Archive for the ‘Documentary’ Category

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Crime After Crime

Friday, July 1st, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 138

Language:

Director: Yoav Potash

Plot: CRIME AFTER CRIME tells the dramatic story of the legal battle to free Debbie Peagler, an incarcerated survivor of domestic violence. Over 26 years in prison could not crush the spirit of this determined African-American woman, despite the wrongs she suffered, first at the hands of a duplicitous boyfriend who beat her and forced her into prostitution, and later by prosecutors who used the threat of the death penalty to corner her into a life behind bars for her connection to the murder of her abuser. Her story takes an unexpected turn two decades later when two rookie land-use attorneys step forward to take her case. Through their perseverance, they bring to light long-lost witnesses, new testimonies from the men who committed the murder, and proof of perjured evidence. Their investigation ultimately attracts global attention to victims of wrongful incarceration and abuse, and becomes a matter of life and death once more.

 

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The Truth: The Journey Within

Sunday, June 26th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 146

Language:

Director: Straw Weisman

Plot: What we think we know and have based our entire lives upon is not the full story. Man has searched for the Truth since the beginning of time but all along the answers have been found only within, in the silent language of the heart.

The Truth, The Journey Within magically weaves the teachings of 32 of the world’s leading scientific experts and transformational teachers to reveal how we can unlock those conditioned messages and social programming values, clearing our minds of self- limiting beliefs and freeing us to live more empowered and fully integrated and joyful lives.

There is no secret, begin the journey and discovery of your lifetime…

 

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General Orders No. 9

Friday, June 24th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 118

Language:

Director: Robert Persons

Plot: Awarded for its visionary cinematography, GENERAL ORDERS No. 9 breaks from the constraints of the documentary form as it contemplates the signs of loss and change in the American South.

The stunning culmination of over eleven years of work from first time writer-director Robert Persons, GENERAL ORDERS No. 9 marries experimental filmmaking with an accessible, naturalist sensibility to tell the epic story of the clash between nature and man’s progress, and reaches a bittersweet reconciliation all its own.
Told entirely with images, poetry, and music, GENERAL ORDERS No. 9 is unlike any film you have ever seen. A story of maps, dreams, and prayers, it is one last trip down the rabbit hole before it’s paved over.

 

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Turtle: The Incredible Journey

Friday, June 24th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 117

Language: English

Director: Nick Stringer

Plot: TURTLE: THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY is the story of a little loggerhead turtle, which follows in the path of her ancestors on one of the most extraordinary journeys in the natural world. Born on a beach in Florida, she rides the Gulf Stream all the way to the frozen north and ultimately swims around the entire North Atlantic to Africa and back to the beach where she was born. But the odds are stacked against her; just one in 10,000 thousand turtles survive the journey.

Along the way she faces many hazards, she loses her brothers and sisters in the Sargasso Sea, comes face to face with creatures of the deep and nearly dies at the hands of fishermen. A sunfish guides her to safety and a humpback whale shows her the way north. And when she finally reaches the frozen north, she sees the greatest celebration of life on the Earth; but she also discovers deep and powerful changes happening in the oceans – the ice is melting and sea levels are rising; it could halt the Gulf Stream, flood the turtle’s birthing beaches and end a way of life.

Then her calling comes, she must return home.

Under a million stars, she crawls out of the sea to lay her own eggs and keep Turtle: The Incredible Journey alive.

 

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CONAN O’BRIEN CAN’T STOP

Friday, June 24th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 152

Language:

Director: Rodman Flender

Plot: After a much-publicized departure from hosting NBC’s Tonight Show, O’Brien hit the road with a 32-city music-and-comedy show to exercise his performing chops and exorcise a few demons. Filmmaker Rodman Flender’s documentary, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, is an intimate portrait of an artist trained in improvisation, captured at the most improvisational time of his career. It offers a window into the private writers room and rehearsal halls as O’Brien’s “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television” tour is almost instantly assembled and mounted to an adoring fan base. At times angry, mostly hilarious, we see a comic who does not stop — performing, singing, pushing his staff and himself. Did Conan O’Brien hit the road to give something back to his loyal fans, or did he travel across the continent, stopping at cities large and remote to fill a void within himself?

 

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If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 129

Language:

Director: Marshall Curry

Plot: A look at the Earth Liberation Front.

 

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Buck

Friday, June 17th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 150

Language: English

Director: Cindy Meehl

Plot: “The Horse Whisperer” may be the stuff of Hollywood legend but the cowboy who inspired the novel and film is very real. Buck Brannaman – master horseman, raconteur and philosopher – is a no-excuses cowboy who travels the world sharing a hard-won wisdom that’s often more about human relationships than about horses.

BUCK, a richly textured and visually stunning feature documentary, follows Brannaman from a severely abusive and painful childhood to his inspiring work as a teacher. He possesses near magical abilities as he dramatically transforms horses – and people – with his understanding, compassion and respect. Plucked from a terrifying childhood, Buck found a safe haven when he was sent to a loving foster family. There he learned the life lessons that he would later apply to his teaching — rejecting the use of fear, cruelty and intimidation and instead creating bonds of trust, tolerance and empathy. He often compares redirecting the minds and energy of troubled horses with the trials of raising children.

