On November 4th, 2008, three states - California, Florida and Arizona - voted to amend their constitutions, denying and revoking the rights of same-sex couples to marry. On May 26, 2009, with Canadian allies, gay American families rally at a Vancouver demonstration to protest these amendments that persecute the LGBTQ community. Demonstration organizer Roger Chin relays the California Supreme Court's infamous decision on Prop 8. Subsequent speakers talk about couples living in exile. Weaving elements of public protest and intimate interviews, four families share their stories of how they met, their decision to escape to freedom in Canada, their Canadian experience and their dreams of returning to their home country, family and friends. In the end, the organizer celebrates the freedoms to marry that exists in Canada.
The Numbers Start with the River (1971)
The Numbers Start with the River is a 1971 American short documentary film about small-town life in Iowa. Produced by Donald Wrye for the United States Information Agency, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
Belzer Behind Bars (1983)
Turn off the alarms and throw away the keys as these two comics set the inmates of Arizona State Prison rolling with laughter.
A Place to Live: The Story of Triangle Square (2008)
A Place to Live: The Story of Triangle Square chronicles the journey of seven brave individuals as they attempt to secure a home in Triangle Square, Hollywood, the nation's first affordable housing facility for LGBT seniors. Since demand far exceeds the number of available apartments, a lottery system was set up to determine who would be selected. This film is a moving exploration of the applicants' personal stories and the journey that brought them to the lottery and what the future might hold.
Say My Name (NaN)
People from different ethnic backgrounds with "difficult" names by Western standards share their experience with moving through the world with an identity that challenges others to simply just say their name. A short social docu-film by Mariam Meliksetyan, “Say My Name” is a meditation on identity, otherness, assimilation, community, and ancestral roots.
Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened... (2016)
This film from acclaimed theater director Lonny Price charts the journey of the original cast of Stephen Sondheim's "Merrily We Roll Along" in the 30-plus years since the musical debuted on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre in 1981.
Do You Love Me Like I Love You (Part 10: The Boatman's Call) (2011)
A short film to accompany the reissue of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album The Boatman's Call (originally released in 1997). The result is a determinedly human portrait of the unique body of work produced by the band over the last 25 years, told through those who have lived and loved the music, including close collaborators.
A Day in the Life of a Consumer (1993)
The film shows one day from waking up in the morning all the way to waking up again the next morning. The everyday situations that many commercials are made of, the little dramas that they create and solve through the product or service they sell, are stitched together into one day. This is a film about the everyday in (German, or Western-European) society because the commercials are part of the everyday of most people (everyone who watches television) and they depict an ideal image of society. The film abundantly uses repetition as an editing technique, in visual ways as described above, but also because commercials can be read in different ways. For instance, Brat baking foil shows up at the evening dinner sequence, when an ovendish is put on the table, and again later on in the sequence about going out to a classic concert, because the clip has classic music.
Confessions of a Male Stripper (2013)
Male stripping is booming in the UK. Every weekend in most major cities, women are paying to see men get naked. The Dreamboys is the biggest male stripping agency of them all and ex-stripper David Richards is in charge. He claims to know what women want, and is prepared to do whatever it takes to give it to them. David is on the search for some 'fresh meat' to join his London troupe and meets the men that come forward to auditions. Who are they, why are they doing it and what impact is it having on their lives? Like never before, this First Cut film lifts the lid on this exotic world of sex, fantasy and temptation and shines a light on the private lives of the men whose job it is to bare all. First Cut is the critically acclaimed, eclectic documentary strand that showcases distinctive new films by up and coming directors.
Sidney Crosby: There's No Place Like Home (2019)
A first-person account of a kid named Sidney in a town that helped him become who he is today: Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia.
Black Power Salute (2008)
A film about one of the most iconic images of the 20th century, the moment when the radical spirit of the 1960s upstaged the greatest sporting event in the world. Two men made a courageous gesture that reverberated around the world, and changed their lives forever. This film is about Tommie Smith and John Carlos' protest at the 1968 Olympics.
Riding Giants (2004)
Riding Giants is story about big wave surfers who have become heroes and legends in their sport. Directed by the skateboard guru Stacy Peralta.
About ‘Song of Ceylon’ by Basil Wright (1975)
Song of Ceylon was commissioned for the short-lived German TV-series Telekritik and broadcasted in 1975. In Telekritik documentary approaches were analysed and made available for a critique of contemporary TV, its aesthetics and modes of production. Other authors for the series include Hartmut Bitomsky, Rainer Gansera and Klaus Wildenhahn.In the 30-minute movie, Farocki shows and comments on excerpts from the film Song of Ceylon by Basil Wright (and a short segment of Eisenstein's Mexico-fragments). Farocki's voice-over describes part of the movie, focussing on details and montage. He also uses didactic and descriptive drawings and intertitles to confront the classic documentary and its stylistic approaches with contemporary TV.
Which Is Scary (1991)
A set of seven portraits consisting of personal accounts from the lives of gays and lesbians. The narration includes stories about coming out, bashing, cross-dressing and AIDS.
ABUHADBA (2024)
From the slow waitings for opening of the big top to the loneliness in the dressing room backstage, Abuhadba follows the life of a small circus in Chile run entirely by a traditional circus family.
Strangers for the Day (1962)
This short documentary shows the reactions of European immigrants as they land in Halifax at the beginning of the 1960s. From the port, we follow them on a snowy journey by train to Montreal.
The Madness of Boy George (2006)
Documenting the days and weeks preceding Boy George's appearance in a New York courtroom in June 2006 for cocaine possession and his subsequent sentencing to 5 days community service as a street cleaner by order of the US justice department.
Intimitäten (2005)
Every human being knows it: privacy. Where do intimate moments occur, moments in which intimacy is openly expressed. In search of these moments, a gay-porno production firm, the Wa(h)re-Liebe television reporting team from Berlin, flew to Majorca with Lukas Schmid, a documentary film director. Intimitaeten is a cinema-direct documentary film in which various ways of approaching and analysing intimacy are explored.