The Divided Soul of America (2019)

PROGRESS Chapter 89: 26th May 1988

Much like the infamous match between Bret Hart and Tom Magee, a piece of PROGRESS history has recently been uncovered. The former Progress announcer, Jimmy Barnett, has been sharing his memories of a show from May 26th, 1988. Last year he was kind enough to offer his recollections of a very early PROGRESS from way back in May of 1978 (PROGRESS even found the footage in their vault), and it's a rare treat to get details of another historical show from a man on the inside.

Six Children and One Grandfather

David McDoll is a selfish and wealthy man living an enviable lifestyle in his large villa and collecting fancy cars. However, his life is about to be changed forever when he inherits his six grandchildren. His glamorous lifestyle quickly becomes complete chaos. But he will learn a valuable lesson that teaches him about placing family first and discovering a newfound appreciation for life.

Fumeria d’oppio

A young woman is murdered and robbed in broad daylight. A young man is arrested, in possession of some of the jewels of the victim. The passionate protests of his sister arouse the compassion of Za la Mort, who promises to help the girl.

A Faded Memory

Young-Jae (Ryu Soo-Young) was involved in a car accident two years ago. He lost his memory from the accident. Now, Young-Hae runs a used bookstore and appears like an ordinary guy, but he has a certificate for passing the bar exam in his desk. While Young-Jae was in the hospital nobody visited him and he didn't have any numbers saved in his cellphone. He has been totally isolated. One day, a parcel is delivered to Young-Jae. In the parcel, there is Young-Jae's old wallet containing a photo of a smiling woman. The parcel does not have a sender listed. Soo-A (Nam Bo-Ra) is an 18-year-old who acts likes she knows everything. She expresses to Young-Jae that she likes him. With Soo-A's help, Young-Jae tries to find the woman in the picture.

Footsteps in the Night

Two detectives investigate the strangulation murder of a man whom everyone seemed to like.

Landfrauen - Wir können auch anders!

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Love Story

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Blue Magic

João Neves travels to the city of São Marcos, to take a magic course, and stays at his cousin Danilo's apartment. The latter, however, has no patience for João and leaves him alone in the apartment, in which he remains only with himself... And his deck.

Autism: The Musical

Follows five autistic children as they work together to create and perform a live musical production.

Big Sur Gay Porn

Cult filmmaker Tom DeSimone (Reform School Girls; Erotikus: A History of the Gay Movie) revisits the production of a lost gay film and resurrects youthful adventures on the California coast. From the creators of Raw! Uncut! Video!.

The Secret Six

Bootlegger/cafe owner, Johnny Franks recruits crude working man Scorpio to join his gang, masterminded by crooked criminal defense lawyer Newton. Scorpio eventually takes over Frank's operation, beats a rival gang, becomes wealthy, and dominates the city for several years until a secret group of six masked businessmen have him prosecuted and sent to the electric chair.

Johan Falk: National Target

Frank Wagner goes deeper undercover to infiltrate Europe's most dangerous Mafia, the Russian-est, consisting of ex - KGB officers.

Bitter Money

In a fast growing city of East China, migrants have been arriving and living for a dream of a better life. But what they find there is little opportunities and poor living conditions that push people, even couples, into violent and oppressive relations. Xiao Min, Ling Ling and Lao Yeh are some of the characters of this bitter chronicle of today China.

The Adventures of a Rookie

Two bumbling GIs manage to get themselves invited to a dinner party at a boarding house "for women only". When the cook comes down with scarlet fever, the authorities quarantine the house and the pair find themselves locked up in a house full of attractive women.

In Delusion: Trump and the American Catastrophe

In 2020, the USA experienced a multiple catastrophe: No other country in the world was hit so badly by the coronavirus pandemic, the economic slump was dramatic, and so was the rise in unemployment. A rift ran through society. In the streets there were protests of both camps with violent riots, authoritarian traits were evident in the actions of the leader of the nation. And all of this in the middle of the election year, when the self-centered president fought vehemently for his re-election. From the start of his presidency, Donald Trump had divided American society, incited individual sections of the population against one another, fueled racism, hatred, xenophobia and prejudice, insulted competitors and denigrated critical journalists as enemies of the people. The documentary shows how this could happen and what role the targeted disinformation of certain sections of the population through manipulative media played.

