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In 1945, Japan surrendered to the United States and the Second World War was over. Right? Wrong. For eighty percent of the Japanese community in Brazil, Japan had won the war and defeat was nothing more than American propaganda. The few immigrants that accepted the truth were persecuted. Some were hunted down and assassinated – by their own countrymen – causing the start of a new, private war. Dirty Hearts is a thriller and love story told by the wife of one of the fanatics dedicated to preach Japanese victory. Little by little, she watches her husband, a hard-working immigrant, become an assassin and their love story fade away.
A simple can of ravioli propels this spectacular 30,000-kilometre, eight-country journey through all phases of food production and the far flung sources of international ingredients. A dream-like voyage with glimpses of disconcerting realities, the story begins with a single mother toiling in one of the biggest open pit mines in Brazil and ends on the shelf of a grocery store in Finland. Along the way, the workers whose calloused hands mine, raise and harvest each ingredient reveal their dreams and hopes, like the Danish pig farmer who loves his sows but longs for a girlfriend, and the Portuguese tomato picker who wants to stay healthy long enough to pay her daughters way through university. Sumptuous photography and impressive sound design make an eloquent statement about our modern, globalized world, making us aware of the hundreds of invisible people who prepare the food we eat every day. -Gisèle Gordon (HotDocs.ca)
Filmed over a decade, Brief Encounters follows internationally renowned photographer Gregory Crewdsons quest to create his unique, surreal, and incredibly elaborate portraits of suburban life. He sets a house on fire, builds 90 foot sets with crews of sixty, shuts down city streets…all in the service of his haunted image of American life, and his own anxieties, dreams and inner desires. Brief Encounters is an intimate portrait of one of the most heralded image-makers of our time.
The Banjo Project is a cross-media cultural odyssey: a major television documentary, a live stage/multi-media performance, and a website that chronicle the journey of America’s quintessential instrument—the banjo—from its African roots to the 21st century. It’s a collaboration between Emmy-winning writer-producer Marc Fields and banjo virtuoso Tony Trischka (the Project’s Music Director), one of the most acclaimed acoustic musicians of his generation.
The film begins with his capture by Philippine and US forces under Frederick Funston’s command in 1901, then flashes back to 1886, when an old woman gives Aguinaldo and his childhood friend Candido Tirona cryptic prophecies. Ten years later, Aguinaldo is inducted into the Katipunan and later assumes leadership of its Cavite chapter while becoming mayor of Cavite El Viejo. When the trouble breaks out in Manila in late August 1896, Aguinaldo tries to assure the Spanish provincial government of non-interference and covertly marshals his forces despite a lack of weapons. Learning that the Spanish mostly put their forces in Manila, Aguinaldo finally mobilizes his troops and take the command of the Katipunan forces in Cavite
James and Carl were only 10 years old when they kidnapped and murdered 3 year old David McClendon. They were caught, tried, convicted and placed in separate juvenile facilities. At 18-years old, both are given new names and released back into society – much to the horror of the nation. They can have no contact with each other or with their past friends or relatives. The story follows the lives of these two boys as they try to start over, escape the past and survive the growing outcry following their release.
Set amid arrests and subsequent trials surrounding the 2008 Republican National Convention, this portrait of two young activists caught in the web of an opportunistic mentor and a desperate justice system poignantly describes both the problems of power and the power of forgiveness and love.
The husband-and-wife team of Charles and Ray Eames were America’s most influential and important industrial designers. Admired for their creations and fascinating as individuals, they have risen to iconic status in American culture. Eames: The Architect & The Painter draws from a treasure trove of archival material, as well as new interviews with friends, colleague, and experts to capture the personal story of Charles and Ray while placing them firmly in the context of their fascinating times.
The story of the battle to free Debbie Peagler, an incarcerated survivor of brutal domestic violence. Over 26 years in prison cannot crush the spirit of this determined African-American woman, despite the injustices she has experienced, first at the hands of a duplicitous boyfriend who beat her and forced her into prostitution, and later by prosecutors who cornered her into a life behind bars for her connection to the murder of her abuser. Her story takes an unexpected turn two decades later when a pair of rookie land-use attorneys cut their teeth on her case — and attract global attention to the troubled intersection of domestic violence and criminal justice.
The Pet Pals are put to the test when the Evil Crow Witch is determined to drain the canals of Venice. Armed with a touch of magic, the Pet Pals combine their strengths to uncover the secret code before the Evil Witch does.
Spinning Plates is a documentary about three extraordinary restaurants and the incredible people who make them what they are. A cutting-edge restaurant named the seventh-best in the world whose chef must battle a life-threatening obstacle to pursue his passion. A 150-year-old family restaurant still standing only because of the unbreakable bond with its community. A fledgling Mexican restaurant whose owners are risking everything just to survive and provide for their young daughter. Their unforgettable stories of family, legacy, passion and survival come together to reveal how meaningful food can be, and the power it has to connect us to one another.
