NYC PREMIERE American Richard Adams married Australian Tony Sullivan in Boulder, Colorado in 1975, during a brief period when same-sex marriage was legal in that state, and subsequently filed for a green card for Tony. After receiving an explicitly homophobic denial and an order for deportation, the couple filed the first federal lawsuit seeking equality […]
NYC PREMIERE In the fall of 1992, despite efforts to recruit minority students, SUNY Oneonta set off a firestorm of controversy that led to the longest litigated civil-rights case in US history. After an attempted rape of an elderly woman off-campus, school administrators released a list of its black male students to the police. Sean […]
NYC PREMIERE Moved by the plight of desperate women in countries with restrictive reproductive rights, Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts founded Women on Waves, which uses laws governing international waters to bring much-needed abortion and contraceptive services to those with no other recourse. Despite a quagmire of legal, religious, political and logistical obstacles, Gomperts and her […]
WORLD PREMIERE With his execution just 48 hours away, Anthony Porter’s life was saved by a Northwestern University journalism class. Their re-investigation of the crime for which he was convicted—a double homicide in a Chicago park—led to the discovery of the real killer, Alstory Simon, whose confession exonerated Porter. If it all sounds too […]
NYC PREMIERE What makes a good parent? How do you prove you are one, after you’ve been deemed unfit? Having lost custody of their children to Child Protective Services, two parents in New York City and Seattle fight to win back the trust of the courts and reunite their families in Stephanie Wang-Breal’s moving film. […]
WORLD PREMIERE After David Ourlicht was stopped and searched by the NYPD for no discernible reason, he filed a class-action suit against the City of New York, alleging racial profiling in the police department’s stop-and-frisk policy. Following the charismatic young man over three years as he awaits the trial, Spencer Wolff reveals how David has […]
NYC PREMIERE For Michael Dowd, being a police officer wasn’t a calling, it was just a job— and, assigned to the 75th Precinct in crime-ridden East New York, not an easy or lucrative one. Seizing the opportunity to profit, he stole money from drug dealers, eventually recruiting his partner into an expanding criminal ring. Their […]
OPENING NIGHT GALA Werner Herzog explores the human consequences of a triple homicide in Texas. He interviews the victims’ families and the convicted killers—including a 28-year-old man on death row, eight days before his execution. Once again, Herzog turns ominous territory into an enlightening journey. After the film’s debut at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals, critics hailed […]