It's a shame no one wants to talk to them at parties, because obituary writers are a surprisingly funny bunch. Ten hours before newspapers hit neighborhood doorsteps—and these days, ten minutes before news hits the web—an obit writer is racing against deadline to sum up a long and newsworthy life in under 1000 words. The details of these lives are then deposited into the cultural memory amid the daily beat of war, politics, and football scores. Obit. is the first documentary to explore the world of these writers and their subjects, focusing on the legendary team at The New York Times, who approach their daily work with journalistic rigor and narrative flair. Going beyond the byline and into the minds of those chronicling life after death on the freshly inked front lines of history, the film invites some of the most essential questions we ask ourselves about life, memory, and the inevitable passage of time. What do we choose to remember? What never dies? [Kino Lorber]

Barney Rosset is the greatest American publisher of the twentieth century and the most influential cultural figure that you haven’t heard of. Under Rosset, Grove Press and Evergreen Review fought decisive battles, including many before the state and federal supreme courts, defeated legal censorship, and opened American life to new and dangerous currents of freedom. But Rosset’s public fight against hypocrisy and injustice is inextricable from his tumultuous personal life: the same unyeilding, quixotic, restless energy that upended centuries of law brought Rosset perilously close to destruction. (Arthouse Films)

Can you make a movie while having mental illness? Bud Clayman is doing it. Will making a documentary about your mental illness change your life? Maybe. Mental illness interrupted Bud's dream of a filmmaking career. Thirty years later, he’s making the movie of his life. This is a personal story with universal relevance as Bud documents his quest for belonging. (Fisher Klingenstein Films)

This documentary is an unflinchingly candid portrait of a squad of American soldiers deployed in the doomed Iraq city of Falluja during the winter of 2004. (Rumur Releasing)

The past collides with the present in this excavation of the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam: a journey from World War II to recent years of pandemic and protest and a provocative, life-affirming reflection on memory, time and what's to come.

Attenborough explores the planet's undersea habitats, revealing the greatest age of ocean discovery and emphasizing the ocean's vital importance while exposing its problems and highlighting opportunities for marine life recovery.

Disneynature, the studio that presented the record-breaking film Earth, brings Oceans to the big screen on Earth Day, 2010. Nearly three-quarters of the Earth's surface is covered by water and Oceans boldly chronicles the mysteries that lie beneath. Directors Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud dive deep into the very waters that sustain all of mankind—exploring the playful splendor and the harsh reality of the weird and wonderful creatures that live within. Featuring spectacular never-before-seen imagery captured by the latest underwater technologies, Oceans offers an unprecedented look beneath the sea in a powerful yet enchanting motion picture. (Disneynature)

Every family has its ghosts. The Mosher family has more than most. Shot over a year from one Halloween to the next, the film creates a stunning cinematic portrait of a family who are unique but also sadly representative of the struggles of America's working class. The film was created to be both a universal story of family struggle and a socially conscious portrait of compelling, articulate individuals grappling with the forces that tear at their homes and relationships. (Wishbone Films)

This documentary examines the exile and wanderings of the Jewish community of Odessa through the stories of various characters in Odessa, New York and Israel.

After his Sundance award-winning documentary Return to Homs, Talal Derki returned to his homeland where he gained the trust of a radical Islamist family, sharing their daily life for over two years. His camera focuses primarily on the children, providing an extremely rare insight into what it means to grow up with a father whose only dream is to establish an Islamic caliphate. Osama (13) and his brother Ayman (12) both love and admire their father and obey his words, but while Osama seems content to follow the path of Jihad, Ayman wants to go back to school. [Kino Lorber]

Anger consumes a squad of combat vets years after they return from the front. The dozen warriors in Of Men and War come home to the United States, but their minds are stuck out on the battlefield. Like figures from a Greek tragedy, all have traumatic memories that haunt them to this day. Ghosts and echoes of the war fill their lives. Wives, children, and parents bear the brunt of their fractured spirits. At The Pathway Home, a pioneering PTSD therapy center, the protagonists resolve to end the ongoing destruction. Their therapist is a Vietnam vet himself, helping the boys forge meaning from their senseless trauma. Over years of therapy, Of Men and War explores their grueling paths to recovery, as they attempt to make peace with themselves, their past, and their families.

