America ReFramed - Season 5

The life and work of self-taught artist Edythe Boone. Filmed over five years, follow the spirited and captivating septuagenarian who became an artist/activist simply because empowering and building community is "the right thing to do." Ultimately, Boone's mission is to empower individuals and transform communities through art and activism.

Exploring the effects of the Plan for Transformation, an order requiring the demolition of Chicago's public housing high rises, and the building of mixed-income condominiums. 70 ACRES IN CHICAGO illuminates the layers of socio-economic forces, and the questions behind urban redevelopment and gentrification taking place in U.S. cities today.

In 2012, The Vatican censured American nuns. RADICAL GRACE follows three U.S. nuns, who refused to back down and continued to challenge the patriarchal system, are willing to lose it all and risk their place within the Catholic Church for their devotion to social justice and to meet their higher calling - to apply their faith to action.

The culmination of an intensive two-year collaboration between Tamar Rogoff and Gregg Mozgala, a young actor with cerebral palsy. Fascinated by Gregg's unique physicality, Tamar was inspired to choreograph "Diagnosis of a Faun." Their creative exploration, at the intersection of science and art, led them to challenge the limitations associated with disability.

For filmmaker Matthew Hashiguchi, growing up half Japanese/half Italian in a white Irish-Catholic neighborhood in Cleveland, OH, was a difficult experience. In GOOD LUCK SOUP, Hashiguchi sets out on a journey to discover how the rest of his multi-racial family made sense of their lives and their Japanese American heritage. Surprisingly, he finds a role model in his elderly Japanese grandmother.

At six-years-old, filmmaker Dinesh Sabu lost both of his parents. Two decades later, worried that he has no memories of his mother and father, he turns a camera on his siblings, trying to understand their parent's lives and tragic deaths. It's a journey that takes him back to India, a country he barely knows, and it forces him to think about the mental illness that seems to run in his family.

Eddy Zheng came to America with his family when he was 12 years old. Then at the age of 16, he committed a horrible crime: home invasion and kidnapping. Year after year he hoped for parole, and after almost 20 years in prison, Zheng was released, a model prisoner who wanted to become a community leader. But his victims insisted he should still be deported.

The Sher Institute in Las Vegas is holding a contest. First prize: a free round of in-vitro fertilization – but even for the winners, there's no guarantee of success. VEGAS BABY follows the journeys of three families so desperate to have a child, they're willing to take the gamble. This may be their last chance to have a baby.

Set among the hills and hollers of Appalachia, Oceana, WV looks like a rural paradise. But this community is under siege: a raging epidemic of prescription drug abuse is so deadly that residents have nicknamed the town "OXYANA." A close-up look at people who live from one pill to the next, and a harrowing vision of today's AnyTown, USA.

90% of Americans want to age at home, but many of them have to rely on paid care workers because their families can't provide the support they need. CARE illuminates the many challenges and deep attachments that can be formed between the elderly and the home care workers they depend on - and exposes the cracks in a system that is poorly serving both.

Every year, over a million students drop out of high school. They may complete their graduate equivalency degrees, but then they discover they're still struggling to get good jobs. For some in Indianapolis, there's another option: a night school program that will get them their full high school diploma – if they can complete a tough curriculum that includes algebra and biology.

Suicide - one of the leading causes of death for Alaska Natives. Almost every family has lost brothers, sisters, parents, and children to it. WE BREATHE AGAIN introduces four Alaska Natives who are trying to break free from histories of trauma and suicide, creating a new, more positive trail for their communities

Carnivals have a delightful place in the American imagination, with childhood memories of family fun, fantasy, and summer love. But rising expenses and changes in U.S. labor patterns mean this national pastime is nearly extinct. FAREWELL FERRIS WHEEL is an inside look at the struggles of an industry trying to stay alive by employing Mexican migrant workers with a controversial visa.

DEEJ is the story of DJ Savarese, a gifted, young writer and advocate for nonspeaking autistics. Once a "profoundly disabled" foster kid on a fast track to nowhere, DJ is now a first-year college student who insists on standing up for his peers: people who are dismissed as incompetent because they are neurologically diverse. Will Deej be able to find freedom for himself and others like himself?

ON A KNIFE EDGE is the coming-of-age story of George Dull Knife, a Lakota teen growing up on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation. The film traces George's path to activism, inspired by his family's history of fighting for justice for Native Americans. His focus: shutting down liquor stores in Whiteclay, a tiny town nearby that exists only to sell beer to the reservation's vulnerable population.