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.

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New Day Films
  • 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. ...

  • 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...

  • 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 ...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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 ...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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.

  • 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 ...

  • 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...

  • 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.

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...