The Beauty Academy of Kabul,
Liz Mermin

After 1996, in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Taliban forbade women to work outside the home and required them to appear in public fully covered by a burka. In 2003, following the overthrow of the Taliban, six hairdressers from the United States -three of them refugees from Afghanistan-open a beauty school in Kabul to train Afghan women in make-up, hairstyling, and business ownership. With incredible access to the lives of these women, filmmaker Liz Mermin follows the Beauty Academy from its opening through the graduation of its first class, providing us with an unusual and intriguing look into a society in the midst of profound cultural transformation.

The Color of Love, 
Maryam Keshavarz

One week each year Iranians stay out all night. Women abandon legal curfews. Men weep. Communities gather to mourn their saint's death, ask that wishes be granted, give thanks for prayers answered. While this week showcases Iran's most restrictive religious elements, it offers openings for this culture's most intimate connections. Is a change in the perception of love inherently political because it affects individuals and their view of the world?

Using the weeklong Ashura festival as a framework, THE COLOR OF LOVE documents the changing face of love and politics in the ancient city of Shiraz. As the older generation performs cathartic rituals, the city's youth are left to their own devices. They spend this time cruising the public squares, hoping for a sideways glance or a brief note from a potential lover. The film's 29-year-old, New York-based director investigates the way these shifting mores have surfaced in a culture entrenched in traditional values and how they have been influenced by western culture in the form of satellite television and the Internet. By interviewing different generations of Iranians, Keshavarz attempts to uncover how ideas of love, romance, marriage and sex have evolved in a society where politics and culture are inextricably linked.

The Education of Shelby Knox
Rose Rosenblatt and Marion Lipschutz

This film takes us through four tumultuous years in the life of an idealistic high school student in Lubbock, Texas. We watch as she comes to question and resist the religious and political conservatism inculcated by her concerned, loving parents and overweening pastor, and fights for causes (sex-education, the rights of a gay-straight alliance) against complacent peers and the entrenched power of co-opting politicians. 

Gray Matter
Joe Berlinger

In this gripping, disturbing, and important work, filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Metallica: Some Kind of Monster and Brother’s Keeper) journeys to Austria with a group of journalists to witness the burial of the brains of some 700 children "euthanized" by the Nazis under the partial supervision of Dr. Heinrich Gross, "the Austrian Dr. Mengle.” Berlinger discovers that Dr. Gross is still alive. More shocking still is the fact that Gross continued his research on the preserved brains after the war and has received awards from the Austrian government for this work. The film, which is structured around Berlinger's attempts to interview Gross, raises difficult questions about the extent to which the mentality that allowed these crimes to take place persists in present-day Austria.

How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It) 
Joe Angio

Part icon, part iconoclast, Melvin Van Peebles is a filmmaker with an autobiography that’s as fascinating as any of his motion pictures. This playful documentary (full of rare archival footage and unforgettable backstage stories) does a great job explaining how the father of blaxploitation got from military service in Korea to driving cable cars in San Francisco to life as a trader at the New York Stock Exchange—with some of these same circuitous journeys helping to explain just where Sweet Sweetback actually got his song. This is a carefully crafted tale of how a young black kid from Chicago ended up making one of the most controversial independent films in American history—and about what happened to him after his quick rise to cinematic stardom.

 The Last Cowboy 
Jon Alpert

Ridin’, ropin’, buckin’ and brandin’. The American West hasn’t so much disappeared as made its last stand in places like Porcupine, South Dakota, home of frigid winters, parched summers, and incurable cattleman, Vern Sager.  Filmmaker Jon Alpert documents 23 years in Vern’s life. It’s hard labor living as an icon, but it’s also a labor of love.

 

The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo 
Amy Stechler

This visually stunning biography of one of the twentieth century’s most important artists, accents the brilliant Mexican painter’s original, anarchic and rabble-rousing persona.  The filmmakers make lavish use of her autobiographical imagery and remarkable archival footage (some in lush color) of the artist, her husband painter Diego Rivera, and their lively circle of artists, patriots, communists, and hedonists.

Mana - Beyond Belief 
Peter Friedman and Roger Manley

What do the American flag, the Shroud of Turin and a Japanese cherry blossom tree have in common? They are all examples of “mana,” the Polynesian word for the power that resides in things. Beginning with a Maori priest in a New Zealand rainforest, this ambitious, fascinating film takes us on an odyssey around the globe and into the human mind to observe how people from diverse cultures invest these spiritual and secular “power objects” with special meaning. Beautifully shot in high-definition video, and at once serious and whimsical, this unique meditation on the fundamental, universal concept of human belief is a challenging but rewarding journey.

Mary Pickford 
Sue Williams

From her magical screen presence to her tenacity in matters of business, Mary Pickford was a powerful force in silent cinema. Already the family breadwinner by the time she was twelve years old, Pickford was not afraid to go head-to-head with Paramount Pictures goliath, Adolph Zuckor. In an effort to challenge his omnipotence in Hollywood, she joined forces with D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks to found United Artists. Created by and for the cinema, Mary Pickford was the first modern star and the first screen has-been. Her remarkable career is documented here in vivid detail, thanks to the wealth of archival footage on display.

The Self-Made Man 
Susan Stern

Is it ever rational to choose death? On Independence Day at Stern Ranch in central California, 77-year-old solar energy pioneer Bob Stern finds out he is seriously ill – possibly dying.  Meanwhile, an elderly in-law is slowly declining on artificial life support in a hospital.  Bob decides to cheat that fate and take his own life. His family tries to stop him.  Bob sets up a video camera. Daughter Susan Stern (Barbie Nation) tells the story of her father’s quirky, inspiring life and the difficult end-of-life choices faced by an aging population. Part King Lear, part Western, The Self-Made Man is a true-life family drama about a controversial issue: Should we control how we die? 

Yellow Brick Road 
Keith  Rondinelli and Matthew  Makar

Each year, the Drama Program of Long Island’s ANCHOR (Answering the Needs of Citizens with Handicaps Through Organized Recreation) operation sponsors an extravagant, one night only production of a Broadway play or film. Yellow Brick Road captures the four-month journey of the group’s 70 participants as they come together to put on a production of The Wizard of Oz in 2004. With the kind of subtlety and tenderness that L. Frank Baum would have enjoyed, filmmakers Matthew Makar and Keith Rondinelli delve into the lives of these performers, past their learning disabilities, their palsies, and their Down Syndromes, into the person they really are. The Mayor, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, the Wicked Witch of the West – there’s a backstory to each one of these characters that goes much deeper than their typecast roles. Led by the program’s directors, Sandy Braun and Joe Lentini, who face criticism for talking down to the “kids”, the group puts together a production that would have knocked Judy Garland’s socks off.