From the original voice of the great British auteur, Terence Davies, comes a visual poem which draws upon the first 28 years of the director's life in Liverpool until he left in 1973. "Cut it as if it were fiction," Davies says, with "images which speak" and a layered sound track of popular and classical music, voices, radio clips and a powerful, poignant voiceover by Mr. Davies. Of Time and The City is a very personal portrait of Liverpool, beyond its Beatles and its football clubs, the home of the writer’s birth, where youth and inspiration weave his own story into the recent history of the City with fascinating found footage and counterpointed sound. (Strand Releasing)

With white Jewish lesbians for parents and two adopted brothers - one mixed-race and one Korean - Brooklyn teen Avery grew up in a unique and loving household. But when her curiosity about her African-American roots grows, she decides to contact her birth mother. This choice propels Avery into her own complicated exploration of race, identity, and family that threatens to distance her from the parents she’s always known. She begins staying away from home, starts skipping school, and risks losing her shot at the college track career she had always dreamed of. But when Avery decides to pick up the pieces of her life and make sense of her identity, the results are inspiring. Off and Running follows Avery to the brink of adulthood, exploring the strength of family bonds and the lengths people must go to become themselves. (First Run Features)

Doctors today are liberally writing prescriptions for psychotropic drugs such as Adderall, Ambien, Zoloft, and Prozac (to name a very few). Often these drugs are combined in polypharmacy cocktails or are given out for unapproved or untested indications, leading to abuse, dangerous side effects, and heavy dependence. Off Label examines our runaway pharma-culture by weaving together the stories of drug-testing subjects, Big Pharma representatives, and many others touched by the rampant use of pharmaceuticals. Together, they create a poetic, sometimes amusing and frequently heartbreaking emotional road trip through an overmedicated, misdiagnosed, and drug-addled America. [Oscilloscope Pictures]

Off the Rails tells the remarkable true story of Darius McCollum, a man with Asperger’s syndrome whose overwhelming love of transit has landed him in jail 32 times for impersonating New York City bus drivers and subway conductors and driving their routes. As a boy in Queens, NY, Darius found sanctuary from school bullies in the subway. There he befriended transit workers who taught him to drive trains. By age 8, he memorized the entire subway system. At 15, he drove a packed train 8 stops by himself, making all the stops and announcements. Over the next three decades, Darius commandeered hundreds of trains and buses, staying en route and on schedule, without ever getting paid. He attended transit worker union meetings, lobbying for better pay and working conditions for a union he didn’t belong to. Although Darius has never damaged any property or hurt anyone in his decades of service, he has spent 23 years in maximum security prison. Darius’ recidivism embodies the criminal justice system’s failure to channel the passions of a harmless, mentally challenged man into a productive career and purposeful life.

In every corner of the world, there’s one question that can never be definitively answered, yet stirs up equal parts passion, curiosity, self-reflection and often wild imagination: “What is God?” Filmmaker Peter Rodger explores this profound, age-old query in the provocative non-fiction feature “Oh My God.” (Mitropoulos Films)

After assessing today's dwindling oil reserves and skyrocketing use of oil for fuels, plastics and chemicals, this documentary questions the motives for the U.S. wars in the Middle-East and Central Asia where 3/4 of the world's oil and natural gas is located. (Free-Will Productions)

On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh, a former soldier deeply influenced by the literature and ideas of the radical right, parked a Ryder truck with a five-ton fertilizer bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City. Moments later, 168 people were killed and 675 were injured in the blast. Oklahoma City traces the events — including the deadly encounters between American citizens and law enforcement at Ruby Ridge and Waco — that led McVeigh to commit the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history. With a virulent strain of anti-government anger still with us, the film is both a cautionary tale and an extremely timely warning. [PBS]

Older Than Ireland is a landmark documentary that tells the story of a hundred years of a life as seen through the eyes of thirty Irish men and women aged 100 or over.

