Executive-produced by Alex Gibney, the documentary shares the remarkable story of Elian Gonzalez, the 5-year-old Cuban boy plucked from the Florida Straits on Thanksgiving Day in 1999. After his mother and others perished at sea, the custody battle between Gonzalez's Cuban father and Miami-based relatives sparked a flash point for simmering post-Cold War U.S. and Cuban tensions. ELIÁN recounts the story of a Cuban boy named Elián González who, on Thanksgiving Day in 1999, was found floating on an inner tube in the Florida Straits, an event that set in motion a bitter custody battle between Elián's Cuban father and US relatives. Set to the backdrop of a tense and acrimonious relationship between the US and Cuba, the documentary features a wealth of contemporary news archive and gives unprecedented access to key players in the saga, including an exclusive interview with the boy himself, now a 23-year old man. A story of family and the challenges of reconciliation, the documentary uses one boy's remarkable journey to plot the path to rapprochement between Cuba and the US, and is underscored by a deeply moving personal and political commentary.

Critic Reviews

‘Your sympathy and judgment coexist, no matter how wince-inducing it gets with each turbulent turn. Context is everything here.’ Los Angeles Times ‘For the most part the film chronicles the complex tale cogently and effectively, using extensive archival footage as well as contemporary interviews that help put the events in context.’ Hollywood Reporter ‘We see the resilience of the adult Elián when he takes a swim near a Cuban beach: After all he's endured, he's not afraid of the water.’ Village Voice

Awards

Montclair Film Festival (MFF) 2017, winner of the Junior Jury award

In LA filmmaker Rodney Ascher's Room 237, we hear from people who have developed far-reaching theories and believe they have decoded the hidden symbols and messages buried in the late director's film. Carefully examining The Shining inside out, and forwards and backwards, Room 237 is equal parts captivating, provocative and pure pleasure. Room 237 is an American documentary film directed by Rodney Ascher about interpretations of Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining. This award winning film includes footage from The Shining and other Kubrick films, along with discussions by Kubrick enthusiasts. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times praised the film as "an ode to movie love at its most deliriously unfettered" and wrote "The doc positions The Shining as a comparably coiled, thematically overflowing microcosm - standing in for cinema, for history, for obsession, for postmodern theory buckling under the film's heft." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, who rated the movie 3.5 stars out of 4 and called the "unique and unforgettable film" a "tribute to movie love"


Critic Reviews

‘Don't watch this film and expect an authoritative critical analysis of the film; watch it and explore the distorting, drug-like pull that some art can exert on its audience.’ Times (UK)

Awards

Austin Fantastic Fest Winner Jury Prize for Best Film & Best Director International Documentary Association Winner Creative Recognition Award for Best Editing

Project Nim tells the story of a chimpanzee taken from its mother at birth and raised like a human child by a family in a brownstone on the upper West Side in the 1970s.

Project Nim was released to critical acclaim. The film has won 15 and was nominated for 27 awards, including Best Documentary at the 65th British Academy Film Awards.

Project Nim is a 2011 British documentary film. It focuses on Project Nim, a research project that was mounted in the 1970s to determine whether a primate raised in close contact with humans could develop a limited "language" based on American Sign Language.

Equal parts hilarious, poignant, and heartbreaking, Project Nim not only tells a compelling story masterfully, but also raises the flag on the darker side of human nature.

Critics Review

'This haunting life story is an exquisite example of non-fiction filmmaking as full-bodied, emotionally complex drama.' Hollywood Reporter

'The release of this documentary by James Marsh in the same week as Rise of the Planet of the Apes is wittily timed. It too speaks of caged primates, though its judgement on their captors is far more disturbing.' Independent UK

'Marsh, who made the multi-awarded Man on a Wire, takes no sides but lets the humans speak for themselves, rum lot that they are.' London Evening Standard

'A harrowing and intensely powerful tale of an animal who was perhaps more human than the actual humans around him.' From the Front Row

Awards

Awards Circuit Community Awards 2011

Winner of theACCA award for Best Documentary Feature

Boston Society of Film Critics Awards 2011

Winner of theBSFC Award for Best Documentary - James Marsh

Directors Guild of America, USA 2012

Winner of theDGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary - James Marsh

Florida Film Critics Circle Awards 2011

Winner of the FFCC Award for Best Documentary

San Diego Film Critics Society Awards 2011

Winner of the SDFCS Award for Best Documentary

Alex Gibney explores the charged issue of pedophilia in the Catholic Church, following a trail from the first known protest against clerical sexual abuse in the United States and all the way to the Vatican.

Winner of three prime-time Emmy’s, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God is a 2012 documentary film directed by Oscar winning Alex Gibney. The film details the first known protest against clerical sex abuse in the United States by four deaf men.

Alex Gibney examines the abuse of power in the Catholic Church through the story of four courageous deaf men, who in the first known case of public protest, set out to expose the priest who abused them. Through their case the film follows a cover-up that winds its way from the row houses of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, through the bare ruined choirs of Ireland's churches, all the way to the highest office of the Vatican.

Critic Reviews

‘A kind of unintentional leaving gift for the outgoing Pope Benedict, though it is not one he is likely to relish.’ Guardian

‘The case has been widely reported but this is still an important film, laying out who knew what, and when. It's chilling: the conspiracy of silence goes all the way to the Vatican.’ Time Out

‘In the end, decades of such crimes going undetected and undeterred under the aegis of one employer - any employer - speaks for itself. And the extraordinary perseverance and courage of the men from St. John's speaks louder still.’ New York Post

‘There is something to be said for a clear and unblinking recitation of facts, and thankfully Mr. Gibney does a lot of that.’ New York Times

Awards

Primetime Emmy Awards 2013, Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming, Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming.

Irish Film and Television Awards 2013, winner of Best Feature Documentary

London Film Festival 2012, winner of the Grierson Award

The Television Academy Honors 2014, winner of the Television Academy Honors

Louis Theroux documents his investigation into what goes on behind the scenes of the infamous Church of Scientology. My Scientology Movie is a 2015 British documentary film about Scientology directed by John Dower, and written by and starring Louis Theroux. The film takes an unconventional approach to the subject matter, featuring young actors "auditioning" for parts playing high-profile Scientologists in scenes recreating accounts from ex-members about incidents involving senior church management. The Church of Scientology responded by putting the filmmakers under surveillance and denouncing the film. My Scientology Movie premiered at the London Film Festival on 14 October 2015 before receiving a limited theatrical release in the United Kingdom on 7 October 2016 from BBC Films. The film was praised by The Daily Telegraph reviewer Tim Robey as "a giddy, Pythonesque delight". He commented that it was "all wickedly tendentious mischief, but when it's this gloriously funny, the points score themselves." Variety magazine reviewer Guy Lodge described it as a "riotously funny" film that delivered "penetrating insights into the fiercely guarded administration of the church that Ron built. It's also a witty essay on the politics of surveillance". Fionnuala Halligan of Screen Daily called the film "typically quixotic, consistently funny, and provocative in unexpected ways", describing it as "pleasingly eccentric" and "impish yet effective." The Huffington Post called the film 'absurdly funny'. In The Guardian, John Patterson found that the film "pulls off the neat trick of finding a revelatory approach to a topic that’s been well covered of late: the Church of Scientology" before concluding that it "belongs in the company of the most serious work done on the church. The more sunlight that falls on this dark organisation, the better for all of us"

Critic Reviews

‘One of the best documentaries of the year.’ Entertainment Weekly ‘At times it plays like an extended skit on "The Daily Show"; yet its disorder also makes its insights - like how strongly the church's training sessions resemble acting classes - feel refreshingly organic.’ New York Times