Social & External
Commentary (voice)
In March 2023, despite a flush of police raids and arrests in the struggle against Cop City in Atlanta, the Weelaunee Food Autonomy Festival gathered people for four days of learning and working in the forest. The observational film follows along as participants in the festival plant hundreds of fig, pawpaw, and persimmon saplings, give away fruit trees to neighbors of the forest, graft edible pears onto invasive trees, learn to mix herbal medicines, and restore an area of forest that had been recently disturbed by illegal demolition work.
Herbalist Letha Hadady shares the secrets of her trade in this fascinating lesson in nontraditional medicine, revealing which Chinese herbs help mitigate conventional Western diseases such as high blood pressure, depression and diabetes. You'll also discover certain food products that contribute to overall health. Follow Letha to her kitchen, where she concocts her potent potions, and find out how you can replicate her approach in your home.
Parts 3, 4 and 5 cover a range of topics that came out of the discussion about energetics. Matthew talks about lymphatics, mucus types, the role of essential fatty acids, types of coughs, purgatives, Native American animal medicines and the signs of the Zodiac and the relation of each to an emotion and a part of the body system. It’s a wide-ranging discussion in Matt’s eclectic way. Herbs covered include red root, calendula, cleavers, madder, poke, scrophularia, yellow dock, red clover, mullein, wild cherry, crab apple and more.
Part 1 and 2 contain Matthew’s lecture on the first day. His broad topic is energetics. He explores the four elements and four qualities of the Greeks, the three Doshas of Ayurveda, the five elements of traditional Chinese medicine, the six tissue states of physiomedicalism and the four humours of medieval western Europe. Some of the herbs covered include sweet clover, elderberry, dandelion, rabbit tobacco, hyssop and black haw.
Shipibo healer Ricardo Amaringo describes how he prepares, teaches, and shares the plant medicine ayahuasca. Olivia and Julian Arévalo sing examples of icaros (healing songs) in the Shipibo language.
Matthew Wood discusses the Wisdom of Nature in presenting us with plant signatures that aid us in understanding the application of herbs as herbal medicines for your the health and well-being. Matthew takes you out into the fields to see the herbs in their natural habitat and explain the magic and the wisdom of nature from the roots to the flowers to the berries.
An elixir unleashes the undead in a village. A family at odds with one another must unite and fight to survive as their hometown collapses.
Born in the early 20th century, herbalist Jan Mikolasek became rich and famous after curing countless diseases with unorthodox means. A true emblem of Czechoslovakia before World War II, the healer became even more appreciated during the Nazi occupation and the communist regime. Each regime appreciates his skill and protects him. But how much will it cost him to maintain his status in a new political change?
To preserve the reputation of their family's traditional fertility herbal shop from neighbors' ridicule, a married couple who have been childless for years pretend to be pregnant so they can claim a found baby as their own.
Lo Lieh stars as Sima Jun, a killer working for a corrupt lord whose orders are followed without question or hesitation. When the lord suffers from a life-threatening boil on his back, he is told by the Imperial doctor that an herb called "Longevity Rattan" offers the only cure and is grown in a remote village by an herbalist named Tan. Lo is sent on a mission to get the herb and bring it back before it's too late.
A Chinese herbal doctor trying to heal herself from sickness by making a soup of memory.
It is a dramatic film, with its colossal explosion and smouldering remains. Within seconds of the chimney's collapse, crowds swarm in to inspect the site; issues of the crowd's health and safety are clearly not a concern, as people smile, wave and salute the camera.
A courageous pastor uses his underground network to rescue and aid North Korean families as they risk their lives to embrace freedom.
This U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) video uses expert testimony and computer-animated reenactments to describe and discuss its detailed investigation into the March 23 2005 explosion of the ISOM (isomerization) unit at the BP (British Petroleum) refinery at Texas City, Texas. The explosion killed 15 workers, injured 180 others, and cost BP billions of dollars.
Filmmaker Karim Aïnouz decides to take a boat, cross the Mediterranean, and embark on his first journey to Algeria. Accompanied by the memory of his mother, Iracema, and his camera, Aïnouz gives a detailed account of the journey to his father’s homeland, interweaving present, past, and future.
The film captures the cultural and creative resilience of the Caribbean region through the eyes of Haiti's most prominent artists. Narrated by Annie Lennox, the film looks at these artists through the fascinating lens of Spiralism, a literary and aesthetic philosophy that has become increasingly significant throughout the world largely thanks to the work of writer-painter-philosopher Frankétienne.
DFW Punk, covering the Dallas/Ft. Worth punk/new wave scene. If you thought Texas in the late ’70s was all about urban cowboys, country tunes and bible-thumping, get ready to be proved dead wrong. 2007, MiniDV.
Diana The Woman Inside highlights Diana as a woman and mother, rather than just a tragic icon.
A documentary about the making of season five of the acclaimed AMC series Breaking Bad.
A behind the scenes look into George Romero's groundbreaking horror classic Night of the Living Dead.
“Showrunners” is the first ever feature length documentary film to explore the fascinating world of US television showrunners and the creative forces aligned around them. These are the people responsible for creating, writing and overseeing every element of production on one of the United State’s biggest exports – television drama and comedy series. Often described as the most complex job in the entertainment business, a showrunner is the chief writer / producer on a TV series and, in most instances, the show’s creator. Battling daily between art and commerce, showrunners manage every aspect of a TV show’s development and production: creative, financial and logistical.
In this genre-bending tale, Errol Morris explores the mysterious death of a U.S. scientist entangled in a secret Cold War program known as MK-Ultra.
JB Smoove and Martin Starr host a celebration of 20 years of "Spider-Man" movies, from the Sam Raimi trilogy to Marc Webb's movies and the trio from Jon Watts.
Artists in LA discover the work of forgotten Polish sculptor Stanislav Szukalski, a mad genius whose true story unfolds chapter by astounding chapter.
A real-life undercover thriller about two ordinary men who embark on an outrageously dangerous ten-year mission to penetrate the world's most secretive and brutal dictatorship: North Korea.
Alex Gibney explores the charged issue of pedophilia in the Catholic Church, following a trail from the first known protest against clerical sexual abuse in the United States and all way to the Vatican.
The Making-of James Cameron's Avatar. It shows interesting parts of the work on the set.
A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.
Those who knew iconic funnyman John Candy best share his story, in their own words, through never-before-seen archival footage, imagery, and interviews.
The life and career of one of comedy's most inimitable modern voices, Mr. Gilbert Gottfried.
Brilliant, long in-the-works story of the life and art of the world's greatest comedian and the cinema's first genius, Charlie Chaplin. Produced, written and directed by renowned film critic Richard Schickel.
A documentary about ten very different lives connected by having appeared onscreen wearing masks or helmets in Star Wars.
A true-crime comedy exploring a failed music festival turned internet meme at the nexus of social media influence, late-stage capitalism, and morality in the post-truth era.
A purely observational non-fiction film that takes viewers into the ethically murky world of end-of-life decision making in a public hospital.
An inside look at one of the most anticipated movie sequels ever with James Cameron and cast.
Against the darkening backdrop of New Delhi's apocalyptic air and escalating violence, two brothers devote their lives to protecting one casualty of the turbulent times: the bird known as the black kite.
Join director Clint Eastwood and his creative team, along with Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller, as they overcome enormous creative and logistic obstacles to make a film that brings the truth of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle's story to the screen.
In this documentary, recovering addict and amputee John Wood finds himself in a stranger-than-fiction battle to reclaim his mummified leg from Southern entrepreneur Shannon Whisnant, who found it in a grill he bought at an auction and believes it therefore to be his rightful property.
