5 Girls

by Maria Finitzo
Premiere Date: October 02, 2001

The world is full of smart, resilient girls, but we don't often hear about them. 5 Girls shows girls as the heroes of their own lives. Shot over three years, the documentary tracks the lives of Corrie, Toby, Amber, Aisha and Haibinh as they move through their tumultuous teenage years. With Chicago as its backdrop, everything from hairstyles to first loves to poverty and dealing with being an immigrant comes to the fore in this remarkable, tightly-woven story.

90 Miles

by Juan Carlos Zaldívar
Premiere Date: July 29, 2003

Probing and thoughtful, Juan Carlos Zaldívar's "90 Miles" is a personal memoir that offers a rare glimpse into Cuba, a country as mythologized to Americans as the United States is to the rest of the world. The Cuban-born filmmaker recounts the strange fate that brought him as a teenage communist to exile in Miami in 1980 during the dramatic Mariel boatlift. Zaldívar uses news clips, family photos and home movies to depict the emotional journey of an immigrant father and son struggling to understand the historical and individual forces shaping their relationships and identities in a new country. A Diverse Voices Project Selection.

A Family Undertaking

by Elizabeth Westrate
Premiere Date: August 03, 2004

Prior to the 20th century, most Americans prepared their dead for burial with the help of family and friends, but today most funerals are part of a multimillion-dollar industry run by professionals. This increased reliance on mortuaries has alienated Americans from life's only inevitability — death. "A Family Undertaking" explores the growing home-funeral movement by following several families in their most intimate moments as they reclaim the end of life, forgoing a typical mortuary funeral to care for their loved ones at home. An Independent Television Service (ITVS) co-presentation.

A Healthy Baby Girl

by Judith Helfand
Premiere Date: June 17, 1997

Filmmaker Judith Helfand turns the camera on herself to document her battle with cancer caused by DES, a drug prescribed to her mother during pregnancy. Refusing to confine the tears, rage, laughter and hope to dinner table conversations, Helfand invites us to witness her personal journey from radical hysterectomy patient to vocal opponent of toxic exposure. From her suburban home to the halls of Congress, the intensely private becomes widely public, and an American family is transformed and strengthened. A devastatingly sad, funny and all-embracing work. — Newsday

A Litany For Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde

by Ada Gay Griffin, Michele Parkerson
Premiere Date: June 18, 1996

Poet, lover, mother, warrior - Audre Lorde writes passionately of love and anger, civil rights and sexuality, family politics and the glories of nature. Ada Gay Griffin and Michelle Parkerson reveal the potent legacy of this celebrated African American poet, whose life was cut short after a long battle with breast cancer. ... a mesmerizing documentary tribute Ms. Magazine

A Little Vicious

by Immy Humes
Premiere Date: July 30, 1991

In "A Little Vicious", a pit bull, his elderly master and a dog trainer/philosopher form a curious love triangle. Elegantly crafted, wryly narrated by Kevin Bacon, and infused with a blend of humor and pathos, Immy Humes' dog-umentary is a quirky, off-beat gem of a film.

A Panther in Africa

by Aaron Matthews
Premiere Date: September 21, 2004

On October 30, 1969, Pete O'Neal, a young Black Panther in Kansas City, Missouri, was arrested for transporting a gun across state lines. One year later, O'Neal fled the charge, and for over 30 years, he has lived in Tanzania as one of the last American exiles from an era when activists considered themselves at war with the U.S. government. Today, this community organizer confronts very different challenges and finds himself living between two worlds — America and Africa, his radical past and his uncertain future. An Independent Television Service (ITVS) co-presentation.

A Perfect Candidate

by R.J. Cutler, David Van Taylor
Premiere Date: August 05, 1997

Disproving the adage that there are no second acts in American life, Iran/Contra legend Oliver North re-emerged to challenge incumbent Charles Robb in a hotly contested 1994 Virginia senatorial race. R.J. Cutler and David Van Taylor weave a modern-day parable about leadership in America and campaign culture in a cynical age. The result is a clear-eyed examination of the electoral process, where issues take a back seat to the machinations of spin doctors, and voter interests are lost in a media hall of mirrors. The best American documentary since Hoop Dreams and one of a small handful of essential films about the politics in this country. The Washington Post

A Season in Hell

by Walter Brock, Stephen Roszell
Premiere Date: July 20, 1992

Walter Brock's fine and haunting portrait of a young bulimic woman named Regina Hatfield is about food and security and love... It's a relentless descent into familial turmoil and private torment, drawing us into Regina's suffocating often surreal world through conversation, testimony and confession. Linda Dubler, Independent Spirit (South Carolina) A gripping hour of television. Susan White, Lexington (KY) Herald Leader Terrifying and illuminating. Ellen Cohn, Village Voice

A Song for Daniel

by Jason DaSilva
Premiere Date: August 23, 2005

"A Song for Daniel" compares a routine day of two nine-year-old boys - one living in Baghdad and the other, born and raised in New York City - and offers a profound examination of culture and place through the eyes of two Iraqi youth living on opposite sides of the world.