Movies: Kirsten Johnson

In 2000, Illinois Gov. George Ryan ordered a moratorium on the death penalty after university students uncovered new evidence proving the innocence of 13 men on death row. This documentary follows the hearings held by a panel Ryan appointed to study ...

Filmmaker Julia Pimsleur used to make up elaborate lies about her brother Marc, rather than explain that he had dropped out of college, turned his back on his Jewish heritage and moved to a Christian commune in Alaska. She and her mother initially fe...

Following the journey of an Evangelical minister trying to find the courage to preach about the growing toll of gun violence in America. Reverend Rob Schenck, anti-abortion activist and fixture on the political far right, breaks with orthodoxy by que...

In a village in Thailand, Pomm works in a care center for Europeans with Alzheimer's. While she is separated from her children, she helps Elisabeth during the final stages of her life, as Maya, a new patient, is on her way from Switzerland....

A WOMAN LIKE ME is a hybrid documentary that interweaves the real story of director Alex Sichel, diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in 2011, with the fictional story of Anna Seashell, who struggles to find the glass half full when faced with the...

Using two separate filmmaking teams (an all-white crew filming white residents and an all-black camera crew filming black residents), TWO TOWNS OF JASPER captures very different racial views by townsfolk in Jasper, Texas, the location for a racially ...

Over four years of unprecedented access, the story of a brave group of black and Latino whistleblower cops and one unrelenting private investigator who, amidst a landmark lawsuit, risk everything to expose illegal quota practices and their impact on ...

The New Yorker is the benchmark for the single-panel cartoon. This light-hearted and sometimes poignant look at the art and humor of the iconic drawings shows why they have inspired and even baffled us for decades. Very Semi-Serious is a window into ...

Documentary about French philosopher (and author of deconstructionism) Jacques Derrida, who sparked fierce debate throughout American academia....

Set at an ancient nunnery above the majestic Irrawaddy River, A THOUSAND MOTHERS is an unprecedented look at the lives of Buddhist nuns in Sagaing, Myanmar....

Seeds of Time follows agriculture pioneer Cary Fowler's global journey to save the eroding foundation of our food supply in a new era of climate change....

Born to Fly pushes the boundaries between action and art, daring us to join choreographer Elizabeth Streb and her dancers in pursuit of human flight....

A 2003 documentary film about women on Wall Street following the lives of four Wall Street women - a research analyst, a currency trader, an NYSE floor broker and a rookie investment banker....

The Gift is a feature-length film exploring a major transformation in peoples' relationships with animals....

A portrait of various gay Orthodox Jews who struggle to reconcile their faith and their sexual orientation....

Six years after I left my country, Brazil, I was sent an old sound reel in the post and I discovered a recording of my parent's wedding ceremony. I was twenty-six. It was the first time I'd ever heard my mother's voice as she died when I was a year o...

Haitian born filmmaker Raoul Peck takes us on a 2-year journey inside the challenging, contradictory and colossal rebuilding efforts in post-earthquake Haiti....

A "fictional documentary" concerning the volatile topic of female excision, Bintou In Paris tells the story of a young Malinese mother faced with the critical decision of whether or not to excise her baby daughter....

The Teamster's Union goes on strike against Overnite Transportation, a nationwide freight company that has resisted unionization. The Union, however, faces its own internecine battles as factions inside the organization, one led by James P. Hoffa (so...

Documentary about the life and career of Rokia Traoré, a musician from Mali, an African country, who is one of the few women in her country, perhaps the only one, who manages to have a career in music. She's recorded with Kronos Quartet, and lives be...