The House that Love Built

In 1980s Brooklyn, a resilient family, evicted from public housing, refuses to succumb to homelessness or welfare. Instead, they construct their own home-one scrap of discarded wood at a time.

We Can Make

We are in a housing crisis. We urgently need new ideas. Step forward… We Can Make. We are taken to Knowle West, South Bristol, a 100-year-old council-built estate and one of the most deprived areas in Europe. The spirit in the neighbourhood is unbroken though and this community are taking a different route to affordable housing.

Nine Miles West

Separated by just a few stops on the green line, nine miles west of the bustling financial epicenter of the Chicago Loop is Austin, one of the most impoverished and underserved neighborhoods in the city. Surrounded by violence, gangs, guns and drugs in his daily life, a graduating high school senior reflects on his experience growing up in this neighborhood and how the traumas associated with it shaped his life.

Chicago at the Crossroad

While gun violence was on the decline in most major US cities, why did it continue to increase in Chicago's segregated communities? What is known about the systems that created the problem, the laws that isolated it, and the policies that abandoned it? Using dramatic footage, including interviews with residents on the front lines over the last 15 years, this documentary opens a rare historical window into the systematic creation of poverty stricken communities plagued by gun violence. 

Crust Fund Pizza: The Motion Picture

This documentary short profiles John Carruthers' Crust Fund Pizza project, which slings alley pizzas for the benefit of the people who make Chicago a better place to live. Benefiting a variety of local nonprofits, since August 2020 Crust Fund Pizza has raised more than $115,000–fueled by word of mouth, social media FOMO, and Chicagoans’ obsession with all things pizza.

Farewell Oak Street

This documentary presents a before-and-after picture of people in a large-scale public housing project in Toronto. Due to a housing shortage, they were forced to live in squalid, dingy flats and ramshackle dwellings on a crowded street in Regent Park North; now they have access to new, modern housing developments designed to offer them privacy, light and space.

The Cliff Dwellers of America

The first picture of the new Paramount-Burton Holmes Travel pictures recount Mr. Holmes' motor trip of the summer of 1913 through the more picturesque and interesting portions of New Mexico. As the journey leads through the lands of the former cliff-dwellers and former and present occupants of these prehistoric apartment houses called pueblos, Mr. Holmes chose to begin his trip at Chicago, there to see the cliff-dwellers of today threading in countless throngs the deep "Canyons" flanked on each side by the abodes of the modern "Cliff-dwellers." This is but a momentary glimpse, as the train is seen taking the audience to Santa Fe. From Santa Fe the travelers are taken to the famous pueblo of Taos and thence to the even more celebrated pueblo of Acoma, which was just as old, to all appearances, when the Spanish Conquistadores came up out of Old Mexico in 1740, to convert the Indians and conquer the country in the name of their King...

Some Day We’ll All Be Free: A Celebration of the American Dream

A student film about learning TV and radio production at Roberto Clemente High School in Chicago. From the Community TV Network (CTVN) collection.

Dandara: Enquanto Morar for um Privilégio, Ocupar é um Direito

Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story

The real life story of the events surrounding the fight for and against public housing and racial integration in Yonkers, New York in the 1980s as portrayed in the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero.

Ghar Mein Shehar Hona

via print and film, love and music, state propaganda and people's archives, five-year plans and Emergency.

West Estate

West Estate spotlights the severe housing problems in Hong Kong, taking the spirit of resistance outside of the protest. The damaged walls in the cage-like tenements reflect the many forms of social injustice as well as Hongkongers’ widespread sense of rootlessness. Connecting three stories from different households like puzzle pieces, the film depicts people’s despair over issues of family, sexuality, love, and freedom.

Not So Much a Facelift…

A short documentary exploring the UK’s 1970s approach to urban renewal through General Improvement Areas. Mixing location footage from Blackburn, Norwich, and Oxford with unexpectedly quirky presentation, the film contrasts small-scale housing improvements with the sweeping redevelopment schemes of the post-war era. Produced as a government public information film and shown at meetings between planners, architects, and residents, it stands as a modest, humane entry in Britain’s civic-minded documentary tradition.

