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- The amazing true story of a nineteenth century Canadian girl who ran away from home disguised as a traveling Bible Salesman and fought in the American civil war as a nurse, dispatch carrier and spy.
- The San people, more commonly known as Bushmen, are believed to be the earliest inhabitants of southern Africa. They have lived for 80,000 years as hunter-gatherers in the Kalahari Desert, and are well-known for their expert survival skills in a harsh environment. Their unique clicking languages and their astonishing method of healing through trance dancing have made them a source of worldwide fascination. But these peaceful people are not immune from the problems of modern society, and have faced oppression and eviction from their homelands for years. Vanishing Cultures: Bushmen of the Kalahari" visits the troubled San community whose once thriving culture is now facing extinction. This one-hour documentary takes a never-before-seen look at the fascinating history, the brutal struggles, and the seemingly impossible challenges of the Bushmen of the Kalahari.
- Empowered by their Indian guru, thousands of new-age disciples flock to an abandoned cattle ranch in Oregon, determined to build a city.
- In vivid verite detail, MY AMERICAN GIRLS chronicles the joys and struggles over a year in the lives of the Ortiz family, first generation immigrants from the Dominican Republic. Matthews' film captures the rewards - and costs - of pursuing the American dream. From hard-working parents, who imagine retiring to their rural homeland, to fast-tracking American-born daughters, caught between their parent's values and their own, the film encompasses the contradictions of contemporary immigrant life.
- "Truth Sets You Free" - Based on interviews with leading Neonazis and Holocaust deniers, as well as archival material from conspiratorial meetings, briefly reveals the state of the German Neonazi scene.
- Filmmakers Karen Cantor and Camilla Kjaerilff team to reveal how the Jews of Denmark managed to escape falling victim to Hitler's Third Reich.
- A life chronicle of the youngest child of Sigmund and Martha Freud - her childhood in Vienna, her analysis by her own father, her prominence in the creation and development of child psychoanalysis, and the love of her life (Dorothy Burlingame).
- This film, shot mostly covertly, shows a regime where 20 million people live in poverty, some on the brink of starvation, while the former dictator Kim II Sung and his son build extravagant monuments to reflect their power.
- An exploration of the Samoan fa'afafine, boys who are raised as girls, fulfilling a traditional role in Samoan culture.
- Love is war in a city where eligible men outnumber their potential brides. A rare portrait of ordinary people in an extraordinary social predicament, and a window on the materialistic and cut-throat nature of Shanghai's marriage market.
- This well-researched film celebrates the life and legacy of Peter Cooper, the remarkable 19th century inventor, industrialist and philanthropist. Cooper had a rare combination of mechanical skills and entrepreneurship. Beginning work in a glue factory, Cooper developed the household uses of gelatin (Jello) and fashioned the iron I-beam from railroad rails, which enabled multistoried building construction. In 1828 he founded the Canton Iron Works in Baltimore which made his fortune. A champion of 20th century communication, he helped fund the first transatlantic telegraph cable and built the first American steam locomotive named "Tom Thumb." When business success brought wealth, Cooper used it to foster social justice. He founded The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1859, realizing his dream of free education for working people, regardless of ethnicity or gender. The college empowered thousands of women, a radical notion for the mid-19th century. The Great Hall in Cooper Union provided a platform for most major social movements of the 19th Century, most importantly, Abraham Lincoln's speech that won him his party's nomination for president in 1865. The early feminist leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony also spoke there.
- A candid look at the burgeoning punk rock scene in South Korea, focusing on the club and the bands that started the movement.
- In many African countries, fewer than 20% of girls ever enter a classroom, and across the continent, only one woman in three learns to read. "These Girls Are Missing" offers small sets of stories, sharp glimpses into a few intimate relationships layered to mirror the complex reality.
- This film chronicles the journey of an indigenous leader from a remote tribe in the Brazilian Amazon who travels to the country capitol of Brasilia in a last ditch effort to save his people's land from being turned over to developers, miners and poachers.
- Frank Lloyd Wright's last standing hotel reflects a century of change in a Midwest city.
