Calculating Ada: The Countess of Computing (2015)

"Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic..." Flannery O'Connor, 1958. Shy, funny, devout, disabled--words that describe one of the most acclaimed American short story writers of all time. Flannery O'Connor's stories about the southern U.S. have inspired writers, artists and musicians for decades with their dark humor and "gothic" sensibilities. "Flannery" tells the life story of a brilliant, young woman who died before she was forty through the eyes of contemporary writers and artists with cartoons, animations, never-before-seen archival footage and great music. Tommy Lee Jones, Alice Walker, Mary Karr, Tobias Wolff, Hilton Als, Alice McDermott, Bill T. Jones, Lucinda Williams--all share their opinions, their art and their music in this feature-length, NEH-funded documentary. How can people go to church AND commit murder, she wonders...?

Conservationists Jim and Jean Thomas braved the steamy jungles of Papua New Guinea to save a tree kangaroo from extinction and ended up providing water and sanitation to ten thousand people in one of the most remote places on earth.

Rusty Young, author of the best-selling novel Marching Powder, returns to Bolivia to uncover the brutal realities of the international cocaine trade.

Biology is undergoing a revolution that is radically changing our conception of evolution. Our genes don't control everything: they can be influenced by fascinating mechanisms recently brought to light by international research teams.

Carefully remastered, colorized visual archives uncover a wider view of the private and public man. Contrasting chapters of his existence reveal a new perspective on Churchill's colorful, puzzling, paradoxical and captivating personality.

Winner of Grand Prix Award at 2014 Life Sciences Film Festival. A documentary on the latest research on the origins of the microbiome; how microscopic events during childbirth have lifelong consequences for the health of our children.

A team of Australian and Chinese scientists discover ancient human remains in a remote cave in South West China. The bones are unlike any living human or any ancient human known to science, yet they were alive at the same time as humans of our own kind. Do they represent a new human species?

Excellent one hour documentary narrated by Professor Simon Schaffer which explores the fascinating and rarely told story of automata, those intricate clockwork devices built hundreds of years ago with the intent to mimic and recreate life. Of particular interest are Jaquet-Droz's 'The Writer' (1774) and Merlin's 'The Silver Swan' (1773) which beautifully illustrate the degree of technical mechanical sophistication achieved by artisans over 240 years ago. There is also a funny aside: the record Prof. Schaffer places on the turntable at the end (columbia LX466, 1935 impression) is the Beethoven String Sonata Opus 132 and not the Symphony 7 so BBC used any old record and overlaid the sound track.

After losing his job in 2009, Coite Manuel sets off to build his dream business with the help of two unlikely women: Deane, his harp-playing aunt, and Siyone, an East African hotdog vendor and single mother of four. Staking his meager life savings on a vision to revive Washington, D.C.'s dwindling hotdog vending community, Coite faces bewildering challenges.

Ernest Hemingway is an almost mythical figure. In addition to being an author, he is literary work himself - a real rock star ante litteram. Much of his life has been an eternal holiday, minutely documented and continues to be a source of inspiration for himself. Wherever there are places that share their quotes: true or presumed. The pictures that portray him are thousands. Hemingway had built a fame as a captain of ventura, expressing a strong personality, man and myth, joining the life lived in the imagination of his characters. It is in this context that his many trips to Italy are included. From the First World War to the advent of Fascism, from the Second World War to the Boom Years: both male and female acquaintances, relationships with food and wine, landscapes, loves, pleasures and tragedies of life, especially in Veneto, were fundamental to the writer. Finding how Hemingway was a forerunner of the modern public figure, we will also see how he eventually found himself victim to the icon that was sewn on him. Finding its strange and private sides between the mountains and the lagoons of a territory that he loved to the end, makes the silence more silent on the fragility of this hard.

An epic adventure into an underground science and an unstoppable passion. Earthworm scientists concoct a plan to find and name their ultimate discovery...the world's first Super Worm. Nothing will stop them as they travel to all corners of the world with spades, GPS worm locators and secret worm outing fluids to unearth their prize. Winner of multiple film festival awards.

