Pacific Street Films

PACIFIC STREET FILMS
Joel Sucher and Steven Fischler, friends since the age of nine, founded Pacific Street Films in 1969. In a career spanning over three decades they've produced, directed, written and edited over 100 films, as independents and for venues as diverse as the United Nations and Saturday Night Live.

BEYOND WISEGUYS: italian americans & the movies
BEYOND WISEGUYS: italian americans & the movies

2017  American Studies  Cinema Studies  Media Studies  Pacific Street Films 

Executive-produced by award-winning actor/filmmaker John Turturro, BEYOND WISEGUYS is a feature-length documentary that uses extraordinary interviews with prominent Italian American film artists such as John Turturro, Isabella Rossellini, Susan Sarandon, Martin Scorsese, Ben Gazzara, Marisa Tomei, and many others to explore the personal experiences that brought them all to the movies. 


FIVE FINGER DISCOUNT: a crooked family history
FIVE FINGER DISCOUNT: a crooked family history

Pacific Street Films  Family Relations  American History  American Studies  Criminal & Law  2017  Literature 

Based Helene Stapinski’s best selling memoir “Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History.” The book and the film tell the story of Helene’s childhood, of her growing up working-class in Jersey City, New Jersey – in a family nearly overrun with crooks, petty criminals, corrupt politicians, mobster wannabes and murderers – and how she became a journalist and a best-selling author.

DRESSING AMERICA: tales from the garment center
DRESSING AMERICA: tales from the garment center

American Studies  Art History  Jewish Studies  New York City  2015  Business  Pacific Street Films 

A captivating documentary that depicts the history of New York’s garment center, Dressing America explores how this business grew from humble beginnings into an industry that’s dressed America.

RED SQUAD
RED SQUAD

Criminal & Law  American Studies  Latin-American Studies  New York City  Political Science  Sociology  Spanish Language  Pacific Street Films 

An investigative (but frequently humorous) documentary on the surveillance activities of the New York City Police Department's Bureau of Special Services, known as the Red Squad.

ANARCHISM IN AMERICA
ANARCHISM IN AMERICA

American Studies  Political Science  Sociology  Pacific Street Films 

A colorful and provocative survey of anarchism in America which attempts to dispel popular misconceptions and to trace its historical development, both as a native American philosophy stemming from 19th century American traditions of individualism and as a foreign ideology brought to America by immigrants. It features rare archival footage of significant personalities and events in anarchist history.

FREE VOICE OF LABOR: THE JEWISH ANARCHISTS
FREE VOICE OF LABOR: THE JEWISH ANARCHISTS

American Studies  Jewish Studies  Labor Studies  New York City  Sociology  Immigration  Pacific Street Films 

A dramatic portrait of immigrant life in the U.S. as seen through the eyes of the sweatshop workers who made up the Jewish anarchist movement.

FROM SWASTIKA TO JIM CROW
FROM SWASTIKA TO JIM CROW

Sociology  Jewish Studies  Education  American Studies  American History  African-American Studies  Directed by Women  Pacific Street Films 

In the 1930s Jewish intellectuals who escaped Nazi Germany and immigrated to the U.S. faced an uncertain future. Confronted with anti-Semitism at American universities and a public distrust of foreigners, many sought refuge in an unlikely place-traditionally black colleges in the segregated South.

FRAME-UP!
FRAME-UP!

American Studies  Criminal & Law  Latino Studies  Political Science  Pacific Street Films 

Examining the case of Martin Sostre, a black Puerto Rican bookstore owner in Buffalo, New York who was framed on drug possession charges in 1967 and sentenced to prison, this film shows how the American justice system can be abused for purposes of political repression.

THE GRAND JURY
THE GRAND JURY

American Studies  Criminal & Law  Pacific Street Films 

Examines the nature and function of the Grand Jury system and explores the relationship of the grand jury to the rest of the criminal justice system by following a case from arrest through indictment.

VOICES FROM WITHIN
VOICES FROM WITHIN

Criminal & Law  Psychology & Psychiatry  Pacific Street Films 

Dramatizes the loneliness and desperation of long-term prisoners who are denied many of the benefits provided to short-term prisoners, and reveals the emotional damage done to them and their families by extended incarceration.

ALBERT SZENT-GYORGYI: a special gift
ALBERT SZENT-GYORGYI: a special gift

Biology  Eastern Europe  Health  Science  Physical Science  Pacific Street Films 

Examines the life and work of one of the century's most important and original bio- medical scientists, and winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize for Medicine.

CANCER WAR, THE
CANCER WAR, THE

Health  Directed by Women  Pacific Street Films 

This provocative documentary questions whether we are really winning the war on cancer, as the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society would have us believe.

THE OTHER HALF REVISITED: THE LEGACY OF JACOB RIIS
THE OTHER HALF REVISITED: THE LEGACY OF JACOB RIIS

American Studies  American History  Media Studies  Photography  Art History  Pacific Street Films 

More than 100 years ago, in his journalism and his influential book, How the Other Half Lives, photojournalist Jacob Riis dramatically portrayed issues of homelessness, poverty, crime, public health, and race relations in America.