Two charming seniors consider the pros and cons of entering a "home". Do old-age institutions fit the needs of those they are designed to help?
Social & External
A leader of a non-profit organization redefines the education system by using the arts as a vehicle to uplift youth with essential life skills through performance and artistic discovery. Empowering the next generation, Pilita Simpson, CEO and Founder of Positively Arts, draws from her personal upbringing and past experiences as a Disney live performer to exemplify a lasting change for the youth in order to rival the education system through positivity. Built upon her Harvard degree in Arts in Education, her holistic approach emphasizes vital life lessons on mental health, empathy, and empowerment, enriching young minds with essential tools for a brighter future. With their newfound skills, the kids of Positively Arts embark on the production of their very first musical.
Bertolt Brecht asked whether there would be singing in the dark times. In the throes of war, the United Ukrainian Ballet Company defiantly insists there will be dancing, too. Far from the land they call home, young dancers take quiet comfort from art. For a while, their work feels like the old days, except there is a new troupe member: a soldier learning to dance with prosthetic legs.
By the mid-1980s, the fabled animation studios of Walt Disney had fallen on hard times. The artists were polarized between newcomers hungry to innovate and old timers not yet ready to relinquish control. These conditions produced a series of box-office flops and pessimistic forecasts: maybe the best days of animation were over. Maybe the public didn't care. Only a miracle or a magic spell could produce a happy ending. Waking Sleeping Beauty is no fairy tale. It's the true story of how Disney regained its magic with a staggering output of hits - "Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast ," "Aladdin," "The Lion King," and more - over a 10-year period.
Cathy, mother of three, is a university department head in a Maritime city. She speaks of the insecurity she experiences because of unpredictable day care arrangements, and of the reflection of the same difficulty in the work of her married students. 'They don't work as creatively as they could.' Part of the Working Mothers series produced by Kathleen Shannon as part of the Challenge for Change program at the National Film Board of Canada.
The current trend to render prostitution a profession "as any other" is belied by women who were themselves prostitutes. With clarity and courage, the women in this film reveal the hidden face of that so-called "sex work". They are 22, 34 or 48 years old; they live in Montreal, Quebec and Ottawa - They have recently given up prostitution, or are trying to escape it. These women are leading the bitter fight to turn their lives around and it is a long and lonely struggle fraught with difficulties. Shot in a Cinéma Vérité style, The Fallacy (L'imposture) takes us to the heart of their realities.
Mirazur, Argentine-born chef Mauro Colagreco's 3 Michelin starred restaurant on France's Mediterranean coast, was awarded Best Restaurant in the World on the eve of the pandemic. Not content to rest on their laurels, Colagreco and his diverse team soldiered on through the global tragedy of the lockdown, boldly reimagining the restaurant's concept and menu to reflect their dedication to biodynamic principles. Mirazur re-emerged with a new and enthusiastic approach: the Moon Menu.
Follows Irish champion boxer Katie Taylor as she tries to rekindle her career after a year of setbacks.
This short film was an experiment in using video recordings and closed circuit television to stimulate social action in a poor Montreal neighbourhood. A citizen's committee filmed people's concerns and then played back the tapes for the community. Upon recognizing their common problems, people began to talk about joint solutions. It proved an important and effective method of promoting social change.
Amina, Sami and Jennyfer are high school students in the Paris suburbs, in 93. At the initiative of 3 of their teachers, they embark on an unexpected investigation into a gigantic leisure park project which involves concreting agricultural land near their homes. But can we have the power to act on a territory when we are 17 years old? Funny and intrepid, these new citizens take us to meet residents of their neighborhood, property developers, farmers and even elected officials of the National Assembly. A joyful quest that challenges conventional wisdom and revives our connection to the land!
MERAKI follows, an ordinary man with an incredible dream, as he overcomes money hardships, skepticism, and personal challenges to build a 19ft boat and sail solo across the Atlantic, discovering strength and transformation along the way.
The Abnormal Beauty Company offers a raw, rare glimpse into the meteoric rise of The Ordinary, the price of transparency, and the enduring legacy of one of the world’s most disruptive skincare brands and the enduring legacy of its troubled, genius founder.
