Consider adding a documentary to your DVD viewing queue; here are some of the recent additions to our nonfiction DVD collection.
Honk. The power of love shines in this heartwarming tale of friendship and inspiration between an unlikely duo. Cheryl inadvertently befriends a mourning goose, Honk, while recycling in the local park. As the budding friendship blossoms and Cheryl seeks Honk a new home, he becomes a viral sensation capturing the hearts and minds of millions.
So Late So Soon. Half a century into their marriage, Chicago artists Jackie and Don Seiden approach the fragility of their elderly lives in their own distinct ways. Jackie, notorious for her unbounded energy, is constantly on the move, inspired to create works of art while also maintaining the couple’s multistory, brightly-painted Victorian house. Don steadily sketches in his notebook while facing alarming interruptions to his health. Director Daniel Hymanson filmed the Seidens, on-and-off for five years, capturing the hardships of aging as well as a view into enduring companionship, in this charming character study.
Behind the Stage Door. Explores the life and work of Pittsburgh concert promoter Rich Engler, one of the top concert promoters in the United States.
Exposing Muybridge. Examines the life and work of groundbreaking 19th century photographer Eadweard Muybridge, best known for his studies of humans and animal locomotion.
From Where They Stood. At Auschwitz and a few other Nazi death camps, a small number of prisoners managed to take photographs of life inside. Using the surviving photographs as evidence, director Christophe Cognet pieces together the stories of the brave men and women who took them.
Making Black America Through the Grapevine. The four-part series hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., chronicles the vast social networks and organizations created by and for Black people beyond the reach of the “White gaze.” The series recounts the establishment of the Prince Hall Masons in 1775 through the formation of all-Black towns and business districts, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, destinations for leisure, and the social media phenomenon of Black Twitter. Professor Gates sits with noted scholars, politicians, cultural leaders, and old friends to discuss this world behind the color line and what it looks like today. It takes viewers into an extraordinary world that showcased Black people’s ability to collectively prosper, defy white supremacy and define Blackness in ways that transformed America itself.
Museum Town. Tells the story of a unique museum, the small town it calls home, and the great risk, hope, and power of art to transform a desolate post-industrial city. MASS MoCA is the largest museum for contemporary art in the world, but just three decades before, its vast brick buildings were the abandoned relics of a massive shuttered factory. Threaded with interviews of a diverse cast, a tattooed curator, a fabricator, former factory worker, and shopkeepers, the film also looks at the artistic process itself, tracking the work and ideas of celebrated artist Nick Cave as he creates his groundbreaking installation at MASS MoCA, UNTIL. With appearances by artists ranging from James Turrell to David Byrne, narration by Meryl Streep, and a soundtrack from John Stirratt of Wilco, the film captures the meeting of small-town USA and the global art world as it tells a tale that is, like any great artwork, soulful, thought-provoking and unforgettable.
Harriet Tubman Visions of Freedom. Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom is a rich and nuanced portrait of the woman known as a conductor of the Underground Railroad, who repeatedly risked her life and freedom to liberate others from slavery.
Hiding in Plain Sight Youth Mental Illness. A two-part, four-hour documentary that explores America’s youth mental health crisis through the eyes of more than twenty young people, who speak about their lived experience with mental health challenges, from depression to addiction to suicide ideation. Includes Spanish SDH subtitles.
