Movie Releases by Genre

How to Survive a Plague

How to Survive a Plague

September 21, 2012 | Not Rated
How To Survive A Plague is the untold story of the efforts that turned AIDS into a mostly manageable condition – and the improbable group of young men and women who, with no scientific training, infiltrated government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry, and helped identify promising new compounds, moving them through trials and into drugstores in record time. These drugs saved their lives and ended the darkest days of the epidemic, while virtually emptying AIDS wards in American hospitals. (IFC Films)
Metascore:
86
User Score:
8.1
They Call It Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain

They Call It Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain

September 21, 2012 | Not Rated
The story of Burma, told with stunning footage shot clandestinely over a 2 ­year period by filmmaker Robert H. Lieberman. It provides an astonishing and intimate look inside at what has been one of the most isolated countries on the planet, lifting the curtain on the everyday life of the people in this land that has been held hostage by a brutal and superstitious military regime for 48 years. A revealing interview with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi conducted just after her most recent release from house arrest is interwoven with extensive interviews and interactions with Burmese people from all around this incredibly diverse nation. The film, culled from over 120 hours of striking images, is an impressionistic journey that leads across the vastness of Burma. It traces the history of Burma from its beginnings in the ancient city of Bagan, through colonial times, recent uprisings, the devastating Cyclone Nargis that killed 150,000 people, and up to the present day. (PhotoSynthesis Productions)
Metascore:
68
User Score:
tbd
Switch

Switch

September 21, 2012 | Not Rated
Dr. Tinker explores the world’s leading energy sites, from coal to solar, oil to biofuels, many highly restricted and never before seen on film. He gets straight answers from the people driving energy today, international leaders of government, industry and academia. In the end, he cuts through the confusion to discover a path to our future that is surprising and remarkably pragmatic. [Acro Films]
Metascore:
50
User Score:
tbd
Electoral Dysfunction

Electoral Dysfunction

September 21, 2012 | Not Rated
There's something funny about voting in America. For starters, where is the Electoral College—and does it have a winning football team? Why does America have 13,000 voting districts, each with its own set of rules? And why are residents of our nation’s capital denied full voting rights? Electoral Dysfunction, a feature-length documentary created by a team of award-winning filmmakers, uses humor and wit to take an irreverent–but nonpartisan–look at voting in America. (Trio Pictures)
Metascore:
42
User Score:
tbd
Death by China

Death by China

August 24, 2012 | Not Rated
Death by China, a documentary feature which pointedly confronts the most urgent problem facing Amercia today – its increasingly destructive economic trade relationship with a rapidly rising China. Since China began flooding U.S. markets with illegally subsidized products in 2001, over 50,000 American factories have disappeared, more than 25 million Americans can’t find a decent job, and America now owes more than 3 trillion dollars to the world’s largest totalitarian nation. Through compelling interviews with voices across the political spectrum, Death by China exposes that the U.S.-China relationship is broken and must be fixed if the world is going to be a place of peace and prosperity. (Area23a)
Metascore:
43
User Score:
tbd
We Women Warriors

We Women Warriors

August 10, 2012 | Not Rated
We Women Warriors follows three native women caught in the crossfire of Colombia's warfare who use nonviolent resistance to defend their peoples' survival. Colombia has 102 aboriginal groups, one-third of which face extinction because of the conflict. Despite being trapped in a protracted predicament financed by the drug trade, indigenous women are resourcefully leading and creating transformation imbued with hope. We Women Warriors bears witness to neglected human rights catastrophes and interweaves character-driven stories about female empowerment, unshakable courage, and faith in the endurance of indigenous culture.(Todos Los Pueblos Productions)
Metascore:
65
User Score:
tbd
Sushi: The Global Catch

Sushi: The Global Catch

August 3, 2012 | Not Rated
Sushi, a cuisine formerly found only in Japan, has grown exponentially in other nations, and an industry has been created to support it. In a rush to please a hungry public, the expensive delicacy has become common and affordable, appearing in restaurants, supermarkets and even fast food trailers. The traditions requiring 7 years of apprenticeship in Japan have given way to quick training and mass-manufactured solutions elsewhere. This hunger for sushi has led to the depletion of apex predators in the ocean, including bluefin tuna, to such a degree that it has the potential to upset the ecological balance of the world’s oceans, leading to a collapse of all fish species. (Kino Lorber)
Metascore:
57
User Score:
tbd
Big Boys Gone Bananas!*