A decade-long global journey chronicles the ever-changing record holders of the title of oldest person alive. What begins as a portrait of longevity becomes a meditation on the passage of time, the randomness of fate, and the joy and profound human experience of being alive.

Oliver Sacks: His Own Life explores the life and work of the legendary neurologist and storyteller, as he shares intimate details of his battles with drug addiction, homophobia, and a medical establishment that accepted his work only decades after the fact. Sacks was a fearless explorer of unknown mental worlds who helped redefine our understanding of the brain and mind, the diversity of human experience, and our shared humanity.

Follow Olivia Rodrigo as she recounts the memories of writing and creating her debut album. Take a look on her journey from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles.

In the same vein as Albert Maysles’ Iris, this sublimely intimate fly-on-the-wall verité documentary tells a heart-wrenching story of a woman finding her own voice on her own terms to assert a gigantic creative force into the world. Rebelling against her old world panty-sniffing suspicious Greek mother to assert her strong sexual drive, fighting the feeling she was “too ethnic” amid the Boston Brahmin at BU, and starting her own theatre company in New Jersey instead of waiting for the phone to ring, Olympia Dukakis models how to live life with blazing courage.

Olympic Pride, American Prejudice explores the experiences of 18 African American Olympians who defied Jim Crow and Adolf Hitler to win hearts and medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Set against the strained and turbulent atmosphere of a racially divided America, which was torn between boycotting Hitler’s Olympics or participating in the Third Reich’s grandest affair, the film follows 16 men and two women before, during and after their heroic turn at the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin. They represented a country that considered them second class citizens and competed in a country that rolled out the red carpet in spite of an undercurrent of Aryan superiority and anti-Semitism. They were world heroes yet returned home to a short-lived glory.

Documentary on motorcycle racing featuring stars of the sport, including film star Steve McQueen, a racer in his own right.

Inspired by his father Bruce Brown's 1971 documentary On Any Sunday, Dana Brown chronicles the current state of international motorcycle racing.

Twenty-three-year-old Nadia Murad’s life is a dizzying array of exhausting undertakings—from giving testimony before the U.N. to visiting refugee camps to soul-bearing media interviews and one-on-one meetings with top government officials. With deep compassion and a formal precision and elegance that matches Nadia’s calm and steely demeanor, filmmaker Alexandria Bombach follows this strong-willed young woman, who survived the 2014 genocide of the Yazidis in Northern Iraq and escaped the hands of ISIS to become a relentless beacon of hope for her people, even when at times she longs to lay aside this monumental burden and simply have an ordinary life.

The Adamant is a one-of-a-kind place: a floating refuge on the Seine River in the heart of Paris that offers day programs for adults with mental illnesses. Its attendees come from across the city and are offered care that grounds them in time and space, helping them achieve recovery and stability. Through a blend of therapy, education, and culture rooted in music and the arts, the Adamant offers a hopeful vision of what a humanistic approach to mental health care could look like. The community on the boat is intentionally created so that both the staff and the people receiving care are treated with the same respect and dignity. Their meetings and conversations reveal the camaraderie and collective humanity of a group of people whose similarities far outweigh their differences.

On the Map tells the against-all-odds story of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s 1977 European Championship, which took place at a time when the Middle East was still reeling from the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the 1972 Olympic massacre at Munich, and the 1976 hijacking of an Air France flight from Tel Aviv. Through the of lens of sports, On the Map presents a much broader story of how one team captured the heart of a nation amidst domestic turmoil and the global machinations of the Cold War.

The searing story of President Duterte's bloody campaign against drug dealers and addicts in the Philippines, told with unprecedented and intimate access to both sides of the war - the Manila police, and an ordinary family from the slum. Shot in the style of a thriller, this observational film combines the look and feel of a narrative feature film with a real life revelatory journalistic investigation into a campaign of killings. The film uncovers a murky world where crime, drugs and politics meet in a deathly embrace - and reveal that although the police have been publicly ordered to stop extra-judicial killings, the deaths continue.

