Mark Daniels

April 1865. A handful of Republicans, ardent admirers of American democracy, gather in Glatigny to celebrate the abolition of slavery in the United States and pay tribute to President Lincoln, who was assassinated six days earlier. During dinner, Édouard de Laboulaye, the politician behind this discreet gathering, spoke passionately about the idea of a colossal statue, a symbol of freedom, as a gift from France to America. His impassioned speech captivated a young sculptor among the guests: Auguste Bartholdi. The project for the future Statue of Liberty was born. It was a seemingly impossible undertaking, to which the Colmar-born sculptor would devote twenty years of his life, moving heaven and earth on both sides of the Atlantic to ensure that his Liberty Enlightening the World would tower over New York Harbor on October 28, 1886.

Investigation into a global ecological disaster that could endanger the entire human race. Today, a third of our food depends directly on bees, the most important agricultural pollinator* on our planet. Yet, for several years now, millions of bees have been mysteriously disappearing. Why? Will we be able to cope with this predicted catastrophe?

Documentary short for Larry Fessenden's 1991 feature film, NO TELLING.

A history of the racially stereotyped portrayal of African Americans in cinema, hosted by film pioneer Melvin Van Peebles.

In 1984, American heavy metal band Twisted Sister became a global sensation. For 30 years, they been synonymous with hairspray, women's clothing and tasteless album covers. Until now. Ten years ago, director Andrew Horn was granted access to the archives of Twisted Sister founder Jay French and he explores the decade that preceded their breakthrough.

Mark Rappaport's creative bio-pic about actress Jean Seberg is presented in a first-person, autobiographical format. He seamlessly interweaves cinema, politics, American society and culture, and film theory to inform, entertain, and move the viewer. Seberg's many marriages, as well as her film roles, are discussed extensively. Her involvement with the Black Panther Movement and subsequent investigation by the FBI is covered. Notably, details of French New Wave cinema, Russian Expressionist (silent) films, and the careers of Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, and Clint Eastwood are also intensively examined. Much of the film is based on conjecture, but Rappaport encourages viewers to re-examine their ideas about women in film with this thought-provoking picture.

For the Yamakasi the "Art of Displacement" is a way of life. Racing through the new cities that ring Paris, climbing walls, swinging from balconies and leaping across rooftops, they transform the oppressive concrete architecture into places of fantasy, possibility and play. The heart of our documentary is the story of how the Yamakasi are transforming the youth of the suburbs, and themselves, through discipline, will and desire. Now, as the Art of Displacement is being embraced as an extreme sport and urban pastime, will the social message be transmitted as well? What is it for the new generation?

An examination of the how television news in the US has covered war from Vietnam to the present day

An examination of the how television news in the US has covered war from Vietnam to the present day

The future of our food resources depends on one small insect - the western honey bee, or Apis mellifera. Indeed, it is the most important agricultural pollinator on our planet, given that one third of our food supply depends directly on pollination from bees. This documentary tells the story of a worldwide ecological disaster that has been waiting to happen for several generations.

The universe of comic books is a worldwide pop mythology, a Pantheon in cheap newsprint and saturated colors. For almost 100 years comic books have provided fantasy, escape, and compensation for adolescents who often feel powerless and misunderstood in their daily lives. Fantasies of power are inevitably violent, but the violence in comic books has no consequences. After all, it's just the stroke of a pen... But what happens when the comic book meets real war? In this age of hundreds of television stations, 24-hour news, worldwide instantaneous satellite transmission and thousands of web sites updated hourly, the lowly comic book has become a documentary medium, providing a real understanding of the human dimensions of war, genocide and revolution. It's a new journalistic form. Comic Books Go To War explores the journalistic, aesthetic and political implications of reporting the most violent and terrible of human experiences through "comix."

The universe of comic books is a worldwide pop mythology, a Pantheon in cheap newsprint and saturated colors. For almost 100 years comic books have provided fantasy, escape, and compensation for adolescents who often feel powerless and misunderstood in their daily lives. Fantasies of power are inevitably violent, but the violence in comic books has no consequences. After all, it's just the stroke of a pen... But what happens when the comic book meets real war? In this age of hundreds of television stations, 24-hour news, worldwide instantaneous satellite transmission and thousands of web sites updated hourly, the lowly comic book has become a documentary medium, providing a real understanding of the human dimensions of war, genocide and revolution. It's a new journalistic form. Comic Books Go To War explores the journalistic, aesthetic and political implications of reporting the most violent and terrible of human experiences through "comix."

Did Leonardo da Vinci come up with all of his ideas and inventions by himself or did he also borrow some of them from ancient scientists including those who lived 1,700 years before him.

These skyscrapers of stone dominated skylines for nearly a thousand years. Now, a team of scholars and builders investigates how they we went up, and why some of the tallest fell down. Embedded in stone and stained glass, they uncover a hidden mathematical code — ripped from pages of the Bible — that was used as a blueprint to build the great Gothic Cathedrals.

Investigation into a global ecological disaster that could endanger the entire human race. Today, a third of our food depends directly on bees, the most important agricultural pollinator* on our planet. Yet, for several years now, millions of bees have been mysteriously disappearing. Why? Will we be able to cope with this predicted catastrophe?

Cookie is a teen runaway who escapes her abusive stepfather and heads for the Big Apple with her younger brother. When she arrives at the Port Authority bus terminal, Cookie meets a charming but sadistic pimp named Duke. With nowhere to go, Cookie is soon working for Duke, who introduces her to the harsh, brutal life of being a prostitute.

Privilege is an intelligently conceived, boldly anarchic, and wickedly insightful exposition on the culturally ingrained and socially divisive malaise of isms that artificially define and characterize empowerment in contemporary society: ageism, sexism, economic elitism, and racism. Yvonne Rainer conveys texture through the intercutting of archival footage, video, and film - as well as compositional layering through the film-within-a-film structure, elliptical (and self-referential) fusion of past and present, and the filmmaker's idiosyncratic penchant for superimposed typed text.

A Manhattan professor's (William Raymond, Larry Loonin) unseen artist wife mocks his pitiful existence.

Agatha is an international lawyer, Jo a filmmaker. The two women are lovers. While Jo is on the road showing her films, Agatha discovers and reads her diaries. Problems ensue as Agatha's transgressions lead to jealousy and a spiraling cycle of sexual obsession.

Looks like an alien, sings like a diva - Klaus Nomi was one of the 1980s' most profoundly bizarre characters to emerge through rock music: a counter tenor who sang pop music like opera and brought opera to club audiences and made them like it. The Nomi Song is a film about fame, death, friendship, betrayal, opera, and the greatest New Wave rock star that never was!

In this revisionist documentary, actor Eric Farr re-creates the character of Rock Hudson in order to take a look back at his films. It compares the actor's screen (and public) image with his real life and shows certain scenes, lines and situations in his films to insinuate that Hudson may have been gay.

A look at Communist musicals that strove to be ideologically correct - and entertaining, besides.