Movie Releases by Genre
32 Pills: My Sister's SuicideOctober 20, 2017 |
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JaneOctober 20, 2017Jane is the story of how Jane Goodall became Jane Goodall – using footage shot by future husband Hugo van Lawick of her first experiences in Gombe, Tanzinia in the 1960’s. Previously thought to be lost forever, the footage was only recently discovered in a storage unit, and has been now masterfully intercut with interviews of present day Jane Goodall to provide an in-depth portrait of her life. With an enchanting score by Phillip Glass, JANE is a captivating and immersive look into how one woman can change the world through passion, dedication, and perseverance.
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The Paris OperaOctober 18, 2017Autumn 2015. At the Paris Opera, Stéphane Lissner is putting the finishing touches to his first press conference as director. Backstage, artists and crew prepare to raise the curtain on a new season withSchönberg's Moses and Aaron. But the announcement of a strike and arrival of a bull in a supporting rolecomplicate matters. At the same time, a promising young Russian singer begins at the Opera's Academy. In the hallways of Opera Bastille, his destiny will cross paths with that of Bryn Terfel, one of the greatest voices of his time. As the season progresses, more and more characters appear, playing out the human comedy in the manner of a documentary Opera. But this comedy is set against a tragic backdrop when terrorist attacks plunge Paris into mourning. Even though the show must go on at all costs, there is no end of trouble for the new director. Star choreographer Benjamin Millepied jumps ship soon after taking over as director of ballet at Palais Garnier. Preparations for Richard Wagner's six-hour opera Die Meistersinger reunite the company.
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Liberation DayOctober 18, 2017Under the loving but firm guidance of an old fan turned director and cultural diplomat and to the surprise of a whole world, the ex-Yugoslavian cult band Laibach becomes the first foreign rock group ever to perform in the fortress state of North Korea. Confronting strict ideology and cultural differences, the band struggles to get their songs through the needle's eye of censorship before they can be unleashed on an audience never before exposed to alternative rock'n'roll. Meanwhile, propaganda loudspeakers are being set up at the border between the two Koreas and a countdown to war is announced. The hills are alive...with the sound of music.
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Thy Father's ChairOctober 13, 2017Thy Father's Chair brings audiences into the world of Abraham and Shraga, Orthodox Jewish twins who live a secluded existence in their inherited Brooklyn home. Since the death of their parents, they have stopped throwing away anything, hosting stray cats and accumulating all sorts of stuff. Enraged by the situation, the upstairs tenant threatens to stop paying them rent unless they proceed with a radical cleaning of their apartment, forcing Abraham and Shraga to open their doors to a specialized cleaning company. What ensues seems, at first, a traumatic invasion of privacy, with the twins fighting to preserve their memories. But little by little, the relationship with the head of the cleaning company begins to deepen -- and by painfully separating from most of their belongings, Abraham and Shraga discover a path to a new life.
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Human FlowOctober 13, 2017Over 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change and war in the greatest human displacement since World War II. Human Flow, an epic film journey led by the internationally renowned artist Ai Weiwei, gives a powerful visual expression to this massive human migration. The documentary elucidates both the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact.
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The DepartureOctober 13, 2017Ittetsu Nemoto, a former punk-turned- Buddhist-priest in Japan, has made a career out of helping suicidal people find reasons to live. But this work has come increasingly at the cost of his own family and health, as he refuses to draw lines between those he counsels and himself. The Departure captures Nemoto at a crossroads, when his growing self-destructive tendencies lead him to confront the same question his patients ask him: what makes life worth living?
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78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower SceneOctober 13, 2017The screeching strings, the plunging knife, the slow zoom out from a lifeless eyeball: in 1960, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho changed film history forever with its taboo-shattering shower scene. With 78 camera set-ups and 52 edits over the course of 3 minutes, Psycho redefined screen violence, set the stage for decades of slasher films to come, and introduced a new element of danger to the moviegoing experience. Aided by a roster of filmmakers, critics, and fans—including Guillermo del Toro, Bret Easton Ellis, Jamie Lee Curtis, Eli Roth, and Peter Bogdanovich—director Alexandre O. Philippe pulls back the curtain on the making and influence of this cinematic game changer, breaking it down frame by frame and unpacking Hitchcock’s dense web of allusions and double meanings. [IFC Midnight]
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For AhkeemOctober 13, 2017After a school fight lands 17-year old Daje Shelton in a court-supervised alternative high school, she's determined to turn things around and make a better future for herself in her rough St. Louis neighborhood. But focusing on school is tough as she loses multiple friends to gun violence, falls in love for the first time, and becomes pregnant with a boy, Ahkeem, just as Ferguson erupts a few miles down the road. Through Daje's intimate coming-of-age story, For Ahkeem illuminates challenges that many Black teenagers face in America today, and witnesses the strength, resilience, and determination it takes to survive.
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Wasted! The Story of Food WasteOctober 13, 2017Through the eyes of chefs like Anthony Bourdain, Dan Barber, Mario Batali, Massimo Bottura, and Danny Bowien, audiences will see how the world’s most influential chefs make the most of every kind of food, transforming what most people consider scraps and rejects into incredible dishes that feed more people and create a more sustainable food system. The film also features several food waste reduction stories all over the world including waste-fed pigs in Japan, a disposal program that has reduced household food waste by 30% in South Korea, and a garden education curriculum New Orleans.
