Sacre

In celebration of the 2013 centennial of Vaslav Nijinsky’s riot raising Sacre du Printemps, the film Sacre will focus on a mounting of the famous and historical ballet. Sacre will show behind-the scenes preparations and rehearsals of the Hamburg Ballet School up to an opening night performance of Sacre du Printemps. There will be a re-costuming of the dancers, which will provide a vital take on the choreography. Sacre du Printemps has commonly represented the fin de siècle by being the harbinger of modernity situated in the middle of what is referred to as a classical ballet. Revisiting this ballet with a contemporary eye and slightly different interpretation will allow a re-examination of the freshness and ingenuity that is Sacre du Printemps. 

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

As The Desert Comes

As the Deserts Come is a feature-length documentary about a small village of Tibetan herders and their struggle for survival against time and forces beyond their control. Set in the stark landscape of eastern Tibetan plateau, we watch members of a disappearing culture adapt and fight against the decimation of the grasslands that sustained them for generations. What can they do to survive? How do they engage their resilience and indigenous ingenuity to win this battle? To view a trailer, please go to: http://vimeo.com/28948767.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Still We Rise

After 14 years of a brutal civil war the West African nation of Liberia is still rebuilding, but struggling against a silent and devastating adversary: trauma. For a population of more than 4 million there is only one practicing psychiatrist and one psychiatric hospital – until now. Against extraordinary odds, a group of 21 newly certified mental health workers are setting out to heal widespread psychological trauma. Still We Rise follows these young men and women on a remarkable journey of healing, hope and promise for a broken nation.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Elders Corner

Elder’s Corner is a historical documentary film about the socio-political history of Nigeria as told through the lives and music of the country’s foremost musical icons. It is a story about the eroding and damaging effects of colonialism, bitter ethnic clashes, politics, culture, oil, money and power and their effects on a nation that recently celebrated its 50th year of self-rule.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Acceptable Limits

Acceptable Limits is a documentary feature film about the devastating health and environmental effects that a dilapidated, 54 year old nuclear fuel processing facility has had on a small Appalachian community in East Tennessee. A See Rock City Production.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

The New American Girls

A collaborative New Media project about smart young women on their way to careers in medicine, science, journalism and more—if they don’t get deported first. These are the “Dreamers”—students who grew up in the USA but born elsewhere, and lack documentation to qualify for college loans or legally work. They are part of a national movement fighting for the Dream Act, legislation that would give them a pathway to citizenship and hope for the future.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Mr. Angel

Mr. Angel chronicles the extraordinary life of transgender activist, educator and porn pioneer, Buck Angel. His in-your-face style of activism has audiences outraged by his insistence that he is simply “a man who has a vagina.” Buck has spent a lifetime facing relentless opposition and yet, lives his truth with no apology. The feature-length documentary explores the source of his unwavering message of self acceptance and his drive to publically confront the male/female binary head on. This is a story of amazing perseverance and an unlikely hero. In post-production.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Reject

Blending cutting-edge research with intimate stories about rejection, Reject is the first feature-length documentary driven by breakthrough science that demonstrates a chilling correlation between rejection and physical pain, which can ultimately lead to the perpetration of violent acts upon oneself or others. By illustrating how social rejection has a deep and profound impact on lives, the film will shed light and explore solutions to this universal human experience.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Brasslands

A tiny Serbian village explodes with brass cacophony and riotous celebration as half a million fans descend upon Guča, the world’s largest trumpet competition. An unlikely New York City brass band voyages to represent the U.S.— the first Americans ever to compete, only a decade after NATO bombs rocked Belgrade. The hopes and fears of a diverse international cast of Gypsies, right-wing nationalists, and Serbian locals collide at a moment when cultural appropriation confronts its origin. Brasslands offers an intimate and sometimes unsettling portrait of how disparate societies search for common ground, amidst infectious Balkan beats that leave no ear unaffected.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Swamp Cabbage

Swamp Cabbage is a dark and sweaty documentary about Hayley Downs, a half Cracker* stuck in Brooklyn who survives love and loss by reclaiming her bizarre backwoods-meets-suburbia Florida past.
*In Florida, “Cracker” is a term of pride referring to the descendants of Florida pioneers known for their ability to survive in the treacherous Florida wilderness. It is often confused with but unrelated to the slur meaning ignorant bigot.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

