A young American student of Indian classical music competes in the largest music competition in Rajasthan, India. Sitar in hand, he attempts to navigate the complex rules of this ancient tradition only to find that his Western culture might pose insurmountable problems. Will he find acceptance while facing India’s newest generation of master musicians?

Hanh is an HIV-positive widow in Vietnam. Nada is a survivor of the Bosnian war. And Jacqueline works in the slums of Bamako, Mali. A Powerful Noise takes you inside the lives of these women to witness their daily challenges and significant victories over poverty and oppression.

Carrie and Mary Dann are feisty elderly Western Shoshone sisters who live and ranch in north central Nevada. They have always grazed their livestock on the range outside their ranch. That range is part of 60 acres million recognized by the U.S. as Western Shoshone land in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. In 1974, the U.S. sued the Dann sisters for trespassing on public land without a permit. Their dispute swept to the Supreme Court and eventually to the United Nations. Contrasting the Dann’s personal lives and political actions, American Outrage examines why the United States would spend millions prosecuting and persecuting two elderly women grazing a few hundred horses and cows in a desolate desert.

At 14, Toronto school friends Steve “Lips” Kudlow and Robb Reiner made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, went on to become the “demigods of Canadian metal,” releasing one of the heaviest albums in metal history, 1982’s Metal on Metal. The album influenced a musical generation, including Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax, that went on to sell millions of records. But Anvil’s career took a different path—straight to obscurity.

In 2007, the Appalachian State University football team pulled off what’s been called the biggest upset in college-football history. This film is a first-hand, inside look at how they did it, from the very first practice to the improbable win in the stadium known as “The Big House” against football powerhouse University of Michigan.

Finally, after 25 years, Cubers—elite players who can solve the famous Rubik’s Cube puzzle in less than 30 seconds—get another chance to be crowned the World Champion. The film follows these unique individuals—from Toronto to Paris, from Hungary to the US, and beyond.

In 1998, the studio of master clay artist Karen Karnes burned to the ground. She had been working with clay since the 1960s, and remarked, “For two years, I’ve been searching for the next step. It’s amazing that I’ve never had a time like this before, when my work didn’t just flow into the next phase. Whatever I do next has to come from the inside. Time will let it happen.” That sentiment lies at the core of Don’t Know, We’ll See: The Work of Karen Karnes, a documentary directed by Lucy Massie Phenix, a friend and photographer of Karnes’ work since the 1960s. Karnes, now in her 80s, has been called a pioneer of the 20th century craft movement. The film traces her life and work, including her time at Black Mountain College in its heyday.

The very name “Darfur” brings tragic realities to mind, and the documentary Familiar Voices shows why: “The horrific and systematic murder of nearly half a million people ceases to be a distant reality in this film about the ongoing genocide in Darfur,” according to one film synopsis. In a deluge of sight and sound, the film weaves first-hand accounts with expert analysis, while international activists offer insights into the tangible options for effecting change. UNICEF Ambassador, activist and actress Mia Farrow shares moving accounts of her numerous visits to refugee camps; Professor Eric Reeves—a Sudan researcher and activist—analyzes the political dynamics of the region; and Darfurians provide a vivid picture of life in Darfur before and after the conflict broke out. Nobel Peace Prize winners, officials, community leaders, international activist and students of all ages join together to tell the stories of those who no longer are among us.

Sometimes you can slay Goliath (or at least slow him down). Robert Redford narrates the true story of an unlikely coalition—mayors, ranchers, CEOs, community groups, legislators, lawyers and citizens—that came together to oppose construction of 19 conventional coal-fired power plants in eastern and central Texas in a battle for cleaner air. Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars tracks how the group influenced a proposal made by private investors looking to purchase TXU—a company proposing 11 of the plants slated for construction in Texas. In the end, TXU buyers reduced the amount of new plants they would build from 11 to three.

How did we go from near starvation during the Great Depression to an epidemic of obesity? In his documentary, Food Fight, director Christopher Taylor offers answers to these and other questions about food in modern America. Taylor said in an interview about the film—subtitled “A Story of Culinary Revolt”—“There are a lot of surprises in the world of food, in government policy about food, and about who is really making money at the expense of the average American food consumer. When I ask people what happened to tomatoes, they always reply, ‘You’re right, you can’t get a good tomato anymore.’ That simple statement reflects a lot of hidden agendas and unfortunate consequences about how food is grown commercially in this country.”

Would you defend your school before Congress? In Britain, students and alumni of Summerhill defended their school before Parliament when the government threatened to shut it down. Students of Summerhill—founded in 1921 by A.S. Neill, and at the time, England’s only “free school”—make their own law, manage their own bank and are free to go to class or not. The results of their fight, say filmmakers, demonstrate just how effective the school has been. Features Peter Coyote, alumni Rebecca de Mornay, Orson Bean and more.

Over the last four decades, artist Isaiah Zagar’s work has sprawled across Philadelphia. The 68-year-old artist has covered more than 50,000 square feet with his mosaic murals, making him more than a fixture in the city. His youngest son, Jeremiah Zagar, chronicles Isaiah’s work in the documentary, In a Dream. The work delves into his tumultuous relationship with his wife, Julia, exploring the thin line between art and life. Reviewer Steven Rea writes that the family members’ “lives are laid bare, in broken bits, like the ceramic that Isaiah uses for his art, and they come together in In a Dream with sadness and beauty, rage and insight.”

Told through intimate accounts, journal excerpts, archival footage, as well as interviews with military commanders, Lioness tells the story of a group of female Army support soldiers who became the first women in American history to be sent into direct ground combat. Without sufficient training but with a commitment to serve as needed, these young women ended up fighting in some of the bloodiest counterinsurgency battles of the Iraq war. Lioness makes public, for the first time, this hidden history.

