Discovery Channel Puts the Brakes on "Taxi"
Reel Progress Interviews Alex Gibney

Just as Alex Gibney was celebrating a Best Documentary Feature Oscar nomination for his award-winning documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side," the Discovery Channel management deemed it "too controversial" and dropped their plans to air the film. Reel Progress interviews Alex Gibney about their "political censorship."

The Top 25 Progressive Films
Vote for your Favorite

Reel Progress selected 25 films which serve as cultural barometers. Each of the films influenced public discourse and shed light on important progressive ideals. Read through our list, and then vote on your favorite.

Progress at the Oscars
Interactive Timeline

Over the course of its 79-year history, the Academy Awards has played an important role in promoting progressive thought and signaling social change. Our Oscar timeline charts the course of progressive ideals at the yearly awards show.

Reel Progress Oscar Update
Tune in This Sunday

Five of the 12 films screened by Reel Progress in 2007 were among the nominees for Best Documentary Feature, Best Lead Actor, and Best Animated Feature Film.

Black in America
CAP at Sundance

The Sundance Film Festival featured CAP's Melody Barnes, among others, on a panel to discuss the evolution of the black experience.

Update from Afghanistan
Zach Bazzi Checks In

Sergeant Zach Bazzi of the New Hampshire National Guard and the Reel Progress-screened documentary "The War Tapes" sends an update from his current Afghanistan deployment.

"The Year My Parents Went on Vacation"
Brazil's Cinema Nôvo Tradition

This year's "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" is another beautifully orchestrated look into the political complexities of Brazil under the dictatorship. Growing from the Cinema Nôvo movement of the 1960's, the film shows us the grim reality of life during that time.

Reel Progress films in the news

Paul Haggis and Don Cheadle, both Reel Progress favorites, will assist Starz in the channel's first original drama programming based on Haggis and Cheadle's controversial and Oscar Award-winning film, "Crash."

Marjane Satrapi, whose film "Persepolis" was nominated for an Academy Award, makes an appearance on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report.

Charles Ferguson, following up his Oscar-nominated film, "No End in Sight," releases the book No End in Sight: Iraq's Descent into Chaos. The book chronicles the events following the fall of Baghdad in 2003 in the words of high ranking officials, Iraqi civilians, American soldiers, and prominent analysts.

The fifth edition of "Wholphin," a DVD magazine of rare and unseen short films, is set to be released in Winter 2008. It will feature a short film starring Paul Rudd and Zooey Deschanel.

Reel Progress is the progressive film series sponsored by the Center for American Progress. To learn more go to our website at reelprogress.org