Kino Lorber (Firm)

A STATE OF MIND follows two North Korean schoolgirls and their families in the lead up to the "Mass Games" — the biggest and most elaborate human performance on earth — and in the process reveals more of North Korea than ever before. Following on from the 2002 award-winning documentary The Game of Their Lives, VeryMuchSo productions was granted permission from the North Korean film authorities to make a second documentary: an observational...

When a Chinese-American police officer kills an innocent, unarmed Black man in a darkened stairwell of a New York City housing project, it sets off a firestorm of emotion and calls for accountability. When he becomes the first NYPD officer convicted of an on-duty shooting in over a decade, the fight for justice becomes complicated, igniting one of the largest Asian-American protests in history, disrupting a legacy of solidarity, and putting an uneven...

Drawing from hundreds of hours of footage, filmmaker Rudy Valdez shows the aftermath of his sister Cindy’s 15-year sentence for conspiracy charges related to crimes committed by her deceased ex-boyfriend—something known, in legal terms, as “the girlfriend problem.” Valdez’s method of coping with this tragedy is to film his sister’s family for her, both the everyday details and the milestones—moments Cindy herself can no longer share...

A powerful testament to one man's commitment to his family, and his endurance in working to provide them with a brighter future. Kasongo, a 28-year-old man living in Congo with his wife and daughters, dreams of purchasing a plot of land on which to build his family a home. He sees his opportunity to earn money by selling charcoal, culled from the ashes of a mighty hardwood tree that he has felled and baked in an earthen oven. Loading up the bags of...

This entirely African American-conceived and produced ensemble drama is the result of a collaboration of a pair of pioneering Black artists: writer Ishmael Reed and filmmaker Bill Gunn, who wrote and directed the underground classic Ganja & Hess and wrote the screenplay for Hal Ashby's The Landlord.  Originally intended to air on public television in 1980, it went unseen for many years; the original tapes have been carefully restored and the film...

BOATMAN is Gianfranco Rosi's account of a boattrip along the Ganges river, together with his helmsman Gopal. They pass tourists and Indians who are bathing, working or meditating. In a series of small portraits Rosi depicts life on and at the banks of India's sacred river.

This film documents an engaging tour of Rome’s ring road, populated by a fascinating group of eccentrics. Director Gianfranco Rosi has emerged as one of the most awarded and provocative documentarians working today. His observational films artfully and sympathetically depict the lives of subcultures and displaced peoples the world over. Winner of a Golden Lion at the **Venice International Film Festival**. Nominated for Best European Documentary...

Based on the acclaimed web series, THE 78 PROJECT MOVIE is a journey across America to record today's musical artists as they perform the early American songs that inspired a century of popular music -- exactly as they were originally recorded, instantaneously, on one-of-a-kind 78rpm lacquer discs. Inspired by Alan Lomax and his quest to capture music where it lived throughout the early 20th Century, the film celebrates the artistry and craft that...

The peninsula of ARAYA in northeastern Venezuela, is one of the most arid places on earth. For five hundred years, since its discovery by the Spanish, the region’s salt has been exploited manually. A 17th-century fortress built to protect against pirate raids stands as a reminder of the days when salt was worth almost as much as gold and great fortunes were made. Benacerraf captures the life of the salineros and their back-breaking work in breathtaking...

An illuminating look at the American criminal justice system from the perspective of a juror on a trial that resulted in a death penalty sentence. Lindy, the juror, begins a journey through rural Mississippi looking for the 11 other jurors she sat beside twenty years ago on the trial of Bobby Wilcher. While Wilcher sat on death row, Lindy was the only person to visit him, ultimately resulting in friendship. The feelings of guilt she has lived with...