Land Without Bread

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time. (Silent short, voiced in 1937 and 1996.)

Style Wars

Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant's PBS documentary tracks the rise and fall of subway graffiti in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Blondie's New York and the Making of Parallel Lines

The story behind Blondie's album Parallel Lines, which sold 16 million copies and captured the spirit of 1970s New York at a time of poverty, crime and an exploding artistic life.

One October

Reporter Clay Pigeon interviews New Yorkers in October, 2008.

Slay the Dragon

It influences elections and sways outcomes -- gerrymandering has become a hot-button political topic and symbol for everything broken about the American electoral process. But there are those on the front lines fighting to change the system.

The Corporation

Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.

Los posibles

Santiago Mitre co-directs his first movement following The Student together with choreographer Onofri Barbato. Although it would have been more accurate to say “his first film-story-adventure-movie-great movie following The Student”, the word movement fits perfectly in Los posibles, the most overwhelmingly kinetic work Argentine cinema has delivered in many, many years. The film deals with the adaptation of a dance show directed by Onofri together with a group of teenagers who came to Casa La Salle, a center of social integration located in González Catán, trying to find some refuge from hardship. Already entitled Los posibles, the piece opened in the La Plata Tacec and was later staged in the AB Hall of the San Martín Cultural Center. Now, it dazzles audiences out of a film screen, with extraordinary muscles and a huge heart: Los posibles is a rhapsody of roughen bodies and torn emotions. Precise and exciting, it’s our own delayed, necessary, and incandescent West Side Story.

The Journey

Peter Watkins' global look at the impact of military use of nuclear technology and people's perception of it, as well as a meditation on the inherent bias of the media, and documentaries themselves.

Fight Church

A documentary about the confluence of Christianity and mixed martial arts, including ministries which train fighters. The film follows several pastors and popular fighters in their quest to reconcile their faith with a sport that many consider violent and barbaric. Faith is tried and questions are raised. Can you really love your neighbor as yourself and then punch him in the face?

Recount

In 2000, the election of the U.S. Presidential boiled down to a few precious votes in the state of Florida — and a recount that would add "hanging chad" to every American's vocabulary.

Looking for Johnny

Johnny Thunders was the legendary hard-living rock'n'roll guitarist who inspired glam-metal, punk and the music scene in general. 'Looking For Johnny' is a 90-minute film that documents Thunders' career from his beginnings to his tragic death in 1991. The film examines Johnny Thunders' career from the early 70's as a founding member of the influential New York Dolls; the birth of the punk scene with The Heartbreakers in New York City and London; Gang War and The Oddballs. It also explores Johnny's unique musical style, his personal battle with drugs and theories on his death in a New Orleans hotel in 1991 at age 38. The film includes forty songs with historic film of Johnny, including unseen New York Dolls and Heartbreakers footage and photos. Cult filmmakers Bob Gruen, Don Letts, Patrick Grandperret, Rachael Amadeo and others contribute classic archive footage.

The Choice 2016

An interwoven investigative biography of U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump that draws on dozens of interviews from those who know them best—friends and family, advisers and adversaries—as well as authors, journalists and political insiders.

Death Scream

Loosely based on the true story of the killing of Kitty Genovese: A young woman's murder is witnessed by fifteen of her neighbors who do nothing to help and refuse to cooperate with the police.

Covid Diaries NYC

Five young filmmakers share stories of their families, who were on the frontlines during the first wave of the Coronavirus. These intimate accounts shine a light on families caught in chaos and crisis, in a city hiding from a deadly virus, in a country riven by social upheaval.

Meth Storm

As police and DEA agents battle sophisticated cartels, rural, economically-disadvantaged users and dealers–whose addiction to ICE and lack of job opportunities have landed them in an endless cycle of poverty and incarceration–are caught in the middle.

Gotti

John Gotti, the head of a small New York mafia crew breaks a few of the old family rules. He rises to become the head of the Gambino family and the most well-known mafia boss in America. Life is good, but suspicion creeps in, and greed, rule-breaking and his high public profile all threaten to topple him.

