Mr. Cao Goes to Washington

Asian Americans

This five-part series traces the story of Asian Americans, spanning 150 years of immigration, racial politics, international relations, and cultural innovation. It is a timely, clear-eyed look at the vital role that Asian Americans have played in defining who we are as a nation. Their stories are a celebration of the grit and resilience of a people that reflects the experience of all Americans.

Afganistan: Land in Crisis

Documentary tracing the history of the Soviet occupation and Rambo’s fictitious involvement there in light of  America’s role twenty years later. Featuring Sylvester Stallone, academics Richard Dekmejian and Larry Goodson. Produced for the "Rambo III" Special Edition DVD.

One + One

A powerful film about serodiscordant couples (of mixed HIV status) living with HIV and AIDS. John and Noel are in a panic. The condom broke during sex, and John happens to have AIDS. Joanne breaks down when the counselor asks about her HIV-positive husband Robert. In their six-year marriage, Joanne has been tested twice a year, each time more stressful than the last. One + One takes an unflinching look at the lives of these two couples of mixed HIV status--one straight, one gay--as they navigate the physical and emotional minefield inherent in every serodiscordant relationship.

Our Time Machine

When influential Chinese artist Ma Liang (a.k.a. Maleonn) realizes that his father Ma Ke, an accomplished Peking Opera director, is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, he invites his father to collaborate on his most ambitious project to date - a haunting, magical, autobiographical stage performance featuring life-size mechanical puppets called "Papa's Time Machine". Through the creation of this play, the two men confront their mortality before time runs out and memories are lost forever.

Mackin’ Ain’t Easy

Documentary celebrating the making of this 70’s cult favorite featuring interviews with Max Julien, director Michael Campus, producer Harvey Bernhard, filmmakers the Hughes Brothers, professor Todd Boyd, and writer Jessie Rhines, actors Anizette Chase, Dick Anthony Williams and Don Gordon. Produced for "The Mack" Special Edition DVD.

Always in Season

When 17-year-old Lennon Lacy is found hanging from a swing set in rural North Carolina in 2014, his mother's search for justice and reconciliation begins while the trauma of more than a century of lynching African Americans bleeds into the present.

Stress: Portrait of a Killer

Over the last three decades, science has been advancing our understanding of stress: how it impacts our bodies and how our social standing can make us more or less susceptible. From baboon troops on the plains of Africa, to neuroscience labs at Stanford University, scientists are revealing just how lethal stress can be. Research tells us that the impact of stress can be found deep within us, shrinking our brains, adding fat to our bellies, even unraveling our chromosomes. Understanding how stress works can help us figure out ways to combat it and how to live a life free of the tyranny of this contemporary plague. In Stress: Portrait of a Killer, scientific discoveries in the field and in the lab prove that stress is not just a state of mind, but something measurable and dangerous.

Drawing First Blood: 20 Years Later

Twenty years later, the cast and crew of 'First Blood' look back on the making of the first Rambo film. Featuring Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, director Ted Kotcheff, producers Mario Kassar and Andrew Vanja.

Island in Between

The rural Taiwanese outer islands of Kinmen sit merely 2 miles off the coast of China. Kinmen attracts tourists for its remains from the 1949 Chinese Civil War. It also marks the frontline for Taiwan in its escalating tension with China.

After the Rain

After a massive earthquake razed a Chinese city to the ground, thousands of parents who lost their children are encouraged to give a new birth so that they can move on with their lives. AFTER THE RAIN follows two of these families for over a decade. Haunted by fear, resentment, and unspeakable grief, the families find hope beyond their intergenerational trauma is hard to build.

Out Run

Mobilizing working-class transgender hairdressers and beauty queens, the dynamic leaders of the world's only LGBT political party wage a historic quest to elect a trans woman to the Philippine Congress.

Playing Dead: "Resident Evil" from Game to Screen

Documentary about the "Resident Evil" video game and how it was transformed into a feature film. Featuring director Paul W.S. Anderson, stars Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez, producer Jeremy Bolt, and video game and cultural critics. Produced for the “Resident Evil” DVD.

Still Around

A feature length short film compilation that portrays 15 people living with HIV/AIDS from the San Francisco Bay Area. 16 well known local filmmakers collaborated with 15 protagonists to create 15 pieces that run from verite doc to experimental film, dance video, spoken words piece to straight forward doc weaving a diverse slate of stories into one powerful video aids quilt of our times.

It's Still Elementary

In 1996, Women's Educational Media released their groundbreaking documentary Its Elementary-Talking About Gay Issues in School. It's Still Elementary tells the fascinating history of why and how the 1996 film was made, the infamous response it provoked from the conservative right, and the questions it raises about the national safe schools movement today. Includes interviews with some of the original students and teachers from Its Elementary.

People Unite!

In the face of AAPI violence, an intergenerational coalition of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, People of Color organizers come together to organize a march across historic Washington Heights and Harlem, as a continuation of the historic and radical Black and Asian solidarity tradition.

A Village Called Versailles

Tucked away on the eastern edge of New Orleans, a community of Vietnamese refugees has thrived for 30 years in a neighborhood they call Versailles. A Village Called Versailles recounts how the residents successfully fought against the opening of a toxic government-imposed landfill after Hurricane Katrina struck and subsequently transformed their neighborhood.

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch

Documentary on psychedelic potash mines, expansive concrete seawalls, mammoth industrial machines, and other examples of humanity’s massive, destructive reengineering of the planet.