There is no New York without Broadway. It’s both a landmark and a community, an industry and a people, making magic in a dark theater, eight times a week. During the pandemic, over 96,000 people lost their jobs and an entire ecosystem of small businesses were brought to a standstill. Broadway Rising tells the story of the broadway community and its harrowing journey back to the stage following the COVID-19 shutdown. This feature documentary brings everyone into the spotlight – from the costume makers to the ushers to the producers to the stars.
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Go behind the scenes with director Zack Snyder and the cast and crew of his epic sci-fi saga as they bring a vast new sci-fi universe to the screen.
Based on the book by a non-verbal autistic man, Naoki Higashida, filmmaker Jerry Rothwell examines the lives of five non-speaking, autistic youngsters.
The cameras of Jacques Perrin fly with migratory birds: geese, storks, cranes. The film begins with spring in North America and the migration to the Arctic; the flight is a community event for each species. Once in the Arctic, it’s family time: courtship, nests, eggs, fledglings, and first flight. Chicks must soon fly south. Bad weather, hunters, and pollution take their toll. Then, the cameras go
The Banjo Project is a cross-media cultural odyssey: a major television documentary, a live stage/multi-media performance, and a website that chronicle the journey of America’s quintessential instrument—the banjo—from its African roots to the 21st century. It’s a collaboration between Emmy-winning writer-producer Marc Fields and banjo virtuoso Tony Trischka (the Project’s Music Director), one of the most acclaimed acoustic musicians of his generation.
A dream home turned into a nightmare after a life-changing paranormal experience. The homeowner, Alice Jackson, refuses to spend another night at her house unless someone proves to her what she experienced has a natural explanation. Directors’ Steve Gonsalves and Kendall Whelpton headed to Mississippi with their camera crew to document the real-life effects of a homeowner’s mission to get her house back from this terrifying nightmare. The approach was much like a detective chasing down leads and connecting the dots. With a no stone left unturned mindset, utilizing real scientific data via physicists, field experts and deep accurate research. The filmmakers were also adamant their film crew be very experienced in the field of paranormal research because of the sensitive nature of this case. The directors hand selected each film crew member not only for their respective production expertise but also for their dedication to the documentation of real paranormal research.
The belief in spirit possession has remained virtually unchanged since the beginning of civilization and still exists to this day. “The Exorcism Prayer” dives into the religious practice of evicting demons from a person, or areas that are believed to be possessed and goes after the truth, and returns with true stories that may haunt you forever.
In 1971, director Melvin Van Peebles turned the figure of the black hero in US cinema upside down with Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song: the story of the making of a seminal movie that initiated the Blaxploitation movement, a short-lived but highly influential sub-genre in the years that followed.
Vivian Maier’s photos were seemingly destined for obscurity, lost among the clutter of the countless objects she’d collected throughout her life. Instead these images have shaken the world of street photography and irrevocably changed the life of the man who brought them to the public eye. This film brings to life the interesting turns and travails of the improbable saga of John Maloof’s discovery of Vivian Maier, unravelling this mysterious tale through her documentary films, photographs, odd collections and personal accounts from the people that knew her. What started as a blog to show her work quickly became a viral sensation in the photography world. Photos destined for the trash heap now line gallery exhibitions, a forthcoming book and this documentary film.
In the indigenous communities around the town of Juchitán, the world is not divided simply into males and females. The local Zapotec people have made room for a third category, which they call “muxes” – men who consider themselves women and live in a socially sanctioned limbo between the two genders.
Captures a moment in 1970s Britain’s immigration debate, focusing on new arrivals at Heathrow as they wrestle with immigration law.
By combining ecstatic energy and artistry, Amplify Her follows talented young women in the electronic music scene as they come-of-age amidst the emerging cultural renaissance of the feminine.
Renowned documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker captures Otis Redding in his ascendancy, singing at the historic Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967. Comedian Tom Smothers introduces Redding to a crowd that is leaving — until Redding grabs them with his charged rendition of “Shake.” Redding’s performance also includes “Respect” (which he wrote), “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” “Satisfaction,” and “Try a Little Tenderness.” Tragically, Redding died in a plane crash six months later. An innovative filmmaker who started in the 1950s making experimental films, Pennebaker garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature in 1993 for The War Room, his behind-the-scenes look at Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign. His other subjects have included Norman Mailer, Bob Dylan, and David Bowie.