In Development

The film tells the story of two women who become extremely ill. The director's original character, Cathy, is a practicing shaman who refuses to fully embrace shamanism as a healing modality and, as a result, her illness lingers for years. Karen, on the other hand, ignores the urgent advice of her medical doctors and only uses shamanistic techniques to cure her breast cancer. The cancer metastasizes to her spine and, by the time she initiates chemotherapy, her diagnosis is terminal.

The U.S. is the most religiously diverse nation on earth. The community of Detroit is rich with stories of everyday people grappling with the reality of pluralism, especially religious pluralism. Filmmaker Maria Finitzo will capture how individuals confront the appearance of a stranger, and ultimately come to accept the stranger as one who will not only stay, but belongs as well.

Pentecostalism is the fastest growing religious movement in the world, with nine million new members a year. Pentecostal churches in South Korea, Brazil and South Africa share a common trait: they can trace their roots back to a two-story, white-washed building at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles where, in the early 1900's, an unlikely congregation of blacks, Hispanics, whites and Asians gave birth to a religious revival that would sweep the globe.

Bronx Princess follows headstrong Rocky’s journey as she leaves behind her mother in New York to reunite with her royal father in Ghana, West Africa. Brook and Syeed highlight Rocky’s confrontations with her immigrant parents and their ideas of adulthood and faith and Rocky's efforts to reconcile her African heritage and way of life with her dream of independence.

The Calling is a groundbreaking four-part documentary series that will share the journeys of six young Americans - a Catholic, a Muslim, an Evangelical Christian, a Jew, a Buddhist and a Presbyterian - who have decided to enter the clergy. Danny Alpert and a renowned team of documentary filmmakers will follow these clerics-in-training as they take their first uncertain steps across the thresholds of their academies, undergo years of study and training, and face new challenges and personal growth as ordained religious professionals. Their trials and triumphs will provide viewers with an exclusive, "behind-the-scenes" glimpse into the dynamics of pursuing a religious vocation.

In the Polish town of Dzialoszyce, Catholics and Jews are fighting against the odds to make peace after centuries of anti-Semitism that during World War II nearly eliminated the Jewish population there. In Common Ground, award-winning filmmakers Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky (Hiding and Seeking: Faith and Tolerance after the Holocaust and A Life Apart: Hasidism in America) will document this heroic effort, an example for communities around the globe attempting to live in harmony across the lines of religious difference.

Extra Credit will follow three students at an Islamic school outside of Dallas as they attempt to memorize the entire Qur'an in order to compete at the International Qur'an contest in Dubai. It's a sort of "annual Islamic spelling bee," and the three Texans are hoping to be the first young Muslim Americans to participate in the contest. The students are judged in Dubai on the accuracy of their memory, their pronunciation, and the beauty of their cadence and the three Texas children will compete against children who speak Arabic as a native language. Along the way, these students will struggle to stay on top of their studies as they try to balance Muslim religious devotion with the obsessions of American youth.

The "Grandmothers" come from around the world - Africa, Asia, the Arctic Circle, and North, South and Central America. They are shamans, medicine women, prayer people, and the respected elders of their tribes. Together they share years of sacred wisdom handed down to them over generations going back thousands of years. The Grandmothers gathered together for the first time in October 2004 to form the Global Women's Gathering, a group with a mission to explore renewable resources, education for all children, preservation of cultures and species, integration of traditional and Western medicine, and environmental protection.

The Church of Gethsemane is a special Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) located in Brooklyn, NY. It is run by and for prisoners, ex-prisoners, their families, and individuals in partnership with the poor and imprisoned. Gethsemane's story is one of mutual transformation, both of ex-prisoners and of individuals from mainstream churches who have risked personal involvement with them. The Gethsemane Film Project will explore how a community like Gethsemane manifests not only the mission of the Presbyterian denomination, but also the principles at the heart of all faiths that value equality and justice.

Howard Thurman will bring to life the story of a remarkable individual. Howard Thurman established the nation’s first interracial, intercultural and interfaith congregation and advocated tirelessly for community among disparate races and faiths. He collaborated with religious leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, and played an inspirational and pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement.

In Search of Mary looks at the historical truth of Mary Magdalene, described by some as an example of a powerful female Jewish leader and by others as a follower of Jesus who knew Jesus best. Filmmaker Lulie Haddad aims to marry sound scholarship with dynamic storytelling.

