Archive for the ‘Documentary’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Occupy the Farm

Friday, November 7th, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 189

Language: English

Director: Todd Darling

Plot: OCCUPY THE FARM tells the story of a community’s fight to save public land for urban farming. When 200 farmers march to the gates of the last farmland in the urban East Bay near Oakland, they don’t carry signs protesting University of California’s plans to build a shopping center. Instead, they carry tents, tools and 15,000 seedlings. They clip the padlock off the gate and march onto the fields. What happens next will change the fate of the land and introduce a new strategy for activism. From tilling soil and watering vegetables to police raids, from lawsuits to overflowing harvests, OCCUPY THE FARM reveals a resourceful, creative, and determined community responding with direct action to a serious social need: access to healthy food.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

On Any Sunday, The Next Chapter

Friday, November 7th, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 124

Language: English

Director: Dana Brown

Plot: On Any Sunday, The Next Chapter” is an exploration into the two-wheeled world of motorcycle riding. The film journeys deeper into the humanity, thrills and excitement behind the global culture of motorcycle riding. We meet those who are bonded by their passion for the race, we experience the exhilaration of the ride and we witness the love of family and friendship as each individual seeks out their next thrilling moment on the bike.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

The Outrageous Sophie Tucker

Friday, November 7th, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 105

Language: English

Director: William Gazecki

Plot: The rags to riches story of Sophie Tucker, an iconic superstar who ruled the worlds of vaudeville, Broadway, radio, television, and Hollywood throughout the 20th century.

Before Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Bette Midler, Marilyn Monroe, and Mae West, Sophie Tucker was the first woman to infatuate her audiences with a bold, bawdy and brassy style unlike any other.

Using all of “The Last of the Red Hot Mamas” 400-plus recently rediscovered personal scrapbooks, authors Susan and Lloyd Ecker take you on their seven-year journey retracing Tucker’s sixty-year career in show business.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

Getting to The Nutcracker

Thursday, November 6th, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 129

Language: English

Director: Serene Meshel-Dillman

Plot: Every Christmas season, The Nutcracker Ballet is performed in cities all over the world. What does it really take to produce this ballet each year? Getting to The Nutcracker, takes you inside the Herculean effort involved in gathering the resources, assembling the volunteers, casting the dancers, rehearsing and staging the performances of this classic ballet.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

The invisible Front

Thursday, November 6th, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 143

Language: English

Director: Jonas Ohman

Plot: In 1944, Soviet forces occupied Lithuania for a second time in less than five years. This time the youth of the nation chose to fight back and formed a guerrilla army of partisans called the Forest Brothers. Among them was a charismatic leader named Juozas Luksa who joined the resistance with his three brothers. Having realized that the pen was mightier than the sword Luksa risked his life to escape to Paris in 1948 to spread the word of the partisan struggle. In Paris, Luksa quickly joined up with Western intelligence agencies, wrote a memoir and met the love of his life: Nijole. Shorlty after their wedding, Luksa, was air-dropped back into Soviet Lithuania by the CIA to help liberate his country. The Invisible Front tells the story of Lithuanian resistance, Luksa and Nijole through the use of Luksa’s writings and his love letters to Nijole.
The Invisible Front won the Audience Award at the international film festival „Kino Pavasaris“ in Vilnius 2014.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

National Gallery

Tuesday, November 4th, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 113

Language: English

Director: Frederick Wiseman

Plot: National Gallery takes the audience behind the scenes of a London institution, on a journey to the heart of a museum inhabited by masterpieces of Western art from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. National Gallery is the portrait of a place, its way of working and relations with the world, its staff and public, and its paintings. In a perpetual and dizzying game of mirrors, film watches painting watches film.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

I Am Santa Claus

Tuesday, November 4th, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 130

Language: English

Director: Tommy Avallone

Plot: Everyone thinks of Santa Claus as a magical figure without flaws, but the men who keep his legend alive, real-bearded professional Santas, are nothing like the jolly ol’ Saint Nick we’ve all grown up knowing. In reality, the mall Santa in your cherished children’s photo has problems just like the rest of us. Even the jolliest of men fall victim to divorce, job loss, insecurity and even the occasional hangover. ‘I Am Santa Claus’ is a documentary that follows the lives of five real-bearded professional Santa Clauses as they anticipate and prepare the coming holiday season while showing them for who they actually are flawed, flesh and blood men who feel an overbearing responsibility to protect the integrity of the spotless, untarnished reputation of the “Red Suit.”

