Documentary / History
One night in Durham, North Carolina, a rape accusation set fire to the reputations of three college athletes and their elite university. As the Duke lacrosse players grappled with their transition from model student to the criminally accused, several wars were launched on…
Himself
Himself (archive footage)
Himself
Indie rock icons the Archers of Loaf reunited in 2011, and during the course of their reunion tour played two legendary concerts at Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC. Combining in-your-face concert footage along with rare interviews of the band, this film by director Gorman Bechard documents those concerts, and captures the excitement and explosive energy of what its like to see this extraordinary band perform live.
The decades-long debate surrounding reparations is fraught, mired in racial tension and the semantics of restorative justice. While the national conversation remains stalled due to legislative inaction, communities across the country examine their histories and take it upon themselves to arrange their own form of reparations. This detailed investigation of restitution presents accounts of everyday people confronting the past and exploring the possibilities of wealth transfer.
After casting painter and video artist Mania Akbari as the central figure of his groundbreaking Ten (2002), and then witnessing her outstanding debut as a feature film director in 20 Fingers (2004), Abbas Kiarostami urged her to direct a sequel to the film. In Dah be alaveh Chahar (10 + 4), though, circumstances are different: Mania is fighting cancer. She has undergone surgery; she has lost her hair following chemotherapy and no longer wears the compulsory headscarf; and sometimes she is too weak to drive. So the camera follows her to record conversations with friends and family in different spaces, from the gondola she had famously used in her first feature to a hospital bed.
Mexico, March 2015. Carmen Aristegui, incorruptible journalist, has been fired from the radio station where she has worked for years. Supported by more than 18 million listeners, Carmen continues her fight. Her goal: raising awareness and fighting against misinformation. The film tells the story of this quest: difficult and dangerous, but essential to the health of democracy. A story in which resistance becomes a form of survival.
Throughout the Islamic world, each year hundreds of women are shot, stabbed, strangled or burned to death by male relatives because they are thought to have “dishonoured” their families. They may have lost their virginity, refused an arranged marriage or left an abusive husband. Even if a woman is raped or merely the victim of gossip, she must pay the price. Crimes of Honour documents the terrible reality of femicide – the belief that a girl’s body is the property of the family, and any suggestion of sexual impropriety must be cleansed with her blood. We meet women in hiding from their families, a brother who describes his reasons for killing the sister he loved, and a handful of women who have committed themselves to the protection of young women in danger of losing their lives.
A Boy Named Sue chronicles the transformation of a transsexual named Theo from a woman to a man over the course of six years. Following Theo's physiological and psychological changes during the process, as well as their effects on his lesbian lover and community of close friends, A Boy Named Sue tells a story about gender identity, relationships, and how even things that seem permanent can change.
On August 29, 1970 in East Los Angeles, a peaceful march of over 20,000 Chicanas/os, united in protest against the Vietnam War as part of the National Chicano Moratorium movement, was violently interrupted by an extreme, unjustifiable response by law enforcement. The tragic events of that day left four dead. Chicano Moratorium: A Question of Freedom is a harrowing, eyewitness documentary of the events of August 29, 1970 and their immediate aftermath, including the murder of Chicano journalist, Ruben Salazar. In contrast to biased TV news reports of the period, this student-made short offers an impassioned, unvarnished community account of the unrest and violence unleashed by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department in response to the otherwise peaceful march in protest of disproportionate Chicano casualties in the Vietnam War.
