Passion River Films

What is art and how does it relate to society? Is its value determined by its popularity or originality? Is the goal profit or expressing one's personal vision? These are some of the questions raised as we follow fiercely independent New York artist Robert Cenedella in his artistic journey through decades of struggling for creative expression. A student, protégé and friend of German artist George Grosz, Cenedella is now passing on the legacy of...

Intimate, personalized portrait of women of the 1960's through the eyes of one colorful class that graduated in 1969 - same year as Hillary Clinton - and recently turned 65, starting to explore the New Old Age. At a time when these Boomers' parents were asking less of themselves, many of these distinguished citizens are asking more, feeling a Third Wind. Where will it take them? Some are determined to keep making waves. The trigger for these revelations/reminiscences...

Pennhurst is a story of segregation, abandonment, and the meaning of home as told by the people that lived in, worked at, and crusaded for one of the largest and oldest Intellectual and Developmental Disability Institutions in the United States.

Holy Man: The USA vs. Douglas White is the story of Douglas White, an 89 year old Lakota Sioux medicine man from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, who spent 17 years in federal prison for a crime he did not commit. During the making of this film, filmmakers uncovered new evidence of White's actual innocence" and brought the case back to federal court. Holy Man offers a rare glimpse into the mysterious world of Lakota religion, their intimate...

Natural Life is a feature length experimental documentary challenging inequities in the U.S. juvenile justice system by depicting, through documentation and reenactment, the stories of five individuals who were sentenced to Life Without Parole (Natural Life) for crimes they committed as youth. The youthful status and/or lesser culpability of these youths, their background and their potential for rehabilitation, were not taken into account at any point...

David is about to become a father and he's terrified. How can he bring his son into manhood if he feels like he hasn't arrived himself? He tries various methods of tapping into his masculinity, but all roads lead back to the complicated relationship with his own father. My Own Man is a funny and original look into the timeless tug of war between fathers and sons, and a moving story about the transformative power of forgiveness.

A global look at communities impacted by the export of toxic pesticides made in America and how they are fighting back.

Visionary, award-winning filmmaker Robert Mac depicts the powerful, raw, and often surprising world of the D.C. Divas, one of America's toughest full-contact, tackle football teams who just happen to be female. Victorious follows an eclectic group of full-contact female football players for one season as they fight: fight to balance their lives as mothers, daughters, wives, partners, and employees; fight to raise funds for training and equipment...

For 88 years, a small Oklahoma town has pantomimed a passion play on a bizarre reproduction of Jerusalem built into the Wichita foothills. Jesus Town USA is a light-hearted and comedic documentary chronicling the journey of a 100-strong amateur cast, a dozen horses, and very devout community. Once boasting audiences of over 200,000. the Pageant now struggles to find any audience at all. When the man playing Jesus for 8 years retires, his replacement,...

Saved by the introduction of protease inhibitors in the mid-1990s, many HIV positive men needed to rebuild lives they thought they would not live. In an effort to make peace with the virus inside them, some migrated to California's Palm Springs in the hope of finding a healing desert oasis. But is this environment, with its tolerant population and constant sunshine, enough to heal their shattered bodies and dispel their lingering grief?