Spellbound follows eight kids on their quest to win the 1999 National Spelling Bee. This Oscar-nominated entry documents the intense experience of the National Spelling Bee as seen through the eyes of eight young spellers, with viewers glimpsing the kids’ private lives as they train for and compete in the ultimate cerebral showdown.[…]
On the streets of Nairobi, Tough Bond-brand glue is the drug of choice for kids living on their own, numbing themselves to hunger while surviving off scraps. This incredibly moving documentary provides an intimate look at four of these kids – who call themselves “Survivors” – following them over the course of three years and taking the viewer deep into their lives.[…]
Growing up under a strict father and the even stricter tutelage of his fundamentalist Muslim teachers, Tariq enters college questioning his faith, values, and identity. When the sudden cataclysm of 9/11 inflames antiMuslim fervor on campus, Tariq is forced to make a stand one way or the other.[…]
Shukree Hassan Tilghman, a 29-year-old African American filmmaker, is on a cross-country campaign to end Black History Month. Through this thoughtful, humorous journey, More Than a Month investigates what the treatment of history tells us about race and equality in a “post-racial” America.[…]
Louis Kahn, a giant among twentieth-century architects, left a legacy of brilliantly designed and engineered buildings. Kahn’s personal life was mysterious, and his death, alone and unidentified in Penn Station in 1974, revealed that he led not a double but a triple life, shuttling between his legitimate family and two women and the children they bore him. One of these, his son Nathaniel, takes us on a personal journey to consider the contradictions of this complicated genius and eccentric parent.[…]
