Schooled

Schooled is an earthy character study about a teacher in crisis who discovers a shockingly alternative school that teaches him to connect with kids as people.

Please see the trailer for more info. Click here.

Default: The Student Loan Documentary

Default: The Student Loan Documentary is a feature-length documentary chronicling the stories of borrowers from different backgrounds affected by the student lending industry and their struggles to change the system.
No matter when their loans were taken, many borrowers now find themselves in a paralyzing predicament of repaying two, three or multiple times the original amount borrowed, with no bankruptcy protection, no cap on fees and penalties and no recourse to the law. The consequences are dire, with stories of borrowers in financial and emotional ruin.

Beyond these personal accounts, DEFAULT will explain the differences between federal and private student loans, a subject often overlooked by colleges and high school counselors. It will also give detail on the rise of the private lending industry and of college debt.

While the media has focused on the disaster that sub-prime mortgages have turned out to be, only superficial attention has been given to financial giants which have been profiting by approving loans to low-income students with variable interest rates up to 25%.

As The National Consumer Law Center concluded in their March 2008 report titled “Paying The Price: The High Cost of Private Student Loans and the Dangers for Student Borrowers”, there are ominous signs that “the student loan market is headed for the same fate as the subprime mortgage industry .”

Preview

A Thousand Suns

A Thousand Suns tells the story of the Gamo Highlands of the African Rift Valley and the unique worldview held by the people of the region. This isolated area has remained remarkably intact both biologically and culturally. It is one of the most densely populated rural regions of Africa yet its people have been farming sustainably for 10,000 years.

Shot in Ethiopia, New York and Kenya, the film explores two interrelated threats to the Gamo Highlands: 1) the evangelistic aspirations of the protestant church that are destroying the Gamos indigenous spirituality and governance systems; and 2) the efforts of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a Western aid organization which is spending hundreds of millions of dollars bringing chemical pesticides, fertilizers and‚ improved seeds to the continent. Through these external forces we gain insight into the modern worlds untenable sense of separation from and superiority over nature. And we see how the interconnected worldview of the Gamo people is fundamental in achieving long-term sustainability, both in the region and beyond.

Stay tuned for screening dates! Preview:




What Would It Look Like?
What if the world embodied our highest potential? What would it look like? As the structures of modern society crumble, is it enough to respond with the same tired solutions? Or are we being called to question a set of unexamined assumptions that form the very basis of our civilization? Screening Location and Time TBA.  Preview




UK - Mario & Nini
When Chloe gets a job working with children struggling in class, 8 year old Mario and Nini stand out. She encourages them to make a documentary and they choose gang culture as a theme. But as the bonds between them grow, the emotional stakes get higher as the boys slide towards a life of crime. Filmed over 7 years, this disturbing documentary takes a fly on the wall view of the shaping of young minds in a world where childhood no longer exists.
‘Nini stop talking!’ the voice of an exasperated teacher cuts through a bustling classroom. ‘I will fight you’ 8 year old Mario shouts across the room. Mario and Nini both struggle with reading and writing, find it hard to concentrate and are becoming cheeky. When Chloe teaches them separately, they’re excited to open up to the camera about their feelings. ‘Are we the stupidest kids in the school?’ they ask giggling. But Chloe isn’t always there. ‘Why was I being good in the first place?’ Mario asks in tears when he is banned from the school trip. ‘I’ll be bad I don’t care. I’m struggling and miss wants me to be perfect. Forget this’.