Zombie A-Hole takes place in a world that’s a bit different from our own. A realm that teeters on the edge of sleaze and comic book stylized awesomeness. It’s Planet Terror meets Sin City meets The Good The Bad and The Ugly. All the men are hard-asses, and all the women are bombshells. Just because vengeance is your way of life doesn’t mean you can’t look damn sexy while you dole out hearty doses of whoop-ass. Everything is just a bit bigger and more interesting than their real life counterparts. This is a an exploitation flick with a southern gothic flair. Written by Dustin Mills
Will is an 2012 British sports drama directed by Ellen Perry and starring Damian Lewis, Jane March and Bob Hoskins. .At the start of the film, eleven year-old Liverpool fan Will Brennan is at a boarding school in the south of England, due to his father Gareth’s (Lewis) inability to look after him following the death of his mother. Gareth arrives one day out of the blue, with two tickets to see Liverpool play AC Milan in the 2005 Champions’ League Final in Istanbul. Unfortunately, before they can go, Gareth dies suddenly. Will is determined to go and honour his father’s memory. He runs away and makes it as far as France. He then meets Alek, a former Yugoslavian footballer who stopped playing during his country’s civil war. Despite Alek’s initial reluctance to get involved, he is inspired by Will’s determination and tries to help him to fulfil his dream. After many trials and tribulations, Will gets his wish and has a better experience at the match than he could ever have imagined.
Catherine and Blake just tied the knot. Samuel and Catherine have a long and intimate history which is significant to the fact that Samuel and Blake are best friends. When Samuel decides not to attend their wedding under some pretense that no one believes, he invites the newlyweds to Nadi Vineyards for a week-long party in paradise to make up for his absence. Records spin, wine flows, and bottles pile up. What unfolds over the course of this week will rearrange the geometry of Samuel, Catherine, and Blake’s relationships and test the boundaries of their complicated, revolving love for one another.
In the year 2310, a new sport, GENE-FUSION is all the rage! In this exciting game, specially-trainer athletes, called Fusers, design their own super-creature by combining three forms of animal DNA… Four teens, seemingly plucked from obscurity, are trained to be Fusers. They become instant celebrities they perform before sold out crowds. But what hey don’t know is that each of them has a role to play in an alien conspiracy to take over the world. Only through learning to work together as a team can these four young heroes take on this alien threat and save the planet from destruction
When Emma meets Cassandra, they initiate a relationship filled with physical and psychological challenges. Emma does whatever it takes to master the rules of the game. Lines are crossed and the stakes get higher and higher. Despite this, Emma can’t resist the intoxicating feeling of total control.
Tells the story of an African immigrant surviving on the fringes of New York City where music is his passion, life is a hustle and falling in love is his greatest risk.
In the city of 9 Million people everyone is engulfed in the everyday rat race chasing that almighty dollar. This movie tells the story of one of its own ‘Carter Blanche’. Carter has staked his claim to the American dream. But history teaches us that behind every wealthy empire is a major crime; and Carter’s rise to power is no exception. Trying to go legit, he is faced with deception, betrayal, and self serving agendas from those closest to him and must maneuver his way through all those who want to crumble what he has built. As he determines who’s friend or foe. The decisions Carter makes can, and will cost lives.
Brody, his girlfriend Kerry and their friend Leo go hiking in Dartmoor’s Wistman’s Woods, so named because of its legendary haunted past. That night jealousies, sexual tensions and strained relationships come to a head turning what should have been a peaceful camping adventure into a trip to terror. As collective paranoia reaches fever pitch it becomes clear that there is a much darker force at work in the ancient eerie surroundings. Who or what is after them? And can any one of them survive a night in the woods?
Two top baseball prospects in the Dominican Republic face fierce competition and corruption as they chase their big league dreams.
Three chords, three countries, one revolution…PUNK IN AFRICA is the story of the multiracial punk movement within the recent political and social upheavals experienced in three Southern African countries: South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
An hour before the five best Dutch dance crews fly to a contest in New York, the subsidized trip is cancelled. Five dancers from totally different crews don’t want to give up their free plane ticket and go anyway. In New York they realize what they’ve done. They have no money, no plan and no crew. But… They came to dance so there is only one thing to do. Together they form a new crew and do everything they can to enter the contest they came for. In the mean time… they have to survive two weeks in New York without any cash. Written by Tijs van Marle
It’s the closing night at the last drive-in theater in America and Cecil B. Kaufman has planned the ultimate marathon of lost film prints to unleash upon his faithful cinephile patrons. Four films so rare that they have never been exhibited publicly on American soil until this very night! With titles like Wadzilla, Deathecation, The Diary of Anne Frankenstein, and Zom-B-Movie, Chillerama not only celebrates the golden age of drive-in B horror shlock but also spans over four decades of cinema with something for every bad taste.
In an imaginary world where vehicles are the citizens, one underdog cabbie attempts to become king of the road in his hometown, Gasket City. He soon discovers that staying true to oneself is a greater pursuit than personal glory. When threatened by elitist attitudes and mobster trucks, can one unglamorous black and yellow ‘local zero’ rise to the challenge and become a ‘global hero’?
A 90-year-old horticulturalist and Korean War veteran is caught transporting $3 million worth of cocaine through Illinois for a Mexican drug cartel.
