Mali Blues

Over 65 years ago, when Costa Rica became the largest nation in the world to disband their military, they redirected national resources towards public education and universal health care, fostering a wide middle class and a society committed to inclusion. Since then, Costa Rica has earned the number one spot in the Happy Planet Index, a ranking of countries based on measures of environmental protection and the happiness and health of its citizens.

In 1994 Rwanda suffered a devastating genocide. Close to a million were killed by neighbors, friends, even family.

The country has made great strides in economic recovery since then, but "people are not like roads and buildings" says Kiki Katese, pioneering Rwandan theater director. "How do we rebuild a human being?"

Kiki decided to start Ingoma Nshya, Rwanda's first and only women's drumming troupe, open to women from both sides of the conflict. There was only one requirement: to leave the categories of the past at the gate.

"Wall" follows British playwright David Hare on a trip to the Middle East to examine the impact the wall separating Israel and Palestine has had on the people of the region. The feature-length film is an animated take on real-life events.

"Defiant Lives" traces the origins of the world-wide disability rights movement. It tells the stories of the individuals who bravely put their lives on the line to create a better world where everyone is valued and can participate. Featuring interviews and rarely seen archival footage, the film reveals how these activists fought to live outside of institutions, challenged the stigmas and negative image of disability portrayed by the media, demanded access to public transportation, and battled to reframe disability rights as a social responsibility relevant to us all.

Herman Wallace spent 41 years in a 6-by-9-foot cell in Louisiana, making him the the longest-serving prisoner in solitary confinement in the United States. Imprisoned in 1967 for a robbery he admits, he was subsequently sentenced to life for a killing he vehemently denied. Herman was released in 2013 and died of liver cancer within days. "Herman's House" is a moving account of the remarkable expression his struggle found in an unusual project proposed by artist Jackie Sumell.

The West African country of Mali is a birthplace of the blues, a musical tradition later carried by the transatlantic slave trade to America's cotton fields. Yet today, the music and musicians of Mali are in grave danger. As fundamentalist Islam and sharia law become more widespread, dance and secular music are prohibited, musical instruments are destroyed, and musicians are forced to flee their homeland.

Three residents in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas find their lives upended by plans to build a US-Mexico border wall. Meanwhile a butterfly, la mariposa, fights its own daily battle for survival in a landscape where 95 percent of its habitat is gone, and the rest lies directly in the path of the wall.

Sonia Warshawski, a Holocaust survivor, is served an eviction notice for her tailor shop, which has thrived for 35 years. She must choose between setting up a new shop or retiring.

Every year tens of thousands of people are driven by grinding poverty and conflict to leave their homes in Central and South America and journey through Mexico towards the U.S. They brave one of the world’s most dangerous journeys, traveling along a stretch of desert called the “corridor of death,” for the chance of a better, more secure life for themselves and their families.

Before the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, Azzedine Nouiri, the world champion in seated shot put, inspires his childhood friend Youssef to take on the challenge of qualifying for the Games despite their lack of means and formal training. They struggle to conquer the extraordinary in order to have the same rights and opportunities as ordinary men at home, in Morocco.

On the front line of the Syrian war, 30-year-old Commander Arian guides a female battalion towards the city of Kobane to release its people from the grip of ISIS in Alba Sotorra’s empowering tale of emancipation and freedom.

South Africa's Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, attempts to bring justice to ordinary people. After successfully challenging President Zuma for illegal use of state funds, she has to investigate — in the face of protests, death threats and legal challenges — the alleged systematic takeover of the government by a private family in cahoots with the President.