Liberty: Mother of Exiles

A look at the history of the Statue of Liberty and the meaning of sculptor Auguste Bartholdi's creation to people around the world.

Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway

Set in New York City's gritty East Village, the revolutionary rock opera RENT tells the story of a group of bohemians struggling to live and pay their rent. "Measuring their lives in love," these starving artists strive for success and acceptance while enduring the obstacles of poverty, illness and the AIDS epidemic.

Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn

The 30-year legacy of the murder of black teenager Yusuf Hawkins by a group of young white men in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, as his family and friends reflect on the tragedy and the subsequent fight for justice that inspired and divided New York City.

Making of a Male Model

Kay Dillon, a successful modeling agent, meets the young and handsome ranch hand Tyler Burnett in Nevada. She can't help but notice his incredible good looks and invites him to move to New York and start working for her as a male model. Burnett accepts the invitation and goes to New York to start his modeling career. But Tyler longs for more in life: a woman to love and his own ranch. Can he remain the biggest male model in the industry, and still get his heart's desires? Is Kay the woman to give all that to him?

Forman vs. Forman

A moving account, in his own words, of the personal life and work of the brilliant Czech filmmaker Miloš Forman (1932-2018): his tragic childhood, his major contribution to the cultural movement known as the Czech New Wave, his exile in Paris, his troubled days in New York, his rise to stardom in Hollywood; a complete existence in the service of cinema.

Against All Enemies

Over one thousand people have been charged with storming the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, as part of a widely televised insurrection attempt. Approximately 15% of them worked as police or military personnel. This staggering statistic begs an important question: how can a service member who took an oath to protect the country’s democracy do something that puts that very democracy in jeopardy?

Scheme Birds

As her adolescence gives way to the obligations of motherhood, troubled Gemma matures in Motherwell, her Scottish hometown, heavily dependent on the steel industry. Unfortunately for her, her hedonistic way of understanding the world does not fit in with the philosophy of the rest of the villagers, so trouble soon follows.

Life After People

In this special documentary that inspired a two-season television series, scientists and other experts speculate about what the Earth, animal life, and plant life might be like if, suddenly, humanity no longer existed, as well as the effect humanity's disappearance might have on the artificial aspects of civilization.

America: Imagine the World Without Her

A story that questions the shaming of the US through revisionist history, lies and omissions by educational institutions, political organizations, Alinsky, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and other progressives to destroy America.

Methadonia

Shot over the course of 18 months in New York City's Lower East Side, METHADONIA sheds light on the inherent flaws of legal methadone treatments for heroin addiction by profiling eight addicts, in various stages of recovery and relapse, who attend the New York Center for Addiction Treatment Services (NYCATS).

HyperNormalisation

We live in a world where the powerful deceive us. We know they lie. They know we know they lie. They do not care. We say we care, but we do nothing, and nothing ever changes. It is normal. Welcome to the post-truth world. How we got to where we are now…

Moments Like This Never Last

Dash Snow rejected a life of privilege to make his own way as an artist on the streets of downtown New York City in the late 1990s. Developing from a notorious graffiti tagger into an international art star, he documented his drug- and alcohol-fueled nights with the surrogate family he formed with friends and fellow artists Ryan McGinley and Dan Colen before his death by heroin overdose in 2009. Drawing from Snow’s unforgettable body of work and involving archival footage, Cheryl Dunn’s exceptional portrait captures his all-too-brief life of reckless excess and creativity.

Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People

The film explores the role of photography, since its rudimentary beginnings in the 1840s, in shaping the identity, aspirations, and social emergence of African Americans from slavery to the present. The dramatic arch is developed as a visual narrative that flows through the past 160 years to reveal black photography as an instrument for social change, an African American point-of-view on American history, and a particularized aesthetic vision.

Paris Is Burning

Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.

Like Mother Like Son: The Strange Story of Sante and Kenny Kimes

The real-life case based on the horrific crimes of Sante and Kenny Kimes, the mother and son duo who specialized in theft, fraud and murder.

Sherlock Holmes in New York

An affectionate bow to the master sleuth in this lavishly produced original that has Holmes rushing to New York City after discovering that his old nemesis, Moriarty, has kidnapped the son of the detective's long-time love, actress Irene Adler.

