Water & Power: A California Heist
(World Premiere Sundance Film Festival 2017 | Documentary Feature)
USA 2016 | Documentary | 90min | Director Marina Zenovich
This thrilling investigation uncovers the high-level corruption behind California’s long-standing water crisis. Sweeping cinematography of California’s harsh, dry landscape asks us to visualize a fight for water in what feels like a modern day Chinatown. Filmmaker Marina Zenovich peels back the layers of California’s convoluted water structure—wealthy water barons show their guilty hand in exploiting the state’s resource, while small farmers and neighboring towns endure debilitating drought. We see luxury crops, like almonds, on the rise and groundwater contamination increasing tenfold, pitting backroom business dealings against human and environmental costs.
Zenovich returns to the Sundance Film Festival with this cleverly orchestrated exposé. She takes us into the stark realities of small California towns, where paying for showers is the norm—bringing light to the growing divide between water haves and have nots.
This natural resource is only growing more valuable as the new war for water is already upon us. This daring and extremely timely documentary asks us to question who has control of our access to our water.
Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman
(World Premiere Sundance Film Festival 2017 | Documentary Feature)
USA 2016 | Documentary | 90min | Director Susan Froemke, John Hoffman, Beth Aala
The story of a huge, largely hidden, and entirely unexpected conservation movement in America
Unfolding as a journey down the Mississippi River, Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman tells the stories of five representatives of this stewardship movement: a Montana rancher, a Kansas farmer, a Mississippi riverman, a Louisiana shrimper and a Gulf fisherman. In exploring their work, family histories and the essential geographies they protect, Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman challenges pervasive and powerful myths about American and environmental values.
(World Premiere October 2016 | Documentary Feature)
USA 2016 | Documentary | 90min | Director Catherine Tambini
This timely documentary was inspired by the incident in which journalist Jorge Ramos was ejected from a Donald Trump press conference and told by the presidential candidate to “go back to Univision.” The Mexican-born Ramos examines how hate is contagious and sits down with the white nationalists who are emboldened by the Trump campaign. An intimate portrait of our country emerges offering firsthand accounts of Americans who have been targets of hate in various parts of the country and highlights the simmering anger just beneath the surface. ‘Hate Rising’ is directed by Catherine Tambini and produced in conjunction with FUSION and Univision Story House.
(World Premiere October 2016 | Documentary Feature)
USA 2016 | Documentary | 90min | Director Fisher Stevens
Before the Flood, presented by National Geographic, features Leonardo DiCaprio on a journey as a United Nations Messenger of Peace, traveling to five continents and the Arctic to witness climate change firsthand. He goes on expeditions with scientists uncovering the reality of climate change and meets with political leaders fighting against inaction. He also discovers a calculated disinformation campaign orchestrated by powerful special interests working to confuse the public about the urgency of the growing climate crisis. With unprecedented access to thought leaders around the world, DiCaprio searches for hope in a rising tide of catastrophic news.
(World Premiere Tribeca Film Festival 2016 | Documentary Feature)
USA 2016 | Documentary | 90min | Director Lloyd Kramer
Midsummer in Newtown is a testament to the transformative force of artistic expression to pierce through the shadow cast by trauma. In the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, one grieving couple honors their daughter through music, while community children find their voice through a rock-pop version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The documentary feature will World Premierea at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.
Fantastic Lies - The Duke Lacrosse Case
(World Premiere SXSW Film Festival 2016 | Documentary Feature)
USA 2016 | Documentary | 90min | Director Marina Zenovich
The Duke Lacrosse Case is a feature length film for ESPN’s award winning 30 for 30 documentary series, investigating the controversial 2006 criminal case stemming from a false accusation of rape made against three members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team, located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. The case evoked varied responses from the media, faculty groups, students, the community, and others. The case's resolution sparked public discussion of reverse racism, media bias, due process on campuses and ultimately led to the resignation and disbarment of the lead prosecutor, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong.
(World Premiere Sundance Film Festival 2015 | Documentary Feature)
USA 2014 | Documentary | 90min | Director Kirby Dick, Amy Ziering
The Hunting Ground is a multible award winning documentary film about alleged incidents of rape on college campuses in the United States. Written and directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering, it premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The film was released on February 27, 2015 an edited version aired on CNN. The Hunting Ground presents multiple students who allege that they were sexually assaulted at their college campuses, and that college administrators either ignored them or required them to navigate a complex academic bureaucracy to have their claims addressed. The film implies that many college officials were more concerned with minimizing rape statistics for their universities than with the welfare of the students, and contains interviews with college administrators who state they were pressured into suppressing rape cases.