Age 10- ‘Yesterday my teacher said ‘I’m never coming back to this school again.’’ Mario admits sadly. ‘I was out of control, just out of control’. Mario and Nini’s parents frequently receive phone calls from the school. But Mario’s parents are more worried about the friends he hangs out with at night on the street. ‘To tell the truth it feels good. It makes me feel like I’m special’ Mario says.
Age 11- ‘After those murders, I stopped to think ‘what is my area turning into?’ says Nini. ‘My friend got stabbed six times over a fake £20 note’. Chloe encourages the boys to continue with their documentary. That's when the boys introduce Chloe to their ‘crew’. ‘One time, one of the ‘olders’ wanted us to knock out one guy so they gave us £20’ says one 11 year old. Whilst the so-called ‘older’ gang members admit that ‘first it’s not crime, it’s just fun. But once you’re in, it’s your group of friends, it’s your life’.
Age 13 - ‘I’m feeling like I’ve lost you both now,’ Chloe says as the boys laugh and swear instead of editing their documentary. ‘Stick and twist’ Nini says sticking his flick knife into a can of 7up ‘that’s what you do with a body’. Horrified, Chloe takes the boys and a friend camping. ‘I've never been on a big hike before!’ says Nini’s friend. ‘You have to go 10 miles for a police station!’, they cry astonished, excitedly eating berries from a bush. But it’s time to return to the city, where there’s ‘so much pressure on us’.
‘When we were camping I was happy because I could just be myself. I was free ’, Mario says. ‘If you’re not there to talk to it’s all crammed inside me. All the hate. And I always try to show love. But love will get you killed’ Mario says without flinching, ‘that’s one thing I know…love will get you killed’.
Mario and Nini now both hope to join the military. But their words are a chilling portrait of the state of innocence today.
What makes a gangster? The excellent Mario and Nini went a long way towards showing us" Tim Dowling, The Guardian
‘An amazing piece of work; shocking, revealing, insightful, totally unavoidable in its message and impact’ Rod Morgan, former chairman of Youth Justice Board
‘A remarkable documentary...’ Andrew Billen, The Times
Preview

The African Spirit
‘African Spirit’ celebrates the diversity of Ethiopia’s culture and wildlife. It journeys from North to South - spanning mountains, rainforests and the hottest place on Earth. It documents Muslims mixing with Christians as they have for over a millennia and the ‘honey people’ of the forest, filmed here for the first time. Visually stunning and unsentimental, this is Ethiopia as you’ve never seen it before.
As the sun rises, one of the most diverse countries in the world wakes up. Nicknamed the roof of Africa, the great highlands reach altitudes of 5000m and are home to many species of animals found nowhere else on earth. In these mountains the first Christian civilization started. Its rock-hewn churches puzzle scientists to this day.
Beta Ghiorgis - the house of St. George is one of hundreds of the churches in Ethiopia’s highlands. Cut straight out of the volcanic mountain, every detail has been carved by hand. This historical site is as living as the Christian faith you find in the people coming here to worship. We find thousands making a pilgrimage to witness the mystical rituals during pre-dawn mass. In the caves chiseled out in the rock around the churches, we find the homes of monks and priests. We hear them practicing ancient songs.

Nature has always inspired religion in this beautiful land. The sandstone caves of the Bale Mountains were thought so beautiful, they must have been made by the hand of God. Named after a Muslim holy man, the caves are a place of worship and sacrifice for both Muslims and Christians alike. In Ethiopia, many feel that having faith is more important than what religion you belong to.
Nature has influenced the values as well as the religion of Ethiopians. Meet the Afar people who live in the desert. They have acclimatized to extreme heat and drought and bear the image of a warrior people. Yet they’re actually a peaceful community, living off their livestock. They celebrate the slightly cooler nights. Thankful for this small relief, their drum beats fill the desert.
This arid land is replaced by the lushness of the West’s only remaining rainforest. Here in the last unchartered wilderness of Ethiopia live the Majang, known as the honey people. They live completely isolated, the only ones who can survive the forest’s unpredictable conditions. We find them navigating this natural maze like the Bedouins do the sanddunes, focused on the honey that keeps their culture alive. The word for family here means ‘same wine’. Family is defined by who you drink your honey wine with. These simple stories of people living their normal lives are just a fragment of a continent bursting with diversity, pulsating with faith, vivacity and beauty.
Preview

World - Sprawling From Grace
You will never look at your car in the same way again...

