Titles tagged 'American studies':
Forced Change
An in-depth look at 4 stories of people who left New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and never returned. This 14-year epic investigates why they left, why they didn’t return and how they are still deeply affected close to 15 years after the greatest natural disaster in American history changed their lives forever.
Between the Shades
Fifty conversations exploring the many different shades of being “gay” in America. This conversation focuses on the degrees and varying perceptions about how people define themselves, their lives, struggles and triumphs.
The Last Laugh
THE LAST LAUGH dares to ask comedy legends Mel Brooks, Sarah Silverman, Gilbert Gottfried, and many others (including survivors): “Are we allowed to joke about the Holocaust?”
Starving The Beast
As college tuition skyrockets and student debt explodes, a powerful new documentary reveals a nationwide fight for control of the heart, soul and finances of America’s public universities.
Women of '69 Unboxed
Intimate, personalized portrait of women of the 1960s through the eyes of one colorful class that graduated in 1969 - same year as Hillary Clinton - and recently turned 65, starting to explore the New Old Age. At a time when these Boomers' parents were asking less of themselves, many of these distinguished citizens are asking more, feeling a Third Wind.
Spark
Each year, 60,000 people from around the globe
gather in the Nevada desert for the week-long Burning Man festival,
where they party and collaborate on large-scale art before burning a
giant effigy in a ritual frenzy.
The Disrupted
The Disrupted dives deep inside the lives of three Americans working harder than ever, as their place in the middle class slips away. For a farmer, a factory worker, and an Uber driver, rising income inequality betrays the American Dream.
JFK: A President Betrayed
The death of John F. Kennedy remains among the most compelling mysteries of the 20th century. But what may be more significant are the actions he took that provoked such extreme resentment.
Berlin Calling
As Kastle went through a rebellious phase of punk rock, shaved her head into a Mohawk and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in journalism, she unknowingly touched a nerve of her father’s deepest fears of persecution and separation anxiety.
First Comes Love
The film taps into the zeitgeist topic of how the modern family is being re-imagined in the early twenty-first century. They say it takes a village to raise a child. In Nina’s case, that village is populated by urban sophisticates who have delayed procreation for as long as possible and are late in confronting its joys and chores. Nina is unflinching at exposing her inner and outer self as a case study.
Grounded
Grounded is the high-flying, true story of Pittsburgh brothers Jimmy and Terry Dougherty, who became famous in the 1970's when they were involved in one of the largest marijuana smuggling operations in the United States.
Pennhurst
Pennhurst is a story of segregation, abandonment, and the meaning of home as told by the people that lived in, worked at, and crusaded for one of the largest and oldest Intellectual and Developmental Disability Institutions in the United States. The facility, in its closing, challenged society's perception of those with intellectual disabilities and ultimately fought for better rights, rights that are still being fought today.
United We Fan
Intertwining the extraordinary stories of Kaily, Dorothy, the Trimbles, and
sprinkling in a selection of similarly inspiring crusades, United We Fan goes beyond the headlines to give viewers deeper insights into fandom, identity, and community. 
Little Miss Westie
Little Miss Westie follows two transgender siblings as they navigate puberty, school, dating and transitioning during the Trump era.
Intelligent Lives
INTELLIGENT LIVES stars three pioneering young American adults with intellectual disabilities – Micah, Naieer, and Naomie – who challenge perceptions of intelligence as they navigate high school, college, and the workforce. Academy Award-winning actor and narrator Chris Cooper contextualizes the lives of these central characters through the emotional personal story of his son Jesse, as the film unpacks the shameful and ongoing track record of intelligence testing in the U.S.
American Trial: The Eric Garner StoryThis hybrid fiction-documentary engaged the services of two actual legal teams to create a rigorous, legally based fictional—yet unscripted—trial that never happened for one of the nation’s most disturbing tragedies.
