Mandy Patinkin hosts this documentary tribute to the Isle of Hope which welcomed millions of America's immigrants for half a century. For most, Ellis Island was once America's Golden Door. Interviews from the Ellis Island Oral History Project recount the trials, joys, and sadness of immigration experiences, including the possible rejection on entry, while historians explore the island's history, symbolism, and sometimes insensitive policies.
Mandy Patinkin hosts this documentary tribute to the Isle of Hope which welcomed millions of America's immigrants for half a century. For most, Ellis Island was once America's Golden Door. Interviews from the Ellis Island Oral History Project recount the trials, joys, and sadness of immigration experiences, including the possible rejection on entry, while historians explore the island's history, symbolism, and sometimes insensitive policies.
The true story of immigration attorney Judy Wood and how she singlehandedly changed the U.S. law of asylum to save women's lives.
Italian immigrant Francesca Cabrini arrives in 1889 New York City and is greeted by disease, crime, and impoverished children. Cabrini sets off on a daring mission to convince the hostile mayor to secure housing and healthcare for society's most vulnerable. With broken English and poor health, Cabrini uses her entrepreneurial mind to build an empire of hope unlike anything the world had ever seen.
Ellesmere Island, northern Canada, 1908. Josephine, a brave but naive woman, embarks on a dangerous journey through inhospitable regions in search of her husband, the explorer Robert Peary, who tries to find a route to the North Pole.
Middle-aged Gerald Kingsland advertises in a London paper for a female companion to spend a year with him on a desert island. Young Lucy Irving takes a chance on contacting him, but once on the island, things prove a lot less idyllic than in the movies. Gradually, it becomes clear that it is Lucy who has the desire and the strength to try and see the year through.
After their boat capsizes in the Mediterranean Sea, a group of refugees are rescued by rich Europeans who offer them shelter on an idyllic island. But the miracle soon becomes a nightmare when the saviors turn into ruthless manhunters.
Urban horticulturalist Brontë Mitchell has her eye on a gorgeous apartment, but the building's board will rent it only to a married couple. Georges Fauré, a waiter from France whose visa is expiring, needs to marry an American woman to stay in the country. Their marriage of convenience turns into a burden when they must live together to allay the suspicions of the immigration service, as the polar opposites grate on each other's nerves.
Filmmaker Christopher Quinn observes the ordeal of three Sudanese refugees -- Jon Bul Dau, Daniel Abul Pach and Panther Bior -- as they try to come to terms with the horrors they experienced in their homeland, while adjusting to their new lives in the United States.
In 1950s Ireland and New York, young Eilis Lacey has to choose between two men and two countries.
Nine filmmakers each profile a young girl from a different part of the world to weave a global tapestry of youth in the 21st century.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg now 84, and still inspired by the lawyers who defended free speech during the Red Scare, Ginsburg refuses to relinquish her passionate duty, steadily fighting for equal rights for all citizens under the law. Through intimate interviews and unprecedented access to Ginsburg’s life outside the court, RBG tells the electric story of Ginsburg’s consuming love affairs with both the Constitution and her beloved husband Marty—and of a life’s work that led her to become an icon of justice in the highest court in the land.