For as long as most Americans can remember the car has been the embodiment of the American dream. But with more than 250 million cars and trucks on the road, Americans have become slaves to this freedom. How can we reverse the ravages of suburban sprawl?

“They told us we were ‘pathfinders’, ‘trailblazers’, ‘explorers’ - venturing into the unknown”, says Peter Park, of the car revolution. Not much has changed in the last fifty years and auto-makers continue to define who we are: Commuters, with friends and family spread far, casual drivers, who drive short distances for errands. “If our consumption rates continue to increase”, says former President Bill Clinton, “we’ll be out of oil in 35 to 40 years. Living like Mad Max is not such a distant dream”.

“For decades the solution to congestion problems was adding a lane, or several lanes”, says Peter Park, a manager of community planning. Adding lanes only leads to more congestion. Commuting time is reduced by one minute at best. ”Most people’s commutes have increased”, says Katherine Perez, “people are driving further for work due to more transport links. More people are choosing to drive”.
“We can’t build ourselves out of this congestion problem”, says James Howard, new urbanist, “it addresses the very root of the American psyche”. Not only are Americans a nation of car lovers but the neighbourhood is gone - people drive simply to go to the shops. “Many feel that we can weather the coming oil crisis in the same way as we did in the 1970’s”, says Randy Udall, from the academy for the study of Peak Oil, “yet back then three great oil reserves had just been discovered, now we’re constrained on money, capital and time”.
But it’s not just Americans who are oil guzzlers. China plans 65 000 miles of expressways. Right now only one percent of china’s 1.3 billion people own a car. A one per cent increase in their consumption would have a devastating effect on global oil supply. “Car culture in the united states is a near disaster, it’s a guaranteed disaster in china and India”, says Randy Udall.
As global competition for energy resources continues, it becomes increasingly important to re-examine our energy policies. Yet new plans for considerate city planning are being affected. “ We need to rediscover the ability of public transport to guide future growth”, says Peter Park , “we seem to have forgotten how to build cities”. With more public transit stations there will be less dependence on expensive and unreliable foreign oil. “We have to fix the railways, we need to start producing more food close to home, we’re going to have to change the landscape we live in”, says James Howard, ‘now!”

Official Selection, Urban Suburban Film Festival.
"You will never, I repeat never, look at your car the same way again." – KUSA TV
"As important a film as Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth"- KCUV AM
"One of the most sobering films about the future... that I have ever seen." - ARTS á la Mode
Cinema Libre
Preview


Sudan - War Child - 52/92 min [18 February 2010]
Never give up. Never give in.
Emmanuel Jal has a terrifying past and a gentle soul. A former child soldier in Sudan, he is today a well known rap artist. This is the story of his war years, where he was uniquely profiled on film as a young and charismatic boy, undaunted by the pain all around him. And then his escape from the Sudan to the West where he found fame but never lost his pure heart.

“Left home at the age of seven, one year later I’m carryin’ an Ak-47.” His electrifying music crackles with both pain and hope. For hip hop artist Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier in Sudan’s brutal civil war, these lyrics are hardly empty posturing. They are the bitter reality of a young man who was forged in the crucible of one of the world’s most cruel wars, “voices on my brain of friends that were slain…”

