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America Reframed

Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman (2 of 2) (#122)

Jennifer Fox continues her journey to understand how diverse women define their lives when there is no map. [146 minutes] Closed Captioning

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  • Chisholm '72- Unbought & Unbossed (#101)

    In 1968, Shirley Chisholm becomes the first black woman elected to Congress. In 1972, she becomes the first black woman to run for President. Shunned by the political establishment, she's supported by a motley crew of blacks, feminists and young voters. Their campaign-trail adventures are frenzied, fierce, and fundamentally right on! After the 2004 elections, her story reminds all Americans that, in Chisholm's words, "the institutions of this country belong to all of the people who inhabit it." [86 minutes]

  • Street Fight (#102)

    This program follows the turbulent campaign of Cory Booker, a 32-year-old Rhodes Scholar/Yale Law graduate running for mayor of Newark, New Jersey, against Sharpe James, the four-term incumbent twice his age. An urban David and Goliath story, the film chronicles the young man's struggle against the city's entrenched political machine, which routinely uses strong-arm tactics to hold onto power. The battle sheds light on important questions about democracy, power, poverty and race. When the mayor accuses the Ivy League-educated challenger of not being "really black," the campaign forces voters to examine how they define race in America. [86 minutes]

  • La Americana (#103)

    When nine-year-old Carla suffers a life-threatening accident, her mother, Carmen, must leave her behind and make the dangerous and illegal journey from Bolivia to the U.S., where she hopes to earn enough to save her daughter's life. Working in New York to support Carla's medical needs, Carmen struggles in vain to legalize her immigration status, and wrestles with the prospect of never seeing her daughter again. Then, after six years of separation, Congress proposes "amnesty" legislation that could allow Carmen and Carla to be reunited at last. Filmed across three countries in a captivating cinematic narrative, LA AMERICANA is Carmen's story, and the story of millions of illegal immigrants who must leave their families behind to pursue the elusive American dream. [86 minutes]

  • Push: Madison vs. Madison (#104)

    Madison Park Vocational High School, Boston, Massachusetts. This documentary film chronicles the stories surrounding the players of an inner-city high school basketball team over the course of a potentially historic season. It is as much about the challenges facing inner-city youth and the public school system, as it is about a school's passion for basketball and a coach's devotion to his players. The Madison Park Cardinals are a dysfunctional, but talented high school hoops team, sprung up from the Boston streets and playgrounds. For the players on the team, basketball is oftentimes their escape, their crutch, and their way forward. In the center of this kettle of hope and chaos is Coach Dennis Wilson, a unique hero for our times. A former semi-professional player, philosophizing history teacher and disciplinarian, Coach Wilson chants, harasses and cajoles his charges onto the court and in his classroom as a way to instill lessons that go beyond winning and losing. In the midst of a 19-0 season, on the eve of the state tournament, life for the MP Cardinals, players, coaches, family, and friends, proves to be anything but ordinary. As players struggle to stay in school and on the team, a slew of obstacles oppose them, from poverty to academics, from neighborhood rivalries to city-wide tragedies, they put to trial the team's season motto: "The only team that can beat Madison, is Madison." Before the end of the last whistle and as the team heads into the its' final regular season games and tournament showdowns, MP Pride will be sorely tested. [113 minutes]

  • Passionate Politics (#105)

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  • Trust (#106)

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  • Skydance (#107)

    The Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center: for more than 120 years, Mohawk ironworkers have raised America's modern cityscapes. They are called 'sky walkers' because they walk fearlessly atop steel beams just a foot wide, high above the city. Who are these Mohawk sky walkers? What is their secret for overcoming fear? Has 'sky walking' replaced an ancient rite of passage? Or is it the pure need to adapt in order to survive? And what is their life really like, when every Friday at quitting time, they jump in their cars and make the eight-hour drive up north to their families on the reservation? SKYDANCER is a feature length documentary that takes a provocative look at Indian life in the 21st Century: from the fragile hierarchy on top of the breath-taking steel structures in New York City to life 'on the Rez' where problems like unemployment and crime make it hard to see the pristine beauty of the surrounding lands. The film allows exceptional access to the lives of these ironworkers and in the process offers an intriguingly different perspective on contemporary Native Americans. [116 minutes]

  • My Louisiana Love (#108)

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  • Meat Hooked (#109)

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  • AbUSed: The Postville Raid (#110)

