People from all over the world gamble on when the ice in the Tanana River melts. This hundred year old tradition in the city of Nenana, Alaska, is an important source for the small town of about 500. It's also a point of local pride and amusement.
Four depressed girls in a mountain hideout transform their misery into porn films. The arrival of two gonzo reporters threatens to upset the fragile balance of this feminist micro-utopia.
The 5th Dementia is a diverse band featuring former professionals from a range of socioeconomic and educational backgrounds who now struggle to remember anything at all due to their illnesses -- Alzheimer's, Dementia, and Parkinson's.
Darren Maxwell became addicted to collecting Batman merchandise in late 1980s Australia as a way to be a part of nascent geek culture. Decades later, Darren's stuck with a room full of collectables - a membership card to a fandom he no longer recognises - yet powerful forces beyond his control mean he's unable to let go.
Back in 1977, Dillon filmed Hillary and crew (including son Peter Hillary) as they jet boated from the mouth of the Ganges to the base of the Himalayas, then set out to climb peak Akash Parbat. Dillon has remastered existing and unseen footage, and interviewed crew members about Hillary's last big expedition.
The film follows three renowned vocal coaches and their students during private lessons. As the pupils prepare for their upcoming final evaluations, perfect technique is expected to produce impeccable results. Listening primarily to their voices, we feel intensity and intimacy arise between teachers and students – an atmosphere in which transcendence is being built.
When it seems that all the stories about World War II have already been told, a new one is often found. Marthe Cohn is a French Jew, whose life resembles a real-world blockbuster. During the war, she took the cover name Chichinette, became a spy, and gathered intel that helped organize an important military operation. Chichinette suffered many losses during the war, having been born in a Jewish family in a small industrial town close to the border between France and Germany. Now Marthe is 98 years old. Despite her age, she is savvy in modern technology and loves traveling the globe - she is often invited to go abroad and tell the story of her military achievements.
After a friend's unexpected suicide, two St. Louis college students formed a non-profit and began a nationwide journey to explore the cultural and institutional circumstances that failed their friend and 40,000+ other people each year.
In 1974, a local TV news station crew came into the filmmaker Daniel Robin’s home during the Rosh Hashanah celebration to document it and learn about Jewish rituals. A narrative begins with the formation of American-Jewish identity. But then the director of this unexpected autobiography draws an analogy with the current rise in anti-Semitism and nationalism. He believes that in the United States the attitude towards unfamiliar cultures resembles the one people take towards animals in petting zoos, where one can safely touch and pet them.
Two amateur filmmakers attempt to make a documentary about the legendary underground "phone-work artist" Longmont Potion Castle, who, since 1988, has released sixteen albums of hilariously surreal phone pranks. Despite a semi-successful crowdfunding campaign and the involvement of celebrity fans, the filmmakers succumb to their own infighting and bad luck, abandoning the project. A year later, the unpaid camera operator liberates the raw footage and finishes the film.
Celebrating the splendor and grandeur of the great cinemas of the United States, built when movies were the acme of entertainment and the stories were larger than life, as were the venues designed to show them. The film also tracks the eventual decline of the palaces, through to today’s current preservation efforts. A tribute to America’s great art form and the great monuments created for audiences to enjoy them in.
The incomparable Bruce Springsteen performs his critically acclaimed latest album and muses on life, rock, and the American dream, in this intimate and personal concert film co-directed by Thom Zimny and Springsteen himself.