Big Boys Gone Bananas!*

July 27, 2012 | Not Rated
What is a big corporation capable of doing in order to protect its brand? Recently, Swedish documentary filmmaker Fredrik Gertten experienced this personally. His previous film BANANAS!* recounts the lawsuit that 12 Nicaraguan plantation workers successfully brought against the fruit giant Dole Food Company. That film was selected for competition by the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival. Nothing wrong so far, right? But then just before leaving Sweden to attend the Los Angeles world premiere of his film, Gertten gets a strange message: the festival has decided to remove Bananas!* from competition. Then, a scathing, controversial and misinformed article appears on the cover of the Los Angeles Business Journal about the film a week before the premiere. And subsequently, Gertten receives a letter from Dole's attorneys threatening legal action if the film is shown at this festival and to cease and desist. What follows is an unparalleled story that Gertten captured on film. He filmed this entire process of corporate bullying and media spin - from DOLE attacking the producers with a defamation lawsuit, utilizing scare tactics, to media-control and PR-spin. Big Boys Gone Bananas!* can be seen as a thriller and a cautionary tale. But, mostly this is a personal story about what happened to Gertten, as a documentary filmmaker and to his company and how the livelihood of documentary filmmakers can be easily put into jeopardy. (WG Film)
Metascore:
54
User Score:
tbd
Tahrir: Liberation Square

Tahrir: Liberation Square

June 11, 2012 | Not Rated
From Facebook thumbs up to the battle of stones, a history of hope, fear, despair, anger, pride and elation, the film is the real-time chronicle of the two most exciting weeks in the history of modern Egypt as lived by their protagonists. Since the 25th of January 2011, together with thousands of other Egyptian citizens, No ha, Ahmed and Essayed have been involved in a massive movement of street protest for political freedom. Day after day, sleepless night after sleepless night, until the capitulation of the defeated pharaoh, the film follows these young and unexpected heroes along their shattering fight to conquer their freedom. (Picofilms)
Metascore:
69
User Score:
tbd
Portrait of Wally

Portrait of Wally

May 11, 2012 | Not Rated
"Portrait of Wally”, Egon Schiele’s tender picture of his mistress, Walburga (“Wally”) Neuzil, is the pride of the Leopold Museum in Vienna. But for 13 years the painting was locked up in New York, caught in a legal battle between the Austrian museum and the Jewish family from whom the Nazis seized the painting in 1939. Portrait of Wally traces the history of this iconic image – from Schiele’s gesture of affection toward his young lover, to the theft of the painting from Lea Bondi, a Jewish art dealer fleeing Vienna for her life, to the post-war confusion and subterfuge that evoke "The Third Man", to the surprise resurfacing of “Wally” on loan to the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan in 1997. (7th Art Releasing)
Metascore:
70
User Score:
tbd
Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story

Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story

April 27, 2012 | Not Rated
While filming a documentary in Mississippi in 1965, Frank De Felitta forever changed the life of an African-American waiter and his family. In 2011, Frank's son returns to the Delta to examine the repercussions of that fateful encounter.
Metascore:
78
User Score:
tbd
Bonsai People: The Vision of Muhammad Yunus

Bonsai People: The Vision of Muhammad Yunus

February 10, 2012 | Not Rated
What if you could harness the power of the free market to solve the problems of poverty, hunger, and inequality? To some, it sounds impossible. But Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus is doing exactly that. Bonsai People celebrates Yunus’ extraordinary humanitarian work, which started by lending $27 to 42 people out of his own pocket and has now grown to helping 1 out of every 1,000 people on Earth. Yunus has created a mirror image of conventional banking—loan small not big, loan to women not men, loan rural not urban, loan to the poor not the rich. But he didn’t stop there. Whenever he sees a problem he starts a business, in a mix between business and social work, which he terms “social business.” Yunus tackles some of the world’s most vexing problems from healthcare to education to alternative energy and demonstrates to the world that complex problems sometimes do have simple solutions. A free market with a social conscience—-Microcredit is just the tip of the iceberg! (Hummingbird Pictures)
Metascore:
39
User Score:
5.0
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth

January 20, 2012 | Not Rated
It began as a housing marvel. Built in 1956, Pruitt-Igoe was heralded as the model public housing project of the future, "the poor man's penthouse." Two decades later, it ended in rubble - its razing an iconic event that the architectural theorist Charles Jencks famously called the death of modernism. The footage and images of its implosion have helped to perpetuate a myth of failure, a failure that has been used to critique Modernist architecture, attack public assistance programs, and stigmatize public housing residents. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth seeks to set the historical record straight. To examine the interests involved in Pruitt-Igoe's creation. To re-evaluate the rumors and the stigma. To implode the myth. (First Run Features)
Metascore:
70
User Score:
7.8
Barbershop Punk

Barbershop Punk

November 11, 2011 | Not Rated
Following one man’s personal quest to defend what he believes to be his inalienable rights, BARBERSHOP PUNK examines the critical issues surrounding the future of the American Internet and what it takes to challenge the status quo. Contemplating the future of the American Internet and the inalienable rights under review, the film features discussions with Ian MacKaye, Damian Kulash of OK Go, Henry Rollins, Janeane Garofalo, EFF’s John Perry Barlow, U.S. Congressman Chip Pickering, Congressman Marsha Blackburn, Free Form DJ Jim Ladd, Clinton White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry, Michelle Combs of the Christian Coalition, Songwriters Guild President Rick Carnes, NARAL’s Ted Miller, lobbyist Jack Burkman, and FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, among others. (Evil Twin Productions)
Metascore:
57
User Score:
tbd
American Teacher

American Teacher

September 30, 2011 | Not Rated
The Teacher Salary Project encompasses a feature-length documentary film, an interactive online resource, and a national outreach campaign that delves into the core of our educational crisis as seen through the eyes and experiences of our nation's teachers. This project is based on the New York Times bestselling book Teachers Have It Easy by journalist and teacher Daniel Moulthrop, co-founder of the 826 National writing programs Nínive Calegari, and writer Dave Eggers. (First Run Features)
Metascore:
60
User Score:
tbd
You Don't Like the Truth: 4 Days Inside Guantanamo

You Don't Like the Truth: 4 Days Inside Guantanamo

September 30, 2011 | Not Rated
This encounter between a team of Canadian intelligence agents and a child detainee in Guantánamo has never before been seen. Based on seven hours of video footage recently declassified by the Canadian courts this documentary delves into the unfolding high-stakes game of cat and mouse between captor and captive over a four day period. Maintaining the surveillance camera style this film analyzes the political, legal and scientific aspects of a forced dialogue. (Films Transit International)
Metascore:
73
User Score:
tbd
Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football

Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football

September 9, 2011 | Not Rated
Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football, an award-winning documentary, follows a predominately Arab-American high school football team from a working-class Detroit suburb as they practice for their big cross-town rivalry game during Ramadan, revealing a community holding onto its Islamic faith and the American Dream while struggling for acceptance in post 9/11 America. (AMC Independent)
Metascore:
57
User Score:
tbd
Saving Private Perez

Saving Private Perez

September 2, 2011 | PG-13
Julian Perez, the most powerful man in Mexico, must embark on a mission given to him by the only authority he respects... his mother. Joined by a colorful band of infamous criminals, Julian must risk his life to fulfill his mother’s wish & rescue his brother from the war-ridden bowels of the most treacherous land in the world, Iraq. (Pantelion)
Metascore:
56
User Score:
6.0
Damn!

Damn!

