Cinema Guild (Firm)

Mehrdad Oskouei’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed Starless Dreams (2016), SUNLESS SHADOWS takes another look at the lives of teenage girls in an Iranian juvenile detention center. But this time the focus is narrowed: each of the film’s principal subjects is serving time for the murder of a male family member. One by one, Oskouei invites them to go into a room alone, push the red button on the camera and address their accomplices or their...

Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa, MAIDAN chronicles the civil uprising that toppled the government of Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovich and has since developed into an international crisis between Russia and the West. Filmed in stunning long takes, sans commentary, MAIDAN is a record of a momentous historical event and an extraordinary study of the popular uprising as a social, cultural and philosophical phenomenon. Official Selection...

THE ISSUE OF MR. O'DELL examines the lifelong work of a pioneering civil rights organizer Jack O’Dell, who was a close colleague and advisor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the years before the March on Washington. But after President John F. Kennedy named him the number five Communist in America, O’Dell was eventually forced out of King’s organization. In soft-spoken interviews, O’Dell discusses systemic racism, past and present, and dissects...

The first Mardi Gras in America was celebrated in Mobile, Alabama in 1703. In 2008, it is still racially segregated. A fascinating investigation into our nation's history and traditions, this acclaimed, award-winning documentary illuminates the complexities of race relations in 21st century America. Winner of the Truer Than Fiction Award at the **Film Independent Spirit Awards**. Nominated for the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the **Sundance Film...

Inspired by ancestral interpretations of the bond between humankind, nature and the cosmos, ROCK BOTTOM RISER is a vibrant essay film set in Hawaii that explores the different kinds of matter to be found in geology, ethnography and astronomy.

Following individual food harvesters as they gather and prepare for the winter, SURVIVAL PRAYER celebrates the modern ways of a remote indigenous community and bears witness to a profound relationship between individuals and the land that sustains them.

A meditative exploration of our relationship with silence, sound and the impact of noise on our lives. Patrick Shen gathers experts, audiologists, and academics to examine not only the cognitive effects of constant noise, but also what we lose culturally when we have less silence. Official Selection at the **SXSW Film Festival**. Nominated for Best Documentary at the **Atlanta Film Festival** and at the **Cleveland International Film Festival.** *"A...

The Hawaiian island of Kauaʻi is seen as a paradise of leisure and pristine natural beauty, but these escapist fantasies obscure the colonial displacement, hyper-exploitation of workers and destructive environmental extraction that have actually shaped life on the island for the last 250 years. CANE FIRE critically examines the island’s history — and the various strategies by which Hollywood has represented it—through four generations of director...

A university student in India writes letters to her estranged lover while he is away. Through these letters, we get a glimpse into the drastic changes taking place around her. Merging reality with fiction, dreams, memories, fantasies and anxieties, an amorphous narrative unfolds.

Felipe, an undocumented Mexican immigrant, has reached a crossroad. After living 16 years in Brooklyn, working three-paying jobs, and sending the bulk of his earnings to his wife and children in Mexico, he's decided to return home to the family he hasn't seen in almost two decades. But when he informs them of his plans, he discovers that they've squandered the money, are deeply in debt and don’t want him to return. They need him to stay in the U.S....