Beyond Belief

Beyond Belief

Films that explore the role of faith in both communities and everyday life.

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Beyond Belief
  • Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism's Unholy War on Democracy

    Directed by Stephen Ujlaki, Christopher Jacob Jones • Documentary • With Peter Coyote • 2024 • 89 minutes

    BAD FAITH explores the dangerous rise of Christian Nationalism in the United States. Part archival chronicle, part exposé, the film reveals the secretive political machinery that has relentl...

  • Inquiring Nuns

    2 items

    Directed by Gordon Quinn, Gerald Temaner • Documentary • 1968

    In the politically fraught climate of Chicago in 1968, two young nuns crisscross the city in order to ask strangers the question, “Are you happy?” The answers vary: “Happiness is the absence of fear,” “Avoiding people,” “Raspberries,”...

  • Ziyara

    Directed by Simone Bitton • Documentary • 2021 • 99 minutes

    Celebrated documentary filmmaker Simone Bitton (Ben Barka, Wall, Rachel) returns with her most personal film to date. Inviting viewers on a cinematic pilgrimage to her homeland of Morocco, Bitton explores her Jewish roots through the sp...

  • The Reverend

    Directed by Nick Canfield • Documentary • With Vince Anderson, Questlove, Jaleel Bunton, Kyp Malone • 2022 • 86 minutes

    The Reverend is a raucous concert film as well as an intimate portrait of Reverend Vince Anderson's spiritual and musical journey. After coming to New York in the 90's to enter...

  • There Are Jews Here

    Directed by Brad Lichtenstein, Morgan Johnson • Documentary • 2016 • 89 minutes

    THERE ARE JEWS HERE takes you on a journey to places where most never imagined Jews existed, following the untold stories of four once thriving American Jewish communities that can now barely hold a minyan. Most Amer...

  • For the Bible Tells Me So

    Directed by Daniel Karslake • Documentary • With Eugene Robinson, Imogene Robinson, Brenda Poteat, Tonia Poteat, Randi Reitan, Jake Reitan, Richard Gephardt, Chrissy Gephardt, Mary Lou Wallner • 2007 • 96 minutes

    Does God really condemn loving homosexual relationships? Is the chasm separating Ch...

  • The Reformist - A Female Imam

    Directed by Marie Skovgaard • Documentary • 2019 • 88 minutes

    After her own divorce, Sherin openly begins granting islamic divorces to women unhappily married and performs inter-faith marriages of Muslim women and non-Muslim men. Having sacrificed her own marriage for the cause, Sherin wants to ...

  • Football Under Cover

    Directed by Ayat Najafi and David Assmann • Documentary • 2008 • 86 minutes

    The members of the Iranian women's international football (soccer) team possess a dedication to the sport rivaling that of any other group of players in the world. What they lack, however, is a team to play against. When...

  • An Act of Worship

    Directed by Nausheen Dadabhoy • Documentary • With George Shakkour • 2022 • 95 minutes

    Told through the lens of Muslims living in the United States, director Nausheen Dadabhoy offers a counter-narrative of pivotal moments in U.S. history and explores the impact of anti-Muslim rhetoric and policy...

  • The Book of the Dead

    Directed by Kihachiro Kawamoto • Animation • 2014 • 70 minutes

    Master animator Kihachiro Kawamoto's tour de force adventure tale of a young noble girl in 8th-century Japan who leaves her home to follow the apparition of an executed prince in this ravishing film of beauty and mysticism.

    As Buddh...

  • Deprogrammed

    Directed by Mia Donovan • Documentary • With Ted Patrick • 2015 • 88 minutes

    DEPROGRAMMED chronicles Ted ‘Black Lightning’ Patrick’s anti-cult crusade. His practice of ‘deprogramming’, also known as reverse brainwashing, started in the early 1970s and quickly snowballed into a vast underground m...

  • The Gospel of Revolution

    Directed by François-Xavier Drouet • Documentary • 2024 • 116 minutes

    The revolutionary fervor that swept through Latin America in the 20th century owes much to the participation of millions of Christians who engaged in political struggles in the name of their faith. Driven by liberation theolog...

  • Faith Love Desire

    3 items

    Intimate beliefs as told by practicing Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists from six countries.

    Eros: divine gift or diabolical power? Throughout the ages all religions have striven to regiment people’s sex lives and to steer them into orderly channels, to avoid excesses and reign in ...

  • The Lord Is Not On Trial Here Today

    Directed by Jay Rosenstein • Documentary • With Vashti McCollum • 2010 • 57 minutes

    "The Lord Is Not On Trial Here Today" is a Peabody Award-winning documentary that tells the compelling personal story of the late Vashti McCollum, and how her efforts to protect her ten year-old son led to one of...

  • No Dinosaurs In Heaven

    Directed by Greta Schiller • Documentary • With Dr. Eugene Scott • 2010 • 53 minutes

    No Dinosaurs in Heaven is a film essay that examines the hijacking of science education by religious fundamentalists, threatening the separation of church and state and dangerously undermining scientific literacy.

  • Final Vows

    Directed by Victoria Westover • Documentary • 2024 • 84 minutes

    Final Vows chronicles the life of a cloistered order of nuns at Santa Rita Abbey, a Cistercian monastery in the high desert of Arizona. The nuns, who take a vow that binds them to remain in the community they entered for life, candi...

  • The Campaign

    Directed by Christie Herring • Documentary • 2013 • 56 minutes

    What inspires everyday people to opt in for something larger than themselves? THE CAMPAIGN follows California's historic No-on-8 campaign to defend same-sex marriage through behind the scenes footage, interwoven with the national his...

  • A Witch Story

    Directed by Yolanda Pividal Garcia • Documentary • 2022 • 73 minutes

    Young writer Alice was a teenager when she discovered something that changed her life forever: she was a descendant of Martha Allen Carrier, a woman hanged for witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. At 24, after scou...

  • Citizen George

    Directed by Glenn Holsten • Documentary • 2024 • 99 minutes

    Citizen George presents the life and work of Philadelphia-based Quaker activist George Lakey, a non-violent revolutionary who has worked his entire life for justice and peace, guided by his ideal of societal transformation.

    Called "a ...

  • Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?

    Directed by Yong-Kyun Bae • Drama • With Yvonne Williams, Homer Nish, Tom Reynolds • 1989 • 137 minutes

    The first ever feature-length film from South Korea to gain theatrical distribution in the USA, WHY HAS BODHI-DHARMA LEFT FOR THE EAST? has received acclaim from critics and audiences around t...

  • American Santa

    Directed by Avi Zev Weider • Documentary • 2023 • 24 minutes

    Black Santas are local heroes, spreading joy and love to children and families at a bustling mall during the Christmas season. But even during this special time, the ugly shadow of bigotry falls on the season’s true spirit.

  • Markie in Milwaukee

    Directed by Matt Kliegman • Documentary • 2019 • 88 minutes

    A fundamentalist Baptist and one time licensed minister, Markie Wenzel made the decision at age 46 to come out as a transgender woman and start living as female. It was a decision that ended her 20-year marriage and estranged her from h...

  • Jesus Politics

    Documentary • 2008 • 90 minutes

    After fighting as an Israeli soldier in the 1973 war, and troubled by the nation's obsessive mixing of the Bible with politics, the filmmaker left for America, which he considered a "safe haven" because of its separation between church and state. Thirty-five years...