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

Point and Shoot

Friday, October 31st, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 135

Language: English

Director: Marshall Curry

Plot: Winner of the Best Documentary Award at the Tribeca Film Festival, POINT AND SHOOT follows Matt VanDyke, a timid 26-year-old with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, who left home in Baltimore in 2006 and set off on a self-described “crash course in manhood.” He bought a motorcycle and a video camera and began a three-year, 35,000-mile motorcycle trip through Northern Africa and the Middle East. While traveling, he struck up an unlikely friendship with a Libyan hippie, and when revolution broke out in Libya, Matt joined his friend in the fight against dictator Muammar Gaddafi. With a gun in one hand and a camera in the other, Matt fought in — and filmed — the war until he was captured by Gaddafi forces and held in solitary confinement for six months. Two-time Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker Marshall Curry tells this harrowing and sometimes humorous story of a young man’s struggle for political revolution and personal transformation.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

Braddock America

Friday, October 31st, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 103

Language: English

Director: Gabriella Kessler

Plot: Braddock, America is a feature length documentary set in Braddock, Pennsylvania, a town (actually a circle of boroughs) that has been the stage for momentous events, out of proportion with its constrained area. From George Washington to Andrew Carnegie, through the French and Indian War to the collapse of the steel industry, these few acres along the Monongahela River have always been a battleground.

In its own way, through immigration, industrialization, the rise of trade unionism and its destiny in question, Braddock tells a story of America: a rebellious, combatant America inhabited by men and women who refuse to accept the violence inflicted upon them. “Resist much, obey little,” Walt Whitman urged his fellow citizens and indeed his words could be the motto of this film. The Monongahela Valley has been heavily stricken by the steel crisis and the shutdowns of the mills in the 80’s. It is probably easier to find more enchanting places in the world, but if many don’t imagine leaving the valley, it is because they know that this tiny parcel of land bears the traces, buried in its soil and in their memories, of events that helped build the history of their nation. This same awareness leads them to believe that such a special place might one day help map out a future for the United States.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

Magical Universe

Friday, October 31st, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 143

Language: English

Director: Jeremy Workman

Plot: Filmed for over a decade, MAGICAL UNIVERSE is a portrait of Al Carbee, an 88 year old strange and reclusive outsider artist who spends his days alone in a massive house in Maine creating art — mostly featuring Barbie Dolls in elaborate dioramas. The documentary profiles Carbee’s amazing body of work and his relentlessly creative lifestyle. Carbee’s story is explored through the prism of his unlikely friendship with New York filmmaker Jeremy Workman, who unexpectedly becomes Carbee’s closest friend and only link to the outside world. Far beyond just a portrait of an eccentric, MAGICAL UNIVERSE is about wonder, friendship, and the transcendent power of creativity. Its story culminates with Al Carbee’s greatest triumph as an artist and a man.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

God the Father

Friday, October 31st, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 150

Language: English

Director: Simon Fellows

Plot: God The Father…takes us on the untold personal journey of Michael Franzese, a young and charismatic Capo in the Colombo Crime family during the 1980‘s-90‘s and whose notorious father, Sonny Franzese was also a renowned Underboss. Following in his father’s footsteps, in the mid-1980s, Fortune Magazine named Franzese as number #18 on its list of the “Fifty Most Wealthy and Powerful Mafia Bosses”.

According to a Federal report, Franzese made more money for a crime family than anyone since Chicago Outfit boss, Al Capone.A revelation that Michael’s own father went along with a contract hit on his life, Michael’s love for his wife and children and the realization his own life was heading the same way as every other mob guy that came before him…straight to ST. JOHNS Cemetery in NYC, Michael took the decision to leave the ‘Life’.

An act previously thought impossible…Michael Franzese publicly walked away from the Colombo family and organized crime. During his time in prison, Michael discovered the Bible. Devouring its contents Michael found parallels between the Good Book’s teachings and his experiences in the ‘Life’ which translated into Michael developing his own unique religious perspective and faith. A faith that is directly responsible for his still being alive today.