A personal and global search by award-winning Israeli director Yoav Shamir for a better understanding of anti-Semitism will be the focus of It Used To Be A Great Flag. Shamir plans to seek reactions from the man in the street to opinons about anti-Semitism posed by experts. And the filmmaker will seek answers to basic questions as well: "When we are talking about anti-Semitism, what do we mean? What is anti-Semitism in a daily sense? Does it take different forms in different places? How serious is it? Is there a ‘new anti-Semitism?' Is being an Israeli detachable from being a Jew?"

Leap of Faith follows the lives of six individuals of different backgrounds who are pursuing parallel paths in their search for personal meaning. The feature-length documentary is the first cinema verité look at the journey of conversion from gentile to Orthodox Jew. In Leap of Faith, individuals forsake the religion of their parents, abandon childhood traditions and enter into a wholly new and radically different system of belief and practice of worship.

Learning to Swim chronicles the life of Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, one of the last Tibetan lamas to be trained in Tibet, as his life intersects over two decades with a Jewish woman from Philadelphia drawn to his teachings. The girl is Jennifer Fox, an award-winning filmmaker, whose camera captures the journey of Norbu Rinpoche through a rapidly changing geographical and spiritual landscape.

Monks and Muslims: Finding Faith in Algeria will focus on a community of French Trappist monks for whom faith and good works mattered more than theology and ritual. Surrounded by war and terror that consumed Algeria in the 1990s, the monks showed inspiring spirit and courage, fighting for the lives of beleaguered Muslims as they put their own lives at risk.

Nobody Should Know tells the stories of three courageous Orthodox Jews, forced by the customs of their community to keep their life-threatening illness, the genetic disease cystic fibrosis, a secret not only from the community but also from many of their loved ones.

Filmmaker Geeta Patel turns her camera in this comedic documentary on arranged marriages in the Hindu community in the U.S.  She follows her brother Ravi, who has broken up with his Christian girlfriend, as he wrestles with his American upbringing and his dawning desire to seek an arranged marriage, as his parents send him around the country to meet potential Hindu wives.

Prayer follows award-winning filmmaker Jonathan Skurnik on his quest to understand the power of prayer and its dynamic role in social change. Skurnik plans to roam the country seeking the secrets behind how spiritual leaders have used prayer to affect change in the world around us.

The feature rockumentary Rock n' Roll Rabbis takes viewers on a musical journey into the little-known world of Orthodox rock, profiling religious Jews who reconcile the asceticism of Orthodox Judaism with a rock n' roll lifestyle. This intimate portrait focuses on four of the most prominent rock n' roll acts, as the camera follows these religious individuals backstage, into the studio, and finally on Yidstock, an international tour.

The Episcopal Church is wrestling with a "divisive issue of inclusion," which arose following a 2003 vote to install the Rev. Gene Robinson, a gay clergyman living in a committed relationship, as Bishop of New Hampshire. Award-winning filmmakers Cal Skaggs and Tom Hurwitz plan to explore in Schism the nature, causes and effects of a potential split over this issue of homosexuality in mainline Protestantism by profiling how the issue is being addressed in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, the largest in membership and one of the two oldest in the nation, and the diocese in which protests against homosexuality have been most vocal, most active, and most effective.

Award-winning filmmaker Norris Chumley and priest/historian Dr. John McGuckin trace the footsteps of the ancient monks, hermits and sages of the first to twelfth centuries who lived in caves and the first monasteries established in Egypt, Israel, Syria, Greece, Romania and Russia.

Ten years ago, filmmakers Tricia Regan and Jenifer McShane documented a grassroots movement of parents and teachers in Northern Ireland bent on integrating Catholic and Protestant school children. Their film was nominated for an Academy Award and was seen around the world. In Time for Peace, Regan and McShane will return to Northern Ireland to evaluate the success of this movement, locating the families who sent their children across battle lines a decade ago to forge a community of peace and now face the challenges as adults of violence and conflict that won't go away.

Every now and then, history rests the fate of millions on the shoulders of one. One such person has chosen to walk into an international firestorm, as he takes a stand for his civil liberties, his livelihood, his faith, his love. With exclusive access, The Truth Will Set You Free tells the story of Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire, and the first openly gay Bishop in Christendom.

Valentino's Ghost takes viewers on a chronological journey through more than a century of images of Muslims, Arabs and Islam in the U.S. media, from the early-20th-century fantasies of romantic sheiks and golden palaces to today's portrayals of fanatics.

William Sloane Coffin: A Life will examine in-depth the life and legacy of the brilliant, ebullient and now legendary former chaplain of Yale University and senior minister of Riverside Church in New York. Gibney will paint a portrait of the man and the minister, and "track his progress from ‘great man' - leader, orator, advocate for change and justice - to ‘wonderful man' -who later in life became full of wonder about the world around him."