For millennia, Native Americans successfully stewarded and shaped their landscapes, but centuries of colonization have disrupted their ability to maintain their traditional land management practices. From deserts, coastlines, forests, mountains, and prairies, Native communities across the US are restoring their ancient relationships with the land. As the climate crisis escalates these time-tested practices of North America's original inhabitants are becoming increasingly essential in a rapidly changing world.
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Harmful chemicals are disproportionately affecting Black communities in Southern Louisiana along the Mississippi River. I am One of the People is an experimental short film exposing the environmental racism of “Cancer Alley.”
A dark and disturbing adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s controversial gothic feminist horror story about patriarchy and hysteria. Jane, a writer and young mother, is prescribed a rest treatment by her physician husband John, who takes her to a remote country estate for the summer. She becomes obsessed with the peculiar yellow wallpaper in the bedroom he has chosen for her. In her isolation, she secretly writes about a woman trapped in the wallpaper—that she must free.
A great love story based on the idea and development of the famous monument that decorating Mexico City.
In a groundbreaking project developed by MISCELLANEOUS Productions, a group of multi-barriered youth collaborated with a team of professional artists on POWER, an evening of solo performance pieces, ensemble drumming and dance numbers, all of which take a raw, honest look at the things that matter to youth in the community: power, racism, immigration, poverty, violence, sexism, addiction and love, presented at Vancouver’s Rhizome Café. This documentary focuses on four young artists -- Roberto, Natasha, Dakota, and Michael -- showing their struggles and their transformation through performance.
After a comedian is infected by a demon who eats anyone she envies, her relationship with her best friend is threatened.
The time is 20 years and a few months to the millennium, and the unrecognized, self-proclaimed genius Orm Odins has to deal with the age-old existentialist dilemma that is teenage hood. With his final exams looming, his hormones in overdrive and love just around the corner what can a great poet do to survive? Our setting is Reykjavik in the eighties, a city that is going through a growth spur not unlike our eloquent hero. The mullet is just about to put its mark on a unsuspecting generation, there is no TV on Thursdays, only one radio station, beer is still and outlawed commodity and somewhere within the city limits the first female president in the world will see has a dream.
Inhabit is a feature length documentary introducing permaculture: a design method that offers an ecological lens for solving issues related to agriculture, economics, governance, and on. The film presents a vast array of projects, concepts, and people, and it translates the diversity of permaculture into something that can be understood by an equally diverse audience. For those familiar, it will be a call to action and a glimpse into what's possible - what kind of projects and solutions are already underway. For those unfamiliar, it will be an introduction to a new way of being and a new way of relating to the Earth. For everyone, it will be a reminder that humans are capable of being planetary healing forces.
Katrin and Max are a couple. She examines police colleagues for her workability, he is a Kripo commissioner. When Hansen, the chief commissioner, is placed at his side, everything changes.
I was in the winter of my life, and the men I met along the road were my only summer. At night I fell asleep with visions of myself dancing and laughing and crying with them. Three years down the line of being on an endless world tour and my memories of them were the only things that sustained me, and my only real happy times.
In the 1920-30s, 70% of the indigenous population died from the Great Famine created by the Bolsheviks in Kazakhstan. Overcoming the dreadful fear of death and despair, an eagle hunter's family from a Kazakh village in the highlands is trying to stay alive in the midst of the fierce winter and face a moral choice, to die as human beings or to survive at any cost, transgressing the human decency.
A documentary about extreme body modification implant artist, Steve Haworth. Through painful surgery and suspension from hooks, he does more with naked skin than a mere tattoo or piercing.
Kate is an out of work actress working in a shop, until that is, she is made redundant. In a week from hell Kate's boyfriend leaves her, the shop goes bust and rent and gas bills have not been paid. Inspired by the notorious outlaw Bonnie Parker, Kate gathers a gang from her shop assistant friends and comes up with a plot to rob the shop, but who is her Clyde?
Michael Jackson was the biggest star in the history of music, but he also fought a life-long battle against his own inner demons. This is the secret story of a true modern hero. Join Michael Jackson as he tirelessly tours the globe working on behalf of his favourite charities and good causes. We hear from Elizabeth Taylor who stood by Michael during his darkest hours. In England we go backstage as Michael meets Princess Diana and Prince Charles. In South Africa Michael comes face to face with his idol - Nelson Mandela. We also hear from La Toya Jackson, Janet Jackson and Beyoncà Knowles. See Michael speak out against exploitation, racism, war and oppression as he fights for the rights of under-privileged children everywhere.
A feature-length documentary on the life of one of the last surviving actresses from the golden age of Hollywood – Joan Collins. This epic film is told from the ringside as Joan narrates her rollercoaster life story with her inimitable wit and verve. A worldwide television phenomenon with her decade-defining role in Dynasty, Collins shares her extraordinary archive and never before seen home movie footage, giving an intimate glimpse into one of the world’s most iconic figures. Against a backdrop of Collins’s own narration, her story showcases the extraordinary life of a woman who has lived through the glitz, the glamour and the enduring moments of Hollywood history, and survived it all with panache.
“All my movies are personal without being autobiographical,” says Avi Nesher, a filmmaker who combines his personal life and the history of Israel in his films. This documentary examines the DNA of Nesher’s cinematic creations , which include musicals, dramas, and comedies, chronicling the homeland in which he started his career at the age of 24 and where he continues to create at 71.
An intimate exploration of the circumstances surrounding the incarceration of Native American activist Leonard Peltier, convicted of murder in 1977, with commentary from those involved, including Peltier himself.
