Greenhouse Pictures

Ballet Tech: The Documentary

2008-02-14T17:17:18Z

New York City's Ballet Tech is a truly unique institution in the world of dance and education--a 4th thru 12th grade public school that has a specific focus on graduating professional ballet dancers. Nearly ninety percent of the students are black or Latino and come from diverse neighborhoods found in all five boroughs. Ballet Tech: The Documentary will follow four students over a course of a year both in school and at home. We will watch as these kids grow as students, dancers, and individuals. Some will go on to be dancers, others will drop out, a few will be asked to leave, but together all of their stories will tell the unique and engaging story of Ballet Tech.

A Man Ain't Nothin' But a Man: The Living Legacy of John Henry

2008-02-14T04:17:43Z

A Man Ain't Nothin' But a Man explores the American folk hero, John Henry and his enduring presence in our culture over the last 130 years. The film will trace the journey of this legend, from its beginning - at the Big Bend tunnel in West Virginia - where this former slave made his heroic stand against a machine. Whether John Henry ranked as a hero or an object lesson, his isolated gesture unwittingly transported him to the center of America's folk consciousness. A Man Ain't Nothin' But a Man digs deeply into the African American and American experience, looking at our own dreams realized or disappointed, our highest aspirations, and furthers our ongoing process of self-definition.

Hard Road Home

2008-02-13T18:18:11Z

Odds are that if you go to prison and are lucky enough to get out, you'll be going back sometime soon. Julio Medina, however, beat the odds. A drug-dealing gang leader when he entered prison, Julio left 12 years later a changed man. He created Exodus Transitional Community, a program in Harlem dedicated to breaking the cycle of incarceration that ensnares so many. The trick to Exodus is that its staff knows firsthand what it's like to go to jail. They're all ex-cons - a badass group of do-gooders who reach out to their clients like nobody else can. HARD ROAD HOME tells the story of this high-risk, high-drama world and the extraordinary task of turning around the fate of any person born into it.

The Perfect Life

2008-02-13T04:11:22Z

"The Perfect Life" began in 1992, the year Sam Lee moved from England to teach Second grade in Harlem. Ten years later, and now a filmmaker, Sam went back to look for the kids who had once inspired her and who should be entering their final year of high school. What she found were street-smart teenagers eager to share their experiences - both good and bad - with their former teacher, with someone who cared to listen. The result is a documentary film that zooms in on three main characters as they navigate their final year, or what should be their final year of High School.

Occupation: Dreamland

2008-02-11T20:30:11Z

Occupation: Dreamland is an unflinchingly candid portrait of a squad of American soldiers deployed in the doomed Iraq city of Falluja during the winter of 2004. A collective study of the soldiers unfolds as they patrol an environment of low-intensity conflict creeping steadily towards catastrophe. Through the squads activities Occupation: Dreamland provides a vital glimpse into the last days of Falluja. The film documents the city's waning stability before a final series of military assaults began in the spring of 2004 that effectively destroyed it.

Filmmakers Garrett Scott and Ian Olds were given access to all operations of the Army's 82nd Airborne. They lived with the unit 24/7, giving voice to soldiers held under a strict code of authority as they cope with an ambiguous, often lethal environment. The result is a revealing, sometimes surprising look at Army life, operations and the complexity of American war in the 21st century.

Pack Strap Swallow

2008-02-10T23:41:54Z

pack, strap, swallow is a feature-length documentary that takes us inside the walls of a women's prison in Ecuador where we meet five foreign nationals incarcerated on drug trafficking charges. Hailing from the U.S, Europe and South Africa, the women reveal how they got there and how their lives persevere behind bars. Through the lens of this small group of women, who were recruited --in some cases unwittingly -- as drug mules, the film offers an unflinching, sometimes shocking picture of life on the other side. Pack, strap, swallow opens a window into the reality of life for foreign prisoners in El Inca, the woman's prison in Quito and reveals the consequences of that decisive moment when they packed, strapped or swallowed narcotics.

The Federation of Black Cowboys

2008-02-09T17:48:07Z

East New York, Brooklyn - the city's most notorious gangland has more than its fair share of the bad and the ugly. On this urban frontier, the good guys are The Federation of Black Cowboys. Seven days a week these modern-day wranglers can be found at the Cedar Lane Stables, fulfilling their mission to pass down the legacy of the black cowboys to inner city youth. The documentary leads us to a world on the other side of the fence where respect for life is taught through horsemanship. The stories of these cowboys - ranging from 16-year-old Mikey, whose delinquent life has been transformed through his discovery of the stables, to 90-year-old Ben, a former rodeo champion who rode with Will Rogers - reveal how the code of the West flourishes in a tough Eastern urban environment.

156 Rivington

2008-02-08T16:44:33Z

156 Rivington' focuses its attention on a building in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. This particular building, also known as ABC No Rio, has, for more than 20 years, been home to an eclectic group of artists, punks, activists, anarchists and other groups mainstream America would class as "fringe."

In the 1980s, 156 Rivington was an abandoned building in New York's depressed Lower East Side (Loisaida to black and Puerto Rican residents). Angered at the way the city was embracing gentrification, several renegade artists seized the space and set up an installation called "The Real Estate Show." Though the city closed it down after a day, the action drew citywide attention. Soon, an alternative art and political organizing collective, called ABC No Rio after a dilapidated neighborhood sign that once read "Abogado Notario," was born.

