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Browse the HBO Documentaries Catalog (Alphabetical by title)

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A Boy's Life
A Boy's Life
Produced and Directed by award-winning filmmaker Rory Kennedy (HBO's AMERICAN HOLLOW and PANDEMIC: FACING AIDS), this film paints a dramatic portrait of the troubling forces that have shaped the life of a seven-year-old boy from Mississippi.
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A Father... a Son... Once Upon A Time in Hollywood
A Father... a Son... Once Upon A Time in Hollywood
Exclusive recent conversations with Kirk Douglas and his son, Michael Douglas, highlight this fascinating portrait of two charismatic Oscar®-winners who share, along with a last name, a passion for movies, women, family, and taking risks.
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A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin
A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin
Winner of the 2005 Oscar® this year for Best Documentary Short Subject, A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin examines the career of Norman Corwin, known as the "poet laureate of radio drama."
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Addiction
Addiction
Unprecedented multi-platform campaign aimed at helping Americans understand addiction.
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The Agronomist
The Agronomist
The Agronomist, directed by Jonathan Demme, interweaves footage and photos of journalist and freedom fighter Jean Dominique with the testimonies of family, friends and colleagues who worked with him.
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Aileen: Life and Death of Serial Killer
Aileen: Life and Death of Serial Killer
In 1992, a year after Aileen Wuornos was arrested for the murders of seven men in Florida, filmmaker Nick Broomfield released "Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer." A decade later, they were reunited when he was subpoenaed to appear at her final state appeal before execution. This disturbing documentary provides his fresh insights into her story.
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Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq
Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq
Executive Producer James Gandolfini interviews ten Soldiers and Marines who reveal their feelings on their future, their severe disabilities and their devotion to America.
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All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise
All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise
Feature-length chronicle of a precedent-setting 2004 cruise, in which Rosie O'Donnell and her family joined hundreds of other gay, lesbian, bisexual and straight families on a weeklong trip from NYC to the Bahamas and back.
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The Alzheimer's Project
The Alzheimer's Project
One of the most devastating forms of memory loss is Alzheimer's disease, an irreversible and progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills. While there is no cure for the disease, THE ALZHEIMER'S PROJECT shows there is now genuine reason to be optimistic about the future.
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And Along Came A Spider
And Along Came A Spider
Featuring a chilling first-person prison interview with Hanaei, AND ALONG CAME A SPIDER tells the story of Iran's infamous "spider killings" - named for the way he drew victims into a deadly web.
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Andrew Jenks, Room 335
Andrew Jenks, Room 335
An unusual, extended look inside an assisted-living facility in Florida, told from the point of view of a 19-year-old college student/filmmaker.
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The Aristocrats
The Aristocrats
100 Comedians. One Very Dirty Joke. HBO presents the television debut of the documentary that set a new standard for depravity and perversion on film: The Aristocrats.
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Asylum
Asylum
Nominated for an Academy Award® in the Documentary Short category, ASYLUM chronicles a young Ghanaian woman's desperate attempt to escape the traditional practice of female circumcision and her journey to a new country - where she battles U.S. immigration policies
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Atlantic City Hookers
Atlantic City Hookers
This adults-only special focuses on purveyors of the world's oldest profession, only this time, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Often explicit yet frequently poignant, the documentary underscores the hopes, fears and humanity of these women in a startlingly candid way.
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Autism: The Musical
Autism: The Musical
Uplifting documentary explores one L.A. woman's pledge to lead a group of autistic children in defying diagnosed expectations by writing, rehearsing and performing their own full-length musical.
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Autopsy
Autopsy
Long before the recent trend in criminal investigation shows, there was Autopsy, the show that inspired them all. Hosted by reknowned forensic pathologst Dr. Michael Baden, watch as the mysteries of the dead are revealed by Dr. Baden and other "detectives of death."
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Baghdad ER
Baghdad ER
Captures the humanity, hardships and heroism of the US Military and medical personnel of the 86th Combat Support Hospital, the Army's premier medical facility in Iraq.