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After the
American Dream An expectant mother determined to give her unborn child a life she never knew. A devoted son torn between seeking freedom and living far from the home and mother he loves. A daughter struggling to comprehend the cost of losing her family in order to begin one of her own in a new land.
Dogtown Redemption
Shot over seven years, Dogtown Redemption is not only the intimate story of recyclers in West Oakland, but a journey through a landscape of love and loss, devotion and addiction, prejudice and poverty.
99% Occupy Everywhere
The film documents how private money in politics has undermined democracy and transferred income from 99% of Americans to multinational corporations and the wealthy.
Above All Else
ABOVE ALL ELSE is an intimate portrait of a group
of landowners and activists in East Texas who tried to stop construction
of the Keystone XL pipeline, a 7 billion dollar project slated to carry
tar sands oil from Canada to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.
Burn
With vast stretches of abandoned buildings, the highest arson rate in the country, and a budget crisis of epic proportions, these brave men and women risk injury, disablement, and death to try and make a difference for the city they call home.
Generation A: Portraits of Autism and the Arts
Autism: Disability or Gift? Generation A: Portraits of Autism and the Arts is a powerful depiction of the daily challenges faced by young people on the autism spectrum, and what creative therapies and art programs are available to stimulate the brain and help young people on the autism spectrum reach their highest potential.
Country School
Country schools took rough-hewn pioneers and multilingual immigrants and transformed them into a literate and patriotic new nation. Whether personally, or through a parent or grandparent, the country school as an American architectural icon, is as imprinted on our perception of the nation’s early history as the log cabin and the general store.
Culture in Decline
Culture in Decline is a satirical yet serious social issues series that challenges modern cultural phenomena that have been normalized by society. Designed as a crude, “public access” TV style parody, each documentary episode tackles a different theme and guides the viewer toward a fresh perspective on current issues.
Ruthie and Connie
Set in working class Jewish Brooklyn — RUTHIE AND CONNIE follows two very funny, if rather traditional housewives. Like many young women in the 1950s, they got married. Then, like many young women in the 1970s, they got divorced. Unlike most, however, they both left their husbands for another woman: each other.
Take My Nose... Please!
A wickedly subversive look at the role of comedy in exposing the pressures on women to be attractive and society’s ambivalence toward cosmetic surgery. The film follows Jackie Hoffman, an award-winning comic actress, known for her self- deprecating humor, and Emily Askin, an up-and-coming improv performer, as they contemplate the possible impact of surgery on their careers, relationships and self-regard. Interwoven with their profoundly moving stories are those of comedy icons, from funny-lady Fanny Brice (Ziegfield Follies), who went public in 1923 with her nose revision, to ground-breaking comediennes who have spoken honestly about their surgical makeovers.
After Auschwitz
After Auschwitz is a “Post-Holocaust” documentary that follows six extraordinary women, capturing what it means to move from tragedy and trauma towards life. These women all moved to Los Angeles, married, raised children and became“Americans” but they never truly found a place to call home.
Home Page
The year is 1996, and documentary filmmaker Doug Block, fascinated by this new thing called the internet, trains his wry, analytical lens on the burgeoning home page (i.e. blogging) phenomenon.
Father the Flame
For centuries, the tobacco pipe has been a symbol of contentment and contemplation. Through the window of this transcendental artifact and its sacred origins, Father the Flame is a cinematic exploration of legacy, family and love.
Olompali: A Hippie Odyessy
Wealthy Marin County businessman Don McCoy transforms his life from conservative entrepreneur to beneficent hippie dropout, using his family inheritance to lease Rancho Olompali, a 700-acre estate north of San Francisco, to start a commune.
Romantic ComedyA documentary that goes beneath the surface of our favorite films, seeking to better understand the way we view love, relationships, and romance. Romantic comedies are hugely successful and deeply loved by many but often have avoided critical analysis. Helped by a diverse chorus of writers, actors, and filmmakers, and with original songs by her band Summer Camp, director Elizabeth Sankey embarks on a journey of investigation and self-discovery.
