NYC PREMIERE The residents of a dying Colorado mining town pin their hopes for economic resurgence on the promise of a new uranium mill—the first to be built in three decades—even as they continue to feel the dangerous effects of the last uranium boom. In the face of legal injunctions by environmental activists from a […]
NYC PREMIERE Nearly 40 years ago, a California law stipulated that furniture manufacturers make their products non-flammable to curb the damage of house fires. Because of the state’s large market share, products containing chemical flame retardants have since spread to the rest of the US and Canada. But do these flame retardants actually work, or […]
NYC PREMIERE An unexpected consequence of the 2008 presidential election, the Tea Party emerged as an ostensibly grassroots conservative political movement focused on limiting government and a political force with which to be reckoned, as demonstrated by the midterm elections. With restraint and candor, Town Hall takes an impartial but pointed look at two impassioned Pennsylvania […]
NYC PREMIERE Kathleen Hanna, known to many as the lead singer of seminal bands Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, was one of the music world’s most outspoken performers and a pioneer of the riot grrrl movement—until she inexplicably vanished from the scene for several years. Sini Anderson’s candid and intimate portrait reveals why, while also […]
NYC PREMIERE This funny and sometimes bizarre exploration of the Icelandic Phallological Museum shows a very different side to penis envy. Siggi, the museum’s curator, has spent decades collecting every mammal’s member save one— the human’s. Enter Páll, a now-ancient legendary Icelandic adventurer and lothario, willing to donate his upon death; and Tom, an oddball […]
Set in the world of extreme sports, The Crash Reel follows one of its heroes, the snowboarder Kevin Pearce, who’s forced to reflect on the dangers inherent in his passion. Just before the 2010 Olympics, where he was expected to be the chief rival to gold medalist Shaun White, Pearce suffered a horrific accident during […]
US PREMIERE In a culture that has overwhelmingly embraced the dictum “sex sells,” why does the concept of virginity still hold sway? Using her own experiences, filmmaker Therese Shechter humorously explores the chimerical nature of the idea, and how it’s been used to control women’s sexuality and sense of self-worth. The result, drawing from the […]
NYC PREMIERE After Nina Leichter committed suicide, her daughter, Kathy, returned to the New York City apartment in which she was raised and found a hidden box of audiotapes. Nearly two decades later, she is finally ready to listen to the messages her mother left behind, which provide frank insight into a strong and beloved […]
Shot over the course of five years, First Cousin Once Removed is Alan Berliner’s intimate portrait of his cousin, friend and former mentor—the poet, translator, and teacher, Edwin Honig—and his journey through the ravages of memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease. It is an unflinching and beautiful essay on the fragility of being human, hailed by […]
NYC PREMIERE Bypassing the breastmilk vs. formula debate, Dana Ben-Ari’s film instead looks at the practical, societal, and biological realities faced by women who choose to breastfeed. Why are so few nursing mothers able to breastfeed exclusively? What has made a natural biological act into a taboo public activity? Where can an adoptive mother turn […]