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Baghdad Hospital: Inside the Red Zone
Baghdad Hospital: Inside the Red Zone
Following in the footsteps of HBO's acclaimed 2006 documentary Baghdad ER, this verite film takes a doctor's-eye look inside Al-Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad, which has been transformed by insurgency and sectarian strife into a "field hospital in a civil war."
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Balseros
Balseros
In August 1994, in a startling concession, Fidel Castro opened up Cuba's coastal borders, inviting citizens who wished to leave the country to do so. Some 50,000 people took him up on the offer, jamming onto dangerous makeshift rafts and setting sail for Miami. Some of the rafters - known as balseros - made it to America. Others perished.
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Bastards of the Party
Bastards of the Party
Cle "Bone" Sloan, a longtime member of the Bloods, traces the roots of black gang violence in Los Angeles. Acclaimed feature film director Antoine Fuqua produces along with Sloan, who also directs.
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Be Like Others
Be Like Others
Be Like Others tells the story of several 20-something men who are grappling to find their true selves in a setting that, paradoxically, deems only one outcome acceptable.
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Beah: A Black Woman Speaks
Beah: A Black Woman Speaks
Winner of the Grand Jury prize of the 2003 AFI Film Festival, this documentary presents Richards' shared wisdom and truths and explores the deep and tender relationship that developed between legendary actress Richards and actress-turned-director, LisaGay Hamilton.
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Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid
This award-winning feature paints a sensitive and humorous verite portrait of an iconoclastic 15-year-old outsider growing up in small-town Maine.
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The Black List: Volume One
The Black List: Volume One
Part of a multimedia initiative, The Black List: Volume One is the brainchild of renowned portrait photographer/filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and acclaimed KCRW public radio host, journalist and former New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell, with Greenfield-Sanders directing and Mitchell conducting the interviews.
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Black Sun
Black Sun
documentarian Doug Block's unpredictable journey through a whirlwind of dramatic life-changing events: the death of his mother, the uncovering of decades of family secrets, and the ensuing reconciliation with his father.
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Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary
Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary
In 1942, at the height of World War II, Adolf Hitler hired 22-year old Traudl Junge as his private secretary. Speaking out for the first time after more than a half-century of silence, Junge sheds new light on the private life of Adolf Hitler.
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Born Rich
Born Rich
This 2003 Sundance Film Festival selection takes a true insiders' look at the privileges and burdens, of being born rich.
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Born into Brothels
Born into Brothels
Winner of the 2004 Academy Award ® for Best Documentary Feature, this 84-minute documentary focuses on the artistic empowerment of eight children who live in the crowded red-light district of Calcutta, India, where their mothers work as prostitutes.
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Boy Interrupted
Boy Interrupted
Tells the heartbreaking story of Evan Perry, a 15-year-old boy who jumped to his death from his New York City bedroom window after a lifelong struggle with bipolar disorder.
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Brothers Lost
Brothers Lost
Features interviews with 31 men who lost brothers in the 9/11 attacks, and who share their emotions and offer reflections on the nature of brotherhood.
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Bus 174
Bus 174
A reflection on the endemic problem of street kids, urban decay, and violence in Brazil, BUS 174 focuses on one episode - the hijacking and 4-hour standoff of a passenger bus in the fashionable south side of Rio de Janeiro.
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Cannibal: The Real Hannibal Lecters
Cannibal: The Real Hannibal Lecters
Delve into the minds of four of the world's most frightening killers -- and cannibals. This psychological investigation attempts to understand what could possibly drive a person not only to kill another human being, but to consume human flesh.
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Capturing the Friedmans
Capturing the Friedmans
Andrew Jarecki's documentary feature riveted viewers with this exploration of a seemingly normal family embroiled in an explosive criminal case that leaves them sullied by scandal, vilified by the media and haunted by damning secrets from the past.
