The Topdog Diaries

No one in recorded history has suffered a fate quite like Lafayette. Once, he was the most famous man in the world; today, few people know who he was or what he accomplished. Ever since he died, there has been a conflict over the true meaning of his accomplishments. It is time to re-evaluate his crucial role in the establishment of America's democracy.

An all-star cast tells the inside story of the Broadway theater, and how it came back from the brink thanks to innovative work, a new attention to inclusion and a sometimes uneasy balance between art and commerce. Legends of the stage and screen—including Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Viola Davis, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen—take us behind the scenes of Broadway's most groundbreaking and beloved shows, from A Chorus Line to Hamilton. Iconic performances by Lin Manuel Miranda, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, James Earl Jones and Mandy Patinkin lead the way on a hurly burly ride through Times Square, once again the main street of American show business in this documentary directed by Academy-Award nominee Oren Jacoby.

The extraordinary story of former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords: her relentless fight to recover following an assassination attempt in 2011, and her new life as one of the most effective activists in the battle against gun violence.

MY ITALIAN SECRET tells a heroic story that was all but lost to history, until now. The film recounts how WWII bicycling idol Gino Bartali, physician Giovanni Borromeo and other Italians worked with Jewish leaders and high-ranking officials of the Catholic Church, risking their lives by defying the Nazis to save thousands of Italy’s Jews.

Celebrates Sister Rose Thering, for 67 years a Dominican nun. Her passion is fighting anti-Semitism. Archival footage looks at her growing up in Wisconsin and taking the veil in her teens. Interviews with scholars and common people capture the extent to which "Christ killers" was a standard Catholic description of Jews. Sister Rose's research at Saint Louis University in the 1950s into the presentation of Jews within Catholic educational materials leads to the publication of "Nostra Aetate," a document released in 1965 by the Second Vatican Council. Since that time, she's dedicated herself to eradicating anti-Semitism. The film ends with a critique of Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ."

This biography of musical legend Benny Goodman contains testimonials from various contemporaries and scholars, and offers several clips of the man in performance. Nearly two-dozen songs can be heard including "California, Here I Come," "A Fine Romance," "Why Don't You Do Right," "I've Got a Heart Full of Music," and "Bugle Cal Rag."

Using never-before-seen archival footage, personal photos, first-person narratives, and cutting-edge, mouth-watering food cinematography, the film traces Julia Child's surprising path, from her struggles to create and publish the revolutionary Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961) which has sold more than 2.5 million copies to date, to her empowering story of a woman who found fame in her 50s, and her calling as an unlikely television sensation.

An exploration of the dark side of Christianity, following acclaimed author and former priest James Carroll on a journey of remembrance and reckoning.

Richard Hambleton was a founder of the street art movement before succumbing to drugs and homelessness. Rediscovered 20 years later, he gets a second chance. But will he take it?

Explores Windows on the World, the iconic restaurant that occupied the 106th and 107th floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

John Lithgow, Christine Baranski, Brian Stokes Mitchell and other Broadway stars on how the Broadway community has responded to COVID-19, finding creative ways to perform during the shutdown and how the pandemic could change show business.

It’s easy, in 2025, to despair that any film might course-correct our everquickening descent towards climate disaster. And yet, climate change is a cause so vital to the entire planet that it’s possible to find inspiration to carry on. Director Oren Jacoby’s new film gives us reason to not only hope, but believe. We meet the climate activist Sharon Wilson, whose eerie thermal images of methane pollution in Texas unveil invisible destruction (and earn her death threats for sharing them).

The acclaimed documentary series from 1991 that examined political in-fighting in the Soviet Union and the battle for perestroika.