It's the story of a child prodigy with a passion for the almighty power of code and a mission to connect people around the world. It's a dream that fits in with the great tales of the Silicon Valley pioneers. But behind this optimistic and idealistic vocation, who is Mark Zuckerberg really? What was his strategy for staying in power? His ambivalence is at the heart of this documentary, which reveals the wild ambitions of a man in a hurry and authoritarian, fascinated by the Roman Empire and Bill Gates.
Filmed in the Ontario countryside, this film shows that farm life is changing and that for some farmers the future looks bleak. What to do with farmers and farms that no longer measure up to the increased competition and costs is discussed in the film. The conclusion is that perhaps a new trade and a new location in town may be better for some, but that for those who make that move, there will be much to miss.
In barely a century, French peasants have seen their world profoundly turned upside down. While they once made up the vast majority of the country, today they are only a tiny minority and are faced with an immense challenge: to continue to feed France. From the figure of the simple tenant farmer described by Emile Guillaumin at the beginning of the 20th century to the heavy toll paid by peasants during the Great War, from the beginnings of mechanization in the inter-war period to the ambivalent figure of the peasant under the Occupation, From the unbridled race to industrialization in post-war France to the realization that it is now necessary to rethink the agricultural model and invent the agriculture of tomorrow, the film looks back at the long march of French peasants.
Ross McElwee sets out to make a documentary about the lingering effects of General Sherman's march of destruction through the South during the Civil War, but is continually sidetracked by women who come and go in his life, his recurring dreams of nuclear holocaust, and Burt Reynolds.
A look behind the curtain of Washington politics following three "renegade" Republican Congressmen as they bring libertarian and conservative zeal to champion the President’s call to “drain the swamp.”
A dreamlike conversation with the past and the present, reimagining Latasha Harlins' story by excavating intimate memories shared by those who loved her.
Lyrical and powerfully personal essay film that reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother, her beloved dog, and such diverse subjects as family memories, surveillance, and Buddhist teachings.
In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along with hundreds of paintings depicting The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glodeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Cased by the Child Slave Rebellion.
Alex Gibney explores the charged issue of pedophilia in the Catholic Church, following a trail from the first known protest against clerical sexual abuse in the United States and all way to the Vatican.
This character-driven film considers the evolving sex trafficking landscape as seen by the main players: the exploited, the pimps, the johns that fuel the business, and the cops who fight to stop it.
Just two years away from turning 30, participants in Michael Apted's documentary series are facing serious questions of identity and purpose, wondering whether they've found their place in the world.
When Sgt. First Class Brian Eisch is critically wounded in Afghanistan, it sets him and his sons on a journey of love, loss, redemption and legacy.
A purely observational non-fiction film that takes viewers into the ethically murky world of end-of-life decision making in a public hospital.
This real-life look at FBI counterterrorism operations features access to both sides of a sting: the government informant and the radicalized target.
Director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a 7 year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.
The Making-of James Cameron's Avatar. It shows interesting parts of the work on the set.
A depiction of the Wrangelkiez neighbourhood in Berlin. The people portrayed tell their life stories. One woman came to the neighbourhood a decade ago to work in Berlin’s still unfinished Brandenburger Airport, one man reminisces his childhood on a Tobacco farm in Kentucky, another speaks of an exceptional day in an otherwise monotonous workplace. These portraits are interwoven with the story of Elpi, a Greek woman who is waiting for the long overdue visit of an old important friend. The outcome of this mixture is a film which captures the lives and perspectives of some of Wrangelkiez’s most commanding citizens, while at the same time evoking the loss that change and time passing means for places and for people.
If you ever find yourself traveling down Interstate 49 through Missouri, try not to blink—you may miss Rich Hill, population 1,396. Rich Hill is easy to overlook, but its inhabitants are as woven into the fabric of America as those living in any small town in the country. This movie intimately chronicles the turbulent lives of three boys living in said Midwestern town and the fragile family bonds that sustain them.
In the early-morning hours of July 23, 2007, in Cheshire, Conn., ex-convicts Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky broke into the family home of William Petit, his wife, Jennifer, and their daughters, Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17. Dr. Petit was beaten and tied to a pole in the basement. The three women were bound in their bedrooms while the men ransacked the house. The brutal ordeal continued throughout the morning, ending with rape, arson and a horrific triple homicide.
After the high-profile killing of Damilola Taylor, Cornelius' family move out of London. But when they discover their new town is run by racists, Cornelius takes a drastic step to survive.
A look at the fight choreography being developed for the film.