The Search for General Tso

From the author of the bestselling “Fortune Cookie Chronicles” and the Peabody-winning filmmakers of King Corn comes the story of a box of chicken, a Chinese general, and the cultural and culinary diaspora that brought them together. The Search for General Tso follows fried chicken, steamed broccoli and white rice on a far-ranging trail: across the U.S. in an exploration of how 40,000 Chinese restaurants colonized the countryside; back in time to the dish’s origins at a New York restaurant; and around the world to the Hunan hometown of a military mastermind Americans imagine to be a culinary genius: Zuo Zongtang.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

With Wings And Roots

Currently in production, With Wings And Roots is a feature-length documentary and multi-platform project set in Berlin and New York that explores what gets termed “assimilation” in the USA and “integration” in Germany. Set in two countries currently struggling with immigration and national identity, the film tells the stories of six children of immigrants from diverse backgrounds who are striving to expand their definitions of belonging. A wedding, a new career, applying for citizenship –  through vérité footage and in-depth conversations, the protagonists go through personal rites of passage, each facing questions identity and belonging and finding different ways to root themselves. With Wings And Roots takes a transnational approach to explore how young people in one old and one new immigration society are redefining culture, citizenship, race, and belonging in this era of unprecedented global migration. See a trailer here.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Kathleen and Eddie

Kathleen and Eddie is a documentary film that tells the story of three strangers connected by a single act of terrorism. It charts one woman’s journey to transform the violence of her brother’s murder at the hands of terrorists into a compassionate encounter with the women who killed him. See a trailer here: http://kathleenandeddie.net/trailer.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Best Kept Secret

At JFK High School, located in the midst of a run-down area in Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, administrators answer the phone by saying, “You’ve reached John F. Kennedy High School, Newark’s Best-Kept Secret.” And indeed, it is. JFK is a school for all types of students with special education needs, ranging from those on the autism spectrum to those with multiple disabilities. In Best Kept Secret, a JFK teacher struggles to help her teenage students with autism survive in a brutal world. Shot on HD, the film will be an intimate, dramatic, and very personal look into the worlds of a teacher and students of one JFK High School classroom.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

The Cause of Progress

At present more than 250,000 people in Cambodia live under threat of forced evictions, land grabbing and land disputes. The Cause of Progress puts a human face on this widely ignored human rights issue, following several characters at various stages of the eviction process. Sopheap, an HIV-infected single mother, is only trying to secure a future for her children before she dies, when she is evicted from her home by a corrupt government official. The Venerable monk Loun Sovath, who witnessed the murder of his brother and nephew, when police shot villagers in an ongoing land dispute, has turned adversity into triumph, using Flip cameras and other technology to fight back and organize an international campaign against forced evictions that takes him as far as New York City. Finally, we follow a group of strong women living at Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak lake, is being filled with sand to make way for a commercial development. Once completed this will constitute the largest forced eviction in Cambodia since the Khmer Rouge evacuated Phnom Penh in 1975.  The Cause of Progress  touches upon, without underlining, the related issues that plague a country still dealing with the scars of genocide – HIV/AIDS, child labor, drug addiction, tourism, big business, and government corruption.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Betting the Farm

After being dropped by their main dairy processor, a group of nine Maine organic dairy farmers tries to launch a new milk company, Maine’s Own Organic Milk. But in MOO Milk’s first year, each of the farmers is facing mounting debts and losing money every week. Can the new company succeed, and fast enough to save them?

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Flood Tide

Flood Tide is a road movie on a river. It tells the story of four musicians who create extraordinary boats out of ordinary junk and set out for open water, fueled by dreams, desperation and a sense of adventure. The film is a collaboration with the artist Swoon’s Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea project. In the summer of 2008 a crew of over 30 artists built and floated seven large, boat-sculptures down the Hudson River, putting on performances in towns along the way. While documenting the real-life journey, Flood Tide is a work of fiction that uses the voyage as its centerpiece. Main characters are played by non-actors from the bands Dark Dark Dark and Fall Harbor, who have also composed the film’s soundtrack.
http://floodtidefilm.com

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

The Line

A one night stand far from home goes terribly wrong. As the filmmaker unravels her experience, she decides to confront her attacker. Told through a “sex-positive” lens, THE LINE is a 24 minute documentary about a young woman—the filmmaker—who is raped, but her story isn’t cut and dry. Not a “perfect victim,” the filmmaker confronts her attacker, recording the conversation with a hidden camera. Sex workers, survivors and activists discuss justice, accountability and today’s “rape culture.” The film asks the question: where is the line defining consent? www.whereisyourline.org

