Race Against Prime Time (1984)

British Sitcom: 60 Years of Laughing at Ourselves

Documentary celebrating the British sitcom and taking a look at the social and political context from which our favourite sitcoms grew. We enjoy a trip through the comedy archive in the company of the people who made some of the very best British sitcoms. From The Likely Lads to I'm Alan Partridge, we find out the inspiration behind some of the most-loved characters and how they reflect the times they were living in.

To Kill a Mockingbird: All Points of View

A 60th anniversary retrospective documentary on the influence and context of the 1962 film, To Kill a Mockingbird.

How the West Was One

In a contemporary reimagining of the American West, three young women - a snake hunter, a New York artist, and a rodeo queen - challenge the idea of who is permitted to be a cowgirl.

White Out, Black In

Shots fired inside a club frequented by black Brazilians in the outskirts of Brasilia leave two men wounded. A third man arrives from the future in order to investigate the incident and prove that the fault lies in the repressive society.

Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work

It is the evocation of a life as brief as it is dense. An encounter with a dazzling thought, that of Frantz Fanon, a psychiatrist of West Indian origin, who will reflect on the alienation of black people. It is the evocation of a man of reflection who refuses to close his eyes, of the man of action who devoted himself body and soul to the liberation struggle of the Algerian people and who will become, through his political commitment, his fight, and his writings, one of the figures of the anti-colonialist struggle. Before being killed at the age of 36 by leukemia, on December 6, 1961. His body was buried by Chadli Bendjedid, who later became Algerian president, in Algeria, at the Chouhadas cemetery (cemetery of war martyrs ). With him, three of his works are buried: “Black Skin, White Masks”, “L’An V De La Révolution Algérien” and “The Wretched of the Earth”.

Seadrift

On August 3rd, 1979, a Vietnamese refugee shoots and kills a white crab fisherman at the town docks in Seadrift, TX. What began as a fishing dispute erupts in violence and ignites a resurgence of the KKK and open hostilities against the Vietnamese along the Gulf Coast. Set during the early days of Vietnamese refugee arrival, “Seadrift” examines the circumstances that led up to the shooting, its tumultuous aftermath, and the unexpected consequences that continue to reverberate today.

nîpawistamâsowin : We Will Stand Up

On August 9, 2016, a young Cree man named Colten Boushie died from a gunshot to the back of his head after entering Gerald Stanley's rural property with his friends. The jury's subsequent acquittal of Stanley captured international attention, raising questions about racism embedded within Canada's legal system and propelling Colten's family to national and international stages in their pursuit of justice. Sensitively directed by Tasha Hubbard, "nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up" weaves a profound narrative encompassing the filmmaker's own adoption, the stark history of colonialism on the Prairies, and a vision of a future where Indigenous children can live safely on their homelands.

White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch

All the cool kids were wearing it. This documentary explores A&F's pop culture reign in the late '90s and early 2000s and how it thrived on exclusion.

Last Night at the S&S Diner

Story about the last original "American Diner" in Miami, Florida. Since 1938 the S & S has been owned and operated by the family of the present owners, Charles and Jean Cavalaris. The S & S Diner is the ubiquitous Miami landmark on Northeast Second Avenue, known for serving large portions of homestyle food.

Stamped from the Beginning

Using innovative animation and expert insights, this documentary based on Ibram X. Kendi's bestseller explores the history of racist ideas in America.

July '64

A historic three-day race riot erupted in two African American neighborhoods in the northern, mid-sized city of Rochester, New York. On the night of July 24, 1964, frustration and resentment brought on by institutional racism, overcrowding, lack of job opportunity and police dog attacks exploded in racial violence that brought Rochester to its knees. Combines historic archival footage, news reports, and interviews with witnesses and participants to dig deeply into the causes and effects of the historic disturbance.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, artiste absolu

The life and work of New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat have been marked by a long quest for identity, by his Haitian and Puerto Rican family origins and by a founding trip to Africa. To portray this major painter of the 20th century, who died in 1988 at only 27 years old, is also to evoke the place of black American artists in the conservative and racist America of the Reagan years.

Heroin King of Baltimore: The Rise and Fall of Melvin Williams

Baltimore City officials asked drug kingpin Melvin Williams to stop the riots happened following Martin Luther King's assassination. After helping the authorities out, Williams was then labeled a threat, framed and incarcerated by a hypocritical society.

Dirt Therapy

Robert "Doc" Crabtree, Charles "fiftyfoe" Ginther, and Bernard "Frenchy" Riviere, three mountain bikers from Miami, FL recall the unpredictable history of Virginia Key's thrilling off-road trails, finding solace in the sport of mountain biking and the strong community surrounding it.

Control Room

A chronicle which provides a rare window into the international perception of the Iraq War, courtesy of Al Jazeera, the Arab world's most popular news outlet. Roundly criticized by Cabinet members and Pentagon officials for reporting with a pro-Iraqi bias, and strongly condemned for frequently airing civilian causalities as well as footage of American POWs, the station has revealed (and continues to show the world) everything about the Iraq War that the Bush administration did not want it to see.

