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1-34 of 34
- Portrait of writer Mark O'Brien, who contracted polio as a child and spent much of his life in an iron lung.
- The difficulties and challenges faced by nurses on hospitals and nursing homes while treating patients and trying to find the most ethical and human ways to preserve their health in delicate situations with little or almost nothing can be done.
- Documentary about a Jewish senior citizens' acting group on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The film covers both the progress and impediments of a play the group is mounting about senior citizens looking for love and the life/love stories (past, present, and predictions) of the players.
- A video first-person road movie about disability, civil rights, and the search for intelligent life after brain damage.
- It is America of the 1950s and 1960s, when a woman's most important contribution to society is generally considered to be her ability to raise happy, well-adjusted children. But for the mother whose child is diagnosed with autism, her life's purpose will soon become a twisted nightmare. Looking for help and support, she encounters instead a medical establishment that pins the blame for her child's bizarre behaviors on her supposedly frigid and detached mothering. Along with a heartbreaking label for her child, she receives a devastating label of her own. She is a "refrigerator mother". Refrigerator Mothers paints an intimate portrait of an entire generation of mothers, already laden with the challenge of raising profoundly disordered children, who lived for years under the dehumanizing shadow of professionally promoted "mother blame." Once isolated and unheard, these mothers have emerged with strong, resilient voices to share the details of their personal journeys. Through their poignant stories, Refrigerator Mothers puts a human face on what can happen when authority goes unquestioned and humanity is removed from the search for scientific answers.
- In this poignant documentary, filmmaker Beverly Peterson and her adopted son Andre share the story of an extraordinary friendship. Despite living with HIV from birth and experiencing poverty, deprivation, and the loss of his mother, this remarkable young boy chose to face life head-on, fiercely determined to take control of his destiny and make sense of it all. Much of the story is told through Andre's own video diaries and drawings, as he comes to terms with the physical and emotional challenges of his short yet intense life, and the struggles to create the family he had always wanted
- The documentary "Children of the Stars" focuses on the Feng Jia Wei family. Their five year old boy is autistic. He cannot speak and is often very violent. He has been rejected from all their local schools and does not seem to even recognise his parents. As a family, they frequently receive verbal abuse from people who do not understand their son's behaviour. The career of both parents has also been destroyed because their son requires constant care and attention. The family feel they have nowhere else to turn and as their future looks so bleak, they have been harboring a dark plan of suicide. Their last real chance lies in a course offered by a little charity school in Beijing called "Stars and Rain". Here, they hope to master new behavioral techniques that will enable them to teach and manage their son. Then perhaps he can make enough progress to be accepted into a regular local school. If they fail, then the outlook for all of them is grim. The family make the long journey to Beijing and the film follows them as they take a deeply moving journey through the eleven weeks of the course. It is an extraordinary story of parental love as they fight to give a future to their son.
- Documentary portrait of the upheaval in the filmmaker's family when her Grandma Ruthie is diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.
- The complex coming of age story of Mark Puddington, a teenager with multiple disabilities and local celebrity in his New York City neighborhood. As Mark prepares for his religious rite of passage, a family and community must begin to consider his life away from home and the West Side.
- Panic Attack uses time-lapse photography, stop-motion animation, and creative sound design to express the emotions associated with the experience of panic attacks.
- "Making Mothers" is a short documentary that captures the lives of two African American caregivers at the Family Health and Birth Center in NE DC who help women during their transition to motherhood. Midwife Lisa strives to provide the peaceful and beautiful home birth experience she had herself. Joan, a Breastfeeding Peer Counselor, imparts her experience as a teen mom and former birth center client. In pursuing their passion they empower the women they encounter, the community they work in, and ultimately, themselves.
- Three families navigate the unpredictable terrain of a neonatal intensive care unit. The inevitable shifts in each baby's condition provide dramatic twists that challenge family stability and redefine parental love. Nurses and doctors reveal the challenges and rewards of working in the NICU, as well as complex ethical issues. As the stories in A Chance to Grow unfold, they reveal not only the impact of newborn intensive care on families, but the capacity of ordinary individuals to adapt to crises with extraordinary grace and courage.
- A profile of two families whose lives have been shaped by hoarding and the "packrat" behavior of one family member.
- A documentary on children in a Bronx Homeless Shelter.
- Almost directly facing the camera, a woman in her late thirties in close-up. Her anxious gaze flits between her interviewer, Michael Frantzis, and the floor, out of the camera's field of view. Her hands nervously part away the hair from her forehead; her trembling body forming and uncanny and tense contrast with the self-assured tone of her voice. Ruth has endured Parkinson's disease for more than twelve years. Implanted electrodes enable her to periodically switch her degenerative illness on and off, like an automat. In this way, her body can function in a stable manner during certain lapses of time. In RUTH, the film's protagonist answers the filmmaker's questions with surprising directness. Admiringly open and self-reflexive, she discusses her isolating illness that progressively transforms her body into a prison. Since the very first scene, the frank and brisk tone of the film establishes a palpable tension between the participants, and communicates both verbally and visually an inherent need for articulation that is common to all human beings. The moment when Ruth switches off her implant in front of the camera and under the anguished gaze of the spectator who awaits the consequences of this action, leads us - emotionally speaking - to the turning point of this exceptional portrayal, which becomes a veritable thriller as it reveals the tragic side of this illness without ever lacking in respects towards its victim.
