In the little town of Herzsprung - whose name harks back to an ancient legend of broken hearts - almost nothing has changed since German unification, except a rise in unemployment. Johanna, a young mother and widow, becomes one of the unemployed and lives on welfare. To make matters worse, she falls in love with a dark-skinned, roving adventurer and the whole village starts talking about it.
The Marina Experiment' is the result of over 10,000 photographs, super 8 home footage and reel to reel audiotape interrogations that director Marina Lutz's father made of her during her upper class upbringing in 1960s and 1970s Manhattan. A both eerie and infinitely fascinating archive that she herself has now sorted out and reassembled. Her father's transgressive voyeurism is turned against himself, while a courageous self portrait simultaneously grows out of the almost incestuously intimate 'home movies'. The result is a family exposé that can't be shaken off that easily, and which in an intelligent and absolutely unique way raises the question about the right to not be seen - a question that has become even more relevant in the present day.
Comedy Dynamics sits down with Bill Hicks' brother, Steve, who tells old stories, squashes old rumors and reveals the brother and son behind the late comedian. Told amidst old and rare footage, it’s a must watch for any fan.
Built in 1942 by a maverick film preservationist, this small Los Angeles theater championed silent film at the very moment when the Hollywood studios across town were busily destroying their nitrate inventories. With hard chairs, phonograph-record accompaniments, and mostly original vintage prints, the dingy mom-and-pop operation was nonetheless a palace to the fanatical few who became its loyal audience.
In 2014, scientists declared West Antarctic ice sheet melt unstoppable, threatening the future of our planet. A group of world-class researchers is in a race to understand climate change in the fastest winter-warming place on earth: the West Antarctic Peninsula. Trekking through dangerous and uncharted landscape, these scientists push the limits of their research and come to terms with the sacrifices necessary to understand this rapidly changing world.
The journey of 12 people who share the common bond of losing 100 pounds on average and then embarking on one of the biggest challenges of their lives - the 200 mile mega distance Ragnar Relay Race.
New mother Molly (Eléonore Hendricks) is overcome with the need to run away. Feeling abandoned by her husband and unable to connect with her infant son, she takes up an invitation from her old high school group of guy friends to go on a weekend trip to the mountains. Without the pressure of daily responsibilities and with the help of psychoactive mushrooms, Molly comes out of her shell and is ready to accept the beauty and love that can be found in nature. When Molly's “trip” turns into a dark out-of-body experience she is forced to choose between the person she was and the person she's become.
Yasmine and Rachid, two young Parisians children of Algerian immigrants, are in love and live a quiet life in France. One day, Rachid disappears and Yasmine learns that he is in Algeria. She decides to follow him, in that country that she does not know, that is filled with violence. As she travels looking for Rachid, she falls deeper into the horror of a country where nothing seems normal, another world, where death is ever present.
C.S. Lewis's biographer A.N. Wilson goes in search of the man behind Narnia, a highly secretive man whose personal life was marked by the loss of the three women he most loved.
A bronze foundry in Milan. Hands that shape, knead, model, mix, repair, sand and polish. Work carried out on matter and fire, out of which the bronze figure of a dog by artist Velasco Vitali will ultimately emerge. The Fonderia Artistica Battaglia was founded in 1913 and is one of the oldest and most important artistic foundries in Italy. It produces bronze sculptures using lost-wax casting, a founding technique that dates back to the 4th century BC and is still done in much the same way today. The film draws on a purely observational mode. It is the hands and their gestures that link us to the world and create a connecting line from the past to the present.
A coming-of-(old)-age story about Peter Anton, an elderly "outsider" artist living in isolated and crippling conditions whose world changes when two filmmakers discover his work and storied past. Shot over eight years, ALMOST THERE documents Anton's first major exhibition and how the controversy it generates forces him to leave his childhood home. Each layer revealed reflects on the intersections of social norms, elder care, and artistic expression.
A truly bizarre mixture of sentimentality, spirituality and the supernatural, Eleven P.M. follows an impoverished violinist who tries to protect a young girl from straying into a life of sin -- and features one of the most mind-boggling endings ever (the poster above provides a hint). Produced by the Maurice Film Company of Detroit, Michigan.
KINGDOM OF SHADOWS follows three people grappling with the hard choices and destructive consequences of the U.S.-Mexico “drug war”. Filmmaker Bernardo Ruiz weaves together the seemingly disconnected stories of an activist nun in deeply scarred Monterrey, Mexico, a U.S. Federal agent on the border, and a former Texas smuggler to reveal the human side of an often-misunderstood conflict that has resulted in the “disappearance” of more than 23,000 people in Mexico—a growing human rights crisis that only recently has made international headlines.
It is 1988. Jacob, from Hamburg in West Germany, falls in love with Elisabeth in East Germany. When they secretly meet in East Berlin, it seems the Stasi (secret police) knows about it. When Jacob visits her village, someone informs on him and he is deported. Elisabeth knows who begrudges her this love and takes her revenge. Critics note that in this film, director Heiner Carow revisits the themes of his 1972 smash hit, The Legend of Paul and Paula, which became a cult film throughout Germany.
A Coney Island-inspired, densely-layered visually dynamic documentary portrait of the life and times of the original Nathan's Famous, created in 1916 by filmmaker Lloyd Handwerker's grandparents, Nathan and Ida Handwerker. 30 years in the making, Famous Nathan interweaves decades-spanning archival footage, family photos and home movies, an eclectic soundtrack and never-before-heard audio from Nathan: his only interview, ever as well as compelling, intimate and hilarious interviews with the dedicated band of workers, not at all shy at offering opinions, memories and the occasional tall tale.
‘In Football We Trust’ captures a snapshot in time amid the rise of the Pacific Islander presence in the NFL. Presenting a new take on the American immigrant story, this feature length documentary transports viewers deep inside the tightly-knit Polynesian community in Salt Lake City, Utah. With unprecedented access and shot over a four-year time period, the film intimately portrays four young Polynesian men striving to overcome gang violence and near poverty through American football. Viewed as the "salvation" for their families, these young players reveal the culture clash they experience as they transform out of their adolescence and into the high stakes world of collegiate recruiting and rigors of societal expectations.