This film may be a true inter-species love story: Little Miss Dewie: A Duckumentary tells of a Buddhist nun, Mira Tweti (yes, pronounced Tweety) who, in July 2007, found an orphaned duckling at a Los Angeles, Calif., lagoon. She took the orphan home. A parrot expert, Tweti named the duck Dewie and planned to give it to a rescue group. But as a result of a series of unexpected situations, Dewie remained in Tweti’s apartment for more than two months. During Tweti’s search for the perfect duck home, both the Playboy Mansion and the Bel Air Country club agreed to take her. But in the end, Dewie went to live with Lani and Edward Culver and their duck, Flipper. The duck duo are now a couple (and the Culvers and Tweti consider themselves related by marriage).

Fifty years ago, on Sept. 25, the “Little Rock Nine” led the way to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. Minnijean Brown Trickey was one of those nine black black teenagers, and her memories provide the backdrop to the documentary Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later. The film, directed by two brothers, Brent and Craig Renaud—both white alumni of the school— offers grainy footage from 1957 and a telling present-time view of the school. For example, on a recent visit to Central High, Trickey speaks to a self-segregated classroom: whites on one side, blacks on the other. The Renauds claim their documentary updates the story for a new generation. “It’s mostly the voices of younger people that are at the school,” explains Craig Renaud, 33, who graduated from Central in 1992. “It’s not experts, in terms of school desegregation or the achievement gap. It’s just seeing those things through people’s lives.”

The story of two lifelong best friends and “semi-famous web comedians,” searching for the teacher of the first-grade class where they met. Deciding to use only word of mouth, their journey leads them deep into the heart of an obscure tribe of Native Americans, the Lumbee of North Carolina.

Seven countries, six months, 3,000 miles and lots of shoes. That’s the premise for the feature documentary More Shoes by Lee Kazimir. The young fillmmaker took his cue from legendary director Werner Herzog, who suggested that skipping film school and, instead, walking from Madrid to Kiev and filming the experience would be more valuable than any academic effort. Kazimir took the challenge, equipping himself with the bare essentials, a tent, a sleeping bag and a camera. Reviewer John Sorba wrote: “Kazimir, who writes, directs, stars in, edits and photographs this film, is a compelling character with a sharp sense of humor. During his trek, [he] catalogs roadkill with startling sadness and poignancy, acquires large and painful blisters and talks to numerous locals across Europe—he says he’s ‘collecting their faces.’ And they range from evangelicals to atheists, drunks, Nazis, a heartbreaking homeless child and even a pair of stray kittens.” Sorba declared the film an “outright gem.”

At a Drexel, N.C., barbershop, the town may appear slow, but the music’s fast. Matt Morris’ documentary, Pickin’ and Trimmin’, reveals the inner world of a town where many of the shops are boarded up but where bluegrass musicians from around the region come to jam in the “back room” of the 60-year-old barbershop. “An engagingly genuine slice of old time Americana,” said one review. Winner of the Diane Seligman Award at the 2008 Woodstock Film Festival.

LOCAL FILM

Parkour, a rapidly emerging sport, involves athletes going from Point A to Point B, overcoming any obstacles impeding their path using only the human body. This film journeys across the United States, to England, China and the birthplace of the sport in France. Parkour faces many obstacles, and its participants discuss the challenges of the new sport such as standardization, acceptance, injury and commercialization.

SqueezeBox, The Movie traces the seven-year history of the punk/drag NYC party, SqueezeBox. The story is told though interviews with celebrities, local New York club characters and performance footage.

According to filmmakers Alan Datar and Lisa Merton, Taking Root shares the story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai. Raised in the rural highlands of Kenya, educated in the United States during the 1960s civil rights era, and the first female to receive a Ph.D. in East Africa, Maathai discovered the core of her life’s work when she reconnected with the rural women with whom she had grown up. When the women of her country told Maathai that they were walking longer distances for firewood, that clean water had become scarce, the topsoil was disappearing from their fields, and their children were suffering from malnutrition, Maathai thought to herself, “Well, why not plant trees?” Her efforts grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights and defend democracy.

Now in its 34th year, the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade maintains a rich New York City tradition, flooding the streets of Manhattan with tens of thousands of participants—in all their Halloween finery. The documentary short, The Claw follows participant Serra Hirsch, her costume and the annual commitment she makes to America’s most popular Halloween parade.

A personally narrated journey that traces the origins and current social meaning of one beverage, the cappuccino. Blending the voices of baristas, cultural critics, business leaders and coffee geeks everywhere, this film uses the cappuccino as a means to chart the strange intersections of individualism and mass culture that make up the contemporary American character.

Lyme disease has a personal meaning for director Andy Abrahams Wilson: His twin sister came down with the illness. Wilson directs Under Our Skin, which documents how thousands, each year, go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, told that their symptoms are “all in their head.” Wilson’s work explores the human, medical and political aspects of Lyme disease, chronicling the stories of patients and physicians battling for their lives and livelihoods. Under Our Skin displays a harrowing picture of our health-care system and its failure to cope with an epidemic.

A detailed look at an old piano (Victoria) and the people who played her. Located in the St. Anthony Dining Room in San Francisco, Victoria is visited and played daily by many of San Francisco’s homeless and low-income population. Although being out of tune, missing keys, having broken pedals, and just overall being beat up, Victoria, as one guest says, “is just like us. She may be all broken, but she still plays. She still has a melody.” An old upright grand that has physically seen a better day and has a mostly unknown history, Victoria, it could be argued, has never sounded so good. This is one afternoon in the life of Victoria.

Much has been written about the dangers of smoking, but smoking persists, with 21 percent of the American population engaging in this behavior and increasing numbers of people doing so worldwide. Why do we smoke?