- More Than Skin Deep is about a nursing home beauty shop and the women who go there for regular appointments. Six women share with viewers their attitudes about the connection between self-esteem and aging and their philosophies about growing old.
- Janice's Journey tells the story of Janice's battle, from diagnosis, through chemotherapy and radiation treatments, on to her subsequent recovery. Only thirty three years old when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Janice Fine is an articulate, funny, and forthright subject as the camera follows her through treatment sessions, doctor consultations and personal reflections. Asking the important question of why the incidence of breast cancer is increasing, the film examines the epidemic of cancer on Janice's native Long Island.
- When James Allen opened the Addicts Rehabilitation Center in Harlem it was New York State's first residential treatment center for people without money. Forty three years later, the center is still an embattled facility in the center of some of America's meanest streets. But the doors are still open, and, to date, over 25,000 troubled people have come through them. "The Gospel According to Mr. Allen" follows three addicts through A.R.C, as they try to break the grip of drugs. Peter wants to stay out of jail. Michelle would like to get her children back. And Brett hopes for a record contract. But any of them really make it? Can the battle against poverty, hopelessness and addiction ever be won? The Addicts Rehabilitation Center offers a unique perspective. Famed for its tough-love, trash talking staff as well as its Gospel Choir, A.R.C. continues to write the rules. This is a compassionate film about people who never give up on people. The results will surprise you.
- A nonfiction performance piece chronicling the day-to-day struggle of a husband and wife, their disabilities, their humor and their choreographed lives.
- Sam Niver had terminal cancer; the end was near. Proud and fiercely independent, he wanted control in death as well as in life. He could die in a hospital or die at home -- hopefully on his own terms. Sam believed strongly in dignified death. Could he act on his belief? In "Live & Let Go" we meet Sam: WWII veteran; hometown newspaperman; civic leader; loving husband, father and friend. We see Sam and his family recall his life, and confront his thoughts about impending death. We follow him on his intimate, personal journey as he reflects on the past and decides on his future. We live Sam's final months and days, and we learn his ultimate choice. He dies -- and we share the wrenching experience. "Live & Let Go" tackles death -- the universal fact of life -- with unflinching candor. It tells one man's story about the choice he makes -- one that every one of us must ultimately face.
- The Brain Injury Association of America estimates that every 21 seconds someone in America suffers a brain injury (that's 1.5 million injuries per year). With such significant numbers, one might assume that resources to deal with brain injuries and the number of knowledgeable practitioners in this field would be considerable. This brief video would indeed indicate the opposite. The majority of the content of the video focuses on a young automobile accident victim, who although physically recovered and restored by cosmetic surgery, suffers the lingering effects of a traumatic brain injury. Through a series of video shots and her nearly poetic dialogue, viewers are able to sense the confusion of her life as a result of the automobile accident. Short interview excerpts are provided from other brain injury patients as well. They discuss their accidents and the difficulty in receiving adequate and appropriate care for their injuries including issues related to initial diagnosis and poor post-discharge follow-up. A minimal amount of technical information related to brain injury is presented. This video is more about the emotional toll that brain injury can create.
- A documentary about trichotillomania, a compulsive hair-pulling disorder.
- This feature documentary follows the filmmaker through the most harrowing ordeal of his life: preparing for, undergoing and recovering from his third open-heart surgery at the ripe age of 27.
- Roll On aims to share the everyday lives of families living with neuromuscular disorders with caseworkers and clinicians, and the parents of children who have been recently diagnosed that they are working with.
- Discovering their youngest child is autistic is only the first of countless hurdles facing a young family.
- With pathos and humor, this experimental drama explores the mental reality of a young New York woman whose need for control and order has made her a virtual recluse, obsessively straightening and organizing her apartment. No matter how much list-writing, cleaning and tidying she does, her mind threatens to slip out of control. A mysterious phone call represents her last tenuous thread of human contact with the outside world. Is she suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Agoraphobia, or is she just overly rigid? Is there a clear boundary between the two? While the character uses the minutiae of daily housework to control her deeper feelings of chaos and loss, this film draws the viewer into her claustrophobic world, and into the emotions that finally drive her to attempt a break from her vicious cycle. A dramatic exploration of one woman's attempts to quiet the chaos in her mind, this award-winning video offers viewers an unusual and compelling trigger for discussions of mental disorders, and of the sometimes hazy borderline between normal behavior and "symptoms."
- Three couples that are 60+ years old are interviewed about sex. Discussing the need for companionship, romance and love for seniors. Several experts are interviewed, as well as a nursing home director.