Downtown Community Television Center

Curtain Up! follows elementary school kids in New York’s Chinatown as they prepare for a production and begin to discover themselves. Behind the scenes, they face families’ expectations and uncertainties post-graduation. Interestingly, it is through rehearsing for this American favorite that these kids come to grapple with their Chinese roots.

Uncover the insidious ways in which our daily lives are being surveilled by the state. In a gripping chase, Ronan Farrow travels across the world following breadcrumbs and finally exposing a dark world of spywares, hacking, and peddling of private information, where activists and journalists are persecuted, and no one is protected from the watchful and vicious eyes of authoritarianism.

This documentary about the culture of intense cinephilia in New York City reveals the impassioned world of five obsessed movie buffs. These human encyclopedias of cinema see two to five films a day, and from 600 to 2,000 films per year. This is the story of their lives, their memories, their unbending habits and the films they love.

On March 13, 2022, filmmaker Brent Renaud was killed by Russian soldiers, the first American journalist to die while reporting on the war in Ukraine. His younger brother and collaborator, Craig Renaud, recovered Brent’s body and his final recordings from Ukraine and brought them back to their childhood home in Arkansas. As Brent’s journey to his final resting place unfolds, the film chronicles the years he and his brother spent covering some of the world’s most dangerous conflicts.

A father exits prison and tries to integrate with his two children and girlfriend while living in a halfway house and on parole.

An intimate documentary that looks at the vicious cycles of drug addiction and street crime in one of the roughest parts of New Jersey.

A five-year portrait of Junior Rios' descent into the black hole of drug addiction which will ultimately cost him everything.

The University of Tennessee lady volunteer basketball team is followed during their 1996 season.

Painter Titus Kaphar looks to film as a medium in the face of an insatiable art market seeking to silence his activism.

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.

As the first American television crew allowed into Cuba since the 1959 revolution, filmmakers Jon Alpert and Keiko Tsuno travel across the island documenting daily life under Fidel Castro. Through interviews with farmers, workers, and families, the film offers a rare ground-level portrait of Cuban society fifteen years after the revolution.

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.

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.

Filmmaker Jon Alpert turns the camera on his own family in this intimate portrait of his aging father. As illness and declining vitality reshape his life, the film captures a deeply personal struggle with dignity, humor, and the bonds that hold a family together.

During the upheaval surrounding the fall of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, filmmaker Jon Alpert travels across the Philippines documenting everyday life amid political crisis. Through encounters with citizens from all walks of life, the film reveals the stark inequalities and tensions shaping a nation on the brink of revolution.

"Healthcare: Your Money or Your Life" (1977) is a DCTV investigative documentary examining the impact of budget cuts and resource shortages on a Brooklyn public hospital. Contrasting Kings County Hospital with the better-funded Downstate Medical Center across the street, the film exposes structural inequalities in the American healthcare system.

Allyson Felix is the most decorated track and field athlete of all time. At the peak of her career, she faced a life-threatening pregnancy and saw her sponsorships slashed by 70% by companies with no maternal protections. But Felix, ever the champion, turned her battles into a movement.

When Diana Levine went to the hospital in April 2000 seeking relief for a severe migraine headache, the professional musician and children's record producer never imagined that faulty drug labeling would result in the amputation of her arm. Today she is at the center of a closely-watched Supreme Court case and a national debate about the federal courts and corporate accountability.

An intimate exposé of the dark side of social media and its devastating impact on young users. Directors Matthew O'Neill and Perri Peltz take viewers inside the high-stakes legal battle to hold tech companies accountable for the harm caused by their negligence and dangerous algorithms. Based on investigative reporting by Bloomberg News' Olivia Carville, the film follows the Social Media Victims Law Center fighting for justice for families whose children suffered tragic consequences linked to social media use. As families seek justice, 'Can't Look Away: The Case Against Social Media' underscores the urgent need for industry reform and serves as both a wake-up call about the dangers of social media-and a call to action to protect future generations.

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%.