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One October
Filmed in October 2008 on the eve of Obama's historic election and an unprecedented economic crisis, this lyrical portrait of New York City follows WFMU radio reporter Clay Pigeon as he takes to the streets to talk to fellow citizens about their lives, their dreams, and their relationship with a transforming city.
Farmer Veteran
Home from three combat tours in Iraq, Alex Sutton forges a new identity as a farmer, hatching chicks and raising goats on 43 acres in rural North Carolina. He dives into life on the farm with his new love Jessica, but cannot shake the lingering traumas of war.
Big Charity
Founded as a hospital for the poor, Charity Hospital began in 1736 as just a small cottage built on the goodwill of a dying French merchant. Ran by the nuns of the Daughters of Charity and serving the city of New Orleans for close to 300 years, it gradually transformed into an enormous public institution - into Big Charity - and a longstanding symbol of compassion, a seemingly eternal place of safety and a beacon of hope in the community.
Saving Jamaica Bay
Despite its natural beauty, rich
history, and immense resources, Jamaica Bay was New York City's dumping
ground for decades. Towering landfills created landscapes of garbage.
Abandoned boats, piers, and docks added to the eyesore - not to mention
the occasional gangland hit victim.
Carb Loaded
Lathe Poland is fit, healthy and slim - anything but the classic picture of an adult onset diabetes sufferer. So when he is diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, he can't figure out why. Poland quickly learns that much of what he knew about healthy eating was based on myths or fifty year old science.
George Tice: Seeing Beyond the Moment
Long recognized for his deeply penetrating photographic record of America, George Tice works in the urban tradition of artists such as Edward Hopper and Walker Evans.
A Year In The Blue
Granted unprecedented access to life inside the Academy walls, A YEAR IN THE BLUE: INSIDE THE AIR FORCE ACADEMY is an intimate portrayal of the heartbreaks and triumphs of balancing military training, a rigorous four-year college education, mandatory athletics, and flying and parachuting, following the cadets from the dorms to Boot Camp, the Airfield to the Football Stadium, and to West Point and Alaska.
Going Attractions
GOING ATTRACTIONS is the definitive story of the drive-in movie. A product of post World War II optimism, the drive-in movie theater emerged as the perfect blend of entertainment and car culture. Fueled by the baby boom, drive-ins became an integral part of the American teenage experience.
Neat: The Story of Bourbon
NEAT is a documentary that dives into the rich and storied world of bourbon. Exploring its colorful history, charismatic characters, and uniquely American process, the film is a celebration of the time, artistry, and relationships that make America’s only native spirit.
Delay, Deny, Hope You Die
Thousands of American soldiers returned from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan with severe illnesses. They are not the victims of ruthless enemy warfare, but of decisions made by their own military commanders. These soldiers, afflicted with everything from respiratory diseases to rare cancers, were sickened by the smoke and ash swirling out of the “burn pits”, where both the military and private contractors incinerated mountains of trash.
Island Soldier
Island Soldier is a feature documentary that interweaves the personal stories of Micronesian soldiers serving in the US military at high rates per capita, and the experiences of their families back home in the islands.
Hillbilly
It introduces audiences to a nuanced, authentic Appalachia that is quite conscious of how it has been portrayed and the impacts of those portrayals.
No Control
No Control seeks to address the efficacy of gun laws and the ongoing debate between personal freedom and public safety in a candid discussion of one of the most complex, contentious issues in American history.
Inherent GoodAs an urgent response to swelling economic anxiety and wealth inequality in America, comedian Trae Crowder takes us on a journey to the South to explore a transformative idea of giving free cash to every citizen – no strings attached.
Kathy Griffin: A Hell of A StoryOn May 30, 2017 an image of Griffin holding a mask that resembled the severed head of President Trump was released – the image went global and everything she had worked for in her life, vanished overnight.
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