Darrell Issa

The Great Postal Heist follows director Jay Galione's father, a 30-year US Post Office clerk, who was harassed, threatened, and fired for standing up for his colleagues. A moving indictment of the toxic culture and push to downsize, the documentary chronicles the journey of postal workers, experts, and advocates who experienced firsthand the abuses in the oldest federal agency in America and stood up against the USPS's notoriously violent work environment, featuring interviews with Ralph Nader and Richard Wolff. The atmosphere was a result of systematic dismantling and privatization of the trillion-dollar mail industry by lobbyists and politicians who seek to make profits at the expense of the mental health, living wages, and working conditions of their employees.

For 40 years, the community-organizing group ACORN advocated for America’s poorest communities, while its detractors accused it of promoting the worst of liberal policies. Riding high on the momentum of Barack Obama’s presidential victory in 2008, ACORN was at its political zenith when a hidden-camera video sparked a national scandal and brought it crashing down. The story involves voter fraud, a fake prostitute, and the rise of Breitbart.com.

In this documentary, filmmakers Daniel B. Gold and Judith Helfand (Blue Vinyl) follow a troupe of self-proclaimed global warming "warriors" on a mission to get the world to care about rising temperatures and melting polar ice caps. Taking a topic that's inherently serious and applying their signature blend of humor and emotional heft, Gold and Helfand advance the environmental dialogue in a surprisingly entertaining way.