Dear Black Umich,

Robert Shields: My Life as a Robot

2025

Award Winning Documentary on the Life of Artist Robert Shields. “Robert Shields: My Life as a Robot” is a documentary that will make you believe that your actions can have an inspirational effect on so many lives - and you may not even be aware of it. An icon of the 70’s, Robert began his career doing his robot in front of the Hollywood Wax Museum and a few short years later had his own top rated Prime Time CBS Variety show with his beautiful wife Lorene called: “The Shields & Yarnell Show”. And along the way, unbeknownst to him, he created ripples that define an art form to this day. This film may not save the environment, it won’t take on a corrupt corporation nor will it make you write your congress person. What it will do is make you laugh, bring you wonder and joy and introduce you to a man who makes you believe that anything is possible… including (and don’t try this at home!) Street Skiing in downtown San Francisco!

The Three Tenors - Birth of a Legend

2024

On the eve of the 1990 World Cup final, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, and Luciano Pavarotti sang together for the first time. A look behind the scenes at a musical event whose phenomenal success lasted for more than a decade.

Il A Suffi D'Une Nuit

2025

Far from Maine

2026

Haunted by the killing by Israeli police of a Palestinian friend from his youth, an Israeli queer filmmaker embarks on a cinematic dialogue across time — confronting memory, friendship, and the genocide unfolding today. In this intimate cinematic letter, Israeli filmmaker Roy Cohen addresses his Palestinian friend and fellow peace activist Aseel Aslih, who was murdered by Israeli police in their youth. Cohen tells Aslih of his experiences navigating a growingly genocidal society and seeks Aslih’s moral clarity and resilience in the evocative letters he had written as a teenager.

For a Fistful of Fries

2022

For several days, a team of police officers (backed by Judge Anne Gruwez, the revelation from their previous So Help Me God) sift through the evidence in a murder case that’s tougher than it appears. Jean Libon and Yves Hinant lead a police investigation unlike anything you’ve ever seen. With every banal turn of events, camaraderie and professionalism go hand in hand as humour meets tragedy and a handful of fries, a Tupperware container and St. Rita heighten the suspense. Hilariously scathing, yet filled with tenderness.

Désirée Nosbusch - Den Träumen folgen

2025

Luxembourgish presenter, director, producer, and actress Désirée Nosbusch, born in 1965, is a woman of many talents. After starting out in radio at the age of 12, she landed her first role on the big screen four years later, then presented the Eurovision Song Contest in five languages at the age of just 19. Over the years, she has hosted popular TV shows and starred in more than 30 films and TV dramas, establishing herself as a major figure in European cinema.

Hannah Arendt: Eine Jüdin im Pariser Exil

2025

Hannah Arendt's views on Jewish identity, the Israel-Palestine conflict, and authoritarian-totalitarian systems seem more relevant than ever. Together with biographer Thomas Meyer, this documentary takes us back to the time of her exile in Paris. It was there, on the banks of the Seine, that she laid the foundations for her later works, which would bring her international renown.

The Wolf Suit

2021

How much can you trust your childhood memories? Director Sam Firth investigates, sweeping her parents into the experiment and on a journey into the past.

9 ans et 9 mois

2024

Nine years and nine months: that's how long it took Cécile Togni and her partner Benjamin to finally fulfill their dream of having a child. During all those years, she endured intense physical suffering, put up with medical abuse, fought against the ineffectiveness of misdiagnoses about her infertility, collapsed and got back up again and again in the face of repeated failures, without ever losing her determination.

La banlieue, c’est le paradis

2025

In the 1960s, the suburbs were meant to be modern havens for newcomers from rural France, Portugal, Spain, North Africa, and Africa, helping rebuild post-war France. Large housing complexes symbolized this ideal, offering comfort, heating, and electricity. But by the 1980s, disillusionment set in as economic crisis, unemployment, poverty, crime, racism, and police violence took hold. Mohamed Bouhafsi tells the story of a dream that didn’t last.

The Tuskegee Airmen: Return to Ramitelli

2023

Narrated by Country Music Superstar Darius Rucker. We return to Ramitelli airfield in Italy to chronicle the legacy of World War II's famed Tuskegee Airmen, African American pilots who helped break stereotypes and helped win World War II with their incredible fighter escorts of American bombers.

Merry F*cking Christmas: The Making of Tangerine

2022

A feature-length documentary going behind-the-scenes on the making of the 2015 film Tangerine.

The Click Trap

2024

Digital advertising algorithms curate content precisely for users. Major tech firms claim to restrict disinformation yet still profit from harmful content, raising ethical concerns about democracy and online capitalism.

Guide to a Midwest Hometown

2022

Coming back during Winter, Alex Powell explores both the places and personal connections found in his hometown and how they've changed. “Guide to a Midwest Hometown” explores what makes the barren places at home feel sentimental and special, and the good and bad feelings that come when being back home. Inspired by "How To With John Wilson".

Cartoneras

2018

Cartoneras is a documentary that grapples with Latin America’s urban realities, and the cardboard publishing movement that has emerged from these in the 21st century. Reflecting on the different contexts that propelled this form of community publishing, like Argentina’s 2001 economic crisis, the independent art scene, and the movements which formed around waste-pickers, the film’s narrative is developed through conversations with important actors from the cartonera world.