On The Record presents the story of music executive Drew Dixon (collaborator on hit records by Method Man and Mary J. Blige, Estelle and Kanye West, and Whitney Houston) as she grapples with her decision to become one of the first women of color, in the wake of #MeToo, to come forward and publicly accuse hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons of sexual assault. The documentary chronicles not only Dixon's story but that of several other accusers – Sil Lai Abrams, Sheri Sher – delving deeply into the ways women of colors' voices are all too often silenced and ignored when they allege sexual assault; as well as the cultural forces that pressure them to remain silent.

A documentary highlighting three young boxers from the mean streets of Brooklyn and their coach as they prepare for the 1997 Golden Gloves Tournament, giving equal attention to their experiences in and out of the ring.

They live in all four corners of the planet and share a thirst for knowledge. Almost instinctively they know that their wellbeing, indeed their survival, depend on knowledge and education. From the dangerous savannah of Kenya to the winding trails of the Atlas mountains in Morocco, from the suffocating heat of Southern India to the vast, dizzying plateaux of Patagonia, these children are all united by the same quest, the same dream. Jackson, Zahira, Samuel and Carlito are the heroes of On the Way to School, a film that interweaves the four pupils forced to confront and overcome countless, often dangerous obstacles – enormous distances over treacherous territory, snakes, elephants, even bandits – on their journey to the classroom. By setting foot on their extraordinary path, by embarking on this adventure littered with traps and challenges, they will begin to leave their childhoods behind. [Distrib Films]

It was 1977 and one of New York’s most tumultuous and decadent summers. Then, in the midst of blackouts, riots, the Son of Sam serial killer scare and the dawn of Studio 54, came an entirely unexpected moment of inspiration: the rise of the New York Cosmos, America’s first great soccer team, and its larger-than-life superstar, Pelé. Suddenly embraced by a city obsessed with celebrity and flamboyance, the Cosmos kicked off America’s first passionate love affair with the world’s most popular sport & found themselves swept up in a careening path of glory, glamour, debauchery and controversy. (Miramax Films)

A decade post-death, filmmaker William Greaves reveals his final work: footage of a 1972 gathering he arranged with Harlem Renaissance legends, which he deemed his most significant capture.

Set in the heart of Uganda, two unlikely friends from opposite sides of the world unite over their shared love of Chuck Norris and gonzo '80s action flicks. With sheer determination and an outrageous sense of humor, they team up to create their own explosive movies, catapulting Wakaliwood to international stardom and bringing laughter and joy to millions. Take a look behind the scenes of Wakaliwood, a world like no other, where you can definitely “expect the unexpectable.”

Villagers in the Venezuelan community of Lake Maracaibo fight against pollution, corruption and neglect to keep homes and way of life.

Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band is a confessional, cautionary, and occasionally humorous tale of Robertson’s young life and the creation of one of the most enduring groups in the history of popular music, The Band. The film is a moving story of Robertson’s personal journey, overcoming adversity and finding camaraderie alongside the four other men who would become his brothers in music, together making their mark on music history. Once Were Brothers blends rare archival footage, photography, iconic songs and interviews with Robertson’s friends and collaborators including Martin Scorsese, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, and more.

Chronicles the incredible life and times of legendary comedian and activist Dick Gregory. As a renowned Black comedian, Gregory had a platform to take on the most incendiary battles of hunger, gender equity, and civil rights – stirring trouble and making headlines in the service of social justice.

This documentary examines George McGovern's bold and grassroots presidential campaign of 1972. (First Run Features)

China’s One Child Policy, the extreme population control measure that made it illegal for couples to have more than one child, may have ended in 2015, but the process of dealing with the trauma of its brutal enforcement is only just beginning. From award-winning documentarian Nanfu Wang (Hooligan Sparrow, I Am Another You) and Jialing Zhang, the sweeping One Child Nation explores the ripple effect of this devastating social experiment, uncovering one shocking human rights violation after another - from abandoned newborns, to forced sterilizations and abortions, and government abductions. Wang digs fearlessly into her own personal life, weaving her experience as a new mother and the firsthand accounts of her family members into archival propaganda material and testimony from victims and perpetrators alike, yielding a revelatory and essential record of this chilling, unprecedented moment in human civilization. [Amazon Studios]