Killing the Indian in the Child

The Indian Act, passed in Canada in 1876, made members of Aboriginal peoples second-class citizens, separated from the white population: nomadic for centuries, they were moved to reservations to control their behavior and resources; and thousands of their youngest members were separated from their families to be Christianized: a cultural genocide that still resonates in Canadian society today.

White Riot

Exploring how punk influenced politics in late-1970s Britain, when a group of artists united to take on the National Front, armed only with a fanzine and a love of music.

Turtle Power: The Definitive History of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

In the spring of 1984, a strange new comic book sat beside cash registers in select shops, too big to fit in the racks, and too weird to ignore. Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles presented a completely original breed of super hero. It was too bizarre, too crazy. It broke all the rules and should never have worked. Until it sold out. Again and again and again. For 30 years. Now, peek under the shell and see how this so-called "happy accident" defied every naysayer to become one of the most popular and beloved franchises in the world.

Is Love Racist? The Dating Game

Emma Dabiri looks at racism in Britain via the world of modern dating, love apps, and a national survey suggesting that young Britons could be more segregated than ever.

The Blinding of Isaac Woodard

In 1946, Isaac Woodard, a Black army sergeant on his way home to South Carolina after serving in WWII, was pulled from a bus for arguing with the driver. The local chief of police savagely beat him, leaving him unconscious and permanently blind. The shocking incident made national headlines and, when the police chief was acquitted by an all-white jury, the blatant injustice would change the course of American history. Based on Richard Gergel’s book Unexampled Courage, the film details how the crime led to the racial awakening of President Harry Truman, who desegregated federal offices and the military two years later. The event also ultimately set the stage for the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which finally outlawed segregation in public schools and jumpstarted the modern civil rights movement.

The Green Girl

A feature-length documentary about Star Trek's iconic original Green Girl, Susan Oliver: Prolific actress of the '50s - '80s, original member of the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women, record-setting female aviator; Tragically taken by cancer in 1990. With over 120 major acting credits in film and television, Susan Oliver was literally a household name in the 1960's. She set a number of world records as a pilot and was one of the only women directing major TV shows in the 1980's. And yet many people don't even remember her name today. It's time to remember Susan Oliver...

David Harewood on Blackface

At its peak, The Black and White Minstrel Show was watched by a Saturday night audience of more than 20 million people. David Harewood goes on a mission to understand the roots of this strange, intensely problematic cultural form: where did the show come from, and what made it popular for so long? With the help of historians, actors and musicians, David uncovers how, at its core, blackface minstrelsy was simply an attempt to make racism into an art form - and can be traced back to a name and a date.

Bots High

Bots High is an exciting documentary following the adventures of three high school robotics teams battling for first place at a national robotics competition in Miami, Florida. It's a no-holds-barred fight to the death with robot carnage everywhere you look. Genius inventor Will builds robots so powerful they're unstoppable...if only they don't destroy themselves first. The Mechanical Misfits are an all girls team stumbling through their first foray into combat robotics and Elizabeth and Danielle are a formidable pair looking to reign supreme during their last year of high school. Bots High follows these students as they design, build and compete at Nationals - all while surviving high school, first love and teenager procrastination. A FilmBuff Presentation.

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.

Maboul de Séoul

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Secrets from Another Place: Creating Twin Peaks

A select group of key creative forces involved in the making of Twin Peaks reveals their take on the fascinating creation and journey of the wildly popular show.

The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story

Documents the race riot of 1921 and the destruction of the African-American community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. With testimony by eyewitnesses and background accounts by historians.

Flag Wars

Filmed over four years, this documentary focuses on the impacts of gentrification as gay white professionals move into a largely black working-class neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio.

Too Black to Be French?

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Black Eagles

The documentary Schwarze Adler (Black Eagles) lets black players of the German national football team tell their personal stories for the first time. What road did they take before they got to where we cheer for them? What hurdles did they have to overcome? What prejudices and racist hostility were they exposed to – and what was it like in the past, what is it like today?

Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer

Comes one hundred years from the two-day Tulsa Massacre in 1921 that led to the murder of as many as 300 Black people and left as many as 10,000 homeless and displaced.

A.I. At War

In the war zones of Mosul and Raqqa, then in Paris during the Yellow Vests uprising, filmmaker Florent Marcie confronts Sota, an AI robot, with the tragedy of mankind. As the story unfolds, the relationship that develops between man and machine questions our human condition and our future.

The Silence of the River

“Forgetting is complicit in recidivism,” says the commentary of this film dedicated to the demonstration of October 17, 1961 in Paris and the savage repression that followed. 11,538 Algerians will be arrested, which is reminiscent of the great Vel d’hiv roundup of July 16 and 17, 1942 where 12,884 Jews were arrested.
 The film brings together eyewitnesses including a priest, a peacekeeper, a couple of workers sympathetic to the Algerian cause, a lawyer, Paris municipal councilors including Claude Bourdet (then one of the leaders of the PSU and journalist to France Observateur), Gérard Monatte, the future police union leader, and the editor and writer François Maspero.