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DinaOctober 6, 2017Dina, an outspoken and eccentric 49-year-old in suburban Philadelphia, invites her fiancé Scott, a Walmart door greeter, to move in with her. Having grown up neurologically diverse in a world blind to the value of their experience, the two are head-over-heels for one another, but shacking up poses a new challenge. Scott freezes when it comes to physical intimacy, and Dina, a Kardashians fanatic, wants nothing more than to share with Scott all she’s learned about sensual desire from books, TV shows, and her previous marriage. Her increasingly creative forays to draw Scott close keep hitting roadblocks—exposing anxieties, insecurities, and communication snafus while they strive to reconcile their conflicting approaches to romance and intimacy. [Sundance]
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Faces PlacesOctober 6, 201789-year old Agnes Varda, one of the leading figures of the French New Wave, and acclaimed 33 year-old French photographer and muralist JR teamed up to co-direct this enchanting documentary/road movie. Kindred spirits, Varda and JR share a lifelong passion for images and how they are created, displayed and shared. Together they travel around the villages of France in JR’s photo truck meeting locals, learning their stories and producing epic-size portraits of them. The photos are prominently displayed on houses, barns, storefronts and trains revealing the humanity in their subjects, and themselves. Faces Places documents these heart-warming encounters as well as the unlikely, tender friendship they formed along the way. [Cohen Media Group]
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Bending the ArcOctober 6, 2017 |
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The Death and Life of Marsha P. JohnsonOctober 6, 2017 |
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ChavelaOctober 4, 2017Through its lyrical structure, Chavela will take viewers on an evocative, thought-provoking journey through the iconoclastic life of game-changing artist Chavela Vargas. Centered around never before-seen interview footage of Chavela shot 20 years before her death in 2012, and guided by the stories in Chavela's songs, and the myths and tales others have told about her - as well as those she spread about herself - the film weaves an arresting portrait of a woman who dared to dress, speak, sing, and dream her unique life into being.
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Pearl Jam: Let's Play TwoSeptember 29, 2017Let’s Play Two is a concert film that chronicles Pearl Jam’s legendary performances at Wrigley Field during the Chicago Cubs historic 2016 season. With Chicago being a hometown to Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam has forged a relationship with the city, the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field that is unparalleled in the world of sports and music. From Ten to Lightning Bolt, the concert film shuffles through Pearl Jam’s ever-growing catalog of originals and covers -- spanning the band's 25-year career. Through the eyes of renowned director/photographer Danny Clinch and the voice of Pearl Jam, the film showcases the journey of this special relationship. [Abramorama]
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Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird HamiltonSeptember 29, 2017Laird Hamilton is perhaps the greatest big wave surfer of all time, a living legend who has tamed some of the world’s mightiest waves. Amongst the surf community, he is also one of the most controversial figures, an innovator who has revolutionized the sport often to the dismay of purists. This thrilling, up-close portrait traces Hamilton’s remarkable journey, from his rebellious childhood in Hawaii to his fearless first forays into surfing to his relentless pursuit of ever-bigger waves, a quest that ultimately led him to conquer what’s been called “the heaviest wave ever ridden.” [Sundance Selects]
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Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our LivesSeptember 27, 2017Documentarian Chris Perkel catalogues the life and successes of iconic music executive Clive Davis, from his miraculous start at Columbia Records through his trailblazing work at Arista Records and J Records, with a heavy dose of outstanding music sprinkled in between. More than mere biography, The Soundtrack of Our Lives is a guided tour of cultural revolution from the ’60s to the rise of hip- hop, led by a man who consistently caught the next wave before everyone else—if he didn’t just create the wave himself. [Apple Music]
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BugsSeptember 27, 2017With global food shortages on the horizon, forward-thinking chefs, environmentalists and food scientists are turning toward an unexpected source of protein: insects. Bugs is an artful and thoughtful new documentary that provides a perfect entry point to insect cuisine. For three years, a cast of charming and brave food adventurers from the Nordic Food Lab traveled the world—from Europe to Australia, Mexico, Kenya, Japan and beyond—to learn what some of the two billion people who already eat insects had to say. Filmmaker Andreas Johnsen followed them as they foraged, farmed, cooked and tasted everything from revered termite queens and desert-delicacy honey ants to venomous giant hornets and long-horned grasshoppers. Throughout the team’s experiences, some hard questions started to emerge. If industrially produced insects become the norm, will they be as delicious and as beneficial as the ones in diverse, resilient ecosystems and cuisines around the world? And who will actually benefit as edible insects are scaled up? Equal parts travelogue, nature documentary, food porn and political treatise, Bugs is a beautifully shot film that makes a convincing argument for the inherent flavor of insects and raises unexpected and important questions about the future of our food culture along the way. [Kino Lorber]
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I Am Another YouSeptember 27, 2017When Chinese filmmaker Nanfu Wang first comes to America, Florida seems like an exotic frontier full of theme parks, prehistoric swamp creatures, and sunburned denizens. As she travels wide-eyed from one city to another, she encounters Dylan, a charismatic young drifter who left a comfortable home and loving family for a life of intentional homelessness. Fascinated by his choice and rejection of society's rules, Nanfu follows Dylan with her camera on a journey that takes her across America and explores the meaning of freedom - and its limits. [SXSW]
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Hong Kong Trilogy: Preschooled Preoccupied PreposterousSeptember 22, 2017 |
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Bobbi JeneSeptember 22, 2017After a decade of stardom in Israel, American dancer Bobbi Jene decides to leave behind her prominent position at the world-famous Batsheva Dance Company, as well as the love of her life, to return to the U.S. to create her own boundary breaking art. Tracking the personal and professional challenges that await her, Elvira Lind’s film lovingly and intimately documents the dilemmas and inevitable consequences of ambition. Bobbi Jene delves into what it takes for a woman to gain her own independence in the extremely competitive world of dance and to find self-fulfillment in the process.
