An aerial journey through California's coastline.
Social & External
The people behind it
Every Christmas, Bruce Mertz lights up the neighborhood with the 50,000 lights covering his house. For decades he's obsessively added to his display, creating beautiful, towering fixtures that people travel across the country to see. In this offbeat, touching portrait, we learn what drives him, and discover how a kid who grew up on a farm with no electricity became Mr. Christmas.
This is the mockumentary describing the rise of infamous candy bootlegger Sweet-E (Eddie)
The adventures of a family who head west to the California gold fields in the 1850s.
Gigantic machine combs beach in southern California and retrieves articles lost in sand; synthetic gems made by new chemical process; aviation school holds classes in grounded transport plane; how seaweed is processed for scientific use.
The Center for Ecoliteracy advances school meal innovation and is pleased to introduce its California Food for California Kids initiative. Using the acclaimed Rethinking School Lunch planning framework and Cooking with California Food in K-12 Schools cookbook and professional development resource, the Center convenes food service directors from across California to support and inspire their work providing more fresh and freshly-prepared food for school children.
CMC’s visionary leaders and artists to celebrate one of San Francisco’s most-revered and longest-running community arts programs.
The mission of Community Music Center is to make high quality music accessible to all people, regardless of financial status.
Named for the man many consider the father of the modern environmental movement, the David Brower Center was founded on the idea that when diverse people engage, dream, and work together, they are more effective at finding solutions to today’s most pressing environmental and social problems.
Based in the Western Addition neighborhood in San Francisco, CommunityGrows teaches cooking and gardening in local elementary schools and after school programs, and provides job skills to more than 1,300 low-income youth.
Take a musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with brothers Ron & Russell Mael, celebrating the inspiring legacy of Sparks: your favorite band’s favorite band.
A freak hurricane hits Los Angeles, causing man-eating sharks to be scooped up in tornadoes and flooding the city with shark-infested seawater. Surfer and bar-owner Fin sets out with his friends Baz and Nova to rescue his estranged wife April and teenage daughter Claudia.
Palm Springs, a small desert oasis 100 miles East of Los Angeles was Sinatra's true home for 50 years. During his brief yet turbulent marriage to Ava Gardner his Palm Springs home was center stage. For the rest of his life, the Rancho Mirage compound on Frank Sinatra Drive, was the home he called "My Heaven". Palm Springs still feels the ghost of Frank Sinatra.
The Way of the Psychonaut explores the life and work of Stanislav Grof, Czech-born psychiatrist and psychedelic psychotherapy pioneer. Stan’s quest for knowledge and insights into the healing power of non-ordinary states of consciousness, influenced the discipline of psychology and profoundly changed many individual lives. One of those transformed by Stan is filmmaker Susan Hess Logeais. The documentary utilizes Susan’s personal existential crisis as a gateway to Grof’s impact, from the micro to the macro.
For decades, Barbara Dane lent her stellar singing voice to social-justice movements in the Bay Area and beyond, garnering an impressive FBI file along the way. Deeply respected by fellow luminaries in folk, blues and jazz, Dane built a far-reaching legacy with music, activism, and love. As Maureen Gosling’s celebratory portrait reveals, early solidarity with those suffering racial and economic injustice sparked Dane’s passion to use her talent to sustain marginalized people. Rather than chase stardom, she followed her own maternal instincts to root herself and her family among generations of activist performers. Bonnie Raitt, Jane Fonda and other notables attest to Dane’s unique way of shaping and being shaped by tumultuous social revolutions from the 1950s on. Nearing 90, Dane triumphantly tours with piano virtuoso Tammy Hall to celebrate a life of staying awake and connected, true to her ideals. One star among many illuminates so much.
Two unhoused men turned community leaders— John and LaMonté —organize their neighbors in the face of displacement, addiction, and a failing social system.
One filmmaker's exploration of natural light in California and its influence on people's lives.
A feature-length documentary that captures the passion of famous hashishin, Frenchy Cannoli, and his pursuit of quality hashish within the context of a changing legal landscape in California's cannabis industry.
Buchanan Mall is five consecutive blocks of public parkland in the heart of San Francisco’s Western Addition. 7,000 low-income residents who live adjacent to Buchanan Mall face acute challenges: recent, rapid gentrification and decades-long cycles of unemployment and mass incarceration. Against this backdrop, a remarkable new story has unfolded. This predominantly African-American community has come together to re-imagine and reclaim Buchanan Mall as connective tissue, repairing the neighborhood’s fractured social fabric, celebrating local culture, creating small businesses, and advocating for safe, affordable housing.
