What is the impact on freedom of speech and the press when a big corporation attempts to suppress criticism and manipulate the media?. Documentary filmmaker Fredrik Gertten found out when he debuted his previous film, BANANAS!, which portrays the struggle of 12 Nicaraguan plantation workers who brought a lawsuit challenging fruit giant Dole Food’s use of a banned pesticide. Shortly after BANANAS! was selected to premiere at the Los Angeles Film...

The fourth episode in this series looks at John Wilkes, a comparatively little-known figure today, but in mid- to late-18th century he was at the epicentre of events which shook the British Establishment and helped prepare the ground for modern civil liberties.

Ecuador was shaken in 1981 by the suspicious death of President Jaime Roldós and his wife. The film examines the conspiracy generated by his human rights advocacy, and the drama of his three children, faced with the manipulated image of their parents by a populist party created by their own family.. Winner of Best Documentary at the Havana Film Festival.. “...integral to the success of Ecuadorian cinema on a local and international scale.” –...

With a gentle yet insistent voice, Beneath the Blindfold tells the stories of four torture survivors from around the globe who are now among the more than 500,000 survivors who live in the U.S. It is the first documentary to fully look at the lifelong impact of torture on the physical and psychological health of survivors. The hardships they endured are addressed, including a US soldier who received “enhanced interrogation” by his own government....

Arresting Power documents the history of conflict between the Portland police and community members throughout the past fifty years. The film features personal stories of resistance told by victims of police misconduct, the families of people who were killed by police, and members of Portland's reform and abolition movements. Utilizing meditative footage taken at sites of police violence, experimental filmmaking techniques, and archival newsreel,...

SOAKED IN BLEACH reveals the events behind Kurt Cobain's death as seen through the eyes of Tom Grant, the private investigator that was hired by Courtney Love in 1994 to track down her missing husband (Kurt Cobain) only days before his deceased body was found at their Seattle home. Cobain's death was ruled a suicide by the police (a reported self-inflicted gunshot wound), but doubts have circulated for twenty years as to the legitimacy of this ruling,...

On July 1, 2001, John Scott and his partner Greg Scrivener were killed in their home in Suva Fiji. John, from an old European-Fiji family and educated in New Zealand, was the Director-General of the Fiji Red Cross and worked as a go-between in the hostage crisis during the coup of 2000.. This feature documentary is based on the book “Deep Beyond the Reef” by John’s brother Owen, and traces the extraordinary and colorful story of the Scott family,...

Imagine your house is making you dangerously sick. Common products like paint, carpeting, new building materials and insecticides are now your worst enemies. Your bones ache, you're feverish, you suffer from extreme headaches, disabling fatigue, mental confusion, asthma and nausea. The longer you stay in your house, the sicker you get but you can't imagine how or where you're going to find a safe home. You are one of the missions suffering from the...

Unlocking the Cagefollows animal rights lawyer Steven Wise in his unprecedented challenge to break down the legal wall that separates animals from humans. Arguing that cognitively complex animals such as chimpanzees, whales, dolphins and elephants have the capacity for limited personhood rights, Steve and his legal team are making history by filing the first lawsuits that seek to transform a chimpanzee from a "thing"with no rights to a "person"with...

The Magna Carta is widely regarded as a foundational text of the British legal system and of the U.S. Constitution. As an essential guarantor of basic freedoms Magna Carta has inspired imitators across ages and across continents. To what extent is it right to see the Great Charter as a fount of freedom, democracy and rule of law, and how relevant is it today? Examining politics, science, society, law and warfare, this five-part series show how the...