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Cat Dancers
Cat Dancers
Ron Holiday, Joy Holiday and Chuck Lizza, aka the Cat Dancers, were one of the world's first exotic-tiger entertainment acts. For years, the trio shared a happy, if unorthodox, life as performers and lovers - until a pair of bizarre deaths brought their story to a tragic end.
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Celibacy
Celibacy
This investigative film features candid interviews with current and former celibates of the Catholic, Buddhist and Hindu faiths, as well as historians, neurologists and psychologists, who provide new insights into why men and women may choose celibacy.
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Chernobyl Heart
Chernobyl Heart
On April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear accident in history occurred when a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Sixteen years later, award-winning filmmaker Maryann De Leo took her camera to follow the devastating trail this radiation left behind in hospitals, orphanages, mental asylums and evacuated villages.
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The Children of Leningradsky
The Children of Leningradsky
This Oscar®-nominated documentary short focuses on the tragic daily life of children living in a Moscow train station.
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Children of Beslan
Children of Beslan
Harrowing recounting of the 2004 school siege in Beslan, Russia that killed over 300 hostages, as told primarily by the tragedy's surviving children.
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China's Unnatural Disaster:  The Tears of Sichuan Province
China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
A vivid and astonishingly candid look at the human toll of last year's devastating earthquake in central China, this 40-minute verité documentary visits with the parents of deceased children from several district schools a few days after the disaster, sharing in their unimaginable grief at the loss of a child (for most, their only child).
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Coma
Coma
Academy Award®-nominated director Liz Garbus' insightful documentary COMA explores the mysteries of the injured brain and its ability to heal.
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The Conscience of Nhem En
The Conscience of Nhem En
Thirty years ago, during the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror over Cambodia, 16- year-old soldier Nhem En was instructed to photograph thousands of men, women and children as they passed through a processing center on their way to certain death. The portraits he took bear witness to the unspeakable suffering and loss endured by the country.
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Crank
Crank
Through the life of three Iowa families, witness the extreme destruction wrought by methamphetamine (crank) addiction, which has become the number one drug problem in rural America.
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Cutting Edge
Cutting Edge
An informal, inside look at a busy Harlem barbershop that serves as a lively forum for black men to discuss any topic, whether controversial or banal, sacred or profane, political or personal.
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David McCullough: Painting with Words
David McCullough: Painting with Words
Produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, this documentary paints an affectionate, first-person portrait of David McCullough, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography that inspired HBO's recent John Adams miniseries.
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The Day I Will Never Forget
The Day I Will Never Forget
Offering a rare glimpse into the practice of female circumcision in modern Kenya, filmmaker Kim Longinotto compassionately offers the stories of women and girls of all ages who personalize this fiercely debated practice.
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Dealing Dogs
Dealing Dogs
DEALING DOGS exposes abuses to dogs that took place at one of America's most notorious 'Class B' dealers - Martin Creek Kennel in Arkansas.
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Dear Talula
Dear Talula
Intimate autobiographical portrait of filmmaker Lori Benson and her battle with breast cancer.
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Death in Gaza
Death in Gaza
In spring 2003, award-winning filmmaker James Miller and reporter Saira Shah, set out to take a first-hand look at the culture of hate that permeates the Middle East. They captured the lives of three Palestinian children growing up in the bullet-riddled streets of Gaza.
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Death on a Factory Farm
Death on a Factory Farm
From the makers of HBO's 2006 documentary Dealing Dogs, this film takes a harrowing look at animal cruelty in an Ohio factory hog farm, as chronicled through undercover footage taken by "Pete," the same animal-rights investigator who appeared in the first film.
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Diary of a Political Tourist
Diary of a Political Tourist
Following the 2002 HBO documentary "Journeys with George," Pelosi's irreverent account of George W. Bush on the campaign trail, she set out on the road again with a handful of distinguished men competing to see who could eat the most pies, raise the most money and get the most votes to become the Democratic Party nominee.
