Search
Summer 2005: federal agents and police record over a thousand hours of surveillance footage inside a crack house in Rockford Illinois. For six weeks the gang smoke weed, play with guns and sell crack and heroin, unaware that their every move is being filmed. The customers come and go with no clue that their secret lives would be exposed. This is an intimate portrait of the rise and fall of a crack house and of an American urban community brought down by drugs. Interviews with gang members, their families and cops reveal the inescapable tragedy – and occasional dark comedy – of a world that lies hidden within every modern city.
Live From Tokyo takes one into a world where ideas and genres are pushed to their extremes, with the general sentiment that there is new music waiting to be created. The documentary looks at Tokyo’s music culture as a reflection of Japanese society and in relation to international music culture. Tokyo’s reputation for an overwhelming variety of global information, media-saturated urban environment and cutting edge innovation, makes it the perfect sample for addressing a new outlook on music culture as it explores this eccentric music culture set within a modern Japanese megalopolis.
3 Days of Normal follows the story of straight-laced deputy Bill Morgan who is quite content literally living within the quaint boundaries of Washington, New Hampshire. Bill’s stable and rather uneventful life is thrown for a loop when he finds and arrests a woman, Nikki Gold, passed out in her car from inebriation. Unbeknownst to him, the woman happens to be a popular movie actress longing for some normalcy in her hectic life.
The Côte d’Azur. 1915. In his twilight years, Pierre-Auguste Renoir is tormented by the loss of his wife, the pains of arthritic old age and the terrible news that his son Jean has been wounded in action. But when a young girl miraculously enters his world, the old painter is filled with a new, wholly unexpected energy. Blazing with life, radiantly beautiful, Andrée will become his last model, and the wellspring of a remarkable rejuvenation. Back at the family home to convalesce, Jean too falls under the spell of the new, redheaded star in the Renoir firmament. In their Mediterranean Eden – and in the face of his father’s fierce opposition – he falls in love with this wild, untameable spirit… and as he does so, within weak-willed, battle-shaken Jean, a filmmaker begins to grow.
Laughing is judged guilty of murdering gang lord Michael So and is sentenced to life imprisonment. Locked up behind bars, he meets the seemingly benign inmate Fok Tin Yam, a university professor in criminal psychology who is jailed for drug possession. Highly intelligent and manipulative, Fok reveals the power of his mind games by effortlessly subduing the violent prison bully. He also deduces that Laughing is sent to the prison on an undercover mission to find out the rogue cops within the police force. The clues lead him to inmate Chit, a former sergeant from the Narcotics Bureau who has been suffering from a mental disorder. To unlock the critical information from the deranged man, Laughing must get the help of Fok, but this enigmatic figure has an agenda of his own…
An homage to the action films of the early 1980s, Cherry Bomb follows a young dancer and her quest for revenge against the group of men that brutally assaulted her. Seeing no justice coming from within the system Cherry enlists the help of her estranged older brother and some heavy firepower as the two siblings set out on a reckless revenge mission. Things start to spiral out of control when a mysterious hit man named Bull is hired to put an end to Cherry’s bloody tirade. She soon realizes that there is more at stake than she ever imagined.
The infamous Odenbrook Sanitarium closed after a mass suicide occurred within its walls. Sixty years later, six college students armed with cameras and recording equipment venture into the asylum to prove the existence of the paranormal. Thrills turn into nightmares as members of the group go missing without a sound, cell phones mysteriously vanish, corridors turn into mazes, walls appear where doors once stood, flashlights fail and something or someone begins toying with the group. Days later, when five of the six friends turn up missing, the lone survivor must go through the recovered footage in order to clear his name and find out what happened to his friends
The Burlesque Assassins. Beautiful, deadly and a vital weapon in the war on communism that threatens the free world. Set in the 1950s, this tale of cold war espionage and intrigue follows superspies Johnny Valentine, Koko La Douce, Bombshell Belle and new recruit Bourbon Sue as they seduce their way within killing distance of a trio of villainy bent on global domination. See the fatal fan dance of Koko La Douce! See the brutal boa of Bombshell Belle! Witness firsthand the carnage and the cleavage as the enemies of The Burlesque Assassins discover that when it comes to these women, LOOKS CAN KILL!