When seminal documentarian Ed Pincus, considered the father of first person non-fiction film, is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he and collaborator Lucia Small team up to make one last film, much to the chagrin of Jane, Ed’s wife of 50 years. Told from two filmmakers’ points of view, One Cut, One Life challenges the form of first person documentary. Ed and Lucia’s unique approach to filming offers a vulnerability and intimacy rarely seen in non- fiction, questioning whether some things might be too private to be made public. The film is an intense, raw, and sometimes humorous exploration of the human condition which invites the viewer to contemplate for themselves what is important, not only at the end of life, but also during. [First Run Features]

This documentary examines the events surrounding the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, where eleven Israeli athletes were kidnapped and massacred by Palestinian terrorists.

One Day on Earth began in September 2008 as a new media project to create a unique video time capsule, global online community and feature-length film—all from participant footage captured during the 24-hour period of October 10, 2010 (10.10.10). The project is a shared public archive hosted by Vimeo, and its social network is powered by Ning. One Day on Earth also works closely with dozens of non-profits and NGOs to document important social issues, holding annual global collaborations. (One Day on Earth LLC)

An all-access pass to the British pop sensation One Direction.

A Syrian girl's decade-long journey to Germany and back, as she and her family face the challenges of war and life as refugees, showing both the hardships and hopes of starting anew.

Daniel Craig narrates this BBC wildlife documentary focusing on the cyclical journey taken by all living creatures.

One Lucky Elephant begins with circus producer David Balding’s realization that Flora, the orphaned African elephant he adopted and made the star of his circus, is tired of performing. What unfolds is a nine-year odyssey to find Flora a good home. Caught between the human and animal world, Flora epitomizes the harsh reality elephants face in our expanding man-made world. Through Flora and David’s story, the film raises questions about our complex relationships with animals, for which there are no easy answers. One thing is certain: after watching this film, you will never look at an elephant in a zoo or a circus in the same way again. (Crossover Productions)

A unique one night only cinema event directed by Andrew Dominik, One More Time With Feeling will be the first ever opportunity anyone will have to hear Skeleton Tree, the sixteenth studio album from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. The film will screen in cinemas across the world on 8th September 2016, immediately prior to the release of Skeleton Tree the following day. Originally a performance based concept, One More Time With Feeling evolved into something much more significant as Dominik delved into the tragic backdrop of the writing and recording of the album. Interwoven throughout the Bad Seeds’ filmed performance of the new album are interviews and footage shot by Dominik, accompanied by Cave’s narration and improvised rumination.

One of Us offers a look into the secretive world of Hasidic Judaism and those who wish to escape that community for a life among the non-religious, whatever the costs.

Set in 1972 New York, this documentary explores John and Yoko's world amid a turbulent era. Centered on the One to One charity concert for special needs children, it features unseen archives, home movies, and restored footage.

Jeffrey Kagel travels to India in search of legendary saint Neem Karoli Baba, struggles through drug addiction and depression, and emerges as Krishna Das, a world famous spiritual teacher.

Onlookers offers a visually striking, immersive meditation on travel and tourism in Laos, reflecting on how we all live as observers. Traversing the country's dusty roads and tranquil rivers, we watch as elaborate painterly tableaus unfold, revealing the whimsical and at times disruptive interweaving of locals and foreigners in rest and play. Drawn to spectacle, tourists swarm to magnificent Buddhist temples, the ordered rituals of monks, and sites of dazzling natural beauty, then recede like a passing tide, leaving Laotians to continue with their daily lives. Onlookers transports viewers on a sensorial journey of deep looking and listening, inviting audiences to reflect on their own modes of tourism, while asking the looming existential questions: Why do we travel? What do we seek?

The Laemmle Theatres, a beloved 84-year-old art house cinema chain in Los Angeles, is facing seismic change. The family members behind this multigenerational business—whose sole mission has been to support the art of film—remain determined, despite enormous challenges.

