2016

Recorded over six years, Raising Bertie delivers an authentic and tender portrait of the lives of three young boys as they face a precarious coming of age within Bertie County, a rural African-American community in North Carolina. Another harrowing work from the acclaimed documentary powerhouse Kartemquin Films, the film shows the process of growing up in a place afflicted by generations of economic and educational segregation.

An immersive, visually stunning portrait of a childhood on the margins of society by Emmy-nominated director Aaron Schock, La Laguna documents the remarkable journey undertaken by a Mayan adolescent as he tries to navigates the changing world around him in the endangered rainforests of southern Mexico.

A rare and thorough look at the earth’s largest salt flat, Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, Salero is a poetic journey through the eyes of one of the last remaining salt gatherers. This secluded region is thrust into the future when Bolivia embarks on a plan to extract a precious mineral from the Salar and to build an infrastructure that will connect it to the modern world.

The Abortion Hotline allows viewers inside the lives and tireless grassroots efforts of a group of young lesbian and feminist activists who put their lives at risk to run an underground abortion hotline in Chile, one of six countries in the world where abortion is prohibited under any circumstance, even in cases of rape or risk to the life of the mother.

An intimate observation of the complete process of home birthing - a trend on the rise in many communities, including Jewish communities practicing Orthodoxy - Miriam: Home Delivery follows a charismatic, Brooklyn-based, home birth midwife who has helped mothers giving birth at home for more than two decades, as she’s on call, and provides care to mothers in various stages of their pregnancies.

Following his harrowing documentary, It's Always Late for Freedom, director Mehrdad Oskouei continues his exploration of a male juvenile detention facility near Tehran. Last Days of Winter follows these young men in the days leading up to the Iranian New Year, as they take stock of their lives.

Acclaimed filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouei provides a rare glimpse into an all-male juvenile detention facility in Iran. It's Always Late for Freedom is the first film of Oskouei's trilogy documenting troubled youth in Iran, preceding The Last Days of Winter (2011) and Starless Dreams (2016).

A complex tale of social justice, urban forestry and community politics, City of Trees portrays the struggles of a DC non-profit to challenge the cycle of poverty and violence in blighted urban areas by implementing an ambitious "green jobs" program that hires 150 unemployed residents to plant trees in underserved parks.

Here Come the Videofreex tells the enthralling story of a pioneering collective of video journalists known as the Videofreex who in the 60s and 70s became the forerunners of public access television and the modern internet news era as they deployed the first handheld video cameras to report and observe the world around them.

A gripping and timely snapshot that provides a glimpse into the plight of Syrian refugees, 50 Feet from Syria uncovers the humanitarian efforts of a Syrian-American orthopedic surgeon who travels to the Turkish border to volunteer to operate on victims of the civil war.

Featuring stunning macroscopic time-lapse footage, The Creeping Garden is an award winning documentary that takes us deep into the world of slime mold and explores the work of fringe scientists, mycologists and artists who love it.

What does it mean for women to be both devoted to and in conflict with a powerful religious institution? A riveting example of feminist disobedience, Radical Grace follows three extraordinary American Catholic nuns—including Sister Simone Campbell who plays a pivotal role in the organization of the Nuns on the bus - who faithfully honor their vow of obedience to God, even when it means angering the Church hierarchy.

A kaleidoscopic study of the recent oil boom in North Dakota, Deep Time is an award winning documentary that focuses on the impact the fossil fuel business has on the environment and on how it affects local landowners, state officials and the Indigenous Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. A complex take on a timely issue by the director of Crude Independence.

An elegantly crafted peek into the secret world of the master craftsmen behind the dazzling designs of Dior, Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent. A touching reflection on the disappearance of crafts, Handmade with Love in France examines the challenges these ateliers face as couture and luxury evolves, the pace of fashion and its impact on handcraft, and the continuing rise of technology and succession.