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America Reframed Season 2 Episodes
Season 2 Episode Guide
21 Episodes 2013 - 2014
Episode 1
Building Babel
Wed, Sep 10, 2014
Building Babel follows a year in the life of Sharif El-Gamal, developer of the so-called ""Ground Zero Mosque,"" a Muslim-led community center two blocks from the World Trade Center. With unlimited access to his home and office, the film paints a portrait of a Muslim-American businessman up against impossible odds. A passionate Brooklyn-born Muslim, Sharif El-Gamal sees Park51 as a centerpiece of his own Muslim American identity. Born of a Polish-Catholic mother and Egyptian-Muslim father, El-Gamal only turned to Islam after 9/11 shook his faith to the core, and sees Park51 as a way to give back to the Lower Manhattan community. Married to a Muslim convert and the father of two daughters, Sharif represents an Islam that remains foreign to most Americans, especially given the way the media and politicians have continued to use Park51 as a point of controversy. Despite a principle goal of helping to rebuild Lower Manhattan, opposition to the plan has been virulent and non-stop. Thousands of Americans have rallied against the prospect of a Muslim institution being constructed in such proximity to Ground Zero, and Park51 has become an internationally discussed symbol of Islam's relationship to the Western world. Building Babel follows Park51's development through the daily experiences and struggles of the men and women trying to make it a reality. In revisiting the frenzy that surrounded the Park 51 project with special guest WNYC Reporter Arun Venugopal, this America ReFramed episode examines the role that mass media plays in the creation of polarizing issues.
Episode 2
Radio Unnameable
Tue, Sep 17, 2013
Legendary radio personality Bob Fass revolutionized late night FM radio by serving as a cultural hub for music, politics and audience participation for nearly 50 years. Long before today's innovations in social media, Fass utilized the airwaves for mobilization encouraging luminaries and ordinary listeners to talk openly and take the program in surprising directions. Fass and his committed group of friends, peers, and listeners proved time and time again through massive, planned meetups and other similar events that radio was not a solitary experience but rather a platform to unite communities of like-minded, or even just open-minded, individuals without the dependence on large scale corporate backing. Radio Unnameable is a visual and aural collage that pulls from Bob Fass's immense archive of audio from his program, film, photographs, and video that has been sitting dormant until now. Revealing the underexposed world of independent radio, the film illustrates the intimate relationship Fass and, by extension, WBAI formed with their listeners that were strong enough to maintain the station's role as one of the most successful listener-sponsored programs in the United States. Award-winning journalist Amy Goodman joins America ReFramed as special guest and extends the discussion of the value of, and threats to independent journalism and public media in this post-911 America.
Episode 3
The Medicine Game
Tue, Sep 24, 2013
A film seven years in the making, The Medicine Game shares the remarkable journey of two brothers from the Onondaga Nation driven by a single goal; to beat the odds and play lacrosse for national powerhouse Syracuse University. The obstacles in their way are frequent and daunting. In their darkest hour, and with their dreams crumbling around them, the boys must look to their family and to their Native teachings for guidance and stability. It is their search for identity that transitions The Medicine Game from a playful coming of age story, into an important study of modern Native American life. The film follows their story over the next six years as they struggle to rebuild their friendship, rescue a fading childhood dream, and gain a more resolute understanding of their identity and culture, both as athletes and the next generation of the Onondaga people. Filmmaker and Creek/Seminole Indian Christina D. King lends her insight and opinions in this America ReFramed exploration of modern Native American experience.
Episode 4
The New Public
Tue, Oct 1, 2013
The New Public follows the lives of the ambitious educators and lively students of Bed Stuy's new Brooklyn Community Arts and Media High School (BCAM) over the course of the founding year, with the filmmakers returning three years later to again document the senior year of that first graduating class. Beginning in August 2006, just days before BCAM will open its doors for the first time. Dr. James O'Brien, former D.J. and point guard turned first-time principal, and his faculty of eight, take to the streets in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn to recruit students. Their enthusiasm is infectious and enticing: strong support for the individual student, a rigorous academic curriculum and unconventional arts electives taught by local artists. While at first running smoothly, as months go by, conflicts arise, and by the end of freshman year, the school's idealistic vision is addressing some issues, but aggravating others. Flash-forward to September 2010, the first day of senior year, the school is complete with 4 grades and 450 students, with a faculty that has grown from 8 to 50. Of the 104 students in their founding class, almost half have transferred or dropped out, leaving a senior class of 60--and only 30 on track to graduate. BCAM has made major adjustments--most notably, more disciplinary structure and no arts electives for seniors. What happens in the 4 years is both compelling and frustrating, and it's what makes The New Public a critical document of the complexities, frustrations and personal dramas that put public education at the center of national debate. What makes a kid or a school succeed are a series of complicated, interconnected dynamics, including, a re-evaluation of how we define "success."
