Busines

An exploration into how smart phones, social media, and the Internet are profoundly changing the way we interact and experience each other - for the good and for the bad.

When Hurricane Katrina ravaged America's Gulf Coast, it laid bare an uncomfortable reality-America is not only far from the world's wealthiest nation; it is crumbling beneath a staggering burden of individual and government debt. Maxed Out takes us on a journey deep inside the American debt-style, where everything seems okay as long as the minimum monthly payment arrives on time. Sure, most of us may have that sinking feeling that something isn't quite right, but we're told not to worry. After all, there's always more credit! Maxed Out shows how the modern financial industry really works, explains the true definition of "preferred customer" and tells us why the poor are getting poorer and the rich getting richer. By turns hilarious and profoundly disturbing, Maxed Out paints a picture of a national nightmare which is all too real for most of us.

Documentary on the rise of Eliot Spitzer, first as Attorney General and then Governor of New York and his subsequent downfall due to a sex scandal. Spitzer had a hard driving, take no prisoners approach to prosecuting criminals. When he focused his efforts on Wall Street, he came up against some very powerful men. The chink in his armor was an escort whom he met regularly. When the fact that he spent time with a prostitute became public the knives came out so to speak, and Spitzer found himself isolated, resigning the Governorship. At one point, Spitzer recounts the story of a friend who gave him a t-shirt with 'Hubris is Terminal' printed on the front. A fitting epitaph somehow for his political career.

'Inside Job' provides a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, the film traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia. It was made on location in the United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore, and China.

Enter a world where pandemonium reigns and reckless ambition rules: the trading floors in the financial canyons of downtown Chicago. Here, men use strange hand signals to buy and sell everything from pork belly to soybeans while wearing the weight of our complex economy on their shoulders - along with their neon jackets. It's a physical, bruising place, one where a slight gain creates heroes, rich beyond what their high school educations should ever afford. But the wrong move on the wrong day can ruin lives. At a time when millions have lost fortunes in the fickle stock market and fear abounds about the faltering financial system, FLOORED is a gripping, honest look behind the curtain of the trading floor that few have ever seen.

Our intrepid defender of the working man, Michael Moore, documents his 1996 "Downsize This!" book tour across the USA. Shot on-the-cheap with a video camera, we once again watch our hero interview the working man at yet another plant closing, while also trying to get past corporate security guards to interview the millionaire CEOs.

Writer/director Ted Braun follows controversial hedge fund titan Bill Ackman as he puts a billion dollars on the line in his crusade to expose Herbalife as the largest pyramid scheme in history.

Apple. Intel. Genentech. Atari. Google. Cisco. Stratospheric successes with high stakes all around. Behind some of the world's most revolutionary companies are a handful of men who (through timing, foresight, a keen ability to size up other people, and a lot of luck) saw opportunity where others did not: these are the original venture capitalists. All were backing and building companies before the term 'venture capital' had been coined: companies that led to the birth of biotechnology and the spectacular growth in microprocessors, personal computers and the web. SOMETHING VENTURED uncovers the ups and downs of the building of some of the greatest companies of the twentieth century, and the hidden dramas behind some of the most famous names in business.

On the 40th anniversary of the Internet, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC tells the story of the effect the web is having on our society as seen through the eyes of "the greatest Internet pioneer you've never heard of", visionary Josh Harris. Award-winning director, Ondi Timoner ("DIG!"), documented his tumultuous life for more than a decade, to create a riveting, cautionary tale of what to expect as the virtual world inevitably takes control of our lives. Josh Harris, often called the "Warhol of the Web" through the infamous dot.com boom of the 1990's, founded Pseudo.com, the first Internet television network and created his vision of the future, an underground bunker in NYC where 100 people lived together on camera for 30 days over the millennium. He proved how in the not-so-distant future of life online, we will willingly trade our privacy for the connection and recognition we all deeply desire. Through his experiments, including a six-month stint living under 24-hour live surveillance online which led him to mental collapse, he demonstrated the price we will all pay for living in public.

The Internet is under attack. This award-winning documentary explores the threat Internet censorship imposes on free speech, innovation, and democracy.

I.O.U.S.A. examines the rapidly growing national debt and its consequences for the United States and its citizens. As the Baby Boomer generation prepares to retire, will there even be any Social Security benefits left to collect? Burdened with an ever-expanding government and military, increased international competition, overextended entitlement programs, and debts to foreign countries that are becoming impossible to honor, America must mend its spendthrift ways or face an economic disaster of epic proportions. Throughout history, the American government has found it nearly impossible to spend only what has been raised through taxes. The film blends interviews with both average American taxpayers and government officials to demystify the nation's financial practices and policies. The film follows U.S. Comptroller General David Walker as he crisscrosses the country explaining America's unsustainable fiscal policies to its citizens. The film interweaves archival footage and economic data to paint a profile of America's current economic situation. The film also proffers potential financial scenarios and propose solutions about how to recreate a fiscally sound nation for future generations.

The recent "new" economy with its unprecedented highs and frantic reversals of fortune is rife with fascinating true stories. e-Dreams turns it's focus to the recently defunct Kozmo.com. Once upon a time, a story like this would have been unbelievable, even among those intimate with the workings of Wall Street. But Kozmo.com is now a case study of how an entire economic sector went awry. Just three years ago, Kozmo.com was just an idea in the minds of two 20-something Korean American investment bankers: an online convenience store that made deliveries of snacks, videotapes and other products within a half hour. Beginning in an unfurnished warehouse, co-founders Joseph Park and Yong Kang and their small group of employees did everything from build the website to making deliveries on bicycle. Over the following year their business grew from 10 employees to 3,000 and extended to 11 cities. Like so many other dot-coms, Kozmo.com's growth was something hitherto unseen: It raised more than $250 million and attracted the attention of Starbucks and Amazon.com. But in the tough times following the April 2000 stock market crash, Kozmo found itself in a perilous position-unprofitable and struggling to keep its operations going; and the formerly ubiquitous bicycle-delivery people in orange became and endangered species. e-Dreams stands as an invaluable documentary about the feeding frenzy of success and failure that nearly consumed the nation's economy.

WE ARE LEGION: The Story of the Hacktivists, takes us inside the complex culture and history of Anonymous. The film explores early hacktivist groups like Cult of the Dead Cow and Electronic Disturbance Theater, and then moves to Anonymous' own raucous and unruly beginnings on the website 4Chan. Through interviews with current members - some recently returned from prison, others still awaiting trial - as well as writers, academics and major players in various "raids," WE ARE LEGION traces the collective's breathtaking evolution from merry pranksters to a full-blown, global movement, one armed with new weapons of civil disobedience for an online world.

Code Rush follows the people of Netscape Communications during an intense period in 1998, when it was all but certain that Microsoft had already won control of the Internet user's desktop. When all hope seems fading, a group of dedicated developers work their hardest to push out a very special release.

A contemporary David and Goliath story that takes you inside the cutthroat world of the big business of American beer.

A chronicle which provides a rare window into the international perception of the Iraq War, courtesy of Al Jazeera, the Arab world's most popular news outlet. Roundly criticized by Cabinet members and Pentagon officials for reporting with a pro-Iraqi bias, and strongly condemned for frequently airing civilian causalities as well as footage of American POWs, the station has revealed (and continues to show the world) everything about the Iraq War that the Bush administration did not want it to see.

An unsettling and eye-opening Wall Street horror story about Chinese companies, the American stock market, and the opportunistic greed behind the biggest heist you've never heard of.

A probing investigation into the lies, greed and corruption surrounding D.C. super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his cronies.