Set in the Hasidic enclave of Borough Park, Brooklyn, "93Queen" follows a group of tenacious Hasidic women who are smashing the patriarchy in their community by creating the first all-female volunteer ambulance corps in New York City. With unprecedented-and insider-access, "93Queen" offers up a unique portrayal of a group of religious women who are taking matters into their own hands to change their own community from within.
A compelling portrait of New Yorkers living on the streets as they struggle with mental health, addiction, and the onset of a global pandemic. This powerful documentary offers an unfiltered, at times mesmerizing glimpse into life on the margins, drawing viewers into the raw, human stories behind a deepening crisis.
Bowery
2022
9
Chantal Akerman investigates the American Deep South through the story of a lynching and grisly murder of an African-American man that took place in Texas in 1998.
Sud
1999
6
In the early-morning hours of July 23, 2007, in Cheshire, Conn., ex-convicts Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky broke into the family home of William Petit, his wife, Jennifer, and their daughters, Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17. Dr. Petit was beaten and tied to a pole in the basement. The three women were bound in their bedrooms while the men ransacked the house. The brutal ordeal continued throughout the morning, ending with rape, arson and a horrific triple homicide.
The Cheshire Murders
2013
6
Far away from any other urban centers, Itapuã is a small community with the characteristics and rituals of everyday life. The location, which sheltered 1,454 people and has more than 70 years of existence remains with only 35 residents all over the age of 60. No one likes to remember what the place was in the past, even though for many the memory is etched on their bodies.
A Cidade
2012
7
Supermensch documents the astounding career of Hollywood insider, the loveable Shep Gordon, who fell into music management by chance after moving to LA straight out of college, and befriending Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix. Shep managed rock stars such as Pink Floyd, Luther Vandross, Teddy Pendergrass and Alice Cooper, and later went on to manage chefs such as Emeril Lagasse, ushering in the era of celebrity chefs on television.
Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon
2013
7
The unknown story behind the Native Hawaiian singer whose cover medley "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" is known around the world.
IZ
0
Writer and filmmaker Assia Djebar explores Algerian history, the psychological impact of war, and post-colonial female identity in this 1979 classic of film literature. Named for (and taking its structure from) a traditional song with five distinct movements, the film combines documentary-style observation with loose narrative form to tell the story of Lila, an Algerian expatriate returning to her country 15 years after independence has been won. In comparing her life with the lives and experiences of rural Algeriennes, Lila is able to put her childhood demons to rest and discover a new history -- one written in the ongoing strength of generations of women. Like much of Djebar's writing, the film has a strong subtext dealing with resistance to patriarchy and women's desire to appropriate the means of power and expression -- one of which, of course, is the filmmaker's camera.
نوبة نساء جبل شنوة
1978
6
Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer (1698-1760), known as the Ba'al Shem Tov ("Master of the Good Name"), is one of the most beloved and celebrated, yet elusive, figures in Jewish history. Today, Jews worldwide – and even non-Jews – revere him as the founder of the Hasidic movement, a 18th-century offshoot of Judaism that promotes a mystical interpretation of the Bible, and as a model of piety and spirituality. The documentary A FIRE IN THE FOREST explores the life and legacy of the Ba'al Shem Tov through interviews with religious leaders and scholars, and on-location footage. The title derives from a tale about rabbis finding a hidden fire in the forest where they could appeal to God for help and have their prayers answered.
A Fire in the Forest: The Life and Legacy of the Ba'al Shem Tov
2012
0
Interviewees discuss the memories, tastes and experiences that they associate with Africa for a personal vision of the continent.
This Is My Africa
2008
0
Sex Story: Fifty Shades of Grey
2015
6
With an off beat sense of humour, the film looks at the politics and glamour of lipstick and the dilemmas of the modern woman in a marketed world.
Lipstick
1994
0
Based on the acclaimed memoir by renowned guitarist Andy Summers, Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police follows Summers’ journey from his early days in the psychedelic ‘60s music scene, when he played with The Animals, to chance encounters with drummer Stewart Copeland and bassist Sting, which led to the formation of a new wave trio, The Police. The band’s phenomenal rise and its highly publicized dissolution at the height of their fame in the early ’80s captured by Summers’ camera. Utilizing rare archival footage, Summers’ photos, and insights from the guitarist’s side of the stage, Can’t Stand Losing You brings together past and present as the band members prepare to reunite for the first time in two decades later for a global reunion tour in 2007.
Can't Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police
2012
6
Marce, his wife Adriana, his two sons, Mario and Jacqueline, and groom it, Carmelo, are the only members of Aztlan Circus, who wanders through the villages of Texcoco, north of Mexico City. The tightrope is the history of resistance in this family that persists in taking forward an old-fashioned circus because she is convinced of the importance of his art.
La cuerda floja
2009
0
Eight hundred German filmmakers (cast and crew) fled the Nazis in the 1930s. The film uses voice-overs, archival footage, and film clips to examine Berlin's vital filmmaking in the 1920s; then it follows a producer, directors, composers, editors, writers, and actors to Hollywood: some succeeded and many found no work. Among those profiled are Erich Pommer, Joseph May, Ernst Lubitsch, Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, and Peter Lorre. Once in Hollywood, these exiles helped each other, housed new arrivals, and raised money so others could escape. Some worked on anti-Nazi films, like Casablanca. The themes and lighting of German Expressionism gave rise in Hollywood to film noir.
Cinema's Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood
2009
6
The fourth film in Alanis Obomsawin's landmark series on the Oka crisis uses a single, shameful incident as a lens through which to examine the region's long history of prejudice and injustice against the Mohawk population.
Rocks at Whiskey Trench
2000
6
A thought-provoking documentary about the ill-fated Trans World Airline Flight 800 to Paris, France, which exploded on July 17, 1996 just 12 minutes after takeoff from JFK International Airport, killing all 230 people on board. The special features six former members of the official crash investigation breaking their silence to refute the officially proposed cause of the jetliner's demise and reveal how the investigation was systematically undermined.
TWA Flight 800
2013
6
With charm and wit, Nichols discusses his life and 50-year career as a performer and director.
Mike Nichols: An American Master
2016
6
Medieval art treasures seized by the Nazis go missing at the end of World War II. Were they destroyed in the chaos of the final battles? Or were these thousand-year-old masterpieces stolen by advancing American troops? For over forty years, the mystery remained unsolved. A true detective story, "The Liberators" follows a dogged German art detective through the New York art world and military archives to the unlikeliest of destinations: a small town on the Texas prairie. Featuring interviews with Willi Korte (Portrait of Wally) and Texas attorney Dick DeGuerin, the film raises intriguing questions as to the motivations of the art thief and the whereabouts of the items that, to this day,
The Liberators
2016
5
Pack your bags for a trip to a Catskills summer camp where the stars of tomorrow go to prepare for their shot at the big time as filmmaker Alexandra Shiva allows viewers a fly-on-the-wall perspective of Stagedoor Manor, the training ground for such notable Hollywood heavyweights as Robert Downey Jr., Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Natalie Portman.
Stagedoor
2006
7
A profoundly personal voyage into the complexity, fragility and wonder of the human brain, after Lotje Sodderland miraculously survives a hemorrhagic stroke and finds herself starting again in an alien world, bereft of language and logic. This feature documentary takes us on a genre-twisting tale that is by turns excruciating and exquisite - from the devastating consequences of a first-time neurological experiment, through to the extraordinary revelations of her altered sensory perception.
My Beautiful Broken Brain
2014
7