Zeitgeist Films

Orthodox tells the story of Benjamin, an Orthodox Jewish man who alienated himself from his community by becoming a boxer. When his life took a wrong turn he ended up in prison, losing his wife and children in the process. Now he is out and desperate to reintegrate, he finds that acceptance harder than he ever imagined. He turns back to his old boxing coach thinking there he has an ally, but a truth about the past emerges which leaves him even more isolated than he once thought. Benjamin must make a choice which will effect not just his own future but the life of a young Jewish boy whose life he can relate to. He is determined not to allow history to repeat itself.

Through intimate interviews, provocative art, and rare, historical film and video footage, this feature documentary reveals how art addressing political consequences of discrimination and violence, the Feminist Art Revolution radically transformed the art and culture of our times.

Chris & Don chronicles the lifelong relationship between author Christopher Isherwood and his much younger lover, artist Don Bachardy, and it combines present-day interviews, archival footage shot by the couple from the 1950s, excerpts from Isherwood's diaries, and playful animations to recount their romance.

The story, told by the survivors, of a group of young men, members of a Uruguayan rugby team, who managed to survive for 72 days, at an altitude of almost 4,000 meters, in the heart of the Andes Mountains, after their plane, en route to Chile, crashed there on October 13, 1972.

Visionary composer and performer Meredith Monk overcame hostile critics to become one of the great artists of her time. In her seventh decade of creativity, she ponders how such singular work can continue without her.

Pearl Gluck travels to Hungary to retrieve a turn-of-the-century family heirloom: a couch upon which esteemed rabbis once slept. En route for the ancestral divan, Pearl encounters a colorful cast of characters who provide guidance and inspiration.

Vermont is for Lovers is an independently produced docudrama released in 1992, starring George Thrush and Marya Cohn and shot on location Tunbridge, Vermont. The film concerns a couple visiting Vermont in order to be married, and interviewing local residents on the subject of marriage. Largely improvised and using non-professional actors, the film was shown at various film festivals including the Melbourne International Film Festival and the Hawaii International Film Festival. The movie was not very well-received by the national press, with the New York Times calling it, “vaguely amiable.” While the Washington Post review commented that the film was an “all-too-easy target for ridicule,” it also mentioned one of the film’s high points: “In one scene, a typically droll Vermont resident (playing himself) sums up his state’s fabled coolness to strangers by suggesting that a sign be placed at the state line, reading ‘Welcome to Vermont. Now Leave.’”