New Day Films

New Day Films

Long before influencers and the “creator-economy” existed, four feminist filmmakers frustrated with mainstream distribution channels founded New Day Films. Operating as a filmmaker-run collective since 1971, New Day now has 140 filmmaker members and a collection of over 300 titles.

New Day’s catalogue includes many groundbreaking social issue films, winners of Academy Awards and other prestigious honors, and new films from an upcoming generation of independent filmmakers. New Day’s tradition of personal and collective empowerment—controlling their own distribution—is constantly evolving.

To wit, while historically focused on educational audiences, New Day has not been blind to the changes in the media landscape over the past 50+ years. And so, wanting to see its films reach as wide an audience as possible, we are proud that New Day is partnering with OVID to bring its films to individual “at-home” viewers on OVID.

New Day will be a dedicated destination and collection on the OVID platform, and many of its filmmakers will be highlighted as well. A large project encompassing hundreds of films from many filmmakers, it will be rolled out on OVID over the upcoming months.

Share
New Day Films
  • Silvio Rodriguez: My First Calling

    Directed by Catherine Murphy • Documentary • With Silvio Rodriquez • 2022 • 25 minutes

    My First Calling explores the little-known story of global music giant Silvio Rodriguez, who intimately recounts coming of age on the youth brigades of the 1961 Cuban Literacy Campaign, where at only 14-years ...

  • 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...

  • Rabble Rousers: Frances Goldin and the Fight for Cooper Square

    Directed by Kelly Anderson, Kathryn Barnier, Ryan Joseph • Documentary • With Frances Goldin, Tito Delgado • 2022 • 82 minutes

    In 1959 New York City announced a “slum clearance plan” by Robert Moses that would displace 2,400 working class and immigrant families, and dozens of businesses, from th...

  • It Happens to Us

    Directed by Amalie R. Rothschild • Documentary • 1971 • 32 minutes

    Made in 1971 when a medically safe legal abortion was available in only one state, "It Happens to Us" was produced to bring to public attention the sometimes shattering, and always difficult, personal situations underlying a woma...

  • The Lost Bird Project

    Directed by Deborah Dickson • Documentary • With Todd McGrain, Andrew Stern • 2012 • 56 minutes

    Gone and nearly forgotten in extinction, the Labrador Duck, the Great Auk, the Heath Hen, the Carolina Parakeet, and the Passenger Pigeon leave holes not just in the North American landscape but in ou...

  • Safe Haven

    Directed by Lisa Molomot • Documentary • With Robin Long, Joseph Bovard, Leah Main • 2020 • 80 minutes

    Safe Haven weaves together powerful stories of U.S. war resisters who sought safe haven in Canada during wars in Vietnam and Iraq. The film shows how Vietnam era resisters participated in a mov...

  • Deaf Jam

    Directed by judy lieff • Documentary • With Aneta Besecker, Tahani Salah • 2012 • 70 minutes

    Deaf Jam is the story of deaf teen Aneta's bold journey into the spoken word slam scene. In a wondrous twist, Aneta, an Israeli immigrant living in the Queens section of New York City, eventually meets T...

  • Benevolence, A Journey From Prison to Home

    Directed by Joanne Hershfield • Documentary • 2018 • 62 minutes

    Benevolence, a Journey from Prison to Home follows the journey of five women as they are released from prison and move onto Benevolence Farm in Alamance County, NC. Benevolence Farm is a working farm that serves as a transitional ho...

  • Young Aspirations/ Young Artists

    Directed by Shirley Thompson • Documentary • 1993 • 56 minutes

    One of the most successful arts programs for teenagers in the country thrives in a downtown neighborhood. Young Aspirations/Young Artists (Ya/Ya, Inc.) continues to offer life-changing opportunities and lessons in entrepreneurship to...

  • Sometimes I Wonder Who I Am

    Directed by Liane Brandon • Documentary • 1970 • 5 minutes

    Filmed in 1969, this poignant portrait of a young mother was one of the first independent films of the fledgling Women’s Movement. For women brought up in the soap commercial optimism of the time, it articulated the reality that many you...

