Films with: Menschel, David

Code of the West

Once a pioneer in legalizing medical marijuana, the state of Montana is poised to become the first in the nation to repeal its medical marijuana law. This documentary follows the 2011 Montana state legislature as it debates the fate of medical marijuana.

DVD 10962

Do not resist

"An urgent and powerful exploration of the rapid militarization of the police in the United States. Starting on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, as the community grapples with the death of Michael Brown, DO NOT RESIST -- the directorial debut of Detropia cinematographer Craig Atkinson -- offers a stunning look at the current state of policing in America and a glimpse into the future. The Tribeca Film Festival winner for Best Documentary puts viewers in the center of the action -- from a ride-along with a South Carolina SWAT team and inside a police training seminar that teaches the importance of "righteous violence" to the floor of a congressional hearing on the proliferation of military equipment in small-town police departments -- before exploring where controversial new technologies, including predictive policing algorithms, could lead the field next."--From film website.

DVD 11947

Encounter with Simone Weil

What response does seeing human suffering demand of us? Filmmaker Julia Haslett seeks an answer in the controversial French philosopher and activist Simone Weil (1909-1943), whose life and work took on this question in a dramatic way. Adopting Weil as her guide through an engaging and profound moral landscape, Julia goes on a journey to understand Weil's loss of faith in revolutionary politics and the spiritual awakening that followed. Driving her obsession with Weil is the interwoven story of suffering within Haslett's own family, her father's suicide when she was 17 and now her older brother's severe depression. When Weil dies from self-starvation at the height of World War II, she is left wondering if death was the logical conclusion to Weil's philosophy and her attempt to share the pain of others?

DVD 8430