Neighbor by Neighbor: Mobilizing an Invisible Community in Lewiston, Maine

In the summer of 2004, the Mayor of Lewiston, Maine announced a plan to develop a four-lane boulevard across downtown's low-income neighborhood. This project was called "The Heritage Initiative." Contrary to its name, this plan was going to eliminate the downtown's heritage by displacing 850 people from their homes as well as destroy playgrounds, vegetable gardens, and historic buildings. Moving residents out of the city and improving traffic flow was at the heart of this proposal... It was 1960's Urban Renewal all over again. As tragic as the circumstances were, the threat of a road destroying the neighborhood required residents to rise to the challenge of becoming *community organizers. This movie documents 5 years of development and community organizing in Lewiston. It's an exceptional story about the people of Lewiston, but it's also a universal story about the challenges faced by many urban neighborhoods across the United States.

2009-01-01 | en

The Harlem Hellfighters' Great War

Nicknamed the "Harlem Hellfighters", these African-Americans wanted to become ordinary citizens like everyone else. They saw fighting heroically in the trenches as their chance to achieve this. In 1918, the 15th New York National Guard Regiment became the most highly decorated unit of the First World War.

2017-12-13 | en

Everything Is Fine

Evanston, a suburb just north of Chicago, touts its progressivism and inclusion. It was the first city in the U.S. to offer reparations for Black residents and every street corner boasts Black Lives Matter signs, but Evanston’s Black residents have a different story to tell. If you travel to the other side of Evanston, the historically Black ward, ‘For Rent’ signs are indicators of the thousands of Black residents leaving, gentrification encroaching, and streets becoming quiet. It wasn't always this way. There used to be a vibrant, thriving hub for the Black community at the Emerson YMCA. One in every five Black boys in Evanston were members, Nat King Cole played at the Y's prom, and for many residents, it became a second home. That was until the building was burned down in 1980. The destruction happened in the name of progress, despite the Black community's protests.

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Mama General

A film about poverty in a rich country: father, mother, seven children have made it out of the homeless asylum. The author met the Cologne family B. for the first time in 1976. Living with debts, installments, reminders, living with the certainty that the children will not fare any differently. For more than twenty years, between dreams and fears, the camera recorded two generations' fear of failure and hunger for middle class. A unique film chronicle from the "latest economic miracle" - between 1976 and 1997.

1997-01-01 | de

American Winter

Documentary feature film that follows the personal stories of families struggling in the aftermath of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Filmed over the course of one winter in one American city, the film presents an intimate snapshot of the state of the nation's economy as it is playing out in millions of American families, and highlights the human consequences of the decline of the middle class and the fracturing of the American Dream

2013-03-18 | en

The Outcasts

Roaring through the streets in dirty denims and leather, The Outcasts present a menacing appearance to the respectable folk of East Anglia. Theirs is an alternative world of wild parties, arrest and sudden death. This film shows a group most people would cross the street to avoid. It's a life which borders on the edge of society and the law, but one which is governed by strict rules and traditions. There are two faces to The Outcasts. One exists in the pounding of heavy metal music and the exhaust fumes of powerful customised motorbikes. The other lies in the day-to-day grind, where even Outcasts have livings to earn, children to feed and bills to pay.

1985-02-07 | en

Using

Documentary filmmaker Zhou Hao examines the complicated relationship between two drug addicts who become dealers over the course of three years. Shot in the city of Guangzhou, the film offers a rare look into China's unknown heroin subculture.

2007-11-01 | zh

Gangstresses

Gangstresses, a documentary by Harry Davis, tells the story of violence, poverty, and survival in the streets from a female perspective. Over a two-year period, Davis interviews female hustlers, drug dealers, rappers, porn stars, prostitutes, mothers, and daughters. Among them are Champagne, a well-known African American porn star who has a small child; Mama Mayhem, a street hustler; Uneek, a rapper from the Bronx; and Vanessa Del Rio, a famous porn actress. Musicians Lil' Kim, Mary J. Blige, Ice T, and Tupac Shakur also share personal stories of survival. The documentary conducts follow-up research on the women's complicated lives, offering glimpses of both tragic reality and hopeful recovery.

2000-02-02 | en

COMPLEXion

"COMPLEXion is a documentary that aims to unpack the hegemony of skin color globally and challenge the archaic notions that exist surrounding it. Our mission is to defy toxic beauty standards through raw human stories."

