With four strikes against her (black, female, poor and a lesbian), our trailblazer, Jewel Thais-Williams, helped changed laws, save lives and influence communities across Los Angeles, California as she opened her legendary nightclub's door for 42 years.
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Saudi Solutions (2006)
How to combine modernity and fundamentalist Islam. "Saudi Solutions" is a unique and revealing documentary about the lifestyles and attitudes of ambitious career womenin conservative Saudi Arabia - the only country in the Arabworld where women are obliged to cover themselves inabayas and aren't allowed to drive cars. Because of the strong influence of fundamentalist Islam on society, filmingis severely restricted in Saudi Arabia. With unique access to the Kingdom, Backlight had the opportunity to film the daily routines of Saudi working women. This documentaryfeatures a top gyneacologist, a TV news anchor woman, a photographer, and a university professor. It also introducesthe wealthy Prince Al-Waleed, who passionately promotes the acceptance of women into the workforce. He kindly invitesBacklight to his luxury desert camp, but there are no women to be found - only thousands of men.
Mary Tyler Moore: A Celebration (2015)
Not only did Mary Tyler Moore “turn the world on with her smile,” as her show’s theme song declared, she also influenced a generation of women to become more independent and to pursue successful and fulfilling careers. Moore’s own 50-plus-year career has spanned award-winning films and Broadway shows, as well as two beloved television series that broke ground and continue to entertain viewers. This one-hour special includes highlights from a recent interview with Mary Tyler Moore, tributes from her co-stars and clips from iconic moments throughout her career. The program looks at her breakthrough role on The Dick Van Dyke Show, her iconic turn as TV's first independent career woman on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and her Academy Award-nominated work on Ordinary People.
Augusta (1976)
This short documentary is the portrait of an 88-year-old woman who lives alone in a log cabin without running water or electricity. Augusta is a non-status Shuswap Indian living in the Williams Lake area of British Columbia. She recalls past times, but lives very much in the present. Self-sufficient, dedicated to her people, she spreads warmth wherever she moves, with her songs and her harmonica.
Women of Vision (1998)
Documentary that highlights 18 women and covers a period of time from the 50's to the 90's. The women chosen were selected because they represent the real diversity within both feminism and independent film and video. They range in age from 65 to 25. They are black, white, Puerto Rican, Yugoslavian, Asian American, biracial. They are straight, gay and bisexual. What they share is a need to express their own interpretations of what American culture is and could be and a belief that this work is made particularly powerful through the media.
War Dance (2007)
Three children living in a displacement camp in northern Uganda compete in their country's national music and dance festival.
There's No Place Like Home (2024)
For all important things in our lives, there is a collection of things that come together that give them significance. For our favourite meals, it is a collection of ingredients coming together to form a taste that gives us comfort. For our homes, it is a collection of memorabilia, items, trinkets, and decorations that come together in a way that is representative of who we are. Our families are a group of several individuals who play different roles in our lives and come together to form our support system. For the Queer community, friends collectively join to form a support system that plays an essential role in their happiness and survival in a homophobic world. The human experience is collaborative and a collection of things that shape our lives. This documentary shows how the people in Alex’s life come together to keep them afloat.
Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes (2024)
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The world’s most magnificent horsemen face an unsure future in one of the planet’s last great equine cultures. The Tibetan Buddhist region of Mustang in the High Himalaya is the Last Forbidden Kingdom and their unique heritage and remarkable spiritual bond with the horse is under threat. In a land where a man’s wealth can still be measured in horses, death defying races are the colorful back-drop for this story of the ascent of civilization in the high Himalaya. With lush cinematography, and insightful intervieww, the film also recounts the little known story of the CIA’s covert operations in Mustang, and features rare archival footage of the Dalai Lama’s flight on horseback over the Himalaya. The scholarly and perceptive voices of Dr. Sienna Craig - author of "Horses Like Lightning" and Mikel Dunham, author of "Buddha's Warriors" turn this lens to issues of globalization, fragile border politics and the precarious future for Mustang’s distinctive equine culture.
Path to Glory: The Rise and Rise of the Polish Arabian Horse (2011)
It can be said that the history of man is the history of the horse. Nowhere is that more true than in Poland with their beloved Arabian horse. This is the strange, unexpected story of far-flung lands as disparate as Egypt and the long-suffering Slavic kingdom of Poland coming together in war and in peace and influencing one another through the living history written on the backs of centuries of horses. This breathtaking film documents the unlikely, triumphant story of Poland's entrance onto the world stage via their worldwide influence on the breeding of one animal; how a beleaguered nation rose up to become the pinnacle of Arabian horse breeding, coming full circle from desert sands to the hallowed halls of Europe.
East of War (1996)
White-tiled rooms, neon lighting; on the walls black and white photographs documenting the atrocities committed by the german Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front in WW2. Against this background former soldiers talk about their experiences beyond the bounds of "normal" warfare. An uncompromising film on remembrance and oblivion.
Little Girl Blue (2023)
In 2016, French writer and photographer Carole Achache took her own life. After Carole's death, her daughter Mona Achache, a film director, discovers thousands of photos, letters and recordings that Carole left behind, but these buried secrets make her disappearance even more of an enigma. Through the power of filmmaking and the beauty of incarnation with the help of actress Marion Cotillard, the director brings her mother back to life to retrace her journey and find out who she really was.
The Amateur (2016)
The memory of Piero Portaluppi, a Milanese architect who reached the peak of his fame during the 20 years of the Fascist regime, comes back to life, both through the rediscovery of his work today and in a previously unpublished film diary in 16 mm, shot and edited throughout his lifetime. A man of great charm and power, Portaluppi lived through a grandiose but tragic era with ironic detachment, as if dancing across things as he created beauty. History marches on implacably, radically transforming the arena in which the eclectic artist and his large family lived and worked.
William Shatner in Concert (2006)
William Shatner performs a concert of biographical songs that take the audience into the reality of his life and career: from STAR TREK to BOSTON LEGAL. Shatner sings in front of a live audience with Ben Folds, Brad Paisley and Joe Jackson. Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart, Kate Mulgrew and Candice Bergen make cameos.
The Graham Norton Story (2016)
Charting his unique journey from humble beginnings in Ireland to superstardom as Britain's best-loved chat show host, this documentary hears from people who knew Graham Norton, worked with him and helped shape his career, as well as his devoted fans, friends and media champions.
