Americans consume 75% of the world’s prescription drugs. After losing his own brother to the growing epidemic of prescription drug abuse, documentarian Chris Bell sets out to demystify this insidious addiction. Bell’s examination into the motives of big pharma and doctors in this ever-growing market leads him to meet with experts on the nature of addiction, survivors with first-hand accounts of their struggle, and whistleblowers who testify to the dollar-driven aims of pharmaceutical corporations. Ultimately his investigation will point back to where it all began: his own front door.
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Degrees North mixes hair-raising action footage of leading freeriders with a story of adventure and discovery. World-renowned freeriders Xavier De Le Rue, Samuel Anthamatten and Ralph Backstrom progress the sport of freeriding through the use new technology to scope remote areas in order to show ski and snowboard action in a way never seen before. The film charts the progress of an idea to use these wings to access areas from the air in a more personal and organic way, with the aim of capturing great action footage. However the realities were not so simple.
An exposé of comic proportions that only Chris Rock could pull off, GOOD HAIR visits beauty salons and hairstyling battles, scientific laboratories and Indian temples to explore the way hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks, sexual relationships, and self-esteem of the black community.
Follow Mike Birbiglia from Providence, R.I. to Washington, D.C. as he builds jokes based on personal truths, mixing comedy with revelations and anecdotes from family and his fellow comedians.
Ai Weiwei is known for many things – great architecture, subversive in-your-face art, and political activism. He has also called for greater transparency on the part of the Chinese state. Director Alison Klayman chronicles the complexities of Ai’s life for three years, beginning with his rise to public prominence via blog and Twitter after he questioned the deaths of more than 5,000 students in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. The record continues through his widely publicized arrest in Beijing in April of 2011. As Ai prepares various works of art for major international exhibitions, his activism heats up, and his run-ins with China’s authorities become more and more frequent.
A new breed of action sports film comes to life as Red Bull Media House, in association with Brain Farm Digital Cinema, present “The Art of FLIGHT”, a Curt Morgan Film. Two years in the making, “The Art of FLIGHT” gives iconic snowboarder Travis Rice and friends the opportunity to redefine what is possible in the mountains. Experience the highs, as new tricks are landed and new zones opened, alongside the lows, where avalanches, accidents, and wrong-turns strike. Immerse yourself in a cinematic experience as Brain Farm and their arsenal of filmmaking technology capture the culture, wildlife and scenic landscapes the riders take in along the way. Join in the ride as the creators of “That’s It, That’s All” completely rewrite the formula for action sports cinema with “The Art of FLIGHT.”
Paul Thomas Anderson joined his close friend and collaborator Jonny Greenwood on a trip to Rajasthan in northwest India, where they were hosted by the Maharaja of Jodhpur, and he brought his camera with him. Their destination was the 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort, where Greenwood was recording an album with Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur and an amazing group of musicians.
Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story chronicles the life and times of the legendary filmmaker who, through his annual ski films and national tours which began in the early 1950’s, was a driving force in the development and promotion of the ski industry in America and throughout the world. Miller, who died last year at 93, sat months before his passing for his final interview. He reminisced about living off rabbit stew and sleeping in a teardrop trailer in his endless pursuit of the perfect ski run and he explained in great detail the challenges – both personal and professional – he faced over the course of his career.
With a magical new invention that promised to revolutionize blood testing, Elizabeth Holmes became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, heralded as the next Steve Jobs. Then, overnight, her 10-billion-dollar company dissolved. The rise and fall of Theranos is a window into the psychology of fraud.
There are 100,000 US citizens in solitary confinement across the country, a staggering number prompting comment from both President Obama and the Pope. Situated in rural Virginia, 300 miles from any urban center, Red Onion State Prison is one of over 40 supermax prisons across the US built to hold prisoners in eight-by-ten-foot cells for 23 hours a day. Filmed over the course of one year, this eye-opening film braids stark prison imagery, stories from correction officers, and intimate reflections from the men who are locked up in isolation. The inmates share the paths that led them to prison and their daily struggles to maintain their sanity.
What does it actually mean to be Canadian? This humorous documentary, featuring interviews with a who’s-who of famous Canadians, hopes to find the answer.
From directors Nick Doob and Shari Cookson, “Requiem for the Dead” is made entirely from found footage, including social media posts, 9-1-1 calls, news stories and police files. The film tells the stories of those who have been killed by gunfire, whether from accidental violence, random shootings, family disputes or suicide. Hear those stories of those who have died, which is only a fraction of the 32,000 people killed in America each year, 88 per day, from gun violence.
Don McGlynn’s uncompromising and soulful documentary look at the tumultuous life of musician and rebel Charles Mingus is fascinating stuff. Mingus said of himself “I am half black man, half yellow man, but I claim to be a Negro. I am Charles Mingus, the famed jazz musician–but not famed enough to make a living in America.” His statement summed up the conflict that plagued this musical genius his entire life: volatility, pain, prescience, and raw rage roiled inside a complex man, composer, bass player, and trombonist who transcended labels and refused to be pigeonholed into a single musical style–and who did not achieve real fame until late in his career.