JustFilms (Firm)
Description
"Though her life generated voluminous literature, most people ignore the fact that iconic deaf-blind author Helen Keller (1880-1968) was one of the most passionate socialist advocates of her time. Continuing his work of patient and insightful political filmmaking, director John Gianvito (Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind) resurrects Keller's radical views, which have been largely suppressed or sanitized over the years. In Her Socialist Smile,...
2) The Force
Description
Beginning in 2014, this film chronicles two years with the Oakland Police Department, which, in 2003, was put under federal oversight for misconduct and civil rights abuses. Relations between the department and the community are explored in the wake of nationally publicized police shootings and the advent of the Black Lives Matter Movement.
"Sprawling, immediate, and complex, Peter Nicks's verité documentary moves like a pulsing, timely thriller....
3) 1971
Description
On March 8, 1971, eight ordinary citizens broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, a town just outside of Philadelphia, took hundreds of secret files, and shared them with the public. In doing so, they uncovered the FBI's vast and illegal regime of spying and intimidation of Americans exercising their First Amendment rights. Despite conducting one of the most thorough investigations in its history, the FBI never solved the mystery of the break-in....
4) Dark money
Description
It "examines one of the greatest present threats to American democracy: the influence of untraceable corporate money on our elections and elected officials. The film takes viewers to Montana-- a frontline in the fight to preserve fair elections nationwide-- to follow a local journalist working to expose the real-life impacts of the US Supreme Court's Citizens United decision"--Container.
Description
It is a timely tale of what can happen when engaged citizens fight the power for the sake of a better world. Arguably, no one did more to shape our understanding of the modern American city than Jane Jacobs, the visionary activist and writer who fought to preserve urban communities in the face of destructive development projects. The film vividly brings to life Jacobs' 1960s showdown with ruthless construction kingpin Robert Moses over his plan to...
Description
"The essential memoir of fashion pioneer Bethann Hardison, INVISIBLE BEAUTY shines a spotlight on the singular and unapologetic Hardison, one of the fasion industry's most influential icons. Hardison and her codirector Frédéric Tcheng set forth an absorbing record of the racial evolution of fashion and an original contemplation on the life of an unparalleled trailblazer."--Container.
Description
"Chicago suffered the worst heat disaster in U.S history in 1995, when 739 residents--mostly elderly and black--died over the course of one week. As Cooked links the deadly heat wave's devastation back to the underlying manmade disaster of structural racism, it delves deep into one of our nation's biggest growth industries: Disaster Preparedness. Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand (Blue Vinyl, Everything's Cool), uses her signature serious-yet-quirky...
Description
The story of the brave young men and women who successfully reversed the tide of an epidemic, demanded the attention of a fearful nation, and stopped AIDS from becoming a death sentence. This improbable group of activists bucked oppression and infiltrated government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry, helping to identify promising new medication and treatments and move them through trials and into drugstores in record time.
Description
Documentary that examines how the African-American community is grappling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights. The film documents activists, families and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalize gay marriage and examines homophobia in the black community's institutional pillar -- the black church -- and reveals the Christian right wing's strategy of exploiting this phenomenon...
Description
Incorporating interviews and rare archival video, this documentary chronicles U.S. Congressman John Lewis's 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action relating to civil rights, voting rights, gun control, health care reform, and immigration. Using present-day interviews with Lewis, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 80, the film explores his childhood experiences, his inspiring family, and his meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr....
Description
"On Black Friday 2012, four African-American teenagers stopped at a gas station to buy gum and cigarettes. One of them, Jordan Davis, argued with Michael Dunn, a white man parked beside them, over the volume of music playing in their car. The altercation turned to tragedy when Dunn fired 10 bullets at the unarmed boys, killing Davis almost instantly. This documentary film explores the danger and subjectivity of Florida's Stand Your Ground self-defense...
12) Whose streets?
Description
"Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial tensions and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest this latest tragedy. Empowered parents,...
Description
When Jennifer Laude, a Filipina transwoman, is brutally murdered by a U.S. Marine, three women intimately invested in the case, an activist attorney (Virgie Suarez), a transgender journalist (Meredith Talusan) and Jennifer's mother (Julita "Nanay" Laude), galvanize a political uprising, pursuing justice and taking on hardened histories of U.S. imperialism.