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Doctors of the Dark Side

Doctors of the Dark Side exposes the scandal behind the torture scandal – how psychologists and physicians devised, supervised and covered up the torture of detainees in US controlled military prisons. The stories of four detainees and the doctors involved in their abuse show how essential doctors have been to the torture program. Director Martha Davis spent four years investigating the controversy and produced the documentary with an award-winning team that includes Oscar-winners Mark Jonathan Harris (Writer) and Mercedes Ruehl (Narrator), and Emmy-winner Lisa Rinzler (Director of Photography). Editor M. Trevino (Hidden Battles) led the post-production team of the feature-length, HD film that is earning great reviews at initial screenings.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Battle For Jerusalem

Battle For Jerusalem highlights the attempts to revitalize Israel’s capital by a new wave of young artists and activists, whose efforts have already initiated a burgeoning cultural renaissance within the city. This group of citizens is taking a stand to stay and improve conditions, making sure that Jerusalem remains an open and pluralistic capital for all Israelis, in the face of the growing number and influence of the city’s ultra-orthodox (Haredi) population. Despite sometimes violent protests and attacks by Haredi groups, these young activists and Jerusalem’s dynamic, secular Mayor, Nir Barkat remain committed to curbing economic, cultural, and brain drain from the area. Battle For Jerusalem follows four Jerusalemites as they navigate the complexities of creating change in one of the world’s most beloved, misunderstood, and fascinating cities. For more details, please go to: http://www.battleforjerusalem.com.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Four

On the Fourth of July in Hartford, June, a sixteen year old white boy, meets up with Joe, a closeted, married black man he’s met over the
Internet. On the same night, in the same city, Abigayle, this man’s sixteen-year-old daughter agrees to go out with Dexter, a twenty-year old
low-level drug dealer. In and around the city, on the American night of independence, these two couples get to know each other, moving from
strangers to intimates. In lonely landscapes of movie theaters, fast food restaurants, darkened churches and public parks, they discover the limits
of desire and the possibilities for transcendence. http://www.fourthemovie.com.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Aint I A Woman

It is estimated that one in seven hundred and fifty infants are born with a Disorder of Sex Development (DSD), defined as a “congenital condition in which development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomic sex is atypical.” Filmmaker Robin Honan sheds light on this misunderstood intersection of sex, gender and sexuality and asks a divisive question: “Should infants with ambiguous genitalia undergo cosmetic surgeries to normalize their genital appearance?”

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Topo Gigio is Dead

The film takes place in Philadelphia where Daniela, Chilean-born and raised in the US, will meet Ricardo, her father’s former torturer during the Chilean dictatorship years. Ricardo has come to give a lecture at a prestigious university, and things get complicated when his son Tomás, unaware of Ricardo´s past, comes to visit him. Website: http://www.topogigioisdead.com.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Gone

GONE is a feature documentary film that follows retired New York police officer Kathy Gilleran as she faces the most daunting investigation of her career: the search for her son, Aeryn, who disappeared under harrowing circumstances in Vienna, Austria in 2007.  Police claim that the young man committed “spontaneous suicide” on account of his homosexuality. But with the help of an investigative journalist, Kathy pursues an international Kafka-esque quest for the truth and uncovers evidence of deceit that may implicate the police in her son’s disappearance. Confronted by unambiguous homophobic bigotry and a possible cover-up, can she find justice for Aeryn and solace for herself?

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Training for the Apocalypse

Training for the Apocalypse chronicles survivalists, truth-seekers, prophets and pragmatic everyday citizens united in their quests for personal peace as they prepare for global cataclysm and the near-extinction of humanity. While the spine of the film will be structured on preparations, viewers will be primarily invested in the powerful personal journeys of our subjects.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Close Your Eyes

At thirteen, Imani is a gifted photographer, burgeoning with talent and a desire to experience first love. She has a crush on a quiet, gentle giant named Junito (15), who visits her on the playground where she takes pictures. But Imani faces a great challenge, she is slowly loosing her vision to an eye disease, retinitis pigmentosa. Close Your Eyes is a short narrative film that follows Imani as she takes the transformative first steps from adolescence into young adulthood.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Mothers of a Nation

Documentary about a group of empowered Ugandan women living with HIV and their fight for survival through sustainable farming methods. Narrated by Florence, a 55-year-old woman who has been living with the virus for over 13 years, the story follows the lives and histories of four Ugandan women of different ages who have all been diagnosed with HIV and have decided to seek treatment.  These women see their only opportunity for survival is through agriculture and unity.  Their stories of betrayal and suffering unfold, ultimately leading to voices of strength and hope thanks to the gardens and women’s support group. Mothers of a Nation leads you into their world, through their eyes and with their voices.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Lessons for the Living

