2012

Widely considered one of the most important filmmakers in world cinema, Béla Tarr is the director of such revered films as Satantango and Werckmeister Harmonies. The Turin Horse, which Tarr has said will be his last film, is a breathtaking masterpiece that uses an obsucre Nietzsche anecdote to tell a story about human dignity and survival.

Winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival - and one of the best reviewed films of the year - Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is the new film from the celebrated director of Distant and Climates. Stunningly photographed, the film follows a murder investigation into the Anatolian countryside that rattles the investigators' own beliefs and truths.

In her Oscar nominated documentary Promises, filmmaker Justine Shapiro took us into the lives of Palestinian and Israeli children in and around Jerusalem. Her new documentary, Our Summer in Tehran, transports us into the seldom seen realm of middle class family life in Iran, transcending overt politics for a perspective Western media has little interest in showing.

Executive produced by Kevin Spacey, Shakespeare High is an uplifting documentary that follows a diverse group of California high school students as they prepare for and compete in an annual Shakespeare Festival - a unique program that counts many of Hollywood's biggest stars among its alumni. A celebration of theater and performance, Shakespeare High illustrates the life-changing effect drama programs such as this can have on young people.

Once hailed as a national hero, Robert Mugabe - Zimbabwe's first and only elected political leader - is today widely considered one of Africa's most brutal dictators. What happened? This illuminating documentary offers an in-depth examination of Mugabe's life, policies and staggering transformation.

In this inspiring documentary, filmmaker Nelson George explores a singular neighborhood in Brooklyn that gave rise to an African-American arts movement in the late 20th century as vibrant as the Harlem Renaissance. Through interviews with Spike Lee, Chris Rock, Lisa Jones Chapman, Branford Marsalis, Lorna Simpson, and many others, Brooklyn Boheme celebrates the rise of a new kind of African-American artist.

A landmark documentary trilogy, Sun, Moon, Stars captures the tumultuous changes taking place in Indonesia by following three generations of a single Jakarta family for over a decade. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich, it offers an unparalleled, vibrant portrait of the world's fourth most populous nation; and home to the largest Muslim community.

For over a decade, noted filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich followed the lives of an Indonesian family in Jakarta. In this final film of his acclaimed Sun, Moon, Stars trilogy, Helmrich confronts the most important issues facing the country's fast-changing society: corruption, conflict between religions, gambling addiction, the generation gap, and the widening disparity between rich and poor.

The end of the Suharto regime ushered in an era of rapid sociopolitical upheaval in Indonesia. In this second installment of the Sun, Moon, Stars trilogy, filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich returns to the Sjamsuddin family to intimately capture the changes taking place in their country, including the troubling rise of Islamic fundamentalism.

Against a backdrop of social unrest that led to the ouster of Indonesia's long-time dictator President Suharto, The Eye of the Day begins filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich's award-winning trilogy Sun, Moon, Stars. It introduces us to an ordinary family living in the slums of Jakarta; a family Helmrich would return to and document for more than a decade.

Narrated by Laurence Fishburne, Everyday Sunshine charts the turbulent history of the pioneering all-Black rock band Fishbone. This lively documentary tells the story of a band that broke racial stereotypes, and for a brief moment, seemed to challenge the political order of the music industry and the nation.

Grandma's Tattoos uncovers the fate of thousands of women, mostly teenagers and young girls, who survived the 1915 Armenian Genocide but were forced into prostitution by their captors. This powerful documentary investigates an aspect of history that is too often ignored - the fate of women in conflicts and wars.