The Only Real Game explores the power of baseball for people in a troubled, distant place. The small, once princely state of Manipur joined the Indian Union under pressure in 1949 triggering a corrosive separatist conflict that continues to this day. With paltry infrastructure, widespread corruption and unemployment - it's an astonishing place to find reservoirs of inner strength that are tapped in pursuit of baseball. Even more surprising in a deeply patriarchal society is that women are a driving cultural force. Though Manipur has been closed to the outside world for 60 years, baseball delivers release from daily struggles, and a dream for healing a wounded society. Dreams chase reality when First Pitch, a small group of baseball-loving New Yorkers, and two Major League Baseball Envoy coaches team up with Manipuri men, women and children to "Play Ball."

Documentary filmmakers DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus catch up with the great soul singers of the 1960s and early 1970s. The result is a musical celebration of soul, a glimpse into the skewed world of the music industry, and a compelling narrative of these seven talented acts. (Miramax)

The friendship between a couple of high school boys in California, both snowboarders and evangelical Christians, is explored in this documentary by Eliazabeth Mimsand Jason Tippet.

This feel-good documentary follows Irlan and Isabela, two teenagers from the violent favelas of Rio de Janeiro, as they pursue their dreams of becoming professional ballet dancers. This inspiring story takes us from Rio - where their communities must raise the funds to support their ambitions - to exhilarating ballet competitions in New York and Switzerland. It's a film about their determination to dance, and the price one must pay for talent, ambition and success. (Film Movement)

An investigation into accusations of teenagers being sexually abused within the film industry.

The Opera House surveys a remarkable period of the Metropolitan Opera's rich history and a time of great change for New York. Featuring rarely seen archival footage, stills, recent interviews, and a soundtrack of extraordinary Met performances, the film chronicles the creation of the Met's storied home of the last 50 years, against the backdrop of the artists, architects, and politicians who shaped the cultural life of New York City in the '50s and '60s.

When Hollywood gives a young Iraqi film student the opportunity of a lifetime, nothing goes according to plan, and the result is an engaging, sometimes comical political parable about do-gooder intentions gone wrong. (First Run/Icarus Films)

A unique documentary about troops' experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, based on writings by soldiers, Marines, and air men. Some writings were published in the New Yorker in summer 2006. A larger assortment was published as a book by Random House last September. The film drew upon the submissions by soldiers for the book. It's a remarkable portrait of troops at war - the complexities, doubts, and fears - written with honesty. The 81-minute version of the film (which will be in theatres) includes 11 pieces of writing, with different visual strategies, along with interviews with the writers, and with more established American writers who are also veterans. In the latter group are Tim O'Brien, Yusef Komunyakaa, Tobias Wolff, Joe Haldeman, James Salter, Anthony Swofford, Richard Currey, and Paul Fussell. The visual approaches range from poet Brian Turner reading directly to camera, to archival footage, to an animated "graphic novel," to a still photo sequence shot by photographer Antonin Kratochvil. It's rooted in a program by the NEA that created a series of writing workshops at military bases. After those workshops, the writers submitted pieces for consideration in the book, edited by Andy Carroll. From those writings were selected 11 for inclusion in the film. There is also a 53-minute version of this film which will be airing on PBS as part of the series "America at a Crossroads" in April, 2007. Both of these are different from the other film 'Operation Homecoming" from 2007, directed by Lawrence Bridges. That piece was produced by the NEA as a documentary about their writing workshops.

Reenactments drive this documentary investigating the mastermind behind a scam to get the kids of rich and famous families into top US universities. [Netflix]

This documentary tells the dramatic story of how Bulgarian Christians and Muslims saved 50,000 Jews from the Holocaust.

