Vanessa Gould • USA • 2017
How to fit a life into 1,000 words? The obituary writers at the New York Times race against the clock to cull details, weaving decades of personal and professional history into a compelling digest of singular existence. Theoretically bleak work is revealed as life-affirming, as an easy camaraderie swells within this legendary team.
A riveting portrait of some of the world's most specialized journalists, Obit. artfully weighs questions of legacy, memory, and existence. Vanessa Gould's second documentary premiered at Tribeca, Hot Docs, Philadelphia and Palm Springs, and is a New York Times Critics' Pick.
Peter Nicks • 2017 • USA
Oakland Police Department. Sean Whent is hired as the department's chief, with the mandate to come in and clean up shop. He arrives with the best intentions, but soon learns that repairing the trust between the community, and those charged to protect them, will be no ea...
Scott Thurman • USA • 2012
The Texas Board of Education dictates the curriculum for nearly five million public schoolchildren. Over the course of a decade Don McLeroy, a dentist, Sunday school teacher, and avowed young-earth creationist, rose from his local school board to state chairman, leadi...
David Mueller and Lynn Salt • USA • 2010
At the age of 5, Dennis Banks was taken from his grandparents and relocated to a federal boarding school, where the prime objective was to rid American Indian children of their culture, traditions, and heritage. Experiencing the ripple effects of his co...
