Producer Sandi DuBowski (Trembling Before G-d) and director Parvez Sharma at a screening of A Jihad for Love at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival, February 8, 2008. The film, which explores the intersections between Islam and homosexuality, will open in New York at the IFC Center on May 21, 2008. In the meantime, you can keep tabs on the film at the director’s blog. Photo by Aseem Chhabra.

After 49 years in power, Cuban president Fidel Castro today announced that he is stepping down as the nation’s leader. His reign spanned ten U.S. presidencies, and - love him or hate him - the man is undeniably one of the most influential figures of our time. We’ve had the pleasure of releasing two remarkable (read: controversial) documentaries on Castro in recent years. Fidel: The Untold Story features exclusive interviews with Castro and casts him in a uniquely sympathetic light, while the Cuban-made Moments with Fidel employs a wealth of archival footage to create an equally kind portrait of his rule. Biased as these films may be (and infuriating as some may find such bias), both offer an important counterpoint to the pervasive (and just as infuriating, imho) anti-Castro propaganda infecting the American news media. (And if that’s not reason enough for you, there’s some pretty crazy footage of Fidel going for a swim with his bodyguards. You can’t tell me you’re not curious about that.)

Filmmaker Alex Gibney, who directed Taxi to the Dark Side and produced No End in Sight, just may be America’s greatest documentarian. Not a small statement, I know, but with two out of the five Best Doc Oscar noms this year and a stellar track record (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and many, many more), it’s not a hard argument to make. I had the great honor of releasing a film he made with Eugene Jarecki called The Trials of Henry Kissinger. Eugene’s last film, as you may know, was Why We Fight - he’s no couch potato either. But Alex is my choice for Best Doc Filmmaker of This Century So Far. He’s also a heck of a nice guy, and I hope he wins the Oscar. Check out his company’s site here, a funny blog entry asking “Is Alberto Gonzales Stupid?” here, and look out for his latest doc about Hunter S. Thompson, which just premiered at Sundance.

And Baby Makes Two chronicles a journey that today, ten years later, has become almost commonplace. Single mothers, fathers, and others of all ages and categories are having and bringing up children on their own (and discussing it here).

A decade later, we decided to check in on three of the mothers in the film, as well as their now articulate offspring. And the truth is, it ain’t so easy being a single mom, but whether it has harmed or helped the lovely children is too hard to tell. Either way, their story is more bittersweet than ever, so please watch this feature - ten years later - and let me know what you think.

Oren writes: 

“Most people don’t know that after the holocaust several hundred thousand Polish Jews survived. And most people don’t know that in 1968 the 100,000 or so who remained were hounded out in an anti-semitic government campaign. After that only 5,000 or so Jews and a lot more half or quarter jews remained. When I went back there in 1985 to record a bar mitzvah, apparently the first public one in Poland since the war, I didn’t know that i was entering a battleground between the Orthodox and the Reform, or that I would meet some incredible Jewish survivors there. Or that the Polish people would prove to be so friendly. After that first trip, I would go on to make many films in Poland, including Hiding and Seeking and A Life Apart and others.

Now, 22 years have passed and the Bar Mitzvah boy is 35 years old. That hurts. I reinterviewed all the key players and what is amazing is that many of them used the same words and have exactly the same feelings they expressed 22 years ago. What was most fun, was interviewing the filmmakers, including myself. If you watch Spark Among the Ashes, please make sure to watch the interviews of 22 years later. And please help me answer the question or tell me what you think of the Polish people and the on-going battle between the Orthodox and Reform Jews. Whose form of Judaism will survive and will the Polish people ever be forgiven for their attitudes toward the Poles?”

Several years ago a great film called Aberdeen came to us, starring Stellan Skårsgard, one of our favorite actors. In Aberdeen he plays an alcoholic jerk, a father who ditches his family for booze. The actress who plays his daughter (Lena Headey) is what really sold us on the film. Beautiful, yes, but also tough and smart and brave. We stuck her on the poster for Aberdeen, and it’s been a pretty big hit for us. Meanwhile, Ms. Headey, no surprise, has moved on to bigger projects, including Queen Gorgo in the mega-hit 300, and now the lead in the new Fox series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. We always knew she was destined for stardom, and we’ll be slavishly following her career for a long while.  In the meantime, check her out in Aberdeen, her first big role.

Anyone who caught our big hit For the Bible Tells Me So undoubtedly walked away amazed and inspired by the story of Gene Robinson, the courageous Episcopalian priest whose elevation to Bishop-hood triggered what appears to be the biggest religious schism since that fellow Luther nailed his Theses to the Wittenburg church door. Now Gene is about to publish his tell-all book, aptly titled In the Eye of the Storm. I’m probably not the first to say it, but this man deserves to be TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year. (So if you work at TIME please mention it to whoever makes that decision. Also, my issues have been arriving a little late; please ask about that, too.)

What do Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel and best-selling author Thomas Moore have in common? They all want you to FORGIVE! Yes, learn how to forgive and be healed. Seriously. Our award-winning documentary, The Power of Forgiveness, has just been bought by PBS and will broadcast in March. But why wait and why settle for the one-hour version when we’ve got the DVD, featuring the entire original film and some insightful bonus materials to boot?

Granted this was a while ago, but Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus inspired many a crusade with the idea that everyone should be a good Christian, a slave, or dead. Not an enlighted fellow, if you ask me. Anyway, our film about “The Dark Side of Christianity” (which I suspect DVD Verdict will label a sensationalistic tag line; not that I care), deliciously titled Constantine’s Sword, follows former priest and Boston Globe columnist James Carroll around the world as he explores the intersection of religious fervor and military power. Vital, interesting and… I’m at a loss for words, so let me quote Errol Morris, who calls it “endlessly fascinating,” and Albert Maysles, who ventures the opinion “documentary AT ITS BEST!!!” (caps and exclamations added by yours truly).  I’m certain its Oscar-nominated director (Oren Jacoby, who made Sister Rose’s Passion) blushed when he read those words. Our in-house editing maestro Ted has put together a great trailer for the film, and we are gearing up for a major NY opening in April at the world-class Lincoln Plaza Cinemas (and the not-quite-world-class-but-we-love-them-all-the-same Quad Cinema). Then off to LA with our friends the Laemmles, and probably on to Beverly Hills at the Music Hall. See this film! (And while you’re at it, read The End of Faith by Sam Harris, which is the most important book I’ve read in a good while, and which touches on many of the same issues.)

Speaking of DVD Verdict, although they object to Unborn in the USA’s “sensationalistic” tag line (”How the Pro-Lifers Are Winning” - which I’d like to take credit for, thank you very much), they also rave about this ”even-handed” documentary on abortion featuring “unprecedented access into the workings of the pro-life movement.” It’s not easy to make an objective documentary about such a charged subject; hats off to the young co-directors Stephen Fell and Will Thompson for pulling it off. Be sure to check it out while abortion is still legal.