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UnrestSeptember 22, 2017 |
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Gaga: Five Foot TwoSeptember 22, 2017 |
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The ForceSeptember 22, 2017At a powderkeg moment in American policing, The Force goes deep inside the embattled Oakland Police Department as it struggles to reform itself amid growing local controversy. Winner of the Documentary Directing Award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, filmmaker Peter Nicks embedded with the department over the course of two years to follow its serial efforts to recast itself. The film focuses on the new chief brought in to effect reform at the very moment the Black Lives Matter movement emerges to demand police accountability and racial justice both in Oakland and across the nation. [Kiino Lorber]
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Hissein Habre, A Chadian TragedySeptember 21, 2017In 2013, former Chadian dictator Hissein Habre's arrest in Senegal marked the end of a long combat for the survivors of his regime. Accompanied by the Chairman of the Association of the Victims of the Hissein Habre Regime, Mahamat Saleh Haroun goes to meet those who survived this tragedy and who still bear the scars of the horror in their flesh and in their souls. Through their courage and determination, the victims accomplish an unprecedented feat in the history of Africa: that of bringing a Head of State to trial.
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Rat FilmSeptember 15, 2017Across walls, fences, and alleys, rats not only expose our boundaries of separation but make homes in them. Rat Film is a feature-length documentary that uses the rat--as well as the humans that love them, live with them, and kill them--to explore the history of Baltimore. "There's never been a rat problem in Baltimore, it's always been a people problem".
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Manolo: The Boy Who Made Shoes for LizardsSeptember 15, 2017Manolo is the in-depth portrait of legendary fashion designer Manolo Blahnik and how his extraordinary dedication to his craft led him to become the world’s most famous luxury shoemaker, revered by celebrities, stylists, and industry icons for generations. Growing up on a remote Spanish Canary island, Manolo made shoes out of sweet wrappers for lizards that he caught in his family’s garden. After opening his first store in London in 1973 and coming of age in fashion capitals such as Paris and New York, Manolo now has shops anddepartment store concessions in over 20 countries and retains full control of the business, still creating every shoe, even hand-carving the wooden forms himself. [Music Box Films]
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Strong IslandSeptember 15, 2017In April 1992, on Long Island NY, William Jr., the Ford's eldest child, a black 24 year-old teacher, was killed by Mark Reilly, a white 19 year-old mechanic. Although Ford was unarmed, he became the prime suspect in his own murder. Director Yance Ford chronicles the arc of his family across history, geography and tragedy - from the racial segregation of the Jim Crow South to the promise of New York City; from the presumed safety of middle class suburbs, to the maelstrom of an unexpected, violent death. It is the story of the Ford family: Barbara Dunmore, William Ford and their three children and how their lives were shaped by the enduring shadow of racism in America.
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Red TreesSeptember 15, 2017Marina Willer creates an impressionistic visual essay as she traces her father’s family journey as one of only twelve Jewish families to survive the Nazi occupation of Prague during World War II. The film travels from war-torn Eastern Europe to the color and light of South America and is told through the voice of Willer’s father Alfred, who witnessed bureaucratic nightmares, transportations and suicides but survived to build a post-war life as an architect in Brazil. As the world struggles with the current refugee crisis, Red Trees is a timely look at a family besieged by war who finds peace across an ocean.
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EX LIBRIS: The New York Public LibrarySeptember 13, 2017Frederick Wiseman’s film, EX LIBRIS – The New York Public Library, goes behind the scenes of one of the greatest knowledge institutions of the world. The film reveals the library as a place of welcome, cultural exchange and learning to 18 million patrons and 32 million online visitors annually. There are 92 library branches throughout Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island. The NYPL is committed to being a resource for all the inhabitants of this multifaceted and cosmopolitan city. It is accessible, open to everyone and exemplifies the deeply rooted American belief in the individual’s right to know and be informed. The library is one of the most democratic institutions in America—all races, social classes and ethnicities are welcome and are active participants in the life and work of the library. The library strives to inspire learning, advance knowledge and strengthen communities.
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TrophySeptember 8, 2017Endangered African species like elephants, rhinos, and lions march closer to extinction each year. Their devastating decline is fueled by a global desire to consume and collect these majestic animals. Trophy investigates the powerhouse businesses of big game hunting, breeding, and wildlife conservation. Through the eyes of impassioned individuals who drive these industries, filmmakers Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau grapple with the complex consequences of imposing economic value on animals. What are the ethical implications of treating animals as commodities? Do breeding, farming, and hunting offer some of the few remaining options to conserve these species before it's too late? [Sundance]
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School LifeSeptember 8, 2017This observational documentary follows a year in the lives of two inspirational teachers at Headfort, the only primary-age boarding school in Ireland. Housed in an 18th century estate, school life embraces tradition and modernity. For John, rock music is just another subject alongside Maths, Scripture and Latin, taught in a collaborative and often hilarious fashion. For his wife Amanda, the key to connecting with children is the book, and she uses all means to snare the young minds. For nearly half a century these two have shaped thousands of minds, but now the unthinkable looms: what would retirement mean? What will keep them young if they leave?
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MotherlandSeptember 8, 2017Motherland takes us into the heart of the planet’s busiest maternity hospital in one of the world’s poorest and most populous countries: the Philippines. The film’s viewer, like an unseen outsider dropped unobtrusively into the hospital’s stream of activity, passes through hallways, enters rooms and listens in on conversations. At first, the surrounding people are strangers. But as the film continues, it's absorbingly intimate, rendering the women at the heart of the story increasingly familiar. Three women—Lea, Aira and Lerma—emerge to share their stories with other mothers, their families, doctors and social workers. While each of them faces daunting odds at home, their optimism, honesty and humor suggest a strength that they will certainly have to summon in the years ahead.