A documentary essay dealing with the stolen presidential election in Kiev, Ukraine, in 2004. (AZ Films)

In the early 1930’s Hitler began firing Jewish musicians across Europe. Overcoming extraordinary obstacles, violinist Bronislaw Huberman moved these great musicians to Palestine and formed a symphony that would become the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. With courage, resourcefulness and an entourage of allies including Arturo Toscanini and Albert Einstein, Huberman saved close to 1000 Jews - along with the musical heritage of Europe. (First Run Features)

The first Mardi Gras in America was celebrated in Mobile, Alabama in 1703. In 2008, it is still racially segregated. A fascinating investigation into our nation's history and traditions, this acclaimed, award-winning documentary illuminates the complexities of race relations in 21st century America. [The Cinema Guild]

Ordinary Miracles: The Photo League's New York is a feature-length documentary film which tells the story of the rise and politically motivated fall of the Photo League, (1936–1951) which for fifteen years served as the center of the documentary movement in American photography at a time when the camera was held to be, in James Agee’s words, “the central instrument of our time.” (Daedalus Productions)

In this shocking and hilarious documentary, filmmaker Liz Canner takes a job editing erotic videos for a drug trial for a pharmaceutical company. Her employer is developing what they hope will be the first Viagra drug for women to win FDA approval to treat a new disease: Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD). Liz gains permission to film the company for her own documentary. Initially, she plans to create a movie about science and pleasure but she soon begins to suspect that her employer, along with a cadre of other medical companies, might be trying to take advantage of women (and potentially endanger their health) in pursuit of billion dollar profits. Orgasm Inc. is a powerful look inside the medical industry and the marketing campaigns that are literally and figuratively reshaping our everyday lives around health, illness, desire – and that ultimate moment: orgasm. (First Run Features)

Stephen Sondheim's musical "Company" opened on Broadway in the Spring of 1970, and tradition dictates that the cast recording is done on the first Sunday after opening night. D.A. Pennebaker, the now-legendary documentarian, filmed the production of the original cast recording, the back and forth between Sondheim and the performers, and the dynamic of trying to record live performance. The film climaxes with Elaine Stritch's performance of "The Ladies Who Lunch". The show won 6 Tony Awards including "Best Musical" and ran for two years on Broadway.

February 26 and 27, 2000, the Original Kings of Comedy play Charlotte, NC. The themes are Blacks and Whites, men and women, old-school and hip-hop. Steve Harvey emcees, celebrates '70s music and lyrics of love, and pokes at folks in the front row. D.L. Hughley mines racial differences and talks about his marriage. Cedric the Entertainer riffs on a Black president and on being grown up. Bernie Mac, who says he expresses what's in the back of our minds, closes with reflections on being 42 (new aspects to his sex life and his attitude toward children). Spike Lee's camera takes us backstage and off-stage with the Kings and into the crowd where everyone's laughing.

August 16, 1977. All of America was stunned by the news of Elvis Presley’s untimely passing. Some went so far as to believe that it couldn’t be true. Somehow he had faked his death. For the executives at Sun Records that fantasy became an opportunity in the form of Orion, a mysterious masked performer with the voice of The King. First appearing in 1979, Orion recorded 11 albums and performed live to packed houses and rapturous fans around the nation. But who was the man behind the mask? [IFC Films]

Taking Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando: A Biography as its starting point, academic virtuoso turned filmmaker Paul B. Preciado has fashioned the documentary, Orlando: My Political Biography, as a personal essay, historical analysis, and social manifesto which premiered and took home four prizes at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival. For almost a century, Woolf’s eponymous hero/heroine has inspired readers for their gender fluidity across physical and spiritual metamorphoses over a 300-year lifetime. Preciado casts a diverse cross-section of more than twenty trans and non-binary individuals in the role of Orlando as they perform interpretations of scenes from the novel, weaving into Woolf’s narrative their own stories of identity and transition. Not content to simply update a seminal work, Preciado interrogates the relevance of Orlando in the continuing struggle against anti-trans ideologies and in the fight for global trans rights.

Ornette: Made In America captures Ornette’s evolution over three decades. Returning home to Fort Worth, Texas in 1983 as a famed performer and composer, documentary footage, dramatic scenes, and some of the first music video-style segments ever made, chronicle his boyhood in segregated Texas and his subsequent emergence as an American cultural pioneer and world-class icon. (Milestone Films)

The consummate critical examination of the Fourth Estate, once the bastion of American democracy. Asking whether America has entered an Orwellian world of doublespeak where outright lies can pass for the truth, Pappas explores what the media doesn't like to talk about: itself. (Sag Harbor-Basement Pictures)

1949. George Orwell finishes what will be his last but most important novel, 1984. ORWELL: 2+2=5 delves deep into Orwell’s final months and visionary works to explore the roots of the vital and troubling concepts he revealed to the world in his dystopian masterpiece.

