Zac Manuel

A cinematic omnibus rooted in New Orleans, challenging the idea of black cinema as a "wave" or "movement in time," proposing instead a continuous thread of achievement.

Vanessa Guillen was 20 years old when she was found murdered at a US Army base. Rather than submit to silence, her family fought for justice and change.

This investigation into the layers of mass incarceration and its shaping of the modern black American family is seen through the eyes of a single mother in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Fox Rich, indomitable matriarch and modern-day abolitionist, strives to keep her family together while fighting for the release of her incarcerated husband. An intimate, epic, and unconventional love story, filmed over two decades.

A remarkably intimate portrait of an artist on tour navigating identity, family, expectations, and acceptance, all while reflecting on his place within the legacy of Black, queer performers.

Buckjumping is a cinematic journey through the soul of New Orleans. The film explores different communities as they express themselves through movement, painting a dynamic portrait of a city's spirituality, defiance and resourcefulness.

A former couple reunites after years of not seeing one another. They find themselves caught up in a whirlwind of emotions as they reconnect. The quaint reunion quickly turns into a rollercoaster ride of nostalgia, longing, and a strong desire to rekindle what they once had.

After a contentious race last fall, the runoff for mayor of New Orleans came down to two candidates: Desirée Charbonnet and LaToya Cantrell, two very different black women. The winner of this election would take office as the first female mayor of New Orleans and the city's fourth black mayor. Through news footage, campaign advertisements and archival audio and video, All Skinfolk Ain't Kinfolk is the unprecedented story of this mayoral runoff told through the eyes of black women living in this city.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, New Orleans was the epicenter of Southern rap, thanks to influential artists Juvenile, B.G., and Soulja Slim. While Juvenile maintains a thriving career, the other two faced tragic outcomes: Soulja Slim was murdered in 2003 just as his career was taking off, and B.G. was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison in 2012. Their sons-Young Juve, T.Y., and Lil' Soulja Slim-met as teenagers and, inspired by their shared legacies, formed the group Ghetto Children, named after a Juvenile song. This documentary is an intimate portrait of Black boyhood transforming into manhood, shaped by their fathers' legacies. The film explores how these young men strive to carve out their own identities in the music world, navigating the weight of generational expectations, the families they build, and the culture that surrounds them.

Blending home movies and original footage shot in the US with archival audio recorded in Jamaica, this documentary explores the filmmaker’s relationship with his children, family, and love of basketball.

The interconnected daily journeys of bus riders and operators on the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority bus lines illuminate why the black community here has been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. While the bus operators fight for proper PPE, hazard pay, and sick time off they continue to provide a necessary, but dangerous service to frontline workers, the sick, and the homeless population through a pandemic.

In Japan, earthquake preparedness is a way of life — and a full- blown industry.

In our current world, where worth is often gauged by online popularity, an economy has developed for paying for followers and likes. Through access inside the “click-farms” of Bangladesh, Like explores the multi-million dollar industry that grows social media followings for celebrities and brands alike.

Many Fires This Time: We the 100 Million is a poetic docudrama about the 1 in 3 Americans and counting, living in economic insecurity. It follows the journey of poet and activist A Scribe Called Quess? as he connects with fellow activist poets and the communities they represent from Oakland to Chicago to Kentucky to his hometown of New Orleans.

When a woman undergoes a frightening transition, her vigilant five year old daughter must decide between saving her or protecting herself in this haunting tale of inheritance, daughterhood, and demons.

A young musician tries to find her place in New Orleans, city of musical dreams and failures. Bradley expresses the musician's inner life with remarkable editing and a moving soundtrack that reinforces the city's slow pace.

As Sydney Hall participates in an experimental coronavirus vaccine trial in hopes of protecting her beloved New Orleans community, she and her loved ones confront the history of medical abuse and experimentation on Black bodies

A dancer emerges from the earth.

In a distant galaxy, traveling carnivals feature famous mystics. The most popular of all is The Great Bazandini. Villagers clamor to see his act, but one person knows it’s a sham...his daughter, Mirza. She desperately wants to escape this world of swindlers, but standing in her way is the carnival’s ringleader, notorious conman, Dr. Leopold Rundy. MIRZA THE MIRACULOUS is a short lo-fi sci-fi experimental B-movie adventure incorporating dubbed gibberish voices, abstract art, remnants of Mardi Gras costumes, toy props, dustbuster spaceships, on-screen text and analog electronic music. It’s absurd, kaleidoscopic and homemade. The movie was originally shot on an abandoned Western movie set on the Texas-Mexican border in 1999, but was abandoned due to technical difficulties. 15 years later, the project was revived by a successful Kickstarter fund-raising campaign. The original footage was reimagined and re-edited with new technology to create a one-of-a-kind film.