A visiting film crew discovered the eloquent and self possessed 7 year old refugee. They interviewed him, “after you shoot the first bullet, the fear runs away and you engage in the battle”. His words hauntingly echo the qualities that came to define Jal the vocal confident adult. The young Emmanuel tells us he wants to go home. “My heart wants to learn how to fly an airplane. So I can visit my family.”
Twenty years later, his dream comes true…but could he have ever guessed the changed circumstances. “I feel like I’ve lost something, I feel like I’ve lost certain feelings that a family should have”. We journey with Jal from America back to Sudan, to meet his father for the first time since he was sent away as a boy, to escape the bombing. The father who never came to look for Jal after his boat bound for Ethiopia sank, and Jal became a “lost boy”.
Along the way we learn how he, like other innocent children, leapt at the chance to be trained as child soldiers for the rebel SPLA, with no other thought than to avenge the rape, death and destruction wrought on their villages. “My desire was to revenge what happened in my village and I said, OK, I’m gonna to learn how to fire a gun”. The grim reality was beatings and brainwashing, fighting, living off vultures to avoid starvation - and acting like animals themselves.
Jal rose from ruthless child soldier, to refugee, to rap star where he finds his own redemption and life mission through a message of peace that represents one of the 21st centuries' most inspiring and hopeful journeys. An extraordinary and beautifully crafted film.
Audience Choice Award, TRIBECA International Film Festival, 2008
Winner Crystal Heart, TRULY MOVING PICTURES Film Festival, 2008
Best Documentary, BOLOGNA International Film Festival, 2008
Audience Choice Award, MAUI International Film Festival, 2008
Best Documentary, NORWAY BERGEN International Film Festival, 2008
DVD not available for North America
18th Street Films
Preview

Soldiers of Peace
Welcome to the new new world order...

We are bombarded with images of war. On the TV news, in our newspapers. The pictures pile up, and with them some solid assumptions. We assume that war is human nature. That there's an epidemic of war and it's only getting worse. That it's too profitable for some businesses to be stopped. And too effective for some governments to give up. That war will be with us forever.

None of these things is true.
The world is changing.
We are changing.

The astonishing and astonishingly little-known fact is that the number of wars across the world is in fact dropping. Dramatically. We are actually in the grip of an outbreak of peace.

Away from the cameras, ordinary people everywhere are taking amazing steps to force peace out of trouble and violence. Even business - long assumed to be the dark driving force behind war - has worked out that there's more money to be made in peace. The enterprises that profiteer from war are in the minority, and they're shrinking.

And if those positive forces aren't enough, there's one very big reason already compelling us to evolve beyond our ancient human impulse to war: the planet. The challenges of global warming confront humankind with an absolute crossroads in our development as a species. The problems are by their nature, global - they cannot be solved by individual countries. And their solutions necessarily demand co-operation at a level we have yet to experience in human history. War cannot solve these problems. It can only make them insoluble. The only way to survive is to evolve, and become peaceful.
Preview

Farenheit 2010
South Africa - Fahrenheit 2010 - 52 min [28 January 2010]
Warming up for the World Cup in South Africa

This uncompromising investigation asks what the World Cup really means for South Africans. Who actually stands to benefit from the millions of dollars invested? And what will South Africa be left with after the trophy is lifted and the applause dies down?
“The 2010 World Cup will be held in South Africa!” - the announcement was received with deafening peals of applause. Promises were made that “the people would reap the rewards”. And the publicity machine went into overdrive. “Fifa expects to make $25 billion out of the television rights alone”. Advertising space was sold off to VISA, Budweiser, Telkom and countless others…and giant white elephants sprouted up all over South Africa. “A world full of greed, self-interest and self-promotion” had arrived.

"South Africans are passionate about football. This will be a very noisy world cup". Not only are South Africans willing to work on the stadiums for a pittance, but most of the South African fans won't be able to see the football at all. "Fifa said we can't have stadiums near shacks, we can't show the world this kind of poverty" . So construction began in Cape Town's Green Point rather than the more popular choice, Athlone. In Durban a giant 70 000 capacity stadium was erected right next to an existing stadium, justified by the 'coming Olympics', which South Africa also hopes to host. Even Archbishop Desmond Tutu says that "it's well worth the price".
“People have to understand that the commitment of resources to 2010 will be half of the commitment of resources to the Olympics”, says Dennis Brutus. And those in power will let nothing stand in their way. “We know we’re going to be evicted but we don’t know where to”, says a member of the Mbombela municipality where a new stadium is being constructed. A school was demolished for construction offices and the pupils moved into boiling hot caravans. “I’ve got a criminal record because of this stadium. This stadium hurts me a lot”, says a boy who protested about his new ‘classroom’.
“Kids dream about becoming footballers, they don’t dream about going to hospital”, says the CEO of the local organising committee. Yet for many South African children, the World Cup dream has already begun to fade. The glory of national pride can’t hide the fact that South Africa is still suffering from more health, educational and poverty crises than ever before. And when the applause dies down, South Africans are going to have big questions about how their resources have helped them. “We’ve been seduced”, says Martin Welz, “this was a big mistake”.
“... something that needs to be said”
FHM Magazine
Levitation Films
Preview

