The story of the East St. Louis High Flyers’ surprising run to the 2016 state football title isn’t just a local narrative. It’s a national story about a community in crisis and a football team reaching unpredictable heights. High School All American Jeff Thomas nearly gets tossed off the team and Rey Estes, the quarterback, seeks redemption after his junior season is cancelled by a teacher strike Others seek a college offer as a way out of their situation.
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An immersive film essay on tennis legend John McEnroe at the height of his career as the world champion, documenting his strive for perfection, frustrations, and the hardest loss of his career at the 1984 Roland-Garros French Open.
Two versions of the American dream now stand in sharp contrast. One views the money you earned as yours and best allocated by you; the other believes that an elite in Washington knows best how to allocate your wealth. One champions the traditional American dream, which has played out millions of times through generations of Americans, of improving one’s lot in life and even daring to dream and build big. The other holds that there is no end to the “good” the government can do by taking and spending other peoples’ money in an ever-burgeoning list of programs. The documentary film I Want Your Money exposes the high cost in lost freedom and in lost opportunity to support a Leviathan-like bureaucratic state.
A big fan of The Beatles growing up in the 60s, Seth Swirsky noticed that whenever he heard someone relating a story about themselves and The Beatles, he was “all ears”. So, starting in 2005, he sought out and filmed those with never before heard, “Beatles Stories”. Written by Mike Pope
Kevin Roche: The Quiet Architect is a feature documentary film that considers many of the key architectural questions through the 70 year career of Pritzker Prize winning Irish-American architect Kevin Roche, including the relationship between architects and the public they serve. Still working at age 94, Kevin Roche is an enigma, a man with no interest in fame who refuses retirement and continually looks to the future regardless of age. Roche’s architectural philosophy is that ‘the responsibility of the modern architect is to create a community for a modern society’ and has emphasised the importance for peoples well-being to bring nature into the buildings they inhabit. We consider the application of this philosophy in acclaimed buildings such as the Ford Foundation, Oakland Museum and at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art for whom Kevin Roche was their principal architect for over 40 years.
Enter a world where pandemonium reigns and reckless ambition rules: the trading floors in the financial canyons of downtown Chicago. Here, men use strange hand signals to buy and sell everything from pork belly to soybeans while wearing the weight of our complex economy on their shoulders – along with their neon jackets. It’s a physical, bruising place, one where a slight gain creates heroes, rich beyond what their high school educations should ever afford. But the wrong move on the wrong day can ruin lives. At a time when millions have lost fortunes in the fickle stock market and fear abounds about the faltering financial system, FLOORED is a gripping, honest look behind the curtain of the trading floor that few have ever seen
This timely exploration of Hollywood and LGBTQ+ identity examines the life of legendary actor Rock Hudson, from his public “ladies’ man” persona to his private life as a gay man.
This insightful and informative documentary explores the popular world of Mindfulness from the perspective of four people who study and teach it. Mindfulness is defined as a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.
Devastated after learning her brother, Adam, was murdered in New Orleans, bounce legend Big Freedia decides to use her experience and platform to raise awareness about the complexity of gun violence.
At the annual Vent Haven Convention in Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky, ventriloquism capital of the world, director Mark Goffman discovers five extraordinary characters straight out of a Christopher Guest mockumentary. But in this delightful, it’s-all-true documentary, the characters are real, and so are the emotional attachments that they have with their “dummies.”
Using previously unheard audiotapes recorded shortly after John Belushi’s death, director R.J. Cutler’s documentary feature examines the too-short life of the once-in-a-generation talent who captured the hearts and funny bones of devoted audiences.
