What's the Alternative?

Through the worldwide mission of the Flying Eye Hospital by ORBIS International, the only airplane eye hospital in the world, stories of three different countries unfold the heartrending and heartwarming people's lives. A blind teenager in China begs on the street and offers his kidney to pay for an eye surgery. In India a local doctor must convince suspicious parents that their children will go blind without medical treatment. And in Ethiopia, a devoted son brings his blind father to the capital in hopes of receiving a free operation. A each faces the challenges of modern health care, traditional beliefs, financial reality, and social unrest, it becomes clear that treating blindness requires much more than a medical procedure.

In the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, Miyagi-born filmmaker returned to his native home region to survey the devastation, and then spent 600 days documenting the plight of animals and their families from bereaved pet owners struggling with loss to uplifting tales of survival and passion as relief volunteers sneak into restricted nuclear fallout zones to rescue and bring relief to lost, starving pets and livestock. Not looking to pass judgment, here is a film that simply takes you inside the disaster and the state of human-animal relations. Feel their gaze.

A small Christian school in Hoboken, NJ is attracting attention for its progressive integration of fine arts, worship, and community service. The success of its intentional mission to the urban poor defies the economic model that typifies many private schools. But in an environment of insufficient funds, unattainable performance standards, and escalating drop-out rates, can any school make a difference? Can a curriculum infused with faith and art honestly and positively impact the lives of a diverse student body?

This documentary follows a woman undergoing experimental eye surgery.

A Tuareg children's chronicle in the Saint-Exupery sand School, north of Mali.