World - a Blooming Business - 52 min [27 March 2009]
Wake up and smell the imported roses.
It’s time to wake up and smell the imported roses. On the shores of lake Naivasha in Kenya, flower farms have enslaved the locals, poisoned the fish and dried out the land. As we follow the lives of a few brave flower workers, the true cost of the world flower industry unfolds.
The beauty of roses is lost on Jane. Yet she makes the walk to work with her head held high, passing a sprawling queue of jobseekers who would gladly trade her place. “Hard work, thorns in my hand and chemicals. That’s what a rose means to me”, she says. Even her own beauty is a curse. Because only the beautiful can work at the flower farm and “sometimes the supervisor needs us to have sex with him”. Those who resist or who lose their looks are fired.

“I was beautiful once”, says Agnes, who was fired after becoming severely scarred from chemical exposure. “We all heard about the great job opportunities here”, she recalls, “but when we got here- the pay wasn’t enough to cover the rent”. As she picked flowers on her knees in a flower farm for 16 hours a day, Agnes was sprayed with as much pesticide as the flowers were. She and others working in the flower industry tried to sue. But suing just makes matters worse.
“They branded me a troublemaker and prevented any other companies from hiring me”, says Oscar, who was fired from the packing factory, after just three months. He’s now forced to sell water from the lake to survive, even though it’s severely contaminated by the pesticides the flower farms use. “I just keep quiet and sell the water”, he says, ashamed. The lakes that aren’t contaminated are drained altogether and Kennedy now struggles to survive as a fisherman. “If I could get one fish- I’d be happy!” he laughs.
At midnight, Kennedy takes home his solitary catch, the gigantic gaudy crates of flowers come to a stand-still on the factory floor and Jane begins her walk home from the farm. “My dream is to open my own business”, she says, exploding into laughter as her youngest daughter comes to greet her, “I miss my kids so much!”. As she sleeps, the crates of flowers are outsourced to fair-trade farms, then exported to London, New York or maybe Holland, winding up in a supermarket with a fair-trade tag.
Preview

From the Kalahari to Court
The Bushmen's historic court victory.
Hundreds of Bushmen were left angry and frustrated after the Botswana president refused to enter into discussions with them during a meeting on Thursday.

President Khama, accompanied by four government ministers, met with Bushmen at the New Xade resettlement camp where they were dumped after being evicted from their lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 2002. Despite a four year-old High Court ruling that they have the right to live in the reserve, many still languish in the camps.

Since the ruling, the government has banned the Bushmen from accessing a water borehole on their lands; without it, they struggle to find enough water. Since attempts to negotiate with the government failed, the Bushmen have launched legal proceedings to gain access to their borehole.

However, President Khama ignored the new litigation, choosing instead to talk about upgrades to the New Xade site. When Roy Sesana, founder of the Bushmen’s organization, First People of the Kalahari, asked a question about the failed negotiations, he was told by the minister for wildlife and national parks that the President ‘doesn’t have to listen to this’.

Bushman spokesman, Jumanda Gakelebone, said, ‘The hope from us was that the president would address the problem of water and give us some answers which would show there is a relationship between us and him. But he was not interested in talking with us. We were not given the chance to speak.’

At the same time as denying Bushmen their right to water, President Khama, who is on the board of Conservation International, has drilled new boreholes for wildlife in the reserve, funded by Tiffany & Co, and has given the go ahead for a safari lodge, now open, complete with swimming pool.

