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In the aftermath of last week’s Houla massacre, Syria appears on the brink. The threat of a full-scale, open civil war looms and fears are growing around the country’s violence spilling out across the Middle East. A first-time filmmaker whose debut documentary, “U.N. Me,” traces and critiques the history of the U.N., discusses how the organization should act in Syria.

Filmmaker Werner Herzog talks about his documentary “Death Row Portraits.” Conceived as a companion to “Into the Abyss,” his documentary about a triple homicide in Texas, “Death Row Portraits” focuses on five inmates awaiting their appointment with a lethal injection in the Texas and Florida prison systems. “Death Row Portraits” is playing April 25-26 at IFC Center.

In 1965, Frank De Felitta made a documentary about the civil rights struggle in the Mississippi Delta. A black waiter named Booker Wright, who worked at a “whites only” restaurant, spoke openly about his thoughts on segregation in the film, and as a result, he lost his job and was beaten and ostracized. Booker Wright’s granddaughter Yvette Johnson joins Frank De Felitta’s son Raymond De Felitta to discuss about the new documentary directed by Raymond De Felitta, “Booker’s Place: A Mississippi Story,” about who Booker Wright was and how the 1965 film changed his life. "Booker's Place" is playing as part of the Tribeca Film Festival April 22, 25, 26, 28, and opens at the Quad Cinema April 27.

On today’s Underreported, directors Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher talk about the people who serve as human test subjects for medications being developed by pharmaceutical companies. They look at how those medications are being marketed, sold, and used throughout the United States after they’ve been approved. It’s the subject of their documentary, “Off Label,” which is being shown at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Due to a computer mix-up, we mistakenly reran a 2008 interview with French high wire artist Philippe Petit and filmmaker James Marsh about the documentary "Man on Wire," about Petit's incredible high wire walk between the World Trade Center towers in 1974. The film is available on DVD, and even though we didn't plan to run the interview today, it's a great conversation.

In China, Asiatic black bears are kept in cages for their bile, which is valued in Asian medicine. Jill Robinson, the founder and CEO of Animals Asia, who appears in the documentary "Cages of Shame," talks about bear bile farming and bear rescue efforts.

"Cages of Shame" premiers at the Rubin Museum of Art April 14.

Director Steven Ives talks about his new documentary, “Grand Coulee Dam,” about a public works project that played a central role in transforming the Northwest and was the largest hydroelectric power producing facility in the world when it was completed in March 1941. But the dam prevented access to one of the greatest salmon rivers in the world, and the native people who lived along the Columbia suffered a profound cultural decline. “Grand Coulee Dam” premieres on PBS on April 3 at 8 pm.

On February 7, 2012, Mohamed Nasheed, the democratically elected president of the Maldives, was forced to resign in a coup d'etat orchestrated by the military and forces loyal to the country’s former dictator. President Nasheed and Jon Shenk, director of the documentary “The Island President,” discuss confronting the survival of the country. “The Island President” is playing March 28–April 10 at Film Forum.

Nina Rosenblum and Daniel Allentuck discuss producing and directing the documentary “Ordinary Miracles: The Photo League’s New York,” about a cooperative of radical photographers, born out of the labor movement, who were determined to use their cameras as a tool for social change. Members included noted mid-20th century photographers Weegee, W. Eugene Smith, Aaron Siskind, Bernice Abbott, and Ruth Orkin, among others. In 1951 the U.S. Attorney General publicly blacklisted the Photo League for its left-leaning roots, and the group disappeared. “Ordinary Miracles” opens March 29 at the IFC Center.

Documentary filmmakers D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus followed Bill Clinton's campaign staff during his 1992 Presidential campaign. The resulting film "The War Room," was a quick classic, giving viewers a peek behind the curtain of American politics. Last week "The War Room" was released as part of the Criterion Collection on DVD and Blu-ray.

Daniel Lindsay and T. J. Martin, directors of the Oscar-nominated documentary “Undefeated,” along with coach Bill Courtney. Manassas High School in North Memphis had never won a playoff game until Courtney came along and transformed the team. For player and coaches alike, the season is not only about winning games, it’s about how they grapple with the unforeseeable events that are part of football and part of life.

On today’s Backstory, we’ll look at the Nashi youth movement in Russia, which was started in 2005 and has close ties to the Kremlin. With thousands of members, the group rallies in favor of the government and harass the political opposition. Director Lise Birk Pedersen talks about her documentary “Putin’s Kiss,” which follows a young Nashi leader as she gradually becomes disenchanted by the movement—and the opposition journalists who risk their safety to criticize the Nashi. She's joined by Sasha de Vogel, program coordinator at Columbia’s Committee on Global Thought.

Filmmaker, Wim Wenders discusses his Oscar-nominated documentary "Pina" -- a tribute to choreographer Pina Bausch, done in 3D.

T.J. Martin and Daniel Lindsay, co-directors of "Undefeated", talk about their documentary following a football season at an inner city high school. "Undefeated" opens Friday, February 17.

Michael Woolf, director of the documentary “Man on a Mission: Richard Garriott’s Road to the Stars,” and the film’s subject, Richard Garriott, discuss Garriott’s lifelong quest to become the first son of an astronaut to blast into space. When eye problems made a career at NASA impossible, he turned to private space travel to launch into space. “Man on a Mission” opens at Cinema Village January 13.

Director Wim Wenders talks about his 3D documentary “Pina,” about the legendary choreographer Pina Bausch. Wenders and Bausch had conceived a dance film like none seen before, but after her untimely death in 2009, Wenders continued with the project, turning it into a tribute, rendering the beauty and physicality of the dances and dancers of her Tanztheater Wuppertal ensemble. “Pina” opens in New York Friday, December 23, at the Walter Reade Theater, IFC Center, and BAM.

In 1994, scientist Victor DeNoble became the first whistleblower to reveal the tobacco industry's efforts to manufacture "a maximally addictive" product. Director Charles Evans, Jr., tells his story in the documentary “Addiction Incorporated.” The film opens in New York on December 14 at Film Forum.

Director Cyril Tuschi; Pavel Khodorkovsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s son; and New York Times business writer Joe Nocera, discuss Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was once the richest man in Russia and is now one of the world’s most famous political prisoners. In the documentary “Khodorkovsky,” filmmaker Tuschi shows that Khodorkovsky’s tax embezzlement charges are bogus, and that his real crime was challenging Vladimir Putin. The film opens November 30 at Film Forum.

Bill Jersey, co-director of the documentary “Eames: The Architect and the Painter,” talks about the film—a look into the private world of the Renaissance-style studio that Charles and Ray Eames conceived in a warehouse in Venice Beach, California, where design history was born. “The Eames Era,” began in the optimistic flush of American victory during World War II, and the global impact of the Eames aesthetic continues today. “Eames: The Architect and the Painter” opens November 18 at the IFC Center.

Serge Bromberg, of Lobster Films, discusses the hand-painted color version of Georges Méliès’ “Le Voyage dans la lune” (“A Trip to the Moon”) (1902), unseen for 109 years until its glorious new restoration by Lobster Films, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage, and talks about the world premiere of his and Eric Lange’s 2011 documentary “The Extraordinary Voyage.”  “The Extraordinary Voyage” and “A Trip to the Moon,” are both playing as part of MoMA’s “To Save and Protect” program.