Ebony Goddess: Queen of Ilê Aiyê follows three women competing to be the carnival queen of Ilê Aiyê, a prominent and controversial Afro-Brazilian group with an all-black membership. The selection is based on Afro-centric notions of beauty, in counterpoint to prevailing standards of beauty in Brazil, a country famous for slim supermodels and plastic surgery. Contestants for the title of Ebony Goddess dress in flowing African-style garments, gracefully performing traditional Afro-Brazilian dances to songs praising the beauty of black women.
Festive Land examines one of the largest and most extraordinary popular celebrations in the world, the week-long Carnival that brings more than two million people to the streets of Salvador, the capital of Bahia, in northeastern Brazil. Carnival is the most expressive showcase of the unique cultural richness of Bahia, where African culture has survived, prospered, and evolved, mixing with other Brazilian influences to create forms found nowhere else in the world. The film captures this unique cultural energy through extraordinary footage of musical performances, dances, religious manifestations, and street celebrations. At the same time, Carnival reflects the racial and social tensions of Brazil's heterogeneous society. At first glance there appear to be two million people chaotically mixed on the streets, but a more detailed look reveals how patterns of segregation driven by racial, social and economic differences continue in Carnival.
The execution was scheduled and the last meal consumed. The coolness of the poisons entering the blood system slowed the heart rate and sent him on the way to Judgement. He had paid for his crime with years on Death Row waiting for this moment and now he would pay for them again as the judgment continued..
Ann Dexter, daughter of an itinerant Haiti waterfront character, Carl Dexter, brings a golden idol, which her father her stolen at a voodoo ceremony, to Bill Buchanan, who is known along the waterfront as a man eternally on a treasure hunt. He agrees to let Ann accompany him in search of the treasure after a native he befriended gives him directions and certain voodoo secret charms. They follow an underwater passage to an island where they find a Pagan tribe. They learn that the golden idol is a burial symbol representing the dead and that hundreds of idols are at the bottom of the sacred burial lake.
Two male best friends have their relationship tested when it turns out that one is in love with the other.
The Secret Service abducts a "rocket scientist" to better protect him against gangsters acting for Chinese agents.
Freeform is the first student film by artist Jacob Sizemore. The narrative follows a woman in a mask as she longs to be free. The video is set to the musical piece Reach by Jeremy Levin.
A young prostitute, Gullan Svan, is murdered one night. The police suspects that the murderer is a student, since she had a lot of students as customers. The murderer stole a picture of Gullan after he killed her, a picture which later is found in a rented tuxedo when the tuxedo is returned. Four students decide to solve the case, but it seems that the truth is even closer than they first suspected... Plot by Mattias Thuresson
Milly Cohen lives in modest circumstances with her grandmother Cathy and her little brother Kevin. After the death of her parents, she gave up her art studies and works for the antiques dealer Philip Barnes, a handsome but uncouth bachelor. Philip only realizes that Milly has become the pearl of the store when she quits - due to her boss's unfriendliness and her brother's serious illness. Philip doesn't get on well with the new assistants. He realizes that he has fallen in love with Milly. When he tries to win her back, Milly has already accepted her old boyfriend's proposal of marriage.
A female eye doctor and a male film director run into each other on the airplane to Milan. The two were lovers in the past, and are now in their middle ages. After their chance encounter in Torino, they travel around Tuscany together, appreciating the works of Caravaggio. They begin to notice they are hiding their own wounds from each other. In Korea, he goes to her eye clinic, and they confess love to each other for the first time. In the end, they go their separate ways.
A glimpse of life as seen through young people at a Zimbabwean children's home.
Lin is a plain-clothes cop in the crime-riddled district of Mongkok who bungles a vice operation directed at mainland prostitues. He falls for a ditsy hooker who tells him the love of her life is a killer who once svaed her life in a shootout.
Romana fancies a proper holiday and convinces the Doctor to visit the leisure planet Argolis, where a takeover by the Argolins' historic enemy is underway.
Traces of a body draw a camera across a landscape of stone and walls.
Aubri Callahan is an aspiring comedian and ghost writer for Bella Delmonico, acclaimed stand up comic and owner of the Vista Theater. Performing at the Vista is a key step on the way to stardom and despite her natural talent, Aubri patiently waits for her time to shine, writing jokes for Bella in the shadows of the comedic giants that came before her. When The Vista Theater Variety Show lands in Aubri’s lap she must plan the whole event and find a headliner all before Christmas eve, just three weeks away.
Documentary looking at a century of cycling. Commissioned to mark the arrival of the 2014 Tour de France in Yorkshire, the film makes full use of stunning British Film Institute footage to transport the audience on a journey from the invention of the modern bike, through the rise of recreational cycling, to gruelling competitive races. Award-winning director Daisy Asquith artfully combines the richly-diverse archive with a hypnotic soundtrack from cult composer Bill Nelson in a joyful, absorbing watch for both cycling and archive fans.
“It ain’t easy…being green” is the favorite expression of Stormé DeLarverie, a woman whose life flouted prescriptions of gender and race. During the 1950s and '60s she toured the black theater circuit as a mistress of ceremonies and the sole male impersonator of the legendary Jewel Box Revue, America’s first integrated female impersonation show and forerunner of La Cage aux Folles.
