Daniel J. Chalfen

Life After

In 1983, a disabled Californian woman named Elizabeth Bouvia sought the “right to die,” igniting a national debate about autonomy, dignity, and the value of disabled lives. After years of courtroom trials, Bouvia disappeared from public view. Disabled director Reid Davenport narrates this investigation of what happened to Bouvia.

Ricky

Newly released after being locked up in his teens, 30-year-old Ricky navigates the challenging realities of life post-incarceration, and the complexity of gaining independence for the first time as an adult.

Speak.

Five top-ranked high school oratory students spend a year crafting spellbinding spoken word performances with the dream of winning one of the world's largest and most intense public speaking competitions.

Food and Country

America’s policy of producing cheap food at all costs has long hobbled small independent farmers, ranchers, and chefs. Worried for their survival, trailblazing food writer Ruth Reichl reaches out across political and social divides to uncover the country’s broken food system and the innovators risking it all to transform it.

The Debutantes

Focusing on the first group of Black debutantes in Canton, Ohio in a decade, this documentary follows the young women as they unpack the ball’s legacy and chart their path forward, both for tradition and themselves.

Love Machina

Futurists Martine and Bina Rothblatt commission an advanced humanoid AI named Bina48 to transfer Bina’s consciousness from a human to a robot in an attempt to continue their once-in-a-galaxy love affair for the rest of time.

Shaken

Nigel and Dayna are a happy couple with a young family when they encounter a nightmare scenario: their baby, Emily, experiences a frightening seizure. But what comes next is truly Kafkaesque. After Emily is rushed to the hospital and stabilized, a doctor claims that her episode could only be the result of severe abuse, and prosecutors arrest Nigel.

Richland

Richland is a sobering, meditative portrait of a nuclear company town that embraces its origins and divisive past, all while reflecting on its future. Filmmaker Irene Lusztig’s patient and inquisitive storytelling expertly navigates themes of security, violence, and community.

Israelism

When two young American Jews raised to unconditionally love Israel witness the mistreatment of Palestinians, they battle the old guard to create a new movement opposing Israel’s occupation, and recentering Judaism itself.

Loudmouth

Josh Alexander’s Loudmouth documents the winding road that is Al Sharpton’s life story as an iconic activist and spiritual leader.

Bad Axe

A real-time portrait of 2020 unfolds as an Asian-American family in Trump’s rural America fights to keep their restaurant and American dream alive in the face of a pandemic, Neo-Nazis, and generational scars from the Cambodian Killing Fields.

Body Parts

An eye-opening investigation into the making of Hollywood sex scenes, shedding light on the real-life experiences behind classic scenes of cinema and tracing the legacy of exploitation of women in the entertainment industry.

Delikado

In the majestic tropical island of Palawan, three environmental crusaders confront murder, betrayal and political corruption in this thrilling documentary about land defenders battling to save and preserve paradise in the Philippines.

Boycott

As a wave of anti-boycott legislation has swept through the country, so has a counter-wave in defense of freedom of speech. Everyday Americans are challenging these laws for their constitutionality in a nation-wide battle likely to go all the way to the Supreme Court.

Pray Away

In the 1970s, five men struggling with being gay in their Evangelical church started a bible study to help each other leave the "homosexual lifestyle." They quickly received over 25,000 letters from people asking for help and formalized as Exodus International, the largest and most controversial conversion therapy organization in the world. But leaders struggled with a secret: their own “same-sex attractions” never went away. After years as Christian superstars in the religious right, many of these men and women have come out as LGBTQ, disavowing the very movement they helped start. Focusing on the dramatic journeys of former conversion therapy leaders, current members, and a survivor, PRAY AWAY chronicles the “ex gay" movement’s rise to power, persistent influence, and the profound harm it causes.

Red Heaven

Six people live for a year on “Mars” in a NASA experiment studying what happens to humans when they are isolated from Earth. Shot by the subjects themselves over the course of the mission, Red Heaven vividly captures six people pushed to their limits in an exploration of our most fundamental needs as human beings.

El Vacío

In a mesmerizing confessional built from home video and animation, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio explores the mental prisons and personal trauma created by immigration policy.

The Infiltrators

A rag-tag group of undocumented youth – Dreamers – deliberately get detained by Border Patrol in order to infiltrate a shadowy, for-profit detention center.

Gamechangers: Dreams of BlizzCon

GAMECHANGERS: Dreams of Blizzcon enters the unexplored realm of professional esports through the eyes of two of the world’s top StarCraft II players.

The Feeling of Being Watched

Journalist Assia Boundaoui sets out to investigate long-brewing rumors that her quiet, predominantly Arab-American neighborhood was being monitored by the FBI.

Bathtubs Over Broadway

When he started as a comedy writer for the Late Show with David Letterman, Steve Young had few interests and not many friends outside of his day job. But while gathering material for a segment on the show, Steve stumbled onto a few vintage record albums that would change his life forever.

Silenced

Three National Security whistleblowers fight to reveal the darkest corners of America's war on terror, challenging a government that is increasingly determined to maintain secrecy.

The Life and Mind of Mark DeFriest

When a legendary escape artist comes up for parole after 30 years behind bars, a chance for freedom must be weighed against his infamous past.

Petey & Ginger

When the global economy collapses the only true victors are those that weren't invited to the boom. Petey plays in a band and works in a pornography warehouse; Ginger works the night shift in a bar. From opposite coasts of the country, the two provide their personal takes on individual vs. collective crisis, together weaving a narrative that exposes a wasteland of shattered economic dreams, unfulfilled social promises and a bleak reality that only music and friendship can float freely above.

The Revisionaries

The theory of evolution and a re-write of American history are caught in the crosshairs when an unabashed Creationist seeks re-election as chairman of America's most influential Board of Education.

War Don Don

This gripping documentary follows the trial of Issa Sesay, a leader in Sierra Leone's civil war who stands accused of crimes against humanity. Can the trial of one man uncover the truth of a traumatic past?

39 Pounds of Love

This is the story of Ami, a man who while unable to move any part of his body, still manages to move each and every one of us, as he teaches us a part of life's intimate dance.