Slumming It: Myth and Culture on the Bowery

2008-02-07T23:15:21Z

Slumming It: Myth and Culture on the Bowery traces the rich, 200-year history of New York City's Bowery, examining the myriad ways in which the street and its denizens were instrumental in New York's evolution as an archetypal modern-day metropolis. Featuring interviews with historians and present-day residents, as well as artfully interwoven archival images and motion pictures, the documentary juxtaposes today's Bowery with the characters, locations, and stories that, more than a century ago, formed the extraordinary fabric of this influential--and infamous--boulevard.

Hell House

2008-02-06T23:54:39Z

Hell Houses are a distinctly American phenomenon which began in 1990 just outside of Dallas, at the Trinity Assembly of God Church. The original Hell House was conceived as a modern-day fire-and-brimstone sermon. Today, this religious ceremony of sorts is replete with actors, extensive lighting equipment and full audio-visual tech crews.

Inside the Hell House, tour guides dressed as demons take visitors from room to room to view depictions of school massacres, date rape, AIDS-related deaths, fatal drunk driving crashes, and botched abortions. Hell Houses have now spread to hundreds of churches worldwide. With full access to the behind-the-scenes action, HELL HOUSE follows the process from the first script meeting until the last of the 10,000 visitors passes through the Hell House doors. The movie gives a verite window into the whole process of creating this over-the-top sermon, while showing an intimate portrait of the people who fervently believe its message. The film also features a score by Bubba and Matthew Kadane, formerly of the band Bedhead.

Boomtown

2008-02-05T16:51:32Z

Boomtown chronicles the daily challenges faced by members of Washington State's Suquamish Tribe when they take the annual plunge into "fireworks season"--a five-week selling period that culminates on the night of the 4th of July. Here, thrill seekers and pyromaniacs gather on the reservation for an unpredictably explosive show. Along the fringe of the fiery free-for-all, Native American vendors hustle to sell every last rocket and bomb from their temporary fireworks stands. As one stand owner says, "The 4th of July is Christmas to the Indians."

Questioning Faith

2008-02-05T00:25:27Z

In these times, what's a young preacher to preach? After experiencing life at its most devastating, how can anyone believe in God, or anything for that matter? And what is it about human nature that leads one person to find religion in the midst of such chaos and another to lose it?

These questions, and more, are explored in the documentary film QUESTIONING FAITH: CONFESSIONS OF A SEMINARIAN. Director Macky Alston tries to discover how people find meaning in life when absolutely nothing seems to make sense. Alston turns his camera on religion in these difficult times, employing an emotionally evocative style and engaging people with a wide range of religious backgrounds and beliefs, from born-again Christians to Muslims, from atheists to Buddhists to Orthodox Jews.

At stake for Alston is whether or not he has the faith to be a minister, but for everyone in the film, the challenge is to weather the worst that life has to offer, to support each other in that context, whatever their beliefs, and to affirm life, even in the face of tragedy.

Escuela

2008-02-03T17:05:35Z

Escuela (School) is a documentary that follows Liliana Luis over the course of her freshman year in high school. Liliana is a Mexican-American teenager, rushing straight into the turbulence of puberty as she straddles her Mexican heritage and 21st century American culture. But as one of eight children in a migrant farm worker family, Liliana faces additional obstacles. During the school year her family moves three times, forcing her to start the arduous process of settling into classes, keeping up with school work and finding friends over and over again--a process she's experienced every school year, all her life. It's a game of catch-up that Liliana and her migrant peers are trapped in as their parents try to keep their families afloat through work on the agricultural circuit. As Liliana navigates the difficult terrains of high school, puberty, and migrant life, her story opens a revealing and personal lens through which to view the complex issues surrounding education for migrant students and the public school system in which they inhabit.

Caesar's Park

2008-02-02T17:28:53Z

Eight neighbors, who have lived next to each other for more than 50 years warm up to the camera as they get to know their new neighbor, filmmaker Sarah Price.
Jeannie is a mid-seventies Polish war bride who playfully harasses the camera and neighbors with obscenities, while complaining that her time is running out. Next door to her is Tillie (94), who recently suffered a paralyzing stroke and is the mother of Lois (63) and Diane (57), sisters that have lived in the same house their entire lives and now take care of their mother. Next to them are Don and Dolores, an older married couple that met while working in the city water department. Another neighbor, Richard, is a disabled, recovering alcoholic who has found a new love for snapshot photography. On the other side of the neighborhood is Charles, a still-traumatized Vietnam veteran who can always be found sitting on his front porch with his guitar or harmonica.

Drifting through a year of seasonal interviews and over-the-fence activities, Caesar's Park is a meditative portrait of one Milwaukee neighborhood.

Worst Possible Illusion: The Curiosity Cabinet of Vik Muniz

2008-02-01T17:35:53Z

Worst Possible Illusion is an intimate look at the creative life and work of one of the art world's most heralded young photographers. Its subject, Brazilian artist Vik Muniz.

Worst Possible Illusion takes the viewer on a magical, globe-hopping journey designed to amuse, educate, and inspire. We join the artist as he travels from his studio in Brooklyn, New York, to his native Brazil; we journey to Chicago, his first home in the United States, where we find out how working as a gas-station attendant and in a grocery store led to a career as a professional artist; and we travel with him to Arizona, where we witness his take on the classic earthwork.