James Rutenbeck

In a hard-pressed former mill town, an Irish-American Catholic parish must come to terms with the Latino city that surrounds it.

Portrait of an Iowa family facing the loss of a family farm during the Farm Crisis of the 1980s. The Farm Crisis was a difficult period when falling commodity prices, rising debt, and widespread foreclosures threatened the survival of many family farms across the Midwest.

The former coal town of Widen, West Virginia. Once a model of paternalistic domination, Widen had been sold to the Pittston Corporation in 1963. Ricky Leacock said of the film, "I find Company Town to be a beautiful film that I can enjoy over and over. It manages to avoid the obvious cliches but causes one to wonder 'why do they stay?' and at the same time to understand that this place, these activities, these people, with all their limitations, are unique and wonderful."

Kafi Dixon dreams of starting a land cooperative for women of color who have experienced trauma and disenfranchisement in the city of Boston. By day she drives a city bus; at night she studies the humanities in a tuition-free course. Her classmate Carl Chandler, a community elder, is the class’s intellectual leader. White suburban filmmaker James Rutenbeck documents the students’ engagement with the humanities. He looks for transformations but is awakened to the violence, racism and gentrification that threaten Kafi and Carl's very place in the city. Troubled by his failure to bring the film together, he enlists the pair as collaborators with a share in the film revenues. Five years on, despite many obstacles, Kafi and Carl arrive at surprising new places in their lives—and James does too.

"Nixon's Reversal: An Attempt to End Poverty" is the bizarre story of Richard Nixon's brief flirtation with guaranteed income

In a hard-pressed former mill town, an Irish-American Catholic parish must come to terms with the Latino city that surrounds it.

Portrait of an Iowa family facing the loss of a family farm during the Farm Crisis of the 1980s. The Farm Crisis was a difficult period when falling commodity prices, rising debt, and widespread foreclosures threatened the survival of many family farms across the Midwest.

The former coal town of Widen, West Virginia. Once a model of paternalistic domination, Widen had been sold to the Pittston Corporation in 1963. Ricky Leacock said of the film, "I find Company Town to be a beautiful film that I can enjoy over and over. It manages to avoid the obvious cliches but causes one to wonder 'why do they stay?' and at the same time to understand that this place, these activities, these people, with all their limitations, are unique and wonderful."

Kafi Dixon dreams of starting a land cooperative for women of color who have experienced trauma and disenfranchisement in the city of Boston. By day she drives a city bus; at night she studies the humanities in a tuition-free course. Her classmate Carl Chandler, a community elder, is the class’s intellectual leader. White suburban filmmaker James Rutenbeck documents the students’ engagement with the humanities. He looks for transformations but is awakened to the violence, racism and gentrification that threaten Kafi and Carl's very place in the city. Troubled by his failure to bring the film together, he enlists the pair as collaborators with a share in the film revenues. Five years on, despite many obstacles, Kafi and Carl arrive at surprising new places in their lives—and James does too.

"Nixon's Reversal: An Attempt to End Poverty" is the bizarre story of Richard Nixon's brief flirtation with guaranteed income