Episode 5
Code of the West
Tue, Oct 8, 2013
At a time when the world is rethinking its drug policies large and small, one state rises to the forefront. Once a pioneer in legalizing medical marijuana, the state of Montana may now become the first to repeal its medical marijuana law. Set against the sweeping vistas of the Rockies, the steamy lamplight of marijuana grow houses, and the bustling halls of the State Capitol, CODE OF THE WEST follows the political process of marijuana policy reform - and the recent federal crackdown on medical marijuana growers across the country. Chronicling the opinions and reactions of patients, growers ("caregivers"), politicians, activists, and community members on both sides of the issue, the story paints an image of what happens when federal and state governments clash with communities in the crossfire, and the individuals involved who ultimately pay the price.
Episode 6
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea
Tue, Oct 15, 2013
Once known as the "California Riviera", the Salton Sea is now called one of America's worst ecological disasters: a fetid, stagnant, salty lake, that coughs up dead fish and birds by the thousands in frequent die-offs that occur. However, amongst the ruins of this man-made mistake, a few remaining eccentrics (a roadside nudist, a religious folk artist, a Hungarian revolutionary, and real estate speculators) struggle to keep a remodeled version of the original Salton Sea dream alive. Accidentally created by an engineering error in 1905, reworked in the 50's as a world class vacation destination for the rich and famous, suddenly abandoned after a series of hurricanes, floods, and fish die-offs, and finally almost saved by Congressman Sonny Bono, the Salton Sea has a bittersweet past. The film shares these people's stories and their difficulties in keeping their unique community alive, as the nearby cities of Los Angeles and San Diego attempt to take the agricultural water run-off that barely sustains the Salton Sea. While covering the historical, economic, political, and environmental issues that face the Sea, PLAGUES AND PLEASURES offers an offbeat portrait of the peculiar and individualistic people who populate its shores. It is an epic western tale of fantastic real estate ventures and failed boomtowns, inner-city gangs fleeing to white small town America, and the subjective notion of success and failure amidst the ruins of the past.
Episode 7
The Way We Get By
Tue, Nov 12, 2013
On call 24 hours a day for the past five years, a group of senior citizens has made history by greeting nearly 800,000 American troops at a tiny airport in Bangor, Maine. This film is an intimate look at three of these greeters as they confront the universal losses that come with aging and rediscover their reason for living. Bill Knight, Jerry Mundy and Joan Gaudet find the strength to overcome their personal battles and transform their lives through service. This inspirational and surprising story shatters the stereotypes of today's senior citizens as the greeters redefine the meaning of community.
Episode 8
My Brooklyn/Fate of a Salesman
Tue, Jan 14, 2014
"My Brooklyn" follows director Kelly Anderson's journey, as a Brooklyn gentrifier, to understand the forces reshaping her neighborhood. The film documents the redevelopment of Fulton Mall, a bustling African-American and Caribbean commercial district that - despite its status as the third most profitable shopping area in New York City - is maligned for its inability to appeal to the affluent residents who have come to live around it. As a hundred small businesses are replaced by high rise luxury housing and chain retail, Anderson uncovers the web of global corporations, politicians and secretive public-private partnerships that drive seemingly natural neighborhood change. The film's ultimate question is increasingly relevant on a global scale: who has a right to live in cities and determine their future? "Fate of a Salesman" examines America's changing urban landscape through the lens of one store. In its 60th year of business, Men's Fashion Center in Washington, D.C. is at the brink of closure, up against a tough economy and rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. Salesman Willie Carswell, a Vietnam vet and recovering alcoholic, faces the fight of his life as he and his fellow salesmen struggle to keep the doors of Men's Fashion Center open. Just as the film's title borrows from Arthur Miller's play, "Death of a Salesman," so does the film's form. Shot much like a stage play, the drama unfolds within the same set. Amidst racks of pinstripe suits and feather adorned hats - the clothing of a bygone era - the characters struggle to come to terms with their vanishing way of life.
