Current Projects
Taylor's Campaign
Richard Cohen
Richard Cohen
Taylor's Campaign explores the darkhorse race of Ron Taylor, a disabled truck driver and homeless person, to win a seat on the Santa Monica City Council. Richard Cohen Films produces and distributes documentaries about human dignity and pursuit of justice: Taylor's Campaign, the celebrated documentary on homelessness and poverty; Hurry Tomorrow a classic verité depicting involuntary psychiatric treatment; Deadly Force, a gripping investigation of police accountability in Los Angeles. Presently in preproduction: an autobiographical film exploring integration of children with disabilities into schools.
Telos
Kyung Lee
Kyung Lee
When a far-out architect launches a project to build the greenest building on earth, he never expected what awaited him. Telos follows a journey of Eugene Tsui, one of the most innovative green architects in the world today as he sets out to build his dream building. He chose Mt. Shasta, a mountain town in the Northern California, where the myth of town has long predicted that such a building already exists underneath the mountain.
Them Greeks...!
Spyros Tsounis
Spyros Tsounis
Them Greeks...! is a computer animated short film being made--over the internet--by artists around the world. It tells the story of Norman, a stuck-in-his-ways, anti-social, average Joe, whose life takes a dramatic turn when he goes up against a tavern full of noisy Greeks. Over 80 industry professionals and students have come together, in their spare time, to build a virtual studio and prove that it is now possible to make ambitious digital movies independently. We are currently deep in production--mainly in rigging and animation. Almost everyone on the project has a full time job or school obligation and works on Them Greeks...! as a part time volunteer.
Third Rock
David L. Brown
David L. Brown
Third Rock is a feature-length documentary-in-progress about a Mill Valley-based rock band composed of six young musicians between the ages of 11 and 12 years old. The film documents their musical and personal evolution since early 2007 when they were formed under the guidance of band director Derek Kudrow, who also taught most of them to play their instruments. The film profiles the talented and motivated young band at play, in rehearsal and in performance as they evolve and improve over three years, from the rehearsals for their first major performance—a benefit for a children's shelter in Ethiopia—in 2008.
The Third Root
Reed Rickert
Reed Rickert
Mexican guitarist, Camilo Nu, journeys through the timeless traditions of Mexican, Spanish and Moroccan music to uncover his roots. On this journey, Camilo encounters master musicians who share their passion and culture and perform exciting new roots fusion music infused by these different cultures. The Third Root—Morocco inspires profound appreciation of the interconnectedness that the human race shares through music and takes us on a journey which anyone can enjoy.
A Thousand Little Cuts
Chad Stevens
Chad Stevens
Lorelei Scarbro, a tenacious grandmother of two, fights for green jobs and renewable energy projects in her community, but with a brother working on a mountaintop removal mine and a son-in-law working for Massey Energy, the risks are grave. In a place where blood and coal tie families together, Lorelei’s campaign to save a mountain could destroy the very thing she’s fighting for: her family.
3 Still Standing
Robert Campos and Donna LoCicero
Robert Campos and Donna LoCicero
It’s 1980 in San Francisco. Comic geniuses Robin Williams and Dana Carvey spearhead a new era of stand-up comedy. Next in line for the “big time” are three talented comics: Will Durst, Larry “Bubbles” Brown and Johnny Steele. But then, the comedy “crash” hits. Now, like millions of other downsized Americans, Will, Larry and Johnny scramble to survive, while also staying funny, relevant, and true to the art form they love.
Toastmaster
Eric Boadella
Eric Boadella
Toastmaster is an illuminating and poetic feature film in which tells the story of a peculiar and unpredictable man, Uncle Kapriel, who does everything in his power to pass on his ancient Armenian family tradition to his American nephew.
Tongues of Heaven
Anita Wen-Shin Chang
Anita Wen-Shin Chang
Set on islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan, Tongues of Heaven explores the revitalization by young people of indigenous languages that are facing extinction. Conceived in part as a participatory community media project, the film’s larger concerns include the impact of language on identity and culture and the significance of marginalized languages in an increasingly homogenized world.
Top Spin
Sara Newens and Mina T. Son
Sara Newens and Mina T. Son
Imagine the smell of fresh rubber paddles, hollow plastic balls whirling by at 80 mph, and exclamations of victory interrupted by bitter cries of defeat. Welcome to the world of competitive table tennis. Top Spin explores what is at stake for teen athletes striving for the Olympics and the families who support and sacrifice for them. But with the pressures of rigorous training, international tournaments, balancing schoolwork, and SAT’s — is it all worth it?
Traces of the Trade
Katrina Browne
Katrina Browne
Traces of the Trade is a documentary in which Katrina Browne and her relatives uncover their Rhode Island ancestors who were the largest slave-trading family in early America. On a journey to New England, Africa and Cuba they explore the full extent of Northern complicity in slavery, as well as the legacy of white Northern amnesia in the present day.
The Tracing Center on Histories and Legacies of Slavery
Katrina Browne
Katrina Browne
Our mission is to create greater awareness of the vast extent of complicity in slavery and the transatlantic slave trade and to inspire acknowledgment, dialogue and active response to this history and its many legacies. We do this for the purpose of racial and economic justice, healing, and reconciliation, for the benefit of all.
Transgender Tuesdays: A Clinic In The Tenderloin
Mark Freeman
Mark Freeman
Transgender Tuesdays tells the story of the country’s first low-cost public health clinic opened specifically for transgender clients. People came for the hormones, and stayed for the health care. Within five years this pioneering clinic had already seen 600 clients, and to date approximately 1500. The remarkably droll narratives of some of its courageous patients provide the documentary’s beating heart. Their faces reflect some harrowing places they have been, yet by the film’s end these pioneering tales provide hope for future generations.
Trust
Mark Decena
Mark Decena
Two Americans, Kris and Doug Tompkins, buy thousands of acres in Chile and Argentina intended for National Parks. It has pitted them against native Chileans and Argentineans, who see them as a threat to their sovereignty and an affront to progress. Despite the restoration of the land, new park infrastructure, increased public access and local jobs in ecotourism, trust is illusive. Should private conservation efforts usurp the progress of two sovereign nations?
Tuesday Lunch
Diane Stark
Diane Stark
Tuesday Lunch follows a group of Long Island women from the height of the women’s movement in 1969 through 43 years of loving, and sometimes turbulent, friendship. Filmed in an observational “cinema verite” style and interwoven with archival footage and poignant interviews, the film portrays the transformation of “The Tuesdays” from restless wives and mothers seeking meaning outside their homes to vibrant elders active in their communities.
Turn It Around
Dawn D. Valadez
Dawn D. Valadez
Inspired to improve the disadvantaged communities they come from, Turn It Around follows a group of young adults on their journey to become the next generation of California teachers. Using fast-paced editing, stylized filming, and footage shot by the youth, the documentary challenges the viewers assumptions about "gang youth" as we watch them extricate themselves from the only world they know—gangs and the world of gangs—to ultimately find success.
Turning for Home
Kristi Denton Cohen
Kristi Denton Cohen
Where are we going to live when we get older? What is going to happen to those of us who don’t have – or can’t afford -- built in caregivers? Through a close-up look at housing alternatives, interviews, illustrative movie and television clips, and the personal quest of the filmmaker, this documentary explores different solutions to these questions from around the country. They include a 50-year old New York City co-op housing former union members; “golden girls” in the Midwest who speed date to find roommates; and a 70 year-old woman living alone in a geodesic dome in rural Northern California. They and others reveal their insights, wisdom, and fears about where they are living and how they came to be there -- by choice or happenstance -- and provide the audience with a new perspective about plans for their own later years.