Their country is bankrupt. Their bodies are broken. Neighbors consider them cursed. But in music, eight disabled Zimbabweans dared to hope.
Social & External
Profile of the producer and former studio head of 20th Century Fox in the 1970s, Alan Ladd Jr.
An examination of the life of acclaimed 'horse whisperer' Buck Brannaman, who recovered from years of child abuse to become a well-known expert in the interactions between horses and people.
Documentary exploring the human tendency to be dishonest. Inspired by the work of social scientist, Dan Ariely, the film interweaves personal stories, expert opinions, behavioral experiments, and archival footage to reveal how and why people lie.
Sheryl Swoopes famously has been labeled as the female Michael Jordan, but that's only part of the story. On the court, she was nearly as dominant as Jordan, winning a national championship with Texas Tech, three Olympic gold medals, three MVP awards and four consecutive championships with the Houston Comets of the WNBA, the league she helped start. She even had a Nike shoe named after her, the Air Swoopes. Off the court, she has had a life full of transitions. She gave birth to her son, Jordan, during the inaugural season of the WNBA. Later, she divorced her high school sweetheart and became the highest-profile athlete in her sport to acknowledge she was gay. She has struggled with love, money and personal identity, but has never lost her spirit. In this portrait, you will meet someone who is not your everyday superstar, but a woman who has defied a multitude of labels.
Mary Decker obliterated opponents and records with blazing speed and a starving hunger to win. She dominated her sport, holding US records in every distance from 800 to 10,000 meters, and she did it all without the Olympics. She was too young in '72, hurt in '76 and shut out by the U.S. boycott in '80. As Sports Illustrated's cover Sportswoman of the Year in 1983, she was ready: 1984 was the target, with the Olympics in LA and her skills at their 25 year-old peak. But the story leads to a single shocking moment in the 1984 Olympics, with Mary writhing on the ground in physical pain and emotional heartbreak with the whole world watching.
IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE explores identity and legacy in the African-American family, as Grammy award-winning rapper Che 'Rhymefest' Smith and his long-lost father reconnect and try to build a new future in Chicago's turbulent South Side. Himself a child of a broken home, Che hasn't seen his father, Brian, in over 20 years, and presumes him dead. But after buying his father's childhood home, Che sets out to find him, and learns that his is now a homeless alcoholic living only several blocks away/ The film offers a probing take on memory and identity in a family two generations removed from slavery as it tracks Che and Brian's shared journey to create a new legacy for themselves, their community and the next generation of family.
In a rough style, by way of unique footage, the brutal consequences of modern wars are exposed. The film also depicts the ability of women and children to handle their everyday life after a dramatic war experience. Many of them live in tents or in ruins without walls or roofs. They are all in need of money, food, water and electricity. Others have lost family members, or are left with seriously injured children. Can war solve conflicts or create peace? The film follows three children through the war and the period after the ceasefire.
Eight acclaimed filmmakers bring their unique and differing perspectives to the 1972 Summer Olympic Games held in Munich. The segments include Lelouch's take on Olympic losers and their struggle to remain dignified even in the face of bitter disappointment and defeat; Zetterling's dramatic exploration of the world of weightlifting; and Pfleghar's piece on young Russian gymnast Ludmilla Tourischev's majestic performance on the uneven bars.
Dorjee Sun, a young Australian Entrepreneur, believes there's money to be made from protecting rainforests in Indonesia, saving the orangutan from extinction and making a real impact on climate change. Armed with a laptop and a backpack, he sets out across the globe to find investors in his carbon trading scheme. It is a battle against time. Achmadi, the palm oil farmer is ready to set fire to his land to plant more palm oil, and Lone's orangutan centre has reached crisis point with over 600 orangutans rescued from the fires. The Burning Season is an eco-thriller about a young man not afraid to confront the biggest challenge of our time.
Star actor/comedian D.L. Hughley appears in his first solo HBO special, a no-holds-barred 60-minute routine performed in front of a live audience at The Lincoln Theater, the venerable Washington DC venue. Hughley, seen previously in Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam, keeps the crowd roaring with his hilarious take on politics, childhood, challenging your father to a fight, gluttony, impotence drugs, parenthood and more.
