Award winning documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy explores the human and political consequences of one of the most bitter scandals of the war in Iraq in this feature. In the 1960’s, a prison was built in Abu Ghraib, an Iraqi city west of Baghdad, and during the regime of Saddam Hussein it became a center of torture and abuse where political dissidents were subjected to agonizing punishment or death.

Following the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003, the prison was taken over by American military authorities, and was used as a holding facility for prisoners of war and suspected terrorists captured by U.S. forces.

The prison’s reputation as a site of widespread abuse rose again when journalists discovered photographs of Iraqi prisoners being tortured and humiliated in an ugly variety of ways by American soldiers, a scandal which had a major impact on international thinking about the war.

Ghosts of Abu Ghraib offers an in-depth look at the story behind the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, featuring interviews with observers on both sides of the national divide. Ghosts of Abu Ghraib received its world premiere at the 2007. (Barnes & Noble)

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In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, while thousands fled New Orleans, the city’s prisoners were trapped. Fresh eye-witness accounts reveal what really happened to those left behind, and how crucial forensic evidence was simply washed away. In September 2005, long after most people had fled a devastated city, inmates of Orleans Parish Prison – many of them shackled – were still waiting to be rescued from the blazing heat and the stinking floods.

“They basically abandoned the prison,” says Vincent Norman, a chef arrested for an unpaid fine who found himself locked in a cell for days. Norman should have been there no more than a week. Instead, abandoned without food, drink or sanitation as the waters rose, he was in prison for 103 days.

In the days before the hurricane, when other citizens of New Orleans were ordered to leave, city leaders were asked: “What about the prisoners in the jail?” “The prisoners will stay where they belong,” replied Marlin Gusman, the criminal sheriff in charge of the city jail. But it was a gamble he would regret.

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In fighting file sharing, the entertainment industry is fighting the fundamental structure of the Internet. Steal This Film is a film series documenting the movement against intellectual property and was a talking point in the British Documentary Festival. Part One, produced in Sweden and released in 2006, takes account of the prominent players in the Swedish piracy culture: The Pirate Bay, Piratbyran, and the Pirate Party.

This film includes a critical analysis of an alleged regulatory capture performed by the Hollywood film industry to leverage economic sanctions by the United States government on Sweden through the WTO. Alleged aims included the application of pressure to Swedish police into conducting a search and seizure against Swedish law for the purpose of disrupting The Pirate Bay’s BitTorrent tracker.

Part One

Part Two

Without having seen the suffering in Northern Uganda, I’m appalled frankly, it’s a moral outrage to see thousands of children that have been abducted, that are maltreated, that go through the most horrendous torture by the rebel movement and also the same groups now being neglected, to some extent, by the whole international community. I can not find any other part of the world having an emergency at the scale of Uganda with so little international attention. What started out as a film-making adventure in Africa, transformed into much more, when the three young American’s (Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole) original travels took a divine turn, and they found themselves stranded in Northern Uganda. They discovered children being kidnapped nightly from their homes and subsequently forced to become fight as child soldiers. This film is dedicated to exposing this tragic, and amazingly untold story.

Even at this moment, in Uganda, Children as young as 8 are methodically kidnapped from their homes by a rebel group called the “Lord’s Resistance Army” (LRA). The abducted children are then desensitized to the horror of brutal violence and killing, as they themselves are turned into vicious fighters. Some escape and hide in constant fear for their lives. Most remain captive, and grow to maturity with no education other than life “in the bush” and fighting in a guerrilla war. Of the many ramifications that a 20 -year-long war can cause, the film “Invisible Children: Rough Cut” highlights what the community refers to as “NIGHT COMMUTERS.” We watch thousands of children “commute” out of fear, from their villages to nearby towns each night in order to avoid the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) abductions. They sleep in public places, vulnerable, and without supervision.

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Josh Davis of Wired magazine investigates an internet botnet attack of Estonia’s banks and newspapers.

Wired Science reports on cardiac surgery performed by a “robo-doc”.

Adam Rogers explores the disappearance of home chemistry sets.

Ziya Tong delves into technology that is helping children with Asperger’s Syndrome by translating facial expressions into emotions.