- As Julian Bond traces his roots back to slavery, the audience is confronted with a unique opportunity to observe the 20th century through the eyes of one of its key witnesses. Now in his seventies, the veteran Civil Rights leader recounts his days as a child in the segregated South, growing up in a home frequently visited by intellectuals like Paul Robeson and Langston Hughes. In an intimate conversation with director Montes-Bradley, Bond examines his role in the Civil Rights movement, his opposition to the war in Vietnam, his views on religion, and the struggle to secure a seat in Georgia's legislature.
- A Sikh family living in a small Oregon town struggles to retain their cultural identity, particularly the wearing of turbans, in the face of provincial prejudice.
- RIVER PEOPLE follows the story of David Sohappy, a Native American spiritual leader who was sentenced to a five year prison term for selling 317 salmon out of season. Sohappy became a symbol of resistance for indigenous people of the United States and beyond. RIVER PEOPLE uses Sohappy's case to explore the historic controversy over fishing rights and the right to religious freedom. Behind the controversy is a story of a man caught in a conflict between two cultures and two seemingly irreconcilable ways of looking at the world.
- A portrait of Australian citizen Zhizhen "Jane" Dai, whose husband was persecuted and murdered for his belief in Falun Gong, an ancient meditative practice that enjoyed a revival in China in the 1990's.
- Running for Jim tells the inspiring story of record-breaking high school running coach Jim Tracy, his battle with Lou Gehrig's disease, and his 2010 championship team that brought his story to international attention.
- In a culture where people choose to date, live with a significant other, and move from relationship to relationship to find the right fit, Muslim Americans often need to clarify that their alternative isn't the stereotypical arranged marriage. In "Muslims in Love," Mohammad and Ferdaus tie the knot with the aid of friends, family, laptops and cell phones. Yet, the issues are complex. Michelle, a convert to Islam, frets over the slim pickings of Muslim men. Jameelah, an African American, clashes with racism and double standards. And Zahra, a law student, avoids drama at all costs. She leaves Mr. Right to fate. For better or worse, this generation of Muslim Americans walks a tightrope between faith and modernity in the quest for their heart's desire.
- "Jews of Cracow Await US Bar Mitzvah Boy," read the New York Times headline, as Eric Strom, a 13-year-old Connecticut boy, stood at the center of a complex human drama that attracted world-wide attention.
- The documentary focuses on the Eka Dasa Rudra, or One Hundred Year Ceremony, which took place in Bali at the mother temple Bersakih in 1979
- Indianapolis native Lisa Davis Larry exposes the damage of gun violence on hers and other American families and how they became advocates for social change.
- Life Sentence is a personal look at the impact of long-term imprisonment and the adjustment back into society. While providing positive opportunities for other formerly incarcerated people, these six successful men and women must deal with the hindrances of lifetime parole. The film explores the criminal justice system, as well as the hope, ambition, and obstacles they've overcome to prove change is possible.
- Spirit Doctors investigates the phenomena of Mexican-American folk healing. Three contemporary healers are followed in their daily work. Spirit channeling, herbs, and midwives are shown to be an important part of the cultural environment of the American Southwest.
- "Testing Hope: Grade 12 in the new South Africa" chronicles the lives of four young people in Nyanga township, just outside Cape Town, as they work towards their crucial Matric exams, which one student calls "the decider." These students began school in 1994, the same year apartheid ended and Nelson Mandela became president. While this is the new South Africa, many vestiges of apartheid persist. "Testing Hope" follows the students as they prepare for the exams which they believe will determine their future. It explores what hangs in the balance if students pass Matric and what awaits those who do not. How do they achieve their dreams in a country where so many obstacles remain?
- Here are inspiring portraits of five families, each caring for an emotionally handicapped, or alcohol-addicted member. The love the family members feel for their disabled relatives is evident, as the film shows the joy, as well as the burdens their care imposes. Gammi is an elderly African American woman with Alzheimer's disease. Her family members are tolerant of her repetitive and often senseless babbling. They stroke and comfort her, and laugh fondly at her foibles. Michael is an eight-year-old with Downs' syndrome. His mother, who already had two children, knew ahead of time that she would have a disabled child and chose not to abort. The family does not regret the decision, and, in fact, feels Michael is an important part of their lives. Shane is an impoverished teenager from Appalachia. His father left the family when he was young and his mother is a recovering alcoholic. Jenny, a college student, also has an alcoholic parent. It has not been easy for her to deal with confronting her mother about her alcoholism. Dale is a middle-aged paranoid schizophrenic. The family accepts the fact that he sometimes has bizarre visions. In a society in which multitudes of people share similar mental disorders and are abandoned by their families or their communities, these portraits are a reminder that patience and fortitude bring their own satisfactions.
