Curtain Call
Oscar nominated documentary looks inside The Actors Retirement Home

Letters From the Other Side
A post-NAFTA immigration story told by the Mexican women left behind

Downpour Resurfacing
Transforming the repercussions of child sexual and physical of abuse

A Revolving Door
A loving family tries to help their son fight drug addiction and mental affliction

The Elevator Operator
An immigrant caught between his past and the American Dream

States of UnBelonging
Portrait of Israeli woman filmmaker explores Middle East violence

Golden Venture
A journey into America’s immigration nightmare

The Tailenders
Missionaries evangelize indigenous communities using low-tech media

Knocking
Fundamentalism and freedom meet at the front door: The untold story of Jehovah's Witnesses

Teachings of the Tree People:
The Work of Bruce Miller
The trees were our first teachers

The Last Atomic Bomb
Nuclear proliferation: a Nagasaki survivor's wake-up call

To You Sweeheart, Aloha
Can life begin again at age 94?

Curtain Call

by Chuck Braverman  

Filmed at the Actor's Fund Home in Englewood N.J., a retirement community for showbiz professionals. No ordinary nursing home, many of the aging troupers in residence are still full of vitality as they recall tales of Broadway's golden age, Hollywood and life on the road. This Oscar nominated, award-winning production proves that even in the last years of one's life, there can still be fulfillment and joy.

"…a touching, bittersweet look..." -- Amy Westfeldt, Associated Press

Downpour Resurfacing

by Frances Nkara

"The most beautiful, positive, thought provoking story of child sexual abuse and the subsequent healing I have ever seen...I strongly recommend it."
-- Jennifer Rauhouse, CDC Trainer & Consultant for National Sexual Violence Prevention Guidelines; Peer Solutions Executive Director & Founder

"A lifetime of struggle and transcendence is movingly condensed into a mere 28 minutes in a film that inspires and heals, and does so with exceptional grace and beauty"
-- Sheila Bienenfeld, Professor of Psychology, San Jose State University

"Brilliant, thoughtful, and heartrending…offers a tearing story of drama and the healing rein of wisdom."
-- Jack Kornfield, Author of "A Path with Heart"

The Elevator Operator

by Jonathan P. Skurnik

An intimate portrait of an immigrant forever caught between what he's left behind and his pursuit of the American Dream. This poetic snapshot takes students deep into the heart of the immigrant experience.

"Poignant film reveals the hopes and dreams that animate the lives of millions of recent immigrants who labor unnoticed all across America. A great pedagogical tool for college courses on work, labor and immigration."
-- Ruth Milkman, Professor of Sociology, UCLA

Golden Venture

by Peter Cohn 

Chronicles the ongoing struggles of passengers aboard the Golden Venture, an immigrant smuggling ship that ran aground near New York City in 1993.

"It will be invaluable across the curriculum--in political science, Asian studies, and multi-culturalism."
-- Toby Talbot, Prof. of Documentary Film, New School; vice-president of New Yorker Films

Knocking

by Joel P. Engardio and Tom Shepard  

Knocking opens the door on Jehovah's Witnesses. While protecting their own rights, they have won a record number of court cases expanding freedoms for all Americans. Knocking follows two families who stand firm for their often controversial and misunderstood faith. Their stories reveal how an unlikely religion helped to shape history beyond the doorstep.

"An absorbing account of a misunderstood religious movement and its relationship to contemporary culture … causes us to re-think the way media represent them."
-- Dr. Stewart M. Hoover, Director, Center for Media, Religion and Culture, University of Colorado

The Last Atomic Bomb

by Robert Richter and Kathleen Sullivan

Challenges assumptions of today as it re-lives the 1945 nuclear bombing of Nagasaki from the rarely seen perspective of a survivor.

A wake-up call about nuclear proliferation, it interweaves current and archival footage with provocative new information on the U.S. decision to use the bomb, censorship, discrimination and the Cold War build-up of nuclear weapons.

"Of great documentary significance and moral beauty...an essential gift to every generation of our nuclear age."
-- Prof. Joanna Macy, author

Letters From the Other Side

by Heather Courtney

An intimate look at the lives of the people most affected by today's failed immigration and trade policies.  Focusing on a side of immigration rarely in the media or our national debate, it offers a fresh perspective, painting a complex portrait of families torn apart by economics, communities dying at the hands of globalization and governments incapable or unwilling to do anything about it.

"A much-needed examination…sensitive...effective and emotionally potent."
--John Anderson, Variety

A Revolving Door

by Chuck Braverman and Marilyn Braverman

He is youthful, attractive and likeable, and lives in a world sometimes fogged by delusion and mania. This is the inside look at 33-year-old Tommy Lennon, struggling to deal with the dual diagnosis of mental illness and drug addiction. For 10 years, he is stuck in a revolving door of homelessness, drug abuse, mental institutions and jails.

Will Tommy and his loving family learn to deal with a constantly shifting reality?

States of UnBelonging

by Lynne Sachs

Without taking sides or casting blame, a cine-essay on fear and filmmaking, tragedy and transformation, violence and the land of Israel/Palestine. The core of this haunting meditation is a portrait of Revital Ohayon, an Israeli filmmaker and mother killed in a terrorist act on a kibbutz.

"Both humanist reverie and implicit cautionary tale."
-- Joshua Land, Village Voice

The Tailenders

by Adele Horne   

A captivating look at a missionary group's use of ultra-low-tech audio devices to evangelize indigenous communities facing crises caused by global economic forces. The film traces the group's journeys in the Solomon Islands, Mexico, India and the U.S., where they distribute the recordings, along with hand-wind audio players, to "the tailenders": the last people to be reached by worldwide evangelism.

"Gorgeous, inspired and gutsy...opens up new ideological vistas on religion, technology and globalization. It dares viewers not to be surprised by it."
-- Virginia Heffernan, New York Times

Teachings of the Tree People: The Work of Bruce Miller

by Katie Jennings  

Nationally acclaimed artist and Skokomish tribal leader Gerald Bruce Miller (subiyay) interpreted the sacred teachings of the natural world for anyone who wanted to learn.

This gentle and generous film documents his race against time and ailing health to pass the knowledge of his ancestors on to those who would listen.

"Well researched and superbly produced…truly successful in sharing native reality and environmental knowledge with many people."
-- Prof. Donald L. Fixico, Distinguished Foundation Professor of History, Arizona State University

To You Sweetheart, Aloha

by S. Leo Chiang and Mercedes Coats

Can life begin again at age 94?

After losing his wife and only daughter, Bill Tapia, the colorful 94-year-old Hawai'i-born 'ukulele master, finds his muse in 26-year-old manager Alyssa. Through their unconventional friendship, Bill arrives unexpectedly at the pinnacle of his career, forging ahead after outliving nearly everyone he loves.

Entertaining yet poignant, the film reveals a passionate elderly artist who continues to love, to grieve, and to live life to its fullest well beyond society's expectations.

"A must see for all aging people, who are all of us."
-- Doris Bersing, Executive Director, Pacific Institute, San Francisco