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We realize that you have the ability, and it’s not below you people, to do something like to erase all evidences. Why do you have the press so far back? You can give me any kind of crap you want, I know, you know, the reason we’re not talking to the press is you people have gotta cover your butts from what you did and that’s what’s goin’ on here. Waco: The Rules of Engagement is the first full-length documentary film to present the complete picture of the series of events outside Waco, Texas during 1993 that resulted in the shooting of 4 federal agents and the deaths of 86 men, women, and children of the Branch Davidian religious sect. Waco: The Rules of Engagement is a highly detailed examination of the interaction between David Koresh, his members, and Federal Law Enforcement. It shows how the FBI misled the public and American political leaders in order to focus overwhelming force on a group whose diversity of race, national origin, and apocalyptic religious beliefs made its members easy targets for lethal abuse of civil and human rights.

Gripping and deeply thought provoking, the film provides America with something it truly needs – an opportunity to review the historical record of events at Waco. The findings raise doubts about the FBI’s version of the story and their larger role in similar instances of law enforcement.

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He wrote his name in blood on the sidewalks of New York and made himself the Boss of all Bosses.

Arriving in America at the age of nine and embarking upon a life of crime at age 14, Charles “Lucky” Luciano rose through the ranks of the New York Mafia like a pistol shot.

By the age of 34, he was running the Sicilian mob like a U.S. corporation diversifying the rackets, organizing the gangs and running his own political candidates.

Examine Lucky’s 30-year career as CEO of Murder, Inc. through rare interviews and extensive archival footage. Mob insiders recall the history-making meetings held in Luciano’s Waldorf-Astoria headquarters.

And naval records reveal how his top-secret war efforts earned him parole from a 50-year sentence.Journey into the dangerous world of La Cosa Nostra for the definitive portrait of one of the most notorious criminals in history.

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Carlton TV got a scoop when reporter Ali Braund went undercover with a hidden camera in the Poole organization. They also used other sources in making this landmark documentary about the The Church of Scientology. The cult tried to sue the documentary makers, but it was dismissed as an abuse of the courts.

The documentary discusses: Conway and Siegelman survey; security checking (Sec Check); deceptive recruitment; L. Ron Hubbard; Robert Vaughn Young; plan to eradicate Suppressive Persons from the Earth; myths about L. Ron Hubbard’s life; beginnings of the Sea Org; David Miscavige; personality test; emotional manipulation; Key To Life course; controlling an ashtray; Training Routine 0 (staring); Gary Fry signing over £21,000; auditing; emotional high induced by auditing; hard sell techniques; claims of improved memory; Adam Bird paying £34,000.

Further more: Gary Fry leaving and getting refund; Saint Hill castle and the Sea Org; the billion-year contract; goal of “clearing” the planet; Jon Atack; OT3 and Xenu; OT levels and Body Thetans; security checking; use of “confidential” confessional materials for blackmail; arrest of Ali Braund; Scientology’s refusal to co-operate with the programme; the Fair Game policy; author Russell Miller and the attempt to frame him for murder; Fair Gaming of Jon Atack; suicidal thoughts upon leaving; death of John Buchanan in Germany.

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Jack the Ripper is a pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished districts in and around Whitechapel, London, in late 1888. The name originated in a letter by someone claiming to be the murderer that was disseminated in the media. The letter is widely considered to be a hoax, and may have been written by a journalist in a deliberate attempt to heighten interest in the story.

The seemingly unsolvable 1888 crimes of Jack the Ripper continue to fascinate. Even today, over a dozen new books on the subject are published each year. One such book makes the case for Walter Sickert, an artist with a dark side, being the actual Whitechapel killer.

Even though many experts dismiss Sickert, claiming he was in France at the time of the murders, those claims are put to the test using handwriting analysis and modern DNA analysis. Strip down the most provocative scientific questions of our time and explore them under a tightly focused lens. Animation, CGI, and special effects lead us through the search for answers as the investigations unfold.

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Part 3

Charles Manson, (aka Charles Milles Maddox), the self-proclaimed “Messiah” who presided over a commune-style group known as the “Manson Family” was convicted in 1971 in California in a trial covering a total of 27 count indictments against he and members of the ‘family’ for the murders of seven persons, including actress Sharon Tate, (who was pregnant at the time of the murder), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary.

In 1972, the death sentences of all Manson Family members were commuted to life imprisonment secondary to the case of California v. Anderson, wherein the death penalty was ruled “cruel and unusual” and was temporarily abolished until reinstated by Consititutional Amendment. Since being commuted, Manson has been denied parole eleven times as of 2007, his next opportunity coming in 2012.

Was justice done in the cases affected? Should those sentenced to death by California’s penal system have had their sentences reversed? Should Manson and his followers have been executed as originally sentenced?

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