Synthetic Pleasures

Warrior of Light

2001

A feature-length documentary on Yvonne Bezerra de Mello, award-winning artist and human-rights activist who has gained international recognition for her work with street children in Rio. The film recounts how a woman turned her back on a wealthy lifestyle, driven into action by the execution of 8 streetkids by military police in 1993. In subsequent years Yvonne's struggle to better the lives of endangered and abandoned children has led her to found "Projeto Uere" ("Children of Light") a radical project committed to protection and education of kids who live in the streets and slums of Rio which has brought her into conflict with Brazil's wealthy elite.

Like It Is

1968

This documentary on the "youth movement" of the late 1960s focuses on the hippie pot smoking/free love culture in the San Francisco Bay area.

The Pimp and His Trophies

2014

Kurosawa's Way

2011

Eleven major film makers from Europe, America and Asia talk about Akira Kurosawa and discover surprising influences on their own work.

Laila

1980

Laila Paattinen is a working woman. Tired of low-paying jobs, she completed a five-month course in dry-wall installation. Because she had chosen a non-traditional job for women, she ran into resistance in the marketplace. She finally solved her problems by opening her own dry-wall application business. A useful film for women seeking non-traditional jobs.

My Legacy

2014

My Legacy follows Helen as she explores the often tenuous relationship between a mother and daughter made more complex by the legacy of residential school.

The Cable That Changed the World

2024

The first transatlantic communications cable, traversing the ocean floor from Valentia Island, County Kerry, to Newfoundland, Canada, 165 years ago was an 8 year endeavor that helped lay the foundation of the modern technology industry and explains the fragility of undersea cables today.

Uncensored Science: Bill Nye Debates Ken Ham

2014

Bill Nye and Ken Ham debate whether creation is a viable model of origins in today's modern scientific era.

Citizen Schein

2017

Harry Schein was an anomaly in Swedish cultural society. Equal parts playboy, intellectual, and political visionary, his life story could very well be the foundation of a Hollywood film. Citizen Schein is a film about a refugee who refused to look back, a film about powerful men, and the myths that fuel them.

Loving Lorna

2017

Horses have been part of daily life for generations in the deprived Dublin suburb of Ballymun – and for 17-year-old Lorna and her family too. Her unemployed father finds structure and purpose in daily life by caring for his horses, while her sick mother wistfully remembers the days when she used to turn heads as she galloped through the town. These days it's Lorna who likes to spend all her free time in the stable or riding Bigfoot, her horse.

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

2003

A homeless musician finds meaning in his life when he starts a friendship with dozens of parrots.

Life Before Birth

2005

With cinematic storytelling, a moving musical score, computer animation, and 4D ultrasound images, this documentary accompanies a new human life from conception to birth, poetically describing developmental milestones and the human experience of living in a womb.