  • Connection | Isolation

    Directed by G. Chesler • Documentary • 2024 • 85 minutes

    In an airborne pandemic when separation, isolation, and self-sufficiency became the punishing norm, many trans people faced the COVID-19 era differently. Connection | Isolation presents eight portraits of trans and post-gender people who c...

  • The World in Claire's Classroom

    Directed by Lisa Merton and Alan Dater • Documentary • With Claire Ogelsby • 2001 • 89 minutes

    THE WORLD IN CLAIRE'S CLASSROOM documents a veteran public school teacher's extraordinary vision of teaching children how to appreciate diversity, how to respect themselves and others, and how to work ...

  • How To Power A City

    Directed by Melanie La Rosa • Documentary • With Costa Constantinides, Juan Shannon, Thomas Meyer • 2024 • 73 minutes

    "How To Power A City" is a singular film as the first clean energy documentary that puts communities at the center. It showcases local solutions in the US and Puerto Rico, while ...

  • Chris and Bernie

    Directed by Bonnie Friedman, Deborah Shaffer • Documentary • With Chris Fallow, Bernie Billingsley • 1974 • 24 minutes

    Chris and Bernie explores what happens when the "all American girl" grows up and takes responsiblity for herself and her child.The two single mothers share family life rotating ...

  • 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...

  • Woo Who? May Wilson

    Directed by Amalie R. Rothschild • Documentary • With May Wilson, Meredith Monk • 1969 • 34 minutes

    When her husband informs her, after 40 years of marriage, that his future plans no longer include her, May Wilson, age 60, former "wife-mother-housekeeper-cook" and a grandmother, moves to New Yor...

  • Tales of the Waria

    Directed by Kathy Huang • Documentary • 2011 • 57 minutes

    Indonesia is home to the world’s largest Muslim population. It is also home to a transgender community known as warias, biological men who live openly as women. TALES OF THE WARIA follows four characters from this little-known community a...

  • Circle Up

    Directed by Julie Mallozzi • Documentary • 2017 • 69 minutes

    After the brutal slaying of her teenage son, Janet Connors reaches out to her son’s killer to offer a chance for forgiveness. They team up with a group of mothers of murdered children to help young people in their community break the c...

  • Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai

    Directed by Lisa Merton Alan Dater • Documentary • 2008 • 80 minutes

    TAKING ROOT tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democra...

  • Finding Kukan

    Directed by Robin Lung • Documentary • 2017 • 75 minutes

    Kukan, a landmark color film that documented Chinese resistance to the Japanese invasion of China in the early days of World War II, was the first ever American feature documentary to receive an Academy Award® in 1942. When Robin Lung disc...

  • My Brooklyn

    Directed by Kelly Anderson • Documentary • With Jamel Shabazz, Craig Steven Wilder, Kelly Anderson • 2012 • 76 minutes

    My Brooklyn follows director Kelly Anderson's journey, as a Brooklyn gentrifier, to understand the forces reshaping her neighborhood. The film documents the redevelopment of Ful...

  • Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy

    Directed by Alice Elliott • Documentary • 2008 • 40 minutes

    Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy, a PBS award winning film, looks at an unusual, symbiotic relationship between two people some would call profoundly disabled. In the film, two of the country’s most remarkable advocates for people with disabi...

  • Trust Me

    Directed by Roko Belic • Documentary • With Steven Pinker • 2020 • 90 minutes

    Trust Me explores why humankind is attracted to stories about violence, how media outlets capitalize on that, and how we gather and share information and misinformation in the digital age. The film identifies confirmat...

  • Wo Ai Ni Mommy (I Love You, Mommy)

    Directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal • Documentary • 2010 • 76 minutes

    In 2007 Donna and Jeff Sadowsky of Long Island, New York submitted their dossier to adopt eight-year old Fang Sui Yong from Guangzhou, China. From the very first moment Sui Yong meets her new mother, Donna, we get a real sense of...