Lewis Franklin

Ballou , a documentary film, follows the talented Washington, DC, Ballou Senior High School Marching Band, as they overcome their negative environment filled with guns, drugs, and violence, and uplift the community with music, dedication, and personal sacrifice. This Washington, DC, High School Marching Band--from an impoverished community just 3 miles away from the US Capitol building--is on its way to the national band competition. They are a family with heart and soul that use hard work, discipline, and compassion to overcome all obstacles. Political leaders and celebrities including Rev. Jesse Jackson, Gen (ret) Colin Powell, Congressman John Lewis, Marion Barry, Denyce Graves, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty and Chuck Brown are featured in the film to show the importance of a small marching band in the lives the band members and in the community.

Antonio Camaradino, florist and street musician, befriends a man robbed of his overcoat and money in a disreputable bar. Tony recognizes the man as Jorny, mayor of Avalonia, a straitlaced town where Tony was once arrested for playing his hurdy-gurdy. After this meeting, Tony's travels take him again to Avalonia. Camped on the outskirts of town, he meets June Ramsey, a cousin of the mayor's wife, ejected from town by the mayor because his reelection campaign is jeopardized by her having been seen in a roadhouse. Under considerable pressure because he wishes to conceal his previous encounter with Tony from the opposition, Jorny returns Tony's favor by asking June's forgiveness and inviting her to return to Avalonia. June accepts his apologies; she then follows Tony, with whom she has fallen in love.

Tahirih Qurrat al-Ayn was first Iranian women right activist, Bab-i fighter ,theologian,poet. Tahirih was a woman of letters who lived in the nineteenth-century. Her name is synonymous with the emancipation of women and social justice and her life has inspired generations of women ever since, particularly Iranian women’s right movements.Since 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran forbids any literature or discourse that portrays Tahirih in a positive light. Her name has been removed from the latest editions of history books published in Iran.