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The ChallengeSeptember 8, 2017Italian visual artist Yuri Ancarani’s exquisite documentary enters the surreal world of wealthy Qatari sheikhs with a passion for amateur falconry. The opulence of this Middle Eastern gas state is on full display as the men race SUVs up and down sand dunes, fly their prized falcons around on private jets, and take their pet cheetahs out for desert spins in their souped-up Ferraris. The result is a film jaw-dropping not only for its displays of wealth, but for the pure cinematic beauty that won Ancarani the Filmmaker of the Present award at the 2016 Locarno Film Festival. [Kino Lorber]
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SpettacoloSeptember 6, 2017Once upon a time, villagers in a tiny hill town in Tuscany came up with a remarkable way to confront their issues: they turned their lives into a play. Every summer, their piazza became their stage and residents of all ages played a part – the role of themselves. Monticchiello’s annual tradition has attracted worldwide attention and kept the town together for 50 years, but with an aging population and a future generation more interested in Facebook than farming, the town’s 50th–anniversary performance just might be its last. Spettacolo tells the story of Teatro Povero di Monticchiello, interweaving episodes from its past with its modern-day process as the villagers turn a series of devastating blows into a new play about the end of their world. [Grasshopper Film]
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DoloresSeptember 1, 2017Dolores Huerta bucks 1950s gender conventions by starting the country's first farm worker's union with fellow organizer Cesar Chavez. What starts out as a struggle for racial and labor justice, soon becomes a fight for gender equality within the same union she is eventually forced to leave. As she wrestles with raising 11 children, three marriages, and is nearly beaten to death by a San Francisco tactical police squad, Dolores emerges with a vision that connects her new found feminism with racial and class justice.
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Served Like a GirlAugust 25, 2017Five women veterans who have endured unimaginable trauma in service create a shared sisterhood to help the rising number of stranded homeless women veterans by entering into a competition that unexpectedly catalyzes moving events in their own lives to bring them full circle in a quest for healing and hope.
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California TypewriterAugust 18, 2017California Typewriter launches us into the bittersweet moment when a beloved technology, the typewriter, faces extinction. Delivering a thought-provoking view on the changing dynamic between humans and machines, director Doug Nichol explores the mythology attached to the classic typewriter, as cultural historians, collectors and various celebrity obsessives (including Tom Hanks, John Mayer, David McCullough, and Sam Shepard) celebrate the typewriter both as object and means of summoning the creative spirit. The film culminates in the movingly documented struggle of California Typewriter, one of the last standing repair shops in America dedicated to keeping the aging machines clicking.
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Sidemen: Long Road to GloryAugust 18, 2017Sidemen: Long Road to Glory provides an intimate look into the incredible lives of three of the last Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf sidemen piano player Pinetop Perkins, drummer Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith and guitarist Hubert Sumlin. These legendary bluesmen, who performed and recorded into their 80's and 90's, played a significant role in shaping modern popular music. The film features some of the last interviews conducted with all three men as well as their final live performances together.
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Walk with MeAugust 18, 2017 |
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Whitney: Can I Be MeAugust 18, 2017By the time Whitney Elizabeth Houston was 15, she was singing background vocals for Chaka Khan, Lou Rawls, and Jermaine Jackson. In 1983 Whitney signed a worldwide recording contract with Clive Davis's Arista Records. However her success came with its fair share of drug use, love affairs, and scandals.
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Whose Streets?August 11, 2017Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial tensions and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest this latest tragedy. Empowered parents, artists, and teachers from around the country come together as freedom fighters. As the national guard descends on Ferguson with military grade weaponry, these young community members become the torchbearers of a new resistance.
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The FarthestAugust 11, 2017The Farthest tells the captivating tales of the people and events behind one of humanity’s greatest achievements in exploration: NASA’s Voyager mission, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this August. The twin spacecraft—each with less computing power than a cell phone—used slingshot trajectories to visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. They sent back unprecedented images and data that revolutionized our understanding of the spectacular outer planets and their many peculiar moons. Still going strong four decades after launch, each spacecraft carries an iconic golden record with greetings, music and images from Earth—a gift for any aliens that might one day find it. Voyager 1, which left our solar system and ushered humanity into the interstellar age in 2012, is the farthest-flung object humans have ever created. A billion years from now, when our sun has flamed out and burned Earth to a cinder, the Voyagers and their golden records will still be sailing on—perhaps the only remaining evidence that humanity ever existed. [Abramorama]
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MachinesAugust 9, 2017Marrying stunning visuals with social advocacy, Rahul Jain’s debut documentary — winner of the Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival — takes audiences into the labyrinthine passages of an enormous textile factory in Gujarat, India. Jain’s camera wanders freely between pulsating machines and bubbling vats of dye to create a moving portrait of the human laborers who toil away there for 12 hours a day to eke out a meager living for their families back home. Interviews with these workers and the factory owners who employ them reveal the stark inequality and dangerous working conditions brought about by unregulated industrialization in the region. This political message is delivered amidst the unsettling beauty of the factory’s mechanical underworld and the colorful, billowing fabrics it produces. [Kino Lorber]
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IcarusAugust 4, 2017 |
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StepAugust 4, 2017Step documents the senior year of a girls’ high-school step dance team against the background of inner-city Baltimore. As each one tries to become the first in their families to attend college, the girls strive to make their dancing a success against the backdrop of social unrest in the troubled city.
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It's Not Yet DarkAugust 4, 2017Soon after premiering his short film The Sound of People at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, promising young Irish director Simon Fitzmaurice was tragically diagnosed with motor neurone disease (ALS). At just 34 years old, he was given four years to live. Fitzmaurice and his wife were expecting their third child, and a career in storytelling lay at his feet. Reeling from the shock, Fitzmaurice drew strength from his deepest desires—instead of being stuck in that painful moment, he realized his greatest defiance of ALS would be to direct his first feature film. Seven years later, despite total physical incapacitation, Fitzmaurice completed My Name is Emily (2015), directing it only with the use of his eyes. This emotional journey of self-realization and personal triumph over life-crushing adversity is nothing short of inspiring. All of it is captured with intimate home movies, photographs, and an affectionate voice-over by compatriot Colin Farrell, transporting us into Fitzmaurice’s creative world where every physical and psychological challenge is met with positivity and the desire to fulfill a dream.
