Nestled in the woods outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a sleepaway camp for kids who are nonspeaking. To express themselves, they must use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices that translate their composed messages into audible speech. Follow the lives and experiences of these campers as a series of immersive, vérité-style character studies.
01 Jan 2019
When the immigrants came to America, their cultures entered the "great melting pot." In Michigan's Upper Peninsula Finnish immigrants mixed their musical traditions with many other cultures, creating a sound that was unique to the "Copper Country."
13 Nov 2007
Steeped in a rich tradition dating back to their inaugural meeting in 1897, this rivalry extends beyond the pursuit of a Big Ten title, and is renewed each year through the pageantry and colliding cultures that distinguish the two schools.
01 Jan 1990
The annual ice carving event and competition features over 100 statues carved from a blocks of ice. Visitors can watch artisans create their works from start to finish with tools of the trade including chainsaws.
25 Nov 2017
A man hikes 550 miles across the North Country Trail in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula from July through February, experiencing it in all of its seasons.
21 Nov 2003
British documentarian Nick Broomfield creates a follow-up piece to his 1992 documentary of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was convicted of killing six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Interviewing an increasingly mentally unstable Wuornos, Broomfield captures the distorted mind of a murderer whom the state of Florida deems of sound mind -- and therefore fit to execute. Throughout the film, Broomfield includes footage of his testimony at Wuornos' trial.
07 May 2018
Further Sasquatch encounters.
14 Nov 2019
An in-depth look at one of college sports' fiercest rivalries, Michigan-Michigan State, and how this in-state battle has only grown to new heights over the past decade in both football and basketball.
14 Apr 2018
In 1963 at Michigan State University, Head Coach Duffy Daugherty chose 23 black men to play on the college team. From this move came legends Gene Washington, Bubba Smith, George Webster and Clinton Jones. Director Maya Washington, Gene Washington’s daughter, charts the legacy of her father’s career and influence, along with the impact the events of 1963 have shown in the present day.
13 Mar 2011
Depicts the story of Jalen Rose and his other Fab Five teammates, Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson. Called by some “the greatest class ever recruited,” the five freshmen not only electrified the game, but also brought new style with their baggy shorts, black socks and brash talk. “The Fab Five” relives the recruitment process that got all five of them to Ann Arbor, the cultural impact they made, the two runs to NCAA title game, the Webber “timeout” in the 1993 championship and the scandal that eventually tarnished their accomplishments.
26 Aug 2024
In this sports documentary, Connor Stalions addresses the allegations surrounding the Michigan football sign-stealing scandal for the first time.
01 Nov 2012
A character-driven, action-packed documentary about Detroit, told through the eyes of the Detroit firefighters, the men and women charged with the thankless task of saving a city that many have written off as dead.
18 Mar 1944
This Traveltalk series short begins in Chicago, where the narrator and his crew board a cruise ship. After a 20-hour trip up Lake Michigan, they arrive at Mackinac Island, near the southeast tip of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. On the island, we see many of the attractions for which it is famous. These include Arch Rock, Old Fort Mackinack, and a hotel owned by Chauncey Depew. No automobiles are allowed on the island. Transportation is limited to bicycles and horse-drawn carriages.
05 Mar 1949
This Traveltalk series short begins with a look at Michigan's major educational institutions, which started as agricultural schools. We then visit the fish hatcheries at Grayling, which are used to keep the state's numerous lakes and rivers well stocked. After a short look at Detroit, the car capital of the world, we spend several minutes at Greenfield Village, founded in 1929 by automobile magnate Henry Ford. Included in the tour are churches, a clock tower, and the homes of several famous persons in American history. Although some of the structures are reproductions, many of them are the actual buildings they lived in.
26 Mar 1949
This Traveltalk series short visits several popular vacation spots in Michigan. Among them are Saugatuck, which hosts a school for artists during the summer; Zeeland, where descendants of Dutch settlers perform traditional Dutch dances wearing wooden shoes; the Silver Lake sand dunes, where specially outfitted cars race; and Colon, "The Magic Capitol of the World", which hosts an annual gathering of magicians.
29 Feb 2016
INAATE/SE/ re-imagines an ancient Ojibway story, the Seven Fires Prophecy, which both predates and predicts first contact with Europeans. A kaleidoscopic experience blending documentary, narrative, and experimental forms, INAATE/SE/ transcends linear colonized history to explore how the prophecy resonates through the generations in their indigenous community within Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. With acute geographic specificity, and grand historical scope, the film fixes its lens between the sacred and the profane to pry open the construction of contemporary indigenous identity.
15 Mar 2024
Wisconsin's tribe's ongoing fight to protect Lake Superior for future generations. "Bad River" shows the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa's long history of activism and resistance in the context of continuing legal battles with Enbridge Energy over its Line 5 oil pipeline. The Line 5 pipeline has been operating on 12 miles of the Bad River Band's land with expired easements for more than a decade. The Band and the Canadian company have been locked in a legal battle over the pipeline since 2019.
21 Dec 2023
Lake Effect is a two-year Michigan ski film highlighting the joys of backyard adventure and the shifting perspective of Mike King, a professional skier who for a decade has only sought adventure from the peaks of mountain tops in the far reaches of the West. In 2020 when Covid encouraged lockdowns & travel restrictions, Mike's life on the road came to a screeching halt. This abrupt change inspired Mike to take the hurdle as an opportunity to rediscover the unique, untapped terrain, ski culture, and the people thriving right here in his home state of Michigan. Throughout filming Lake Effect Mike realized you don't need to travel far to have an epic adventure. Rather some creativity, curiosity, and the willingness to walk out the door to the abundance that starts right in our backyards.
06 Jun 2008
Mackinac Island, Michigan, is a tiny island in the center of the Great Lakes. Besides being a world favorite "Horse Drawn" and "Victorian Era" summer destination, the island holds another treasure few have ever seen: its wild, magical and beautiful winters. The 72-minute film Ice Bridge follows islanders' unique and quirky lifestyle throughout an entire year while tracing the formation of the spectacular phenomenon known as the "ice bridge" (a three-mile span of ice that allows islanders to cross to the mainland).
Kelly Finger-McNeela was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis her freshman year of high school. The only thing on her mind was living a "normal" life. Her disease threatened to make that impossible.
16 Jan 2025
"The First People Taking Care of the Fishery" are the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the largest indigenous tribe east of the Mississippi. For generations, they have been stewarding the fisheries of their Great Lakes territory in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. This project explores the cultural and economic importance of the fishery to the tribe and how use historic and sustainable practices to ensure a healthy fishery and preserve their way of life for the next seven generations in the face of climate change and invasive species.