Family film based on the much loved picture book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. ZOG is the story of a keen young dragon who wants to learn how to fly, roar, and breathe fire in his first years at Dragon School. He is desperate to impress his teacher and win a golden star, but he’s accident prone and each year he has to be helped by a kind young girl who patches up his bumps and bruises. Then in Year Four, he has to capture a princess – can the young girl help him with his trickiest challenge yet? A Christmas viewing treat for all the family from four-time Oscar-nominated producers Magic Light Pictures.
A dramatic comedy following a Korean American performance artist who struggles to be authentically heard and seen through her multiple identities in modern Los Angeles.
When her seven-year-old son dies in a tragic road accident, a grieving mother, Jia En, seeks the help of her former caregiver, Mdm Seetoh, to bring back his soul so he can be always ‘by her side.’ However, after several strange and deadly occurrences in the house, Jia En begins to suspect that there is something amiss with the soul she has brought back. In discovering what has really happened, she unravels the horrific truth … a truth which may cost her her life and the lives of those around her.
Timothy Hughes (Adrian Lockett) returns back from War only to face tragedy. His brother has been murdered , and they have no witnesses. which sends him on a downward spiral of Violence along with his Uncle ( DSR legend, Big Tuck), while being pursued by a DEA Agent (Christian Petrovich) under investigation , who takes one last chance at a new life but digs himself deeper than he ever thought. – Meanwhile a young Hispanic youth (Alexander Luna) gets in over his head trying to impress a Girl , that takes him down a dangerous road to the Mexican Cartel. Unknown to all 3, their lives will soon Collide . From RISING upcoming Director JUAN SALAS, comes this 8X Award Winning Indie EPIC. WINNER of Best Feature, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Editing across several Festivals.
Motivational Speaker Jack Corcoran is determined to get his career off the ground, but the biggest gigs he can get are the ones nobody wants. Then one day, he receives a telegram that his circus clown father has passed away, and has left a “huge” inheritance. When he gets there, he finds that his inheritance has come in the form of an elephant that was his father’s pride and joy in circus acts. His main intention is to sell the pachyderm off. Jack must choose between loud and rude zookeeper Mo or attractive animal show owner Terry. As the two treks through the country Jack and the elephant develop a bond, and it changes his approach on life for the better.
Trapper Joe is on his way to the town with all of his gain of hides of the last winter. However a group of Indians stops him and takes all of his hides, leaving him the escaped slave Joseph instead. But Joe has no use for Joseph and is determined to get his property back and follows them. Before he can do anything, the Indians are raided themselves by a group of scalphunters under the greedy Howie. Not only the hides, but also Joseph falls into their hands. Now Joe follows them alone and tries to trick the numerical superior group out of his hides
In the 30s, a small village in the Provence is losing its inhabitants because young people prefer to go to the city to find easy jobs and escape from being farmers living in relative poverty. Only a few old people and the poacher Panturle remain. Panturle dreams of bringing the village back to life, finding a wife, founding a family and work as a farmer. One day, the village is visited by a traveling knife-grinder, Urbain Gedemus and a young woman, Arsule. Gedemus treats Arsule like a slave, but Arsule accept this because she has nowhere to go and -we guess- her ‘work’ with Gedemus is the last thing that saves her from being a prostitute. When she meets Panturle and knows about his dreams, she escapes from Gedemus and decides to stay with him. Together, they start a new life, made of hard farming work but mostly of happiness to have each other – fulfilling the earlier dreams of Panturle. Can anything break the happiness of their new life?
Reverend Brooks leads the town in a contest to stop smoking for a month, But some tobacco executives don’t want them to win, and try everything they can to make them smoke. If townspeople don’t go nuts, from wanting a cigarette, or kill each other from irritation and frustration, they will will a huge prize.
14-year-old Joe is the only child of Jeanette and Jerry—a housewife and a golf pro—in a small town in 1960s Montana. Nearby, an uncontrolled forest fire rages close to the Canadian border, and when Jerry loses his job—and his sense of purpose—he decides to join the cause of fighting the fire, leaving his wife and son to fend for themselves.
Germany, 1944. Leyna, the 15-year old daughter of a white German mother and a black African father, meets Lutz, a compassionate member of the Hitler Youth whose father is a prominent Nazi solider, and they form an unlikely connection in this quickly changing world.
Increased level of fear, six colliding stories, one roller coaster ride of emotions and terror. What would you do if you caught your significant other in the act or was face to face with your abductors? With twists and turns at every corner you will have the ride of your life on this journey. A journey where you will be dying to find out the unknown. Where curiosity kills the cat and a seductive mistake can be your last. What level are you?
On a mission to get God’s attention in hopes that God will heal his sister from terminal cancer, a young boy begins answering the prayers left by church members in the pastor’s prayer box after the pastor throws them away, jaded by his own suffering.
Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is hired to drive pianist Don Shirley on a tour through the Deep South in the days when African Americans forced to find alternate accommodations and services due to segregation laws below the Mason-Dixon Line relied on a guide called The Negro Motorist Green Book.