A celebration of the life and work of legendary Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson.

A group of Israelis and Palestinians come together in Oslo for an unsanctioned peace talks during the 1990s in order to bring peace to the Middle East.

A decade after JFK's assassination, America's political culture was changed almost beyond recognition. With Oswald's Ghost, acclaimed director Robert Stone offers an unprecedented deconstruction of the mythologies and controversy surrounding what is perhaps the most tangled and far reaching murder mystery of all time. Featuring interviews with Norman Mailer, Gary Hart, Tom Hayden, Mark Lane and others, the film probes the deep psychic wounds inflicted by the Kennedy assassination on American politics and culture, the scars of which remain evident to this day. Using a wealth of archival material, much of it never before seen or heard, Oswald's Ghost chronicles America's 40-year obsession with the single most pivotal event of the boomer generation. (Seventh Art Releasing)

At Dominquez High School in Compton, California, basketball is valued above all else. The school has not staged a play in over twenty years. With no budget and no stage, English teacher Catherine Borek attempts to mount a theatrical production of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," in an effort to make a change. In the process she takes her fledgling students on a journey of self-discovery. (Film Movement)

Not far from the White House, the Capitol, and the National Mall lies a part of Washington, DC that the tourists never see and the mainstream media virtually ignores. At least three percent of DC is HIV positive, a staggering rate higher than parts of Africa. Behind all the stories of heartbreak, loss, and struggle there are also the incredible, encouraging stories of the people behind grassroots movements to extend education, combat stigmas, and spread hope.

After leading the USSR to a gold medal (and victory over the U.S.A.) at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Sarunas Marciulionis and Arvydas Sabonis were poster boys for their oppressor’s sports machine. Four year later, after the fall of the Soviet Union, they emerged as symbols of democracy, helping their country break free from the shackles of Communism, and willing newly independent Lithuania to the medal stand at the Barcelona Olympics. The Other Dream Team documents the Lithuanians’ experiences behind the Iron Curtain for 50 years, where elite athletes were subjected to brutalities of Communist rule. As they hid from KGB agents and feared for their lives, Lithuania’s basketball stars always shared a common goal - to utilize their athletic gifts to help free their country. (The Film Arcade)

This revealing and touching film asks what happens when a generation's ultimate anti-authoritarians – punk rockers – become society's ultimate authorities – dads. With a large chorus of punk rock's leading men - Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea, Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath - The Other F Word follows Jim Lindberg, a 20-year veteran of the skate punk band Pennywise, on his hysterical and moving journey from belting his band's anthem ”F--k Authority,” to embracing his ultimately authoritarian role in mid-life: fatherhood. (Oscilloscope Pictures)

1952. Jamaica. When author Ian Fleming needs a name for his suave, sophisticated secret agent, he steals one from an unaware birdwatcher and creates a pop-culture phenomenon about the ultimate fictional alpha male. 2022. It is the year of 007's sixtieth anniversary onscreen and Australian filmmaker Matthew Bauer is on a global mission to discover the lasting, contrasting and very personal impacts of sharing such an identity with James Bond. From a Swedish 007 super-fan with a WW2 past, a gay New York theatre director, an African American Bond accused of murder, and two resilient women caught up in it all, Bauer's cinematic mission is an audacious, poignant, and insightful examination of masculinity, gender, and race in the very real shadows of a movie icon.

F.W. de Klerk was the last President of apartheid-era South Africa. In less than 4 years he went from being Mandela's jailor to his vice president. Together they changed history for the better and may have prevented a civil war, yet little is known about de Klerk. Through his probing lens, Rossier explores the fascinating political journey and legacy of this complicated figure. [First Run Features]