Episode 9
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
Sat, Feb 1, 2014
It began as a housing marvel. Two decades later, it ended in rubble. But what happened to those caught in between? The Pruitt-Igoe Myth tells the story of the transformation of the American city in the decades after World War II, through the lens of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing development and the St. Louis residents who called it home. The film analyzes the impact of the national urban renewal program of the 1950s and 1960s, which prompted the process of mass suburbanization, emptying cities of residents, businesses and industries. Those left behind, like the residents of Pruitt-Igoe, faced a destitute, rapidly de-industrializing St. Louis, parceled out to downtown interests and increasingly segregated by class and race. Domestic turmoil was wrought by punitive public welfare policies; the paternalistic Housing Authority was cash-strapped; and the downward spiral of vacancy, vandalism and crime led to resident protest and action during the 1969 Rent Strike. And yet, despite this complex history, Pruitt-Igoe has often been stereotyped. The world-famous image of its implosion has helped to perpetuate a myth of failure, a failure that has been used to critique Modernist architecture, attack public assistance programs and stigmatize public housing residents. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth seeks to set the historical record straight...to implode the myth.
Episode 10
DownEast
Tue, Jan 21, 2014
"Downeast" is an experiential story that unfolds over the course of a year-and-a-half in the small lobster village of Prospect Harbor, Maine. It observes the closing of the last remaining Sardine Cannery in the United States that shut down in April 2010. A few months later, Boston-based entrepreneur Antonio Bussone purchased the plant, hoping to re-build a lobster processing facility and rehire the laid-off sardine workers (most of whom are women over 65 years old). Antonio's troubles begin on the first day he arrives to Prospect Harbor during a town-hall meeting as local politicians oppose his vision of rebuilding the factory with the use of a $200,000 federal grant combined with his investment of more than $2 million dollars. Undeterred, Antonio moves forward, determined to build and operate one of the first lobster factories in the United States.
Episode 11
Drivers Wanted
Tue, Feb 25, 2014
The New York street system consists of 6174 miles of mostly asphalt roads and legend has it that a real yellow cab driver knows this jungle like the back of his hand. The filmmakers Jean Tsien and Joshua Weinstein mixed with the colorful community of drivers, mechanics and office clerks working for a long-established taxi company in Queens to document that the original ideal of the common man's Big Apple is still very much alive and present in this slightly seedy enterprise. They avoided the trap of producing a simple assertion of an idyllic or even paradisaical situation, opting instead for a highly enjoyable demonstration of that unspectacular and delightful feeling described by Hemingway when he remembered an encounter with some craftsmen during a stay in Paris in the 1920s: "It was easier to think if I was walking and doing something or seeing people doing something that they understood." What's left? The certainty that it can't hurt to feel grateful for little things occasionally. - Ralph Eue (DOK Leipzig Programmer)
Episode 12
The Prep School Negro (with André Robert Lee & Judith Ohikuare)
Tue, Feb 11, 2014
André Robert Lee and his sister grew up in the ghettos of Philadelphia. Their mother struggled to support them by putting strings in the waistbands of track pants and swimsuits in a local factory. When Andre was 14 years old, he received what his family believed to be a golden ticket - a full scholarship to attend one of the most prestigious prep schools in the country. Elite education was Andre's way up and out, but at what price? Yes, the exorbitant tuition was covered, but this new world cost him and his family much more than anyone could have anticipated. In The Prep School Negro, André takes a journey back in time to revisit the events of his adolescence while also spending time with current day prep school students of color and their classmates to see how much has really changed inside the ivory tower. What he discovers along the way is the poignant and unapologetic truth about who really pays the consequences for yesterday's accelerated desegregation and today's racial naiveté.