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Dirty Driving: Thundercars of Indiana
Dirty Driving: Thundercars of Indiana
Racing cars is an obsession in Anderson, Indiana. Even with the closing of local auto factories and resultant loss of jobs, the town's residents continue to flock to the local speedway every Friday night - and its drivers continue to pour their dwindling resources into patching up their Thundercars for the next week
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A Dog's Life: A Dogamentary
A Dog's Life: A Dogamentary
This quirky and poignant film explores the positive effects of the intense bond between dogs and humans, as told through the story of New York-based television producer/filmmaker Gayle Kirschenbaum and her lovable Shih Tzu, Chelsea.
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Dope Sick Love
Dope Sick Love
When you're a junkie, the money comes and goes - and so does the high. Do relationships stand a chance among addicts? Meet Matt & Tracy and Sebastian & Michelle - two NYC couples looking for love, and fixes, in all the wrong places.
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Downtown Girls: The Hookers of Honolulu
Downtown Girls: The Hookers of Honolulu
This adults-only special takes an intimate look at she-male and transsexual prostitutes working in Paradise, as chronicled by filmmaker Brent Owens.
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Elaine Stritch at Liberty
Elaine Stritch at Liberty
This feature-length documentary paints a delightfully candid portrait of Broadway legend Elaine Stritch, both on stage and off. Shot during productions of her Tony award-winning show staged in New York and London, the film includes never-before-seen rehearsal footage of Stritch and her creative collaborators, writer John Lahr and director George C. Wolfe.
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The End
The End
What is life like for someone in the last stages of a terminal illness - and for the loved ones who share those final days? To find out, filmmaker Kirby Dick gave video cameras to the families of five patients in Los Angeles' Kaiser Permanente Hospice Program. The diverse experiences they recorded encompass humor, sadness, anger, transcendence and, ultimately, acceptance.
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The Execution of Wanda Jean
The Execution of Wanda Jean
Wanda Jean Allen was an attractive young woman with what many considered to be an appealing personality. She was also an African-American lesbian whose low IQ indicated borderline retardation. By the age of 29, Wanda Jean had killed twice — and would become one of the most controversial death-row inmates in recent history.
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Family Bonds
Family Bonds
Family Bonds depicts the day-to-day drama, humor, and craziness of life as an Evangelista, following the family as they confront the dangers of bounty hunting and the challenges of everyday life.
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Favela Rising
Favela Rising
This documentary chronicles the efforts of one Brazilian man, a reformed drug trafficker, to use music to end the cycle of violence and transform a community in Rio de Janeiro's most-feared slum
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51 Birch Street
51 Birch Street
Documentarian Doug Block's unpredictable journey through a whirlwind of dramatic life-changing events: the death of his mother, the uncovering of decades of family secrets, and the ensuing reconciliation with his father.
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The Final Inch
The Final Inch
Nearly 50 years after a vaccine for polio was developed in the United States, the polio virus still finds refuge in some of the world's most vulnerable places. This documentary short, nominated for a 2008 Academy Award, examines how a group of dedicated workers are going door-to-door and slum-to-slum to reach unprotected children in poor enclaves in India.
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Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi
Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi
Focuses on the 2007 kidnapping and murder of a 24-year-old Afghan who was hired by foreign journalists to help gather news stories. Ajmal Naqshbandi and an Italian reporter were captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan, but while the journalist was spared, he was killed.
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4 Little Girls
4 Little Girls
On September 15, 1963, a bomb destroyed a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls who were there for Sunday school. It was a crime that shocked the nation--and a defining moment in the history of America's civil-rights movement.
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Freeheld
Freeheld
his Academy Award-winning documentary short chronicles the poignant story of a New Jersey Police Lieutenant, diagnosed with terminal cancer and with less than a year to live, as she struggles against elected officials to transfer her earned pension to her domestic partner.
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Friends of God: A Road Trip With Alexandra Pelosi
Friends of God: A Road Trip With Alexandra Pelosi
Alexandra Pelosi embarks on a fast-paced cross-country journey, offering snapshots of a cross-section of evangelical America.
