Jon Alpert
A look at the distressing circumstances for millions of children living in orphanages and other institutions around the world as J.K. Rowling's LUMOS foundation works to reunite them with family members or place them in foster homes.
People with disabilities are the largest minority in the United States (57 million people) and in Russia (13 million people). This film follows the adventures of Russians and Americans with disabilities, who like the characters in the Dumas novel, work together for the common good… but they wield cameras not sabers. They make films to empower themselves, educate the public, create more opportunities, and build friendship between the people of Russia and the United States.
A look at the Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation Boot Camp Program, which allows young inmates undergo a strict six-week course in order to learn from their past mistakes and make a better future for themselves.
This revealing portrait of Cuba follows the lives of Fidel Castro and three Cuban families affected by his policies over the last four decades.
A rare look inside Cuba’s LGBT community, this compelling film follows the efforts of Mariela Castro, daughter of President Raúl Castro, as she champions LGBT social reforms and acceptance of diversity.
Not since the invention of the Internet has there been such a disruptive technology as Bitcoin. Bitcoin's early pioneers sought to blur the lines of sovereignty and the financial status quo. After years of underground development Bitcoin grabbed the attention of a curious public, and the ire of the regulators the technology had subverted. After landmark arrests of prominent cyber criminals Bitcoin faces its most severe adversary yet, the very banks it was built to destroy.
With more than 50 million Latinos now living in the United States, Latinos are taking their seat at the table as the new American power brokers in the world of entertainment, business, politics and the arts. As Latinos’ influence in American society has soared, they have entered mainstream American culture, and the proof is in the music. Executive produced by legendary music mogul Tommy Mottola, THE LATIN EXPLOSION: A NEW AMERICA features a dazzling array of artists at the center of Latino cultural power and influence, including Marc Anthony, Emilio Estefan Jr., Gloria Estefan, JosĂ© Feliciano, Eva Longoria, George Lopez, Jennifer Lopez, Los Lobos, Cheech Marin, Ricky Martin, Rita Moreno, Pitbull, Romeo Santos, Shakira, ThalĂa and SofĂa Vergara. Narrated by John Leguizamo.
Redemption is a documentary about New York City's canners - the men and women who survive by redeeming bottles and cans they collect from curbs, garbage cans and apartment complexes. You've seen them combing through the trash, but never got to meet them. The film is an unexpected and intimate look at post-industrial gleaners, struggling at the edge of our society.
With footage shot in the center of Egypt's Tahrir Square from the beginning of the battles to the climax of the celebration, audiences experience first-hand the people-powered revolt that brought down a dictator and changed Egypt forever.
With suicide rates among active military servicemen and veterans currently on the rise, this documentary brings urgent attention to the invisible wounds of war. Drawing on personal stories of American soldiers whose lives and psyches were torn asunder by the horrors of battle and PTSD, the documentary chronicles the lingering effects of combat stress and post-traumatic stress on military personnel and their families throughout American history, from the Civil War through today's conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Follows the struggle of 138 mostly immigrant workers who strike to save their jobs at a famous bakery in the Bronx when a private equity firm buys the bakery and demands wage cuts of up to 30%.
On May 12, 2008, a catastrophic earthquake hit Sichuan Province in rural China, killing nearly 70,000 people, including 10,000 children. In town after town, poorly constructed school buildings crumbled, wiping out classrooms filled with students, most of them their parents' only child. But when grieving mothers and fathers sought explanations and justice, they found their path blocked by incompetence, corruption and empty promises.
It has been called "the saddest acre in America." It is also one of the most sacred. Section 60 in Arlington National Cemetery is the final resting place for young men and women who died fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. This emotional documentary filmed entirely in Section 60 provides intimate glimpses of family and friends who have come to honor their loved ones.
Auto racing is an obsession in Anderson, Indiana. Even with local auto factories closing down and jobs being lost, the town's residents continue to flock to the local speedway every Friday night--and its drivers continue to pour their dwindling resources into their Thundercars. Emmy(R)-winning filmmaker Jon Alpert presents this look at this passion for racing in rust-belt America. Since the closing of a GM plant and the loss of 33,000 jobs, the once-thriving town of Anderson now stands witness to empty factories, shuttered stores and abandoned home--but also to packed houses at Anderson Speedway where people put their troubles on hold to watch the cacophony of screeching tires and crashing metal as drivers vie for Thundercar supremacy.
Documentary on Antonio "King Tone" Fernandez and his gang, the Latin Kings, whose main target was to protect Latin people.
Assembled by some of the nation's top documentary filmmakers, this centerpiece film in HBO's 'Addiction' campaign features insights from experts on trends and treatments in the ongoing battle against drug and alcohol abuse. This documentary consists of nine segments that focus on case studies and cutting-edge treatments that challenge traditional beliefs about addiction.
In a war that has left more than 25,000 wounded, ALIVE DAY MEMORIES: HOME FROM IRAQ looks at a new generation of veterans. Executive Producer James Gandolfini interviews ten Soldiers and Marines who reveal their feelings on their future, their severe disabilities and their devotion to America. The documentary surveys the physical and emotional cost of war through memories of their "alive day," the day they narrowly escaped death in Iraq.
Produced and directed by 11-time Emmy Award-winner Jon Alpert, this 64-minute verite documentary takes an unforgettable look inside the 86th Combat Support Hospital (CSH), the U.S. Army's premier medical facility in Iraq and former site of one of Saddam Hussein?s elite medical facilities. Shot over two months in the summer of 2005, the film puts a human face on the war's cold casualty statistics, as doctors and nurses fight to save the lives of wounded soldiers who are Medevaced (helicoptered) in a numbingly routine basis.
A follow up to Jon Alpert's One Year In a Life of Crime, re-examining the lives of several criminals nine years later.
Documents 18 months in the lives of three crack addicts in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Documentary about the Rikers Island prison. If you're arrested in New York City and can't make bail, you'll be sent to Rikers Island--a mammoth holding facility for 17,000 men and women awaiting trial. TV journalist Jon Alpert spent ten months filming there, coming away with a graphic and unblinking portrait of life inside America's largest jail complex, including a moving look at the human faces behind the statistics.
Junior Rios started using heroin when he was 15. Now 29 and the father of three children, Junior's habit costs $200 a day. When he isn't getting high, he is climbing over rooftops and through the burned-out buildings of the South Bronx, stealing what other thieves have overlooked to keep his habit going. His meager diet consists of coffee-soaked bread.
This Emmy Award-winning documentary tells the stories of six "ordinary" people who live or work along New York City's Third Avenue, which runs for sixteen miles through Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, cutting through the complex social strata of the city to reveal wildly different economic and ethnic subcultures. The subjects speak for themselves, offering candid glimpses into the disparate worlds of a junkyard dealer who steals cars, a Bowery bum and the wife he abandoned, a welfare mother living in a condemned building with her five children, a male prostitute, a devout Puerto Rican factory worker, and an aging Italian barber and his wife. Called "a triumph of its kind" by The Washington Post, this unsentimental portrait of the uncommon lives of common people is a subjective sociological study of survival in urban America.
