Through one woman's experience as an adopted person and also as a mother who relinquished her child in 1971, this documentary highlights the many complex issues associated with adoption.
The Fall of Womenland is a fascinating documentary on the unique sexual culture of the Mosuo people — a small minority situated in the southwest of China — and one of the last remaining matriarchal societies in the world. Without a formal marriage contract, the Mosuo traditionally build relationships based on free love and sexual satisfaction (‘walking marriages'). But can the sexual liberty and power of the Mosuo women survive as modern Chinese society slowly encroaches their ancestral land? The film explores the present reality for the Mosuo people as well as the dangers that threaten their inherited way of life.
Fabrizio, Dante and Roberto have 14 years old and they live in Palermo in the ZEN. How is their life, their universe?
A mysterious outbreak of tic disorders among young people leads Dr Robert Bartholomew to question whether social media is making us sick. Doctors have recently identified a concerning trend among young people: tic disorders potentially spread via TikTok videos. For sociologist Dr Robert Bartholomew, an expert in mass psychogenic illness, the trend isn’t surprising, but the potential consequences are alarming. Could the global scope of social media mean we are on the precipice of the world’s largest outbreak of psychogenic illness?
Ruy Mauro Marini was a brazilian sociologist who developed the Marxist Dependancy Theory, to explain the development of latin american nations due their place in the global capitalism. This film, through multiple interviews, gives a short overview of his life and work.
Join sociologists Monique and Michel Pinçon-Charlot on their “investigation” of the French aristocracy and gentry. An entertaining and instructive movie on an exclusive and highly secretive world.
Director Drew Stone’s New York Hardcore series returns with The New York Chronicles Film 1.5. Featuring never before seen footage and brand new interviews with Sammy Siegler (Youth Of Today / Judge), Jay Peta (Mindforce), Bob Riley Stigmata / Murderers Row) and more. The journey continues throught the community and culture of the iconic New York Hardcore scene that is still vibrant, relevant and going strong to this day. “NYHC Forever And Always!”
Unlike anything else you will see in this year or any other, 'The Decline of the West' is a groundbreaking social allegory that challenges its audience to explore the effects of contemporary conditioning; of the stereotypes, and counter-stereotypes surrounding race and ethnicity. By employing a unique blend of absurdist humor and dry, dark comedy, both the insularity and the inertia of progressive society are put on trial and hanged in this bold film that goes places few have ever gone. The film maintains its extended, detailed allegory, in which the physical layout of Manhattan comes to life as its symbols of Progress slowly turn it into a comic liberal dystopia. Anything that "isn't allowed" is used to confront the audience with hypocrisy. Make-up plays a crucial role throughout the film, as a hinge that simultaneously showcases characters and the existential reality of the players behind them.
Personal stories taken from a survey on how women's lives are affected by a culture obsessed with body image and thinness.
NFL veteran Don McPherson examines how definitions of masculinity adversely affect women and create "blind spots" that hinder the healthy development of men. Using examples from his own life, and generously illustrated with clips from motion pictures, McPherson leads us beyond the blind spots of traditional masculinity and toward solutions that engage men in dialogue.
When her husband died Soumicha, mother of three, had to earn a living. She became the only woman taxi driver in Sidi Bel-Abbès, Algeria. This film accompanies Soumicha around a city where religious and political violence rages, and records her experiences in a job normally reserved for men.
What’s it like to dedicate your life to work that won’t be completed in your lifetime? Fifteen years ago, filmmaker David Licata focused on four projects and the people behind them in an effort to answer this universal question.
THE PERFUMED GARDEN is an exploration of the myths and realities of sensuality and sexuality in Arab society, a world of taboos and of erotic literature. Through interviews with men and women of all ages, classes, and sexual orientation, the film lifts a corner of the veil that usually shrouds discussion of this subject in the Arab world. Made by an Algerian-French woman director, the film begins by looking at the record of a more permissive history, and ends with the experiences of contemporary lovers from mixed backgrounds. It examines the personal issues raised by the desire for pleasure, amidst societal pressures for chastity and virginity. The film discusses pre-marital sex, courtship and marriage, familial pressures, private vs. public spaces, social taboos (and the desire to break them), and issues of language.
Thirty-year-old Mia, going through a divorce, shifts into a small studio apartment in a public housing project. A former swimming champion, she finds herself giving swimming lessons to the building's inhabitants. Without a pool.
CodeSwitching is a mash-up of personal stories from three generations of African American students who participated in a landmark voluntary desegregation program. Shuttling between their inner-city Boston neighborhoods and predominantly white suburban schools in pursuit of a better education, they find themselves swapping elements of culture, language, and behavior to fit in with their suburban counterparts – Often acting or speaking differently based on their surroundings, called code-switching.