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  • Red Without Blue (#111)

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  • 90 Miles (#112)

    Probing and thoughtful, Juan Carlos Zaldvar's 90 Miles is a personal memoir that offers a rare glimpse into Cuba, a country as mythologized to Americans as the United States is to the rest of the world. The Cuban-born filmmaker recounts the strange fate that brought him as a teenage communist to exile in Miami in 1980 during the dramatic Mariel boatlift. Zaldvar uses news clips, family photos and home movies to depict the emotional journey of an immigrant father and son struggling to understand the historical and individual forces shaping their relationships and identities in a new country. A Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) Co-presentation. A Diverse Voices Project Selection. [116 minutes]

  • All Me: The Winfred Rembert Story (#113)

    With his intensely autobiographical paintings depicting the day-to-day existence of African Americans in the segregated South, Winfred Rembert has preserved an important, if often disturbing, chapter of American history. His indelible images of toiling in the cotton fields, singing in church, dancing in juke joints, or working on a chain gang are especially powerful, not just because he lived every moment, but because he experienced so much of the injustice and bigotry they show as recently as the 1960s and 70s. Now in his sixties, Rembert has developed a growing following among collectors and connoisseurs, and enjoyed a number of tributes and exhibitions of his work. The artist relives his turbulent life, abundantly visualized by his extensive paintings and, in a series of intimate reminiscences, shows us how even the most painful memories can be transformed into something meaningful and beautiful. A glowing portrait of how an artist, and his art, is made, the documentary is also a triumphant saga of race in contemporary America. [86 minutes]

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  • Beyond Belief (#115)

    Susan Retik and Patti Quigley are two ordinary soccer moms living in the affluent suburbs of Boston until tragedy strikes. Rather than turning inwards, grief compels these women to focus on the country where the terrorists who took their husbands' lives were trained: Afghanistan. Over the course of two years, as they cope with loss and struggle to raise their families as single mothers, these extraordinary women dedicate themselves to empowering Afghan widows whose lives have been ravaged by decades of war, poverty and oppression - factors they consider to be the root causes of terrorism. As Susan and Patti make the courageous journey from their comfortable neighborhoods to the most desperate Afghan villages, they discover a powerful bond with each other, an unlikely kinship with widows halfway around the world, and a profound way to move beyond tragedy. From the ruins of the World Trade Center to those of Kabul and back, theirs is a journey of personal strength and international reconciliation, and a testament to the vision that peace can be forged... one woman at a time. [116 minutes]

  • Trembling Before G-D (#116)

    A cinematic portrait of various gay Orthodox Jews who struggle to reconcile their faith and their sexual orientation. [106 minutes]

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    Puerto Rican-American rapper Hamza P?rez pulled himself out of drug dealing and street life 12 years ago and became a Muslim. Now he's moved to Pittsburgh's tough North Side to start a new religious community, rebuild his shattered family and take his message of faith to other young people through hard-hitting hip-hop music. But when the FBI raids his mosque, Hamza must confront the realities of the post-9/11 world, and himself. New Muslim Cool takes viewers on Hamza's ride through streets, slums and jail cells; following his spiritual journey to some surprising places in an America that never stops changing. Produced in association with Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) and the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM). [86 minutes]

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    During his 60-year career as an activist, organizer and "troublemaker, " Bayard Rustin formulated many of the strategies that propelled the American civil rights movement. His passionate belief in Gandhi' s philosophy of nonviolence drew Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders to him in the 1940's and 50's; his practice of those beliefs drew the attention of the FBI and police. But his open homosexuality forced him to remain in the background, marking him again and again as a "brother outsider." Brother Outsider combines rare archival footage - some of it never before broadcast in the U.S. - with provocative interviews to illuminate the life and work of a forgotten prophet of social change. [86 minutes]

  • After Happily Ever After (#119)

    After Happily Ever After is Emmy winning filmmaker Kate Schermerhorn's quirky, funny and movingpersonal quest for the secret to a happy marriage and for answers to some timely questions about an institution which might just be due for some review. This engaging doc features an eclectic mix of long married couples -from a couple who dress alike every day; to a pair of nudists and a newlywed pair of mothers, to a feisty English widow. A lively and world-renowned group of marriage experts - including psychologist John Gottman (who can predict divorce with 90% accuracy), marrriage historian Stephanie Coontz, and a Beverly Hills divorce attorney, ground the film in fact as they piece together the history and possible future and motivations for marriage. Along the way, Schermerhorn chronicles the joys and heartbreaks of her own marriage and finds that even the best advice can?t always guarantee a happily ever after. [86 minutes]