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Gang War 2
Gang War 2
Filmmakers Marc Levin and Daphne Pinkerson exposed gang warfare in the heartland with the 1994 award-winning HBO documentary "Gang War: Bangin' in Little Rock." Now, ten years later the filmmakers return with updates on former gang members who are working to keep other youths in their community out of gang life while struggling to live their own productive lives.
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Ganja Queen
Ganja Queen
The harrowing story of Schapelle Corby, a young Australian woman who is accused of international drug trafficking after ten pounds of marijuana are found in one of her bags while on vacation in Bali.
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The Gates
The Gates
This 98-minute film chronicles the tenacious, decades-long effort of landscape artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude to bring their most ambitious work of art to fruition.
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Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Acclaimed filmmaker Rory Kennedy looks beyond the headlines to investigate the psychological and political context in which torture occurred at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
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Graduating Peter
Graduating Peter
Follow the journey of Peter, a young man with Down Syndrome, from sixth grade through high school graduation, as he navigates school, friendships and building a future.
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Gray Matter & The Power of Good
Gray Matter & The Power of Good
Investigates the shocking circumstances by which an Austrian physician allegedly killed hundreds of innocent children during WWII in order to experiment on their brains.
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The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo
The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo
Shot in the war zones of the Democratic Republic of Congo, this Sundance Award-winning documentary explores the shocking plight of women and girls caught in the sexual crossfire as this giant African nation enters its second decade of internal conflict.
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Hard Times At Douglass High: A No Child Left Behind Report Card
Hard Times At Douglass High: A No Child Left Behind Report Card
Oscar-winning filmmakers Alan Raymond and Susan Raymond chronicle one school year with the students and teachers of Frederick Douglass High School, an inner-city Baltimore school that has struggled to meet the expectations of President Bush's controversial 2002 No Child Left Behind Act.
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Hard as Nails
Hard as Nails
Profile of unordained Catholic minister Justin Fatica, who founded the Hard as Nails youth ministry. Fatica employs an intense, over-the-top approach that has connected with thousands of troubled teenagers.
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Have You Seen Andy?
Have You Seen Andy?
A story of a childhood friendship abruptly ended by the abduction of a young boy, Andy Puglisi, whose childhood friend Melanie Perkins returns to her hometown to re-investigate the unsolved case.
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Hear and Now
Hear and Now
This Sundance Award-winning documentary is a deeply personal memoir by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky about her deaf parents' decision to undergo risky cochlear implant surgery -- the only one of its kind that can restore a sense.
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Heir to an Execution
Heir to an Execution
This deeply personal feature-length documentary chronicles filmmaker Ivy Meeropol's journey to come to terms with the lives and deaths of her grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed as traitors in 1953 after being accused of relaying the secret of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.
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The Hidden Fuhrer: Debating the Enigma of Hitler's Sexuality
The Hidden Fuhrer: Debating the Enigma of Hitler's Sexuality
Nearly 60 years after his death, Adolf Hitler continues to hold a perverse fascination for the public. But could the Nazi dictator - who was responsible for one of the worst campaigns of anti-gay persecution in history -- have concealed one explosive secret? Could Adolf Hitler have been homosexual?
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Hookers
Hookers
A startling verite documentary series that takes a look at street prostitution. With footage shot in New York, Newark, Miami and Amsterdam.
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Horns and Halos
Horns and Halos
In 1999, "Fortunate Son," J.H. Hatfield's unauthorized biography of George W. Bush, quickly became a best-selling sensation for its allegations about the future President's past. But this controversial book was quickly withdrawn by its original publisher following revelations about the author's own criminal history, sparking a tangled chain of events that ultimately culminated in tragedy.
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House Arrest Starring Chris Colombo: A Docu-Comedy Based On Reality
House Arrest Starring Chris Colombo: A Docu-Comedy Based On Reality
From multiple Emmy Award®-winner Jon Alpert, this half-hour verite documentary follows the affable, charismatic Chris Colombo as he manages his life, all while under house arrest, in and around his home in upstate New York.
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