Sink or Swim

When workers at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota are asked to take a substantial pay cut in a highly profitable year, the local labor union decides to go on strike and fight for a wage they believe is fair. But as the work stoppage drags on and the strikers face losing everything, friends become enemies, families are divided and the very future of this typical mid American town is threatened.

Gifted 18-year-old Meg has been abandoned by her father and neglected by her hardworking mother. Left to care for her emotionally disturbed younger sister, her world begins to unravel. She finds an outlet in writing poetry and support from her English teacher, Mr. Auster. But what started out as a mentoring relationship begins to get a bit more complex.

Longinotto's documentary is about Brenda Myers-Powell, who fights against sexual exploitation and supports prostitutes in Chicago. Brenda knows what she is talking about: her own story, involving teenage prostitution and a life of violence and abuse, is in stark contrast to her dauntless energy and optimism.

Working-class father John Crowley is finally on the fast track to corporate success when his two young children are diagnosed with Pompe disease—a condition that prevents the body from breaking down sugar. With the support of his wife, John ditches his career and teams with unconventional specialist, Dr. Robert Stonehill to found a bio-tech company and develop a cure in time to save the lives of his children. As Dr. Stonehill works tirelessly to prove the theories that made him the black sheep of the medical community, a powerful bond is forged between the two unlikely allies.

Monica Wright and Quincy McCall grew up in the same neighborhood and have known each other since childhood. As they grow into adulthood, they fall in love, but they also share another all-consuming passion: basketball. As Quincy and Monica struggle to make their relationship work, they follow separate career paths though high school and college basketball and, they hope, into stardom in big-league professional ball.

Jo is a neglected 16-year-old girl whose promiscuous mother marries a dandy. Jo gets pregnant after a tryst with a black cook, who leaves her over his impending responsibilities of fatherhood, and she only finds support in a gay male friend.

A film about the work of the artist most famous for her monuments such as the Vietnam Memorial Wall and the Civil Rights Fountain Memorial.

Interview with Jason Holliday aka Aaron Payne. House-boy, would-be cabaret performer, and self-proclaimed hustler giving one man's gin-soaked, pill-popped view of what it was like to be coloured and gay in 1960s Unites States. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

A young working girl must support her family on only five dollars a week. The strain of trying to feed, house and clothe her mother, her father and three sisters finally gets to be too much, and she winds up selling her body for a pair of shoes.

When motocross and heavy metal obsessed, 13-year-old Jacob's delinquent behavior forces CPS to place his little brother Wes with his aunt, Jacob and his emotionally absent father must finally take responsibility for their actions and each other in order to bring Wes home.

The Ties That Bind is an experimental documentary about the filmmaker's mother, who was born and lived in southern Germany from 1920-1950. Through a mixture of personal anecdote and social history, she describes the rise of Nazism, the war years, and the Allied occupation, during which she met her future husband, an American soldier. The Ties That Bind breaks with the usual format of war documentaries, thus allowing a different portrait of the individual to emerge, while it reflects on the current political situation in America and the filmmaker's activities in relation to those issues.

A close examination of the Whakaari / White Island volcanic eruption of 2019 in which 22 lives were lost, the film viscerally recounts a day when ordinary people were called upon to do extraordinary things, placing this tragic event within the larger context of nature, resilience, and the power of our shared humanity.

Never before has the extraordinary life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo been framed in relation to the full spectrum of the historical and cultural influences that shaped her. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF FRIDA KAHLO explores the 20th century icon who became an international sensation in the worlds of modern art and radical politics.

For Billie and Nico, life with their father is a roller-coaster ride of playfulness and unease. When he is in the grip of alcohol, tears flow and their apparently idyllic family life collapses. Their mostly absent and irresponsible mother is not much help either. But their friendship with Malik, a boy of Billie’s age, frees them from their shackles. Together they embark on a journey full of intense moments of freedom. The colourful, emotional world of the three young people is depicted in kaleidoscopic black and white imagery, which opens space for their own notions of childhood. Alexandre Rockwell's tale portrays a profound sense of solidarity and deep love: for cinema and Billie Holiday, and also for risk and adventure.

The White City tells the story of an emotionally charged love triangle set in the hot political climate of modern Tel Aviv. A young couple take a winter break in Tel Aviv as an opportunity to exercise their creativity. But while Eva writes poetry and parties with friends, Kyle works on a film which expresses his own confused sexuality with Avi, a young ex-soldier; drawing Avi further into the couple’s complex relationship. The White City presents a new slant on the love triangle genre, with the backdrop of Tel Aviv as a cultural counterpoint to the American couple’s life. Cambridge Film Festival 2014 (http://www.cambridgefilmfestival.org.uk/films/2014/the-white-city)

Bluey is an inexhaustible six year-old Blue Heeler dog, who loves to play and turns everyday family life into extraordinary adventures, developing her imagination as well as her mental, physical and emotional resilience.

The definitive story of the Civil Rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, and embodied a struggle whose reverberation continue to be felt today.

