Lyman Smith

An unlikely team of activists and innovators hatches a bold mission to save endangered species.

There are 640 million acres of public land in the United States. But there are powerful forces, both in government and in corporate America, eager to plunder this bounty. David Garrett Byars’s eye-opening documentary travels to Alaska, into the red rock canyons of southern Utah, and to Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, and exposes a land war going on under our very noses.

Sam Schmidt lived out his boyhood dream as an IndyCar racer, winning races and earning the title of IndyCar "Rookie of the Year" along the way. That dream came to an abrupt end when Sam crashed into a wall at 200 miles per hour, leaving him a quadriplegic. Reengineering SAM pulls the curtain back and shows up close the serious implications of a life of paralysis on Sam and everyone around him. Sam's accident rendered him physically helpless, never being able to brush his teeth, much less drive again, until a dedicated group of some of the brightest minds today stepped up to build him a car that he could drive, using only his head. Through groundbreaking adaptive technologies, Reengineering SAM chronicles Sam Schmidt's inspirational road back to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and shows the promise of freedom and mobility for almost anyone confined to a wheelchair.

A feature-length, environmental thriller that follows investigative journalist, Matt Blomberg, and ocean activist, Paul Ferber, in their dangerous efforts to create a marine conservation area and combat the relentless tide of illegal fishing. Along the way a new generation of Cambodian environmentalists are inspired to create a better life for their people.

For 35 years, Boulder-based photographer James Balog (Chasing Ice) has broken new conceptual and artistic ground on one of the most important issues of our era: human modification of our planet’s natural systems. Now, feeling an urgent need to show how climate change is impacting his own country, Balog creates stunning images that reveal how environmental problems are affecting the lives of average Americans.

In 2009, Mountain Bike Hall of Fame inductee Mike “The Bike” Rust went missing from his off-the-grid property in Colorado's San Luis Valley. His disappearance—which received almost no press—remains unsolved. An innovator in his sport, Rust custom-built bikes for Colorado’s mountain passes, starting a fat-tire revolution and designing gear that transformed the industry. Salida native Nathan Ward, himself an intrepid mountain biker, set out to tell Rust’s story, tracking the pioneer’s subject through the infancy of the sport to his role in the thriving community that surrounds it today. Ward brings the riveting documentary to life with a unique local perspective and access. By combining interviews, re-enactments, home movies, and archival footage—and even consulting a psychic to communicate with Rust’s sprit—the director/cinematographer attempts to find answers to this mystery full of loose ends and cold trails. -Denver Film Society

Dive into the fascinating tale of a woman raised in a cult, whose journey of healing through teaching her parrot to read reshapes our understanding of interspecies communication.

Imagine upending the traditional energy system and giving the power of clean electricity production back to your neighbors. We the Power follows friends, families and visionaries, as they break down legislative barriers, take power back from big energy companies, put it in the hands of locals, and share the benefits to strengthen their towns. The film chronicles four local cooperatives from deep in the Black Forest, to the streets of ancient Girona, to the urban rooftops of London, as they pave the way for a clean energy revolution and build healthier, financially-strong communities.

The Shitthropocene is a journey from the cellular-level origins of our lack of impulse control to the ways our central nervous systems have been hacked in the name of capitalism. It’s also about how we might begin to save ourselves from ourselves. Plus, there are dancing cave people.

An art world upstart, provocative and elusive artist Maurizio Cattelan made his career on playful and subversive works that send up the artistic establishment, until a retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2011 finally solidified his place in the contemporary art canon. Axelrod's equally playful profile leaves no stone unturned in trying to figure out: who is Maurizio Cattelan?

How can we bring accountability over the climate crisis? This inspiring story of youth activism documents 21 activists from across the nation as they file a groundbreaking lawsuit against the United States. The case reveals evidence that the government has endangered their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property by acting over six decades to create the climate crisis. Youth v Gov, produced by the company behind acclaimed films such as The Ivory Game and Step, shows the power of young people to lead.