Rails to the Catskills

An in-depth look at the rapid rise and dramatic fall of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.

Down the road from Woodstock in the early 1970s, a revolution blossomed in a ramshackle summer camp for disabled teenagers, transforming their young lives and igniting a landmark movement.

Inspired by an unconventional teacher, a group of teenagers in upstate New York in the early 1990s make a student film and uncover a vast conspiracy that is poisoning their community. Thirty years later, they revisit their film and confront the legacy of this transformative experience.

A historical documentary documenting the rise, function, and abandonment of a 17 story building that once housed The Rochester Psychiatric Center. This film tells the story of the building through historical footage, interviews of former staff and patients who recount their memories of the behemoth facility while also exploring the abandoned building as it is today.

'Local Heroes' combines exhaustive research, rare archival film footage, fascinating still photography and revealing original interviews to bring viewers a fill range of the area's diamond history, from its mythical beginnings with Ballston Spa native Abner Doubleday to Heritage Park in Colonie - and everything in between.

The 73 minute film, MOUNTAIN RIVER, follows the Esopus Creek, from its headwaters on Slide Mountain in New York’s Catskill Mountains, to the Ashokan Reservoir, and on to the Hudson River at Saugerties - a fascinating journey of 65 miles. The story begins with the ancient geologic forces that formed the Catskills and goes on to explore the Native American and colonial settlements along the Esopus. The documentary covers the history of New York City’s Ashokan Reservoir, the development of water-power on the stream, and the innovative beginnings of the American Industrial Revolution along the Esopus in Saugerties. The film celebrates the Upper Esopus as a world class trout fishery, a recreational resource and a critical source of clean, unfiltered water for millions of New Yorkers. Below the Ashokan Reservoir, the Lower Esopus flows through steep gorges, rich agricultural lands and several towns on its way to the Hudson River.

The 45-minute documentary celebrates the history of the Catskill Water System with rare archival film footage and historic photographs. Deep Water tells the story of the building of the Ashokan Reservoir, Shandaken Tunnel, Schoharie Reservoir, and the Catskill Aqueduct. Narrated by Robb Webb (the voice of "60 Minutes II"), Deep Water documents how several Catskill Mountain towns were destroyed and flooded, how immigrant workers built the dams and tunnels, and how brilliant engineering and political maneuvering allowed the system to be built.

The Land of Little Rivers, a network of tributaries in the Catskill Mountains of New York, is the birthplace of fly fishing in America and home to anglers obsessed by the sport.

At its peak, one million New York Jews spent their summers in the Borscht Belt, the birthplace of Jewish-American iconoclastic humor. This film shows how these Catskills communities were run by women, and how class divisions were reflected in the resort hotels: upwardly-mobile hotel guests were entertained by a who's-who of talent, while in the bungalows, do-it-yourself burlesque and vaudeville reigned among the blue-collar families. This film is happy, humane, ironic, and, finally, bittersweet, as we see that today's Jews no longer share the tastes or aspirations of their parents.

This documentary explores the aftermath of a 2015 mass shooting that took place during an anti-violence community basketball tournament at the Boys and Girls Club in Rochester, New York. Members of the Community along with family members of the victims join together to speak out against the needless violence that took the lives of multiple children and young adults and injured many others.

The Erie Canal was an engineering marvel in its time and remains so today. This documentary travels from Palmyra to the Genesee River, stopping along the way to visit the people and places that make the canal so special. Canal historian Thomas Grasso offers insight into the canal’s past while the Golden Eagle String Band provides the music track.

Highlighting the canal’s quiet beauty and fascinating people, Part 2 travels from the Genesee Waterways to Spencerport, Brockport, Holley, and Lockport– taking to the trails and the water, on everything from the historic Sam Patch tour boat to Luxury cabin cruisers. Dr. William Hullfish, a SUNY Brockport associate professor, musician and the expert in Erie Canal Songs.

"City of Joel" is documentary - with unprecedented access - to a 1.1 square mile shtetl in the suburbs that is home to 22,000 members of an one of the most insular and orthodox Hasidic sects. We follow the battles they are waging to survive. Just 50 miles north of New York City, the Satmar sect has built Kiryas Joel as a religious haven where they can be fruitful, multiply and follow the 613 rules of the Talmud. But with some of the highest rates of marriage, birth and religious observance in the country, they have been almost too successful. Developers have come up with a plan to double the size of the village to keep up with this growth, but their neighbors fight back because they believe it will harm the environment and tilt the balance of political power.

Called a maverick, a miracle-worker, and a quack, Dr. Marty Goldstein is a pioneer of integrative veterinary medicine. By holistically treating animals after other vets have given up, Goldstein provides a last hope for pet owners with nothing left to lose.

Docudrama about the debate surrounding New York State's ratification of the United States Constitution. Historical figures wear modern dress and use familiar language to help today's audience understand firsthand the forces that shaped this country two hundred years ago. The argument, characters, passions and debating points are historically accurate, but the language and the medium of the debate is modern in form. Present day newscasters and commentators play themselves, reporting on the events of the 1780s as though they were occurring now.