In JINGLE BELL ROCKS!, director Mitchell Kezin delves into the minds of some of the world’s most legendary Christmas music fanatics and hits the road to hang with his holiday heroes – including hip hop legend Joseph “Rev Run” Simmons of RUN-D.M.C., The Flaming Lips’ frontman Wayne Coyne, filmmaker John Waters, bebopper Bob Dorough, L.A. DJ and musicologist Dr. Demento, and Calypso legend The Mighty Sparrow. In his search for the twelve best, underappreciated Christmas songs ever recorded, Kezin both asks and answers the question, “Why, when Christmas rolls around, are we still stuck cozying up with Bing Crosby under a blanket of snow?”

What do you picture when you think of King’s Road? The swinging 60s? Vivienne Westwood pioneering punk fashion? One notable establishment in this enclave of history that’s often forgotten about is Gateways, London’s longest-surviving lesbian club. Alongside a host of its patrons over the years, Sandi Toksvig highlights the legacy of the club from its original owner, who won it in a poker game, to its blossoming into a hotspot and safe space for lesbian life. From its signature green door to the risqué dance move that gives this film its name, Gateways was a crucial part of London’s queer history. In this charming and informative film, it’s celebrated in all its glory.

Eleven year old Masha Kulabokhova is about to be adopted into fourteen year old Cami Diaz’s family. Masha grew up in a Russian orphanage; Cami was born and raised in Wisconsin and has been the exclusive focus of her parents’ love her whole life. The process of Masha becoming part of the Diaz family is going to change both girls forever. The Dark Matter of Love follows Masha as she leaves Russia to the spend her first year as part of the Diaz family, who have also adopted five year old twin boys Marcel and Vadim. When the reality of bonding with children who have grown up in institutions turns out to be more difficult than they ever imagined, the Diaz’s hire two of the world’s best developmental psychologists to help them build their new family – through science. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, The Dark Matter of Love melds the story of the Diaz family learning to love, with rare archive footage of science experiments exploring parent-child love.

In 2011, Lisa Hepner and her husband Guy Mossman heard about a radical stem cell treatment for diabetes, a disease that shockingly kills over five million people each year. Driven by a desire to cure Lisa of her own type 1 diabetes (T1D), the filmmakers got unprecedented access to a clinical trial – only the sixth ever stem cell trial in the world. What follows is an intimate decade-long journey with the patients and scientists who risk everything for everybody else. The Human Trial peels back the headlines to show the sweat, passion, and sacrifice behind every breakthrough cure. For the millions of patients suffering around the world, these breakthroughs can’t come fast enough.

During the chaotic final weeks of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as the panicked South Vietnamese people desperately attempt to escape. On the ground, American soldiers and diplomats confront a moral quandary: whether to obey White House orders to evacuate only U.S. citizens.

An unflinching but sensitive and personal examination of jihadism and radicalisation, its causes and its possible solutions.

Composed of intimate and unencumbered moments of people in a community, this film is constructed in a form that allows the viewer an emotive impression of the Historic South – trumpeting the beauty of life and consequences of the social construction of race, while simultaneously a testament to dreaming.

The film looks behind the fear, hype and politics that polarize people into emotionally charged pro-vaccine or anti-vaccine camps with no room for middle ground. Verite stories of individuals and their families, whose lives have been forever changed by vaccine choices, interwoven with interviews from leading experts in the field, will re-frame the vaccine debate and offer, for the first time, the opportunity to have a rational, scientific and factual discussion on how to create a more effective vaccine program in America today.

Could the chemicals found in marijuana prevent and even heal several deadly cancers? Could the tumor regulating properties of cannabinoids someday replace the debilitating drugs, chemotherapy, and radiation that harms as often as it heals? Discover the truth about this ancient medicine as world renowned scientists in the field of cannabinoid research explain and illustrate their truly mind-blowing discoveries. QUOTES: “What If Cannabis Cured Cancer summarizes the remarkable research findings of recent years about the cancer-protective effects of novel compounds in marijuana. Most medical doctors are not aware of this information and its implications for prevention and treatment. If we need more evidence that our current policy on cannabis is counterproductive and foolish, here it is.” -Andrew Weil, M.D. “A hugely important film” – Julie Holland, M.D. NYU School of Medicine

For seven years, award-winning Chinese-American filmmaker Nanfu Wang follows Rosa María Payá, daughter of the five time Nobel Peace Prize nominated activist, Oswaldo Payá, in Rosa’s fight for democratic change in Cuba. Rosa’s narrative is interwoven with Wang’s poignant reflections on her Chinese upbringing and her observations of eroding democratic norms in the U.S., revealing unsettling similarities to the authoritarian system she left behind.

Paris Hilton, the Fat Jew, and Brittany Furlan have all used social media to achieve massive internet fame. But, American Meme explores, is it worth it?

The feature documentary Searching for Mr. Rugoff is the story of Donald Rugoff, who was the crazy genius behind Cinema 5, the mid-century theater chain and film distribution company. Rugoff was a difficult (some would say impossible) person but was also the man who kicked art films into the mainstream with outrageous marketing schemes and pure bluster. Rugoff’s impact on cinema culture in the United States is inestimable, and his influence on the art film business-from the studio classics divisions to the independent film movement to the rise of the Weinsteins-is undeniable. Yet, mysteriously, Rugoff has become a virtually forgotten figure. The story is told through the eyes of former employee Ira Deutchman, who sets out to find the truth about the man who had such a major impact on his life, and to understand how such an important figure could have disappeared so completely.