Documentary Movies (Page #4)

Out of the Clear Blue Sky tells the riveting, behind-the-scenes story of Cantor Fitzgerald. It’s a story of disaster without precedent. What do you when everything – and almost everyone – is gone?

On September 10, 2001, financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald was headquartered on the top 5 floors of the World Trade Center. With offices soaring 100 stories above downtown Manhattan, the Wall Street powerhouse was unknown to the public until tragedy struck. On September 11, 2001, 658 of their employees were missing – presumed dead – in the nation’s worst terrorist attacks. Overnight, Cantor became world famous for the worst of all possible reasons. One of the few who survived was their notorious CEO Howard Lutnick, who had been taking his son to his first day of kindergarten when the planes hit. On September 13th, Lutnick’s emotionally raw, tear-filled interviews transfixed the nation. His distraught television appearances struck a deep personal chord with millions of traumatized Americans reeling and shell-shocked by the unprecedented attacks. But, within a week, in a move that was to become very controversial, Lutnick stopped the paychecks of his missing employees. It was an act that has been praised by some – as a necessary decision to save the company to help the widows of his fallen friends — but severely lambasted by more — as a self-serving, heartless betrayal by a man well known for his ruthlessness. Lutnick’s prior reputation as cut-throat – even by Wall Street standards – preceded him.

The media turned on him and Lutnick went from sympathetic face-of-the-tragedy to vilified pariah over night. Then he completely withdrew from the public eye. Though Cantor suffered almost twice the casualties of the FDNY, their story soon disappeared.

Directed by a September 11th family member, “Out of the Clear Blue” tells twin stories – not only the saga of the ravaged business and surviving employees, but also an insider’s take on the unusual community of families that formed in the aftermath. Cantor’s loss was not only the largest loss by a single entity, it also created the largest single group of mourners, over 6000 people bound by their horrific common experience. This was tragedy writ large. People too young to die, all knowing each other, lost on one day. There wasn’t one memorial to attend; there were 10 a day for over two months, forcing people to choose whose funeral to go to. It wasn’t one dead per family; it was doubles or even triple losses in a family. This wasn’t a private loss; this was as public as could be, with television images played and re-played endlessly and inescapably. A true stranger-than-fiction account, from the jittery and stunned first days — a time unlike any other in American memory — then unfolding over months and years, the film captures what it’s like being caught in the crosshairs of history.

The atomic bomb and meltdowns like Fukushima have made nuclear power synonymous with global disaster. But what if we’ve got nuclear power wrong? The documentary explores whether the one technology we fear most could save our planet from a climate catastrophe, while providing the energy needed to lift billions of people in the developing world out of poverty.

With songs that say more in a few verses than most artists say in an entire career, Bruce Springsteen has been able to embody the highs and lows of the American Dream. Moreover, his music has created a deeply personal bond between fan and the artist. Springsteen & I was a call out to the fans worldwide to make a documentary about what Bruce means to them and celebrate the impact of his music. Produced by Ridley Scott Associates/Scott Free/Black Dog Films and Mr Wolf, Springsteen & I incorporates video submissions from over 2,000 fans from across the world in the ultimate collective filmmaking experience --made by the fans for the fans-- and includes Springsteen performing some of his greatest hits, along with exclusive never-before-seen archival concert footage.

This chilling and inventive documentary examines a country where death squad leaders are celebrated as heroes, challenging them to reenact their real-life mass-killings in the style of the American movies they love.

When the Indonesian government was overthrown in 1965, small-time gangster Anwar Congo and his friends went from selling movie tickets on the black market to leading anti-communist death squads in the mass murder of over a million people. Anwar boasts of killing hundreds with his own hands, but he's lived in his country with impunity ever since. When approached to make a film about their role in the genocide, Anwar and his friends eagerly comply-but their idea of being in a movie is not to provide reflective testimony, but to dance their way through musical numbers, twist arms in film noir gangster scenes, and gallop across the prairies as yodeling cowboys.

Oscar winning Director Daniel Junge and Oscar Nominated Director Kief Davidson take us on a journey through the LEGO universe...like you have never seen before. They explore the brick that has captured imaginations for generations and look at the fundamental question...is it a toy or something more? BEYOND THE BRICK: A LEGO® BRICKUMENTARY delves into the extraordinary impact of the LEGO brick and the innovative uses of for it that has sprung up all over the world. The narrative will take us to art galleries full of LEGO creations, introduce us to Master Builders making movies, into the world of LEGO therapy, and bring us along to meet AFOLS (Adult Fans of LEGO), each with amazing stories to tell.

After Tiller explores the highly controversial subject of third-trimester abortions in the wake of the 2009 assassination of practitioner Dr. George Tiller. The procedure is now performed by only four doctors in the United States, all former colleagues of Dr. Tiller, who risk their lives every day in the name of their unwavering commitment toward their patients.

