Single mother Anna and her four children live in the front-line war zone of Donbas, Ukraine. While the outside world is made up of bombings and chaos, the family is managing to keep their home a safe haven, full of life and full of light. Every member of the family has a passion for cinema, motivating them to shoot a film inspired by their own life during a time of war. The creative process raises the question of what kind of power the magical world of cinema could have during times of disaster. How to picture war through fiction? For Anna and the children, transforming trauma into a work of art is the ultimate way to stay human.
An actress asks a sex worker to help her create a film in which they share secrets of their professions, and they become both filmmakers and characters.
Missing, hosted by Alex Paen, is a weekly syndicated TV series in the United States profiling real cases of missing persons. The series debuted in 2003.
According to the official website, as of October 2011, over 600 persons featured on Missing have been safely recovered.
Joanne Williams' documentary captures an experiment of sorts. In 1966, amid the Civil Rights era, students from Milwaukee's Rufus King High School and students from Kaukauna High School participated in an exchange program that culminated in a production of Martin Duberman's play IN WHITE AMERICA. Now, over fifty years later, the original participants come together with a new generation, reprising this play with reflection and new energy amid our own racial reckoning.
Defying the state legislature that outlawed abortion, the Catholic Church that condemned it, and the Chicago Mob that was profiting from it, the members of “Jane” risked their personal and professional lives to support women with unwanted pregnancies. In the pre-Roe v. Wade era — a time when abortion was a crime in most states and even circulating information about abortion was a felony in Illinois — the Janes provided low-cost and free abortions to an estimated 11,000 women.
In 1973, four young African-American men stealing guns for self-defense in Brooklyn were cornered by the NYPD. A violent gun battle killed a police officer, beginning the longest hostage siege in NYPD history. The NYPD’s 130-year-old policy was to deliver an ultimatum, then respond with deadly force. Could visionary police psychologist Harvey Schlossberg convince his superiors to do the unthinkable – negotiate with “criminals” – and save twelve hostages from an impending bloodbath? In never-before-seen film and gripping interviews with survivors, HOLD YOUR FIRE uncovers what really happened in this landmark event with the potential to revolutionize American policing.
The Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people have seen their population dwindle and their culture threatened since coming into contact with non-Native Brazilians. Though promised dominion over their own rainforest territory, they have faced illegal incursions from environmentally destructive logging and mining, and, most recently, land-grabbing invasions spurred on by right-wing politicians like President Jair Bolsonaro. With deforestation escalating as a result, the stakes have become global.
A young filmmaker meets and follows Raya, a 94-year-old Soviet war heroine who fought in the Siege of Leningrad. As Head of the World War II Disabled Veterans Club in her city, she introduces him to a vanishing generation in Israel. Her own fighting spirit and willpower are still fierce. As Raya faces the loss of her last comrades and her health deteriorates, the two become involved in a spiritual process that awakens the young woman within her; Through her eyes and dreams, they create their own reality in which time and age lose all meaning. Their growing closeness transforms a film about war and loss into a mystical story of love and friendship.
The city of Mariupolis is by the Azov sea. It is also on the river Kalmius. Most of the city’s residents, half a million according to the last census, are working for the steel factory and do fishing, for leisure or food, in between shifts. The orthodox church towers above the city and its newly build bronze domes are sitting next to it, waiting to be donned. A tent near by is sheltering a crying icon, which receives a steady flow of visitors.
What happens in the eyes of a 100-year-old filmmaker? Rolands Kalniņš, one of the great masters of Latvian cinema, sits down to have his photo taken and looks straight in the lens. Kalniņš’ life has spanned an authoritarian regime, a world war, long years under Soviet occupation and censorship, and retirement in independent Latvia. His films have been censored, destroyed, found and restored. But here, like Herz Frank once did with a child, for ten minutes we shall observe the micro-emotions of a man who has dedicated his life to film. Confronted directly by the tool of his trade, the camera. As we face Kalniņš eye to eye, we hear the sounds of his present, and the memories of his past.
In the shadow of the pandemic, a small town rallies to protect a beloved local bookstore. A landmark in Lenox, Massachusetts, The Bookstore is a magical, beatnik gem thanks to its owner Matt Tannenbaum, whose passion for stories runs deep. This portrait of The Bookstore and the family at its heart offers a journey through good times, hard times, and the stories hidden on the shelves.