There exists a world where death creates life, where suicides without sadness occur billions of times an hour, where every individual does exactly what is required by the society as a whole. It is a world of highly sophisticated communication, of vast depth and endless mystery. It is utterly alien, yet it is also, in every moment, creating us all. Death by Design is a guided tour of the invisible …

Samantha is an "animal therapist and psychic" who has convinced skeptical pet owners, zoo keepers, and race horse trainers that she really can "talk" to their animals. Here we see her at work counselling race horses in need of leisure time, "depressed "cats, and negotiating with naughty ants. And we hear from owners and trainers who describe how their animals' behavior changed following Samantha's …

Why do we age? Do we wear out piece by piece like an old car? Or do our genes determine our lifespan? Scientists are now approaching this complex problem from a variety of angles. Some have genetically selected worms and flies and successfully prolonged their lives well beyond their normal lifespans. Others study the genes of people who’ve lived to be 100, in search of what they may have in common. …

MANA - Beyond Belief is a journey from a Navajo medicine man’s mud-covered hogan to the eternity of outer space, from the most ancient of technologies to the most complex, from the concrete world of objects to the abstract world of finance, from the individual’s attempt to comprehend secret powers to the power our own minds give us to shape our experiences…“Power objects” include paintings …

A feature-length cinema vérité portrait of one of the world's greatest stage directors at work, filmed over the course of a year. From his first sketches in pencil until opening night, we witness Carsen's creative processes as he reinvents Leonard Bernstein's CANDIDE, which Bernstein and writer Lillian Hellman based on the classic 18th century book by Voltaire, in order to satirize Senator McCarthy …

A portrait of Danny Cooper, a mailman in the rural American South who has been openly gay since high school in the middle of “redneck” country. Modest and self-effacing, when asked how he finds the courage, he shrugs, smiles his impish smile and says “People respect you if you respect yourself.” He went from being the only gay person in the region (except for his lover) to being the only HIV …

Each year, the slow-paced lifestyle on Mexico’s largest desert in Baja Peninsula is given a turbo boost by the Baja 1000, the largest off-road motorsport race in the world that takes place crossing the Mexican-US border. In this modern-day western, José Permar tells a unique story about the border, complete with a commissioned soundtrack of epic corridos performed by a trio of colorful musicians. …

In 1926, Warner Brothers premiered the first sync-sound film ever made. It featured a largely unknown vaudeville performer named Roy Smeck. The film showcased Roy’s virtuosity on the guitar, the ukulele, and the banjo, and it made him a major national star overnight, with appearances in many other films, his name on guitars and sheet music, and ultimately he became a major influence on American …

Independent Filmmaker Tom Joslin and his longtime lover Mark Massi battle AIDS in the days before effective medication existed. Silverlake Life debuted in 1993 — a time when demonizing queerness was a bipartisan hobby, and the AIDS crisis was mainly discussed through statistics. The film, co-directed by Tom Joslin and Peter Friedman, is Joslin’s video diary, shot as he and his partner Mark Massi …

In the highlands of Papua New Guinea, a group of families perform traditional dances and songs. But they are not celebrating a local festival. Instead, these dancers are paid to perform for tourists, who point cameras in their faces and marvel at people who they romanticize as pre-modern and simple, with few cares in the world. Life in the highlands, though, is far from care-free. In the village of …

It's been a decade since the Federation of Cuban Women encouraged its members to form women's baseball teams. The call launched a movement that has seen women's teams spring up across the island - even as they face scorn and opposition from men who feel that women should not be playing what they see as a man's game. 'I had to choose between my boyfriend and baseball' says one of the women on the Havana … More

Following in his great-grandfather's footsteps, Arnaud Khayadjanian undertakes a long trek across Anatolia to better understand the Armenian Genocide and honor its victims. First-hand accounts from his relatives and an old painting guide him in studying the anonymous people who bravely risked everything to save Armenian lives.

Kigali Shaolin Temple is a kung-fu club in Rwanda started by a group of orphans from the genocide. They find fulfillment in passing on their skills and teaching young Rwandans the values of sharing, tolerance and mutual respect. The visual beauty of kung-fu highlights the resilience of a new generation of Rwandans, 20 years after the genocide. "More than fellow members of a martial arts club, over … More

To a More Perfect Union tells a story of love, marriage and a fight for equality. The film chronicles two unlikely heroes, octogenarian Edie Windsor and her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, on their quest for justice: Edie had been forced to pay a huge estate tax bill upon the death of her spouse because the federal government denied federal benefits to same-sex couples...and Edie's spouse was a woman. Deeply … More

Seven pounds of rice, five pounds sugar, four ounces coffee, half a pound cooking oil, five eggs, 10 ounces beans, a small bread roll and a pound a half of meat – that’s the monthly allotment for Cubans under the country’s rationing system.  An independent film financed through crowd-funding and without the financial support of traditional Cuban film institutions, THE SINGULAR STORY OF UNLUCKY … More

Since the mid-1990s, Cuba has seen a rise in independent media, and a resurgence of movements fighting against racism, for economic justice and LGBTQI rights, and for greater democracy and citizen participation. In RETHINKING CUBAN CIVIL SOCIETY, Cuban academics, journalists and bloggers, and writers and musicians grapple with what it means to encourage healthy public participation and dissent in … More

Delfin, a shirtless old man in a New York Yankees cap, proudly fingers the medals on the military uniform hanging on the wall of his small home in the Sierra Maestra mountains of Cuba. The uniform belongs to his son, one of more than 400,000 Cuban soldiers and civilians sent to Angola between 1975 and 1991 in support of the country's left-wing government. Two thousand of them were killed. Three decades … More

ROSITA, a documentary by award-winning filmmakers Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater, traces a young girl's journey from innocent victim to unwitting victor. When a nine-year-old Nicaraguan girl becomes pregnant as a result of a rape, her parents -- illiterate campesinos working in Costa Rica -- seek a legal 'therapeutic' abortion to save their only child's life. Their quest pits them against the governments … More

South Dakota is America’s heartland—waving cornfields, hard-working farmers, family values and a population of 750,000, the majority of whom identify as conservative and anti-abortion. Native daughter Rebecca Lee returns home in 2006 on the brink of a historic state vote: House Bill 1215 could make South Dakota the first state to outlaw most abortions since Roe vs. Wade passed almost 30 years … More

"I've always liked to be in charge. Suddenly, I wasn’t in charge at all." The film starts with an empty chair and a simple, monochromatic background. Over the next hour, five men ranging in age from their twenties to fifties sit in the chair and look into the camera—or deliberately away from it. They talk about unexpected pregnancies: how they reacted to learning a partner was pregnant, the complex … More