- In the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles riot of 1992, noted documentarians Maxi Cohen and Wendy Apple distributed Hi-8 camcorders to young adult videographers in every major ethnic neighborhood to discover how each had been affected. The resulting video diaries were edited into dramatic stories that provide deeper insight into the origins and effects of the 1992 Los Angeles riot.
- American Cameraman reveals the back-story of how news cameramen captured the 20th Century in moving images. Seen through the eyes of legendary news photographer, Bill Birch, this documentary explores the century's news film treasures from the silent era through the ascendancy of television news.
- Filmed in the northeast mountains of China Kim, Kim Jung-eun's documentary examines the desperate circumstances facing North Korean refugees who illegally cross the border into China to escape the harsh famine conditions that have existed in North Korea since the mid-1990s.
- A look at the controversial Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers of the 1920s and 1930s.
- Guguletu Ballet delves into the world of South Africa's poorest townships, where - 10 years after the fall of Apartheid - poverty, AIDS and violence have left most young people with shattered families and little hope. Amidst this sea of tin shacks, a few kids have found an escape in the most unlikely of activities: ballet. Thanks to the voluntary efforts of a bunch of former world-class dancers, a remarkable group of students in Guguletu Township have spent the past ten years focusing on pliers and pirouettes instead of gangs and violence. Without ballet shoes and parental support, and often without even a proper meal, they dutifully rehearse every day. Their personal stories reveal surprising and memorable insights, from their childish stereotypes about white people to their dreams of dancing their way out of the slums.
- Native Silence is a solemn account of the legacy of forced adoption on Native American children, torn from their tribal communities and placed in foster care and boarding schools. Joyce, a recovered drug-addict and now mental-health worker, and Paulette, a mother who 'doesn't associate' with the Natives in her town, were two such children. Their stories reflect the struggle that they and many others faced growing up as Native American within larger non-Indian culture.
- Somebody Sang for Me - is a one-hour documentary profiling the critically acclaimed African-American cultural activist and music educator Jane Sapp. For the last thirty years her work with "at risk" young people has been changing lives and animating the community.
- Filmed in a small town in the south, Mother Love is a fresh look at one of the most formative relationships of a woman's life. It introduces us to four mothers and daughters of contrasting age, class and family dynamics. Their stories reflect individual circumstances, but also echo similar themes, proving there are certain traits that almost all mother/daughter relationships have in common.
- This documentary looks at the link between race and the death penalty in the United States. Source: A NYS film center website description.
- After more than four centuries of operation, the Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain) of Potosí continues to offer silver to Bolivian miners. In exchange, the men must sacrifice their lungs in the obscure maze of the Mountain tunnels.
- Vietnamese alleged victims of Agent Orange read a letter to the American people appealing for justice and help. Their class action case moves through the U.S. Court system as scientists, military historians and doctors take us to a new battlefield.
- Who decides how life ends? The patient? The family? The physician? The health care system? This film looks at the choices available to four dying people. The intent is to introduce viewers to the complexity of end-of life choices. The four terminally ill patients featured in "Last Rights" come from across the United States. Each was determined to confront his/her illness and plan his/her final days on earth according to his/her own desires and sense of dignity. These patients and their families turned to clergy, the medical profession and, in some cases, the government in order to access information and answers to matters practical and spiritual. Their decisions have profoundly impacted their families. The desire to hasten the death of a terminally ill patient brings up a multitude of issues - medical, ethical, religious, political. Viewers will be introduced to some of these dilemmas inherent to end-of-live choices: What role does society have in preserving life? What is society's obligation to relieve suffering? How do religious and legal institutions deal with these responsibilities?