Set within a city where parasites rage, the parasites settled into their human hosts and increases their power and sexual desires. Dr. Suzune is a parasite expert who works daily to kill the parasites. A sinister demon organization exists behind the parasites. Dr. Suzune also realizes that her father, who went missing when she was a young child, is somehow connected with the group. Violence and madness awaits for her …
After a lifetime of hiding, Chely Wright becomes the first commercial country music singer to come out as gay, shattering cultural stereotypes within Nashville, per conservative heartland family and, most importantly, within herself. With unprecedented access over a two-year period, including her private video diaries, the film layers Chely’s rise to fame while hiding in the late 90’s with the execution of her coming out plan, culminating in the exciting moment when she steps into the media glare to reveal she is gay. The film shows both the devastation of internalized homophobia and the transformational power of living an authentic life. The film also documents the conflicting responses from Nashville, the heartland and the LGBT community as Chely Wright prepares for an unknown future.
While on a class observation trip at a local mental hospital, young psychology major, Abby Jones has a chilling encounter with high-risk patient, Harmon. She returns home for an evening of normal study with her two roommates unaware of the darkness shes awakened within him.
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.
Dr. Steven Sorenson plans to tap the geothermal energy of the Earth’s interior by means of a thermonuclear device detonated deep within the Earth.This experiment causes a crack to form and grow within the earth’s crust, which threatens to split the earth in two if it is not stopped in time.
The story of how police repeatedly allowed a serial murderer to slip through their fingers. Stephen Port date-raped and murdered four young gay men in East London within fifteen months and dumped all four bodies within a few hundred metres of each other. The film tells the story through eyes of the families of Port’s victims, unpicking how the police failed to properly investigate each of the deaths in turn. The police’s assumptions that these young gay men had died from self-inflicted overdoses of chem-sex drugs allowed Port to continue raping and killing innocent young men.
In 1671, with war brewing with Holland, a penniless prince invites Louis XIV to three days of festivities at a chateau in Chantilly. The prince wants a commission as a general, so the extravagances are to impress the king. In charge of all is the steward, Vatel, a man of honor, talent, and low birth. The prince is craven in his longing for stature: no task is too menial or dishonorable for him to give Vatel. While Vatel tries to sustain dignity, he finds himself attracted to Anne de Montausier, the king’s newest mistress. In Vatel, she finds someone who’s authentic, living out his principles within the casual cruelties of court politics. Can the two of them escape unscathed?
Join our fiendish host, Dr. Vincent Van Gore, as he leads you into the forbidden world of the dead. Only the nastiest car accidents, suicides and murders are here; faithfully and explicitly documented through actual crime scene investigations by police and emergency response teams from around the world. Everything you see is real; nothing has been faked. There are no boring autopsies or old World War II footage. Only the best and bloodiest corpses killed within the past 10 years are good enough to become the FACES OF GORE! If you cannot handle smashed brains, bug-eyed corpses and char-boiled fetuses, then DO NOT WATCH THIS DVD! Nothing you have ever seen before can prepare you for this breakthrough new horror film by TODD TJERSLAND, the Visionary Overlord of American Horror!
Based on a true story, “Dynamite: A Cautionary Tale” follows family man Max Bornstein who was a full-time dope fiend working within the underground, highly illegal pornography industry in 1968’s New York City. While running books and films to delivery points and mob headquarters around the east coast, Max had the Feds on his tail. But even in the wake of a federal investigation, Max’s truest worry was his wife and two young children, a family kept in the dark about Max’s reality and the walls of it caving in around him. As Max battles his consuming addiction, dissolving family unit and the growing suspicion about his drug use amongst his associates, Max watches helplessly as his well-crafted reality falls to pieces, leaving him searching for the spaces in between.
This documentary places the Bush Administration’s original justifications for war in Iraq within the larger context of a two-decade struggle by neo-conservatives to dramatically increase military spending while projecting American power and influence globally by means of force.
