John Knoop

Pham Thanh, a naturalized American citizen currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area, was only 12 in 1968 when American troops stormed his Vietnamese village to attack the Viet Cong. A U.S. grenade killed Thanh's family and tore his throat apart, but the same troops that killed his family also rescued Thanh. Full of rage and bitterness, he was sent to San Francisco for specialized surgery, and eventually he found a new home in the land he had considered his enemy.

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A psychedelic close-up in delicious color of a pair of headless bodies at play.

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A film about blood money during Cambodia week.

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A heroic journey of transformation and healing, Phoenix Dance challenges our expectations of what it means to be "disabled." In March, 2001, renowned dancer Homer Avila discovered that the pain in his hip was cancer. A month later, his right leg and most of his hip were amputated. Through interviews, studio rehearsals, and performances, Phoenix Dance follows the evolution of Pas, a pas de deux created for Avila by choreographer Alonzo King.

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The Job is a close look at racism based on the actual conflicts in Texas in the early 1970s. An Elvis impersonator and a "good ole boy" set out on a job for the boss, the nature of which becomes chillingly clear.

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Various Hollywood people talk about love.

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In an age when genius is a mere commodity, it is useful to look at a person who led a rich life without the traditional trappings of success. A man with no home and no job, Paul Erdös was the most prolific mathematician who ever lived. Born in Hungary in 1913, Erdös wrote and co-authored over 1,500 papers and pioneered several fields in theoretical mathematics. At the age of 83 he still spent most of his time on the road, going from math meeting to math meeting, continually working on problems. He died on September 20, 1996 while attending such a meeting in Warsaw, Poland.

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It is El Salvador, 1989, three years before the end of a brutal civil war that took 75,000 lives. Maria Serrano, wife, mother, and guerrilla leader is on the front lines of the battle for her people and her country. With unprecedented access to FMLN guerrilla camps, the filmmakers dramatically chronicle Maria's daily life in the war.

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