97 minutes, color & b/w, 2009

From cinema-vérité pioneers Albert Maysles and Joan Churchill to maverick moviemakers like Errol Morris, Werner Herzog and Nick Broomfield, the world’s best documentarians reflect upon the unique power of their genre in this comprehensive and eye-opening two-disc box set.

Featuring interviews with 38 directors and 163 film clips from classics such as Grey Gardens and The Thin Blue Line, as well as recent work like Darwin’s Nightmare and Touching the Void, Capturing Reality explores the complex creative process that goes into making non-fiction films. Deftly charting the documentarian’s journey, it poses the question: can film capture reality?

“A great new movie...a guide to docs you will absolutely want to check out!” - THE MONTREAL GAZETTE

“A fascinating and authoritative record...like a who’s who of the documentary world.”
- INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL AMSTERDAM

“Real life is so much more interesting than anything you can make up.”
- KEVIN MACDONALD, DIRECTOR, TOUCHING THE VOID & THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND

“Featuring 38 of the greatest names in documentary talking about every aspect of their creative process, it has great value as an education tool — and as a validation for why we do this in the first place.”
- THOMAS WHITE, DOCUMENTARY.ORG

93 minutes, color, English & Portuguese w/English subtitles, 2008

UPC: 7-20229-914-031
Catalog #: FRF914031D
SRP: $24.95 /CAN.: $29.95

At the mouth of the Amazon River, a murder trial is taking place. The victim – Sister Dorothy Stang, a 73-year-old Catholic nun from Dayton, Ohio – was shot six times at point blank range. The events that led to her death, and the trials that follow, reveal the larger battle being fought for the future of the rainforest.

With unprecedented access to both sides of the conflict, this gripping documentary follows the real-life drama at the trials of Dorothy’s killers, while exploring the conflicts in the Amazon that led to that fateful day.

Narrated by Martin Sheen • Original song by Grammy-nominated Brazilian singer/songwriter Bebel Gilbert

WINNER! Grand Jury Prize & Audience Award, SXSW Film Festival

“A riveting courtroom drama set against the combustible backdrop of the decimated rain forest, with a dramatic courtroom turnabout that blows everything that’s come before out of the water.”
- AUSTIN CHRONICLE

“Impresses and enthralls, balancing moral outrage and courtroom melodrama in a documentary filled with the sort of colorful characters one usually encounters only in fictional crime stories.” - VARIETY

“Riveting, vivid stuff... remarkable courtroom footage. So captivating it’s almost hard to believe.”
- HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

“Builds to something truly remarkable: a team of lawyers engage in theatrics you wouldn’t believe in a Hollywood drama... a feast of real-time, real-life drama.” - AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN

“Outlandish and gripping trial scenes... incredible access... a stark illustration of corruption and the fight against it.” - THE GUARDIAN (UK)

93 minutes, color, 2009

UPC: 7-20229-91402-4
Catalog #: FRF914024D
SRP: $29.95

Blood, Sweat + Gears is the inspirational story of America’s only ProTour cycling team, a team devoted not only to cleaning up the sport of cycling but to winning the Tour de France.

Setting off from the frozen roads of a Colorado winter, racing over the dangerous cobblestones of the Spring classic Paris-Roubaix, and finally arriving to the Champs-Elysees, the grand Parisian boulevard which marks the end of the Tour de France, this riveting, eye-opening documentary takes viewers on an incredible emotional journey, following the ups and downs of an underdog cycling team as they try, against all odds, to ride triumphantly into Paris.

From the intensive daily training required to compete at the highest level to the glory of winning races against the world’s best pro riders, Blood, Sweat + Gears captures the passion and suffering of this simultaneously beautiful and brutal sport.

Featuring David Millar, Mike Friedman, Magnus Backstedt, Christian Vande Velde, Jonathan Vaughters, Matt White, Doug Ellis, Lara & Danny Pate, Will Frischkorn, Allen Lim, Team Garmin-Chipotle/Slipstream

“An amazing inside look at these world-class athletes. The story is great, the images are memorable - a great way to get pumped for the Tour de France!” - CHICAGO NOW

“Gorgeous! A fascinating glimpse inside the lives of people whose dedication to, and sacrifice for a sport is nothing short of remarkable.” - ONTV ONLINE REVIEWS

88 minutes, color, 1991

In 1986, Ross McElwee and Marilyn Levine were making a film about the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall, when the imposing structure was still very much intact as the world’s most visible symbol of hardline Communism and Cold War lore. They thought they were making a documentary on the community of tourists, soldiers, and West Berliners who lived in the seemingly eternal presence of the graffiti emblazoned eyesore.

But in 1989, as the original film neared completion, the Wall came down, and McElwee and Levine returned to Berlin, this time to capture the radically different atmosphere of the reunified city.

“A charming group portrait that takes on an almost fictional narrative flair... Extends far beyond the limits of ordinary documentary.” - THE BOSTON GLOBE

“Another blithe chapter in Ross McElwee’s continuing and extremely uncertain relationship with history... Reporting of a most pertinent and genially eccentric order.” - THE NEW YORK TIMES

“ Spins an exquisite web that holds one enchanted.” - VIDEO RATING GUIDE FOR LIBRARIES

“A fascinating piece of history - a ‘must see’ for all history buffs.” - LIBRARY JOURNAL

“Marvelous!” - RALEIGH NEWS AND OBSERVER

THAT WAS THE GDR

360 minutes, color & b/w, 1993
English narration & German dialogue w/ English subtitles

This astonishing chronicle of the German Democratic Republic (or as we called it, East Germany) features illuminating interviews complemented by rare archival materials from film, photographs, posters, caricatures, popular songs and speeches. Former citizens both prominent and unknown reflect on cultural, economic and political developments from the founding of the GDR in 1949 to German unification in 1990. This is the ultimate film history of events such as the suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968, the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, economic stagnation, Stasi activity, and the popular upheavals that finally brought down the state.

“An illuminating history of the German Democratic Republic (1949-1990). Highly recommended!” - VIDEO LIBRARIAN

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