A diverse set of hospice volunteers reflect on the meaning of their experiences with dying people. In ten uniquely different character vignettes, we learn how hospice offers more than care for dying patients – it enables the living to sit still and read between the blurs of their lives. For more info about the film, please go to: http://www.thinplacepictures.com.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Swimming Away

Three finalists fiercely compete in the “Most Wanted” swimming competition. The prize? Citizenship to the most desired country in the world.  SWIMMING AWAY is a story about the personal and political borders that exist in reality and in our subconscious. The film is a provocation to start a dialogue that deals with themes of immigration, foreign policy and what it means to belong.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Wildness

Rooted in the tropical underground of Los Angeles nightlife, art, and music, Wildness presents a portrait of the Silver Platter, a historic landmark bar on the east side of Los Angeles that has provided a home for the Latin/LGBT immigrant community since 1963. Through a magical realist lens in which the bar itself becomes a character in the film, Wildness depicts the creativity and conflict that ensues when a group of young, queer artists of color (Wu Tsang, DJs NGUZUNGUZU, and Total Freedom) organize an experimental performance art party called Wildness on Tuesday nights at the bar. What does “safe space” mean? Who needs it? And how does it differ among us? Exploring these questions makes way for wildly messy and beautiful coalitions across generations.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

11.04.08

Two weeks before the election of Barack Obama, I asked friends of mine around the world to record their experiences of 11/4/08, a day that had become “historic” before it had even taken place. In this feature documentary, we witness a global canvas begin to unfold: in St. Louis and Austin, idealistic volunteers think they can turn their states blue; in Chicago, voter lines are made even longer when Obama shows up to cast his own vote; in Alaska, children seem to be as invested in the election results as their parents; in Paris, an organization discusses whether there could ever be a black President of France; in Dubai, Berlin, Geneva and New Delhi, expatriates express their emotion from a distance; and in Harlem, a felon casts doubt on whether any of this will actually affect his life. As we approach the final announcement of Obama’s victory at 11pm EST, what emerges is a portrait of how people choose to live through “history”: the celebration of a new future remaining entangled with the universally visible tensions of the past.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Send in the Clowns

Send in the Clowns is a documentary feature about the work of an organization called Clowns Without Borders. Their mission is to travel to areas of crisis and relieve stress and suffering through laughter. The clowns are volunteer performers, armed with a unique set of skills and an earnest desire to change the world. The film explores their work in Haiti, a country known as the poorest in the Western Hemisphere with the highest number of NGOs per capita in the world. Following the clowns for two years, we witness their unorthodox form of aid both before and after the earthquake, and examine their legitimacy and impact in a place saturated, yet sustained by international intervention.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

The OWLs

Shot on HDV, the OWLs is an experimental narrative fusing elements of film noir and documentary films, and dealing with aging in the queer community. This is the latest project from Cheryl Dunye, the acclaimed director of four features, including the underground classic WATERMELON WOMAN. 

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

The Pigeon Game

Feature-length documentary on the disappearing culture of homing pigeon racing in New York City. This intimate film, shot in color mini-DV, shows a very different side of the city—working-class men in the outer boroughs carrying on a tradition that most have forgotten, and that may soon cease to exist. But for the aficionados who remain in the game, it’s a way of life.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Iraqi Seed Project

Agriculture began in Iraq nearly 10,000 years ago with the cultivation of crops such wheat, barley and lentils; yet today the country must import the majority of its food and agricultural supplies. In a short film, interactive website and series of real life exchanges, The Iraqi Seed Project explores the agricultural heritage of Iraq from ancient times to the present. For more information: http://www.iraqiseedproject.com.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Hungry in America

America is one of the world’s wealthiest nations. And yet, we remain the only country in the developed world where some 49 million people go hungry despite sufficient resources, technology and farmable land to provide nutritious, affordable food for all. As the economy continues to weaken, millions more join the ranks every day.  Hunger is detrimental to health, productivity, and learning—especially for the 17 million hungry American children—posing serious economic, social and cultural implications for this country.

Hungry in America is a feature-length documentary that presents an unflinching look at the root causes behind this sobering reality and asks tough questions about why a nation that could feed all of its citizens has failed to do so.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

The Whole Gritty City

New Orleans’ high school marching bands are the powerful engines that drive the city’s Mardi Gras parades. For thousands of kids in America’s murder capital they are lifelines. The Whole Gritty City is a documentary feature film that follows three New Orleans marching bands pushing to compete and perform, and three band directors waging a battle for their students’ lives and souls.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Garbage Dreams

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. 

