The superb documentary War/Dance reveals the redemptive power of music, even in the most horrific places. Focusing on three children in their early teens in war-torn Uganda--stoic Nancy, driven Dominic, and soft-spoken Rose--War/Dance tracks the efforts of the school of a refugee camp called Patongo to compete in Uganda's countrywide music competition.The contrasts are staggering; in interview
Brenton Butler was just a regular 15-year-old African American high-school student living in Jacksonville, Florida. But when a woman was murdered on a quiet Sunday morning, Brenton suddenly found himself accused of the killing in one of the most fleftening cases of mistaken identity ever.This shocking documentary provides a candid look at the U.S. justice system at work andexposes the racial bia
Eight youngsters vie for one of the most hotly contested academic awards in the United States in this documentary. Every spring, the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee attracts students from all over the United States, and filmmaker Jeff Blitz follows eight promising entrants as they journey to Washington, D.C., in hopes of claiming the national championship and a 10,000-dollar prize. Neil Kada
A film about the American photographer James Nachtwey, about his motivation, his fears and his daily routine as a war photographer. If we believe Hollywood pictures, war photographers are all hard-boiled and cynical old troopers. How can they think about ‘exposure time' in the very moment of dread? Swiss author, director and producer Christian Frei followed James Nachtwey for two years into the w
A staggering portrait of arrogance and incompetence, the documentary No End in Sight avoids the question of why the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, choosing instead to focus on the war's aftermath--and meticulously examine the chain of decisions that led Iraq into a grotesque state of lawlessness and civil war.Drawing from interviews with top generals, administration officials, journalists, and soldi
One of the year's most unexpectedly moving films, this French-made documentary about the mating cycle of emperor penguins took moviegoers by surprise and became a box-office blockbuster in the process. Small wonder: March of the Penguins is cinema vérité at its purest, an unsentimental yet intimate depiction of one of nature's true marvels.As narrator Morgan Freeman explains, every year these
Filmmaker, author, and political activist Michael Moore trains his satirical eye on America's obsession with guns and violence in his third feature-length documentary, which gets its title from a pair of loosely related incidents. On April 20, 1999, shortly before they began their infamous killing spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold attended their favorit
Before there was sunscreen, high-tech wet suits, and corporate-sponsored surfing competitions, there was Bruce Brown, the original beach bum and the director of the greatest surf movie ever made, The Endless Summer. This 1966 documentary spurred a generation of surfers to devote their lives to surfing and compelled people in places far away from California and Hawaii to take up what was, at that t
Writer-director Dana Brown - whose dad, Bruce, helmed the classic surfing flick The Endless Summer - follows in his father's footsteps and takes a 21st-century look at the sport, employing up-to-date cinematographic technology to bring the audience left into those monster waves. The film stars dedicated surfers Ken "Skindog" Collins, Laird Hamilton, Rochelle Ballard, and Gerry Lopez as they test t