Abdul Rahman, an African prince who was sold into slavery, spent four decades in servitude before an amazing coincidence took him to the White House to meet President John Quincy Adams, where he was granted his freedom. Mos Def narrates this PBS documentary that includes reenactments of scenes from Rahman's life and interviews with historians who discuss the conditions faced by slaves in early America.
Olympia: Part One – Festival of the Nations (1938)
Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefenstahl created a celebration of the human form. This first half of her two-part film opens with a renowned introduction that compares modern Olympians to classical Greek heroes, then goes on to provide thrilling in-the-moment coverage of some of the games' most celebrated moments, including African-American athlete Jesse Owens winning a then-unprecedented four gold medals.
Olympia: Part Two – Festival of Beauty (1938)
Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefenstahl created a celebration of the human form. Where the two-part epic's first half, Festival of the Nations, focused on the international aspects of the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, part two, The Festival of Beauty, concentrates on individual athletes such as equestrians, gymnasts, and swimmers, climaxing with American Glenn Morris' performance in the decathalon and the games' majestic closing ceremonies.
Rap's Most Wanted (1991)
Documentery from 1991 where The 2 Live Crew, Chuck D (Public Enemy), Too Short, Ice-T, Geto Boys, H.W.A. drop real talk on different topics.
Bob Marley: The Making of a Legend (2011)
Based on footage shot in the early seventies and lost for more than thirty years, we see and hear the young Bob Marley before he was famous. The film shows us the Wailers' first rehearsal, when the idea of a Jamaican supergroup was still just a dream. Sit in as the albums of Bob Marley and the Wailers brought reggae music and Rasta consciousness to the world, starting a revolution that would change rock music and contemporary culture.
Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq (2014)
Of all the great ballerinas, Tanaquil Le Clercq may have been the most transcendent. With a body unlike any before hers, she mesmerized viewers and choreographers alike. With her elongated, race-horse physique, she became the new prototype for the great George Balanchine. Because of her extraordinary movement and unique personality on stage, she became a muse to two of the greatest choreographers in dance, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. She eventually married Balanchine, and Robbins created his famous version of Afternoon of a Faun for her. She had love, fame, adoration, and was the foremost dancer of her day until it suddenly all stopped. At the age of 27, she was struck down by polio and paralyzed. She never danced again. The ballet world has been haunted by her story ever since.
Last Hijack (2014)
Documentary that follows the lives of two pirates and their community on the Somali coastline; what are the incentives of the pirates, why did they become pirates, how did they grow up in a country with political chaos, war and extreme poverty? The narrative structure is built around two interweaving story-lines; one depicting the "present", the daily lives of the pirates and their community, and the second in the "past", revealing through epic animation, the unfolding of a recent hijacking.
Latest News from the Cosmos (2016)
Nearly 30 years-old, Hélène still looks like a teenager. She is the author of powerful texts with corrosive humor. It is part, as she says herself, of a "badly calibrated lot, not entering anywhere". Her telepathic poetry speaks of her world and of ours. She accompanies a director who adapts her work to the theater, she talks with a mathematician ... Yet Helene can not talk or hold a pen, she has never learned to read or write. It when she turns 20 that her mother discovers that she can communicate by arranging letters on a sheet of paper. One of the many mysteries of the one that calls herself Babouillec ...
Fatal Promises (NaN)
Every year, an estimated 800,000 persons are trafficked across international borders and forced into sexual or labour servitude. Estimates are that as many as 32 million people yearly are held in slave-like conditions for sexual or labour exploitation, 2.4 million of these individuals as a result of being trafficked. They are promised good jobs or pay, but end up forced into prostitution or working in servitude for no pay. They are emotionally and physically brutalized, starved, forced to work extremely long hours, stripped of their passports and locked away, and eventually discarded or worse, murdered. Eight years after the United Nations established the Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, "Fatal Promises" offers a comprehensive look at the realities on the ground versus the rhetoric of today.
Revolution: New Art for a New World (2017)
Drawing on the collections of major Russian institutions, contributions from contemporary artists, curators and performers and personal testimony from the descendants of those involved, the film brings the artists of the Russian Avant-Garde to life. It tells the stories of artists like Chagall, Kandinsky and Malevich - pioneers who flourished in response to the challenge of building a new art for a new world, only to be broken by implacable authority after 15 short years and silenced by Stalin's Socialist Realism.
Haru, Island of the Solitary (1998)
In early 1970s, the graphic designer Tuulikki Pietilä had seen enough of stative visual art and purchased a film camera from Japan. She filmed the games and chores of the artist couple in their beloved hideout, the island of Klovharun.
Who Is Arthur Chu? (2017)
Documentary feature about 11-time Jeopardy! champion and Internet iconoclast, Arthur Chu.
Angano... Angano... Tales from Madagascar (1989)
Venerable storytellers recount for the camera and their listeners the founding myths of Malagasy culture.
Kurosawa's Way (2011)
Eleven major film makers from Europe, America and Asia talk about Akira Kurosawa and discover surprising influences on their own work.
Supergirl (2016)
Naomi seems like a typical nine-year-old girl, until her passion for powerlifting transforms her life with world record-breaking championships and national news headlines. Supergirl explores Naomi’s coming-of-age journey as she and her Orthodox Jewish family are changed forever by her inner strength and extraordinary talent.
John Ford & Monument Valley (2013)
John Wayne, Henry Fonda and James Stewart discuss working with John Ford
Broken Promises: The High Arctic Relocation (1995)
In the summer of 1953, the Canadian government relocated seven Inuit families from Northern Québec to the High Arctic. They were promised an abundance of game and fish - in short, a better life. The government assured the Inuit that if things didn't work out, they could return home after two years. Two years later, another 35 people joined them. It would be thirty years before any of them saw their ancestral lands again. Abandoned in flimsy tents, the Inuit were left to fend for themselves in the desolate settlements of Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord, where the sea was nearly always frozen and darkness reigned for months on end. Suffering from hunger, extreme cold, sickness, alcoholism and poverty, Québec's Inuit had become the victims of a government policy supposedly designed to return them to their "native state". Evidence points to the government's wish to strengthen Canada's sovereignty in the Arctic as playing a part in the decision to relocate.
E-Team (2014)
E-Team is driven by the high-stakes investigative work of four intrepid human rights workers, offering a rare look at their lives at home and their dramatic work in the field.
Fed Up (2014)
Fed Up blows the lid off everything we thought we knew about food and weight loss, revealing a 30-year campaign by the food industry, aided by the U.S. government, to mislead and confuse the American public, resulting in one of the largest health epidemics in history.
Rich Hill (2014)
If you ever find yourself traveling down Interstate 49 through Missouri, try not to blink—you may miss Rich Hill, population 1,396. Rich Hill is easy to overlook, but its inhabitants are as woven into the fabric of America as those living in any small town in the country. This movie intimately chronicles the turbulent lives of three boys living in said Midwestern town and the fragile family bonds that sustain them.
Chhabili (1960)
Following Israeli author Amos Oz over two years, as he meets readers and discusses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Along the way, Oz offers advice to Israeli president Shimon Peres, and is seen with fellow writers Salman Rushdie, Paul Auster and Nadine Gordimer, and the Palestinian intellectual Sari Nusseibeh.