Anthropology

An exploration of gender and sexuality in Native American culture, Two Spirits interweaves the story of the life and brutal murder of a Navajo teenager with the largely unknown history of the 'two-spirit' tradition - the acceptance, even celebration, among indigenous cultures of people with both masculine and feminine traits.

A beautifully rendered portrait of an American family struggling for stability while haunted by the ghosts of war, teen pregnancy, foster care and child abuse. Winner of multiple awards, October Country intimately examines the forces that unsettle the working poor and the violence that lurks beneath the surface of American life.

An extraordinary and exquisite work of anthropology, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Rolf de Heer, Twelve Canoes paints a vivid portrait of the people, history, culture and place of the Yolngu people whose homeland is the Arafura Swamp of north-central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, Australia.

A fascinating documentary on the unique sexual culture of the Mosuo people, a small minority situated in the southwest of China, and one of the last remaining matriarchal societies in the world. The Fall of Womenland explores their history and present reality as well as the dangers that threaten their inherited way of life.

Weaving together sequences of hair-braiding salons in Ghana, voice-over of Oprah rhapsodizing brown-skinned dolls and animated clips of signature hairstyles, Me Broni Ba (My White Baby) is an artfully composed, thought-provoking work that investigates the fraught relationship between images of beauty and power.

Throw Down Your Heart follows American banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck on his journey to Africa to explore the little known African roots of the banjo. This exuberant musical adventure provides a glimpse of the beauty and complexity of Africa - a picture that is very different from what is often shown in the media.

When gold was discovered on a remote hillside in Burkina Faso, a bustling city quickly sprung up around it, replete with gold-diggers, prospectors, merchants, holy men, gamblers and prostitutes. The Hillside Crowd profiles the inhabitants of this improvised gold town and their efforts to escape the surrounding poverty.

Through a passionate mixture of private videos, uncensored interviews and school-day adventures, the young children of Singleton Charter Middle School, the first school to open in New Orleans after Katrina, have created a revealing portrait of urban youth at the heart of an ongoing American crisis.

An astounding new documentary on the first victims of global warming, The Last Days of Shishmaref travels to a small village in northwest Alaska, home to an Inupiaq Eskimo community, where homes are literally falling into the sea. The entire village is expected to disappear within 10 years.

The conversion of a state-owned munitions factory into luxury high-rise apartments allows for an acute appreciation of Socialism's impact on the Chinese people and the complex social changes transforming the country in this masterful new documentary from Jia Zhang-ke.

A landmark seven-hour documentary series, The New Americans follows the lives of a diverse group of contemporary immigrants - from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, India, Nigeria and Palestine - to offer a kaleidoscopic picture of immigrant life in the U.S. Available for the first time in its entirety on DVD.

When a filmmaker accompanies a celebrated, openly gay poet on one of his many trips to Nepal - where he is revered for his philanthropy and generosity towards young men - she discovers all is not what it seems. A thought-provoking documentary about exploitation, sexual tourism and the developing world.

What does it mean to be exiled in your own country? In the aftermath of Katrina, two filmmakers embark on a road trip to meet displaced evacuees. An important American documentary, The Axe in the Attic tackles questions of race, class, and the breakdown of trust between a government and its citizens.

On an abandoned beach off the coast of Israel, against all odds, Israeli and Palestinian fishermen live and work together. Men on the Edge: Fishermen's Diary documents four years in their lives, an eclectic group of men brought together by a shared relationship with the sea.

In 1998, judge Juan Guzman, a longtime Pinochet supporter, was assigned to prosecute the ex-Chilean dictator for human rights crimes. This engrossing documentary follows the twists and turns of this landmark case; one that influenced the application of human rights laws around the world.

Afghan Muscles takes us inside the most popular sport in Afghanistan: body building. Suppressed by the Taliban, this thriving spectator sport now attracts thousands of young men across a country ravaged by war and poverty who dream of attaining a better life through muscles.

The recent history of Abkhazia - a breakaway republic in Georgia, like South Ossetia - is told through the story of a once-renowned scientific institute struggling to survive after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. It's a far different perspective on the Russia-Georgia crisis than what's reported on CNN.

The journey of a young boy, hired to carry a red Coca-Cola fridge across the Himalayan Mountains, is an acute portrait of child labor in the developing world. This unusually beautiful and moving documentary is supported by the Global Fund for Children.

How are ideals of beauty influenced by race, history, and geopolitics? And how are these ideals reinforced in ethnic communities? With a rich selection of film clips and archival footage, Never Perfect examines the dramatic rise in popularity of cosmetic surgery among Asian-American women.

For most of us, pageants conjure up smiling beauty-queen hopefuls parading around in bathing suits or glittery gowns. But most of us have never witnessed the Miss Navajo Nation competition - a unique pageant established in 1952 to celebrate women and tradition in Navajo culture.