Extremis
Faced with harrowing situations on a daily basis, doctors and nurses at Oakland’s Highland Hospital work closely with patients and their families to make the most difficult choices. (San Francisco)
The Eagle Huntress
The Kazakh tradition of eagle hunting has been passed down from father to son for over 2,000 years in Western Mongolia. Aisholpan, a determined and spellbinding 13-year-old, dreams of becoming the first female huntress. With the support of her family, and against all odds, she trains diligently with her father to prepare for an annual […]
Do Not Resist
Starting on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, as the community grapples with the death of Michael Brown, Do Not Resist—the directorial debut of Detropia cinematographer Craig Atkinson – offers a stunning look at the current state of policing in America and a glimpse into the future. The Tribeca Film Festival winner for Best Documentary puts […]
Dead Slow Ahead
A freighter crosses the ocean. The hypnotic rhythm of its pace reveals the continuous movement of the machinery devouring its workers: the old sailors’ gestures disappearing under the mechanical and impersonal pulse of the 21st century neo-capitalism. Perhaps it is a boat adrift, or maybe just the last example of an endangered species with engines […]
Contemporary Color
The choreographed and vibrant art form known as colour guard gained an enraptured fan in music icon David Byrne. The former Talking Heads frontman found the world of high school students synchronizing complex dance sequences with flag spins and rifle tosses to be creatively invigorating but generally underappreciated. Byrne came up with an ambitious project […]
Cameraperson
Drawing on footage she’s shot over the course of 25 years, documentary cinematographer Kirsten Johnson searches to reconcile her part in the thorny questions of permission, power, creative ambition and human obligation that come with filming the lives of others. (Ambulante)
Bacon and God’s Wrath
This creative, multi-media doc is an exploration of belief, faith and custom in the modern world, through the eyes of an elderly Jewish woman as she embraces technology and tries bacon for the first time. (Palm Springs)
Author: The JT Leroy Story
JT LeRoy, gender-fluid child of a West Virginia prostitute, burned brightly like the transgressive love child of Flannery O’Connor and Truman Capote. Feuerzeig (The Devil & Daniel Johnston) strikes gold again in the film’s central character, a literary wunderkind in the late ‘90s with an obsessive penchant for self-documentation and the ability to brilliantly exploit […]
Among the Believers
In Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, the charismatic Islamist Abdul Aziz Ghazi sits on the floor in the largest of the Koranic schools of which he is the spiritual leader. He takes a big sack into his arms, turns it upside down and out flows loads of money. ‘Politicians left a vacuum in this country’ he says […]
All This Panic
Filmed over the course of three years, All this Panic follows Ginger and Dusty, sisters growing up in New York City, along with their friends and classmates as they navigate high school politics and growing up in front of the lens. The teens are disarmingly eloquent and surprisingly candid; they let us in to witness […]