The armies of Fascist Italy conquered Addis Ababa, capital of Abyssinia, in May 1936, thus culminating the African colonial adventure of the ruthless dictator Benito Mussolini, by then lord of Libya, Eritrea and Somalia; a bloody and tragic story told through the naive drawings of Pietro Dall'Igna, an Italian schoolboy born in 1925.
Reporter Clay Pigeon interviews New Yorkers in October, 2008.
This documentary from Albert and David Maysles follows the bitter rivalry of four door-to-door salesmen working for the Mid-American Bible Company: Paul "The Badger" Brennan, Charles "The Gipper" McDevitt, James "The Rabbit" Baker and Raymond "The Bull" Martos. Times are tough for this hard-living quartet, who spend their days traveling through small-town America, trying their best to peddle gold-leaf Bibles to an apathetic crowd of lower-middle-class housewives and elderly couples.
A chronological look at films by, for, or about gays and lesbians in the United States, from 1947 to 2005, Kenneth Anger's "Fireworks" to "Brokeback Mountain". Talking heads, anchored by critic and scholar B. Ruby Rich, are interspersed with an advancing timeline and with clips from two dozen films. The narrative groups the pictures around various firsts, movements, and triumphs: experimental films, indie films, sex on screen, outlaw culture and bad guys, lesbian lovers, films about AIDS and dying, emergence of romantic comedy, transgender films, films about diversity and various cultures, documentaries and then mainstream Hollywood drama. What might come next?
In the Mediterranean, the sea on which our civilization was founded, miles of refugees await Europe to welcome them. "Stranded" approaches the daily life of these long-term refugees, in occupied buildings or in refugee camps At the gates of Europe these people try to keep hope alive while they live.
An undercover investigation of Martin Creek Kennel is carried out by the animal rights group Last Chance for Animals. The film documents the efforts of a young animal rights activist named "Pete" to both get hired by the Martin Creek Kennel and secure enough evidence to shut down owner C.C. Baird's violation-filled kennel.
Two formidable Native American women, both chief judges in their tribe's courts, strive to reduce incarceration rates and heal their people by restoring rather than punishing offenders, modeling restorative justice in action.
An inspiring documentary chronicling the rise, fall and resurrection of '80s metal band Quiet Riot. The career of Frankie Banali, the band's drummer, reached a serious crossroads when his best friend and bandmate died in 2007. Years later, Banali realizes he must forge ahead and make a new life for himself and his daughter and he goes on a quest to reunite the band and fill the immense void left by his bandmate.
Underwater Dreams, narrated by Michael Peña, is an epic story of how the sons of undocumented Mexican immigrants learned how to build underwater robots. And go up against MIT in the process.
In 2010, the iconic Tote Hotel – last bastion of Melbourne’s vibrant music counterculture – was forced to close by unfair laws. Filmed over 7 years, “Persecution Blues” depicts the struggle of more than 20,000 fans – and the bands who inspire them – to preserve their history and protect their future, and puts the audience on the front line of an epic-scale culture war.
In 1984-85, people at Lake Tahoe fell ill with flu symptoms, but they didn't get better. Medical literature documents similar outbreaks: in 1934 at LA county hospital, in 1948-49 in Iceland, in 1956 in Punta Gorda, Florida. The malady now has a name, chronic fatigue syndrome, and filmmaker Kim Snyder, who suffered from the disease for several years, tells her story and talks to victims and their families, and to physicians and researchers: is it viral, it is psychosomatic, is it one disease or several (a syndrome) ; what's the CDC doing about it; what's it like to have a disease that's not yet understood? Her inquiry takes her to Punta Gorda and to a high-school graduation.
A short documentary exploring the ways LGBT couples show affection, and how small interactions like holding hands in public can carry, not only huge personal significance, but also the power to create social change.
For over 30 years, Martin Bisi has been recording music from his studio in Gowanus, Brooklyn. He has worked with many influential musicians, including Sonic Youth, Swans, Herbie Hancock, Brian Eno and the Dresden Dolls. Now though, he finds himself squeezed in by the approaching gentrification of his neighborhood.
Pretty Bloody: The Women of Horror is a television documentary film that premiered on the Canadian cable network Space on February 25, 2009. The hour-long documentary examines the experiences, motivations and impact of the increasing number of women engaged in horror fiction, with producers Donna Davies and Kimberlee McTaggart of Canada's Sorcery Films interviewing actresses, film directors, writers, critics and academics. The documentary was filmed in Toronto, Canada; and in Los Angeles, California and New York City, New York in the US.
"Michael Moore doesn't like documentaries. That's why he doesn't make them." A documentary that looks to distinguish what's fact, fiction, legend, and otherwise as a camera crew trails Michael Moore as he tours with his film, Fahrenheit 9/11.
Monsanto is the world leader in genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as well as one of the most controversial corporations in industrial history. This century-old empire has created some of the most toxic products ever sold, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the herbicide Agent Orange. Based on a painstaking investigation, The World According to Monsanto puts together the pieces of the company’s history, calling on hitherto unpublished documents and numerous first-hand accounts.
A very personal and dynamic meditation on the current global refugee crisis through the eyes and voices of campaigners, specially children, where past and present establish a dialogue. A reflection on the importance of human rights.
An end-of-life hospice opens its doors in this intimate documentary, revealing moments of joy and tenderness between staff, residents and loved ones.