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An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to PowerJuly 28, 2017A decade after An Inconvenient Truth brought climate change into the heart of popular culture, comes the riveting and rousing follow-up that shows just how close we are to a real energy revolution. Vice President Al Gore continues his tireless fight traveling around the world training an army of climate champions and influencing international climate policy. Cameras follow him behind the scenes – in moments both private and public, funny and poignant -- as he pursues the inspirational idea that while the stakes have never been higher, the perils of climate change can be overcome with human ingenuity and passion. [Paramount Pictures]
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Sled DogsJuly 28, 2017 |
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Water and Sugar: Carlo Di Palma, the Colours of LifeJuly 28, 2017 |
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Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The WorldJuly 26, 2017This revelatory documentary brings to light the profound and overlooked influence of Indigenous people on popular music in North America. Focusing on music icons like Link Wray, Jimi Hendrix, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Charley Patton, Mildred Bailey, Jesse Ed Davis, Robbie Robertson, and Randy Castillo, Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World shows how these pioneering Native American musicians helped shape the soundtracks of our lives. [Kino Lorber]
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EscapesJuly 26, 2017Escapes blazes a wild path through mid-20th-century Hollywood via the experiences of Hampton Fancher – flamenco dancer, actor, and the unlikely producer and screenwriter of the landmark sci-fi classic Blade Runner. A consummate raconteur, Fancher recounts episodes from his remarkable life — romantic misadventures with silver-screen stars, wayward acts of chivalry, jealousy, and friendship — matched with a parallel world of film and TV footage wherein Fancher plays cowboys, killers, fops, cads, and the occasional hero. Equal parts dense and fleet, Escapes shows how one man’s personal journey can unexpectedly shape a medium’s future.
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The Pulitzer at 100July 21, 2017The Pulitzer at 100 celebrates the centenary of this revered and seminal national award for literary excellence in journalism and the arts. The totality of the Pulitzers has had an immeasurable impact on the American sensibility and beyond over the past 100 years. The riveting tales of the winning artists give an insider's view of how these pinnacles of achievement are selected in the twenty-one categories and how the award has the power to change lives and communities. The diverse stories explored in the film relate to immigration, race, gender, and above all freedom of speech – all issues that are ever more relevant in America today.
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Midnight Return: The Story of Billy Hayes and TurkeyJuly 21, 2017After his ingenious escape from a Turkish prison in 1975, Billy Hayes arrived home to a hero’s welcome, instant celebrity and within a week had a book and movie deal for his story. From the moment it stunned the world at the Cannes Film Festival in 1978, Midnight Express cemented its place in film history as an artistic and financial success, before becoming an indelible part of pop culture. But its lasting impact has been on Turkish people worldwide who still condemn the film as racist and blame Billy Hayes for defaming them and their country. Despite warnings from family and friends, Billy returns to Turkey and faces a nation still haunted by the film and his own demons.
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SantoallaJuly 19, 2017Progressive Dutch couple, Martin Verfondern and Margo Pool, had only one dream – to live off the land, far from the constraints and complications of the city. But, when they arrive in the remote, Spanish village of Santoalla, the foreigners challenge the traditions of the Rodríguez family, the only remaining residents, igniting a decade-long conflict that culminates in Martin's mysterious disappearance. As this once forgotten landscape is thrust into the center of controversy, Margo finds herself searching not only for answers, but for the strength to persevere.
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Chasing CoralJuly 14, 2017Coral reefs are the nursery for all life in the oceans, a remarkable ecosystem that sustains us. Yet with carbon emissions warming the seas, a phenomenon called “coral bleaching”—a sign of mass coral death—has been accelerating around the world, and the public has no idea of the scale or implication of the catastrophe silently raging underwater. [Sundance]
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The Wrong LightJuly 14, 2017 |
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Birthright: A War StoryJuly 14, 2017Birthright: A War Story examines how women are being jailed, physically violated and even put at risk of dying as a radical movement tightens its grip across America. The film tells the story of women who have become collateral damage in the aggressive campaign to take control of reproductive health care and to allow states, courts and religious doctrine to govern whether, when and how women will bear children. The documentary explores the accelerating gains of the crusade to control pregnant women and the fallout that is creating a public health crisis, turning pregnant women into criminals and challenging the constitutional protections of every woman in America.
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500 YearsJuly 12, 2017 |
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Bronx GothicJuly 12, 2017From director Andrew Rossi comes a portrait of writer and performer Okwui Okpokwasili and her acclaimed one-woman show, Bronx Gothic. Rooted in memories of her childhood, Okwui – who’s worked with conceptual artists like Ralph Lemon and Julie Taymor – fuses dance, song, drama and comedy to create a mesmerizing space in which audiences can engage with a story about two 12-year-old black girls coming of age in the 1980s. With intimate vérité access to Okwui and her audiences off the stage, Bronx Gothic allows for unparalleled insight into her creative process as well as the complex social issues embodied in it. [Grasshopper Film]
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City of GhostsJuly 7, 2017City of Ghosts follows the journey of “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently”— a handful of anonymous activists who banded together after their homeland was taken over by ISIS in 2014. With astonishing, deeply personal access, this is the story of a brave group of citizen journalists as they face the realities of life undercover, on the run, and in exile, risking their lives to stand up against one of the greatest evils in the world today.
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Swim TeamJuly 7, 2017 |
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The Last Dalai Lama?July 7, 2017For over a thousand years, Tibetan Buddhist psychology has taught techniques for overcoming negative, afflictive emotions, such as anger, greed, jealousy, sloth and ignorance. In the film The Last Dalai Lama?, His Holiness explains that Tibetan Buddhism is both a religion and a “science of the mind”; he also shares his crystallized understanding of the nature of mind, and its part in the creation and alleviation of all of our suffering.
