State College, Pennsylvania, home to Penn State University, has long prided itself on its football program, lionizing its head coach, Joe Paterno. But when “Saint Joe” is caught up in the Jerry Sandusky scandal, the once-harmonious community splinters. With impressive access to family members and community residents who are still reeling from the accusations, Amir […]
Winner of the SXSW grand jury prize, The Great Invisible examines the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and its impact on fishermen, oilmen and survivors. Director Margaret Brown (The Order of Myths) brings a nuanced understanding of the American South to the film, paying attention to ecosystems of nature and society. […]
When Vivian Maier died in 2009 at age 83, she left behind more than 100,000 negatives of her street photography—images that she’d scarcely shared with anyone. Acquiring a box of her photos at a storage auction, John Maloof became obsessed and set out to tell her story, teaming with collaborator Charlie Siskel. As New York […]
Katy Chevigny and Ross Kauffman’s breathtaking film chronicles the dangerous but life- affirming work performed by the Human Rights Watch Emergency Team, or E-Team, a compelling group of intrepid investigators willing to enter hostile territories to document crimes against humanity that might otherwise go unreported. Allowing outside filmmakers to follow them for the first time, […]
In early 2013, Oscar®-nominated director Laura Poitras started receiving encrypted e-mails from someone identifying himself as “citizen four,” who was ready to blow the whistle on the massive covert surveillance programs run by the NSA and other intelligence agencies. That June, she and reporter Glenn Greenwald flew to Hong Kong for the first of many […]
Following the passage of California’s controversial Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, progressive David Boies and ultra-conservative Ted Olson, legendary foes who had faced off in Bush v. Gore, formed an unexpected legal partnership to fight for its overturn, with two same-sex couples serving as the opposition’s public face. Ben Cotner and Ryan White follow […]
For more than two years, Egyptians have turned out in massive numbers to occupy Cairo’s Tahrir Square and demand change from their leaders. During the many dramatic shifts over that time, director Jehane Noujaim and her crew have captured what’s happened in the square through the eyes of several young revolutionaries. They range in background […]
Set in the world of extreme sports, The Crash Reel follows one of its heroes, the snowboarder Kevin Pearce, who’s forced to reflect on the dangers inherent in his passion. Just before the 2010 Olympics, where he was expected to be the chief rival to gold medalist Shaun White, Pearce suffered a horrific accident during […]
In this chilling and inventive documentary, executive produced by Errol Morris and Werner Herzog, the filmmakers examine the Indonesian death squads that murdered hundreds of thousands in the 1960s and are today celebrated as heroes. The film team challenges the killers to reenact their crimes in the style of the American movies they love. The […]
In Stories We Tell, noted actor and director Sarah Polley (Take This Waltz) is both filmmaker and detective as she investigates the secrets kept by her family of storytellers. She interviews and interrogates a cast of characters—her siblings, her father, her parents’ friends—who each relate their version of the family mythology. Present-day recollections shift into […]