August 12, 2011 | Not Rated
Damn! is the the story of Rent is 2 Damn High founder Jimmy McMillan, a Vietnam veteran, black belt Karate master, former stripper, and 70’s soul singer, who became an overnight sensation after his appearance on the 2010 New York gubernatorial debate went viral, receiving over 2 million views in 24 hours and lifting Jimmy from political obscurity into the international spotlight. In what becomes an unforgettable journey, Damn! is the only film to ever capture the rise of a viral sensation and the media fixation that follows as it all unfolds. It’s a sometimes funny and sometimes dark look into what happens when mass media, politics, and money all descend upon the life of one man. (The Disinformation Company)
Metascore:
44
User Score:
tbd
Farmageddon

Farmageddon

July 8, 2011 | Not Rated
Farmageddon highlights the urgency of food freedom, encouraging farmers and consumers alike to take action to preserve individuals’ rights to access food of their choice and farmers’ rights to produce these foods safely and free from unreasonably burdensome regulations. The film serves to put policymakers and regulators on notice that there is a growing movement of people aware that their freedom to choose the foods they want is in danger, a movement that is taking action with its dollars and its voting power to protect and preserve the dwindling number of family farms that are struggling to survive. (Kristin Canty Productions)
Metascore:
62
User Score:
tbd
Crime After Crime

Crime After Crime

July 1, 2011 | Not Rated
Crime After Crime tells the dramatic story of the legal battle to free Debbie Peagler, an incarcerated survivor of domestic violence. Over 26 years in prison could not crush the spirit of this determined African-American woman, despite the wrongs she suffered, first at the hands of a duplicitous boyfriend who beat her and forced her into prostitution, and later by prosecutors who used the threat of the death penalty to corner her into a life behind bars for her connection to the murder of her abuser. Her story takes an unexpected turn two decades later when two rookie land-use attorneys step forward to take her case. Through their perseverance, they bring to light long-lost witnesses, new testimonies from the men who committed the murder, and proof of perjured evidence. Their investigation ultimately attracts global attention to victims of wrongful incarceration and abuse, and becomes a matter of life and death once more.
Metascore:
72
User Score:
7.7
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front

June 22, 2011 | Not Rated
In December 2005, Daniel McGowan was arrested by Federal agents in a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front-- a group the FBI has called America’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.” For years, the ELF—operating in separate anonymous cells without any central leadership—had launched spectacular arsons against dozens of businesses they accused of destroying the environment: timber companies, SUV dealerships, wild horse slaughterhouses, and a $12 million ski lodge at Vail, Colorado. With the arrest of Daniel and thirteen others, the government had cracked what was probably the largest ELF cell in America and brought down the group responsible for the very first ELF arsons in this country. If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front tells the remarkable story of the rise and fall of this ELF cell, by focusing on the transformation and radicalization of one of its members. Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thriller, the film interweaves a verite chronicle of Daniel on house arrest as he faces life in prison, with a dramatic recounting of the events that led to his involvement with the group. And along the way it asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism. Drawing from striking archival footage -- much of it never before seen -- and intimate interviews with ELF members, and with the prosecutor and detective who were chasing them, If a Tree Falls explores the tumultuous period from 1995 until early 2001 when environmentalists were clashing with timber companies and law enforcement, and the word “terrorism” had not yet been altered by 9/11. (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Metascore:
65
User Score:
6.9
Hey, Boo: Harper Lee and 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

Hey, Boo: Harper Lee and 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

May 13, 2011 | Not Rated
Fifty years after winning the Pulitzer Prize, To Kill a Mockingbird remains a beloved bestseller and quite possibly the most influential American novel of the 20th Century. Nearly one million copies are sold each year and the novel has been translated into more than forty languages worldwide. The film version, starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, won a trio of Academy Awards, and the U.S. Postal Service's new stamp honoring Peck depicts him wearing glasses, as Finch. Behind it all was a young Southern girl named Nelle Harper Lee, who once said that she wanted to be South Alabama's Jane Austen. Hey, Boo explores Lee's life and unravels some of the mysteries surrounding her, including why she never published again. Containing never-before-seen photos and letters and an exclusive interview with Lee’s sister, Alice Finch Lee, the film also brings to light the context and history of the novel's Deep South setting and the social changes it inspired after publication. (First Run Features)
Metascore:
64
User Score:
7.2
My Perestroika

My Perestroika

March 23, 2011 | Not Rated
My Perestroika follows five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times — from their sheltered Soviet childhood, to the collapse of the Soviet Union during their teenage years, to the constantly shifting political landscape of post-Soviet Russia. Together, these childhood classmates paint a complex picture of the dreams and disillusionment of those raised behind the Iron Curtain. (Red Square Productions)
Metascore:
90
User Score:
7.3
Rabbit à la Berlin

