Bestor Cram

Bonnie Blue: James Cotton's Life in the Blues

The story of James Cotton, harmonica powerhouse, whose music shaped blues and rock. Orphaned at 9, Cotton’s life tracks America’s history—from the post-depression cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta to being mentored by the original Delta bluesmen, to Chicagoland’s artistic reinvention to the live music scene in Austin, Texas.

Gary K. One Step at a Time

The story of the actor who plays Bill W., the founder of AA, on his own personal journey of recovery.

The Last American Colony

Puerto Rico, the last relic of colonization in the western hemisphere, has been a dependent territory of the USA since 1917. Los Macheteros and one of its leaders Juan Segarra have been fighting for its full independence for many decades.

Fighting for Freedom: Lewis Hayden and the Underground Railroad

This Network to Freedom film follows the story of Lewis Hayden and his family as they seek freedom on the Underground Railroad and become activists living in Boston, Massachusetts, determined to crush the institution of slavery. (From https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/fighting-for-freedom-film.htm)

Dateline: Saigon

How does a nation slip into war? Dateline-Saigon profiles the controversial reporting of five Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists -The New York Times' David Halberstam, the Associated Press' Malcolm Browne, Peter Arnett, and legendary photojournalist Horst Faas, and UPI's Neil Sheehan -- during the early years of the Vietnam War as President John F. Kennedy is secretly committing US troops to what is initially dismissed by some as 'a nice little war in a land of tigers and elephants.' 'When the government is telling the truth, reporters become a relatively unimportant conduit to what is happening,' Halberstam tells us. 'But when the government doesn't tell the truth, begins to twist the truth, hide the truth, then the journalist becomes involuntarily infinitely more important.'

To Breathe as One

In 2009 Maureen & James Tusty, filmmakers for The Singing Revolution, produced a second film out of Estonia. Seen nationally on U.S. Public Broadcasting, this one hour documentary tells the history of Estonia’s massive Song Festival, and the role music plays in Estonian culture, even today.

Killer Poet

Norman Porter, a convicted double murderer from Massachusetts, served 25 years in prison before escaping to Chicago where he spent the next two decades living under the name JJ Jameson. He was apprehended in 2005, thanks to a relentless police investigation, just after being named Chicago’s “Poet of the Month.” The film interweaves varying perspectives on an elusive and enigmatic persona, from the eccentric characters living in the heart of Chicago’s beatnik-artist community, to the victims’ embittered families in Boston, and the vigilant officers behind the 20-year hunt for a killer.

The Singing Revolution

Most people don't think about singing when they think about revolutions. But song was the weapon of choice when, between 1986 and 1991, Estonians sought to free themselves from decades of Soviet occupation. During those years, hundreds of thousands gathered in public to sing forbidden patriotic songs and to rally for independence. "The young people, without any political party, and without any politicians, just came together ... not only tens of thousands but hundreds of thousands ... to gather and to sing and to give this nation a new spirit," remarks Mart Laar, a Singing Revolution leader featured in the film and the first post-Soviet Prime Minister of Estonia. "This was the idea of the Singing Revolution." James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty's "The Singing Revolution" tells the moving story of how the Estonian people peacefully regained their freedom--and helped topple an empire along the way.

You Don't Know Dick: Courageous Hearts of Transsexual Men

This compelling and thought-provoking documentary provides riveting portraits of a diverse group of six men who once were women and chose to change their gender. The award-winning film is an unforgettable story of self-discovery and challenges all of us to re-examine the foundations of our ideas and feelings about gender, sexuality, and identity.