Episode 13
The Lulu Sessions
Tue, Mar 4, 2014
LuLu is unlike anyone you've ever met. A hard-living, chain-smoking rebel with a tender heart. A poet with a potty mouth. Farm girl. Former cheerleader. World-class cancer researcher. Beloved professor. Dr. Louise Nutter, or LuLu has just discovered a new anti-cancer drug when she finds out she is dying of breast cancer herself at 42. Shot during those last 15 months of LuLu's life, The LuLu Sessions is a raw, intimate, yet surprisingly humorous story about the filmmaker showing up for her best friend and ex-something, and together, testing the limits of their bond while taking on life's ultimate adventure. Despite all of her knowing and bravado, LuLu's last months are filled with the unexpected. At last, she's forced to admit her frailties and limitations. A retreat to her childhood farm in Vermont to seek stability and solace explodes into a confrontation with resurrected ghosts. Dying becomes a surprising process of shedding - old presumptions, values and ties and urgently adopting different ones. The quiet and arduous work of making peace in her life has only just begun. Forcefully vocal and deeply reflective, LuLu makes this last journey accessible and heartfelt in a way that has rarely been seen on screen.
Episode 15
Mothers of Bedford
Tue, Mar 18, 2014
Many parents find it hard to imagine being away from a child for a week. Imagine being separated for ten or twenty years? Mothers of Bedford explores the effects of a long-term prison sentence on the mother-child relationship. The film examines the struggles and joys these five women face as prisoners and mothers. It shows the normal frustrations of parenting as well as the surreal experiences of a child's first birthday party inside prison, the cell that child lives in with her mother, and the biggest celebration of the year, Mother's Day in prison. Eighty percent of women in US prisons today are mothers of school-age children. Filmmaker Jenifer McShane spent four years visiting Bedford Hills and following the women and their families. A mother herself, Jenifer was drawn to the universal themes of motherhood and the staggering power of the mother-child relationship. In all walks of life, mother and child care for each other. As we watch the mothers inside Bedford trying to become their better selves, we see parts of our own selves - and that gives us all hope.
Episode 16
Rachel Is
Tue, May 6, 2014
Rachel is mysterious, funny, difficult and full of contradictions but she wants what most people her age want -- to move out of her mother's house. This dream of independence seems impossible. Rachel, who is developmentally disabled, can't be left alone and the social services needed for her to live an "adult life" are unavailable. Her mother Jane is at her breaking point. The relationship between mother and daughter is full of fighting and frustrations with both wanting independence from each other but it comes at a cost. What is Jane willing to sacrifice for Rachel to be independent? And what happens to a parent when they don't have the support they need to give their child a good life? Rachel Is is an honest, heartbreaking and funny film about parenthood, disability, and the universal struggle for happiness. It captures the most raw and revealing moments of Rachel and Jane's relationship. Filmmaker, and Rachel's sister, Charlotte Glynn dives into her family's life in order to understand how Rachel sees the world and how the world sees her.
Episode 17
Town Hall
Tue, Apr 1, 2014
TOWN HALL casts an unflinching eye at Katy and John, two Tea Party activists from the battleground state of Pennsylvania who believe America's salvation lies in a return to true conservative values. In Katy, we see a political novice rocketed to media stardom after a sensational confrontation at a town hall meeting with her senator. A young stay-at-home mom turned Tea Party spokesperson, she is gifted a new identity, steeled by the voices of conservative media. For John, a retired former businessman and lifelong Republican living in one of the poorest cities in the country, the America he knows is slipping away. Heading up a local Tea Party group is his last, best chance at stanching the changes he is witnessing all around him, but unable to afford his aging mother's health care, John has to make difficult decisions that reveal the complicated relationship between his principles and the demands of his life. More than a political treatise, TOWN HALL is a tone poem that immerses the viewer in Katy and John's world, painting a portrait of the fears of those who believe they will be left behind by a nation's transition.