You have never seen the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Pacific Coastline like this before! Take to the skies for an exhilarating journey in the film Over California. Get a unique perspective on the vast and changing landscape of the Golden State through powerful high-altitude images that reveal Californias unique beauty. Soar through blue skies, among ancient redwood forests, around snow-capped peaks, over deserts and coastline, and above glittering cities all set to an original soundtrack. Over California features rare views and stunning cinematography of the states most celebrated landscapes, from deserts to vineyards and everything in between, including Disneyland and the Golden Gate Bridge. Enjoy the imagery as you learn all about Californias history and heritage.
“Last Men Standing,” the first feature-length documentary from The San Francisco Chronicle, Northern California’s largest newspaper was selected for entry into a series of prestigious LGBT festivals being held in the U.S. and Canada this spring. One of the few newspapers to write, direct and produce a feature-length documentary, this film follows the lives and experiences of eight long-term AIDS survivors.
A documentary on the making of the three Godfather films, with interviews and recollections from the film makers and cast. This feature also includes the original screen tests of some of the actors for "The Godfather" film, and some candid moments on the set of "The Godfather: Part III."
In an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.
A look behind the lens of Christopher Nolan's space epic.
Brilliant, long in-the-works story of the life and art of the world's greatest comedian and the cinema's first genius, Charlie Chaplin. Produced, written and directed by renowned film critic Richard Schickel.
In one single, epic camera move we journey from Earth's surface to the outermost reaches of the universe on a grand tour of the cosmos, to explore newborn stars, distant planets, black holes and beyond.
“Showrunners” is the first ever feature length documentary film to explore the fascinating world of US television showrunners and the creative forces aligned around them. These are the people responsible for creating, writing and overseeing every element of production on one of the United State’s biggest exports – television drama and comedy series. Often described as the most complex job in the entertainment business, a showrunner is the chief writer / producer on a TV series and, in most instances, the show’s creator. Battling daily between art and commerce, showrunners manage every aspect of a TV show’s development and production: creative, financial and logistical.
Go behind the scenes with stars, puppeteers and creators as they bring Jim Henson's magical world of Thra back to life in a sweeping fantasy series.
Journey into the extraordinary world of "The Witcher" — from casting the roles to Jaskier's catchy song — in this behind-the-scenes look at the series.
A group of British children aged 7 from widely ranging backgrounds are interviewed about a range of subjects. The filmmakers plan to re-interview them at 7 year intervals to track how their lives and attitudes change as they age.
Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.
A string of threatening emails escalates into a revenge plot involving a newly married US marshal and his ex-girlfriend.
Join the likes of Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Florence Pugh, and Vincent D’Onofrio as they reveal how Marvel Studios’ “Hawkeye” was conceived and created. Witness firsthand what it took to pull off the show’s pulse-pounding action set pieces, and discover how iconic characters from the pages of Marvel Comics such as Kate Bishop were adapted and brought to life for the six-episode series.
The life and career of an actor, artist, and icon. His own journey through his own camera.
Captured during Billie Eilish's sold-out world tour, a concert experience from one of the most celebrated and successful artists of her generation, presented in immersive 3D.
Al Pacino's deeply-felt rumination on Shakespeare's significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of "Richard III."
In 1997, Louis Theroux made a documentary about the world of male porn performers in Los Angeles. 15 years later, he returns to find a business struggling with the deluge of free porn on the internet. Louis revisits some of the original programme's contributors as well as meeting the latest crop of porn performers dreaming of porn stardom.
In a warehouse in the heart of Los Angeles, a dwindling handful of devoted craftspeople maintain more than 80,000 student musical instruments, the largest remaining workshop in America of its kind. Meet four unforgettable characters whose broken-and-repaired lives have been dedicated to bringing so much more than music to the schoolchildren of this city.
Life Is But a Dream is a HBO documentary about the life of US singer Beyoncé Knowles during the years 2011 and 2012 and on the recording of her fifth album. The film was directed by Beyoncé herself. The film shows Beyoncé from intimate moments of her pregnancy to behind the scenes and rehearsals of the main concerts of that time.
The life of Mr. Spock, as well as that of Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played him for almost fifty years, written and directed by his son: Adam.
A celebration of the legendary band that revolutionized pop music, and the iconic, harmonious sound they created that personified the California dream, captivating fans for generations and generations to come.
