Kartemquin Films

When the city of Wuhan, China locked down at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was nearly impossible to get a clear sense of what was happening. But award-winning filmmaker Yung Chang (Up the Yangtze) and a group of intrepid videographers were able to document life at the epicenter. In a time when the world needs greater cross-cultural understanding, it is an invaluable depiction of a metropolis joining together to overcome a crisis.

During the Great Recession, joblessness exceeds twenty percent East of the Anacostia River in Washington, DC. This documentary follows the intimate stories of Charles, Michael, and James, three long-term unemployed residents struggling to gain employment through 'shovel ready' green projects. When stimulus dollars run out, short term idealism clashes with day-to-day survival in the struggle to find a sense of purpose and place in a recovering economy....

Chronicles the forgotten element of most nature documentaries of Africa--the villagers who live there and must deal with the dangers and costs associated with living with the wildlife.

Follows the high school careers of two young, African-American men from inner-city Chicago as they pursue their dream of playing professional basketball.

The powerful documentary examines the life of Muhammad Ali beyond the boxing ring to offer a personal perspective on the American sporting legend. Investigating Ali's spiritual transformation includes his conversion to Islam, resistance to the Vietnam War draft, and humanitarian work. The documentary connects Ali's transcendent life story to America's struggles with race, religion, and war in the twentieth century.

Returns to rural southern Illinois to reconnect with Stevie, a troubled young boy from ten years ago. The film began as a way of discovering what forces shaped Stevie's life. Part way through the filming, Stevie is arrested for a serious crime, and tears his family apart. The modest profile turned into a chronicle of Stevie, his broken family, the justice system and the filmmaker himself.

"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...

The moving and surprising stories of three Violence Interrupters who, with bravado, humility, and even humor, try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they once employed. Shot over the course of a year, this documentary captures a period in Chicago when it became a national symbol for the violence in America's cities.