What did you want to be when you grew up? Nine-year-old Priscilla wants to become the youngest female rap star ever. With her single father turned manager, Priscilla travels from Harlem street corners to sold out shows around the world — eventually landing a record deal and starring role on PBS’s The Electric Company. But the road to stardom means figuring out who to trust while hanging around people twice her size and four times her age. For Priscilla, otherwise known as P-Star, the ride has just begun.

During the evacuation for Hurricane Katrina, people were forced to leave behind more than just their homes. Thousands of stranded pets were rescued and then adopted into new homes across the United States. As residents slowly returned to try and rebuild their lives, these "Katrina pets" became the center of full-blown custody battles, with people on both sides struggling to do what was right in the midst of an impossibly complex situation.

What if you took the American Civil War and mashed it up with the French Revolution and the U.S. Civil Rights Movement? That’s what it felt like in South Africa, when the Mandela miracle brought down apartheid. But can the deal between the old apartheid regime and the new government withstand the test of time?

How do you see yourself, when you can't see at all? At the Texas School for the Blind students juggle all the usual pressures of high school along with the added struggles of growing up blind. Spend a dynamic year with four blind teens learning how to fit in and live independently. Forced to confront the world without sight, they share their inner visions of the outer world. Ultimately, you cannot understand their perceptions without challenging your own.

Augie and Gino were living the American dream — raised and educated in the United States and proud veterans of the military. But in 1999, these two brothers were forced to leave the only country they’d ever known and had pledged to protect. Follow filmmaker Monika Navarro on her familial journey to Mexico as she pieces together the tragic events of her uncles’ deportation and opens a Pandora’s box of family secrets.

What’s a child’s education worth? For one visionary rookie principal, it’s priceless. At the Bronx Center for Science & Mathematics, an innovative public high school in NYC’s South Bronx, principal Edward Tom leads a dedicated group of teachers, students, and parents in their biggest gamble yet. Within a community infamous for hardship, can this brand new school live up to its promise and inspire new stories of achievement and excellence?

Are some people born natural leaders? When one of Tibet’s greatest monks passes away, his shy and gifted disciple must complete a monumental task he did not seek — to find his reincarnated master in the form of a child. Plagued by doubt, he goes on a journey to find the next spiritual leader as thousands of followers and the Dalai Lama await his discovery.

Get to know this modern-day Joan of Arc. At age 22, Hannah Senesh parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe in an effort to save the Jews of Hungary. As a poet and diarist, she left behind a body of work that has inspired generations. Retrace her perilous mission and take a glimpse into the life of this talented and complex woman.

It’s under our feet and under our fingernails, but what is it? And how did it get there? Inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, find out how industrial farming, mining, and urban development have led us toward cataclysmic droughts, starvation, floods and climate change. Dirt is a part of everything we eat, drink and breathe. Which is why we should stop treating it like, well … dirt.

Welcome to the world’s largest garbage village located on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. The Zaballeen (Arabic for garbage people) recycle 80 percent of the trash they collect — far more than other recycling initiatives. But now a multinational corporation threatens their livelihood. Follow three teenage boys born into the business who are forced to make choices that will impact the survival of their community.

Has your life ever taken an unexpected detour? Director Karen Skloss reunites with her biological mother to tell a personal story about adoption and life as a single mother, while grappling with the definition of family. Young, pregnant, single, and unprepared, Skloss struggles with incredible ironies — that history has repeated itself and that efforts to protect family can sometimes do the most harm.

How far would you travel to heal someone you love? For one Texas couple, it required a spiritual journey halfway around the world to Mongolia. When their son is diagnosed with autism, they seek the best treatments but nothing works … until they discover their son’s connection to horses and the effect they have on him. Part travel adventure and part shamanic quest, this is the story of how one family found a gateway into understanding their son’s life.

This is a journey to one of the most beautiful yet dangerous places on Earth. Two American women, one Muslim and the other Hindu, sneak cameras into Kashmir — a place where different faiths have spawned an ongoing war between India and Pakistan. Their mission: find out what makes their peers choose their homeland over their own lives. As pressures rise, emotions run high and their friendship is tested.

Welcome to Versailles, New Orleans — home to the densest ethnic Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam. For more than 30 years, its residents lived a quiet existence on the edge of New Orleans. But then came Hurricane Katrina, the immense garbage piles and the shocking discovery of a toxic landfill planned in their neighborhood. Watch as they fight back, turning a devastating disaster into a catalyst for change and a chance to build a better future.

An old man gets into a cab and asks for a one-way ride to his death. The driver agrees — unless he can talk him out of it. American director Ramin Bahrani (Chop Shop, Man Push Cart) mixes up a fable with flavors of Africa, Mexico, and the new American South in this award-winning drama that looks at the depth of the human spirit and the power of free will.

Who has the authority to define your identity? Considered one of the most controversial scholars of our time, Melville Herskovits — a Jewish anthropologist — challenged the norm in the 1940s when he wrote that black culture wasn’t pathological, it was African. Leading a seismic shift in the way African American culture is understood, Herskovits’s work raises ideas that still challenge us today.

HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes takes an in-depth look at machismo in rap music and hip-hop culture — where creative genius, poetic beauty and mad beats collide with misogyny, violence and homophobia.

Can you own a sound? As hip-hop rose from the streets of New York to become a multibillion-dollar industry, artists such as Public Enemy and De La Soul began reusing parts of previously recorded music for their songs. But when record company lawyers got involved everything changed. Years before people started downloading and remixing music, hip-hop sampling sparked a debate about copyright, creativity and technological change that still rages today.

Get ready to rock with the most entertaining golden oldies you will ever meet in the senior citizen's chorus Young@Heart. With a show only weeks away, they must learn a slate of new songs ranging from James Brown to Coldplay. The chorus’s director leads them through tough rehearsals, proving that rock and roll can be hard work — especially if you’re hard of hearing! Climaxing in a triumphant performance, their inspiring story celebrates the unbreakable bonds of friendship and the life-affirming power of music.

When a young, irreverent priest arrives at Saint Patrick Parish in Lawrence, Massachusetts, he discovers the unexpected — boiling ethnic tensions in a changing working-class community. Filmed over four years, follow the wildly diverse personal stories of Father Paul O’Brien and his unruly flock, as they struggle to hold onto faith in the face of desperate circumstances.

Think origami is just paper planes and cranes? Meet a determined group of theoretical scientists and fine artists who have abandoned careers and scoffed at hard-earned graduate degrees to forge new lives as modern-day paper folders. Together they reinterpret the world in paper, creating a wild mix of sensibilities towards art, science, creativity and meaning.