Survival’s director, Stephen Corry, said, ‘Khama’s ‘policy’ is illegal and in violation of the Bushmen’s fundamental human rights. In spite of the continuing damage to the country’s reputation, this government seems determined to destroy the Bushmen. Tourists in the game reserve, where water is provided to the animals but denied to the indigenous peoples, will be trampling over the Bushmen’s graves.’
Preview

Mine - Story of a Sacred Mountain
The Dongria live in the Niyamgiri Hills in Orissa state, India. British FTSE-100 company Vedanta Resources is determined to mine their sacred mountain’s rich seam of bauxite (aluminium ore). Vedanta is majority-owned by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal.

The Dongria and other local Kondh people are resisting Vedanta, and are determined to save Niyamgiri from becoming an industrial wasteland. Other Kondh groups are already suffering from a bauxite refinery, built and operated by Vedanta, at the base of the Niyamgiri Hills.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry says, ‘Just as the Na’vi describe the forest of Pandora as ‘their everything’, for the Dongria Kondh, life and land have always been deeply connected.  The fundamental story of Avatar – if you take away the multi-coloured lemurs, the long-trunked horses and warring androids – is being played out today in the hills of Niyamgiri in Orissa, India.

’Like the Na’vi of ‘Avatar’, the Dongria Kondh are also at risk, as their lands are set to be mined by Vedanta Resources who will stop at nothing to achieve their aims. The mine will destroy the forests on which the Dongria Kondh depend and wreck the lives of thousands of other Kondh tribal people living in the area.
Preview

SITTING BULL: A STONE IN MY HEART 
Born in what is now South Dakota around 1831, Sitting Bull is given the name of Tatanka-Iyotanka (Sitting Bull). He distinguishes himself early in life, killing his first buffalo at ten and taking part in skirmishes at fourteen. He continues to excel in bravery, fortitude, generosity and wisdom. By the 1850s Native Americans begin to feel the pressure of white expansion into the western United States. Some tribes begin to resist. Although there have been many skirmishes and battles throughout the 1860s, there are also many attempts at peace. All of them fail. The discovery of gold in Indian sacred ground, the Black Hills, causes continued tension. Emissaries are sent on the pretext of bringing about a peaceful resolution yet the intent is to get Indians to sign worthless treaties and release more of their land.

In the summer of 1876, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and a regiment of the Seventh Cavalry attack members of the Lakota Nation and other tribes along Montana’s Little Bighorn River. An estimated two thousand warriors defeat Custer, killing him and about two hundred fifty of his men. Sitting Bull does not take part in the fight but is there as spiritual leader. Shocked by this devastating defeat, the American people demand retribution. Now with even greater force and conviction, the U.S. government begins a relentless pursuit of the Indians in a concentrated effort to drive them into reservations. Sitting Bull and his followers flee to Canada, beyond the reach of the U. S. Army, where they are offered asylum by the Canadians. Sitting Bull remains defiant until the near starvation of his people forces him to return four years later and surrender. He is taken to Fort Randall where he is held as a prisoner of war for two years. Upon his release he is sent to Standing Rock Reservation where he is forced to work in the fields and denied any special privileges that a chief of his standing would normally be accorded.

In 1885, hoping that exposure to the white man’s world will “civilize” him, he is temporarily released from Standing Rock and allowed to perform in a tour of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. His travels and experiences in major eastern cities give him a new perspective. When Sitting Bull returns to Standing Rock, he begins to assert a degree of independence from the Indian agent in charge. Sitting Bull is no longer permitted to perform in any more shows. For a time, he settles into a quiet life with his family.

Hopeless and oppressed, many Indians on the reservation become followers of a Paiute holy man who started a movement called the Ghost Dance. The ritual is perceived as anti-white by the government and efforts are made to discourage reservation Indians from participating. Although Sitting Bull does not taken part, he does not discourage others from doing so. Fearing that he might incite rebellion, the Indian agent orders the Indian police to place Sitting Bull under arrest. On December 15, 1890, they break into Sitting Bull’s cabin. The chief’s followers intervene and a gunfight takes place. Sitting Bull is killed.
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