despite his popularity, Dr. Watsa is not without critics, who accuse him of contributing to the decline […]
FAIL STATE
NYC PREMIERE Executive produced by Dan Rather, Fail State explores the dark side of higher education in America, focusing on the rise of for-profit colleges. Echoing the subprime mortgage crisis, these private institutions target lower-income and minority students, who become saddled with student loan debt and, often, worthless degrees. Director Alex Shebanow traces the historical […]
THE GROWING SEASON
WORLD PREMIERE Seattle’s Providence Mount St. Vincent is a nursing home that also houses the Intergenerational Learning Center, a preschool program. Over the course of a school year, elderly Mount residents regularly interact with young children over various activities. As relationships develop between those at the end of their lives and others at the beginning […]
STEP
For her feature debut, a rousing film about young women striving for success, Tony Award-winning producer Amanda Lipitz received a Sundance Film Festival special jury award. Step focuses on three high-school seniors in the inaugural class of the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women, whose mandate is to send every student to college. Taking inspiration […]
AGENTS OF CHANGE
NYC PREMIERE As students of color began arriving on college campuses in unprecedented numbers in the late 1960s, they found institutions ill-prepared to adapt to diversity. Unwilling to accept the absence of their unique cultures and histories, or to ignore prejudicial treatment, students mobilized for black and ethnic-studies programs, even taking up arms when necessary. […]
THE HUNTING GROUND
Having previously investigated rape in the military in the Oscar-nominated The Invisible War, Kirby Dick turns his attention to another insidious bastion of sexual assaults: the college campus. While 20 percent of female college students experience sexual violence, few report the crime, and their perpetrators typically suffer no consequences. The Hunting Ground lays bare the […]
HE NAMED ME MALALA
Malala Yousafzai gained world attention at age 15 when she spoke out for girls’ education from her home in Pakistan’s Swat Valley and survived being shot in the head by Taliban militants. Oscar-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) gives a close-up portrait of this strong-willed teenager and her family. The title’s “he” refers to […]