First Run Features (Firm)
Pub. Date
2017.
Description
This documentary tells a story of love, marriage and a fight for equality. It chronicles two unlikely heroes, octogenarian Edie Windsor and her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, on their quest for justice: Edie had been forced to pay a huge estate tax bill upon the death of her spouse because the federal government denied federal benefits to same-sex couples. Deeply offended by this lack of recognition of her more than forty-year relationship with the love...
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
Since the dawn of cinema, sex workers have served as muses to movie-makers. From turn of the century white slavery pictures (The Girl who went Astray, 1900), to iconic rom-coms (Pretty Woman, 1990), to indie hits (Tangerine, 2015), hookers, hustlers, call girls, street walkers, strippers and dommes have been staples of the silver screen. Cinematic sex workers are punchlines, cautionary tales or fantasy figures. They are brutalized, killed off, sometimes...
Pub. Date
2022.
Description
What does it take to keep Jazz Age music going strong in the 21st century? Two words: Vince Giordano -- a bandleader, musician, historian, scholar, collector, and NYC institution. For nearly 40 years, Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks have brought the joyful syncopation of the 1920s and ‘30s to life with their virtuosity, vintage musical instruments, and more than 60,000 period band arrangements. This beautifully crafted documentary offers an intimate...
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
After The Missing Picture (Un Certain Regard winner, Cannes and Oscar nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2014), Rithy Panh continues his personal and spiritual exploration of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge era. His earlier films, S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine and Duch: Master of the Forges of Hell, analyzed the mechanisms of the crime. GRAVES WITHOUT A NAME searches for a path to peace.
When a thirteen-year-old child, who lost the greater
...226) Unmarked
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
Throughout the South, vast numbers of African-American gravesites and burial grounds for enslaved persons have been lost or are disappearing through neglect and nature reclaiming the solemn tombstones and markers.
Recently, there has been a rise in the restoration and preservation of these forgotten sites by those who have a personal connection with the deceased or an appreciation of their historical significance.
But there is much work to be
...227) Tattoo Uprising
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
From antiquity to the present, TATTOO UPRISING reveals the artistic and historical roots of today’s tattoo explosion. This sweeping overview explores how tattoos were used in early Christian practices, how they were discovered halfway around the world during the voyages of Captain James Cook, and how they exploded in popularity in America beginning with artists like Ed Hardy.
Tattoo Uprising features some of the most extraordinary people of the
...Pub. Date
2020.
Description
An important look at the national drug addiction crisis that is ravaging local communities, 'Uprooting Addiction' is a mosaic-like portrait of a single community coming together to take on one of the most urgent challenges of our times. The film follows six people from varying walks of life — each affected by childhood trauma — who candidly share their personal stories of addiction and recovery. These testimonies are interwoven with uplifting,...
229) Hot to Trot
Pub. Date
2017.
Description
The music...the spectacle...the costumes...the grace. Ballroom dance is enjoying a renaissance here in America, as well as abroad. Set in the swinging world of same-sex competitive ballroom dancing, this entertaining documentary goes inside that little-known world, following four men and women on and off the dance floor over four years. Not only an immersive character study, HOT TO TROT is also an idiosyncratic attack on bigotry against LGBTQ people....
230) How They Got Over
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
HOW THEY GOT OVER celebrates the spirit of gospel performers and how they helped usher in a musical revolution that changed the world forever. Beginning in the 1920s, Black singers across the country took to the highways as the new technology of radio and records made it possible to reach a wider audience. Intense competition brought new ways to entertain, first with guitars, later with full bands, then with a performance style that would inspire...
231) Olancho
Pub. Date
2017.
Description
This is the story of Olancho, the most lawless province in Honduras, the most murderous country in the world. The film follows Los Plebes de Olancho, the most popular band from the region, who perform for the powerful drug cartels there. Their songs glorify the traffickers who have destroyed their country, and who sometimes threaten the lives of their loved ones. But in a world where the cartels wield the most power, do the musicians have any other...
232) The Soul of a Farmer
Pub. Date
2021.
Description
THE SOUL OF A FARMER follows Patty Gentry, a former chef, as she battles to earn a living on her three acre Early Girl Farm on Long Island. Isabella Rossellini, from whom Patty rents her land tells us, "Patty is the Picasso of vegetables!" The documentary upends the romance of farm-to-table – buying fresh produce directly from farmers markets and at farm stands is wonderful, but the farmer's life is a constant struggle. We watch Patty work her butt...
233) Moynihan
Pub. Date
2018.
Description
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927-2003) did not just live in the twentieth century, he strode across it: a colossus of ideas and a man of deeds. He was an influential intellectual and sociologist, policy specialist, ambassador and long-serving senator. In an age of rigid ideologies, he was a man who embraced the contradictions and complexity of public policy without ever despairing of the role of government in the lives of its citizens. Fifteen years...
234) Tricked
Pub. Date
2020.
Description
Modern-day slavery is alive and well in the United States, as thousands of victims are trafficked across the country to satisfy America's {dollar}3-billion-a-year sex trafficking industry. Meet the pimps, the johns, the police, the parents and the victims of the thriving sex trade in TRICKED, a comprehensive and daring documentary that uncovers one of America's darkest secrets.
235) The Breast Archives
Pub. Date
2018.
Description
Real women reveal personal truths in this documentary exploring embodiment, womanhood, and the power of being seen. THE BREAST ARCHIVES uncovers nine women's personal stories of empowerment. Baring their breasts and their hearts, the women share the unique journeys they've made with their bodies, from their formative years of hiding, shame, and disconnection to adulthood and the discovery of what it means to be a powerful woman. As the women slowly...
236) The Pulitzer at 100
Pub. Date
2017.
Description
This new documentary by Academy Award-winning director Kirk Simon celebrates the centenary of the Pulitzers - the revered national award for excellence in journalism and the arts. The Pulitzers have had an immeasurable impact on American sensibility and beyond over the past 100 years. The riveting tales of the winning artists give an insider's view of how these pinnacles of achievement are selected and how the award has the power to change lives and...
Pub. Date
[2018]
Description
It is the moving portrait of the Rainey family living in North Philadelphia. Beginning at the dawn of the Obama presidency, Christopher "Quest" Rainey, and his wife, Christine'a "Ma Quest" raise a family while nurturing a community of hip-hop artists in their home music studio. It's a safe space where all are welcome, but this creative sanctuary can't always shield them from the strife that grips their neighborhood.
238) The up series
Pub. Date
[2013]
Edition
Seven disc special ed.
Description
"Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man." Starting in 1964 with Seven up, The up Series has explored this Jesuit maxim. The original concept was to interview 14 children from diverse backgrounds from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Every seven years, renowned director Michael Apted, a researcher for Seven up, has been back to talk to them, examining the progression of their...
239) The German doctor
Pub. Date
c2013
Description
Patagonia, 1960. A German doctor meets an Argentinean family and follows them on along desert road to a small town where the family will be starting a new life. Eva, Enzo and their three children welcome the doctor into their home and entrust their young daughter, Lilth, to his care, not knowing that they are harboring one of the most dangerous criminals in the world. At the same time, Israeli agents are desperately looking to bring "the German doctor"...
240) Bliss: Mutluluk
Pub. Date
c2007
Description
When a young woman is raped, village custom requires an honor killing. The son of the village leader is given the task, but at the last moment has doubts. He and the young woman go on the run, followed by local thugs intent on killing her. Luckily, they meet up with an ex-university professor who is embarking on a sailing trip, and needs a crew. All three set forth together on a voyage that will change all of their lives.