Episode 18
Deputized
Tue, Apr 15, 2014
In a deceptively peaceful Long Island town just before midnight on November 8, 2008, 37-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero is assaulted by a group of teenaged boys cruising the streets "beaner-hopping," a term used to describe the decade-long ritual of attacking Latinos for sport. The adolescent "game" comes to an end with the fatal stabbing of Lucero, exposing a thinly veiled systemic intolerance for immigrants. Seventeen-year-old Jeffery Conroy, a popular high school athlete, is sentenced to 25-years for a hate crime, while the other teens get 5 to 8-years behind bars. The local government, the press and the community agree that the problem is solved and justice has been served. All is well again in this haven of American suburbia. Or so it seems. Not satisfied with easy answers, Deputized delves deeply into the complex environment in which teens - pumped with adrenaline, aggression, alcohol and anger - target vulnerable Latinos perceived to be undocumented. The film dissects the anti-immigration messages and rhetoric flooding the community and raises the question: Were the teens deputized by the forces within their community to commit such a senseless act? Filmed over three years, Deputized doesn't take sides or cast judgment. The fully bilingual documentary explores the crime from a variety of perspectives, probing the lives of the victim, the boys and the socio-political conditions that brought them together. The film follows Lucero's brother as he fights for justice, Conroy's father as he strives to seek a fair sentence for his son, a local politician as he spews his anti-immigration rhetoric, and the town as it tries to shake the stigma of intolerance. Deputized presents an unfiltered and comprehensive examination of the crime, its consequences and the impact it has on the lives of all those touched by it.
Episode 19
Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek
Tue, Apr 29, 2014
The Battle for Turkey Creek follows the painful but inspiring journey of Derrick Evans, a Boston teacher who moves home to coastal Mississippi when the graves of his ancestors are bulldozed to make way for the sprawling city of Gulfport. Over the course of a decade, Derrick and his neighbors stand up to powerful corporate interests and politicians and face Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil disaster in their struggle for self-determination and environmental justice.
Episode 20
Dignity Harbor
Tue, May 20, 2014
The story of a year's time at Dignity Harbor; one of three homeless encampments along the Mississippi River in the downtown area of St. Louis, north of the Arch. They must survive living in the cold of the harsh winter, but as temperatures drop and tempers rise, the camp members are challenged with living together. All of this while the city looms over, waiting for a chance to move them out. Dignity Harbor introduces us to 'OG', the three-year leader of Dignity Harbor, who builds wooden huts to replace old tents as winter slowly begins to creep in. He and the other men of the camp have sworn to protect and harbor any abused women. They work hard to split and sell donated firewood to keep that goal alive, along with themselves. As winter comes and goes, Dignity Harbor faces challenges, not only by Mother Nature's hands, but by their own. A camp member brutally mugs one of its own while another two fight over sexual orientation, all mixed with paranoia and drugs, leaving the camp at the brink of collapse. With the city threatening to kick the encampments off the land after fires, violence and a murder, will Dignity Harbor last another year?
Episode 21
Reserved to Fight
Tue, May 27, 2014
In May 2003, Fox Company of Marine Reserve Unit 2/23 returned home from combat on the front line in Iraq. Reserved To Fight follows four Marines of Fox Company through their post-war minefield of social and psychological reintegration into civilian life. The return home and into their communities proves as formidable a battle as the more literal firefights of previous months. They live among loved ones who don't yet understand them and how they have changed. They contend with a media focused on the politics rather than the human experience of war. And they suffer from a psychological disorder that is difficult to acknowledge. These young veterans grapple to find purpose and healing.
Episode 22
Broken Heart Land
Tue, Jun 24, 2014
On an early autumn afternoon, in his parent's ranch in Norman, Oklahoma, gay teen Zack Harrington killed himself with a gunshot to the head. One week earlier, Zack attended a local city council meeting in support of a proposal for LGBTQ History Month in his bible-belt town. When the floor was opened up for public comment, some community members made highly controversial statements equating being gay with the spread of diseases such as HIV and AIDS. Against the backdrop of a town bitterly divided on the issue of homosexuality, Zack's grief-stricken parents, both conservative Republicans and military veterans, are forced to reconcile their own social and political beliefs with their son's death. Determined to understand Zack, they discover a private diary, which paints a gripping portrait of a boy in crisis. Ultimately, they discover a chilling secret that Zack kept hidden for almost two years, which leads them to some painful conclusions about their son's life and death. When an outspoken conservative citizen runs for City Council, the Harringtons decide to join a politically active group called "MOMS: Mothers of Many" (mainly comprised of local mothers of LGBTQ youth). Over the course of the local election season, we witness Zack's family, once private and politically conservative, come out of their own closet, moving from private denial to a climactic and very public acceptance of their son's legacy.