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Whatint Abafazi: When You Strike a Woman

This feature-length documentary film follows one woman’s story of hope living with HIV in South Africa.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Watchers of the Sky

Traversing time and continents to explore genocide and the world’s response, Watchers of the Sky interweaves the lives of four exceptional visionaries while setting out to uncover the story of Raphael Lemkin, one of the greatest humanitarians of the twentieth century.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Up Heartbreak Hill

As the film chronicles the journeys of its three main subjects, it engages in an exploration of identity. Many living on the Navajo reservation find themselves torn between two often-contradictory cultures. Thomas, Tamara and Gabby embody this conflict and their struggles to define themselves as both Native American and modern American lie at the heart of the film.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

The Trials of Darryl Hunt

The Trials of Darryl Hunt is a feature documentary about a brutal rape/murder case and a wrongly convicted man, Darryl Hunt, who spent nearly twenty years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Both a social justice story and a personally driven narrative, the film chronicles this capital case from 1984 through 2004.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Tracking Patagonia

Feature-length doc that tells the story of the rivers, the people, and the spirit of Patagonia—all of which stands to be threatened by the construction of five major hydroelectric dams.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Toots Shor

The ‘40s and ‘50s were a classic period in New York City nightlife, when the saloonkeeper was king and regular folks could drink with celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Jackie Gleason. In this documentary, Kristi Jacobson profiles her grandfather, the king of kings: Toots Shor of the eponymous restaurant and saloon, which was once the place to be seen in Manhattan.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

A Time to Stir

Documentary film about the Spring 1968 Columbia University student strikes. A Time to Stir features new interviews with leading players of a wide variety of persuasions including SDS students who occupied four buildings on campus, African-American students who were gathered on their own in Hamilton Hall, older politically active graduate students who took issue with SDS leadership, Columbia students who opposed the takeover of campus by protesters, faculty both for and against the activists, and the Tactical Patrol Force who cleared the buildings on the orders of the university administration.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Nobody Should Know

An hour-long documentary about love, denial, and the genetic disease cystic fibrosis. Director Andrea Eisenman, who suffers from CF, finds her way into Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish communities where strict religious practices and a stigma against disclosing disease reign. There she meets three brave individuals with CF who, without shaming their families or violating the traditions of their tight-knit communities, struggle to tend to their bodies- and souls.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Lioness

Lioness tells the story of a group of female Army support soldiers who were part of the first program in American history to send women into direct ground combat. Without the same training as their male counterparts but with a commitment to serve as needed, these young women fought in some of the bloodiest counterinsurgency battles of the Iraq war and returned home as part of this country’s first generation of female combat veterans. “Lioness” makes public, for the first time, their hidden history.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Terra Blight

Terra Blight is a feature-length documentary about America’s consumption of computers and the hazardous waste we create in pursuit of the latest technology.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Thinking On Their Feet

Thinking On Their Feet is a feature-length documentary about the women who revolutionized the art of American percussive dance. Determined to keep tap dance alive, they sought out former vaudeville and MGM hoofers, convinced them to return to the stage, forged a place for tap in venues better known for producing ballet and modern dance, and instigated what dancer Brenda Bufalino refers to as the “Tap Renaissance.”

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Sync or Swim

About U.S. Women’s synchronized swimming team at 2004 Olympics

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Rock Bottom

Documentary about crystal meth and how it is fueling unsafe sex practices among gay men.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Revenge on a Ghost

Revenge on a Ghost follows an Iraq war veteran—who tortured prisoners—as he returns home to grapple with PTSD,  potential prosecution, and a stalker.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Republican Dad

Republican father runs for office; liberal son covers his campaign.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

The Recruiter

The Recruiter is a feature-length documentary that travels to the Louisiana coast to capture a phenomenon now occurring throughout the United States – the intense push to recruit new soldiers into the U.S. Army. What distinguishes this story is its remarkable central character, Louisiana’s Sergeant First Class Clay Usie, one of the most successful Army recruiters working in America. Shot in verite style, The Recruiter captures Sgt. Usie’s day-to-day life – almost entirely dedicated to his mission of finding new soldiers – over a nine-month period in his hometown of Houma, Louisiana. The film has already been completed. It premiered at Sundance in 2008 and was broadcast on HBO. Currently seeking funding for outreach and distribution.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Public By Choice

