THE ABBY SPIRIT
by Ray and Judy Schmitt
(29 minutes/Screened September 2004)

A young woman has to conquer a rare medical condition before she can conquer Broadway.

Click here for more information on the film and its directors.

AIR GROUP 16: WE CAME TO REMEMBER

by Hugh Drescher
(56 minutes/Screened November 2005)

After 60 years, veterans of World War II's Pacific campaign come together at the dedication of the National World War II Memorial in Washington DC to reminisce about their experiences, remember their fallen comrades, and reunite for what may be the last time.

Click here for more information on the director.

by Richard Hall and Simone Fary
(55 minutes/Screened March 2006)

This bipartisan documentary probes the history of liberalism and conservatism in the United States and examines the labels that divide a nation.

by Chris Billing
(56 minutes/Screened November 2006)

Is it possible to maintain traditional community activities in an increasingly isolated society? While we may be "bowling alone," this film looks at several long-standing community activities -- quilting, scouting, square dancing, and revival meetings -- which bring groups of Americans together.

THE ART OF SILENCE

by The Documentary Center's 2007 Institute for Documentary Filmmaking

(13 minutes/Screened September 2007)

THE BAYOU 

by Bill Scanlan and Dave Lilling
(15 minutes/Screened July 2005)

The rise and fall of The Bayou music club, a Washington DC institution which started as a Dixieland club and launched the careers of rock bands from Foreigner to U2.

BLACK DIAMONDS   
by Catherine Pancake
(90 minutes/Screened July 2006)

How has a nation's appetite for cheap energy forced one of its most enduring regions into a fight for survival?  A look at the impact of surface coal extraction on the environment and communities of Appalachian West Virginia.

Click here for more information on the film and its director.

A BLUEGRASS CAPITOL  
by G.T. Keplinger
(30 minutes/Screened March 2005)

Washington DC is home to a thriving scene of bluegrass music.  Featuring interviews with The Seldom Scene and others.

BROKEN HEARTS AND BUTTERFLIES (formerly titled PICTURE THE LOVE)
by Kimberley Williams
(60 minutes/Screened July 2007 and March 2008)

The product of hippie parents who kicked her out at the age of 14, Hali spent her formative years taken care of by a family on a farm in Washington state.  25 years later, the youngest member of her "adoptive" family seeks out Hali, who is now working as a live music photographer in California.

In what was once the tallest building in all of South America, 1500 neighbors of all social classes co- exist. This is a portrait of the Palacio Salvo and its occupants: artists of little and great renown, recent arrivals attracted by the building's bohemian atmosphere, those who want to leave, but can't, and those who are the ghosts of a building's faded past.

CAUGHT IN THE NET 
by The Documentary Center's 2005 Institute for Documentary Filmmaking
(15 minutes/Screened September 2005)

How did the kid millionaires of the DotCom boom of the 1990s deal with their success and the subsequent burst of the Net Economy bubble?

CODE NAME: BUTTERFLIES  

by Cecilia Domeyko
(51 minutes/Screened March 2005)

The true story of the Mirabal sisters whose secret opposition movement helped end the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic.

Click here for more information on the film and its director.

COMRADES

by Dean Hamer

(15 minutes/Screened February 2008)

Struggling against 5000 years of Confucian tradition and a communist government that views any type of organizing with suspicion, China's gay community is finding a way to fit into the fabric of modern society without hiding who they really are.

CONGO: HOPE ON THE BALLOT

by George Lerner

(57 minutes/Screened March 2007)
Elections finally come to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a nation which lost an estimated four million people to a civil war largely ignored by the world.  But what does democracy mean to a society still working to maintain a fragile peace?

DAUGHTERS OF THE LEVANT 
by Rouane Itani
(30 minutes/Screened June 2004)

The story of how Arab women helped their families forge a new identity as Americans in cities and small towns across the United States.

Click here for more information on the film and its director.

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT

by Katie Gerringer

(15 minutes/Screened May 2005)

A typewriter and a secretary-cum-performance artist serve as a conduit for citizen messages to President Bush.

DOGGIE DRILL TEAM

by Kristin Holodak

(15 minutes/Screened March 2008)

Can a ragtag group of obedience class graduates come together on parade day?

THE FAST LANE 
by Carolyn Projansky

(24 minutes/Screened May 2005)

Three street vendors battle poverty and police harassment on the streets of Pretoria, South Africa.

Click here for more information on the film and its director.

14th and U: THE SOUL OF A NEIGHBORHOOD

By Silvina Fernandez-Duque
(20 minutes/Screened July 2005)

An historical look at the U Street corridor in Washington DC – from its years as the center for African American intellectual and cultural life to its near-destruction in the 1968 riots to its recent reincarnation as a revitalized, multiethnic community.

A GATHERING STORM
by The Documentary's Center's 2006 Institute for Documentary Filmmaking
(15 minutes/Screened October 2006)

What does it mean to be an American?  Undocumented workers and modern-day Minutemen provide their perspectives on the immigration debate.

Click here for more information on The Documentary Center. 

GIVE 'EM BELLE! 
by Jon Jensen & Genevieve Croteau 
(30 minutes/Screened July 2005)

At 24, Mike Belle has the passion, idealism, and ambition to run for the city commission in 
Gainesville, Florida. But can he handle two more experienced candidates, a critical media, 
an apathetic constituency, and his own self doubts?

Click here for more information on the film and its directors.

by Ray Bolger and Jesse Achtenberg
(50 minutes/Screened March 2006) 

Musician Steve Keith ventures back to New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta to revisit the life of his mentor, blues singer Babe Stovall and Stovall's impact on a whole generation of musicians and artists.

THE JESUS GUY! (formerly titled WHAT'S YOUR NAME?)
by Sean Tracey
(70 minutes/Screened October 2006)

Though he is often mistaken for Jesus or one of his apostles, this man prefers to be known only as "What's Your Name?"  We follow him through his daily routine of preaching The Word, encountering believers and non-believers, and coping with fame and tests to his faith.

Click here for more information on the film and its director.
 

KHORISTORIA (formerly titled YALE RUSSIAN CHORUS)
by Catherine Mattingly
(62 minutes/Screened November 2005)

While their peers were immersed in the pop music of the time, hundreds of young Yale students chose to focus instead on choral music – sacred and secular chants and songs from the Slavic world.  

Click here for more information on the film and its director.

Click here to see more films we've screened (L-Z)