The astonishing strength of character that helped Buck transcend the darkness of his past is poignantly reflected in his loving relationship with his daughter Reata, who has clearly inherited the riding and roping talents of her dad. But Buck is often away from his family and travels alone in his horse trailer from clinic to sold-out clinic all across the country, dealing with fractious horses and, frequently, fractious humans. As Buck says, “Often instead of helping people with horse problems, I’m helping horses with people problems.”

 

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Jig

Friday, June 17th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 129

Language:

Director: Sue Bourne

Plot: JIG is the remarkable story of the fortieth Irish Dancing World Championships, held in March 2010 in Glasgow. Three thousand dancers, their families and teachers from
around the globe descend upon Glasgow for one drama filled week. Clad in wigs, make up, fake tan, diamantes and dresses costing thousands of pounds they compete for the coveted world titles.

 

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The Last Mountain

Friday, June 3rd, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 148

Language: English

Director: Bill Haney

Plot: The fight for the last great mountain in America’s heartland pits a mining giant that wants to explode it for its coal against local families fighting to preserve their mountain, their heritage and their futures.

The mining and burning of coal is at the epicenter of America’s struggle to balance its energy needs and environmental concerns, so the daring solution proposed by this small Appalachian community takes on national significance when Bobby Kennedy, Jr. joins the Appalachian families to fight the extraordinary and insidious power of Big Coal.

 

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Rejoice and Shout

Friday, June 3rd, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 131

Language:

Director: Don McGlynn

Plot: No wonder the music is so beautiful. God’s on their side.

REJOICE AND SHOUT is the definitive history of GOSPEL music – some of the most emotional and powerful music in the world, and the foundation of the blues, country and rock n’ roll.

Packed with evocative photos, rare audio, recordings, stirring film appearances and TV performances, REJOICE AND SHOUT is a jubilant journey through the 200 year musical history of African-American Christianity. Culled from hundreds of hours of music, REJOICE AND SHOUT features interviews and performances from the most celebrated voices in gospel music, including: Smokey Robinson, Mavis Staples and the Staple Singers, Mahalia Jackson, Clara Ward, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Andrae Crouch, The Blind Boys of Alabama, the Selvey Family, Darrel Petties and many more.

REJOICE AND SHOUT traces the evolution of Gospel through its many musical styles – the spirituals and early hymns, the four-part harmony-based quartets, the integration of blues and swing into Gospel, the emergence of Soul, and the blending of Rap and Hip Hop elements.

Gospel music walks in step with the story of African-American culture – slavery, hardscrabble rural existence and plantation work, the exodus to major cities, the Depression, World War II, civil rights and empowerment. REJOICE AND SHOUT connects the history of African-American culture with Gospel as it first impacted popular culture at large.

Years in the making, REJOICE AND SHOUT captures so much of what is special about this music and African-American Christianity – the sermonizing, the heartfelt testimonials, getting slain in the spirit, the hard hollering, and of course the inspiring music.

 

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Louder Than A Bomb

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 141

Language: English

Director: Greg Jacobs

Plot: Louder Than a Bomb tells the story of four Chicago high school poetry teams as they prepare to compete in the world’s largest youth slam. By turns hopeful and heartbreaking, the film captures the turbulent lives of these unforgettable kids, exploring the ways writing shapes their world, and vice versa. Louder Than a Bomb is not about “high school poetry” as we often think of it. It’s about language as a joyful release, irrepressibly talented teenagers obsessed with making words dance. While the topics they tackle are often deeply personal, what they put into their poems-and what they get out of them-is universal: the defining work of finding one’s voice.

 

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Make Believe

Friday, May 13th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 164

Language: English

Director: J. Clay Tweel

Plot: Director J. Clay Tweel follows six adolescent outsiders who all share an extraordinary passion: the art of magic. We meet Krystyn Lambert, a member of the Magic Castle, a classic beauty who hails from Malibu and seems to have it all but she just doesn’t fit in; Bill Koch, a 19 year old from Chicago who has no time for second best and has one last shot to win the title before he ages out; Hiroki Hara, who lives in a remote Japanese village where he practices magic 8 hours a day and dreams of performing around the world; Derek McKee, the youngest, a very serious 14 year old from Colorado who has found the one skill he has that makes people take notice is magic; and Siphiwe Fangase and Nkumbozo Nkonyana from Capetown, South Africa whose energy and excitement for the art is contagious to all. Along the way, “Make Believe” incorporates interviews with Neil Patrick Harris, Lance Burton and several magicians who share these teens passion.

 

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Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff

Friday, May 13th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 124

Language: English

Director: Craig McCall

Plot: Jack Cardiff’s career spanned an incredible nine of moving picture’s first ten decades and his work behind the camera altered the look of films forever through his use of Technicolor photography. Craig McCall’s passionate film about the legendary cinematographer reveals a unique figure in British and international cinema. Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival Classics and the New York Film Festival.