A teacher in a disadvantaged community rebels against a system that neglects many of its vulnerable students. Gloria Merriex transforms into a trailblazer, using rap, dance and other innovations to enable children to thrive in school—and beyond.

The film follows a group of obsese children for more than two years as they try to lose weight.

Finding Vivian Maier unearths the mysteries behind Vivian Maier, who was a nanny in the wealthy North Shore suburbs of Chicago. Maier’s secret world is unraveled slowly through her photo collections and interviews with those who knew her, from the parents who hired her and the children she cared for to store owners, movie theater operators, and neighbors.

Two bartenders try to achieve their dreams through bartending. An injured Marine turns his goals to becoming a principal bartender at the best cocktail bar in the world. A young man leaves his white-collar job to buy the corner bar in his hometown years later he struggles to keep afloat. The bar is three deep, and the bartenders are in the weeds at the greatest cocktail party since before Prohibition. Hey Bartender is the story of the rebirth of the bartender and the comeback of the cocktail.

Features interviews with people who knew Bruce intimately, along with a broad array of international icons from the entertainment and athletic fields combined with rarely seen archival footage and classic photos.

A protrait of Brandon Darby, a radical activist turned FBI informant who has been alternately vilified and deified. In 2005, Darby became an overnight hero when he traveled to Katrina-devastated New Orleans and braved toxic floodwaters to rescue a friend stranded in the Ninth Ward. Soon after, he co-founded Common Ground, a successful grassroots relief organization. But over the next few years, he began hiding a shocking secret. After two young protestors were arrested at the 2008 Republican National Convention, Darby revealed he had been instrumental in the indictment as an FBI informant.

The story of the unexpected friendship and collaboration between an urban artist in his 20s and a dancer in her 70s as they team up to form LA’s most unlikely street art duo.

Starting in the early 1930s, home movies were made by private individuals documenting their personal and family lives alongside historic events in Palestine/Israel. Each amateur cinematographer had a camera of his own, but each saw something different.

The 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, a major architect of the Holocaust, is revisited in a gripping and surprising new vision from American filmmaker Jake Paltrow. Based on true accounts, June Zero is told from the unique perspectives of three largely unrelated figures: Eichmann’s Jewish Moroccan prison guard; an Israeli police investigator who also happens to be a Holocaust survivor and a precocious and clever 13-year-old Libyan immigrant.

On May 13, 1985, a longtime feud between the city of Philadelphia and controversial radical urban group MOVE came to a deadly climax. By order of local authorities, police dropped military-grade explosives onto a MOVE-occupied rowhouse. TV cameras captured the conflagration that quickly escalated—and resulted in the tragic deaths of eleven people (including five children) and the destruction of 61 homes. It was only later discovered that authorities decided to “...let the fire burn.” Using only archival news coverage and interviews, first-time filmmaker Jason Osder has brought to life one of the most tumultuous and largely forgotten clashes between government and citizens in modern American history.

A shocking undercover investigation leads to a ban on animal circuses in Bolivia. But the circuses defy the law. The team behind the investigation returns, tracks down the illegal circuses and saves every animal. The confrontations, heartache and incredible risks the rescue team face are all captured before a joyous finale sees 25 lions airlifted to freedom in Colorado.

LITTLE GIRL is the moving portrait of 7-year-old Sasha, who has always known that she is a girl. Sasha’s family has recently accepted her gender identity, embracing their daughter for who she truly is while working to confront outdated norms and find affirmation in a small community of rural France. Realized with delicacy and intimacy, Sébastien Lifshitz’s documentary poetically explores the emotional challenges, everyday feats, and small moments in Sasha’s life.

Curious George is the most popular monkey in the world. Since his introduction in the first publication in 1941, the beloved series has sold over 75 million books in more than 25 languages. MONKEY BUSINESS explores the lesser-known tale of George's creators, Hans and Margret Rey. Originally from Hamburg, Germany, the Reys first met when Hans was dating Margret's older sister. Years later, having heard that Hans was wasting his artistic talents as a bookkeeper in Rio, Margret traveled to Brazil to persuade him to marry her and do something creative together. After their four-week honeymoon to Paris turned into a four-year residency, they accidentally became children's book authors when a publisher suggested they create a book out of a cartoon Hans had drawn. Being German Jews, however, their life in Paris abruptly came to an end in June 1940 when the Reys were forced to escape from the Nazis by riding makeshift bicycles-a manuscript of the first Curious George book was one of the few possessions they could smuggle out with them. Arriving in New York as refugees, they started their life anew and over the next three decades they created a classic that continues to touch the hearts and minds of children around the world.

Markus Imhoof tackles the issue of why bees, worldwide, are facing extinction. With the tenacity of a man out to solve a world-class mystery, he investigates this global phenomenon, from California to Switzerland, China and Australia.