Nancy Schiesari

The tumultuous events surrounding the sub-continent's partition in 1947 into India and Pakistan are re-imagined in Ken McMullen's complex and visually striking film. A lunatic asylum in the city of Lahore becomes a mirror image of events in the outside political world, with the same actors playing both inmates and rulers. Adapted by Tariq Ali and McMullen from famous Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto's short story 'Toba Tek Singh', Partition speaks for the countless millions that the usual British Raj films sweep out of sight. Released to mark the 60th anniversary of the partition of the Indian sub-continent, this is the film's first-ever release on DVD.

A documentary exploring the experience of going to war with a Military Working Dog, trained to find bombs before they can kill or maim soldiers, often at the expense of the dog's sanity.

In this film made over ten years, filmmaker Barbara Sonneborn goes on a pilgrimage to the Vietnamese countryside where her husband was killed. She and translator (and fellow war widow) Xuan Ngoc Nguyen explore the meaning of war and loss on a human level. The film weaves interviews with Vietnamese and American widows into a vivid testament to the legacy of war.

The tumultuous life of the controversial 1960s black revolutionary (and convicted murderer) Michael X is illustrated by a kaleidoscopic melding of sound and images. The radically discordant free jazz soundtrack provides a surreal counterpoint to the mix of newsreel and staged footage in this exhilarating experiment in documentary storytelling.

The Year of the Beaver focuses on the industrial dispute at the Grunwicks photographic processing plant in Willesden, London in the summer of 1977. The workforce, predominately consisting of British Asian women, most of whom had only recently arrived in the UK, decided to go on strike over the issue of trade union recognition. The strike lasted for two years.

Cactus Jack: Lone Star on Capitol Hill reveals the rollicking saga of one of the most powerful but often forgotten figures in U.S. history: John Nance "Cactus Jack" Garner (1868-1967). The documentary charts Garner's extraordinary life, from his humble roots in Blossom Prairie, Texas, to his 38-year tenure on Capitol Hill where he wielded power as Speaker of the House during the darkest days of the Great Depression. Garner ran as a presidential candidate at the 1932 Democratic Convention and twice served as vice president to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Cactus Jack offers insights into this brazen political dealmaker who helped reshape the Democratic Party and push through New Deal legislation. Cactus Jack: Lone Star on Capitol Hill opens new chapters in U.S. history-and provides vital clues to the way our nation does business today.

About Green Flutes, a republican flute band in Govan, Glasgow. Unemployed members of the band outline the creative and political reasons for joining the band and women in Govan talk about the changing attitudes towards their traditional roles. A journey by the band to Northern Ireland places their music within a longstanding cultural tradition in republican history and also highlights parallels between the conditions of life for the working class in Belfast and Glasgow. Made with the collabaration of the James Connolly Flute Band, Joi Leatherbarrow and Keith Lucas.