LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WARZONE (IF YOU’RE A GIRL) DIR: Carol Dysinger In the war-torn city of Kabul, a class of young girls from disadvantaged neighborhoods learns to read, write—and skateboard—in director Carol Dysinger’s love letter to a place she has filmed in for the last fifteen years. Courtesy of Lifetime Films/A&E IndieFilms. (USA/UK, […]
FIRE IN PARADISE DIR: Drea Cooper, Zachary Canepari On the morning of November 8, 2018, a seemingly small fire broke out in Butte County, California near the town of Paradise. Over the course of a few short hours, it grew into the country’s deadliest wildfire in over a century, killing 85 people and destroying Paradise. […]
2019 SHORT LIST: DIRECTING AWARD In 1985, Brazil reclaimed democracy after decades of military dictatorship. At the heart of the country’s democratic reforms was the progressive Workers’ Party, which elected Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva the nation’s president in 2002, followed by his protege, Dilma Rousseff, its first female leader, in 2010. But neither could […]
Filmmaker Asif Kapadia was on the 2015 Short List for his Oscar®-winning film Amy. Now he returns with this stunning portrait of Argentine football star Diego Maradona, focusing on the player’s legend-making years in Italy. Since Kapadia’s breakthrough documentary Senna, he’s employed a virtuoso approach to archival footage that’s used to depict Maradona’s exploits on […]
In 1961, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld was killed in a suspicious plane crash while en route to defuse a crisis in Congo. The diplomat’s advocacy for African postcolonial independence led many to conclude he had been assassinated by powerful enemies, but the case has remained unsolved for nearly 60 years. Enter filmmaker-provocateur Mads Brügger, […]
A moment in time, captured in these observational docs. (TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 87 MIN) Easter Snap | Director: RaMell Ross An examination of five men who resurrect the homestead ritual of hog processing in the Deep South. (USA, 14 MIN) Ataguttak the Hunter | Director: Uncredited In the remote hamlet of Arivat, Nunavut, trace Ataguttak’s coming of age as […]
NYC PREMIERE In Elkhart, Indiana, 16-year old Blake Layman attempts to rob a home, only to see his friend and accomplice, Danzele, lose his life to the homeowner’s gun. Even though Blake did not pull the trigger, he faces a 55-year prison sentence under the felony murder rule. Directors Katie Green and Carlye Rubin chart […]
NYC PREMIERE Paul Lima has spent over a decade seeking justice for his slain father, Albert. Though convicted, Albert’s murderer has remained free in Honduras. Frustrated with the failings of the legal system, Paul takes the unorthodox—and highly dangerous—step of hiring two bounty hunters to track down the killer and finally make him pay. This riveting […]
CENTERPIECE FILM NYC PREMIERE Bikram Choudhury was at the forefront of popularizing yoga in North America and around the world. An Indian immigrant with a Beverly Hills base, Choudhury was a born entertainer, known for dressing in nothing more than a black speedo and a Rolex. His teaching style was tough love sprinkled with salty language and […]
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE From the creators of Shadow of Truth, one of the most-watched true-crime documentary series on Netflix, comes this new four-part chronicle of a dark chapter in Israeli crime history. Beginning in the early 1970s and continuing into the ’80s, the bodies of five women were found along Israel’s coastal highway. Sharing disturbing similarities, were […]