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The Reagan ShowJune 30, 2017 |
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Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell BerryJune 30, 2017Look & See revolves around the divergent stories of several residents of Henry County, Kentucky who each face difficult choices that will dramatically reshape their relationship with the land and their community. In 1965, Wendell Berry returned home to Henry County, where he bought a small farm house and began a life of farming, writing and teaching. This lifelong relationship with the land and community would come to form the core of his prolific writings. A half century later Henry County, like many rural communities across America, has become a place of quiet ideological struggle. In the span of a generation, the agrarian virtues of simplicity, land stewardship, sustainable farming, local economies and rootedness to place have been replaced by a capital-intensive model of industrial agriculture characterized by machine labor, chemical fertilizers, soil erosion and debt - all of which have frayed the fabric of rural communities. Writing from a long wooden desk beneath a forty-paned window, Berry has watched this struggle unfold, becoming one of its most passionate and eloquent voices in defense of agrarian life.
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The Skyjacker's TaleJune 30, 2017Ishmael Muslim Ali (formerly LaBeet) is the American convicted of murdering eight people on a Rockefeller-owned golf course in the US Virgin Islands. After years of trying to get his conviction overturned, he took matters into his own hands and hijacked an American Airlines plane full of passengers to Cuba on New Years Eve 1984, and got away with it. Until now.
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The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait PhotographyJune 30, 2017Portrait photographer Elsa Dorfman found her medium in 1980: the larger-than-life Polaroid Land 20x24 camera. For the next thirty-five years she captured the "surfaces" of those who visit her Cambridge, Massachusetts studio: families, Beat poets, rock stars, and Harvard notables. As pictures begin to fade and her retirement looms, Dorfman gives Errol Morris an inside tour of her backyard archive.
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Mali BluesJune 29, 2017Mali's music defines the country's cultural identity. Radical Islamists are threatening the musicians. Together with the stars of Malian Global Pop - Fatoumata Diawara, Bassekou Kouyaté Master Soumy and Ahmed Ag Kaedi - we embark on a musical journey to Mali's agitated heart. Can their music reconcile the country?
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Good FortuneJune 23, 2017Good Fortune is the rags to riches tale of conscious capitalism pioneer John Paul DeJoria. Born with nothing, at times homeless on the streets of LA, "JP" spent his early adulthood in and out of motorcycle gangs only to wheel and deal his way to the top of a vast hair and tequila empire. A modern day Robin Hood, JP's motto is "Success unshared is failure." The son of immigrants, JP defies the stereotype of 'the 1%' and is the poster boy of the triple bottom line - people, planet and profit.
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In TransitJune 23, 2017In Transit journeys into the hearts and minds of everyday passengers aboard Amtrak's Empire Builder, the busiest long-distance train route in America. Captured in the tradition of Direct Cinema, the film unfolds as a series of interconnected vignettes, ranging from overheard conversations to moments of deep intimacy, in which passengers share their fears, hopes and dreams. In the space between stations, where 'real life' is suspended, we are swept into a fleeting community that transcends normal barriers, and where a peculiar atmosphere of contemplation and community develops. To some passengers, the train is flight and salvation, to others it is reckoning and loss. But for all, it is a place for personal reflection and connecting with others they may otherwise never know.
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Nowhere to HideJune 23, 2017Nowhere to Hide follows male nurse Nori Sharif through five years of dramatic change, providing unique access into one of the world’s most dangerous and inaccessible areas – the “triangle of death” in central Iraq. Initially filming stories of survivors and the hope of a better future as American and Coalition troops retreat from Iraq in 2011, conflicts continue with Iraqi militias, and the population flees accompanied by most of the hospital staff. Nori is one of the few who remain. When ISIS advances on Jalawla in 2014 and takes over the city, he too must flee with his family at a moment’s notice, and turns the camera on himself.
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All the Rage (Saved by Sarno)June 23, 2017America is experiencing an epidemic of pain. One man has the answer to the problem yet the medical establishment has ignored him. For nearly 50 years, Dr. John Sarno has been single-handedly battling the pain epidemic by focusing on the mind-body connection and the nature of stress and the manifestation of physical ailments.
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In Pursuit of SilenceJune 23, 2017In Pursuit of Silence is a meditative exploration of our relationship with silence, sound and the impact of noise on our lives. Beginning with an ode to John Cage’s ground-breaking composition 4’33”, In Pursuit of Silence takes us on an immersive cinematic journey around the globe– from a traditional tea ceremony in Kyoto, to the streets of the loudest city on the planet, Mumbai during the wild festival season – and inspires us to experience silence and celebrate the wonders of our world.
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Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free PressJune 23, 2017 |
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Food EvolutionJune 23, 2017Traveling from Hawaiian papaya groves, to banana farms in Uganda to the cornfields of Iowa, Food Evolution wrestles with the emotions and the evidence driving one of the most heated arguments of our time. Enlisting experts and icons of the struggle such as Mark Lynas, Alison Van Eenennaam, Jeffrey Smith, Andrew Kimbrell, Vandana Shiva, Robert Fraley, Marion Nestle and Bill Nye, as well as farmers and scientists from around the world, this bold and necessary documentary separates the hype from the science to unravel the debate around food. While the passionate advocates on all sides of this debate agree on the need for safe, nutritious and sustainable food for the planet, their differing views over what constitutes the truth have pit them against each other, rendering the subject of food itself into an ideological battleground.
