Lord of the Freaks

“It’s a Hard Truth Ain’t It” is a companion piece to “O.G.”, a narrative drama also directed by Madeleine Sackler. It is co-directed by thirteen men incarcerated at the Pendleton Correctional Facility in Pendleton, Indiana.
Given unprecedented access to a maximum security prison, filmmaker Madeleine Sackler worked with a group of inmates to tell their own stories, giving rise to this collaborative, intimate documentary project.

Mysteries of the Unseen World transports audiences to places on this planet that they have never been before, to see things that are beyond their normal vision, yet literally right in front of their eyes. Mysteries of the Unseen World reveals phenomena that can’t be seen with the naked eye, taking audiences into earthly worlds secreted away in different dimensions of time and scale. Viewers experience events that unfold too slowly for human perception

Once the thriving capital of Imperial China, the city of Datong now lies in near ruins. Not only is it the most polluted city in the country, it is also crippled by decrepit infrastructure and even shakier economic prospects. But Mayor Geng Tanbo plans to change all that, announcing a bold, new plan to return Datong to its former glory, the cultural haven it was some 1,600 years ago. Such declarations, however, come at a devastatingly high cost. Thousands of homes are to be bulldozed, and a half-million of its residents (30 percent of Datong’s total population) will be relocated under his watch. Whether he succeeds depends entirely on his ability to calm swarms of furious workers and an increasingly perturbed ruling elite. The Chinese Mayor captures, with remarkable access, a man and, by extension, a country leaping frantically into an increasingly unstable future.

In 1962, spurred by the Cold War, President John F. Kennedy famously made the bold proclamation that NASA would send astronauts to the moon by the end of the decade, not because it was easy, but because it was a challenge. The Space Race inspired a generation to pursue careers in science and technology, but as the balance of world power shifted, interest in space exploration declined. “Fight for Space” serves as an urgent call to re-awaken our sense of wonder and discovery.

The American comedian/actor delivers a story about the alternative Hip Hop scene. A small town Ohio man’s moves to Brooklyn, New York, to throw an unprecedented block party.

Chinese teenagers from the wealthy elite, with big American dreams, settle into a boarding school in small-town Maine. As their fuzzy visions of the American dream slowly gain more clarity, their relationship to home takes on a poignant new aspect.

An in-depth, exclusive look inside the high-stakes world of protecting the President. The two-hour special echoes one of National Geographic’s core missions, to take viewers places few others have been. The special reveals unexpected stories of trepidation and triumph along with a broader understanding of the significant and serious matters the agency must contend with everyday.

A documentary spanning over 30 years of the California Bay Area’s punk music history with a central focus on the emergence of Berkeley’s inspiring 924 Gilman Street music collective.

Fueled by a raging libido, Wild Turkey, and superhuman doses of drugs, Thompson was a true “free lance, ” goring sacred cows with impunity, hilarity, and a steel-eyed conviction for writing wrongs. Focusing on the good doctor’s heyday, 1965 to 1975, the film includes clips of never-before-seen (nor heard) home movies, audiotapes, and passages from unpublished manuscripts.

The Los Angeles punk music scene circa 1980 is the focus of this film. With Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Circle Jerks, Fear, Germs, and X.

‘Smiling Through the Apocalypse’ chronicles a man whose editorial instincts produced one of the greatest magazines ever: Harold Hayes, the swinging editor and cultural provocateur of the iconic Esquire Magazine of the Sixties. Through the narrative of his son Tom, a journey ensues opening unprecedented access to some of the Esquire magazine’s most compelling talents, from Nora Ephron to George Lois, and Tom Wolfe to Gore Vidal. The film is a story of risk, triumph, and challenge told by the people that helped make the magazine great, and a son who only come to understand his father’s editorial greatness 23 years after his passing.

A filmed version of David Byrne’s Broadway show, a unifying musical celebration that inspires audiences to connect to each other and to the global community.