Blue Gold

A young Kenyan's life changes drastically when his education is sponsored by a Swedish stranger. Years later, he founds his own scholarship program to replicate the kindness he once received.

From director Davis Guggenheim, An Inconvenient Truth is a passionate and inspirational look at former Vice President Al Gore's fervent crusade to halt global warming's deadly progress by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it. In this intimate portrait of Gore and his "travelling global warming show," Gore comes across as never before in the media - funny, engaging, open and intent on alerting citizens to this "planetary emergency" before it's too late.

As If I Am Not There is a story of a young woman from Sarajevo whose life is shattered the day a young soldier walks into her apartment and tells her to pack her things.
 
Rounded up with the other women from the village and imprisoned in a warehouse in a remote region of Bosnia, she quickly learns the rules of camp life. 
As If I Am Not There is a modern war story that explores love, identity and the connections between us.

Americans use 60,000 plastic bags every five minutes—single-use disposable bags that we mindlessly throw away. But where is “away?” Where do the bags and other plastics end up, and at what cost to our environment, marine life and human health? Bag It follows “everyman” Jeb Berrier as he navigates our plastic world. Jeb is not a radical environmentalist, but an average American who decides to take a closer look at our cultural love affair with plastics. 

This international award-winning film sheds light on the world’s rapidly approaching water crisis and suggests that wars of the future will be fought over water, as they today over oil, as the source of all life enters the global marketplace and political arena. The world’s fresh water is disappearing. As the specters of drought and death loom, the film finds people willing to risk everything for their right to water, their right to survive. Past civilizations have collapsed from poor water management. Can the human race survive?

Body of War is an intimate and transformational feature documentary about the true face of war today. Meet Tomas Young, 25 years old, paralyzed from a bullet to his spine - wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week.  Body of War is Tomas' coming home story as he evolves into a new person, coming to terms with his disability and finding his own unique and passionate voice against the war.  

Filmmaker Turk Pipkin promises to help build the first high school for a remote African community and connects Americans and Kenyans in a true story of Building Hope.

Following five kids and families over the course of a school year, the film confronts bullying’s most tragic outcomes, including the stories of two families who’ve lost children to suicide and a mother who waits to learn the fate of her 14 –year-old daughter, incarcerated after bringing a gun on her school bus. With rare access to the Sioux City Community School District, the film also gives an intimate glimpse into school busses, classrooms, cafeterias and even principles offices, offering insight into the often-cruel world of children, as teachers, administrators and parents struggle to find answers.

Carbon Nation' is an optimistic, solutions-based, non-partisan feature length documentary that illustrates why it's incredibly smart to be a part of the new, low-carbon economy: it's good business, it emboldens national and energy security, and it improves health and the environment.

A suspenseful tale of love and family upended by obsession and suspicion, Circumstance is also a provocative coming-of-age story that cracks open the hidden, underground world of Iranian youth culture, where a young woman's most electrifying passions can become the most dangerous of secrets.

Meet Michael Ruppert, a different kind of American. A former Los Angeles police officer turned independent reporter, he predicted the current financial crisis in his self-published newsletter, From the Wilderness, at a time when most Wall Street and Washington analysts were still in denial. He is especially passionate about the issue of peak oil, the concern raised by scientists since the seventies that the world will eventually run out of fossil fuel. Ruppert doesn't hold back at sounding an alarm, portraying an apocalyptic future.

One of the largest and most controversial legal cases on the planet. An inside look at the infamous $27 billion "Amazon Chernobyl" case, CRUDE is a real-life high stakes legal drama set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures. Presenting a complex situation from multiple viewpoints, the film examines a complicated situation from several angles while bringing a story of environmental peril and human suffering into focus.

In the fall of 2006, Morad is beaten by his classmates, who mistakenly accuse him of having an affair with their engaged cousin. Rather than being hospitalized, Morad is sent to a treatment with Dolphins in the Eilat. Morad's father takes him to the Red Sea vowing to himself to come back to the village, only when his son is healthy. This documentary tells the story of the devastating havoc that human violence can wreak upon the human soul, and about the healing powers of nature and of love.

Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis. Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment.

Two out of every three of us are overweight. Cases of diabetes are exploding, especially amongst our younger population. Heart disease, cancer and stroke are the country’s three leading causes of death, even though billions are spent each year to "battle" these very conditions. A solution so comprehensive but so straight-forward, that it’s mind-boggling that more of us haven’t taken it seriously?

Fresh is more than a movie, it’s a gateway to action. Our aim is to help grow fresh food, ideas, and become active participants in an exciting, vibrant, and fast-growing movement. “Less judgmental than many good-for-you filmmakers, Ms. Joanes casts a sympathetic eye on farmers under contract to the giants of agribusiness and acknowledges the challenge of transitioning to more sustainable methods.”

GARBAGE DREAMS follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world's largest garbage village. It is the home to 60,000 Zaballeen, Egypt's 'garbage people.' When their community is suddenly faced with the globalization of their trade, each boy is forced to make choices that will impact his life and the future of his community.

When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown."

Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos as 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year’s holiday. This mass exodus is the world’s largest human migration —an epic spectacle that reveals a country tragically caught between its rural past and industrial future. Working over several years in classic verité style, Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Lixin Fan travels with one couple who have embarked on this annual trek for almost two decades. Emotionally engaging and starkly beautiful, Last Train Home’s intimate observation of one fractured family sheds light on the human cost of China’s ascendance as an economic superpower.

After being beaten into a brain-damaging coma by five men outside a bar, Mark builds a 1/6th scale World War II-era town in his backyard. Mark populates the town he dubs "Marwencol" with dolls representing his friends and family and creates life-like photographs detailing the town's many relationships and dramas. Playing in the town and photographing the action helps Mark to recover his hand-eye coordination and deal with the psychic wounds of the attack.

Miss Representation uncovers a glaring reality we live with every day but fail to see. Written and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the film exposes how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America.  Stories from teenage girls and provocative interviews with politicians, journalists, celebrities, activists, and academics build momentum as Miss Representation accumulates startling facts and statistics that will leave the audience armed with a new perspective.

MOVING ON

'Moving On' is a documentary about choosing to risk, to enter the lives of others, and to see humanity and not define people by their circumstances. Regardless of where you're from, we all live in a messy world and have experienced the pain of accidents, sickness, injustice, war, failure, or even bad choices. Acknowledge that, but move on... embrace second chances, healing, and above all, HOPE!

The No Impact Project was conceived by Colin Beavan, aka No Impact Man, following the success of his blog, book, and film, which chronicle his family’s year-long experiment living a zero-waste lifestyle in New York City. Central to his thesis is the notion that deep-seated individual behavior change leads to both cultural change and political engagement. Living low-impact provides a clear entry point into the environmental movement. This thesis is the bedrock of the No Impact Project.

The film weaves a narrative of love, pain, and healing with real-life stories in an expose on living with Clinical Depression. Mel falls in love with Don, while on vacation. Mel’s inability to deal with her depression pushes a wedge between them and ultimately breaks them apart. She is forced to face her disease alone. In the quest to heal herself, Mel sets out to make a documentary that exposes her truth, and the heartfelt truth of others dealing with Clinical Depression.

Happiness, I want more! From the alleys of Nigeria and the beaches of California to the mountains of India, ordinary young people lead us on an extraordinary journey to explore the nature of lasting happiness and end up starting a movement.

RACE TO NOWHERE is a close-up look at the pressures on today's students, offering an intimate view of lives packed with activities, leaving little room for down-time or family time. Parents today are expected to raise high-achieving children, who are good at everything: academics, sports, the arts, community-service. 

is a feature-length documentary that chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. The movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, "Restrepo," named after a platoon medic who was killed in action. It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military. This is an entirely experiential film: the cameras never leave the valley; there are no interviews with generals or diplomats. The only goal is to make viewers feel as if they have just been through a 90-minute deployment. This is war, full stop. The conclusions are up to you. 

Running Dry links global water scarcity, drought and climate change to public health, energy, agriculture and food supply and ultimately its impact on international security.  This trilogy includes the 19 min version of Running Dry, 22 min version of the American Southwest: Are We Running Dry " and 25 min Running Dry: Beyond The Brink preview. In addition, 7 1/2 min Senator Paul Simon Water for the World.

Set in Chicago’s labyrinth of alleys, SCRAPPERS is a verite portrait of Oscar and Otis, two metal scavengers searching for a living with brains, brawn and battered pick up trucks. The film shows how the 2008 financial collapse and crackdowns on undocumented immigrants affect these men and their families.

Stephanie Soechtig’s debut feature is an unflinching examination of the big business of bottled water. This timely documentary is a behind-the-scenes look into the unregulated and unseen world of an industry that aims to privatize and sell back the one resource that ought never to become a commodity: our water. From the plastic production to the ocean in which so many of these bottles end up, this inspiring doc trails the path of the bottled water industry and the communities which were the unwitting chips on the table.

'The Age of Stupid' is the new cinema documentary from the Director of 'McLibel' and the Producer of the Oscar-winning 'One Day in September'. This enormously ambitious drama-documentary-animation hybrid stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching 'archive' footage from 2008 and asking: why didn't we stop climate change while we had the chance?

The Interrupters tells the moving and surprising stories of three Violence Interrupters who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they once employed. From acclaimed director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) and bestselling author Alex Kotlowitz, this film is an unusually intimate journey into the stubborn persistence of violence in our cities.

In the valleys of Appalachia, a battle is being fought over a mountain. It is a battle with severe consequences that affect every American, regardless of their social status, economic background or where they live. It is a battle that has taken many lives and continues to do so the longer it is waged. It is a battle over protecting our health and environment from the destructive power of Big Coal.

In a country where 58% of African American 4th graders are functionally illiterate, The Lottery uncovers the failures of the traditional public school system and reveals that hundreds of thousands of parents attempt to flee the system every year. The Lottery follows four of these families from Harlem and the Bronx who have entered their children in a charter school lottery. Out of thousands of hopefuls, only a small minority will win the chance of a better future.

Pat Tillman never thought of himself as a hero. His choice to leave a multimillion-dollar football contract and join the military wasn't done for any reason other than he felt it was the right thing to do. The fact that the military manipulated his tragic death in the line of duty into a propaganda tool is unfathomable and thoroughly explored in Amir Bar-Lev's riveting and enraging documentary. 

The Welcome offers a fiercely intimate view of life after war: the fear, anger and isolation of post-traumatic stress that affects vets and family members alike.  As we join these vets in a small room for an unusual five day healing retreat, we witness how the ruins of war can be transformed into the beauty of poetry. Here our perceptions are changed, our psyches strained, and our hearts broken.  And at the end, when this poetry is shared with a large civilian audience, we begin to understand that all of us are a vital piece of the Welcome as Veterans try to find the way back home.  Their examples of unflinching honesty, courage and love lift us up, inspiring all of us once again to feel our common humanity, always the first casualty of war.

Charlize Theron is a UN Messenger of Peace and an ambassador for the “Stop Rape Now” campaign.  In this Voices For Change video, Theron speaks out against sexual violence against women. And a clip from the award-winning film, As If I Am Not There echoes her sentiments, as the film chronicles the atrocities committed during the war in former Yugoslavia.

Actor/Activist Adrian Grenier is the narrator for the film, Water Pressures, which marks a unique opportunity to create a game-changer in the global water crisis by sharing sustainable solutions.  In this Voices For Change video, The Samburu Project is also highlighted for its work in providing easy access to clean, safe drinking water to communities throughout the Samburu District of Kenya.

Kristen Bell is an activist and an ambassador for Charity: water, a leading non-profit bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. In this Voices For Change video featuring the film FLOW, Bell shares the startling statistics around water and sanitation and how we can collectively help solve the water crisis.

Actor Matt Damon is co-founder of Water.org, whose mission is to draw attention to the world’s number one health problem, unsafe and inadequate water supplies. In this Voices for Change video, a clip from Jim Thebaut’s Running Dry further illustrates how developing countries are affected by the water crisis.

Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim reminds us that education "statistics" have names: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, whose stories make up the engrossing foundation of WAITING FOR SUPERMAN. As he follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying "drop-out factories" and "academic sinkholes," methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems.

Filmed over nearly three years, WASTE LAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores”—self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Director Lucy Walker (DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND, BLINDSIGHT and COUNTDOWN TO ZERO) and co-directors João Jardim and Karen Harley have great access to the entire process and, in the end, offer stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit.

Water On The Table is a character-driven, social-issue documentary that explores Canada’s relationship to its freshwater, arguably its most precious natural resource. The film asks the question: is water a commercial good like running shoes or Coca-Cola? Or, is water a human right like air? Water On The Table features Maude Barlow, who is considered an “international water-warrior” for her crusade to have water declared a human right.

The Thar desert outside Rajasthan, India, is one of the most water distressed regions in the world. Impoverished communities have learned to capture rainwater by partnering with a local non-government agency, a Maharaja, Rajendra Singh (the Water Gandhi), and international funders. In March 2010, a group of university students traveled to Rajasthan, India and experience the water crisis first hand.

YERT (Your Environmental Road Trip): 50 States. 1 Year. Zero Garbage? Called to action by a planet in peril, three friends hit the road - traveling with hope, humor, and all of their garbage - to explore every state in America (the good, the bad...and the weird) in search of the extraordinary innovators and citizens who are tackling humanity's greatest environmental crises. As the YERT team layers outlandish eco-challenges onto their yearlong quest, an unexpected turn of events pushes them to the brink in this award-winning docu-comedy.

HAPPY combines cutting-edge science from the new field of “positive psychology” with real-life stories of people from around the world whose lives illustrate these findings. Through these stories HAPPY leads us toward a deeper understanding of how we can all live more fulfilling, healthy and happy lives.

Could it be argued that Jesus was a Communist? There's no question he was a revolutionary. But not with violence. His revolution involved a complete and dramatic change in the way people thought; progressive and liberal thinking. With no army and no weapons, he led a group of young people toward a new, more humane way of thinking; toward a philosophy of love and forgiveness. He may have been a supporter of a political ideology that advanced an egalitarian society based on common ownership of property. These are the ideas explored in the new avant-garde short film, Jesus Was a Commie.

An up close look at a great American, Harry Belafonte. A patriot to the last and a champion for worldwide human rights, Belafonte is one of the truly heroic cultural and political figures of the past 60 years. Among other things, the film presents a brief look at the Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of an insider, someone who despite his high profile, wasn’t afraid to spend time in the trenches.

Footage shot by a group of Swedish journalists documenting the Black Power Movement in the United States is edited together by a contemporary Swedish filmmaker to make one of the most powerful and critically acclaimed films of the year.

Economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking. It has also worsened nearly every problem we face: fundamentalism and ethnic conflict; climate chaos and species extinction; financial instability and unemployment. There are personal costs too. For the majority of people on the planet, life is becoming increasingly stressful. We have less time for friends and family and we face mounting pressures at work.