A multimedia project that will engage public radio audiences in shaping the future of public radio through an interactive website and 56 minute color video documentary.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Project CHILD

The incidence of child-headed families in India is on the rise. Children with HIV infected parents in India suffer a dual predicament. Often treated as the property of the adults, their rights and freedoms are violated, while they also suffer from the disease itself and the social stigma and financial burdens it brings.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

The Promise of Freedom

A modern-day Oskar Schindler story about a young American fighting to save those Iraqis whose lives are in danger because they worked for the U.S.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Pray the Devil Back to Hell

Pray the Devil Back to Hell chronicles the remarkable story of the courageous Liberian women who came together to end a bloody civil war and bring peace to their shattered country.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Pretty Old

Feature length documentary exploring the glamorous side of aging. Pretty old will follow five contestants as they compete for the Senior Sweetheart Beauty Pageant.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Particle Fever

For nearly twenty years, physicists have been building the largest experiment in history, an experiment of such ambition and complexity that it has required the collaboration of 10,000 scientists from over 100 different countries. The Large Hadron Collider is a 17-mile ring buried beneath the countryside of Switzerland and France. Designed to smash trillions of protons together at nearly the speed of light, the LHC will recreate the extreme conditions that existed a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. What the LHC reveals could change our understanding of everything. Failure could leave us in the dark for generations to come. The documentary feature Particle Fever captures this unfolding drama by focusing on the personal stories of several of its key figures – passionate, funny, brilliant spirits standing at the threshold of discovery. These modern adventurers have faced impossible technical challenges, risked careers, sacrificed personal relationships and continually struggled with government support in their single-minded quest to understand the nature of the universe.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

P&G: The Center of the Universe

Feature-length documentary about the legendary Upper West Side bar P&G Cafe. Established in 1942, the P&G is one of the oldest family owned and operated bars in New York City. Now in its third generation, the bar is being forced to shut its doors to the pressures of the co-op board that controls the building as they want to triple the rent. Documenting the last year of the bar’s existence, the film tells the stories of the owners, employees and patrons that have depended on this bar for the past 67 years and what the community will be losing once the doors are finally closed.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Koppo and Lady B

In Aretha Louise Mbango’s Cameroon, the music scene is dynamic, but society is in flux. Through the stories of two charismatic rap artists, Koppo and Lady B, this unflinching documentary chronicles the decline and revitalization of tradition and a new generation’s controversial response. It is an intimate, street-level portrait of a newly confident African urban culture and its musical prophets.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Note By Note: The Making of Steinway L1037

Film follows the making of a single Steinway piano from start to finish. This film is complete, but filmmaker is seeking additional post production funding.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

No Family History

Two hundred and seventy thousand women will contract breast cancer this year.  Forty thousand will die of it; every 13 minutes we will lose another woman to the disease.  This documentary film makes these statistics real by following one woman who is diagnosed, treated and recovers from breast cancer.  Robin demands to know why she got breast cancer, posing questions about their exposure to environmental toxics. Her intimate story brings the visually hidden experience of breast cancer into light, and motivates us to ask why so much illness and why don’t we know how to stop it?

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Noguchi

A narrative dramatic feature film on the life of renowned sculptor and artist, Isamu Noguchi.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

My Fellow Organizers

My Fellow Organizers (working title) documents Barack Obama’s 2008 historic Presidential campaign through the eyes of his twenty something young Obama for America organizers working in the city of Philadelphia. Although Obama’s message of hope is spreading, incorporating that framework into local politics and apathy is difficult. The organizers are often met with community distrust and conflict.

This film profiles their individual stories from 2008 with moments before the 2012 US Presidential elections.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Mechina

Mechina: A Preparation reveals a side of Israel unseen in the media, a side that exposes the people beyond the conflict and beneath the uniform. In the summer of 2004, Maital launches a journey to discover what it means to be eighteen in Israel. Living with Amitai and his five friends as they prepare for their army service, she uncovers the complexity of being young and idealistic in a time of war, as the teens transition from students to soldiers.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Sergio

Charismatic, charming and complex, Sergio Vieira de Mello was the world’s go-to guy, a man who could descend into the most dangerous places, charm the worst war criminals, and somehow protect the lives of the ordinary people to whom he’d devoted his life. “Sergio” tells the gripping, inspiring story of his most treacherous mission ever—a mission in which his own life hangs in the balance.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Liberia: An Uncivil War

Liberia: An Uncivil War provides an in-depth case study of one of the many brutal civil wars which have sprung up like wild fires across Africa. It is an exciting example of war-time journalism - white knuckles reporting with bullets ricocheting just feet from the camera placed in a historical context stretching back nearly two hundred years.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Last Woman Standing

Last Woman Standing is the story of Nancy Pollock, a beautiful, kind and energetic 40 year-old teacher who has been living with and dying from breast cancer for 12 years.  Nancy was first diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 28 as she was planning her wedding. Initially, her prognosis was relatively optimistic. Two years later, however, her cancer was back with a vengeance and her life expectancy was two years. “Last Woman Standing” is a story about living fully and happily in the face of pain, isolation, and certain death. 

