LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton (2001)

Directors:
Deborah Dickson. Susan Frömke, Albert Maysles

IMDB

Synopsis:
The cotton-growing industry has long had a tight hold on the political and economic lives of many people in the Mississippi Delta, and this documentary -- directed in part by Albert Maysles -- explores the toll King Cotton has taken on one woman and her family. Laura Lee Wallace, known to friends and family as LaLee, has spent all her life in Mississippi's Tallahatchie County. The product of a long line of cotton farmers, LaLee has grown up in dire poverty, and her children and grandchildren are poor prospects for a better life, given the region's failing school systems. At the urging of the major cotton firms, Tallahatchie County's schools used to routinely shut down during the harvest season so children could join their parents in the fields, and conditions have gotten only marginally better, with the county's ill-funded school system facing a possible takeover by the state government unless scores improve on the next round of standardized aptitude tests. With both money and job opportunities scarce, LaLee faces an uphill struggle to support her extended family, which now includes several grandchildren left to her care by sons and daughters unable to care for their offspring themselves. LeLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton was produced for the premium cable television network HBO; prior to it's HBO debut, the film was presented at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival.

The Execution of Wanda Jean (2002)

Director:
Liz Garbus

IMDB

Synopsis:
Liz Garbus (The Farm: Angola, USA) directed this documentary that takes a close look at death row inmate Wanda Jean Allen. What sets this film apart from the average examination of a death row appeal is that the convicted killer is a lesbian African-American. If the state of Oklahoma goes through with the sentence, she will become the first black woman to be killed by the state in almost a half century. Garbus interviews both Allen's legal team, as well as the parents of the victim. Since Allen certainly committed the act she has been convicted of, the legal drama hangs on if new evidence concerning Allen's mental state will sway the clemency board. This film was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

12th & Delaware (2010)

Directors:
Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady

IMDB

Synopsis:
The two sides of the abortion debate in America literally face one another in this documentary from filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. In Fort Pierce, Florida, a women's heath care center is located at the corner of 12th and Delaware. On the same corner, across the street, is another women's heath care center. However, the two centers are not in the same business; one provides abortions along with a variety of other health services, while the other primarily offers counseling to women considering abortion, urging them to keep their babies. In 12th and Delaware, Ewing and Grady offer a look inside both offices, as pro-life counselors give women a mixture of concern and disinformation about terminating their pregnancies and the pro-choice medical staff struggles to work under the frequent threat of violence against them. The film also examines the handful of protesters who stand outside the abortion clinic, confronting both patients and staff as they enter and exit. Produced for the HBO cable network, 12th and Delaware received its world premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Wide Awake (2006)

Director:
Alan Berliner

IMDB

Review:
One man's lifelong quest for a restful night of sleep is explored as filmmaker Alan Berliner turns the camera on himself to explore the effects that insomnia has on a man who just can't seem to slow his mind down. Berliner is a man who has fallen victim to his own restless conscience. From as far back as he can remember sleep has been an elusive goal that seems ever farther from reality, but despite his best efforts Berliner just can't seem to find a cure for his condition. Whether the result of simple neurosis or the many demands of his life and family, Berliner's insomnia remains his cursed companion through thick and thin. But Berliner's condition affects more people than just himself, and as the sleep-deprived documentarian interviews family and friends, viewers are treated to an intimate glimpse at how one man's condition can have an unsettling ripple effect on nearly everyone around him.

Methadonia (2005)

Director:
Michel Negroponte

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0485777/

Review:
METHADONIA is the borderland between high and straight, where recovering heroin addicts on methadone “maintenance” exist. Passing the time on benzos and other prescription drugs that enhance the methadone, addicts find themselves in Methadonia for years, or decades. Selected for the prestigious New York Film Festival and featured on HBO, this unflinching, intimate film reveals the culture of addiction through the eyes and lives of men and women stuck in Methadonia, holding on to the hope they will wake up one morning and not think about getting high.

Twist of Faith (2004)

Director:
Kirby Dick

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436857/

Review:
The film focuses on Tony Comes, a firefighter from Toledo, Ohio, who was first sexually abused by a Catholic priest when he was a fourteen-year-old student at a Catholic high school. Feeling ashamed, Comes kept his secret for nearly 20 years but was forced to confront his past after discovering that the priest, Dennis Gray, was living on the same street as Comes, his wife, and their two young children. Comes decided to go public and bring a lawsuit against the priest as well as the Church officials who had neglected to take action despite years of complaints.  The filmmakers gave Comes and his wife camcorders which they used to record many of the film's scenes. The film also features interviews with several other men who had been abused by Gray, and these survivors reunite to discuss their continuing struggles.

Thin (2006)

Director:
Lauren Greenfield

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0492496/

Review:
This documentary follows a group of girls in a private hospital in Florida for treatment for anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders. The film goes behind the scenes at a treatment centre in South Florida and follows the patients and doctors through counselling sessions, weighing, community sessions and just hanging out. The degree of access is impressive and the subjects don't seem to be affected at all by having a camera around them all the time.

