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Hava Nagila, What Is It? Hava Nagila (The Movie)
ON DVD AND NETFLIX: It’s to music what the bagel is to food – a Jewish staple that has transcended its origins and become a worldwide hit. Bob Dylan sang it. Elvis, too. And that's just the beginning when it comes to Hava Nagila. Follow the infectious party song on its fascinating journey from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the kibbutzim of Palestine to the cul-de-sacs of America in this hilarious and surprisingly deep film. Featuring interviews with Harry Belafonte, Connie Francis, Glen Campbell, Leonard Nimoy, Regina Spektor and more! more >>
Above and Beyond Above and Beyond
WORLD PREMIERE JULY 2014! Above and Beyond is the first major feature-length documentary about the volunteer pilots who fought for Israel in the War of Independence. As members of “Machal” – volunteers from abroad – this ragtag band of brothers not only turned the tide of the war, preventing the possible annihilation of Israel at the very moment of its birth; they also laid the groundwork for the Israeli Air Force. more >>
Dorothea Lange photograph of woman Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning
PREMIERING ON PBS AUGUST 29, 2014! Grab a Hunk of Lightning is a 90-minute film, on the photographer, Dorothea Lange. It's also an exploration of the creative process, and the cost of a creative life. Dorothea Lange was a photographer whose work during the Great Depression resonates more than ever today. She photographed the disenfranchised - the migration to the West during the Dustbowl, extreme poverty in the streets of San Francisco and throughout the United States, the Japanese Internment, and the urbanization of her adopted state, California.more >>
Blessed is the Match Blessed Is the Match
ON DVD: Narrated by Academy Award nominee Joan Allen, Blessed Is the Match is the first documentary feature about Hannah Senesh, the World War II-era poet and diarist who became a paratrooper, resistance fighter and modern-day Joan of Arc. Safe in Palestine in 1944, Hannah joined a mission to rescue Hungary’s Jews. Shockingly, it was the only outside rescue mission for Jews during the Holocaust. Hannah parachuted behind enemy lines, was captured, tortured and ultimately executed by the Nazis. Incredibly, her mother Catherine witnessed the entire ordeal – first as a prisoner with Hannah and later as her advocate, braving the bombed-out streets of Budapest in a desperate attempt to save her daughter. more >>
Homeland Homeland
ON DVD: Nearly all Indian lands in the U.S. face grave environmental threats – toxic waste, strip mining, oil drilling and nuclear contamination. But a handful of activists are fighting back. Filmed against some of America’s most spectacular backdrops, from Alaska to Maine and Montana to New Mexico, Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action profiles the against-all-odds struggles of Native American leaders who are taking on powerful energy companies and government agencies to protect the environment for all Americans. A moving tribute to the power of grassroots organizing, Homeland is also a call-to-action against the current dismantling of thirty years of environmental laws. more >>
no image Ishi's Return
ISHI'S RETURN is a half-hour film about Ishi, billed in 1911 as the “last wild Indian" when he wandered out of the woods in Oroville, CA, and became a national sensation. When Ishi died, his brain was removed and sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Eighty years later, his descendants in California fight to have his remains repatriated to his ancestral home. ISHI'S RETURN is from Native filmmakers Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapaho) and Brian Wescott (Athabascan/Yup’ik) and producer Roberta Grossman (500 Nations, Homeland). more >>