Poet, lover, mother, warrior—Audre Lorde was a fiercely passionate American visionary. Her poetry and prose spoke to her deepest convictions—love and anger, civil rights and sexuality, family politics and glories of nature. She gave voice to a political generation and became a role model not only for black women but for everyone who believes, as she did, that "liberation is not the private province of any one particular group." (1995, 60 min.)

"A mesmerizing documentary tribute." — Ms. Magazine

The Academy Award-winning Breathing Lessons, a documentary by filmmaker Jessica Yu, explores the unique world of Mark O'Brien, the poet-journalist who lived for four decades paralyzed in an iron lung. Incorporating the vivid imagery of O'Brien's poetry and his candid, wry, and often profound reflections on work, sex, death and God, this provocative documentary asks: What is a life worth living? (1995, 35 min.)

"A magnificent film about a man in an iron lung who turns his breath into poetry."
      —Lynn O'Donnell, producer of Crumb
1997 Academy Award, Best Documentary (Short Subject)

When Estelle Peck Ishigo followed her Japanese-American husband into an internment camp during World War II—one of the few Caucasians to do so—she created a legacy of works that live on as a painful reminder of one of America's darkest periods, and as a testament to an extraordinary woman who refused to give in to prejudice and injustice. (1990, 28 min.)

"A modern tragedy, an extraordinary love story set against one of the darkest chapters in American history."
      —The Chicago Tribune
1990 Academy Award, Best Documentary (Short Subject)

The role of art in America has been debated recently everywhere from the halls of Congress to the local shopping mall. Golub: Late Works are the Catastrophes is more than a portrait of the socially committed painter Leon Golub, whose massive canvases are intended to provoke viewers. It is about media and contemporary society, social responsibility and creativity, art and information. (2004, 80 min.)

"Golub conveys the exhilarating sense that art is inseparable from both the world that engenders it and the world that receives it." — Jonathan Rosenblum, The Chicago Reader

Jack Levine: Feast Of Pure Reason is a bold and unconventional portrait of one America's leading Social Realist painters doing what he does best: skewering corrupt politicians and police, raging over social injustices, and satirizing the petty foibles of humankind. Sutherland's unique film captures the formidable artistic talent and passions of Jack Levine, whose satiric work tackles the dark side of America's political and social life. (1989, 60 min.)

"A warm, affectionate film about a man as crusty as he is likable."
      — Kevin Thomas, The Los Angeles Times
"A magnificent portrait of a maverick satirist and social commentator."
      — Al Morch, The San Francisco Examiner

Legendary filmmaker Les Blank's documentary Marc and Ann delves directly into the heart of Cajun country to portray a couple devoted to the preservation of Louisiana French culture in their personal, as well as public, lives. The joy of Cajun music, its signature yelps and wails, filter through many of the kitchens, porches, and dance halls of the Savoy's Eunice, La., community. (1991, 27 min.)

Marc And Ann will be shown with the short film, Plena Is Work, Plena Is Song.

"Joyous... as elegantly understated as its title, brimming with life and offering an all-too-brief window on a distinctive slice of the American idiom." — Terry Catchpole, Entertainment Weekly

It is difficult to sit still when the rattlesnake makes a "scratch, scratch, scratch." Sound from a guiro syncopates against the rhyming lyrics of a Puerto Rican plena. Pedro Rivera and Susan Zeig's film, Plena Is Work, Plena Is Song, travels from the sugar plantations of Puerto Rico to the docks of San Juan to the streets of New York's barrio, in search of this unique musical form. (1991, 29 min.)

"...a well-crafted and enlightening recognition of a vivid folk art."
      —Booklist (American Library Association)
Best Documentary, Festival CineSanJuan

Plena Is Work, Plena Is Song will be shown with the short film, Marc And Ann.

Hailed by some as a cinematic genius, a feminist voice and the only true maverick of American cinema, dismissed by others as voyeuristic, an egomaniacal fraud and the "world's worst director." Henry Jaglom obsessively and hilariously confuses and abuses the line between life and art, challenging the boundaries of filmmaking with his unorthodox style. Filmmakers Henry Alex Rubin and Jeremy Workman weave together an offbeat spectrum of opinions from friends, family, Hollywood notables, and even an annoyed waitress to answer the question: Who Is Henry Jaglom? (1997, 52 min.)

"If I had Henry as a father or as a husband, I could have probably taken Poland." — Candice Bergen