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Landing In Heaven

A one-hour documentary about the Innu people of Labrador and Wendy Ewalds work with them over the past forty years.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Inkaland

“Inkaland” is a feature-length documentary that reveals the drastic effects of tourism on the town of Ollantaytambo (Peru) and its surrounding villages, and looks at efforts to harness it for the good of the people and the environment.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

In A Dream

Over the past four decades, artist Isaiah Zagar has covered more than 50,000 square feet of Philadelphia with stunning mosaic murals. In A Dream is a documentary feature film that chronicles his work and his tumultuous relationship with his wife, Julia. It follows the Zagars as their marriage implodes and a harrowing new chapter in their life unfolds.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Waited For

An hour-long documentary that interweaves three stories of South African lesbians who adopt across racial lines.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Men Coming Together

Men Coming Together is a documentary exploring the search by gay men for a sense of community, belonging and spiritual awareness through the practice of hot nude yoga.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Camp Victory, Afghanistan

Camp Victory, Afghanistan follows the stories of the unlikely people who have been given a nearly impossible and yet essential task to craft a peaceful, secure, and orderly 21st century nation out of a war-torn, corrupt, stratified, and archaic Afghanistan

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Hidden Battles

Hidden Battles is a dramatic and deeply personal film about the psychological impact of killing on the lives of soldiers. The soldiers represent a cross section of nationalities, gender, class and race. We are invited into their homes, jobs, relationships, and minds, as they unveil intimate memories and unconscious revelations about the central act of war - the killing of another human being.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

High Tech, Low Life

High Tech, Low Life is a full length documentary filmed in 24P digital video about a young renegade blogger who challenges the boundaries of free speech and becomes one of China’s first citizen reporters.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Good Fortune

Good Fortune is a feature length documentary that explores how massive, international efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa may be undermining the very communities they are aimed at benefiting. Shot over three years across Kenya’s diverse landscapes, the film interweaves intimate portraits of three individuals targeted by massive international development projects. Contrasted with the good-willed humanitarians working against the odds to stimulate positive change, Good Fortune presents a unique perspective on the struggle to overcome world poverty.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Genome: The Future is Now

Genome: The Future is Now will be a six-hour cinema verite documentary series with exclusive access to the PGP (personal genome project) and its volunteers. The series will weave the compelling, unprecedented, and often unexpected personal experiences of the PGP volunteers and scientists and follow the emerging challenges arising almost daily for the leading scientists and doctors on the frontlines of genomics and ethics.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Every 3 Seconds

Every three seconds someone dies somewhere in the world in extreme poverty. Usually it’s a child and usually it’s from a preventable disease. In 1998, it was determined that for the very first time in human history, we have everything we need to end extreme poverty and hunger across the globe.
So if we know how to end the suffering, why aren’t we?
Every 3 Seconds is a full-length feature documentary film that will make a clear case that hunger and extreme poverty can and must be ended. It will also take a hard look at why we, as human beings, are choosing not to make it happen.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

The End of America

In this profound and eye-opening film, Award-winning veteran documentarians Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg accompany Wolf as she discusses America’s dangerous passage towards becoming a society of fear and surveillance, and expresses her plea to restore our nation’s most cherished values. Film is currently seeking outreach and distribution funds.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Empire State

Empire State follows several local legislators, good government figures and press personalites through one yaer of wrangling and deal making in Albany, the capitol of New York State.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Dreaming Nicaragua

For poverty-stricken families in Nicaragua, even gathering food is a daily struggle. Filmmaker Bukin descends on a rural area where deprived children briefly escape their daily misery in a painting class. He also follows them home, to the harsh reality. Here, vanished parents, infant mortality and child labour are rife. Despite the barren living conditions, there are also moments of joy. A family that works on the refuse dump, looking for aluminium and other saleable goods, is happy to be together. A young father entertains his sons with his drawing skills. All parents hope their children will escape illiteracy. Bukin is alert to the photogenic, lush surroundings and often shoots from a child’s eye-view, which entices children to play with the camera.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

