In an effort to use her tragic story as a catalyst for change, Ana Wagner began advocating for children’s civil rights in New York State. Despite the demands of motherhood, the demands of marriage, cultural oppression, and the haunting memory of her devastating experience, Ana is doing what she once wasn’t able to as a […]
In 2014, the extremist organization Boko Haram kidnapped 276 teenage girls from a town in northeastern Nigeria. Waiting for Hassana is a harrowing first-person account of one girl’s escape from captivity and a heart-wrenching lament for her closest friend Hassana — one of the many girls still unaccounted for.
NYC PREMIERE In 1967, Detroit’s mostly white police department was known for its harsh treatment of black citizens. When police raided an after hours party at the intersection of 12th Street and Clairmount, the streets erupted in what’s been called a riot by some, a rebellion by others. It lasted five days and left 43 […]
Part of our Bring a Friend special – get 2 tickets for the price of 1! US PREMIERE While they were a couple, Steve exposed Attiya to terrifying daily verbal and physical abuse. Twenty years later, they revisit their relationship in an intimate, therapeutic context, walking through the physical — and emotional — spaces they once […]
After Raqqa, Syria, was overtaken by ISIS in 2014, a group of anonymous citizen journalists formed a collective to report the truth of the Syrian conflict to the outside world. With remarkable access, director Matthew Heineman (Cartel Land) presents an intimate and immersive profile of the brave figures involved, revealing what they’ve sacrificed through their […]
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 […]
Director and cinematographer Peter Nicks (The Waiting Room) embeds with the Oakland police force for two years during a time of upheaval. The film covers officers on patrol as well as the chief tasked with overhauling a criticized and demoralized force. We witness the difficult work both on the ground and in the upper echelons […]
US PREMIERE In Palestine’s West Bank, Kholoud Al-Faqih is the first woman judge appointed to any of the Middle East’s Shari’a courts. In this courtroom drama, we witness how she applies the law, sometimes with a different emphasis than her male colleagues. We also see the resistance she faces, along with her male counterpart, a […]
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 […]