One to One: John & Yoko

An exploration of the seminal and transformative 18 months that one of music’s most famous couples — John Lennon and Yoko Ono — spent living in Greenwich Village, New York City, in the early 1970s.

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson

Describing herself as a 'street queen,' Johnson was a legendary fixture in New York City’s gay ghetto and a tireless voice for LGBT pride since the days of Stonewall, who along with fellow trans icon Sylvia Rivera, founded Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), a trans activist group based in the heart of NYC’s Greenwich Village. Her death in 1992 was declared a suicide by the NYPD, but friends never accepted that version of events. Structured as a whodunit, with activist Victoria Cruz cast as detective and audience surrogate, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson celebrates the lasting political legacy of Johnson, while seeking to finally solve the mystery of her unexplained death.

Roko and Cicibela

A poor fisherman and his girlfriend live in a small boat under an open sky for decades. Based on a true story.

The Ring Thing

When Sarah accidentally proposes to her girlfriend in Provincetown, the mixup turns their loving relationship into a minefield of marital exploration.

Carpet and Chaos

While supposedly taking mud baths in Korea, the paterfamilias of a family from Tehran’s Grand Bazaar dies of a sudden heart attack in Brive-la-Gaillarde. His wife and his oldest son travel to France to bring his body home and to investigate the circumstances of his death.

Dark Days

A cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.

Mad Hot Ballroom

Eleven-year-old New York City public school kids journey into the world of ballroom dancing and reveal pieces of themselves and their world along the way. Told from their candid, sometimes humorous perspectives, these kids are transformed, from reluctant participants to determined competitors, from typical urban kids to "ladies and gentlemen," on their way to try to compete in the final citywide competition.

American Swing

Chronicles the rise and fall of 1970s New York City nightclub Plato's Retreat.

The Christmas Lottery

The Davenport sisters have drifted apart over the years but when their Dad wins the lottery all he wants is having his girls home for Christmas. Getting over years of resentment proves a big task but it's pushed aside when their mother suffering from dementia loses the ticket. They put aside their differences to help find the ticket and in doing so get over their differences and finally learn to come together.

Shine a Light

Martin Scorsese and the Rolling Stones unite in "Shine A Light," a look at The Rolling Stones." Scorsese filmed the Stones over a two-day period at the intimate Beacon Theater in New York City in fall 2006. Cinematographers capture the raw energy of the legendary band.

The Children of Times Square

An alienated teenage boy runs away from home and ventures to New York City where he falls in with a gang of juvenile delinquents working as drug dealers and pickpockets for a shady crime boss.

One Ticket Please

A documentary about a 78-year-old Indian woman in New York who is the world's most passionate theatergoer. Nicki Cochrane has been seeing a play every day for more than 25 years, acquiring free tickets using a variety of ingenious means.

Planet of the Humans

Forget all you have heard about how “Renewable Energy” is our salvation. It is all a myth that is very lucrative for some. Feel-good stuff like electric cars, etc. Such vehicles are actually powered by coal, natural gas… or dead salmon in the Northwest.

L'Effet Bahamas

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32 Pills: My Sister's Suicide

Traces the life and mental illness of New York artist and photographer Ruth Litoff, and her sister's struggle to come to terms with her tragic suicide.

102 Minutes That Changed America

The morning of September 11, 2001 is shown through multiple video cameras in and around New York City, from the moment the first WTC tower is hit until after both towers collapse.

The Reagan Show

Comprised entirely of archival footage taken during those pre-reality-television years, The Reagan Show looks at how Ronald Reagan redefined the look and feel of what it means to be the POTUS.

Wonderful Town

Ruth Sherwood and her sister, Eileen, have moved to 1935 Greenwich Village. They're surrounded by colorful Village characters (including an out-of-work football player known as the Wreck, and Mr. Appopolous, a modern painter and their landlord) and embark on various New York adventures. Ruth, who's trying to make it as a writer, meets up with a sleazy newspaper writer named Chick and a kindly editor named Bob, both of whom take an interest in both her career and her.

