Cinemafile

THE WHITE HOUSE EFFECT is through the lens of entirely archival footage, and we're given an infuriating fly-on-the-wall perspective of the pivotal years surrounding climate change through the George H.W. Bush administration. A time when global warming was first introduced to the public with scientific-backing and as a non-partisan issue, but as chief of staff John Sununu used climate change to further relations with industry power brokers, the country and a hopeful EPA chief Bill Reilly rather found itself in a politicized world crisis sown with the seeds of disinformation, public confusion, and false promises. Now in 2025, as we live through the consequences of inaction during the 80s, such as extreme weather, rise in sea levels and a climbing world temperature — we continue to ask why it has taken so long to make a change and are we exactly where we started, but also with an inherent need to remember there’s still a fight to be had. With President Trump calling climate change a hoax just last week, this is more prevalent than ever.  A riveting look at a key moment in the history of the climate crisis, THE WHITE HOUSE EFFECT, from directors Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos and Jon Shenk, travels back in time to document how a crucial opportunity to take real action on global warming was not just squandered but deliberately undermined. 

PLAN C for CIVILIZATION tackles one of the most controversial approaches to mitigating and possibly reversing the dire impacts of climate change.  As emissions pour into the atmosphere and world leaders struggle for solutions to a climate emergency, the controversial climate-cooling technology called solar geo-engineering is entering the world’s stage. It’s an idea so powerful and full of uncertainty that even the proposal of research itself is seen as a dire risk by leading environmental activists and scientists. But for physicist David Keith, what matters is not what’s popular but what could help reduce the harms of a heating planet. And to learn more, he plans to launch the world’s first experiment into the stratosphere. Plan C for Civilization tackles the promise and peril of solar geo-engineering with exclusive verite access to its protagonist David Keith and the SCoPEx project as well as the rogue geo-engineers of Make Sunsets. From Bangladesh to Nevada, solar geo-engineering is emerging after more than 60 years in the shadows, and with it, a new chapter of the climate change saga. Our guest is Ben Kalina, (Can We Cool the Planet, Shored Up) an award-winning director and producer whose work centers on the collision between human nature and the force of nature.

Corky Lee was born in 1947 in New York to Chinese immigrants who owned a laundry in Queens. He majored in history at Queens College and became a community organizer in Manhattan’s Chinatown in the 1970s. Over the next five decades he photographed countless protests and cultural events in the Asian American Pacific Islander community. Lee’s photographs documented the birth and growth of the Asian American movement for social justice and he became known as “The Undisputed, Unofficial, Asian American Photographer Laureate.” For 50 years, Chinese American photographer Corky Lee documented the celebrations, struggles, and daily lives of Asian American Pacific Islanders with epic focus. Determined to push mainstream media to include AAPI culture in the visual record of American history, Lee produced an astonishing archive of nearly a million compelling photographs. His work takes on new urgency with the alarming rise in anti-Asian attacks during the Covid pandemic. Jennifer Takaki’s intimate portrait reveals the triumphs and tragedies of the man behind the lens.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lynsey Addario has risked her life to capture the stark realities of war — from the Middle East and Afghanistan to Ukraine. From National Geographic Documentary Films and Academy Award® -winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, “Love+War” chronicles Addario’s ascent in the male-dominated world of conflict photography. But her work comes at a steep personal cost — each assignment means stepping into danger and leaving behind her husband and two young sons. Behind the camera, Addario is torn between her unwavering commitment to the essential work of journalism and the powerful, competing demands of motherhood, grappling with what it truly means to follow your passion when it threatens everything you love. Co-director Chai Vasarhelyi (Jimmy Chin) and subject Lynsey Addario join us to talk about Lynsey’s personal and professional story and why her profession and professionalism is so vital and relevant in keeping our collective eyes open to the insidious effects of war and the eternal power of love. 

A gently humanist story of the American West from Max Walker-Silverman (A Love Song), Rebuilding follows Dusty (Josh O’Connor), a reserved, divorced father whose ranch has burned down in a devastating wildfire. Now living in a trailer community on a government-run campsite, Dusty finds solace with his new neighbors who have also lost everything, quietly reassembles his life, and starts reconnecting with his ex-wife Ruby (Meghann Fahy) and young daughter Callie-Rose (Lily LaTorre). Filmed against the rapturous backdrop of southern Colorado, Rebuilding is a ruminative, moving portrait of resilience and human connection in the wake of loss. Writer and director Max Walker Silverman joins us for a conversation on the healing power of community, family, self-reflection and that nature is often the immutable force that impacts all of our lives.

