Marc Levin – MRQE

Back in the Hood: Gang War 2 (TV)

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Marc Levin returns to Little Rock, Arkansas to examine how things have changed in the small town’s gang banging scene.

Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags (TV)

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Through most of the 20th Century, the American clothing industry was based in New York City, and in many respects the business reflected the growth and evolution of the nation. As immigrants from Europe made their way into New York via Ellis Island, a large number of them found work in the city’s many garment shops, while many religious and ethnic minorities who were not welcome in other trades were able to support themselves and their families making clothing. The 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, in which seamstresses locked inside a garment plant met a horrible death, created a scandal that led to union representation for most garment workers. At one point, over 90 percent of all clothing purchased in America was made in New York, and the Garment Workers Union was powerful enough to negotiate living wages for employees as their endorsement could sway major elections. However, as unionism was demonized in the 1980s and many large firms found cheaper labor oversees (where safe working conditions and fair pay were considered unnecessary luxuries), the American garment industry began to shrink dramatically, and by the end of the century a mere five percent of clothing sold in the United States was produced domestically. Filmmaker Marc Levin examines the rise and fall of what once was one of the nation’s most powerful industries in the documentary Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags. Produced for the HBO premium cable network, the film was an official selection at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival.

Gladiator Days: Anatomy of a Prison Murder (TV)

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Across the United States, violent crime in prison is an everyday reality, with inmates routinely exposed to assault, riot, rape and murder. Anatomy of a Prison Murder examines the culture of institutional violence through the events that led to one burtal prison murder. Utah State Prison surveillance cameras capture this disturbing real-life account of the vicious stabbing of black inmate Lonnie Blackmon by convicted murderer, white supremacist Troy Kell and his accomplice Eric Daniels.

Slam

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Slam tells the story of Ray Joshua, an original, gifted young MC trapped in a war-zone housing project known as Dodge City. Unable to find a job, Ray copes with the despair and poverty of his neighborhood by using his wits and verbal talent. Written by Offline Publicist Young Ray Joshua lives in the Washington, DC, district known as Dodge City, which is dominated by gang wars. One day he is arrested when his drug dealer is gunned down while talking to him. He is put to prison where two rival gangs, Thug Life and the Union, want to recruit him as a member. A new digital restoration from a 35mm interpositive made in collaboration between Sundance Institute, the Academy Film Archive, and the UCLA Film & Television Archive premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

Blowback

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

A square U.S. agent (Bruce McCarty) meets recovering drug addicts (Jane Hamper, Eddie Figueroa) while on a covert mission headed for disaster.

Stockton on My Mind

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

The story of Mayor Michael Tubbs through his first term in office as he tirelessly advances his innovative proposals for a city at a turning point.

Class Divide

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

A look at NYCs gentrification and growing inequality in a microcosm, Class Divide explores two distinct worlds that share the same Chelsea intersection 10th Avenue and 26th Street. On one side of the avenue, the Chelsea-Elliot Houses have provided low-income public housing to residents for decades. Their neighbor across the avenue since 2012 is Avenues: The World School, a costly private school. What happens when kids from both of these worlds attempt to cross the divide?

Freeway: Crack in the System

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM tells the story of broken dreams, drug dealers, dirty cops, and government complicitymore compelling than fiction, its the real story behind Americas longest war. This documentary by award-winning filmmaker Marc Levin (SLAM, Mr. Untouchable, Brick City) exposes how the infiltration of crack cocaine destroyed inner-city neighborhoods across the country. At the center of it all is the rise, fall and redemption of Freeway Rick Ross, a street hustler who became the King of Crack, and journalist Gary Webb, who broke the story of the CIAs complicity in the drug war. Featuring exclusive interviews with Freeway Rick Ross, not to be confused with the rapper who took his name Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Gary Webb, his source Coral Baca, and wife Susan Webb former Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff Roberto Juarez drug trafficker Julio Zavala and many more.

Mr. Untouchable

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

The true-life story of a Harlem’s notorious Nicky Barnes, a junkie turned multimillionaire drug-lord. Follow his life story from his rough childhood to the last days of his life.

Protocols of Zion

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

A documentary about the rise of anti-Semitism in the USA after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.