  • 51 Birch Street (#120)

    Documentary filmmaker Doug Block had every reason to believe his parent's 54-year marriage was a good one. So he isn't prepared when, just a few months after his mothers' unexpected death, his 83-year old father, Mike, phones to announce that he's moving to Florida to live with "Kitty", his secretary from 40 years before. Always close to his mother and equally distant from his father, he's stunned and suspicious. When Mike and Kitty marry and sell the longtime family home, Doug returns to suburban Long Island with camera in hand for one last visit. And there, among the lifetime of memories being packed away forever, he discovers 3 large boxes filled with his moms' daily diaries going back 35 years. Realizing he has only a few short weeks before the movers come and his dad will be gone for good, the veteran documentarian sticks around, determined to investigate the mystery of his parents' marriage. Through increasingly candid conversations with family members and friends, and constantly surprising diary revelations, Doug finally comes to peace with two parents who are far more complex and troubled than he ever imagined. Both unexpectedly funny and heartbreaking, 51 Birch Street is the first-person account of Block's unpredictable journey through a whirlwind of dramatic life-changing events: the death of his mother, the uncovering of decades of family secrets, and the ensuing reconciliation with his father. What begins as his own intimate, autobiographical story, soon evolves into a broader meditation on the universal themes of love, marriage, fidelity and the mystery of family. 51 Birch Street spans 60 years and 3 generations, and weaves together hundreds of faded snapshots, 8mm home movies and two decades of verit? footage. The result is a timeless tale of what can happen when our most fundamental assumptions about family are suddenly called into questio" [86 minutes]

  • Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman (1 of 2) (#121)

    In this two part documentary, master storyteller Jennifer Fox lays bare her own turbulent life to penetrate what it means to be a free woman today. As her drama of work and relationships unfolds over four years, our protagonist travels to over seventeen countries to understand how diverse women define their lives when there is no map. Employing an ingenious new camera technique, called "passing the camera", Fox creates a documentary language that mirrors the special way women communicate. Over intimate conversations around kitchen tables from South Africa to Russia, India and Pakistan, she initiates a groundbreaking dialogue among women, illuminating universal concerns across race, class and nationality. [116 minutes]

  • Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman (2 of 2) (#122)

    In this two part documentary, master storyteller Jennifer Fox lays bare her own turbulent life to penetrate what it means to be a free woman today. As her drama of work and relationships unfolds over four years, our protagonist travels to over seventeen countries to understand how diverse women define their lives when there is no map. Employing an ingenious new camera technique, called "passing the camera", Fox creates a documentary language that mirrors the special way women communicate. Over intimate conversations around kitchen tables from South Africa to Russia, India and Pakistan, she initiates a groundbreaking dialogue among women, illuminating universal concerns across race, class and nationality. [146 minutes]

  • Men of Hula (#123)

    This program captures the journey of legendary master teacher Robert Cazimero and the only all-male hula school in Hawai'i as they prepare to compete at the world's largest hula festival. Beyond deep-rooted stereotypes of "grass-skirt girls," the film tells a story of Hawaiian pride as the men celebrate their 30th anniversary in continuing the revival of men dancing hula. [86 minutes]

  • West 47th Street (#124)

    Mental illness is a topic rife with stereotypes and misunderstanding. Made with depth and compassion, West 47th Street is an intimate cin? ma v?rit? portrait of four people struggling to recover from serious mental illness. They've all come to Fountain House, a renowned rehabilitation center in New York City's Hell's Kitchen. Over three years, the film follows its subjects as they deal with drug regimens, health issues, group homes and work programs with courage and humor. [116 minutes]

  • Big Enough (#125)

    In this intimate portrait, several dwarfs who appeared in Jan Krawitz and Thomas Ott's 1982 film Little People welcome the camera into their lives once again. Through a prism of "then and now," the characters in the film confront physical and emotional challenges with humor, grace, and sometimes, frustration. [86 minutes]

  • Follow The Leader (#126)

    A political coming-of-age documentary about three boys who want to be President. Over three life-changing years, each rethinks his beliefs and discovers who he truly wants to be as an adult. [86 minutes]

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