God The Father…utilizes every cinematic ingredient available to tell Michael Franzese’s remarkable journey from a ‘made man’ to a man of God. From choreographed dance sequences, traditional interviews, stock footage, visceral re-enactments and sophisticated animation sequences…specifically designed to show the more violent aspects of mob life, in a subtle and intelligent way. This film is the first time the Michael Franzese story has ever been told cinematically and with such originality and power.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show

Friday, October 31st, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 100

Language: English

Director: Des Doyle

Plot: SHOWRUNNERS is the first ever feature-length documentary to explore the fascinating world of U.S. television showrunners and the creative forces aligned around them. These people are responsible for creating, writing, and overseeing every element of production on one of the United State’s biggest exports – television drama and comedy series.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

The Great Invisible

Wednesday, October 29th, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 149

Language: English

Director: Margaret Brown

Plot: On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. It killed 11 workers and caused the worst oil spill in American history.

The explosion still haunts the lives of those most intimately affected, though the story has long ago faded from the front page. At once a fascinating corporate thriller, a heartbreaking human drama and a peek inside the walls of the secretive oil industry, “The Great Invisible” is the first documentary feature to go beyond the media coverage to examine the crisis in depth through the eyes of oil executives, survivors and Gulf Coast residents who experienced it first-hand and then were left to pick up the pieces while the world moved on.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

Revenge of the Mekons

Tuesday, October 28th, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 130

Language: English

Director: Joe Angio

Plot: REVENGE OF THE MEKONS chronicles the unlikely career of the genre-defying collective notorious for being—as rock critic Greil Marcus notes—“the band that took punk ideology most seriously.” Born out of the 1977 British punk scene, the Mekons progressed from a group of socialist art students with no musical skills to the prolific, raucous progeny of Hank Williams. Joe Angio’s exuberant documentary follows their improbable history – a surprising and influential embrace of folk and country music forays into the art world (collaborations with Vito Acconci and Kathy Acker) and consistent bad luck with major record labels. Among the celebrated fans who appear on screen to testify to the power of their music and artistic innovations are authors Jonathan Franzen (The Corrections) and Luc Sante (Low Life), musician/actor Will Oldham, film director Mary Harron (I SHOT ANDY WARHOL), comedian/ musician Fred Armisen (Portlandia), and critic Greil Marcus (Mystery Train). REVENGE OF THE MEKONS reveals how, four decades into an ever-evolving career, punk’s reigning contrarians continue to make bold, unpredictable music while staying true to the punk ethos.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

Citizenfour

Friday, October 24th, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 87

Language: English

Director: Laura Poitras

Plot: CITIZENFOUR is the never before seen, utterly riveting first-person look at how director Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald first met with whistleblower Edward Snowden in Hong Kong where he gave them documents showing widespread abuses of power by the National Security Administration. It is an unprecedented fly-on-the-wall account of one of the most groundbreaking moments in recent history.

In January 2013, Poitras (recipient of the 2012 MacArthur Genius Fellowship and co-recipient of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service) was several years into making a film about surveillance in the post-9/11 era when she started receiving encrypted e-mails from someone identifying himself as “citizen four,” who was ready to blow the whistle on the massive covert surveillance programs run by the NSA and other intelligence agencies. In June 2013, she and Greenwald flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with the man who turned out to be Snowden. She brought her camera with her. The film that resulted from this series of tense encounters is absolutely sui generis in the history of cinema: a 100% real-life thriller unfolding minute by minute before our eyes.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

E-Team

Friday, October 24th, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 130

Language: English

Director: Katy Chevigny

Plot: Anna, Ole, Fred and Peter are four members of the Emergencies Team — or E-Team — the most intrepid division of a respected, international human rights group. Trained to deal with unfolding crises, the E-Team flies to hotspots all over the world as soon as allegations of human rights abuse surface. Then they get to work — gathering crucial evidence to determine if further investigation is warranted and, if so, to investigate, document, and capture the world’s attention. They also immediately challenge the responsible decision makers, holding them accountable. Human rights abuses thrive on secrecy and silence, and the work of the E-Team, backed by their international human rights organization, has shone light in dark places and given voice to thousands whose stories would never otherwise have been told.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

