Hard Earned, a six-part documentary series for Al Jazeera America, puts aside economic debates and follows five families around the country to find out what it takes to get by on eight, ten or even 15 dollars an hour. The series turns an intimate lens on this group of 21st century American dreamers. They fight against all odds to thrive, when it takes everything they have to simply survive.

Hard Earned Trailer:

Official Hard Earned Websites:
HardEarnedSeries.com
Aljazeera America
Hard Earned at Kartemquin

Recent Media Coverage:
PBS POV Blog: ‘Hard Earned’ Shows the Challenges of Making a Living and a Life
New York Times: ‘Hard Earned’ Documents the Plight of the Working Poor

Watch Full Film on Vimeo On Demand →

This film takes you down the shore with an all-women crew to Wildwood, NJ, the last great American blue-collar seaside carnival town. Wildwood, NJ moves beyond gum-cracking, big hair, and press-on nails to look into the souls of women raised on the boardwalks rides, lights and come-ons.

Grandmothers and go-go girls; girls who work as vampires in boardwalk haunted houses. Tween girls stretching out on their first trip without their parents: young, rangy a little drunk on Bud, dukes up, nose open, with a couppla’ bucks to burn.

A Wildwood honeymoon, virginity lost to a boardwalk stranger, fistfights, madness, babies—and no matter what—returning to Wildwood year after year as they grow up and grow old.

This film was shot in 1994 on Super-8 film and synched frame by frame in the early days of non-linear editing.

• Color
• Super-8 Film
• Aspect Ratio 4:3
• Stereo
• Not Rated
• Original Release 1994; DVD 2009
• Running time: 60:00

Watch Full Film on Vimeo On Demand →

This film follows a Polish American family through the red tape of the current U.S. immigration system, telling the untold human rights story of post-9/11, that every undocumented immigrant in America faces today.

Visit the official Tony and Janina website to order the film on DVD.

Watch Full Film on Vimeo On Demand →

Buy Lipstick & Dynamite on DVD:

Here’s what the critics say about LIPSTICK & DYNAMITE:

“Exhilarating…riotous…endlessly entertaining.”
-Ken Tucker- NEW YORK MAGAZINE

“Smart … terrific … spirited tough old broads as they look back on their years in the ring when they pulverized the Donna Reed stereotype…”
-David Rooney- VARIETY

“Utterly enthralling… the first film ever to appeal to feminist study groups and Hulk Hogan fans alike.”
– BLENDER MAGAZINE

“These are Golden Girls gone wild!”
-NEW YORK OBSERVER

“They went to the mat, literally, for gender equality.”
-“O” MAGAZINE

“Leitman has captured for the ages a piece of feminist history in danger of disappearing forever.”
-BUST MAGAZINE

“Highly entertaining”
-HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

“Entertaining and bittersweet.”
– LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS

“DYNAMITE!”
-ATLANTA JOURNAL & CONSTITUTION

“It’s totally slammin’!”
-E ONLINE

“Gutsy… seize the day… glorious.”
-SLATE

“Lipstick & Dynamite affirms Leitman’s status as a Diane Arbus with a movie camera and a feminist edge.”
-CREATIVE LOAFING ATLANTA WEEKLY.

Visit Lipstick & Dynamite web site