Sewage

Amid the traffic on the Marginal roadway and the pollution of the Tietê River, a surveillance camera records the presence of people who improvise shelters in storm drain tunnels.

Unarmed Verses

Toronto filmmaker Charles Officer profiles the young people of Villaways Park, a housing project on brink of historic change.

Vita di borgata

Cronache dell'eternità

Becoming a Rose

This Rose will forever be Chicago Red.

The Boss and the Bulldozer

Chicago mayor Richard J. “Boss” Daley had a lofty vision for Chicago’s downtown. Over the course of his 21 years in office, Daley’s ambitious urban renewal initiatives were the foundation of the city’s infrastructure and at the same time displaced the poor and people of color while perpetuating racial segregation. Audio-narrated descriptions are available.

Share the Care

An anti-littering public service announcement from the Chicago Park District

Come See Me in the Good Light

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.

The Captains

The Captains is a feature-length documentary film written and directed by William Shatner. The film follows Shatner as he interviews the other actors who have portrayed starship captains in the Star Trek franchise.

The Decline of Western Civilization Part III

A musical study of Los Angeles in the late 90s, where homeless teens roam the streets and profess to live a punk lifestyle of music, drugs, and flouting authority.

Naqoyqatsi

A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.

A Toxic Love Story

A string of threatening emails escalates into a revenge plot involving a newly married US marshal and his ex-girlfriend.

In the Realms of the Unreal

In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along with hundreds of paintings depicting The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glodeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Cased by the Child Slave Rebellion.

Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story

Unravel the case of Utah therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, whose child abuse arrest with parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke exposed a twisted tale of manipulation.

My Mom Jayne

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.

S4: The Bob Lazar Story

Over 35 years after Bob Lazar's revelations, this documentary exposes secrets of a facility the government still denies. Featuring Lazar's testimony, recreations, and new evidence, it reopens a case that continues to spark global curiosity

Oprah Winfrey Presents: When They See Us Now

Oprah Winfrey talks with the exonerated men once known as the Central Park Five, plus the cast and producers who tell their story in "When They See Us."

Avatar: The Deep Dive - A Special Edition of 20/20

An inside look at one of the most anticipated movie sequels ever with James Cameron and cast.

To Be Takei

Over seven decades, actor and activist George Takei journeyed from a World War II internment camp to the helm of the Starship Enterprise, and then to the daily news feeds of five million Facebook fans. Join George and his husband, Brad, on a wacky and profound trek for life, liberty, and love.

McQueen

Alexander McQueen's rags-to-riches story is a modern-day fairy tale, laced with the gothic. Mirroring the savage beauty, boldness and vivacity of his design, this documentary is an intimate revelation of McQueen's own world, both tortured and inspired, which celebrates a radical and mesmerizing genius of profound influence.

The Last Waltz

Martin Scorsese's documentary intertwines footage from The Band's incredible farewell tour with probing backstage interviews and featured performances by Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, and other rock legends.

American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince

Martin Scorsese spends an evening with larger-than-life raconteur Steven Prince—a former drug addict, road manager for Neil Diamond, and actor—as he recounts stories from his colorful life.

Secrets of the Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey

An inside look at the making of the movie Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), featuring footage and exclusive interviews with the actors and filmmakers.

Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)

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.

Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten

As the front man of the Clash from 1977 onwards, Joe Strummer changed people's lives forever. Four years after his death, his influence reaches out around the world, more strongly now than ever before. In "The Future Is Unwritten", from British film director Julien Temple, Joe Strummer is revealed not just as a legend or musician, but as a true communicator of our times. Drawing on both a shared punk history and the close personal friendship which developed over the last years of Joe's life, Julien Temple's film is a celebration of Joe Strummer - before, during and after the Clash.

Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction

An impressionistic portrait of the iconic actor Harry Dean Stanton comprised of intimate moments, film clips from some of his 250 films and his renditions of American folk songs.

Looking for Richard

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."