"From slave to criminal with one amendment."
An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
Stream
Social & External
The people behind it
Jelani Cobb
Self
Angela Davis
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Michelle Alexander
Cory Booker
Self - U.S. Senator (D) New Jersey
Marie Gottschalk
Michael Hough
Gina Clayton
David Keene
James Kilgore
The personal stories lived by the Uncle, the Father and the Son, respectively, form a tragic experience that is drawn along a line in time. This line is comparable to a crease in the pages of the family album, but also to a crack in the walls of the paternal house. It resembles the open wound created when drilling into a mountain, but also a scar in the collective imaginary of a society, where the idea of salvation finds its tragic destiny in the political struggle. What is at the end of that line? Will old war songs be enough to circumvent that destiny?
Inspired by a letter by Friedrich Engels and a 1974 account of two militant Marxist writers who had been imprisoned by the Nasser regime, Straub-Huillet filmed this film in France and Egypt during 1980. They reflect on Egypt’s history of peasant struggle and liberation from Western colonization, and link it to class tensions in France shortly before the Revolution of 1789, quoting texts by Engels as well as the pioneering nonfiction film Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895).
Sisters doing it for themselves in Amsterdam's Red Light District. Louise and Martine Fokkens are identical twins. For over fifty years they were working as prostitutes. They freed themselves from the control of their pimps, ran their own brothel, and set up the first informal trade union for prostitutes. They are familiar faces in Amsterdam's Red Light District, but soon they will bid their farewells. The Ladies Fokkens is a portrait of these remarkable women, as well as a history of the Red Light District over the past fifty years.
Of all my uncles, Rodolfo was the only one who didn't want to be a blacksmith like my grandfather: He wanted to be a dancer. The search for the traces of his life leads to the discovery that in the eighties in Paraguay, under Stroessner's dictatorship, Rodolfo was included in one of the "108 lists of homosexuals", arrested and tortured. Rodolfo's story reveals a part of the hidden and silenced history of my country. In "Cuchillo de palo" two generations come face to face in a confrontation that ultimately allows each of us to understand our place in the world.
Gerhard Richter has spent over half a century experimenting with a tremendous range of techniques and ideas, addressing historical crises and mass media representation alongside explorations of chance procedures. This first glimpse inside his studio in decades is exactly that: a thrilling document of the 79-year-old's creative process, juxtaposed with rare archival footage and intimate conversations with his critics and collaborators.
Nineteen-year-old Nelson is a Puerto Rican high school dropout from the South Bronx looking for a ticket out of the ghetto. Thaddeus, 22, gives up a cushy stockbroker job to pursue fantasies of killing Osama Bin Laden. Sara, 22, a dancer from North Carolina fails to make it in New York and leaves her best girlfriend to return home. Swept up in the patriotic fervour that followed 9/11, these young Americans dream of fighting for their country, of being the heroes that star in the slick ad campaigns broadcast by the military. Canadian director Sarah Goodman, living in New York at the time, saw long line-ups at recruitment centres as the country prepared for war. Gaining incredible access to the US army bases, Goodman follows the three new recruits for the next two years, starting with the harshness of basic training. Army of One is a heartbreaking film that exposes what happens to each of them as their dreams of heroism clash with the realities of army life.
Detroit’s story has encapsulated the iconic narrative of America over the last century – the Great Migration of African Americans escaping Jim Crow; the rise of manufacturing and the middle class; the love affair with automobiles; the flowering of the American dream; and now… the collapse of the economy and the fading American mythos.
Our healthcare system is broken. Potent forces fight to maintain the status quo in a medical industry created for quick fixes, rather than prevention; for profit-driven, rather than patient-driven, care. Healthcare is at the center of an intense political firestorm in our nation's capital. But the current battle over cost and access does not ultimately address the root of the problem: we have a disease-care system, not a health-care one. After decades of opposition, a movement to introduce innovative high-touch, low-cost methods of prevention and healing is finally gaining ground.
Filmmaker Rory Kennedy interviews her mother, Ethel Kennedy, who discusses family, marriage and politics.
Using personal stories, this powerful documentary illuminates the plight of the 49 million Americans struggling with food insecurity. A single mother, a small-town policeman and a farmer are among those for whom putting food on the table is a daily battle.
USA vs AL-ARIAN is a close portrait of an Arab-American family facing terrorism charges leveled by the U.S. Government. The film shows a personal story of a family living in a society where fear of terrorism has resulted in increasing stigmatization and discrimination against Muslims.
The Apple Pushers, narrated by Edward Norton, follows the inspiring stories of five immigrant pushcart vendors who are rolling fresh fruits and vegetables into New York City's food deserts.
Returning to her hometown of Jerusalem with her young family after several years abroad, documentarian Danae Elon offers an intimate, ground’s-eye view of one of the most fiercely contested cities in the world.