(World Premiere Doc NYC Film Festival 2016 | Documentary Feature)
USA 2016 | Documentary | 90 min | Director Sally Williams
From San Francisco to Sweden, Edinburgh to Selma - Dewey applied this principal in Action Theatre, Happenings, performance art and into the formative years of funding for the arts in New York City. Ken carried his Nagra audio recorder nearly everywhere he went including along the length of the civil rights march with Martin Luther King Jnr from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama 1965. Ken Dewey's art and recordings give us an intimate and unique window into an era of great change and experimentation in the United States and Europe.
This feature length biographical documentary uses Dewey's previously inaccessible multimedia archive to rediscover an artist almost lost to time. Ken's friends and colleagues help remember the man and his vision for America.
USA 2015 | Documentary | 90 min | Director Ron Davis
Audience award at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and many others.
Snowman was an old Amish plow horse that Harry deLeyer rescued off a truck that was bound for the meat and glue factory for only $80. Less than two years after he rescued Snowman, they rose to become the national show jumping champions and were the Cinderella story and media darlings of late 1950's and 1960’s Ron Davis' joyous documentary about an incredible man and his unlikely partnership with an unwanted gelding wouldn't seem to be fodder for a wonderful experience. HARRY & SNOWMAN. Harry's career was catapulted by Snowman and he went on to become one of the most successful riders and trainers in America. He represented the United States at the World Championships in Sweden in 1983 and was recognized by the United States Equestrian Foundation with a Pegasus Medal of Honor in 2002 for his lifetime contribution to the sport.
(in production)
USA 2015 | Documentary | 90min | Director Tom Hurwitz, Rosalynde LeBlanc
D-Man is a documentary film in which a former dancer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company sets out to answer this question as she is called upon to teach young dancers the first section of Bill T. Jones’ tour-de-force, D-Man in the Waters. In doing so she uncovers the stories of risk and sacrifice, love, loss and resurrection that were embedded in the choreography twenty-five years ago. The film begins in a dance studio in 2015 where former Jones/Zane dancer and college professor, Rosalynde LeBlanc, begins to teach the first section of D-Man in the Waters to nine of the strongest and most highly skilled young men and women of a university dance department. As the students are put through the paces, we get to know them as individuals. We follow the path of their inquiries into the history that gave birth to the dance. We see their difficulties, and eventually how their understanding deepens.
USA 2015 | Documentary | Netflix | 12 Episodes | Director David Modigliani, Matt Naylor
Winner best Documentary Series CLIO Award
Created originally to commemorate the nonprofit's 10th anniversary, "Wounded: The Battle Back Home" was developed by the Wounded Warrior Project and Flow Nonfiction to raise awareness of veterans issues and to give the general population an idea of the painful circumstances some post-9/11 vets must endure.
Each segment of the twelve part Netflix Series offers a glimpse into the lives of disabled veterans, showcasing the often-heartbreaking struggles of former service members dealing with severe head injuries, lost limbs, illnesses and mental health conditions related to combat, deployments or sexual assault.
Another Night in a Free World
(in production)
USA 2016 | Documentary | 90min | Director Susanne Rostock
Following the success of "Sing Your Song," the award-winning documentary about Harry Belafonte, director Susanne Rostock is working on her new documentary about young female activists who are carrying on Belafonte’s impassioned efforts to eradicate violence, poverty and social injustice. Another Night In The Free World in particular follows the lives of three remarkable young American women who have been doing exciting, important and dangerous social justice work – domestically and internationally. The stories flow from across America to Cairo, Kenya, El Salvador and Mexico.
NADIA COMANECI: The Gymnast and the Dictator
(World Premiere Denver Film Festival 2016, Winner Special Jury Prize the Barcelona Film Festival | Documentary Feature)
USA 2016 | Documentary | 90min | Director Pola Rappaport
Nadia Comaneci was the most famous gymnast of her era. She is known by the world as a star, a sensation, a phenomenon: an upstart, with the body of a child, winning a perfect ten at the Montreal Olympics at the age of 14. Representing her country, Romania, she was a little soldier who rarely smiled, revealing nothing on her face but a total focus on her performance.
She vanquished the favorites and conquered the world with her historic perfect ten scores at the 1976 games. It was a moment that grabbed audiences’ attention around the world, and no one who saw it ever forgot. She became the idol of young girls everywhere, a child star in the great tradition of Hollywood: a perfect life.
But how perfect was it? This film will unearth the truth behind the legend.
France, Germany 2015 | Documentary | 90 min | ARTE, ZDF | Director: Claus Kleber, Angela Andersen
Winner best Documentary Feature, Bayerische Fernsehpreis 2015
Hunger Durst investigates the challenge of how to feed eight billion people by the time our world population reaches eight billion people. A journey to the the most desolate regions of our earth this film talks about the struggle for clean water and a sustainable food chain but focuses on solutions that could change our way of living and guarantee a hunger free live for everyone.
