Anchor Maria Hinojosa returns to Clarkston, Georgia, home to more than 40 different nationalities, to document its November 2013 city council and mayoral election — with three former refugees on the ballot. These candidates, many from war-torn countries, are exercising voting rights and actively engaging in democracy as political candidates and election workers for the first time. View the impact that the dream of democracy and citizenship has on...

The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other nation, and the biggest portion goes toward pregnancy and childbirth. Despite this, infant mortality rates are appalling. To find out more about this critical issue, visit Rochester, New York, where babies are dying at a rate two times higher than the national average and where mothers of color are three times more likely than white mothers to lose their babies before their first birthday. In the search...

Mention the game Mah-Jongg to a woman who plays it and something very special happens. Her eyes light up, she smiles and may laugh, and then she begins to speak. Even someone at first shy or reluctant to speak suddenly come alive with impassioned stories of her life, and of the bonds that develop between the women who meet ritually every week, sometimes more, to play, to escape, and most importantly, to be together until all hours of the night. Ask...

Working the Boat: Masters of the Craftis a six-part webisode hat captures the golden years of Local 1329 of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA). Local 1329 was founded in Providence,.Rhode Island in 1933 by Manuel Q. Ledo, a Cape Verdean community leader. Featured in the webisode are museum-quality photographic portraits of the interviewees taken by Liane Brandon, award winning independent filmmaker and photographer.

Before World War Two, Poland’s 3.5 million Jews made the country the epicenter of the Jewish world. Today less than 20,000 Jews live there. Due to the Holocaust and ensuing Soviet era, Poland’s remaining Jews hid their identity from their children. With the fall of Communism in 1989 a young generation of Jews began learning their long-buried ancestry. The Return focuses on four women in their 20’s who face the unique challenge of trying to create...

Melvin Van Peebles will always be known as the man who not only changed the face of black cinema, but independent cinema forever, when he made his groundbreaking (and taboo breaking) film "Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song." But’s he’s always been a lot more than that, as a playwright, actor, author, stage performer, musician and who knows what else he’s done in his 80 years. And he’s likely not through yet...But how did a guy who grew up...

I am the future of Black America. "Can't nobody steal my shine”- Tupac Shakur in his last interview, one of the many exclusive pieces of footage featured in ‘Thug Immortal”. From his early appearances on record with Digital Underground to his popular and influential solo albums, Tupac Shakur was a rap phenomenon, and one of the pioneers of gangster rap. Though often attacked by the media (and Dan Quayle) for his "thug" lifestyle, Tupac's life...

An Afro-Chinese-Jamaican Harlem family seeks their Chinese grandfather who was forever separated from their mother - his 3-year-old half-Chinese, half-Jamaican daughter - in 1920. Samuel Lowe returned to China in 1933 with a Chinese wife and 6 children. After a 91-year separation, his Black Chinese grandchildren journey to China where they find Samuel Lowe's 300 Chinese descendants and the entire clan in reunited. The film takes viewers to Harlem,...

In the rugged canyon lands of Northern Arizona, Navajo and Hopi cross-country runners from two rival high schools put it all on the line for tribal pride, triumph over personal adversity, and state championship glory. Win or lose, what they learn in the course of their seasons, will have a dramatic effect on the rest of their lives...Focusing on five teens living on the Navajo and Hopi reservations, Racing the Rez unfolds over two years of careful,...

In post-Apartheid South Africa there's a small group of working Zulu men who every Saturday night leave their grimy overalls behind and wear their best Carducci or Pierre Cardin suits to impress the weekly selected judge. The men are called the Swenkas, and they have run this fashion show for so many years that no one remembers exactly when - or even why - it all began. The youngest Swenka, Sabelo, is in the most turbulent time of his life. He has...