An intimate portrait of three young afghan women accused of committing "moral crimes."
Chai Jing's documentary about the massive smog problem in China. Chai Jing started making the documentary when her as yet unborn daughter developed a tumour in the womb, which had to be removed very soon after her birth. Chai blames air pollution for the tumour. The film, which combines footage of a lecture with interviews and factory visits, has been compared with Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth in both its style and likely impact. The film openly criticises state-owned energy companies, steel producers and coal factories, as well as showing the inability of the Ministry of Environmental Protection to act against the big polluters.
Participant Media’s Last Call at the Oasis is a new documentary from Jessica Yu & Elise Pearlstein. Think water is an infinite resource? Think again.
In exploring the lives of two wandering Nepali musicians, an uncle and nephew who share the same name and are featured in filmmaker Stephanie Spray's and Pacho Velez's acclaimed documentary Manakamana, Kāle and Kāle (pronounced kah-lay) exposes the rootless occupation of the Gaine caste and communicates both its joys and pitfalls - domestic, economic and spiritual - in their daily lives. Rejecting didacticism as a means of ethnographical observation, the film consists of distinct episodes that value the quality of the genuine moment. Spray couples both meaningful and disconcerting human interactions with the sights and sounds of natural familiarities such as grass, smoke, insects, animals, and traditional Nepalese folk music, opening up an evocative new world that the viewer is invited to slowly and deliberately experience.
Three teenagers battle their way through the world of competitive ping pong with their hearts set on the Olympics.
This fascinating documentary is based around the Japanese wrestling organisation Gaea's rural training camp, and traces, in the main, the careers of four hopefuls. In charge are two magnificent specimens, the butch champion Chigusa Nagaya, still venting her hurt at the hands of her army father as she tries to whip her surrogate daughters through the pain and commitment barriers; and her sophisticated and slightly menacing Chairman. It's a gruelling, physical film, as you would expect, but the makers don't make heavy weather of it. And it certainly disposes of any idea that the game is faked.
This documentary is set in the New Marilyn night club in Tokyo, Japan - where the hosts are transgender men. They can only make their living as hosts in a nightclub with other wannabes like them. The young women who come there often have relationships with them but the underlying fear is whether such a relationship can withstand the pressures on a girl to get married and have children. All three boys deal with this in different ways. These three hosts, the Shinjuku Boys, take us into their lives.
The world of environmental direct action has been a secretive one, until now. With unprecedented access, Emily James spent over a year embedded in activist groups such as Climate Camp and Plane Stupid, documenting their clandestine activities. Torpedoing the tired cliches of the environmental movement, Just Do It introduces you to a powerful cast of mischievous and inspiring characters who put their bodies in the way. They super-glue themselves to bank trading floors, blockade factories and attack coal power stations en-masse all despite the very real threat of arrest. Their adventures will entertain, illuminate and inspire.
The story of the short life, and brutal gang rape and murder in Delhi in December 2012 of an exceptional and inspiring young woman. The rape of the 23 year old medical student by 6 men on a moving bus, and her death, sparked unprecedented protests and riots throughout India and led to the first glimmers of a change of mindset. Interwoven into the story line are the lives, values and mindsets of the rapists whom the film makers have had exclusive and unprecedented access to interview before they hang. The film examines the society and values which spawn such violent acts, and makes an optimistic and impassioned plea for change.
Water – a living substance, the most common and least understood. It defies the basic laws of physics, yet holds the keys to life. Known to ancients as a transmitter to and from the higher realms, water retains memory and conveys information to DNA. However, water can die if treated poorly. Influences such as sound, thoughts, intention, as well as toxins such as chlorine, structure water’s molecular arrangement– affecting all it comes in contact with. Prominent scientists help reveal the secret of water, allowing us to use this amazing element to heal ourselves and our planet. The movie features Nassim Haramein, Patrick Flanagan, Dr. Masaru Emoto, Konstantin Korotkov, Lynne McTaggart, and Larry Dossey.
