• Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks to Harry Belafonte on the Tonight Show

    The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show Opens in a new tab

    A film by Yoruba Richen 2020

    The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show tells that almost-forgotten story and how this historic week set the stage for the confluence of late-night and politics that we see today. In early 1968, as riots rocked American cities and the Vietnam War tragically escalated, the legendary entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte took over Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” for one whole week.

  • Two lawyers exiting the ACLU building

    The Fight Opens in a new tab

    A film by Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman, and Eli Despres 2020

    At this defining moment in American history, THE FIGHT follows a scrappy team of heroic ACLU lawyers in an electrifying battle over abortion rights, immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights and voting rights.

  • A yellow protest sign that says: "Jail Killer Cops! Justice for Akai Gurley"

    Down a Dark Stairwell Opens in a new tab

    A film by Ursula Liang 2020

    When a Chinese-American police officer kills an unarmed Black man in a darkened stairwell of a New York City housing project, it sets off a firestorm of emotion and calls for accountability. When he becomes the first NYPD officer convicted of an on duty shooting in over a decade, the fight for justice becomes complicated.

  • The words "How to Fix a Primary: Inside and Outsider Campaign" I super-imposed on a photo of Abdul El-Sayed and Bernie Sanders where Bernie is holding up Abdul's hand in victory

    How to Fix a Primary: Inside and Outsider Campaign Opens in a new tab

    A film by Brittany Huckabee 2020

    How to Fix a Primary follows a young doctor named Abdul El-Sayed as he takes on Michigan’s political establishment in a bid to become the first Muslim governor in U.S. history. In telling this story, the film calls into question what is meant by a “fix” — both in the sense of an unfairly rigged outcome and of a potential remedy.

  • A photograph of Agnes Gund speaking to a woman in a yellow scarf

    Aggie Opens in a new tab

    A film by Catherine Gund 2020

    Aggie is a feature-length documentary that explores the nexus of art, race, and justice through the story of art collector and philanthropist Agnes “Aggie” Gund’s life.

  • Black and white photo depicting Chinatown storefront selling meat and vegetable in San Francisco California. Date: 1895

    Asian Americans Opens in a new tab

    2020

    Asian Americans is a five-hour film series that delivers a bold, fresh perspective on a history that matters today, more than ever. As America becomes more diverse, and more divided while facing unimaginable challenges, how do we move forward together? Told through intimate personal stories, the series will cast a new lens on U.S. history and the ongoing role that Asian Americans have played.

  • Group of Black Florida migrants on their way to Cranberry, NJ to pick potatoes

    Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America Opens in a new tab

    A film by Ric Burns and Gretchen Sullivan Sorin 2020

    Discover how the advent of the automobile brought new mobility and freedom for African Americans but also exposed them to discrimination and deadly violence, and how that history resonates today.

  • A photograph of a caregiver feeding a baby with a bottle

    Through the Night Opens in a new tab

    A film by Loira Limbal 2020

    Through the Night is an intimate cinema vérité portrait of three working mothers whose lives all intersect at a 24-hour daycare center: a mother working the overnight shift as an essential worker at a hospital; another holding down three jobs just to support her family; and a woman who for over two decades has cared for the children of parents with nowhere else to turn. A tender portrait of titanic strength, love, and selflessness, Through the Night showcases the multiplicity of “women’s work” — paid, underpaid, and unpaid; emotional and physical; domestic and career-oriented — all while negotiating the terms of a dignified existence under the three arrows of racism, sexism, and capitalism in America.

  • Movie poster for DISCLOSURE

    DISCLOSURE Opens in a new tab

    A film by Sam Feder 2020

    DISCLOSURE is an unprecedented, eye-opening look at transgender depictions in film and television, revealing how Hollywood simultaneously reflects and manufactures our deepest anxieties about gender. Leading trans thinkers and creatives, including Laverne Cox, Lilly Wachowski, Yance Ford, Mj Rodriguez, Jamie Clayton, and Chaz Bono, share their reactions and resistance to some of Hollywood’s most beloved moments. Grappling with films like A Florida Enchantment (1914), Dog Day Afternoon, The Crying Game, and Boys Don’t Cry, and with shows like The Jeffersons, The L-Word, and Pose, they trace a history that is at once dehumanizing, yet also evolving, complex, and sometimes humorous. What emerges is a fascinating story of dynamic interplay between trans representation on screen, society’s beliefs, and the reality of trans lives. Reframing familiar scenes and iconic characters in a new light, director Sam Feder invites viewers to confront unexamined assumptions, and shows how what once captured the American imagination now elicit new feelings. DISCLOSURE provokes a startling revolution in how we see and understand trans people.

  • Welcome to Chechnya

    A film by David France 2020

    The searing documentary WELCOME TO CHECHNYA chronicles the current anti-LGBTQ persecution raging in the Russian republic of Chechnya and shadows a group of brave activists risking their lives to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ campaign in the Russian republic of Chechnya. With unfettered access and a commitment to protecting anonymity, this documentary exposes these underreported atrocities, while highlighting an extraordinary group of people confronting deadly brutality. 

  • John Lewis with fellow protestors at Edmund Pettus Bridge, in JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE, a Magnolia Pictures release. © Alabama Department of Archies and History. Donated by Alabama Media Group. Photo by Tom Lankford, Birmingham News. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

    John Lewis: Good Trouble Opens in a new tab

    A film by Dawn Porter 2020

    “John Lewis: Good Trouble” is an intimate account of legendary U.S. Representative John Lewis’ life, legacy and more than 60 years of extraordinary activism from the bold teenager on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement to the legislative powerhouse he was throughout his career. After Lewis petitioned Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to help integrate a segregated school in his hometown of Troy, Alabama, King sent “the boy from Troy” a round trip bus ticket to meet with him. From that meeting onward, Lewis became one of King’s closest allies. He organized Freedom Rides that left him bloodied or jailed, and stood at the front lines in the historic marches on Washington and Selma. He never lost the spirit of the “boy from Troy” and called on his fellow Americans to get into “good trouble” until his passing on July 17, 2020.

  • A black and white photograph of Vernon Jordan and others sitting at a table

    Vernon Jordan: Make It Plain Opens in a new tab

    A film by Dawn Porter 2020

    Vernon Jordan: Make It Plain explores Vernon Jordan’s rise from the segregated South, his tenure as the head of several civil rights organizations, and his current position as a partner at a corporate law firm and financial behemoth Lazard.