S1.E15 ∙ Digging for Bamboo!

Documentary about Takeo Niikura (known as Takeo), a twenty four year old musician who has Down syndrome. Takashi Tokida, who makes his directorial debut with this film, handles video documentation for the Doctors Without Borders. Takeo, who has loved music from childhood, got noticed for his African drum performances and began giving concerts in 1998. In 2008 he achieved his long-held dream of visiting Senegal, the home of African drums.

The perpetual rumbling of wagons on rusty tracks disappearing on desert horizon. The bleating of goats suffering from heat and thirst. Freight cars with Bedouins and cezve of strong mint tea. The train, carrying tankers filled with water and fuel, cuts through the desert landscape of the never-ending horizon of sand. In the mud huts along the tracks, people live humble lives on the edge of poverty. The tank of water and fuel is the basic unit of measure for survival. The train is the main axis of life for the Bedouins catching their breath in the shadows of the heat and the contours of tranquillity.

From the Back of the Line explores the lives of six mixed status families living and working in Charlotte, North Carolina, following their struggles as they navigate the deportation process and its impact on their families and community. Within the grassroots activist organization Familias Unidas, members support each other as their court dates loom ahead of them. The film tells the story of Luis, father of three, who came to America to build a better life for his children, one among many fighting in the public and political arenas for the future of his children.

Pita is a film that imagines what a dog might be experiencing through old age, what its owner feels when faced with when to euthanize, and attempts to capture the uniqueness of their bond and the sadness from saying goodbye.

Go backstage at 'Happily Eva Afta,' the final installment of Hawaii's favorite pidgin fairy tale musical trilogy, with some of the cast and crew that were there since the beginning.

Covering a span of 35 years in the life of Honza, a man born 'on camera' in 1974.