Siskel/Jacobs Productions

The morning of September 11, 2001 is shown through multiple video cameras in and around New York City, from the moment the first WTC tower is hit until after both towers collapse.

By turns hopeful and heartbreaking, Louder Than a Bomb follows the fortunes of four Chicago-area high school poetry teams as they prepare for and compete in the world’s largest youth slam.

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck 75 miles off the eastern coast of Japan. Almost immediately, tsunami warnings blared, urging residents along Japan's coast to quickly move to higher ground. For the next several hours, residents watched in stunned horror as a series of massive waves slammed into the coast, inundating entire towns and sweeping across the countryside, laying waste to everything in its path. Throughout, amateur videographers, news crews, government agencies, tourists, and countless others were recording the sights and sounds of the unfolding catastrophe. Weaving together their footage, Witness: Japan's Disaster reconstructs the earthquake and tsunami as they happened, entirely through the eyes of those who experienced them.

From the award-winning team behind the Chicago International Film Festival hit poetry slam documentary Louder than a Bomb comes this inspiring and emotional film following Jesse Teverbaugh, a charismatic leader at the job-training program Cara. With tough-love and dedication, Teverbaugh mentors four Chicagoans during their precarious journey from homelessness, addiction, and incarceration to stable employment. The Road Up powerfully chronicles not only America’s unforgiving economic and social structures, but also the essential role that community, connection, hope, and love play in overcoming adversity.