Hookers at the Point (2002)

Director:
Brent Owens

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1407060/

Review:
Hookers at the Point opens with dark and dreary shots of the mean streets of Hunt’s Point in the Bronx. Definitely not a place to take the kids on vacation. Cars cruise in and out of this well-known pickup area, looking to score a quick date with one of many scantily clad bottom feeders hustling the streets and sidewalks. These are not tanned, buxom beauties of Scores or Hooters but everyday women who flaunt their individual, ahem, assets, for the wildly diverse tastes of their clients.
Throughout the film, a handful of hookers chat up the reasons why they got into the biz, how much money they make and who their clients are. Each personality lends a different perspective—some hate what they do but don’t know what else to do, some appear genuinely happy with what they do while others are indifferent to their situation. These aren’t well-rounded types you want to bring home to mom but this reviewer still came away with a newfound respect for the women at The Point.
Alas, the empathy is fleeting and soon erased with murky shots of men receiving ’oral pleasure’ in darkened alleys and exterior shots of gyrating cars. The intention here isn’t to arouse, but to inform. Director Brent Owens wants you to see and feel just how slimy the business of sex really is. Owens also lets us eavesdrop on a few uncensored, back-seat ’transactions’, some of which don’t run too smoothly. You can’t help but feel sorry for the women of The Point but at the same time you can’t help but question their sanity.

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http://rapidshare.com/files/356498204/HBO_-_Hookers_at_the_Point__2002_.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/356514020/HBO_-_Hookers_at_the_Point__2002_.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/356538971/HBO_-_Hookers_at_the_Point__2002_.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/356565132/HBO_-_Hookers_at_the_Point__2002_.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/356591921/HBO_-_Hookers_at_the_Point__2002_.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/356619933/HBO_-_Hookers_at_the_Point__2002_.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/356645778/HBO_-_Hookers_at_the_Point__2002_.part7.rar

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Boy Interrupted (2008)

Director:
Dana Heinz Perry

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1327819/

Synopsis
Dana Heinz Perry's 'Boy Interrupted' is a moving and engrossing documentary about the mental illness that took the life of her 15-year-old son, Evan. Suffering from bi-polar disorder, Evan Scott Perry committed suicide in Oct., 2005 while in the depths of a black depression. Bi-polar disorder runs in the family. Evan's uncle, Scott, who suffered from the same mental illness, took his own life in 1971 at the age of 22. Well made, compassionate, insightful, and unbearably sad, 'Boy Interrupted' is an important film. Yet, yet... There's a troubling subtext here that is largely taken for granted by the Perry family. Simply put, the Perrys are rich folks, very rich folks. They have an apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side, a house in the country, etc., etc., and are able to afford the best schools and--once Evan exhibits signs of madness--the very best psychiatric care and facilities that money can buy. When Scott died the family commissioned a renowned sculptor to create a special monument and Scott's brother, Hart Perry (Dana's husband and Evan's father) made a commemorative film at that time. When Evan died, the Perrys commemorated him with 'Boy Interrupted' and helped to fund a new building at one of the facilities that had treated him. These are warm, human gestures which assure that Scott and Evan will not simply vanish from the earth without a trace. But what if the afflicted Scott and Evan Perry had come from impoverished circumstances? No top shelf care. No fancy monuments. No documentary films. No kid glove treatment. Just unadulterated suffering, death, and subsequent, eternal anonymity. That's what happens to the thousands of Scotts and Evans who don't come from money. Think about that reality also.

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http://rapidshare.com/files/367241358/Boy_Interrupted__2008_.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/367289297/Boy_Interrupted__2008_.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/367354855/Boy_Interrupted__2008_.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/367383604/Boy_Interrupted__2008_.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/367424056/Boy_Interrupted__2008_.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/367445339/Boy_Interrupted__2008_.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/367475219/Boy_Interrupted__2008_.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/367509476/Boy_Interrupted__2008_.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/367524378/Boy_Interrupted__2008_.part09.rar

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Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street (2000)

Director:
Steven Okazaki

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0221023/

Synopsis
A documentary filmed in San Francisco, California from December 1995 to January 1998 when black tar heroin use, particularly among young adults, surged to record levels in the city. Looks at two years in the lives of five young heroin addicts, ages 18 to 25, as they face the perils of hard core drug addiction -- crime, prostitution, rape, incarceration, AIDS, overdoses and death.

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http://rapidshare.com/files/308768023/Black_Tar_Heroin_-_Hbo_Documentary.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/308794462/Black_Tar_Heroin_-_Hbo_Documentary.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/308820178/Black_Tar_Heroin_-_Hbo_Documentary.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/308847897/Black_Tar_Heroin_-_Hbo_Documentary.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/308875167/Black_Tar_Heroin_-_Hbo_Documentary.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/308901181/Black_Tar_Heroin_-_Hbo_Documentary.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/308910184/Black_Tar_Heroin_-_Hbo_Documentary.part7.rar

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The Trials of Ted Haggard (2009)

Director:
Alexandra Pelosi

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1364306/

Review:
After admitting in 2006 to buying methamphetamine from a male prostitute and confessing to "sexual immorality" amid accusations that he had a sexual relationship with the man, the Colorado pastor who once led the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals was banished from the state by church leaders and told not to publicly discuss his story. He resigned from the NAE and was stripped of his pastorship of the 12,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Haggard once was a staple of cable news shows, but for the past two years his large-toothed, wide, ever-smiling mouth has been silent.

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http://rapidshare.com/files/356673582/The_Trials_of_Ted_Haggard.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/356701597/The_Trials_of_Ted_Haggard.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/356729767/The_Trials_of_Ted_Haggard.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/356743547/The_Trials_of_Ted_Haggard.part4.rar

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