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.
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Gaucho del Norte
Directed by Sofian Khan, Andres Caballero • Documentary • 2015 • 57 minutes
Far from his family in Chile, sheepherder Eraldo Pacheco must endure harsh conditions and loneliness in the high desert and isolated mountain pastures of the American west as he strives for a better life for his family. ...
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Undeterred
Directed by Eva Lewis • Documentary • 2019 • 76 minutes
Undeterred is a documentary about community resistance in the rural border town of Arivaca, Arizona. Since NAFTA, 9/11 and the Obama and Trump administrations border residents have been on the front-lines of the humanitarian crisis caused b...
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The Peace Patriots
Directed by Robbie Leppzer • Documentary • With Janeane Garofalo • 2005 • 78 minutes
When the United States invaded Iraq twenty years ago in 2003, there was a huge protest against this war across the country and around the world, which was largely ignored by the American mainstream media. In an ...
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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...
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The Last to Know
Directed by Bonnie Friedman • Documentary • 1981 • 45 minutes
Acclaimed at the New York Film Festival, THE LAST TO KNOW presents the real worlds of four addicted women, three in recovery, and one still drinking and using drugs. In their own words and in their own environments, these four very di...
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The Flashettes
Directed by Bonnie Friedman • Documentary • 1977 • 20 minutes
Focusing on their hopes and aspirations, this upbeat film movingly shows how the rigorous training helps to produce more than just muscle, but a positive self-identity and pride. Andre, a young man, returns to his community after coll...
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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 ...
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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...
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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...
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North Putnam
Directed by Joel Fendelman • Documentary • 2024 • 90 minutes
Crafted with empathy, a hyper-real reporting lens and skillfully lush cinematography, North Putnam depicts a year in the life of a rural Indiana school district and the community it serves. Multiple storylines intersect, culminating in...
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Band of Sisters
Directed by Joel Fendelman • Documentary • 2004 • 7 minutes
On April 25th, 2004, 1.15 million women marched to the nation’s capital in Washington D.C. to protect and advance abortion rights. Band of Sisters is a retro feeling snapshot of the march filmed in multiple 16mm film stocks using a 1960...
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Auction
Directed by Joel Fendelman • Documentary • 2015 • 8 minutes
The town of Gonzalez, Texas is not what it used to be, Main street is desolate, the population is shrinking, but the culture and history live on through story and communal gathering at this once a week tradition that has been alive sinc...
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Duties of My Heart
Directed by judy lieff • Documentary • With Terrylene Sacchetti • 1997 • 10 minutes
Duties of My Heart is a poetic fusion of American Sign Language, contemporary dance, and spoken word that explores the emotional depth of communication across silence and sound. Drawing inspiration from the exper...
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Stop Time
Directed by Kate Way • Documentary • 2022 • 50 minutes
Stop Time tells the story of Lucio Pérez—a father, husband and worker who took sanctuary in a Massachusetts church for over three years in defiance of a deportation order. Lucio’s moving narrative provides a window into the forces that broug...
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Vida Diferida (Life, Deferred)
Directed by Brenda Ávila-Hanna • Documentary • 2017 • 23 minutes
After the announcement of the policy known as "Deferred Action", Vanessa, an undocumented teenager, contemplates the possibility of a future she was ready to give up on. How will this life-changing opportunity impact her life and t...
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Las Abogadas: Attorneys on the Front Lines of the Migrant Crisis
Directed by Victoria Bruce • Documentary • 2022 • 92 minutes
The first Trump administration tried to shut down immigration to the United States, and even with no changes to the actual law, they nearly succeeded. Things didn't get much better when Biden came into office. But activist lawyers, mos...
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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...
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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.
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CodeSwitching: Race & Identity in the Suburban Schoolhouse
Directed by Mike Mascoll • Documentary • 2020 • 54 minutes
An educated citizenry is said to be the backbone of democracy and a crucial bulwark in an increasingly interconnected and hyper-competitive world. Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act helped weave equal education for all ...
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Higher Power
Directed by Dewey Ortiz Jr. • Documentary • 2023 • 73 minutes
Recreational cannabis use is legal in Washington, D.C. Recreational cannabis sales are not. Higher Power uses the stories of Black Washingtonians navigating this gray space while fighting to enter the legal cannabis industry to reveal...
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Sin País (Without Country)
Directed by Theo Rigby • Documentary • 2011 • 20 minutes
Sin País (Without Country) attempts to get beyond the partisan politics and mainstream media’s ‘talking point’ approach to immigration issues by exploring one family’s complex and emotional journey involving deportation.
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An Act of Conscience
Directed by Robbie Leppzer • Documentary • With Martin Sheen, Randy Kehler, Pete Seeger • 1997 • 90 minutes
How far are you willing to go to stand up for your deepest beliefs? For Randy Kehler and Betsy Corner of Colrain, Massachusetts, their life-long commitment to pacifism led them to risk los...
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Leona's Sister Gerri
Directed by Jane Gillooly • Documentary • With Leona Gordon, Gerri Santoro, Joyce Carboni • 1995 • 57 minutes
For Geraldine Santoro and so many women like her, the barriers to obtaining a safe, legal abortion were insurmountable and in 1964 the legal and the social system did not protect her. Th...
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Time Passages
Directed by Kyle Henry • Documentary • With Kyle Henry, Elaine Henry, Richard Henry • 2024 • 86 minutes
In the final months of his mother Elaine’s late-stage dementia, as a pandemic rages across the globe, filmmaker Kyle Henry time travels via his family archive and his own memories to heal past...