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- DirectorXin XuThe film opens on the morning of December 8th 2007, in Karamay's Xiaoxihu cemetery. Daybreak casts a cold grey light over faraway mountains and the Gobi sands. As the camera moves from grave to grave, it zeroes in on the photographs encased in glass on every tombstone. All are of children. Exactly 13 years ago, Karamay's Friendship Hall was the site of a horrible tragedy: nearly 800 grade and middle-school students and their teachers, hand-picked to entertain a delegation of education officials, were in the midst of a performance when a fire broke out in the hall. The students were instructed to remain in their seats so that the visiting executives could exit first. By the time the fire had been contained, 323 people had perished, 288 of them children between the ages of 6 and 14. All of the officials survived. After the tragedy, the story was heavily censored in the Chinese state media. To this day, the families of Karamay have not been allowed to publicly mourn their children.
- DirectorRob EpsteinJeffrey FriedmanStarsRupert EverettKlaus MüllerKarl GorathHistorian Klaus Müller interviews survivors of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals because of the German Penal Code of 1871, Paragraph 175.
- DirectorJosh AronsonStarsJaime Leigh AllenJemma BrahamFreeda CatIf you could make your deaf child hear, would you? Academy Award-nominated "Sound and Fury" follows the intimate, heart-rending tale of the Artinians, an extended family of deaf and hearing members, across three generations. Together they confront a technological device that can help the deaf to hear but may also threaten deaf culture--and their bonds with one another. For Peter and his wife, both of whom are deaf, a surgical ear implant for their 5-year-old daughter Heather means a choice between two worlds: an unfamiliar hearing world; and the deaf world, a robust culture in its own right united by a uniquely visual and artistic language. Heather Artinian--precocious, vivacious, and avidly curious about implant surgery--is caught between her deaf parents and her hearing grandparents as they argue passionately about her future. The debate is sometimes silent, but by no means quiet. "Sound and Fury" speaks volumes about the choices we make and the battles we fight in order to be heard.
- DirectorFenton BaileyRandy BarbatoStarsRuPaulTammy Faye BakkerVirginia FairchildTwelve years after the dramatic collapse of the Christian empire of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, this documentary tells for the first time what really happened when they lost control of the first and most successful TV ministry of its kind.
- DirectorNanette BursteinBrett MorgenStarsSam DoumitMartin GoldmanHarry KeittThe story of three young boxers and their coach who is determined to guide them in a positive direction in and out of the ring.
- DirectorMichael CameriniShari RobertsonThis documentary film takes us to an in-depth look at the asylum process of the federal U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Foreigners that are already in the United States, having fled their home countries, have the opportunity to apply for asylum through the INS. If a person's case establishes a "well-founded fear" of his/her home country, the adjudicating immigration officer approves his/her asylum application. If a person's case does not quite meet up to the officer's expectation of a "well-founded fear," it is referred to an immigration judge for a decision.
- DirectorStacy PeraltaStarsSean PennJay AdamsTony AlvaDocumentary about the pioneering 1970s Zephyr skating team.
- DirectorDoug PrayStarsThe AlliesA-TrakCrazeThe story of the hip-hop DJ from the birth of hip-hop to the invention of scratching and "beat-juggling" vinyl, to the more recent "turntablism" movement. Underdogs and virtuosos who have radically changed the way we hear and create music.
- DirectorB.Z. GoldbergJustine ShapiroCarlos BoladoStarsMoishe Bar AmB.Z. GoldbergShlomo GreenSeveral Jewish and Palestinian children are followed for three years and put in touch with each other, in this alternative look at the Jewish-Palestinian conflict. The three filmmakers followed a group of seven local children between 1995 and 1998. They all have a totally different background. These seven children tell their own story about growing up in Jerusalem. Through this portrait of their generation, we see how deep rooted and almost insoluble the problems of the Middle East have become. When the protagonists speak out in an epilogue a couple of years later, it becomes apparent that all have lost their childlike innocence.
- DirectorKenneth A. CarlsonStarsDave IrwinEllery MooreJoe Paterno"Go Tigers!" is a rare behind-the-scenes chronicling of a remarkable season for the Massillon Tigers high school football team, played out in a small rustbelt town that draws its identity from football. During the course of the season, THREE YOUNG STARS emerge who are forced to carry the burden of the town and their teammates as they confront their uncertain future.
- DirectorDeborah DicksonSusan FroemkeAlbert MayslesStarsLaLee WallaceReggie BarnesThis documentary follows a Mississippi Delta school district and a single Delta family as they struggle against the crippling effects of poverty in the wake of more than one hundred years of slavery.
- DirectorMonteith McCollumStarsMilford BeeghlyThe life story of Milford Beeghly: Iowa farmer, early developer of hybrid seed corn, husband, father, grandfather.
