Directors & Producers: Stanley Nelson and Nicole London WE WANT THE FUNK! is a syncopated voyage through the history of funk music, spanning from African, soul, and early jazz roots, to its rise into the public consciousness. Featuring James Brown's dynamism, the extraterrestrial funk of George Clinton's Parliament Funkadelic, transformed girl group Labelle, and Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, the story also traces funk's influences on both new wave and hip-hop.
Directors & Producers: Juan Mejía Botero In Colombia, a nation marred by profound racial and socio-economic disparities, a Black woman from a rural background challenges the status quo by launching a presidential campaign. Reappropriating the term “igualada,” Francia Márquez, catapults a movement to the upper echelons of power, by refusing to “know her place.” Fifteen years in the making, this documentary peels back the curtain on how unprecedented change can happen
Directors & Producers: Lisa Cunningham Through the eyes of everyday families and celebrity mothers like Sheryl Lee Ralph and Tabitha Brown, Me Period explores the beauty and complexity of how we navigate sensitive conversations about our bodies and our periods.
Directors & Producers: Danica Cullinan, Neal Hutcheson, Walt Wolfram Signing Black in America is the first documentary about Black ASL: the unique dialect of American Sign Language (ASL) that developed within historically segregated African American Deaf communities.Black ASL today conveys an identity and sense of belonging that mirrors spoken language varieties of the African American hearing community. Different uses of space, hand use, directional movement, and facial expressions are ways that Black ASL distinguishes itself as a vibrant dialect of American Sign Language. The African American Deaf community is now embracing their unique variety as a symbol of solidarity and a vital part of their identity.
Directors & Producers: Lisa Arrindell & Terri Montrel Alonzo and Adrienne have breakfast and receive some wonderful news... or is it? Morning turns to night as the couple struggles to find language amidst a storm of emotions. When family is the highest value, dreams fight to stay alive.
Power to Heal: Medicare and the Civil Rights Revolution
Directors: Charles Burnett & Daniel Loewenthal Producers: Dr. Barbara Berney, Roberta Friedman and Daniel Loewenthal Narrated by Danny Glover, POWER TO HEAL tells a poignant chapter in the historic struggle to secure equal and adequate access to healthcare for all Americans. Central to the story is the tale of how a new national program, Medicare, was used to mount a dramatic, coordinated effort that desegregated thousands of hospitals across the country practically overnight. Before Medicare, disparities in access to hospital care were dramatic. Less than half the nation's hospitals served black and white patients equally, and in the South, 1/3 of hospitals would not admit African-Americans even for emergencies. Using the carrot of Medicare dollars, the federal government virtually ended the practice of racially segregating patients, doctors, medical staffs, blood supplies and linens. Co-directed by renowned filmmaker Charles Burnett and co-produced by distinguished public health scholar Dr. Barbara Berney, POWER TO HEAL illustrates how
Directors & Producers: Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht Down the road from Woodstock, a revolution blossomed in a ramshackle summer camp for teenagers with disabilities, transforming their lives and igniting a landmark movement. CRIP CAMP is an untold story co-directed by Emmy® Award winner Nicole Newnham and film mixer and former camper Jim LeBrecht.
Director & Producer: Dara Kell An Unsettling Force is a stirring portrait of ordinary people rising to meet extraordinary times. At the heart of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival are pastors, veterans, mothers, and community leaders who believe America can be better — and who are willing to put their bodies on the line to make it so. This documentary reveals the quiet courage and the radical hope that animate today’s most visionary social justice movement. Echoing the unfinished work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 campaign, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis have reignited a moral movement for our times — one that unites people across race, geography, and political affiliation to demand living wages, voting rights, healthcare, and dignity for all. Filmed over three years of marches, sit-ins, and strategy sessions, An Unsettling Force captures both the fire
Director & Producer: Thierry Michel This powerful portrait follows Dr. Denis Mukwege, the internationally renowned Congolese gynecologist awarded the 2014 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for his fight against sexual violence. Over sixteen years, he has treated more than 40,000 survivors of sexual abuse. In a country devastated by conflict, sexual violence has been used as a weapon of war. To provide medical, psychological, and emotional care, Dr. Mukwege founded the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu in 1999. Beyond medicine, he is a tireless human rights advocate, speaking out against political indifference and raising global awareness of the atrocities committed against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His work has come at great personal risk. In 2012, armed men attacked his home, killing his guard. Since then, Dr. Mukwege has lived under UN protection within the hospital grounds. Despite constant threats, he continues his
Director & Producer: Monique N. Matthews Giving birth is a battleground for too many Black women and their babies. Going behind the statistics, “Birthing Justice” places Black women at the center of the fight to fix a broken system for all women in this country. It focuses on the progress being made by those on the frontline of this fight and highlights solutions that can be replicated in communities across the country.