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My Journey Through French CinemaJune 23, 2017Writer-director Bertrand Tavernier is truly one of the grand auteurs of the movies. His experience is vast, his knowledge is voluminous, his love is inexhaustible and his perspective is matched only by that of Martin Scorsese. This magnificent, epic documentary has been a lifetime in the making. Tavernier knows his native cinema inside and out, from the giants like Renoir, Godard, and Melville (for whom he worked as an assistant) to now overlooked and forgotten figures like Edmund T. Gréville and Guy Gilles, and his observations and reminiscences are never less than penetrating and always deeply personal. [Cohen Media Group]
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Hare Krishna! The Mantra, the Movement and the Swami Who Started It AllJune 16, 2017 |
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Score: A Film Music DocumentaryJune 16, 2017 |
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Dawson City: Frozen TimeJune 9, 2017This meditation on cinema’s past from Decasia director Bill Morrison pieces together the bizarre true history of a long-lost collection of 533 nitrate film prints from the early 1900s. Located just south of the Arctic Circle, Dawson City was settled in 1896 and became the center of the Canadian Gold Rush that brought 100,000 prospectors to the area. It was also the final stop for a distribution chain that sent prints and newsreels to the Yukon. The films were seldom, if ever, returned. The now-famous Dawson City Collection was uncovered in 1978 when a bulldozer working its way through a parking lot dug up a horde of film cans. Morrison draws on these permafrost-protected, rare silent films and newsreels, pairing them with archival footage, interviews, historical photographs, and an enigmatic score by Sigur Rós collaborator and composer Alex Somers. Dawson City: Frozen Time depicts the unique history of this Canadian Gold Rush town by chronicling the life cycle of a singular film collection through its exile, burial, rediscovery, and salvation. [Kino Lorber]
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Raising BertieJune 9, 2017An intimate, six-year portrait of three boys growing into adulthood in Bertie County, located in rural Eastern North Carolina, the film offers viewers a respectful and tender insight into the emotional lives of Reginald “Junior” Askew, David “Bud” Perry, and Davonte “Dada” Harrell. This raw and starkly poetic cinéma vérité film weaves their stories together as they navigate school, unemployment, violence, first love, fatherhood, and estrangement from family members and mentors, subtly exploring the complex relationships between generational poverty, economic isolation, and educational inequity.
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Night SchoolJune 9, 2017Indianapolis has one of the lowest high school graduation rates in the country. For adult learners Greg, Melissa and Shynika, finally earning their high school diplomas could be a life-changing achievement. Emmy award-winning director Andrew Cohn’s absorbing documentary observes their individual pursuits, fraught with the challenges of daily life and the broader systemic roadblocks faced by many low income Americans.
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Letters from BaghdadJune 2, 2017Letters from Baghdad tells the extraordinary and dramatic story of Gertrude Bell, the most powerful woman in the British Empire in her day. She shaped the modern Middle East after World War I in ways that still reverberate today. More influential than her friend and colleague Lawrence of Arabia, Bell helped draw the borders of Iraq and established the Iraq Museum. Why has she been written out of history?
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Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay PunkJune 2, 2017Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk spans over 30 years of the California Bay Area’s punk music history with a central focus on the emergence of Berkeley's inspiring 924 Gilman Street music collective. Narrated by Iggy Pop and executive produced by Green Day, Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk is the definitive telling of this vibrant story, drawing from a wide variety of voices and viewpoints and featuring the music of many of the most famous and infamous punk bands ever.
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The Incomparable Rose HartmanJune 2, 2017 |
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Long Strange TripMay 26, 2017The tale of the Grateful Dead is inspiring, complicated, and downright messy. A tribe of contrarians, they made art out of open-ended chaos and inadvertently achieved success on their own terms. Never-before-seen footage and interviews offer this unprecedented and unvarnished look at the life of the Dead.
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Joshua: Teenager vs. SuperpowerMay 26, 2017Unstable times can create the unlikeliest of heroes. When the promise of Hong Kong’s autonomy was at risk, 14 year old Joshua Wong decided to speak up. Amid the glistening cityscape, filmmaker Joe Piscatella introduces viewers to a teenaged activist who inspired tens of thousands to stand up for their beliefs.
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Buena Vista Social Club: AdiosMay 26, 2017The musicians of the Buena Vista Social Club exposed the world to Cuba's vibrant culture with their landmark 1997 album. Now, against the backdrop of Cuba’s captivating musical history, hear the band’s story as they reflect on their remarkable careers and the extraordinary circumstances that brought them together.
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Restless Creature: Wendy WhelanMay 24, 2017Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan offers an intimate portrait of prima ballerina Wendy Whelan as she prepares to leave New York City Ballet after a record-setting three decades with the company. One of the modern era’s most acclaimed dancers, Whelan was a principal ballerina for NYCB and, over the course of her celebrated career, danced numerous ballets by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, as well as new works by more modern standout choreographers like Christopher Wheeldon and Alexei Ratmansky many roles were made specifically for Whelan. As the film opens, Whelan is 46, battling a painful injury that has kept her from the ballet stage, and facing the prospect of her impending retirement from the company. What we see, as we journey with her, is a woman of tremendous strength, resilience and good humor. We watch Whelan brave the surgery that she hopes will enable her comeback to NYCB and we watch her begin to explore the world of contemporary dance, as she steps outside the traditionally patriarchal world of ballet to create Restless Creature, a collection of four contemporary vignettes forged in collaboration with four young choreographers. RESTLESS CREATURE: WENDY WHELAN offers an intimate portrait of prima ballerina Wendy Whelan as she prepares to leave New York City Ballet after a record-setting three decades with the company. One of the modern era’s most acclaimed dancers, Whelan was a principal ballerina for NYCB. As the film opens, Whelan is 46, battling a painful injury that has kept her from the ballet stage, and facing the prospect of her impending retirement from the company. What we see, as we journey with her, is a woman of tremendous strength, resilience and good humor. We watch Whelan brave the surgery that she hopes will enable her comeback to NYCB and we watch her begin to explore the world of contemporary dance, as she steps outside the traditionally patriarchal world of ballet to create Restless Creature, a collection of four contemporary vignettes forged in collaboration with four young choreographers.
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Abacus: Small Enough to JailMay 19, 2017Abacus: Small Enough to Jail tells the incredible saga of the Chinese immigrant Sung family, owners of Abacus Federal Savings of Chinatown, New York. Accused of mortgage fraud by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., Abacus becomes the only U.S. bank to face criminal charges in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The indictment and subsequent trial forces the Sung family to defend themselves – and their bank’s legacy in the Chinatown community – over the course of a five-year legal battle.
