Life, Animated

http://www.lifeanimateddoc.com/

Academy Award Nominee

Based on the best-selling book by Ron Suskind. From Academy Award®–winning director Roger Ross Williams, Life, Animated is the inspirational story of Owen Suskind, a young man who was unable to speak as a child until he and his family discovered a unique way to communicate by immersing themselves in the world of classic Disney animated films. This emotional coming-of-age story follows Owen as he graduates to adulthood and takes his first steps toward independence. The subject of his father Ron Suskind’s New York Times bestseller, Owen was a thriving 3-year-old who suddenly and inexplicably went silent – and for years after, remained unable to connect with other people or to convey his thoughts, feelings, or desires.

Over time, through repeated viewings of Disney classics like The Little Mermaid and The Lion King, Owen found useful tools to help him to understand complex social cues and to reconnect with the world around him.

Life, Animated evocatively interweaves classic Disney sequences with verite scenes from Owen’s life in order to explore how his identification and empathy for characters like Simba, Jafar, and Ariel gave him a means to understand his feelings and allowed him to interpret reality. Beautiful, original animations offer rich insights into Owen’s fruitful dialogue with the Disney oeuvre as he imagines himself heroically facing adversity as a member in a tribe of sidekicks.
Owen’s story is a moving testament to the many ways in which stories can serve as a means of persevering through the dark times, leading us all toward the light.

Life According to Sam

http://lifeaccordingtosam.com/#/home/

What is aging in Sam Berns, is aging in all of us. But in Sam’s body, the process is rapidly accelerated. When Sam was diagnosed with progeria at age two, his parents, Dr. Leslie Gordon and Dr. Scott Berns, refused to accept that they would lose their son by age 13, the average age of death of a child with this disease. Eleven years later, Sam is 13, and his parents’ incredible race to save their son has led to testing the first experimental drug that might prolong the lives of Sam and 28 other children from around the world who share this disease. Their discoveries may one day shed light on unlocking the aging process in us all. Life According to Sam is an inspiring film about the power of family and how we make the most of our lives in the time we are given.

Get Involved: http://lifeaccordingtosam.com/#/get-involved/

Journey from Zanskar

https://www.warriorfilms.org/journey-from-zanskar/

Zanskar is one of the last remaining original Tibetan Buddhist societies with a continuous untainted lineage dating back thousands of years. In nearby Tibet and Ladakh, in Sikkim, Bhutan, and Nepal, traditional Tibetan Buddhist culture is either dead already or dying. Tibetan monks and Tibetan refugees struggle to survive. The Tibetan genocide, by Chinese government design, is being matched by the destruction of global economics elsewhere. Zanskar, ringed by high Himalayan mountains in northwest India, one of the most remote places on the planet, has been safe until now. But that’s changing.

In three to five years, a road connecting Padum, the heart of Zanskar, with Leh, the heart of neighboring Ladakh, will be finished. The route which previously took up to two days by car will take only four to five hours. As economic growth descends on Zanskar, it will bring with it an end to this unbroken Buddhist social tradition. Will the native language, culture, and religious practice be able to survive? Watch Journey from Zanskar to discover how two humble monks, far from their Buddhist temple, honor their vows by supporting these remote village children to get a great Buddhist education.

Into the Okavango

http://www.intotheokavangomovie.com

The Okavango River Basin provides a vital source of water to about 1 million people, the world’s largest population of African elephants, significant populations of lions and cheetahs, and hundreds of species of birds. However, this once-unspoiled oasis is now under siege due to increasing pressure from human activity. From National Geographic Documentary Films, Into the Okavango chronicles a team of modern-day explorers on their first epic four-month, 1,500-mile expedition across three countries to save the river system that feeds the Okavango Delta, one of our planet’s last wetland wildernesses.

If This Is Heaven, Then Give Me Hell: Escaping the FLDS [Short]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP_zfHErQG4

Behind the ankle-length pastel dresses, up-dos, and long-sleeves of polygamy hides a pervasive system of abuse, oppression, and control. I escaped the FLDS [Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints] recently, but thousands still remain trapped by lifelong indoctrination, lies, and dogma. If This is Heaven, Then Give Me Hell is the first step in my efforts to shine a light into those dark corners and illuminate to the public gaze the crimes being committed against humanity. I will be a voice for the voiceless and hopefully bring about change and freedom – stopping the destruction of families and abuse of the innocent. – Filmmaker Brenda Nicholson, Activist and Former Member of FLDS

A University of Utah “Humanities in Focus” Film

Humanities in Focus is a yearlong course at the University of Utah that connects undergraduate honors students with community members from marginalized populations to produce groundbreaking documentary films. Led by Jeff Metcalf and Craig Wirth, the program builds community, fosters a commitment to social justice, and allows all involved to develop confidence and a range of skills.