People's Century is a television documentary series examining the 20th century. It was a joint production of the BBC in the United Kingdom and PBS member station WGBH Boston in the United States. First shown on BBC in 1995, the 26 parts of one hour deal with the socio-economic, political, and cultural movements that shaped the 20th century. The documentary won an International Emmy Award, among others. A departure from other documentaries that observe history as the actions of great men, People's Century considers the Century from the view of common people. Most persons interviewed were ordinary men and women who closely witnessed various events and they give personal accounts how developments in the Twentieth Century affected their lives. The opening credits depict various images from the century, accompanied with a theme music score by Zbigniew Preisner. A very short introduction of the episode would then follow, often illustrated by a dramatic event that illustrates the episode's particular theme coming to the fore. The British version was narrated by Sean Barrett and Veronika Hyks, the American by actors John Forsythe and Alfre Woodard. People's Century was coproduced by the BBC and WGBH with executive producers Peter Pagnamenta and Zvi Dor-Ner, respectively; along with producer David Espar.

This exhaustive collection encompasses all the events that occurred during World War II. Covering an astonishing amount of ground, events in France, London, Munich, Stalingrad, the Pacific, and many others are all covered in intimate detail. Some of the stories offered by veterans create a startling portrait of the events as they unfolded, as well as adding a personal touch to this amazing program. In short, this is an insightful way to gather a welter of information on this important chapter in world history.

Mankind The Story of All of Us is an epic 12-hour television event about the greatest adventure of all time—the history of the human race. It takes 10 billion years for the ideal planet to form and 3 billion more for the right conditions to emerge before it finally happens: mankind begins. From there unfolds a fast-paced story told here through key turning points—stepping stones in our journey from hunter-gatherer to global citizen. It’s a tale of connections—why some ideas take hold and spread around the globe, and how the lives of people in one part of the world are shaped by events in another.

How We Invented the World is the ultimate action-packed, hi-energy, landmark series that examines the four inventions that define the modern world - mobiles, cars, planes and skyscrapers -celebrating the people and connections that made them possible. Each playing a crucial role in where we are now in the 21st Century - able to travel the globe, to talk to one another at any time at the push of a button, to live in huge cities, to commute, to capture the world we live in, making the fantasies we create come to life. This four part series lifts the lid on how these iconic inventions came to be. Showcasing the people who have shaped our lives in ways that they could have never imagined or anticipated, this series reveals stories of human ingenuity, extraordinary connections, unprecedented experimentation and jaw dropping accidents that created the world as we know it.

Presented by Egyptologist Dr Joann Fletcher who goes on a fascinating journey in search of people like us, not the great Pharaohs, but the ordinary people who built and populated this incredible place, creating a remarkable way of life. Dr Joann explores their homes, workplaces and temples. The programme originally aired on BBC2 and we meet Kha and Meryt, an architect and his wife who lived just outside the Valley of the Kings. They left behind a treasure trove of information; their extraordinary tomb, full of objects from their lives and deaths - from make-up to death-masks, loaves of bread to life-like figurines, even the tools Kha used at work in the royal tombs. Joann Fletcher uses this to travel into the remarkable world of these Ancient Egyptians,.

In hour-long, in-depth explorations, CNN hosts examine extraordinary individuals, unexpected events and controversial subjects through interviews, stories, images and videos.

A seemingly ordinary British couple become the focus of an extraordinary investigation when two dead bodies are discovered in the back garden of a house in Nottingham.

As Dwayne Johnson runs for president in 2032, he takes a comedic look back at his extraordinary life through the outrageous stories of his family and youth that shaped him into the man he is today. He explores his childhood years living amid influential wrestling icons while his dad rose to fame in the business, his rebellious teenage years attending high school in Pennsylvania, and his football years teamed up with powerhouse players at the University of Miami. In his telling, Johnson explains that while his experiences have been larger than life, he remains a down-to-earth guy who still relates to the American people.

Two celebrity chefs are pitted against one another with a challenge to create extraordinary meals using only the ingredients taken from the ordinary fridges of Canadian families. The improvised dinners must win over two families who act as judges to determine which chef wins each epic battle.

The series leads the audience through a revelatory journey connecting the personal tales of phenomenal Black women to broader societal and historic themes. The stories shared in the series offer an honest and layered look into the complex culture of Black hair and, ultimately, Black women’s identity, beauty, cultural and social contributions and humanity.

With unprecedented access and never-before-seen personal archival footage, the docuseries is a revealing portrait of three-time Olympic gold medalist and one of the greatest athletes in two separate sports, snowboarding and skateboarding, Shaun White. It is a story that includes childhood struggles with a congenital heart condition, the development of his unbeatable talent, sacrifices made by his unconventional but remarkably supportive parents, the move into pro-snowboarding at a young age, and of course, his exploits at the Olympics, where he holds the record for most gold medals by a snowboarder.

A global portrait of tea and the people whose lives have been shaped by this extraordinary drink.

A look into the lives of the movers and shakers who have shaped the story of modern Mumbai, with privileged access to people who have been instrumental in turning the city into a global powerhouse. Through personal stories set against the unfolding story of the past 30 years, this episode looks at the challenges and triumphs of a city and a country in the midst of extraordinary transformation.