Fabrizio, a poor thief from the Roman suburbs, finally has in his hands the man who ruined his life: James Bond.
Emma's parents are going to divorce, but before that the family goes on holiday to the countryside. Emma is left alone when the parents just arguing and moving to another room. Soon she discovers that there is something mysterious about the room when a typewriter starts writing a message by itself...
Jimmy Aubrey plays a book agent and on his rounds of selling is induced to substitute for a local fistic star. His adventures in the prize ring furnish a great deal of comedy.
A short documentary about the intricate nativity scenes of Michele Pascuzzi.
The ever-disreputable Reggie Gussle, mistreating his caddy and generally making an ass of himself on the golf course, receives a well-deserved golf ball to the noggin, temporarily rendering him disoriented. The offending golfer, Ambrose, and his wife feel terrible about the erring ball; but if they knew what Gussle was capable of, they'd have left him lying on the green. Later, at his social club, Gussle gets thrown out of a card game for cheating. Ambrose, ignorant of the exiting Gussle's dishonesty, greets him warmly before joining the game himself. Gussle suddenly has an idea that will give him revenge on the card players and get rid of Ambrose so that Gussle can make his moves on his gullible friend's beautiful wife.
A street scene showing parade of the entire Buffalo Police Department, 16 men abreast, with military band.
A team of armed Pakistani militants stage a terrorist attack at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in India.
An erotic thriller from the director of Psychopathia Sexualis, THE LITTLE DEATH offers a peek into the seedy boudoirs of a Victorian-era brothel, where a strong-willed reformer (Courtney Patterson) and a corrupter of innocence battle over the fate of a young woman (Christie Vozniak) who seems to be held there in sexual captivity. While the owner attempts to mesmerize and seduce the would-be rescuer, a meek student (Clifton Guterman) wanders into the house and becomes a tragic pawn in the psychological game of cat-and-mouse that is rapidly unfolding.
Theophilus Palios, owns a small traditional publishing house. He man madly falls in love with Sia, that is doing vocals on the show of a known singer. Sia maintains her living by the "generosity" of old fans. In the face of Theophilus, Sia will experience true love, though it continues to accept the offers of numerous admirers. Theophilus mad by jealousy, is lead to huge wastages and ultimately to economic collapse. He ends up entangled in a case of robbery and murder. Sia, in a guilt and self-sacrifice crisis, becomes mistress of the investigating policeman in exchange for his silence. This creates an odd triangle ..
Filmed in Joyce Wieland and Michael Snow’s loft in New York, the film covers a day of friends visiting, writing and drawing from noon of one day to dawn the next day.
The boys are a dentist and his assistant traveling to the Old West to open a new practice. Once in town, they buy a business--only to wake up the next day and see that the entire population of this bustling town had left for the California gold fields early that morning! Then, they discover an evil plot to sell out these settlers to some hostile Indians, so they spring to the rescue.
This Ain't Bebop is Ralph Bakshi's first live action short, starring Harvey Keitel and featuring Ron Thompson as the beatnik poet and Rick Singer as Jackson Pollock.
Leroy Lowe, grand dragon of the Texas Ku Klux Klan confronts everything he's been taught to hate when he's sentenced to three years of hard labor on a prison work farm, where Warden Merville, dead set on rehabilitating Leroy, chooses Emilio, a Hispanic field worker imprisoned for fighting for labor rights, to be his cell-mate. Leroy, confined in a small cell with the enemy, far from the KKK comrades who deserted him, finds the chatty Emilio slowly chipping away at his anger and prejudice. His weekly rehabilitation meetings with the warden, barely tolerable as the man drones on about farm labor and field crops, take on a different meaning when Madalena, a beautiful Mexican maid is hired to clean the warden's office. An unconventional love story develops that opens Leroy's eyes to the possibility of a different life. And a man who was a born and bred racist finds himself heading down a completely different path to salvation.
A DJ helps police detectives hunt down a serial killer who kills women and makes taunting phone calls to the radio station.