 

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Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls

Friday, May 13th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 125

Language:

Director: Leanne Pooley

Plot: Winner of the Cadillac People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival 2009 ‘The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls’ tells the story of the world’s only comedic, singing, yodelling lesbian twin sisters, Lynda and Jools Topp, whose political activism and unique brand of entertainment has helped change New Zealand’s social landscape.
In the process they have become welll-loved cultural icons.

 

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How To Live Forever

Friday, May 13th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 113

Language:

Director: Mark Wexler

Plot: Director Mark Wexler embarks on a worldwide trek to investigate just what it means to grow old and what it could mean to really live forever. But whose advice should he take? Does 94-year-old exercise guru Jack LaLanne have all the answers, or does Buster, a 103-year-old chain-smoking, beer-drinking marathoner? What about futurist Ray Kurzweil, a laughter yoga expert, or an elder porn star? Wexler explores the viewpoints of delightfully unusual characters alongside those of health, fitness and life-extension experts in this engaging new documentary, which challenges our notions of youth and aging with comic poignancy. Begun as a study in life-extension, How To Live Forever evolves into a thought-provoking examination of what truly gives life meaning.

 

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L’AMOUR FOU

Friday, May 13th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 133

Language:

Director: Pierre Thoretton

Plot: Yves Saint Laurent is heralded as one of the greatest fashion designers of the twentieth century. Together with his once-lover and longtime business partner, Pierre Bergé, the Yves Saint Laurent Couture House broke boundaries that shook the world of fashion, forever changing the way women dressed. Along the way, they collected a one-of-a- kind art collection that could rival the holdings of any gallery. Upon Saint Laurent’s death, Bergé decided to sell the collection that they had spent their lives amassing. Known as “The Auction of the Century,” this multi-million dollar sale heralded the end of an era.

Winner of the Fipresci International Critics Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival and an official selection of the TriBeCa and San Francisco Film Festivals, L’AMOUR FOU is a grand tribute to an empire of decadence and beauty. This gorgeously lush biopic of one of the greatest names in fashion will stay with you, and linger in your mind. As Saint Laurent once said, “Fashions fade, style is eternal,” and this gorgeously stylish film will not soon fade from memory.

 

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Forks Over Knives

Friday, May 6th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 177

Language: English

Director: Lee Fulkerson

Plot: FORKS OVER KNIVES examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods. The major storyline traces the personal journeys of Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a nutritional scientist from Cornell University, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, a former top surgeon at the world renowned Cleveland Clinic. Inspired by remarkable discoveries in their young careers, these men conducted several groundbreaking studies. Their separate research led them to the same startling conclusion: degenerative diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even several forms of cancer, could almost always be prevented-and in many cases reversed-by adopting a whole foods, plant-based diet. In addition, cameras follow “reality patients” who have chronic conditions from heart disease to diabetes, and are taught by their doctors to adopt a whole foods plant-based diet as the primary approach to treat their ailments.

 

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Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 95

Language: English

Director: Andrew Rossi

Plot: Through the years, the fly-on-the-wall documentary has taken us on the presidential campaign trail, into the foxholes of war and behind the curtain with performers. In the spirit of that tradition, PAGE ONE goes inside the newsroom at The New York Times during the most tumultuous era for journalism since the printing press was invented to reveal a disarmingly candid portrait of the paper of record.

Over the course of a year when WikiLeaks and Twitter emerged as household names and publications like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Washington Post either folded or significantly reduced their operations, director Andrew Rossi gains unprecedented access to the country’s preeminent news factory. Can the foot soldiers of this bastion of old media keep up with the fire hose of information that is the world wide web?

Inside the Times newsroom, journalists on the media desk grapple with the implications of their paper’s decision to work with whistleblower Julian Assange, the collapse of traditional models for network television and print advertising, challenges to the Times’ authority in the wake of reporting failures during the run up to the war in Iraq and the emergence of the blog voice in the pages of the Gray Lady as exemplified by writers David Carr and Brian Stelter. Meanwhile, they continue to uphold the values of the old-fashioned, shoe-leather reporting that’s now on the endangered list.

 

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Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Friday, April 29th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 129

Language: English (International)

Director: Werner Herzog

Plot: CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS, a breathtaking new 3D documentary from the incomparable Werner Herzog (ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, GRIZZLY MAN) follows an exclusive expedition into the nearly inaccessible Chauvet Cave in France, home to the most ancient visual art known to have been created by man. A hit at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS is an unforgettable cinematic experience that provides a unique glimpse of pristine artwork dating back to human hands over 30,000 years ago — almost twice as old as any previous discovery.

 

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Exporting Raymond

Friday, April 29th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 144

Language: English

Director: Phil Rosenthal

Plot: EXPORTING RAYMOND tells the hilarious, warm and intimate journey of one man – considered an expert in his country having created one of the most popular television shows of all time – who travels to a foreign land to help people who don’t seem to want his help.

When Rosenthal joins forces with Hollywood studio Sony Pictures Television to recreate “Everybody Loves Raymond” for Russian TV audiences as “The Voronins,” he finds himself lost in Moscow, lost in his mission, lost in translation. Rosenthal tries to connect with his Russian colleagues but runs into unique characters and situations that conspire to drive him insane.

 

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