Married in America
(in production)
USA 2016 | Documentary | 90min | Director Michael Apted
Married In America is Michael Apted’s longitudinal documentary about nine diverse couples that wed in 2001. The first film was released in 2002 on A&E, the second in 2007 on Hallmark.
"The Married in America documentaries are my most personal films to date" .Michael Apted is committed to making these movies because a loving relationship is the most important thing in almost everyone's life. He believes that by showing with intimate detail what makes a marriage work, we can contribute something really useful to anyone who is in a committed relationship or considering one. Married In America 3 is being produced in association with the Kennedy Marshal Company for release in 2016.
Rising Voices / Hótȟaŋiŋpi
USA 2015 | Documentary | 90 min | Director Lawrence R. Hott
Five years in the making, Florentine Films in association with The Language Conservancy, tells the story of a powerful threat to a Native culture. This threat is an insidious, impersonal villain – one that comes through TV sets and social media sites, through Tweets and comic strips and the daily news. The menace is the English language, and the victim seemingly marked for extinction is the Lakota language itself – the language of the Lakota nation, once usually called the Sioux. For the Lakota people, it’s a local problem, but it’s just one instance of a massive global one – a worldwide epidemic of language extinction.
Rising Voices is about the imminent peril to the Lakota language. The film braids together the struggles of Lakota to learn their tribal language today, the historical attempt by the United States to annihilate the language, the rise of immersion language schools and the participation of outsiders in the rescue of the Lakota language. History is interwoven with present-day scenes and with short films about the culture, created by Lakota filmmakers and artists especially for Rising Voices/Hótȟaŋiŋpi.
Cradle of Champions
(in production)
USA 2016 | Documentary | 90 min | Director Bartle Bull
The New York Golden Gloves boxing tournament was considered by many boxing aficionados as one of the most elite Golden Gloves titles, along with the Chicago Golden Gloves. Named for the small golden gloves given out to the winners of each weight category, the New York Golden Gloves continued for decades under the sponsorship of the New York Daily News. Originally the tournament was known as "The New York Daily News Welfare Association's Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions" or simply "The New York Daily News Golden Gloves.” Directed by Bartle Bull, produced by Maiken Baird, and executive produced by Donald Rosenfeld. Dreams, heartbreak, and redemption in the kaleidoscope of 2015 urban America: the four-month saga of the New York Golden Gloves, the world’s largest and oldest boxing tournament.
The Joan Didion Documentary
(in production)
USA 2015 | Documentary | 90 min | Director Griffin Dunne, Susanne Rostock
We Tell Ourselves Stories In Order to Live is the first and only documentary being made about Joan Didion. While her writing is fierce and exposed, Joan herself is an incredibly private person. We have the privilege to know Joan as a subject and also as a member of our family. Our director, Griffin Dunne, has known Joan his entire life. Joining Griffin as co-director is award-winning filmmaker, Susanne Rostock.
We Tell Ourselves Stories In Order to Live traces the arc of Joan’s life through her own writings, and in her own voice. Our film will tell Joan’s story through passages she has chosen (and will read aloud) from her work, as her friends, family, colleagues and critics share their accounts of her remarkable life and writing. Patti Smith, Vanessa Redgrave, Allison Janney, Graydon Carter, Robert Silvers, and Bret Easton Ellis are just a few of the people we’ll interview.
The Homefront
USA 2016 | Documentary | 120 min | The Documentary Group
More than two million men and women serve in America’s all-volunteer military force, and another three million are their husbands, wives, sons and daughters. Yet over the course of two long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the stories — and the service — of these military families have often been overlooked.
In a revealing two-hour documentary special presented by Bob Woodruff, The Homefrontwill bring the true stories of these military families to a PBS audience.
USA 2015 | Documentary | 120 min | Callie T. Wiser
Revealing the pain of those who leave and the suffering of those left behind, The Amish: Shunned is the story of people confronted with difficult choices. Whether out in the world for weeks or decades, the former Amish people featured in the film struggle to create a new sense of community. Interwoven with their stories are the voices of staunchly loyal Amish men and women who explain the importance of obedience, the strong ties and traditions that bind them together, and the heartbreak they feel when a loved one falls away. Through its sympathetic portrayal of both sides, the film explores what is gained and what is lost when community and tradition are exchanged for individuality and freedom.
Out of My Head
(in production)
USA 2016 | Documentary | 90 min | Director Jacki Ochs , Susanna Styron
Out of My Head by The Migraine Project is a feature documentary film in the making. We are pursuing the history and mystery of Migraine, and its remarkable place in the human condition.
Migraine is a devastating but fascinating neurological condition with a compelling story to tell. Alice in Wonderland, Vincent Van Gogh, LSD and Elvis all figure into its colorful history.
Our film will take a look at the entertaining details, and the big questions too — like the source and management of illness, the economic cost of human disability, and the nature of pain and suffering — while shining a spotlight on the frontiers of neuroscience and the exploration of the brain.