Paula M. Froehle

With his signature gospel sound on the Hammond B3, Billy Preston doublehandedly elevated the greatest artists of his time – from the Beatles to the Rolling Stones, from Aretha Franklin to Eric Clapton, from Ray Charles to Barbra Streisand to Sly and the Family Stone. In our film, we explore Billy's career and influence on generations of musicians, as he scored several number one hits of his own and became one of the most sought-after musicians in the world. He did all of this as a soul divided -- by his deep roots in the church, in constant conflict with his identity as a gay Black man, searching for a family of his own that would accept him for who he was.

The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) — a group of current and former Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island — takes on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize.

Shari Lewis was a dancer, singer, and magician but is best known as the ventriloquist behind sock puppets Charlie Horse, Hush Puppy and, of course, Lamb Chop. This lively doc charts the life, loves, and career hits and misses of this spunky perfectionist, who forever changed the face of children’s television.

In the competitive world of high school mariachi, the musicians from the South Texas borderlands reign supreme. Under the guidance of coach Abel Acuña, the teenage captains of Edinburg North High School’s acclaimed team must turn a shoestring budget and diverse crew of inexperienced musicians into state champions.

Abigail Disney looks at America's dysfunctional and unequal economy and asks why the American Dream has worked for the wealthy, yet is a nightmare for people born with less. As a way to imagine a more equitable future, Disney uses her family's story to explore how this systemic injustice took hold.

As the brutal Chicago winter draws near, Deirdre, Helen and Jennefer—avid open water swimmers—make a pact to continue their daily sunrise swim through the snow and ice. This commitment becomes their salvation from lockdown and helps alleviate each of their personal struggles as the pandemic rages on.

A documentary following JR's artwork giving a global voice to everyday people.

A virtuoso jazz pianist and film composer tracks his family's lineage through his 91-year-old grandfather from Jim Crow Florida to the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

은 밈(meme, 인터넷상에 재미난 말을 적어 넣어서 다시 포스팅한 그림이나 사진)으로 유명해진 캐릭터 ‘페페’가 온라인 공간에서 이용자들에 의해 끝없이 재생산되어 원작의 의미를 잃어가는 과정을 보여준다. 페페의 원작자 맷 퓨리는 자신의 캐릭터가 혐오와 테러의 상징으로까지 변질되어 걷잡을 수 없이 퍼져나가기 시작하자 자신의 SNS를 통해 페페의 죽음을 공표한다. 익명성 뒤에 숨은 다수의 사용자는 계속해서 페페를 비도덕적 표현의 수단으로 사용한다. 도덕성을 외면한 다수와 홀로 맞서 싸우는 맷 퓨리의 모습은 위태롭고 외로워 보인다.

The history of New York City's Apollo Theater in Harlem is given the full treatment.

A rag-tag group of undocumented youth – Dreamers – deliberately get detained by Border Patrol in order to infiltrate a shadowy, for-profit detention center.

Documentary examining the 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke and the cover-up that ensued.

This in-depth look into the powerhouse industries of big-game hunting, breeding and wildlife conservation in the U.S. and Africa unravels the complex consequences of treating animals as commodities.

Fever is a visually dense, poetic exploration of the bond between a mother and child and the interruption of illness. Inspired by the open creativity and free-association of children, extreme close-ups of quotidian objects, distorted “synchronous” sounds, and floating text intermesh to convey the fluctuation between security and danger, confidence and doubt when a child falls ill.

Teacher Wang works as a 'mistress dispeller' in China, hired to break up affairs by any means necessary. Through one of her cases, we explore the ways class, capital, and culture collide to shape romantic relationships in contemporary China.

A documentary film following the rise of Ebony and Jet and their growth into a brand with a readership base in the millions which has had an undeniable effect on American culture.