The Black Godfather

Everyone dreams of fame. From the nail-biting freshman auditions to the spectacular year-end performances, Fame High captures the in-class and at-home drama, competition, heartbreak, and triumph during one school year at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, also known as Fame High.

This investigative doc exposes the US sugar industry’s systematic hijacking of scientific study to bury evidence that sugar is, in fact, toxic.

When a daughter becomes concerned about her mother’s well-being in a retirement home, private investigator Romulo hires Sergio, an 83 year-old man who becomes a new resident–and a mole inside the home, who struggles to balance his assignment with becoming increasingly involved in the lives of several residents.

Filmed over three years on China’s railways, The Iron Ministry traces the vast interiors of a country on the move: flesh and metal, clangs and squeals, light and dark, and language and gesture. Scores of rail journeys come together into one, capturing the thrills and anxieties of social and technological transformation. The Iron Ministry immerses audiences in fleeting relationships and uneasy encounters between humans and machines on what will soon be the world’s largest railway network.

As daily airstrikes pound civilian targets in Syria, a group of indomitable first responders risk their lives to rescue victims from the rubble.

On August 7th 1974, French tightrope walker Philippe Petit stepped out on a high wire, illegally rigged between New York’s World Trade Center twin towers, then the world’s tallest buildings. After nearly an hour of performing on the wire, 1,350 feet above the sidewalks of Manhattan, he was arrested. This fun and spellbinding documentary chronicles Philippe Petit’s “highest” achievement.

An unemployed American worker, a Tea Party activist, and a Chinese solar entrepreneur. But who wins and who loses the battle for power in the 21st century? Through interwoven character dramas spanning the U.S. and China, Catching the Sun explores the global economic race to lead the clean energy future.

Filmmaker and art theorist Dr. Francisco J. Ricardo delves into the creative mind of the multi-faceted James Franco in this innovative documentary or film essay. As the two converse on Franco’s thoughts and process in executing some of his early experimental art and film work, the viewer is privy to these art pieces, some of which were rarely seen outside of a film festival or art show.

A small community in Veracruz is the guardian of one of the ecosystems facing the most risk: the cloud forest. By redesigning their needs, education and relationship with other people and with nature, they search for a simpler and sustainable life.

David Gelb (Jiro Dreams of Sushi) tackles another venerable, beloved, and long-standing institution: the Mustang, crown jewel of the Ford fleet. Only this institution is in turmoil. As the fiftieth anniversary of the Mustang approaches and the car industry struggles through the deepest trough of the financial crisis, Ford launches a redesign. Now the jobs of workers at Ford’s Flat Rock Assembly Plant, the expectations of the thousands of Mustang devotees, and the livelihood of the city of Detroit are all placed squarely on the shoulders of Dave Pericak. As chief program engineer, he will guide the 2015 Mustang from assembly floor to showroom—if only he can get that vibration out of the steering wheel.

Explores the possibility for the global community to overcome challenges like climate change and reach a brighter future through the power of nuclear energy.

As the Earth’s average temperature rises each year, experts warn that we are nearing a fatal tipping point, 2 degrees Celsius above the norm, that will set into motion a cascade of natural disasters that will devastate America and the world. From raging fires to epic superstorms, volcanic blasts and rising seas, will human existence be pushed to the brink?