MAKING THE GRADE invites us into the world of the piano lesson. Every year teachers and students throughout Ireland prepare for graded musical exams. These exams can be pleasing for some but daunting for others. Each student has their own particular goal but reaching Grade Eight is considered a pinnacle. This endearing and uplifting documentary explores the bond between piano teachers and their pupils as they struggle through these grades. This is a story of the trans-formative power of music and the pride and happiness it provides both the students and teachers. It may inspire us all to keep making the grade.—Nell Roddy

The Kimberley in West Australia is home to various Aboriginal communities, where today most is in transition causing limbo and distress. Some have given up; others choose to fight both past and present demons to bring a change for the better to their people. In 'Dreams from the Outback' best friends Gabriel and Peter try to keep the ancient cultural traditions alive, with almost no support from the rest of their community. Felicity struggles to keep her family together after years of drinking and neglect and teenagers Billy and Jordan are brothers who meet for the first time. The boys spend the days getting to know each other, exploring the outback and their culture.

The incredible story of how The Beatles emerged from post-war Liverpool and turned music on its head with their changes from skiffle to rock 'n' roll and the creation of the Mersey Beat sound.

The Story of Looking sees Mark Cousins prepare for surgery to restore his vision. Cousins explores the role that visual experience plays in our individual and collective lives. In a deeply personal meditation on the power of looking in his own life, he guides us through the riches of the visible world, a kaleidoscope of extraordinary imagery across cultures and eras. At a time when we are more assailed by images than ever, he reveals how looking makes us who we are, lying at the heart of human experience, empathy, discovery and thought. He shares the pleasure and pain of seeing the world, in all its complexity and contradiction, with eyes wide open.

99% of those who carried out the murders in the Holocaust were never prosecuted. Why not?

Masha Drokova joins Nashi, a Russian ultra nationalist youth group, at the age of 16 and rapidly ascends its ranks, famously garnering a medal and the opportunity to kiss Vladimir Putin. The film details her growing disillusion with the group's leaders and her falling in with the anti-Putin opposition, especially a journalist and blogger named Oleg Kashin, who gets brutally attacked.

Lena Mae Perry's electrifying voice may surprise you, but the power of her gospel will never leave you in this lively celebration of a North Carolina gospel crew, their steadfast faith, and the songs that get them through.

An exploration of the world-changing activism and potential of the largest youth generation in history.

Follows a group of 4,000 teenagers as they run a government complete with elections, legislators, lobbyists, and political party bosses.

Called up for service in Iraq, several members of the National Guard were given digital video cameras. This film, edited from their footage, provides a perspective on a complex and troubled conflict.

"The Nicest Man in Stand-Up" is back with a comedy special filmed at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix, AZ.

Follows the life of pop culture icon Pamela Anderson, including never-before-seen archival footage and personal journals.

Indigenous people of Canada share heartbreaking stories that reveal injustices inflicted by the country's child welfare system.

In this neon drenched behind the scenes documentary the Copenhagen Cowboy show creator Nicolas Winding Refn and his team detail how they brought the stoic heroine and dark fairy tale version of Copenhagen's netherworld to life.

In the months following the terrorist attacks in Paris, the youth has taken the night. A community has risen, that looks for belonging in a world they don't understand and seek to change the rules. Led by new faces and unheard groups, with their values and ideals, they open a new dialog, challenge the state and get ready for a new kind of revolution.

It tells the story of the courageous campaign of citizens and activists who faced violence and oppression in the struggle for the right to vote

This action-packed feature explores the backyards and zones our pro skiers can frequent every day (sometimes with a little extra effort and ingenuity).

Conclusion to In Search of Darkness trilogy. This chapter involves straight into video horror classics populated the bottom shelves rental store. Imaginative, gory, experimental and entertaining. These hidden gems are ripe for rediscovery.

One of the greatest comebacks of all time. Kyle Busch confronts his physical limits when he sustains what could be a career ending wreck in 2015 only to find a path back to the first of many Cup Series Championships.

A documentary of Extraordinary Journey of Pioneer Activist and Basketball Prodigy Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf

Charlotte Gainsbourg looks at her mother Jane Birkin in a way she never did, overcoming a sense of reserve. Using a camera lens, they expose themselves to each other, begin to step back, leaving space for a mother-daughter relationship.

Want to know how to steal half a million euros from thirty-nine different banks to fund social causes? Robin Bank - the story of a man who did this and how.

Honoring the life and legacy of the remarkable storyteller, activist and philanthropist Norman Lear; featuring an impressive lineup of celebrity guests and musical performances to celebrate his 100th birthday.

Volcanoes are responsible for creating the conditions for life to flourish on Earth, but they unpredictably still create through destruction. An adventurous photographer attempts a descent into a fiery crater.