Big Boys Gone Bananas!* (2012)

Director: Fredrik Gertten
Run Time: 88 min.

"Anyone not rebuffed by the Vegas-revue title should find 'Big Boys Gone Bananas!' a provocative look at what can happen when corporate power takes aim at independent film. Documenting the vigorous strategies employed by the Dole Food Company to block the release of his 2009 film 'Bananas!' — about a lawsuit brought by Nicaraguan workers who suspected the company’s use of dangerous pesticides — the Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten gains traction by taking the high road. More fist pump for freedom of speech than anticorporate tirade, 'Big Boys' follows the rocky fortunes of the original film, from Dole’s initial cease-and-desist letter to the 2010 victory of Mr. Gertten’s countersuit."
—Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

American Teacher (2011)

Director: Vanessa Roth
Run Time: 80 min.

"What makes the film more than just a cheerleading countermove is the towering amount of research it contains: historical data tracing the profession from being the domain of men to largely that of women, and the cynical economic ploy behind the shift; terrifying figures on the rates of those fleeing the profession as well as the looming crisis of a mass retirement of elderly teachers; the sobering numbers of teachers living at the poverty level and/or holding down a second job. Putting a human face on the data are teachers of all races and backgrounds who gave Roth complete access to both their professional and personal lives, showing how the two are so deeply intertwined."
—Ernest Hardy, The Village Voice