The film investigates the adventures of mountain climber and photographer Adam J. Winkler, who fought in Afghanistan with the Mujahideen against the Soviets in the 1980s. The director employs a highly original artistic technique involving animated collage of period materials.
Kutsher's Country Club is the last surviving Jewish resort in the Catskills. One of the legendary Borscht Belt hotels during its heyday, Kutsher's has been family-owned and operated for over 100 years. Exploring the full Dirty Dancing-era Catskills experience-- and how it changed American pop culture in the comedy, sports and vacation industries-- this documentary captures a last glimpse of a lost world as it disappears before our eyes.
In an attempt to launch their careers, two young actors investigate a disturbing viral video of a French psychic's prophecy. As they shed light on the mysterious footage, their journey will test their friendship, threaten their lives and reveal a most troubling secret.
Three Carleton College students take on the challenge of ditching computers to find out how their academic, social, and work lives will be affected. No Facebook. No e-mail. No YouTube. How will they get their work done? Will they cheat? Who will survive the longest? This documentary follows Andrew, Caitlin, and Chel as they learn to interact with themselves and with others in ways we have largely forgotten.
This documentary, filmed over a 10-year period, centers on the debate over censorship as it follows Vancouver's Little Sister's Bookstore and its 20-year struggle with Canada Customs over the seizure of books. In the face of bigotry, bombings and repeated book seizures, it wages the most important legal battle in history against Canada Customs.
"VVe Being Donna: The Light, The Dark," is a documentary that revolves around the life of Lt. Smt. Dr. Veerbala focusing on the painful moments and the happy ones.
"Thoughts on the moon, feet on the road, eyes on others": António Coimbra de Matos revolutionized psychoanalysis.
Unravel the case of Utah therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, whose child abuse arrest with parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke exposed a twisted tale of manipulation.
A documentary of the decline of America, composed of archival material and exclusive footage, carnage, madness, and mayhem with an unapologetic sincerity on the factual depiction of violence in the industrialized nation of the United States. Featuring a juxtaposition of detailed accounts of terrible acts, brutal behavior, and interviews from experts and convicted killers alike.
Fox Rich, indomitable matriarch and modern-day abolitionist, strives to keep her family together while fighting for the release of her incarcerated husband. An intimate, epic, and unconventional love story, filmed over two decades.
A subjective documentary that explores various theories about hidden meanings in Stanley Kubrick's classic film The Shining. Five very different points of view are illuminated through voice over, film clips, animation and dramatic reenactments.
Incarcerated men defy the odds to expose a cover-up in one of America’s deadliest prison systems.
A documentary on the expletive's origin, why it offends some people so deeply, and what can be gained from its use.
This documentary follows three women — a fire chief, a judge, and a street missionary — as they battle West Virginia's devastating opioid epidemic.
A string of threatening emails escalates into a revenge plot involving a newly married US marshal and his ex-girlfriend.
A teen slams her car into a building, killing her boyfriend and his friend. What seems like a tragic accident becomes a murder case.
The documentary tells the hitherto unknown story behind an extraordinary and desperate fight to bring the truth to light. Told and made by those who lived it, the filmmakers' unprecedented access to the inner workings of the defense allows the film to show the investigation, research, and appeals process in a way that has never been seen before; revealing shocking and disturbing new information about a case that still haunts the American South.
Police pull over a woman who claims she just gave birth. But the baby — and the blood — aren't hers. Twisted lies unravel in this true-crime documentary.
Serving life in prison for murdering their parents, Lyle and Erik Menendez speak out in this documentary explaining the shocking crime and ensuing trials.
An exploration of the heavy metal scene in Los Angeles, with particular emphasis on glam metal. It features concert footage and interviews of legendary heavy metal and hard rock bands and artists such as Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Megadeth, Motörhead, Ozzy Osbourne and W.A.S.P..
A cheap, powerful drug emerges during a recession, igniting a moral panic fueled by racism. Explore the complex history of crack in the 1980s.
In August 1969, Charles Manson's followers killed seven people on his orders. Why? Explore a conspiracy of mind control, CIA experiments, and murder.
Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.
Passionate about ocean life, a filmmaker sets out to document the harm that humans do to marine species — and uncovers an alarming global conspiracy.
Thirty years after the release of his film JFK (1991), filmmaker Oliver Stone reviews recently declassified evidence related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which took place in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
In 1977, a book of photographs captured an awakening - women shedding the cultural restrictions of their childhoods and embracing their full humanity. This documentary revisits those photos, those women and those times and takes aim at our culture today that alarmingly shows the need for continued change.
Legendary journalist Gay Talese unmasks a motel owner who spied on his guests for decades. But his bombshell story soon becomes a scandal of its own.
