Richard Stuart Linklater is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for making films that deal thematically with suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993); the Before trilogy of romance films: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013); the music-themed comedy School of Rock (2003); the adult animated films Waking Life (2001), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (2022); the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014); and the comedy film Everybody Wants Some!! (2016).
Satya Narayana Goenka was an Indian teacher of Vipassanā meditation. Born in Burma to an Indian business family, he moved to India in 1969 and started teaching meditation. His teaching emphasized that the Buddha's path to liberation was non-sectarian, universal, and scientific in character. He became an influential teacher and played an important role in establishing non-commercial Vipassana meditation centers globally. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2012, an award given for distinguished service of high order.
The Syrian Bride is a 2004 film directed by Eran Riklis. The story deals with a Druze wedding and the troubles the politically unresolved situation creates for the personal lives of the people in and from the village. The film's plot looks at the Arab–Israeli conflict through the story of a family divided by political borders, and explores how their lives are fractured by the region's harsh political realities.
Prison contemplative programs are classes or practices that are offered at correctional institutions for inmates and prison staff. There are measured or anecdotally reported benefits from studies of these programs such a stress relief for inmates and staff. These programs are gaining in acceptance in North America and Europe but are not mainstream.
The Dhamma Brothers is a documentary film released in 2007 about a prison meditation program at Donaldson Correctional Facility near Bessemer, Alabama. The film features four inmates, all convicted of murder, and includes interviews with guards, prison officials, local residents and other inmates, and reenactments of their crimes. The soundtrack includes music by Low, New Order and Sigur Rós.
Hunger is a 2008 historical drama film about the 1981 Irish hunger strike. It was directed by Steve McQueen and starred Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, and Liam McMahon.
Mother is a 2009 South Korean neo-noir thriller film directed by Bong Joon-ho, starring Kim Hye-ja and Won Bin. The plot follows a mother who, after her intellectually disabled son is accused of the murder of a young girl, attempts to find the true killer to get her son freed.
Cropsey is a 2009 American documentary film written and directed by Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio. The film initially begins as an examination of "Cropsey", a boogeyman-like figure from New York City urban legend, before segueing into the story of Andre Rand, a convicted child kidnapper from Staten Island whose known or suspected crimes in the 1970s and '80s may have inspired or been blamed on Cropsey.
Ayelet Menahemi is an Israeli film director, producer, writer, editor, and actress.
Crime After Crime is a 2011 award-winning documentary film directed by Yoav Potash about the case of Deborah Peagler, an incarcerated victim of domestic violence whose case was taken up by pro bono attorneys through The California Habeas Project.
Wilde Salomé is a 2011 American docudrama written, directed by, and starring Al Pacino. An exploration of Oscar Wilde's 1891 play Salomé, the film premiered at the 68th Venice International Film Festival. At the festival, Pacino was presented with the Glory to the Filmmaker! Award and the film won the Queer Lion award.
Caesar Must Die is a 2012 Italian drama film directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. The film competed at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Golden Bear. The film is set in Rebibbia Prison, and follows convicts in their rehearsals ahead of a prison performance of Julius Caesar.
In the Family is a 2011 independent drama film that was the directorial debut of Patrick Wang. It tells the story of the surviving partner's attempt to maintain his relationship with his dead partner's young son.
Andrew Haigh is an English filmmaker. He is best known for writing and directing the films Weekend (2011), 45 Years (2015), Lean on Pete (2017), and All of Us Strangers (2023). He also wrote and produced the HBO series Looking (2014–2015) and its film sequel Looking: The Movie (2016), as well as the BBC Two limited series The North Water (2021).
The Decay of Fiction is a 2002 American 35mm part color and part black-and-white experimental film noir project directed by independent filmmaker and artist Pat O'Neill. The film, initially conceived as a documentary, was produced by O'Neill and Rebecca Hartzell for Lookout Mountain Films. Filming took place in Los Angeles.
Eilona (Elona) Ariel is a documentary filmmaker.
Test is a 2013 American drama film written and directed by Chris Mason Johnson, starring Scott Marlowe and Matthew Risch. The film is set in San Francisco in 1985, during the early years of the AIDS crisis. It follows Frankie, an understudy for a contemporary dance company, as he pursues a sexual relationship with another, more experienced dancer while fearing the unknown and navigating the stigmas of the time. The film premiered at the 2013 Seattle International Film Festival, and was screened at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. It won Jury Awards for Best American Dramatic Feature Film and Best Screenwriting at Outfest in Los Angeles, California, and the Alan Ira Dusowitz Emerging Filmmaker Award for a feature film at the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
Supremacy is a 2014 American drama thriller film directed by Deon Taylor, written by Eric J. Adams, and starring Joe Anderson, Dawn Olivieri and Danny Glover. The film chronicles the real life events of March 29–30, 1995, perpetrated by Aryan Brotherhood members Robert Walter Scully Jr. and Brenda Kay Moore. After fatally shooting a police officer, neo-Nazi Garrett Tully, along with his companion, Doreen Lesser, breaks into a house and takes an African-American family hostage.
The Prison in Twelve Landscapes is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Brett Story and released in 2016. Consisting of twelve short vignettes, the film explores the social impact of the prison–industrial complex in the United States through various angles, including a former industrial town in Kentucky which is now dependent on a federal penitentiary for local employment, a community park which was constructed solely to prevent registered sex offenders from being able to move into the local halfway house, and a man who runs a business selling items to family members of prisoners for inclusion in care packages.
Black Mother is a 2018 documentary film by American filmmaker Khalik Allah. It premiered at the 2018 True/False Film Festival in March, won a prize at The Montclair Film Festival, and was nominated for the Truer Than Fiction Award at the 35th Independent Spirit Awards.
