Participant Media
1) Aquarela
Description
Water is the main protagonist, seen in all its great and terrible beauty. Mountains of ice move and break apart as if they had a life of their own. Kossakovsky's film travels the world, from the precarious frozen waters of Russia's Lake Baikal and Miami in the throes of Hurricane Irma, to Venezuela's mighty Angel Falls in order to paint a portrait of this fluid life force in all its glorious forms. Fragile humans experience life and death, joy and...
Formats
Description
The film tells an inspiring and spirited true story that follows young lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg as she teams with her husband Marty to bring a groundbreaking case before the US Court of Appeals and overturn a century of gender discrimination. The feature will premiere in 2018 in line with Justice Ginsburg's 25th anniversary on the Supreme Court.
Formats
Description
"A decade since an extraterrestrial force has occupied the planet, deceiving humanity with the promise of peace and unity, Chicago Police Officer William Mulligan is tasked with maintaining law and order in a city on the brink of rebellion. Gabriel, the young brother of a fallen militant and the son of Mulligan's ex-partner, is faced with the crucial choice: collaborate, or fight back." --container
4) Human Flow
Description
Over 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change and war in the greatest human displacement since World War II. HUMAN FLOW, an epic film journey led by the internationally renowned artist Ai Weiwei, gives a powerful visual expression to this massive human migration. The documentary elucidates both the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact. Official...
Formats
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"Sometimes, four legs are better than two. Dan just moved his wife and son to the woods to take a new job with a supposedly eco-friendly housing development. But the fur - and Dan's temper - is sure to fly when the local critters learn of the bleak plans for their forest home and stop at nothing to halt construction." --container.
6) Watson
Description
Captain Watson and his crews have confronted whaling vessels from Europe to the Southern Ocean, seal hunters in Canada, and shark finners in Central America. WATSON blends revealing contemporary interviews with Captain Watson, archival clips of Sea Shepherd’s dramatic encounters, and spectacular underwater nature footage, as award-winning documentarian Lesley Chilcott (An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for “Superman”) paints a fascinating portrait...
Description
Hidden inside overcrowded factories around the world, THE PRICE OF FREE tells the story of countless children who are forced into slave labor due to rising global demands for cheap goods. With the help of a covert network of informants, Nobel Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi and his dedicated team carry out daring raids to rescue and rehabilitate imprisoned children.
Description
For almost 50 years, the world’s population has grown at an alarming rate, raising fears about strains on the Earth’s resources. MISCONCEPTION offers a provocative glimpse at how the world, and women in particular, are tackling a subject at once personal and global. Following three individuals, director Jessica Yu focuses on the human implications of this highly charged political issue.
Description
"the groundbreaking feature film that provides an engaging and inspiring look at public education in the United States. Waiting for 'Superman' has helped launch a movement to achieve a real and lasting change through the compelling stories of five unforgettable students such as Emily, a Silicon Valley eighth-grader who is afraid of being labeled as unfit for college and Francisco, a Bronx first-grader whose mom will do anything to give him a shot...
Description
ANGELS IN THE DUST is the inspiring story of Marion Cloete, a university-trained therapist who—with her husband and two daughters—fearlessly walked away from a privileged life in a wealthy Johannesburg suburb to establish Boikarabelo (formerly Botshabelo), an extraordinary village and school that provide shelter, food, and education to more than 550 South African children.
11) Just mercy
Formats
Description
"In this powerful, thought-provoking true story, recent Harvard graduate Bryan Stevenson passes up lucrative jobs to defend those wrongly condemned in Alabama. Supported by local advocate Eva Ansley, he quickly picks up the incendiary ase of Walter McMillian, a death-row inmate convicted of a nororious murder. Facing a legal and political labyrinth and unabashed racism, Bryan fights for Walter and others like him in a system stacked against them."...
Description
Please note that this Film is only available through participating public libraries. This unique and powerful film follows two Special Operations soldiers as they struggle with PTSD and reintegrating back into society. THAT WHICH I LOVE DESTROYS ME is an uncensored look at the current epidemic of PTSD and severe mental trauma that create tremendous challenges for returning service members.
13) Foster
Description
Oscar-winning filmmakers Deborah Oppenheimer and Mark Jonathan Harris reunite for a revealing first-hand look at the foster care system as seen through the eyes of those who know it best. With extraordinary access to the inner workings of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), Oppenheimer and Harris go beyond the sensational headlines and stereotypes.
Description
In DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS, Eligio Eloy Vargas, alias Melaneo, a Dominican Park Ranger in the Sierra de Bahoruco National Park was found brutally murdered by machete. At the time, he was believed to have been on patrol investigating an illegal charcoal production site often run by Haitians coming across the border into protected Dominican forests. This murder becomes the metaphor for the larger story of increasing tension between Haiti and the Dominican...
Description
Inspired by the book by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, the film takes audiences on a satirically comedic, yet illuminating ride into the heart of conjuring American spin. Filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the curtain on a secretive group of highly charismatic, silver-tongued pundits-for-hire who present themselves in the media as scientific authorities, yet have the aim of spreading maximum confusion about well-studied public threats ranging from toxic...
Description
50 million people in the U.S.—one in four children—don’t know where their next meal is coming from, despite our having the means to provide nutritious, affordable food for all Americans. Directors Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush examine this issue through the lens of three people who are struggling with food insecurity.
17) Out of the dark
Description
A couple and their daughter moves to Colombia to take over a family business, only to realize their new home is haunted by children whose death was caused by a horrible accident over twenty years ago.
Description
MIDSUMMER IN NEWTOWN paints the most intimate of portraits of a New England town as its citizens deploy the power of art to push beyond one of the greatest tragedies in American history. In the aftermath of 2012's Sandy Hook school shooting, Kramer learned that a group of artists from New York were traveling to Newtown to work with kids from the local school system to mount an adaptation of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
19) Shot caller
Formats
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After a DUI sent him down the rabbit hole of the American prison system, Jacob Harlon was transformed into Money, a stoic and ruthless prison gangster. Upon his release from prison, he learns that the grip of his new family, the prison gang, goes beyond bars. Chased by law enforcement and threatened by his incarcerated 'protectors', he must orchestrate one last dangerous crime.
Description
In KINGDOM OF SHADOWS, Bernardo Ruiz takes an unflinching look at the hard choices and destructive consequences of the U.S.-Mexico "drug war", weaving together the stories of a U.S. drug enforcement agent on the border, an activist nun in violence-scarred Monterrey, Mexico, and a former Texas smuggler, to reveal the human side of an often misunderstood conflict.