2023-03-01 | en

Parliament Funkadelic: One Nation Under a Groove

One Nation Under A Groove - P-Funk Documentary 2005 Known to its legions of fans simply as P-Funk, Parliament Funkadelic has had a profound impact on the development of contemporary music, aesthetics and culture. PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC: One Nation Under a Groove chronicles the unique alchemy of the musical influences that fed into the band`s singular approach to music, documenting P-Funk`s continuing influence on today`s artists and musicians and featuring an in-depth look at the musical and entrepreneurial mastermind of its leader George Clinton.

2005-04-05 | en

Finding the Funk

Finding the Funk is a road trip in search of the past, present and future of Funk music. Starting with Funk's roots in Jazz and the James Brown bands of the '60s we travel to the Bay Area to celebrate Sly & the Family Stone, then to Dayton the birthplace of so many of Funk's originators, then onto Detroit where from the ashes of Motown, P-Funk's Mothership arose, and then to LA where a new crop of musicians are creating their own Funk history. On our journey into Funk, we talk to legends Sly Stone, Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, Nona Hendryx, Maceo Parker, Bernie Worrell, and Steve Arrington and their descendants Mike D, D'Angelo, Sheila E, Shock G and Sade's Stuart Matthewman. Narrated by Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson of the Roots.

2014-01-31 | en

Medea

Ben Caldwell’s Medea, a collage piece made on an animation stand and edited entirely in the camera, combines live action and rapidly edited still images of Africans and African Americans which function like flashes of history that the unborn child will inherit. Caldwell invokes Amiri Baraka’s poem “Part of the Doctrine” in this experimental meditation on art history, Black imagery, identity and heritage.

1973-01-01 | en

People of the Po Valley

A documentary short detailing the life of Italians living on the Po River in the 1940s.

1947-09-01 | it

Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story

Everyone knows the phrase “Black is Beautiful,” but few know of the man who helped popularize it. Little known Harlem based photographer - freedom fighter and activist - Kwame Brathwaite took 500,000 photos across his 70-year career, always devoted to celebrating the joy and beauty of African American life. This feature documentary tells the story of Kwame and the “Black is Beautiful” movement.

2025-10-09 | en

In a Land of Plenty

The story of unemployment in New Zealand and In A Land of Plenty is an exploration of just that; it takes as its starting point the consensus from The Depression onwards that Godzone economic policy should focus on achieving full employment, and explores how this was radically shifted by the 1984 Labour government. Director Alister Barry's perspective is clear, as he trains a humanist lens on ‘Rogernomics' to argue for the policy's negative effects on society, as a new poverty-stricken underclass developed.

2002-07-12 | en

Ghetto - The Secret Life of the City

Belgrade in the 1990s seen through the eyes of Goran Čavajda 'Čavke', the late drummer of Serbian rock band "Electric Orgasm". Under dictatorship of Slobodan Milošević, his city became one of the worst places to live in Europe, while the country suffered highest inflation rate in its history, accompanied by mass poverty and political isolation. Documentary follows Čavke walking through the Belgrade streets where total chaos and decline of moral values rule. He finds his only shelter underground, where his friends - musicians and artists - live and work invisibly.

1996-01-01 | sr

Ghetto Fights 3

Ghetto Fights 3 was released Oct 10, 2006 by the Navarre Corporation and presents a brutal glimpse of America's urban underbelly with a third collection of real-life street-fight footage taken straight from the nation's toughest inner-city 'hoods. Set to a blazing hip-hop soundtrack, this hard-hitting and totally authentic documentary captures all the nonstop action as thugged-out gangstas engage in violent and often shocking bare-knuckle beatings. This DVD takes viewers to ground zero in urban America. Witness the day-to-day struggles of average individuals and the solutions they fire off.

2006-10-10 | en

Noble Sissle's Syncopated Ragtime

Combining footage unseen since WWI with original scores from the era, this film tells the story of Noble Sissle's incredible journey that spans "The Harlem Hellfighters" of World War I, Broadway Theatre, the Civil Rights movement, and decades of Black cultural development.

2018-10-01 | en

Hijos de África

2023-10-12 | es

Tats Cru: The Mural Kings

Determined to hold on to their moniker of "the Mural Kings," world-renowned artists Tats Cru produce a wall painting for Harlem's Graffiti Hall of Fame in this compelling documentary. Beginning their career as subway graffiti creators in the early 1980s, three Bronx teenagers evolved into talented muralists. Their story is told through archival clips, behind-the-scenes footage of the mural production process and interviews with the artists.

2006-10-24 | en