Editing
Robert Rooy's documentary follows DJ Savarese ("Deej"), a nonspeaking autistic writer and poet. The film explores his difficult early life, his quest for an education, and his advocacy for other nonspeaking autistics.
The former coal town of Widen, West Virginia. Once a model of paternalistic domination, Widen had been sold to the Pittston Corporation in 1963. Ricky Leacock said of the film, "I find Company Town to be a beautiful film that I can enjoy over and over. It manages to avoid the obvious cliches but causes one to wonder 'why do they stay?' and at the same time to understand that this place, these activities, these people, with all their limitations, are unique and wonderful."
Jimmy Carter ran for president on a wave of post-Watergate disaffection with Washington politics. But inexperience, inflation, recession, and the Iran hostage crisis, derailed his presidency dramatically. His crowning achievement, the Camp David Accords, created a framework for Middle East peace, inspiring his life since. The film traces his ascent from Plains, Georgia, to the Oval Office and explores the role of religion in his career. This is the first of two parts.
In the midst of unprecedented national prosperity in the 1960s, poverty was "rediscovered" by American policy makers, media and the public. This series examines how the poor fared during these years and the resultant evolution of foundation and public sector programs addressing the challenges of poverty.
"Nixon's Reversal: An Attempt to End Poverty" is the bizarre story of Richard Nixon's brief flirtation with guaranteed income
On August 1, 1942, a 22-year-old Mexican American man was stabbed to death at a party. To white Los Angelenos, the murder was just more proof that Mexican American crime was spiraling out of control. The police fanned out across LA, netting 600 young Mexican American suspects. Almost all those taken into custody were wearing the distinctive uniform of their generation: Zoot Suits. The tragic murder and the injustice of the trial that followed, coupled with sensational news coverage of both, fanned the flames of the racial hostility that was already running rife in the city. Within months of the verdict, Los Angeles was in the grip of some of the worst violence in its history.
Kafi Dixon dreams of starting a land cooperative for women of color who have experienced trauma and disenfranchisement in the city of Boston. By day she drives a city bus; at night she studies the humanities in a tuition-free course. Her classmate Carl Chandler, a community elder, is the class’s intellectual leader. White suburban filmmaker James Rutenbeck documents the students’ engagement with the humanities. He looks for transformations but is awakened to the violence, racism and gentrification that threaten Kafi and Carl's very place in the city. Troubled by his failure to bring the film together, he enlists the pair as collaborators with a share in the film revenues. Five years on, despite many obstacles, Kafi and Carl arrive at surprising new places in their lives—and James does too.
Portrait of an Iowa family facing the loss of a family farm during the Farm Crisis of the 1980s. The Farm Crisis was a difficult period when falling commodity prices, rising debt, and widespread foreclosures threatened the survival of many family farms across the Midwest.
Broadcast by Channel 4 Television as part of the "Dispatches" series this documentary includes interviews with members of the Sendero Luminoso, gives the history of the group and how it has developed as a parallel government to that in Lima, and shows footage of the attempts on the part of the army to suppress the movement through terror
In a hard-pressed former mill town, an Irish-American Catholic parish must come to terms with the Latino city that surrounds it.
On January 23, 1909, two ships--one carrying Italian immigrants to New York, the other American tourists to Europe--collided in a dense fog off Nantucket Island. In an instant, more than 1,500 lives suddenly became dependent on a new technology, wireless telegraphy, and the efforts of a twenty-six-year-old wireless operator who bravely tapped out distress signals form his sinking ship. "Rescue at Sea", a story of courage, luck and heroism. Produced by Ben Loeterman, the film features interviews with descendants of passengers and crew, recollections of the young hero, Jack Binns and surprising revelations of the connections between this event and a later disaster at sea: the "Titanic". David McCullough narrates, and Matthew Broderick provides the voice of Jack Binns.
Explores the battle between New England's close-knit fishing communities and a coalition of environmental conservationists. Focusing on two women whose lives and livelihoods have revolved around the fishing business, the film illuminates the debate that pits the economic needs of a community against the health of our oceans.
A documentary on the function of pornographic film and art during and after the Mexican revolution.
Samuel Habib, 21, wants to date, leave home, go to college. But he drives a 350-pound wheelchair, uses a communication device, and can have a seizure at any moment. Determined to find his path forward, he seeks out guidance from America's most rebellious disability activists. Will they empower him to launch the bold adult life he craves?