Glen Campbell I’ll Be Me

Friday, October 24th, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 181

Language: English

Director: James Keach

Plot: The film features those who know and love Glen, including Bruce Springsteen, Bill Clinton, The Edge, Paul McCartney, Jay Leno, Vince Gil, Jimmy Web, Blake Shelton, Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Steve Martin, Chad Smith and Taylor Swift among many others. Rare vintage footage and extraordinary new performances of Glen’s most beloved hits immerse this moving cinematic account in the overwhelming talent of this humble family man. With joy and a tireless sense of humor, Glen and his family live each moment in the present while preparing for the future, all while playing their music to sold out ven

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

Red Dot on the Ocean: The Matt Rutherford Story

Thursday, October 23rd, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 171

Language: English

Director: Amy Flannery

Plot: Red Dot on the Ocean is the story of Matt Rutherford, a severely troubled youth, who became a sailing legend. Departing Annapolis, MD in a scrappy, old 27-foot fiberglass sloop without fanfare, 30-year-old Rutherford braved the icebergs of the arctic and mountainous waves of Cape Horn to become the only person to ever sail single-handed, non-stop around the Americas a journey many professional sailors declared “a suicide mission.” The story of Matt’s 27,000 mile journey is told through his own footage and photographs of the voyage and interviews with friends, family, and sailing experts. As a youngster, Matt’s ADHD and tics made life at home and at school near-impossible. At age 13 he was in drug rehab and he spent his remaining teen years more on the streets than in school. Then, at age 17, locked up in a cell, he had an epiphany and began to turn his life around. Matt bought his first boat – sight unseen on the Internet and learned to sail on the fly. Four years later, in 2008, he embarked on a single-handed voyage from the USA to Europe, West Africa and back across the Atlantic to the Caribbean he’d found his calling. His next challenge was to circumnavigate the Americas. And, after 309 days at sea, he achieved his goal and sailed into Annapolis to a hero’s welcome. Matt Rutherford’s story is full of surprises. It is truly inspiring and makes us all feel we can do more than we ever imagined.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

Soul of a Banquet

Tuesday, October 21st, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 124

Language: English

Director: Wayne Wang

Plot: Director Wayne Wang (THE JOY LUCK CLUB) takes us into the world of Cecilia Chiang, the woman who introduced America to authentic Chinese food. Chiang opened her internationally renowned restaurant The Mandarin in 1961 in San Francisco and went on to change the course of cuisine in America. The film is equal parts a delectable showcase of gastronomy and a touching portrait of Chiang’s journey from a childhood in Beijing before the Cultural Revolution to accidental restaurateur on the west coast of the United States. SOUL OF A BANQUET features interviews with Alice Waters, Ruth Reichl, and Cecilia Chiang herself.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

Watchers of The Sky

Friday, October 17th, 2014

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2014

Runtime: 125

Language: English

Director: Edet Belzberg

Plot: With his provocative question, “why is the killing of a million a lesser crime than the killing of an individual?” Raphael Lemkin changed the course of history. An extraordinary testament to one man’s perseverance, the Sundance award-winning film Watchers of the Sky examines the life and legacy of the Polish-Jewish lawyer and linguist who coined the term genocide. Before Lemkin, the notion of accountability for war crimes was virtually non-existent. After experiencing the barbarity of the Holocaust firsthand, he devoted his life to convincing the international community that there must be legal retribution for mass atrocities targeted at minorities. An impassioned visionary, Lemkin confronted world apathy in a tireless battle for justice, setting the stage for the Nuremberg trails and the creation of the International Criminal Court.

Inspired by Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book A Problem From Hell, this multi-faceted documentary interweaves Raphael Lemkin’s struggle with the courageous efforts of four individuals keeping his legacy alive: Luis Moreno Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor of the ICC Samantha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Ben Ferencz, a former Nuremberg prosecutor still tenaciously lobbying the UN for peace, and Rwandan Emmanuel Uwurukundo, UN Refugee Agency Field Director in Chad. Alternating live interviews with rare archival footage and striking animation, Watchers of the Sky illuminates the compassion and bravery of these humanitarians and powerfully demonstrates the ability of global activism to give a voice to the silent victims of genocide.

 

Posted in Documentary | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »