Human Rights

Human Rights

SUGARCANE
SUGARCANE
One of the most acclaimed documentaries of the year, Sugarcane is a stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people and their way of life. In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves was discovered on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada. After years of silence, the forced separation, assimilation and abuse many children experienced at these segregated boarding schools was brought to light, sparking a national outcry against a system designed to destroy Indigenous communities.
IN THE SHADOW OF BEIRUT
IN THE SHADOW OF BEIRUT
From the makers of Gaza, and executive produced by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, this documentary penetrates deep below the surface of Beirut, a still beautiful, yet deeply troubled city on the brink of financial collapse. Through intimate, character driven storytelling, the stark reality of life for the protagonists of the film is symbolic of the hundreds of thousands of others who fight for survival in the most diverse country in the Middle East.
LOTUS SPORTS CLUB
LOTUS SPORTS CLUB
Shot in Cambodia over 5 years, Lotus Sports Club, is an inspiring coming-of-age story that centers around Leak, a teenage trans man who plays football in the under-21s women’s team of Kampong Chhnang, and Pa Vann, the coach and father-figure to Leak and other LGBTQ+ players on the team. This compelling, fascinating, and empowering story will take the viewers on a unique and emotional journey through a world of love and solidarity between individuals who have finally found a community they would only have dreamt before.
MOURNING IN LOD
MOURNING IN LOD
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict told through three people whose fates become inextricably linked in a vicious cycle of violence. The outpouring of love, anger, forgiveness and sorrow that follows in their wake offers a glimpse of morning light to offset a collective state of mourning with no end in sight. The film provides a first-hand account of the way our individual actions reverberate, amplify and shape the course of each other’s lives.
BEYOND THE AGGRESSIVES: 25 YEARS LATER
BEYOND THE AGGRESSIVES: 25 YEARS LATER
Two decades ago, the groundbreaking film The Aggressives showcased the remarkable stories of Chin, Octavio, Trevon, and Kisha — a watershed moment of visibility for masc-presenting BIPOC individuals that gave voice to a community that hadn’t seen themselves authentically represented in cinema before. Now, nearly 20 years later, the same four protagonists reunite to reflect on their past and envision new futures.
WHEN SPRING CAME TO BUCHA
WHEN SPRING CAME TO BUCHA
In early 2022, after Russian troops withdrew from the Kyiv region, the small town of Bucha, completely destroyed, became a symbol of the war and Russian war crimes. How do people live there now – after experiencing such trauma? This powerful documentary allows the survivors to share their stories  stories about destroyed lives, but also about humanity and hope  as the war in Ukraine continues to rage on.
THIS RAIN WILL NEVER STOP
THIS RAIN WILL NEVER STOP
This Rain Will Never Stop takes the audience on a powerful, visually arresting journey through humanity’s endless cycle of war and peace. The film follows 20-year-old Andriy Suleyman as he tries to secure a sustainable future while navigating the human toll of armed conflict. From the Syrian civil war to strife in Ukraine, Andriy’s existence is framed by the seemingly eternal flow of peace and violence.
OMOIYARI: A SONG FILM BY KISHI BASHI
OMOIYARI: A SONG FILM BY KISHI BASHI
In Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi, internationally acclaimed composer and songwriter K Ishibashi (professionally know as "Kishi Bashi") embarks on a personal quest by creating his music in locations relevant to the Japanese American Incarceration during WWIIOmoiyari is a genre breaking, artistic exploration that fuses history, music, and the complexities of the human condition.
THE 50
THE 50
While serving life sentences in a dangerously overcrowded and drug-saturated prison system, 50 men embark on a radical journey to become some of the first incarcerated Substance Abuse Counselors in the country. The 50 is a powerful study on trauma and repair, a universal look at the long and winding road to heal, and an exploration into how the most discounted among us built one of the most powerful models of rehabilitation we have.  
AFGHAN DREAMERS
AFGHAN DREAMERS
In Afghanistan, an all-girl robotics team risk everything to prove they can build a name for themselves in the world. Working in secret under the Taliban regime and in a male-dominated cultural environment, the girls encounter enormous challenges. With exceptional access, Afghan Dreamers tells an insprirational story about an extraodinarily brave group of young women.
DEVIL PUT THE COAL IN THE GROUND
DEVIL PUT THE COAL IN THE GROUND
A unique oral history of West Virginia, and meditation on the suffering and devastation brought on by the coal industry and its decline - a cautionary tale of unfettered corporate power and an elegy to a vanishing Appalachia. Consciously eschewing exploitative filmmaking around the opioid epidemic or poverty, the film focuses on its people – all linked by the love of their home state and desire to stay put against all odds.
PAY OR DIE
PAY OR DIE
Today, nearly 2 million Americans are being held for ransom. Without insulin, they wont surivePay or Die follows families on the receiving end of these ransom notes, revealing the harrowing reality of life with chronic illness in the richest country in the world. This enraging and enlightening film lays bare the human cost of the United States’ insulin affordability crisis, and serves as a call to action against the medical-industrial complex that monetizes our bodies and lives.
ANGELS OF SINJAR
ANGELS OF SINJAR
Hanifa, a young Yezidi woman, miraculously survives the ISIS attack on the Yezidi religious and ethnic minority in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq. Her five younger sisters are all trucked off and enslaved. Based on exclusive access to one of the most dangerous and underreported places on earth, Oscar- and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Hanna Polak tracks Hanifa’s mission to find her sisters and bring them home.
ANGOLA DO YOU HEAR US? VOICES FROM A PLANTATION PRISON
ANGOLA DO YOU HEAR US? VOICES FROM A PLANTATION PRISON
This acclaimed documentary tells the story of playwright Liza Jessie Peterson, whose celebrated play "The Peculiar Patriot" was shut down mid-performance at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly known as Angola Prison. It examines how one woman's play challenged the country's largest plantation prison and impacted the incarcerated men long after the record of her visit was erased by the institution's administration.
RESOURCES
RESOURCES
The meat industry is booming in Canada, where huge factories use standardized production methods to convert vast herds of livestock into meat. They hire asylum seekers, mainly from Latin America, so they can continue to produce at competitive rates. This observational film splits its focus between the workers and the animals, considering the living conditions of both, while providing a subtle yet critical look at a world driven by capitalism and the links in the chain that make this possible.
IN THE BONES
IN THE BONES
An extraordinarily vital and urgent documentary, In The Bones provides searing insight into the culture that overturned Roe v. Wade. A cinematic journey through the ordinary lives of woman and children in Mississippi, the documentary interweavs their stories during a legislative session in which equal pay for equal work and abortion rights are being decided.
FAR FROM AFGHANISTAN
FAR FROM AFGHANISTAN
An omnibus film by five American filmmakers and a collective of young Afghan media journalists, Far From Afghanistan forms a mosaic of cinematic approaches to take a critical look at the longest overseas war in U.S. history. Inspired by the 1967 collaborative undertaking, 'Loin du Vietnam', 'Far from Afghanistan' explores, through a mosaic of approaches, issues of shared responsibility, history and memory - all in a concerted effort to help accelerate political resistance to the war.
BULLETPROOF
BULLETPROOF
An urgent and vital documentary, Bulletproof explores the complexities of violence in our schools by looking at the ways we try to prevent it. The film travels across the United States, observing the longstanding rituals that take place in and around schools: homecoming parades, basketball practice, morning announcements. Unfolding alongside these scenes are a collection of newer traditions: lockdown drills, teacher firearms training, metal detector screenings, and school safety trade shows.
HER SOCIALIST SMILE
HER SOCIALIST SMILE
Though her life generated voluminous literature, most people ignore the fact that iconic deaf-blind author Helen Keller (1880–1968) was one of the most passionate socialist advocates of her time. Continuing his work of patient and insightful political filmmaking, director John Gianvito (Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind) resurrects Keller's radical views, which have been largely suppressed or sanitized over the years. 
COME AND TAKE IT
COME AND TAKE IT
This short documentary film captures the transformation of a young woman to the leadership of America’s most inspired anti-gun violence movement called #CocksNotGlocks. After concealed carry of handguns is legalized on the University of Texas campus, Jessica Jin posts clever humor on social media, and with the help of a tight-knit group of young female students, a movement is born: The Great Texas Dildo Revolt.
TRUE CONVICTION
TRUE CONVICTION
There's a new detective agency in Dallas, run by three exonerated men who all spent decades in prison. Their mission: to free other innocent people still behind bars.True Conviction follows these change-makers as they rebuild their lives and families, learn to investigate cases, work to support each other, and campaign to fix the criminal justice system.
UNLADYLIKE2020
UNLADYLIKE2020
Illuminating the stories of extraordinary American heroines from the early years of feminism, Unladylike2020 is an essential series consisting of 26 episodes, between 9 and 12 minutes in length, that profile courageous, little-known and diverse female trailblazers. The series utilizes original artwork and animation, rare archival footage, and interviews with descendants, historians and accomplished modern women who reflect upon the influence of these pioneers.
A SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
A SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
Sundog lives out in the Sonora Desert on the Mexican border. He is an elderly gentleman, who lives off anything that the brutal nature gives him, be it a wild boar or the psychedelic poison of a toad. With the desert as the ultimate existential (and cinematic) setting, A Shape of Things to Come from directors Lisa Marie Malloy and J.P. Sniadecki shows the relationship between humanity and nature at a critical time, when civil disobedience is the provocative answer to the most pressing questions.
EVERY PULSE OF THE HEART IS WORK
EVERY PULSE OF THE HEART IS WORK
Filmed across India, the central theme of Paweł Wojtasik’s (End of Life) stunning new documentary is work. With a patient, unobtrusive approach, it consists of transcendent portraits of a broad spectrum of laborers, from a surgeon to a priest to a masseur, forming a composite vision of society, where each has a place in the tangled web of human endeavor.
BISBEE '17
BISBEE '17
Named the best film of the year by The New York Times, Robert Greene’s extraordinary Bisbee ‘17 radically combines collaborative documentary, western, and musical elements to recreate a mass deportation of striking miners (mostly Mexican and Eastern European immigrants) that occurred in 1917. Greene confronts issues of immigration, unionization and environmental damage while linking a tragic moment in American history to our own turbulent times.
ANGELS ARE MADE OF LIGHT
ANGELS ARE MADE OF LIGHT
A stirring and beautiful documentary from Academy Award nominated director James Longley (Iraq in Fragments), Angels Are Made of Light traces the lives of young students and their teachers at a school in the old city of Kabul. Interweaving the modern history of Afghanistan with present-day portraits, the film offers an intimate and nuanced vision of a society living in the shadow of war.
WOMEN OF THE VENEZUELAN CHAOS
WOMEN OF THE VENEZUELAN CHAOS
Embodying strength and stoicism, five Venezuelan women from diverse backgrounds and generations each draw a portrait of their country as it suffers under the worst crisis in its history amid extreme food and medicine shortages, a broken justice system, and widespread fear, in this powerful and timely documentary.
DEAD SOULS
DEAD SOULS
In 1957, the Chinese government launched an anti-Rightist campaign to eliminate anyone suspected of opposition to those in power. Thousands were sent to camps in the Gobi Desert for re-education. Many died of starvation. Wang Bing’s monumental new documentary, at over 8 hours, documents the testimony of those who survived. 
ONE DAY IN ALEPPO
ONE DAY IN ALEPPO
Inspired by questions that followed screenings of Sundance winner Last Men in Aleppo, this short documentary (produced by Last Men director Feras Fayyad) is a portrait of ordinary people's lives as they try to live through a normal day in the besieged city of Aleppo.
LAST MEN IN ALEPPO
LAST MEN IN ALEPPO
2018 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature, Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad’s breathtaking work – a searing example of boots-on-the-ground reportage – follows the efforts of the internationally recognized White Helmets; ordinary citizens who are the first to rush towards military strikes in the hope of saving lives.
THE DREAM OF SHAHRAZAD
THE DREAM OF SHAHRAZAD
An exploration of recent social and political upheavals across the Middle East, The Dream of Shahrazad contextualizes these events within a broader historical and cultural legacy by drawing on the famous collection of stories known as “The Arabian Nights."
IN EXILE
IN EXILE
Forced to flee his country after filming politically sensitive events such as the Saffron Revolution, a Myanmar filmmaker finds himself a refugee amongst refugees in Thailand, where he discovers the plight of fellow migrants working under slavery-like conditions.
INSIDE THESE WALLS
INSIDE THESE WALLS
One family's efforts to secure freedom for their father, a political dissident serving a life sentence in China, is a story of international intrigue, diplomatic maneuvering and immense personal sacrifice.
BEHEMOTH
BEHEMOTH
Beginning with a mining explosion in Mongolia and ending in a ghost city west of Beijing, political documentarian Zhao Liang's visionary new film details the social and ecological devastation behind an economic miracle that may yet prove illusory.
DREAMING AGAINST THE WORLD
DREAMING AGAINST THE WORLD
This beautiful, evocative documentary captures the life, work and struggle of one of the most original yet under-recognized artists of the 20th century – the writer and visual artist Mu Xin.
VICTORY DAY
VICTORY DAY
A courageous, essential portrait of what its like to be gay in Russia today, from Alina Rudnitskaya, one of the country's most important filmmakers. 
UNSEEN: THE LIVES OF LOOKING
UNSEEN: THE LIVES OF LOOKING
A revelatory documentary exploring the physical act of looking; from the work of an eye surgeon to a NASA explorer to a human rights lawyer.
STORM CHILDREN
STORM CHILDREN
With striking b&w photography, this acclaimed documentary from Philippine master Lav Diaz takes stock of the devastation caused by typhoon Yolanda.
LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN KABUL
LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN KABUL
Mahboba Rawi, founder of Mahboba’s Promise, has dedicated her life to helping orphans, widows and schooling girls in Afghanistan. In this documentary, we follow her efforts to challenge centuries-old traditions to make a love marriage happen for a young couple.