American Film Foundation

Directed and Written by Freida Lee Mock
Produced by Freida Lee Mock & Terry Sanders
98 Minutes

Oscar Winner

Maya Lin Vietnam Memorial The Academy Award®-winning documentary is about sculptor and architect Maya Lin who, at age 21, designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The ...

Since her screen debut in "Liza, Liza Skies Are Grey," Mikey Madison has been nominated for a 2025 Academy Award® for Best Actress in "Anora."

In the turbulent summer of 1966 — the summer of the Bomb, the Vietnam Draft and the exploding Sexual Revolution — fifteen year old Liza, and sixteen year...

To his critics he was a Bleeding Heart Liberal on the Notorious 9th Circuit Court of Appeals – a would be Social Engineer – an Activist who “ruled with his
heart instead of his head.”
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A judge for over 50 years, when he died, still on the bench at 94, it was said: “In the field of law and public...

GEORGE & BRAD IN BED profiles the relationship between actor George Takei (Star Trek's Captain Sulu) and his husband and lifelong partner Brad. The two recently married after being together for 21 years, interviewed in bed, the film is also an homage to John Lennon & Yoko Ono's "bed-in." The film...

G-DOG is about second chances - about a charismatic visionary who launched the largest, most successful gang intervention and rehab program in the US, now an international model, Homeboy Industries.

G-DOG tells the entertaining, hilarious and unlikely story of how a white Jesuit priest became an...

During the final bloody weeks of the Korean War, idealistic Private Loomis (Robert Redford) is sent to the front lines as a replacement in a battle weary platoon. But when he learns that a reclusive fellow soldier named Endore has been sneaking behind enemy lines to kill under the cover of darkne...

Sing China!, a sequel to the Oscar-nominated film Sing!, tells the moving often funny story of how children can be a force in diplomacy between China and the United States though the power of music at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Featuring the world -renowned Los Angeles Children's Chorus. Sing Ch...

Directed, Written and Produced
by Freida Lee Mock
98 Minutes

David Ansen (Newsweek) praises Kushner's "humor, ambition, vision and dazzling braininess" and David Courier (Sundance Festival) writes “one of our greatest living playwrights, Pulitzer and Tony Award winner Tony Kushner (Angels in Am...

"Lt. Watada" tells the story of the first commissioned military officer to refuse to deploy to Iraq and to speak publicly about his belief that the war is illegal and a violation of his oath. It is a David and Goliath story as Lt. Watada demonstrates his willingness to face court-martial and eigh...

AFTER INNOCENCE tells the dramatic and compelling story of the exonerated - innocent men wrongfully imprisoned for decades and then released after DNA evidence proved their innocence. The film focuses on the gripping story of seven men and their emotional journey back into society and efforts to ...

Bird by Bird with Annie
A Film by Freida Lee Mock
54 Minutes

A portrait of the best-selling author and laugh out-loud funny humorist Anne Lamott (Plan B, Bird by Bird, Traveling Mercies, Operating Instructions, Crooked Little Heart) and the inspiring story of a survivor — a recovering alcoholic ...

Sing!
A Film by Freida Lee Mock
Produced by Jessica Sanders
36 Minutes
How do squeaky-voiced 8 year olds become amazing singers? This documentary about the Los Angeles Children's Chorus tells the story of how a community group, amid severe cutbacks in the arts, is able to develop a children's cho...

From the Series "Hollywood and the Stars"

An entire country watched as a poised, beautiful African-American woman sat before a Senate committee of 14 white men and with a clear, unwavering voice recounted the repeated acts of sexual harassment she had endured while working with U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Anita Hill's gra...

"Subject Narcotics", a documentary for small town police officer education, was made by then UCLA students, Denis and Terry Sanders in 1952 with the cooperation of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Narcotics Detail.

Filmed in 1962, "The Story of a Fireman" is a portrait of life in the Los Angeles Fire Department and of Captain Alan Evanson as he and his men confront their first big structure fire.

To Be a Performer: Jeffrey Solow

To Be A Musician
A Series of 3 Films by Terry Sanders
25 Minutes per film

"To Be A Musician" is a series of 3 films made in 1970 for High School and Junior High Education. They are portraits of the artists 42 years ago as they were just starting out on their car...

A Film by Terry Sanders
Produced by Freida Lee Mock &
Terry Sanders
28 Minutes

Aaran Copland is considered by many to be America's premier composer. His musical works range from ballet and orchestra to choral music and movie scores. "Copland Portrait" is a rare intimate portrait of the man and h...

John Huston, who directed Monroe in her first major film and her last completed role, pays tribute to the life and career of the tragic actress.

A Film by Freida Lee Mock & Terry Sanders
Presented by Tom Hanks
102 Minutes

Return with Honor tells the gripping story of American fighter pilots shot down over North Vietnam and the challenges to survive with honor as POWs for up to eight and a half years.

The film includes astounding, never-...

“To Be A Conductor” is an intimate portrait of 26 year old Michael Tilson Thomas, known today as one of America’s premiere conductors, at the very beginning of his extraordinary musical career.

To Be A Musician
A Series of 3 Films by Terry Sanders
25 Minutes per film

"To Be A Musician" is a ser...

A Film by Terry Sanders
38 Minutes

Filmed in Los Angeles and Bombay, Portrait of Zubin Mehta is a brilliant experiment in pure cinema verité. Features Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition." Photographed by Erik Daarstad.

“Language of the Soul” is a very deep and personal portrait of California artist Miriam Wosk, a self-described “visual glutton,” whose unique vision, paintings and collages explore nature, sexuality and the human body and allow, as she says, “the unexpected to happen."

A Film by Terry Sanders
52 Minutes

This film explores the paths taken by four Japanese corporations - Sony, Benihana of Tokyo, Honda, and Sega - to enter the American market.

