Flyin' Cut Sleeves
★ 4.5 · 1993 · 60m · Documentary
FLYIN' CUT SLEEVES, completed in 1993, portrays street gang presidents in the Bronx. Their world was the streets, set against a backdrop of uprooted families, cultural alienation, drugs and violence. Neighborhood teenagers responded by organizing into street groups known to the members as "families", but labeled in the most alarming terms as violent gangs by the press. The documentation of these lives over a twenty-year period offers a remarkable perspective on life in the ghetto (spanning four generations), and the means that people devise to cope from the time that they are children to when they serve as parents and role models for a new generation.
More Like This
Rize
2005 · ★ 6.8
A documentary film that highlights two street derived dance styles, Clowning and Krumping, that came out of the low income neighborhoods of L.A.. Director David LaChapelle interviews each dance crew about how their unique dances evolved. A new and positive activity away from the drugs, guns, and gangs that ruled their neighborhood. A raw film about a growing sub-culture movements in America.
More info →
Wood Street
2026
Two unhoused men turned community leaders— John and LaMonté —organize their neighbors in the face of displacement, addiction, and a failing social system.
More info →
Escape from the World's Most Dangerous Place
2012 · ★ 10
Successful model Samira Hashi makes an emotional return to Somalia, one of the most dangerous places in the world and the place she was born.
More info →
Ghetto - The Secret Life of the City
1996 · ★ 5
Belgrade in the 1990s seen through the eyes of Goran Čavajda 'Čavke', the late drummer of Serbian rock band "Electric Orgasm". Under dictatorship of Slobodan Milošević, his city became one of the worst places to live in Europe, while the country suffered highest inflation rate in its history, accompanied by mass poverty and political isolation. Documentary follows Čavke walking through the Belgrade streets where total chaos and decline of moral values rule. He finds his only shelter underground, where his friends - musicians and artists - live and work invisibly.
More info →
Life on the Tracks
2003 · ★ 8
Riles is a documentary about the life of a riles resident, Eddie, in a squatter area along the railroad tracks within the downtrodden section of Balic-balik, Manila.
More info →
Miss Alma Thomas: A Life in Color
2021 · ★ 10
Alma W. Thomas lived a life of firsts: the first Fine Arts graduate of Howard University (1924), the first Black woman to mount a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1972), and the first Black woman to have her paintings exhibited in the White House (2009). Yet she did not receive national attention until she was 80.
More info →
School for Hope
2024 · ★ 10
Animari and Zlatko's mission is to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds get the best possible care and education. Will they manage to find funding to welcome more children and to start a high school?
More info →
The Black Contribution: Literature and Theatre
1978
The Black Contribution – Literature and Theater 1978 is a rare documentary highlighting the voices and cultural impact of African American writers and performers during the civil rights era. Introduced by NAACP leader Benjamin Hooks and narrated by Roscoe Lee Brown, the film weaves together dramatic readings, theatrical excerpts, and candid urban street footage. Margaret Walker’s poem For My People is performed alongside scenes of daily Black life in New York City — children playing, families on stoops, open fire hydrants, and the realities of poverty in 1970s neighborhoods. James Baldwin appears in interview footage, while signs for his play The Amen Corner and stage excerpts from Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun underscore the powerful presence of Black voices in American theater. With rare shots of Harlem life, literature, and performance, this film documents the enduring contributions of African American artists to U.S. culture and history.
More info →
"...arm würd' ich nicht sagen..."
1978
The start of a long-term observation of the Bronnmann family from Cologne, who have seven children - what are their concerns, plans, and dreams?
More info →
Paul Robeson Documentary
A story to honor actor-singer-activist Paul Robeson and his contributions to today's social climate and inspire new generations to engage in the ongoing fight for justice and equality.
More info →