The Divided Soul of America

On the Trail: Inside the 2020 Primaries

August 2020 •English

CNN's team of female journalists and embeds pack up and leave their families to fan out across the country and report on the president and his would-be rivals as the candidates launch campaigns and contend for voters.

Knock Down the House

January 2019 •English

In 2018, a young bartender in the Bronx, a coal miner’s daughter in West Virginia, a grieving mother in Nevada and a registered nurse in Missouri join a movement of insurgent candidates challenging powerful incumbents in Congress. Without political experience or corporate money, these four women are attempting to do what many consider impossible.

India's forgotten people

September 2020 •English

Half Sour

April 2014 •English

A group of young skateboarders find direction in their lives when they move to New York and start a pickle business.

Jack and the Beanstalk

September 1983 •English

Imaginative and creative Jack seeks adventure while trying to provide for himself and his mother. Will he ever solve the mystery of how his father died?

Dreams Don't Die

May 1982 •English

Two young kids in love, one young graffiti artist and the other a foster-child, find trouble on the mean streets on the other side of the river in New York City. Officer Charles Banks finds young Danny tagging subway cars and then catches Teiresa selling drugs for another mislead teen, Kirk. The officer, instead of turning both of them in, gives both teens a chance to make more of their lives together. Changing their ways turns out to be more challenging than first thought.

42nd Street: River to River

November 2009 •English

An impressionistic, graphic history of one of the world's most infamous streets: Manhattan's 42nd Street. Likened to a DNA strip of New York City, the street has ranged from the glamorous to the derelict, housing everything from peep shows to such international institutions as the United Nations. The documentary is an exploration of the street's expansion from the farmland where Washington bivouacked his troops to the flashy, commercial center that it is today. With historical information, musical performances and personal narratives, the film traces the rise, subsequent dilapidation, and eventual resurgence of a street that has come to represent a place where, notoriously, anything may and has happened.

Land Without Bread

December 1933 •Spanish

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time. (Silent short, voiced in 1937 and 1996.)

Megacities

August 1998 •English

Megacities is a documentary about the slums of five different metropolitan cities.

All In: The Fight for Democracy

September 2020 •English

Examines the often overlooked, yet insidious issue of voter suppression in the United States in anticipation of the 2020 presidential election. With the perspective and expertise of Stacey Abrams, the former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, the film offers an insider’s look into laws and barriers to voting that most people don’t even know is a threat to their basic rights as citizens of the United States.

View on Boulevard, New York City

September 1896 •English

Taken in 1896 on the Boulevard (upper Broadway) on the occasion of a bicycle parade in the heyday of the wheeling craze. Old-fashioned horse cars lend interest to the scene.

Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation

June 2021 •English

The parallel lives of writer Truman Capote (1924-84) and playwright Tennessee Williams (1911-83): two friends, two geniuses who, while creating sublime works, were haunted by the ghosts of the past, the shadow of constant doubt, the demon of addictions and the blinding, deceptive glare of success.

Cold Case Hammarskjöld

February 2019 •English

Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (currently Zambia), September 18th, 1961. Swedish Dag Hammarskjöld, UN Secretary-General, mysteriously dies in a plane crash. Decades later, Danish journalist and filmmaker Mads Brügger and Swedish researcher Göran Björkdahl investigate the case looking for a definitive closure.

Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World

February 2024 •English

New York City's beloved Ukrainian restaurant Veselka is best known for its borscht and varenyky, but it has become a beacon of hope for Ukraine. As the second-generation owner Tom Birchard reluctantly retires after 54 years, his son Jason faces the pressures of stepping into his father’s shoes as the war in Ukraine impacts his family and staff.

Man in Red Bandana

September 2017 •English

"Man in Red Bandana" is about Welles Remy Crowther, an extraordinary 9/11 hero. However, how his heroics became known is even more remarkable. Eight months after the disaster, his parents learned about how their son spent his last hour due to an ordinary object ... a red bandana. This revelation dramatically shifts their perspective on their loss. After hearing his remarkable story and how it unfolds, viewers will see how the actions of one man have touched 1,000s. This inspirational segment of the film depicts the unique, diverse and folklore ways that Welles is honored throughout the United States including in art, sports and song. Even President Barack Obama pays homage to this young man in the film. Our uplifting ending culminates in the revelation of a secret about Welles that can only be described as "perfect".

The Automat

September 2021 •English

The 100-year story of the iconic restaurant chain Horn & Hardart, the inspiration for Starbucks, where generations of Americans ate and drank coffee together at communal tables. From the perspective of former customers, we watch a business climb to its peak success and then grapple with fast food in a forever changed America.

Notes on an American Film Director at Work

January 2008 •English

Filmmaker Jonas Mekas follows his friend, film director Martin Scorsese, and his cast and crew, through various locations during the shooting of his film The Departed, released in 2006.

Surge

September 2020 •English

A look at the record number of first-time female candidates who ran, won and upended politics in the historic 2018 midterm elections; featuring three candidates in Texas, Indiana and Illinois who each were looking to flip their red district to blue.

À ciel ouvert

January 2022 •German

Behind the scenes of a large construction site in western Switzerland, we dive into the world of construction where most of the workers are foreigners.

OG: The Harry Jumonji Story

February 2017 •English

'OG' is a film about a legendary, Brazilian born, NYC skateboarder, Harry Jumonji. In the course of telling his story, through his triumphs and travails, Jumonji emerges in this portrait as an adolescent innocent, much like skateboarding itself. He is irrepressible, manically energetic and ultimately, pure. He has a transcendent presence, well beyond charm or charisma, of such unalloyed joy that nothing he does is unforgiveable. This is fortunate because, as a drug addict, unsurprisingly, he lies, cheats and steals. Harry is rendered as the poet, the sprite, the artist and the street saint he is.