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Legion of BrothersMay 19, 2017Immediately after the attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States government initiated a secret war against Afghanistan, deploying fewer than one hundred Special Forces troops to fight back. Building a coalition with the rebels of the Northern Alliance, the US troops faced off against the Taliban and the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. They succeeded in driving both out of power by the end of 2001 with minimal casualties and without conventional, large-scale military operations. Despite this victory, the U.S. and its allies soon became mired in a seemingly never-ending war. This untold story features unprecedented access to the Green Berets who played pivotal roles in these covert missions. Reflecting on their experiences and on the brothers-in-arms they lost, these elite soldiers offer a riveting celebration of valor and a sobering, cautionary tale.
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Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISISMay 19, 2017 |
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Get Me Roger StoneMay 12, 2017After the 2016 election, people all over the world woke up to find that Donald J. Trump, New York real estate billionaire and reality TV star, succeeded in pulling off one of the greatest political upsets in history to become the 45th President of the United States. One man who wasn’t shocked – political consultant Roger Stone. A longtime Trump confidante and advisor, Stone said he always knew his celebrity pal was “prime political horse flesh.” Get Me Roger Stone traces the monumental impact that Stone, the youngest person called before the Watergate grand jury and a self-described “dirty trickster”, has made on modern GOP history — connecting Nixon, Roy Cohn and Reagan with SuperPACs, lobbying, the 2000 election, all the way to the nation’s first reality star President. A master of creating controversy and manipulating the media, Stone’s career is a window into the last 50 years of politics that led to this pivotal moment in history. The Netflix original documentary chronicles the high-living, low-down, self-proclaimed agent provocateur and the seismic changes he’s wrought in a political system.
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EliánMay 12, 2017Elián recounts the story of a Cuban boy named Elián González who, on Thanksgiving Day in 1999, was found floating on an inner tube in the Florida Straits, an event that set in motion a bitter custody battle between Elián’s Cuban father and US relatives. Set to the backdrop of a tense and acrimonious relationship between the US and Cuba, the documentary features a wealth of contemporary news archive and gives unprecedented access to key players in the saga, including an exclusive interview with the boy himself, now a 23-year old man. A story of family and the challenges of reconciliation, the documentary uses one boy’s remarkable journey to plot the path to rapprochement between Cuba and the US, and is underscored by a deeply moving personal and political commentary.
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The Last ShamanMay 12, 2017The Last Shaman is the story of James Freeman, a young man who decides to take matters in his own hands when faced with incurable depression. He undergoes a life-changing journey in the Amazon jungle that brings him a deeper understanding and acceptance of self. Along the way, he experiences the healing properties of the tribal plant medicine Ayahuasca and the world around it. [Abramorama]
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SacredMay 5, 2017Sacred immerses the viewer in an exploration of spirituality across cultures and religions. At a time when religious hatreds dominate the world’s headlines, this film, sweeping in global reach and yet intensely intimate, explores faith as primary human experience: how it is used to navigate the milestones and crises of private life.
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RiskMay 5, 2017Laura Poitras, Academy Award winning director of Citizenfour, returns with her most personal and intimate film to date. Filmed over six years, Risk is a complex and volatile character study that collides with a high stakes election year and its controversial aftermath. Cornered in a tiny building for half a decade, Julian Assange is undeterred even as the legal jeopardy he faces threatens to undermine the organization he leads and fracture the movement he inspired. Capturing this story with unprecedented access, Poitras finds herself caught between the motives and contradictions of Assange and his inner circle. In a new world order where a single keystroke can alter history, Risk is a portrait of power, betrayal, truth, and sacrifice.
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Julian Schnabel: A Private PortraitMay 5, 2017Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait chronicles the personal life and public career of the celebrated artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel. The film details the Brooklyn-born Schnabel’s formative years in Brownsville, Texas; the beginning of his professional career in New York City in the late Seventies; and his Eighties rise to superstar status in Manhattan’s art scene as well as international acclaim as a leading figure in the Neo-Expressionism movement. As the film details, Schnabel came to be regularly acknowledged for his extroverted, excessive approach to his work and life (frequently seen in silk pajamas, he lives and works in Montauk, Long Island, and in a 170-foot tall pink Venetian-styled palazzo in Manhattan’s West Village) as he moved into filmmaking with 1995’s Basquiat. He has since directed four other features, including the award-winning Before Night Falls (2000) and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007). With a kaleidoscopic blend of material from Schnabel’s personal archives, newly shot footage of the artist at work and play, and commentary from friends, family, actors and artists including Al Pacino, Mary Boone, Jeff Koons, Bono and Laurie Anderson—not to mention Schnabel, himself—Corisicato creates a fascinating and revealing portrait of the modern art world’s most boisterous and provocative maverick. [Cohen Media Group]
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Angkor Awakens: A Portrait of CambodiaMay 5, 2017 |
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BurdenMay 5, 2017Chris Burdern guaranteed his place in art history in 1971 with a period of often dangerous and at times stomach-churning performances. After having himself shot, locked up in a locker for five days, electrocuted, and crucified on the back of a VW bug, Burden reinvented himself as the creator of truly mesmerizing installations and sculptures, from a suspended gigantic flywheel that seemingly spins on its own, to an assemblage of antique streetlights rewired for solar energy and illuminated outside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In BURDEN, Timothy Marrinan and Richard Dewey look at the artist’s works and private life with an innovative mix of still-potent videos of his 70s performances, personal videos and audio recordings, friends fellow students and colleagues, critics’ comments and latter day footage at his Topanga Canyon studio, all peppered with his thoughts and musings through the years. [Magnolia Pictures]
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The Longest Game
- Runtime: 69 min
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Voyage of Time: Life's Journey
- Runtime: 90 min
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The Dead and the Others
- Runtime: 114 min






































































