Rabbit à la Berlin

December 10, 2010
RABBIT À LA BERLIN is the 2010 Academy Award-nominated story of thousands of wild rabbits which lived in the Death Zone of the Berlin Wall. This is the first film showing the story of the Wall and the reunification of Germany seen from such an unusual perspective – from the rabbits' point of view. As if the green belt between the two walls was designed for those animals - full of untouched grass, the predators stayed behind the wall and the guards made sure no one disturbed the rabbits. They had been living there for 28 years, enclosed but safe. With the fall of the Wall in 1989, the rabbits had to look for another place to live. (Icarus Films)
Metascore:
67
User Score:
tbd
The Lottery

The Lottery

June 11, 2010
In a country where 58% of African American 4th graders are functionally illiterate, The Lottery uncovers the failures of the traditional public school system and reveals that hundreds of thousands of parents attempt to flee the system every year. The Lottery follows four of these families from Harlem and the Bronx who have entered their children in a charter school lottery. Out of thousands of hopefuls, only a small minority will win the chance of a better future. (Variance Film)
Metascore:
72
User Score:
7.5
The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet's Struggle for Freedom

The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet's Struggle for Freedom

March 31, 2010
In The Sun Behind the Clouds, Tibetan filmmaker, Tenzing Sonam, and his partner, Ritu Sarin, take a uniquely Tibetan perspective on the trials and tribulations of the Dalai Lama and his people as they continue their struggle for freedom in the face of determined suppression by one of the world’s biggest and most powerful nations. The filmmakers had intimate access to the Dalai Lama and followed him over the course of an eventful year, which included the 2008 protests in Tibet, the international response to it, the Beijing Olympics, and the breakdown in talks between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government. (White Crane Films)
Metascore:
57
User Score:
tbd
American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein

American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein

February 12, 2010
American Radical is the probing documentary portrait of American academic and activist Norman Finkelstein. A devoted son of holocaust survivors, ardent critic of Israeli and US Mid-East policies and author of six provocative books–including The Holocaust Industry, Beyond Chutzpah and the soon-to-be-released A Farewell to Israel: The Coming Break-Up of American Zionism, Finkelstein has been at the center of many intractable controversies. Called a lunatic and a self-hating Jew by some and an inspirational, street-fighting revolutionary by others, Finkelstein is a deeply polarizing figure whose struggles arise from core questions about freedom, identity and nationhood. Following him as he presents his message to audiences around the globe, American Radical provides an intimate portrait of the man behind the controversy, giving voice to Finkelstein’s critics as well as his supporters. (Typecast Releasing)
Metascore:
71
User Score:
8.3
Labor Day

Labor Day

October 30, 2009
The 2008 Presidential Campaign was an extraordinary moment in U.S. history—not only because of the race and gender of the candidates, but also because of the passions they inspired. Millions of Americans and hundreds of organizations became actively engaged in the democratic process of choosing the next president. Labor Day, a new feature documentary directed by two-time Oscar Nominee, Glenn Silber, tells the inspiring, largely unknown story of one of them, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the nation’s fastest-growing labor union with more than two million members. Labor Day is a chronicle of this union’s mobilization to ensure a Democratic victory in 2008. For Labor, the Presidential campaign was mission critical. After eight years of Republican policies, the SEIU felt an incredible sense of urgency to change the direction of the economy and the country. [River Lights Pictures]
Metascore:
19
User Score:
tbd
WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception

WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception

December 3, 2004
This documentary paints a meticulous and damning portrait of the media's coverage of the Iraq war. (Cinema Libre)
Metascore:
60
User Score:
7.8
Sacro GRA

Sacro GRA

TBA
After the India of Varanasi's boatmen, the American desert of the dropouts, and the Mexico of the narco-assassin, Gianfranco Rosi've Decided to tell the tale of a part of his own country, roaming and filming for over two years in a minivan on Rome's giant ring road, the GRA, or GRA-to discover the invisible worlds and possible futures harbored in this area of constant turmoil. Elusive characters and fleeting apparitions emerge from the background of this winding zone.
Metascore:
64
User Score:
tbd
Coming Soon
  1. Sacro GRA

    • Runtime: 95 min
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