NYC PREMIERE Under a dank bridge in Kabul, Afghanistan—the country with the world’s highest rate of opium production and addiction—a squalid group of drug addicts is getting high or fiending for their next fix. Former child bride and self-proclaimed badass Laila offers salvation by inviting these lost souls to the detox clinics she runs with […]
WORLD PREMIERE After a controversial basketball ruling about head coverings makes it impossible for Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir to maintain her religious convictions while playing professionally, she begins training the next generation of Muslim girls at an Islamic school’s athletics program. As she reckons with the possibility of life without basketball, Bilqis fights to change the rules […]
NYC PREMIERE. Life can seem pretty overwhelming at times, particularly when you’re growing up. And it’s not always easy to talk to your parents or friends about your problems. Fortunately, the “Kindertelefoon” (Child Helpline) in the Netherlands provides a listening ear. LISTEN presents a cross-section of conversations between children and the Kindertelefoon. One girl talks about […]
WORLD PREMIERE If Ren could go back in time before she was four, she would tell her parents that she wasn’t happy living as a boy. Now, Ren is about to take part in a rite of passage for their community in West Haven, CT as the first out transgirl to compete in the Little […]
2018 VIEWFINDERS COMPETITION WINNER NYC PREMIERE This beautiful observational portrait of childhood is set in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery located on the border between Nepal and India, the birthplace of the Buddha. Director Yuqi Kang reveals the emotional dynamics of five-year-old Hopakuli and his older brother Chorten as these young novice monks attempt to balance […]
In this Special Jury Award winner from Sundance, Bing Liu films his friends Zack and Keire over a decade, capturing their skateboarding antics against the backdrop of their faded, blue-collar Illinois hometown. For all three, the community formed via skateboarding has offered refuge from volatile home lives. As they face the increasing responsibilities and complexity […]
Following the death of his emotionally distant father, filmmaker Charlie Tyrell seeks to better understand him through the personal belongings he left behind… including a stack of dirty VHS tapes. Courtesy of New York Times Op-Docs
WORLD PREMIERE Two-time Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, USA) chronicles the experiences of five refugee children from war-torn Syria and Iraq whose families have resettled in Canada. In this sweetly observed film, Kopple follows the boys for two weeks at a summer camp in the Canadian wilderness. We watch as some boys thrive […]
NYC PREMIERE In this Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize-winning film, director Talal Derki (Return to Homs) returns to his native Syria and gains remarkably unfettered access to a radical jihadist and his family for two years. General Abu Osama raises his young sons to become Islamist fighters, but what if they just want to […]
WORLD PREMIERE You Can’t Do That on Television, Clarissa Explains It All, Double Dare, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, Doug, Rugrats… If you recognize any of these titles, you probably grew up watching Nickelodeon, the cable-television network devoted to kids that launched almost 40 years ago. Beginning as a small local channel, visionary leadership […]