Sake is a traditional alcoholic beverage from Japan and is otherwise known as rice wine. Women were prohibited from entering the many large and small sake breweries dotting Japan for centuries. However, times have changed and women are present on the sake scene today. In several cases, they are integral to the Japanese brewery business. The documentary depicts women who are not only enthusiasts, but also leaving their marks on the evolution of this Japanese mainstay.
Some people think John Muir was a hero. Others: not so much. The Adventure Brothers hike the famous John Muir Trail (a.k.a. Nüümü Poyo) to investigate the conservationist's controversial legacy.
As the Internet finally arrives in tiny Bhutan, documentarian Thomas Balmès is there to witness its transformative impact on a young Buddhist monk whose initial trepidation gives way to profound engagement with the technology.
Short about the daily life of the Apaches, including their ceremonies.
In the week when Hindus celebrate the holy festival of Diwali, this documentary tells the story of one of their faith's most sacred symbols - the swastika. For many, the swastika has become a symbol synonymous with the Nazis and fascism. But this film reveals the fascinating and complex history of an emblem that is, in fact, a religious symbol, with a sacred past. For the almost one billion Hindus around the world, the swastika lies at the heart of religious practices and beliefs, as an emblem of benevolence, luck and good fortune.
After the birth of his grandson, Bobby Roth undertakes a cinematic investigation as to what constitutes being a "good man" in today's world. This voyage of discovery leads him to interview more than fifty of his friends, both men and women who he considers to be "good people," about their views on everything from how they were parented to their thoughts on feminism, change, and regrets they might have. Their answers both surprises and enlighten both the viewers and Bobby, himself.
Living in the shadow of Canadian sports legend Lionel Conacher (1900–1954), whose legacy spans five sports, is a daunting challenge for any relative. For great-grandchild Lionel IV, better known as Chas, that challenge extends beyond athletics into the realm of self-discovery. As a non-binary individual navigating identity in the 21st century, Chas explores both the weight of their family’s star-athlete lineage and the evolving landscape of queer identity in a documentary that bridges nostalgia with forward-looking reflection.
October 1st, 1957. Dusk descends on Tiananmen Square, Peking. Fireworks crackle light across the night sky, above a city alive with National Day festivities and celebrations. Two intrepid New Zealand film-makers - Rudall and Ramai Te Miha Hayward - are there, documenting the life and times of communist China. The distinction of being the first English speaking foreigners to film unfettered in communist China was significant. The invitation to visit China was facilitated through the New Zealand China Friendship Society. They filmed in Canton, Shanghai, Peking (Beijing) and Wuhan. It was a small window of opportunity for Westerners to gaze on a country that was largely a mystery to the outside world since 1949. The unfortunate irony was that two of the documentaries; “Wonders of China”, and “Inside Red China”, were considered to be communist propaganda, and were not distributed outside of New Zealand.
The “Prophecy of the 7th Fire” says a “black snake” will bring destruction to the earth. For Winona LaDuke, the “black snake” is oil trains and pipelines. When she learns that Canadian-owned Enbridge plans to route a new pipeline through her tribe’s 1855 Treaty land, she and her community spring into action to save the sacred wild rice lakes and preserve their traditional indigenous way of life. Launching an annual spiritual horse ride along the proposed pipeline route, speaking at community meetings and regulatory hearings. Winona testifies that the pipeline route follows one of historical and present-day trauma. The tribe participates in the pipeline permitting process, asserting their treaty rights to protect their natural resources. LaDuke joins with her tribe and others to demand that the pipelines’ impact on tribal people’s resources be considered in the permitting process.
A documentary film about Comanche activist LaDonna Harris, who led an extensive life of Native political and social activism, and is now passing on her traditional cultural and leadership values to a new generation of emerging Indigenous leaders.
The film follows Postcommodity, an interdisciplinary arts collective comprised of Raven Chacon, Cristóbal Martinez and Kade L. Twist, who put land art in a tribal context. The group bring together a community to construct the Repellent Fence, a two-mile long ephemeral monument “stitching” together the US and Mexico.
Two worlds beautifully collide as Dr. Cornel West (Class of 1943 Professor at Princeton University and acclaimed author and speaker) and His Holiness Radhanath Swami (Bhakti Yoga master, director of the Radha-Gopinath Ashram, and acclaimed author and speaker) sit down together and share their thoughts on the Divine, the mysteries of love, and the role that spirituality plays in activism.
A compelling study of the Hopi that captures their deep spirituality and reveals their integration of art and daily life. Amidst beautiful images of Hopi land and life, a variety of Hopi — a farmer, a religious elder, a grandmother, a painter, a potter, and a weaver — speak about the preservation of the Hopi way. Their philosophy of living in balance and harmony with nature is a model to the Western world of an environmental ethic in action.
Yellowtail is the story of a young Native American cowboy searching for meaning as his chaotic lifestyle begins to wear on him both physically and mentally. To find his purpose the young man has to reflect on his upbringing as a native to become the spiritually connect man he was meant to be.
This feature-length documentary chronicles the Sundance ceremony brought to Eastern Canada by William Nevin of the Elsipogtog First Nation of the Mi'kmaq. Nevin learned from Elder Keith Chiefmoon of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Alberta. Under the July sky, participants in the Sundance ceremony go four days without food or water. Then they will pierce the flesh of their chests in an offering to the Creator. This event marks a transmission of culture and a link to the warrior traditions of the past.
The conflict over forestry operations on Lyell Island in 1985 was a major milestone in the history of the re-emergence of the Haida Nation. It was a turning point for the Haida and management of their natural resources.