The Dishes

A verité documentary that follows a middle-American punk rock band as they juggle family, careers and survival in America’s cutthroat music industry.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

The City Dark

The City Dark is a feature documentary about light pollution and the disappearance of the night. The film follows filmmaker Ian Cheney, who moves to New York City and discovers skies almost completely devoid of stars. Posing a deceptively simple question- why do we need the night?- he leads viewers on a quest to understand what is lost in the glare of the city lights. Blending a humorous tone with majestic time-lapse footage of the night sky, what follows is both unprecedented portrait of our world after dusk, and a meditation on out relationship to the starts.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Citizen

In an eerie not-too-distant future, a young man tries to escape from his homeland in the dead of winter. As this teenage boy is chased by hunters through the harsh wilderness approaching the border, he recalls the perilous steps of his journey and the fateful doctor’s visit that motivated his departure. Boy or Man? Hero or Traitor? Refugee of Fugitive?

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Cherry Blossom

Set in the Chinese community of a low income American suburb, “Cherry Blossom” tells the extraordinary story of a little girl gifted with psychic powers that her parents choose to exploit in order to elevate the family from its social condition.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Burma Soldier

The powerful story of a former junta member and Burmese soldier who risks everything to become a pro-democracy activist.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Bismillah

Bismillah follows the beginnings of one Muslim woman’s groundbreaking struggle against America’s political structure. The film tells the story of Farheen Hakeem, a feisty 31-year-old Muslim Girl Scout troop leader who puts herself under public scrutiny by taking part in the consummate patriotic act—running for office. Farheen’s challenge: to tackle head-on the assumptions our society makes about Muslims today. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Farheen is the first Muslim woman to run for office in Minnesota. She is not your typical Muslim woman. She covers her head but hugs men. She is neither apologetic for her religious beliefs nor silent about the biases she sees in her community. She lives the phrase emblazoned on her favorite t-shirt: “This is what a radical Muslim feminist looks like.”

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Bad Blood: A Cautionary Tale

By 1987, 70% of hemophiliacs in the Unites States – 10,000 people – were infected with HIV and hepatitis from their FDA approved medication. They leave behind a legacy of suffering that reminds each of us what can happen when the “system” fails. “Bad Blood” is a cautionary tale, bringing together patients, doctors, drug manufacturers, and government regulators to recollect how the worst medical disaster of the 20th Century was allowed to occur and cautions us to remember, remain vigilant, and to demand a safer system.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Beauty Behind Bars

A women’s prison in Peru holds a beauty pageant where inmates, mostly foreigners arrested for attempted drug smuggling, compete for the title Miss Primavera.  The core of the documentary is the personal stories of the contestants: their mistakes, their dreams, their survival, their preparation for Miss Primavera.  Why the women are there is the backdrop of the story—as collateral damage in the international war on drugs.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Resilient

Resilient is a celebration of the countless acts of women all over the world whose dreams are bigger than just quietly surviving brutality and injustice. Filmmakers Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, together with journalist Mariane Pearl, will interweave profiles of four such women who imagine, and are achieving, a uniquely feminine path to changing the world in countless acts of bravery that, together, are catching the attention of a world looking for new ways of defining what it is be a human and our responsibilities as global citizens.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

ANPO

ANPO will reveal the untold story of the 1960 political crisis over the establishment of permanent U.S. military bases in Japan through the electrifying cultural legacy of artists who captured this defining moment in the country’s history.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

A Little Death

Set against the stark winter beauty of Nantucket, Massachusetts, A Little Death is a narrative film in which a young woman takes care of an island summer home while its occupants are gone for the season. It’s the story of a woman struggling to redefine the moral boundaries that dominate her life, while confronting the complexity of loneliness.  The film assumes a deliberate and patient pace, not only to complement the young woman’s gradual introspective journey, but also to afford the audience time to reflect upon and consider their own relationship with nature.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Lo-A Black Woman’s Journey

“Lo” is a feature-length documentary that transforms one woman’s personal experience with bipolar disorder into a platform for more broadly exploring the phenomenon of mental illness among African American women.  The filmmaker yearns to create a documentary that will spark discussion about how the stigma of mental illness in the African American community often leads to silence, isolation, and ultimately to a refusal by African American women to seek proper treatment.

Donation Amount: $ 6% coverage

Arts Engine, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization incorporated in the State of New York. Please support us by making a tax-deductible donation.

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