The College of Humanities provides this opportunity at no cost to its highly qualified and capable participants, which means it relies on the generosity of individuals and foundations to make this program possible.

Support the Humanities in Focus program

https://umarket.utah.edu/ugive/index.php?gift_id=71&special=Humanities%20in%20Focus%20HU16838-40165

ICARUS

http://www.icarus.film/

Academy Award Winner, Best Documentary Feature; produced by FiReFilms Ambassador Geralyn White Dreyfous

The ruthless worlds of international sports and politics rarely collide as spectacularly on screen as they do in Bryan Fogel’s thriller that is sure to set off convulsions of controversy.

While investigating the furtive world of illegal doping in sports, Fogel connects with renegade Russian scientist Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov – a pillar of his country’s “anti-doping” program. Over dozens of Skype calls, urine samples, and badly administered hormone injections, Fogel and Rodchenkov grow closer, despite shocking allegations that place Rodchenkov at the center of Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping program. When the truth is more complex than imagined, and accusations of illegalities run to Russia’s highest chains of command, the two realize they hold the power to reveal the biggest international sports scandal in living memory.

Exemplifying the special bond between filmmaker and subject, this is a vital portrait of the sacrifice some people will make to stand up for truth. Icarus places you at the heart of an international game of cat and mouse, where a miscalculation can cost you your life.

However Long

https://www.jennymackenziefilms.com/current-projects/however-long

However Long is an intimate portrait of women living with metastatic (stage four) breast cancer, and the unique support group that connects them all. As these women process challenging questions about living with an incurable disease, themes like resiliency, hope, and ferocious honesty emerge. However Long addresses the question that all human beings need to ask themselves: How do you want to live the rest of your life?

Happening: A Clean Energy Revolution

https://happeningthemovie.com/

Most Americans understand and accept the reality of climate change. Nonetheless, many of us feel uncertain about what we, as individuals, can do. For many of us, solutions to climate change seem out of reach, out of scale, and fatally entwined in partisan politics.

Meanwhile, the clean-energy revolution is quietly underway. Electricity generated from wind and solar is increasingly more affordable than electricity generated from fossil fuels, and the growth curve for the generation and storage of renewable energy now resembles the exponential curves seen with the advent of radio, TV, and the internet. But can we meet all of our our energy needs with renewable energy? How would we do that? And, most important, will we do that? Happening chronicles my quest to answer these questions.

During the journey of making Happening, I met many inspiring citizens, business leaders, and politicians leading the clean-energy revolution, but the most significant journey involved my own heart and mind. At the start of Happening, I was feeling pretty cynical about the value of political engagement. Three years later, I have witnessed first-hand the enduring value of politically engaged citizenry.

In spite of the turbulent political divides we are currently enduring, I feel more hopeful today than ever about our ability as Americans to combat climate change, and I am excited to share this with audiences so that they may feel this way as well. – James Redford

Donate: https://redfordcenter.org/donate

Ghost, Come Closer [Short]

https://vimeo.com/146727962

A fly fisherman glimpses his own death in the river that gives him solace. Facing the possibility of death following a cancer diagnosis, the American writer Jeff Metcalf finds solace in fly fishing the waters near his northern Utah home. Centered around Metcalf’s recollection of a particular trip to the river when he felt profoundly responsible for the life – and death – of a fish at the end of his line, Ghost, Come Closer is a lyrical meditation on uncertainty, patience, and the places where we find meaning and comfort.

Generation Wealth

http://www.generation-wealth.com/

Lauren Greenfield’s Generation Wealth is an extraordinary visual history of our growing obsession with wealth. Weaving two and a half decades of work into an epic narrative, Greenfield has created a revelatory cultural documentation of wealth for viewers to explore through a retrospective film, book, and exhibition.

Through riveting first-person interviews, Greenfield’s journey starts in Los Angeles and spreads across America and beyond, as she documents how we export the values of materialism, celebrity culture, and social status to every corner of the globe. We embark on this journey with Greenfield as she travels the world – from Los Angeles to Moscow, Dubai to China – bearing witness to the global boom-and-bust economy and documenting its complicated consequences.

We hear the stories of students, single parents, and families overwhelmed by crushing debt, yet determined to purchase luxury houses, cars, and clothing. We visit the homes and observe the rituals of the international elite – from Bel-Air to Monaco, Russia to China. We gain intimate access into the lives of those that rose to extraordinary wealth and then lost “big” during the global economic crash of 2008. And we encounter the A-list celebrities we follow on reality TV and social media, the same influencers who shape our consumer desires and sense of self.

Provoking serious reflection, Generation Wealth is not about the rich, but about the desire to be wealthy, at any cost.