Co-directors Bonni Cohen and John Shenk's latest documentary IN WAVES AND WAR follows highly decorated Navy SEAL Marcus Capone, who returns from Afghanistan and attempts to readjust to civilian life. But years of unprecedented warfare have left Marcus with treatment-defiant PTSD, traumatic brain injuries, and severe depression beyond what current government treatment options can effectively address. Fearing for Marcus’ life, his wife, Amber, finds hope in a groundbreaking therapy combining two powerful psychedelics unapproved for use in the U.S., but with seemingly limitless applications. Inspired by Marcus’ remarkable recovery but still confronted with the alarming rate of veteran suicide in their community, Marcus and Amber embark on a new mission: providing access to this lifeline. Alongside intimate interviews, captivating animation, and first-of-its-kind research at Stanford’s Brain Stimulation Lab, In Waves and War, from Jon Shenk and Bonni Cohen (Athlete A, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power), is the emotional, inspiring odyssey of three American heroes as they overcome the after-effects of war and rediscover their humanity. Co-directors Jon Shenk and Bonni Cohen join us to talk about this very promising therapy and the profound impact it has had already.

Creator / Director Sean King O’Grady’s SUSPICIOUS MINDS is a docuseries that investigates the disturbing rise of artificial intelligence as a trigger for delusional thinking. Through powerful firsthand accounts and in-depth interviews with leading experts in psychiatry, neuroscience, and AI ethics, the series unpacks a growing psychological phenomenon: individuals developing complex, often life-altering delusions rooted in AI technologies. From chatbots to surveillance fears, we examine how emerging technologies are reshaping the landscape of paranoia and how these modern delusions echo, amplify, and challenge our historical understanding of the human mind. Led by psychiatrist Dr. Joel Gold and philosopher Ian Gold, PhD, who together first described the Truman Show Delusion (people believing they were on a reality TV show like Jim Carrey’s character in The Truman Show) and authored the groundbreaking book Suspicious Minds: How Culture Shapes Madness (The Truman Show Delusion and Other Strange Beliefs), the series presents an urgent vision of just how dramatically culture can influence our minds. Creator / Director Sean King O’Grady stops by for a fascinating conversation on why AI may be the most consequential technology in human history and what we know and what we don’t yet know about its potential impact on all of us. 

Director Barak Goodman’s KISSINGER, is a new two-part, three-hour biography, offers an incisive portrait of Henry Kissinger, the enigmatic powerbroker who served in the topmost echelons of American diplomacy. Whether celebrated or reviled, Kissinger’s contradictions reflect those at the heart of America’s foreign policy during the second half of the 20th century, a period in which America became the unchallenged superpower in the world yet often pursued policy at odds with its own highest ideals. As historian and Kissinger biographer Niall Ferguson says in the film, “Nobody, before or since, has played such an important role in American foreign policy. We’ve had to recognize it’s Henry Kissinger’s world.” KISSINGER Director Barak Goodman stops by for an informed  conversation on the who, what, when and why Henry Kissinger was such a consequential force in American foreign policy and how that power impacted the lives and the deaths of millions of people around the world. 

Nothing is as it seems when filmmaker Emily Wyland (Brittany O’Grady) teams up with cinematographer Danny (E. J. Bonilla) to shoot an intimate documentary about reuniting with Emily’s estranged mother after a decade apart. When her mother suddenly goes missing, possibly succumbing to the addictions that first tore her family apart, Emily and Danny must piece together increasingly sinister clues to find her before it’s too late. Directed by Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Pedro Kos (Rebel Hearts, Lead Me Home) in his first narrative feature, IN OUR BLOOD masterfully blends psychological mystery with chilling horror. Writer / director Pedro Kos discusses the inspiration for this twisted tale of reconciling with the ghosts of our past and confronting the complicity we share in creating a world that preys on the most vulnerable.

Surviving racism, homophobia and childhood trauma, Carl Bean found his voice through song – first as a gospel singer in Harlem’s Christian Tabernacle Choir and then later performing with his group Carl Bean and Universal Love on their 1974 album “Universal Love.” But it was the recording of the 1977 Motown hit “I Was Born This Way” that would earn him fame; the song was celebrated as the world’s first gay anthem. Even today, club DJs have this song in heavy rotation bringing this anthem to a new LGBTQ generation world wide. However, Bean eschewed a mainstream music career…instead choosing a vocation in activism. He started the Minority AIDS Project -- serving a vital role for underserved populations of Black and Brown men and women during the AIDS Crisis. Simultaneously, he founded Unity Fellowship Church — the first LGBTQ+ ministry in LA and now boasts of churches across the nation from LA to Baltimore to Texas to New York Harlem. An all-star line up of filmmakers join us to talk about a truly inspirational and charismatic leader Archbishop, singer, activist, humanitarian Carl Bean.