Guns, Germs and Steel 0000

Genre: Documentary History
Story: Guns, Germs and Steel 0000
A PBS documentary concerning Jared Diamond's theory on why there is such disparity between those who have advanced technology and those who still live primitively. He argues it is due to the acquisition of guns and steel and the changes brought about by germs.

Femme Fontaine: Killer Babe for the C.I.A. 1994

Genre: Action Comedy
Story: Femme Fontaine: Killer Babe for the C.I.A. 1994
Professional assassin Drew Fontaine puts her talents to her own ends to pay off those involved in killing her Buddhist mentor and maybe in the disappearance of her father. Amongst those in the frame are a crowd of somewhat dysfunctional lesbian-led Nazis, an energetic Chinatown gang, and an overly laid-back porn-king playboy. Could be pretty messy.

American Teacher 2011

Genre: Documentary Biography History
Story: American Teacher 2011
Weaving interviews of policy experts and startling facts with the lives and careers of four teachers, American Teacher tells the collective story by and about those closest to the issues in our educational system -- the 3.2 million teachers who spend every day in classrooms across our country.

Wordplay 2006

Genre: Documentary
Story: Wordplay 2006
A documentary that focuses on the world of crossword puzzles: those that construct them, those that love to solve them, those that compete in the annual Crossword competition in Stamford and also on Will Shortz, the editor of the New York Times crossword since the early 1990s. Shortz actually has a university degree in games and organized the first crossword championship in 1978. Some of the contributors to the Times puzzle explain how they go about building them while some aficionados, including former President Bill Clinton and comedian Jon Stewart talk about their love of solving them. The film also introduces several past champions and near champions competing in the 2006 tournament and it takes you from the preliminary rounds to the final where the top three contestants compete in front of a room full of admiring contestants.

The Big Question 2004

Genre: Documentary
Story: The Big Question 2004
What are the first existential queries that lead us to question the absolute and consult teachers, parents, priests or older siblings? "The Big Question" is based on an idea that is very simple yet rather complex: it poses extremely direct questions to a large and varied group of people regarding their own intimate perception of the divine. The peculiar microcosm, a surprising sociological container, is the backdrop where these inquiries take place; it acutally is a 'non-place' par excellence: the set of 'The Passion of the Christ' by Mel Gibson. The documentary, that has nothing to do with a 'making of', reads as a singular notebook of laic catechism, and its essence is the cultural, religious, social and geographical variety of those interviewed. The topics suggested through the assorted questions are confronted by a subtle, sometimes humorous research, which touches everyone: believers, atheists, agnostics, or the undecided. The allegoric and hieratic soul of "The Big Question" is a white dog that passes through valleys, mountains and ghost towns of southern Italy, during a voyage more oneiric than realistic.

The Colditz Story 1955

Genre: Drama History War
Story: The Colditz Story 1955
Colditz castle was used by the Nazis to hold the "bad boys", (those who regularly tried to escape from other camps). At all times the guards outnumbered the prisoners and, because some political prisoners were also held there they were *very* strictly monitored. But if you put all those people in one place and they're all trying to escape, well ...