- DirectorEdet BelzbergStarsCristina IonescuMihai Alexandre TudoseVioleta 'Macarena' RosuA profile of homeless Romanian children who were born victims of the nation's reckless population growth policy during its communist era.
- DirectorSandi Simcha DubowskiStarsShlomo AshkinazySteve GreenbergNathan Lopes CardozoA cinematic portrait of various gay Orthodox Jews who struggle to reconcile their faith and their sexual orientation.
- DirectorKirsten JohnsonStarsKirsten JohnsonAisha BukarEric W. DavisExposing her role behind the camera, Kirsten Johnson reaches into the vast trove of footage she has shot over decades around the world. What emerges is a visually bold memoir and a revelatory interrogation of the power of the camera.
- DirectorJehane NoujaimStarsAhmed HassanKhalid AbdallaMagdy AshourA group of Egyptian revolutionaries battle leaders and regimes, risking their lives to build a new society of conscience.
- DirectorAlanis ObomsawinStarsAlanis ObomsawinSimilar to her 2012 documentary, The People of the Kattawapiskak River, which detailed the housing crisis of the Awattapiskak First Nations people, Alanis Obomsawin's Hi-Ho Mistahey. examines this community with a shrewd political eye, aiming to raise awareness about the lack of resources allotted by the government for education. Her voice, one of sensitivity and political necessity, is a vital part of the Canadian narrative, bringing attention to marginalized people with an eye for detail and community introspection, humanizing a subject that, for those in mainstream culture, is more of a peripheral social grievance than something for active consideration. In 2000, the elementary school in Awattapiskak was shut down after the land was determined to be toxic. Since then, the students have been schooled in outdoor portables with heating and vermin issues, making it difficult to maintain a dedicated staff and offer the children the same comforts and amenities that children in more centralized regions are afforded. The government had initially allotted funds for a new school but, as noted in Hi-Ho Mistahey!, the budget for education within the Department of Indian Affairs isn't specifically protected and can be utilized for other issues if they're deemed more critical. Frustrated with endless financial delays, the community, spearheaded by teen activist Shannen Koostachin, reached out to children across Canada, creating a grassroots awareness campaign throughout the schools, forcing parliament to listen through sheer volume. This story, in itself, is quite inspirational and captivating as a cultural assessment of the ever-changing Canadian landscape. Unfortunately, it's not a particularly complex or involving story, which is why Hi-Ho Mistahey. tends to feel directionless and unfocused. Amidst the core narrative about this movement, which, tragically, was started by someone who couldn't see it through after losing her life in a car accident, Obomsawin inserts several interviews with community members about topics like meat smoking and suicide statistics without specifically relating it back to the central topic. Obviously, the aim is to paint a picture of the community and determine why it's important to keep children there rather than have them go off to the city to study, but it plays more as a series of disjointed sob stories to make saccharine what is already an essential dialogue with enough emotional weight to sustain itself. And since there's little stylization or sense of pacing, it leaves everything feeling bloated and amateurish. Still, Obomsawin's determination to keep the world aware of the social and political issues affecting smaller communities in rural areas is commendable. She's clever enough to acknowledge that these plights stem from a Canadian cultural tendency to deny our less than flattering pass without dwelling on it or tossing out glib or dismissive comments about the urban lifestyle. It's this integrity and determination that helps make a difference.
- DirectorLeanne PooleyStarsChad MoffittSonam SherpaJohn WraightTenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary's monumental and historical ascent of Mt. Everest in 1953 - an event that stunned the world and defined a nation.
- DirectorHajooj KukaThe story of the people of the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains in Sudan, showing how they deal with civil war. Traditionally music has always been part of daily life in these areas, but now, it has a new role in a society challenge by war.
- DirectorDavid ThorpeStarsDavid ThorpeGeorge TakeiTim GunnA documentary about the stereotype of the gay voice.
- DirectorEthan HawkeStarsSeymour BernsteinEthan HawkeSam BachelderMeet Seymour Bernstein: a beloved pianist, teacher and true inspiration who shares eye-opening insights from an amazing life. Ethan Hawke helms this poignant guide to life.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsTimothy TreadwellAmie HuguenardWerner HerzogA devastating and heart-rending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzly bears in Alaska.
- DirectorLuc JacquetStarsMorgan FreemanRomane BohringerCharles BerlingIn the Antarctic, every March since the beginning of time, the quest begins to find the perfect mate and start a family.
- DirectorAlex GibneyStarsJohn BeardTim BeldenBarbara BoxerA documentary about the Enron corporation, its faulty and corrupt business practices, and how they led to its fall.
- DirectorMarilyn AgreloStarsHeather BermanEmma Therese BiegackiEva CarrozzaThe students of several New York City elementary schools learn ballroom dancing and compete in a city wide dance competition.