États-Unis - La démocratie assiégée

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Cuba and the Cameraman

This revealing portrait of Cuba follows the lives of Fidel Castro and three Cuban families affected by his policies over the last four decades.

Marjoe

Part documentary, part expose, this film follows one-time child evangelist Marjoe Gortner on the "church tent" Revivalist circuit, commenting on the showmanship of Evangelism and "the religion business", prior to the start of "televangelism". Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains the Same

The best of Led Zeppelin's legendary 1973 appearances at Madison Square Garden. Interspersed throughout the concert footage are behind-the-scenes moments with the band. The Song Remains the Same is Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden in NYC concert footage colorfully enhanced by sequences which are supposed to reflect each band member's individual fantasies and hallucinations. Includes blistering live renditions of "Black Dog," "Dazed and Confused," "Stairway to Heaven," "Whole Lotta Love," "The Song Remains the Same," and "Rain Song" among others.

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band - Live in New York City

A two disc amalgam of the final performances of 2001's Madison Square Gardens performances by one of the greatest bands in the world of some of the greatest music in the world. The atmosphere positively floods out of the screen to envelop you and the hairs on your neck will be standing on end before the first note has been struck. After watching this you'll believe that The Boss is incapable of putting a foot wrong. By the end, he's only just short of defying gravity.

9/11: Escape from the Towers

Each World Trade Center tower consisted of 110 floors. Each floor has a story. In this two-hour special, survivors from two of those floors, many speaking publicly for the first time, tell their stories. Focusing on one floor in the North Tower and one in the South, this film will provide a never-before-achieved intimacy with what it was really like to be inside the Twin Towers on 9/11.

Hearts and Minds

Many times during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson said that ultimate victory in the Vietnam War depended upon the U.S. military winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. Filmmaker Peter Davis uses Johnson's phrase in an ironic context in this anti-war documentary, filmed and released while the Vietnam War was still under way, juxtaposing interviews with military figures like U.S. Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland with shocking scenes of violence and brutality.

We Were Once Kids

In the early nineties, before the massive gentrification of many of New York's then slums, several young people from very disparate backgrounds left their broken homes and ventured onto the brutal streets of the city. United by their love of skateboarding, they formed a family and built a unique lifestyle that eventually inspired Kids, a groundbreaking and outrageous film directed by photographer Larry Clark and released in 1995.

Banksy Does New York

On October 1, 2013, the elusive street artist Banksy launched a month-long residency in New York, an art show he called Better Out Than In. As one new work of art was presented each day in a secret location, a group of fans, called “Banksy Hunters,” took to the streets and blew up social media.

Girls State

What would American democracy look like in the hands of teenage girls? In this documentary, young female leaders from wildly different backgrounds in Missouri navigate an immersive experiment to build a government from the ground up.

A Slight Case of Murder

In the midst of a spat, film critic Terry Thorpe accidentally kills his lover. Though Thorpe covers his tracks, he raises the suspicions of a private investigator, who then tries to blackmail him. Thorpe also falls under the watchful eye of Detective Fred Stapelli, a cop who is intent on becoming a screenwriter. Before long, Thorpe's girlfriend, Kit, and Stapelli's wife, Patricia, are roped into the case.

Best Christmas Party Ever

With the holidays approaching, a young party planner arranges a special Christmas party for a New York toy store. When a powerful corporation threatens to shut her down, she decides to follow her heart, moving forward with the party plans and finding true love in time for Christmas.

Three Songs for Benazir

The story of Shaista, a young man who—newly married to Benazir and living in a camp for displaced persons in Kabul—struggles to balance his dreams of being the first from his tribe to join the Afghan National Army with the responsibilities of starting a family. Even as Shaista’s love for Benazir is palpable, the choices he must make to build a life with her have profound consequences.

Mr. Trump, Pardon the Interruption

An analysis of the impact on the United States Latino community of immigration policies promoted by President Donald Trump.

Isle of Flowers

A tomato is planted, harvested and sold at a supermarket, but it rots and ends up in the trash. But it doesn’t end there: Isle of Flowers follows it up until its real end, among animals, trash, women and children. And then the difference between tomatoes, pigs and human beings becomes clear.