Listen to Akio Morita of Sony on how he first came to build the pocket radio after observing an American family at home....

A Film by Terry Sanders
52 Minutes

This film explores the efforts made by six American firms (Compaq Computer, McDonald's, Chrysler, Barney's of New York, L.L. Bean, and Amway Asia) to set up business in Japan.

Includes insights by Japan specialists such as T.R. Reid of the Washington Post, Bil...

Plastics - the manufacturing process, waste that plastics products produce and impact on the environment.

A Film by Terry Sanders
Narrated by Eva Marie Saint
55 Minutes

Called "the first lady of the silent screen," Lillian Gish was the archetypal silent film heroine — the delicate damsel in distress, stranded on a swift-moving ice floe, cowering before a sadistic brute. The film showcases generous f...

"To Be a Composer” is a penetrating portrait of the immensely talented Argentinian born composer Lalo Schifrin best known for his film and TV scores.

A Film by Terry Sanders
Narrated by Robert MacNeil
33 Minute Version

This award-winning documentary tells the unforgettable story of the deterioration and destruction of our world’s intellectual heritage and the global crisis in preserving library materials. Sponsored by the Council on Library a...

“The World According to Dora” is an intimate portrait of famed Mexican American Los Angeles ceramicist and sculptor Dora DeLarios which captures her fiery spirit and painstaking process as she creates a large mythological pan cultural ceramic mural.

A Film by Terry Sanders & Freida Lee Mock
30 Minutes

Paul Mazursky has established himself as one of the most important and perceptive filmmakers in America. Mazursky has an ability to elicit memorable, resonant characterizations from actors in both his writing and his directing.

Paul Mazursky ...

This Oscar-nominated documentary presents an indelible portrait of Nazi brutality told through the powerful drawings of German expressionist artist, George Grosz.

A Film by Altina Carey
Narrated by Lotte Lenya
Photographed by Terry Sanders
29 Minutes

A short documentary which captures the fierce and passionate eye and the prolific work of one of the great portrait artists of America. The film explores the complex and mysterious relationship between artist and subject in a richly detailed, intimate, and exciting journey through the creative pr...

This award-winning documentary tells the unforgettable story of the deterioration and destruction of our world’s intellectual heritage and the global crisis in preserving library materials. Sponsored by the Council on Library and Information Resources.

Millions of pages of paper in books, photog...

Oscar-winning dramatic short film based on the Robert W. Chambers story, "Pickets." It is about Civil War soldiers on two sides of a river who decide to call a cease-fire for a few hours -- creating a "time out of war."

"A Time Out of War" named to National Film Registry

A Time Out of War, the...

Written and Directed by Terry Sanders
Produced by Freida Lee Mock & Terry Sanders
40 Minutes

The extraordinary story of Vienna born musician and conductor Herbert Zipper who survived Dachau, Buchenwald, and a Japanese concentration camp to become one of the great music educators of the world, co...

A Film by Terry Sanders & Freida Lee Mock
30 Minutes

n creating a character, Robert Towne says, "You must ask what it is he or she is really afraid of. It's my best way of getting into a character." Towne thinks the writer has more control over his art than the director. "When I write," he says,...

A Film by Terry Sanders & Freida Lee Mock
30 Minutes

Because he is a writer and not a director or actor, many people outside the movie industry do not know the name William Goldman. But to those within the industry, he is "the most observant, knowledgeable and intuitive screenwriter in the busin...

Into the Future:
On the Preservation of Knowledge in the Electronic Age
A Film by Terry Sanders
Narrated by Robert MacNeil

30 Minute Version

Digital recordsInto the Future explores the hidden crisis of the digital information age. Will digitally stored information and knowledge survive into t...

Into the Future:
On the Preservation of Knowledge in the Electronic Age
A Film by Terry Sanders
Narrated by Robert MacNeil

58 Minute Version

Digital recordsInto the Future explores the hidden crisis of the digital information age. Will digitally stored information and knowledge survive into t...

A Film by Terry Sanders & Freida Lee Mock
30 Minutes

Eleanor Perry represents one of the most outspoken and articulate screenwriters of her time. Her work reflects a range of serious contemporary themes, but she is most noted for dealing with the issues of human disintegration and mental illness...

A Film by Terry Sanders & Freida Lee Mock
30 Minutes

Carl Foreman, known internationally as a filmmaker, is primarily a screenwriter. His screenplays concern the struggle of the individual against the often hostile pressures of the environment. In this film, Foreman speaks candidly about being b...

A Film by Terry Sanders & Freida Lee Mock
30 Minutes

Emmy Nominated

Humor at its best is only a twist away from tragedy, and it is along that boundary that Neil Simon, the most successful writer of comedy for stage and screen today, works. He believes that the best humor arises in careful obser...

A rare and illuminating portrait of famed writer Ray Bradbury during his early career. The short story "Dial Double Zero" is featured in the documentary as Bradbury creates it.

Directed and Written Terry Sanders
Produced by Freida Lee Mock
30 Minutes

Poignant, emotional and informative, To Live or Let Die explores the moral and ethical issues in the care of very ill newborns. It was the lead program for the PBS series "In Matters of Life and Death."

A Film by Terry Sanders
Produced by Freida Lee Mock & Terry Sanders
Narrated by Senator Edward Kennedy
18 Minutes

A moving portrait chronicling the life, the times, the joys and sorrows of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. The film honors her work in the field of mental retardation.

Fighting for Life is a powerful, sobering and emotional feature documentary portrait of American military medicine interweaving three stories: Military doctors, nurses and medics, working with skill, compassion and dedication amidst the vortex of the Iraq War. Wounded soldiers and marines reactin...