Jim Butterworth

In the 1970s, five men struggling with being gay in their Evangelical church started a bible study to help each other leave the "homosexual lifestyle." They quickly received over 25,000 letters from people asking for help and formalized as Exodus International, the largest and most controversial conversion therapy organization in the world. But leaders struggled with a secret: their own “same-sex attractions” never went away. After years as Christian superstars in the religious right, many of these men and women have come out as LGBTQ, disavowing the very movement they helped start. Focusing on the dramatic journeys of former conversion therapy leaders, current members, and a survivor, PRAY AWAY chronicles the “ex gay" movement’s rise to power, persistent influence, and the profound harm it causes.

The assassination of a beloved Palestinian-American activist in Southern California sets off a 35-year quest for justice that exposes the transnational dimension of the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Three National Security whistleblowers fight to reveal the darkest corners of America's war on terror, challenging a government that is increasingly determined to maintain secrecy.

A rag-tag group of undocumented youth – Dreamers – deliberately get detained by Border Patrol in order to infiltrate a shadowy, for-profit detention center.

Journalist Assia Boundaoui sets out to investigate long-brewing rumors that her quiet, predominantly Arab-American neighborhood was being monitored by the FBI.

The theory of evolution and a re-write of American history are caught in the crosshairs when an unabashed Creationist seeks re-election as chairman of America's most influential Board of Education.

All JoEllen Marsh knew about her biological father was that he was Donor 150; but she wanted to know anything and everything she could about her father’s genealogy. Thanks to a social networking website called the Donor Sibling Registry designed specifically for donor offspring, that becomes a possibility. Marsh slowly unravels Donor 150′s side of her family tree; meeting, one-by-one, her new-found siblings and discovering a plethora of uncanny genetic similarities. (Donor 150 must have had some damn strong genes!) Marsh and her siblings would like to meet the man from whom these common genes were inherited. A New York Times article about Marsh caught Donor 150′s eye, and the rest is history…

When a legendary escape artist comes up for parole after 30 years behind bars, a chance for freedom must be weighed against his infamous past.

In the majestic tropical island of Palawan, three environmental crusaders confront murder, betrayal and political corruption in this thrilling documentary about land defenders battling to save and preserve paradise in the Philippines.

Six people live for a year on “Mars” in a NASA experiment studying what happens to humans when they are isolated from Earth. Shot by the subjects themselves over the course of the mission, Red Heaven vividly captures six people pushed to their limits in an exploration of our most fundamental needs as human beings.

Once a notorious institution for people with disabilities, Pennhurst finally closed after decades of abuse in 1987. Now those doors are reopening, as a group of disabled performers reframe the narrative around the site's harmful history – as a haunted house.

This gripping documentary follows the trial of Issa Sesay, a leader in Sierra Leone's civil war who stands accused of crimes against humanity. Can the trial of one man uncover the truth of a traumatic past?

When the global economy collapses the only true victors are those that weren't invited to the boom. Petey plays in a band and works in a pornography warehouse; Ginger works the night shift in a bar. From opposite coasts of the country, the two provide their personal takes on individual vs. collective crisis, together weaving a narrative that exposes a wasteland of shattered economic dreams, unfulfilled social promises and a bleak reality that only music and friendship can float freely above.

Seoul Train is a 2005 documentary that deals with the dangerous journeys of North Korean defectors fleeing through or to China. These journeys are both dangerous and daring, since if caught, they face forced repatriation, torture and possible execution. Seoul Train has been broadcast on television around the world, including on the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens. In January 2007, "Seoul Train" was awarded the Alfred I. duPont – Columbia University Silver Baton for excellence in broadcast journalism. In April 2007, "Seoul Train" was named runner-up in the National Journalism Awards. The film was produced, directed and filmed by Jim Butterworth, a technology entrepreneur in Colorado in the U.S., and Lisa Sleeth of Incite Productions. It was co-directed and edited by Aaron Lubarsky, an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker in New York.