After the death of her husband, the mother of Julie, Jack, Sue and Tom begins to suffer from a mysterious illness. Aware that she is going to have to go into hospital she opens a bank account for the children, so that they can be financially self-sufficient and will be able to avoid being taken into care by the authorities. Unfortunately she also dies and Julie and Jack (the older, teenage children) decide to hide her body in the basement so that they can have free reign of their household. Soon Tom has taken to dressing as a girl whilst Sue has become increasingly reticent, confiding only to her diary, meanwhile Jack and Julie sense an attraction developing for each other. However Julie’s new beau, Derek, threatens to unearth the many dark secrets within this family as he becomes increasingly suspicious of Jack.
Two business partners, John Bennett, Sr. and Robert Forrester, are starting to get nervous when the birthday of Victoria, Forrester’s daughter, approaches. A long time ago the two men made an arrangement that they would sign over one third of their company to their oldest children when they turned twenty-one, with the condition they married each other within thirty days….
The loyalty of a tight group of friends is put to the test when there’s a date rape within the circle.
Peter and Chloe, a young married couple from New York, decide on impulse to take a belated honeymoon on-board a research vessel en route to the icy wastes of Antarctica. Not long into the journey, Chloe begins to feel neglected and betrayed by Peter, who is focused on gathering information for an article he plans to publish on their return about the work of one of their fellow passengers, the whale biologist Roger Payne. After an unforgivable betrayal of trust by Peter, Chloe turns their fledgling marriage upside down by moving into her own room and staking out her independence onboard the ship. Drawing attention to the poles within each of us, the impressionistic story oscillates between the super-confined interiors of the ship and the vast open spaces of Antarctica. In the end, it’s not until Chloe and Peter are lost – perhaps literally, perhaps metaphorically – in the Antarctic ice that they discover how essential one is to the other.
The kingdom of Donnegold is being subverted from within, and young prince Davin must defend against the traitors with the help of a legendary, metal-eating dragon called Galgameth.
UFOs: weapons of mass deception… For over 60 years teams within the US Air Force and Intelligence services exploited and manipulated beliefs about UFOs and ET visitations as part of their counterintelligence programmes. In doing so they spawned a mythology so powerful that it captivated and warped many brilliant minds, including several of their own. Now, for the first time, some of those behind these operations, and their victims, speak out, revealing a true story that is part Manchurian Candidate and part Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
In her final year at school, Anthropology student Lorraine decides to film her final project – the subject of exorcism within the Catholic Church. Recording interviews with priests from the local diocese, she stumbles upon Fr. Byrne, an older priest who is currently helping a young mother whose daughter is apparently possessed by a demonic force. The curiosity of Lorraine, along with her camera operator, Cathal, leads them down a dark path of discovering the terrifying truth, and things go from strange to worse as all involved become entangled into a frightful journey to save a little girl’s life.
A vampire film with “altitude”. Winner of 9 awards in 2013 from the Beverly Hills Outlook! The year is 1805, the city of Nuestra Señora de La Paz lives in fear of an invasion from the indigenous population, and – within its walls – a rebellion is brewing against the Spanish crown. If this were not enough, a beautiful vampire is terrorizing the population, leaving a bloodbath in her wake. A young Irish spy, on a mission for the rebels, is found near the body of a victim. She is captured, accused of the murders, publicly flogged and sentenced to die by garrote.
Originally broadcast live on October 31, 1987, the “WNUF Halloween Special” is a stunning expose of terrifying supernatural activity that unfolded at the infamous Webber House, the site of ghastly murders. Local television personality Frank Stewart leads a group of paranormal investigators including Catholic exorcist, Father Joseph Matheson and the prolific husband-and-wife team Louis and Claire Berger. Together, the experts explore the darkest corners of the supposedly haunted Webber House, trying to prove the existence of the demonic entities within. Did they find the horrific truth or simply put superstitious rumors to rest? Compiled from the highest quality source material available, this trailer is for the first official release the program has received since its initial broadcast.
The series follows the “untold” story of Leonardo Da Vinci: the genius during his early years in Renaissance Florence. As a 25-year old artist, inventor, swordsman, lover, dreamer and idealist, he struggles to live within the confines of his own reality and time as he begins to not only see the future, but invent it.
Expanding on ideas from “La Tarea” (Homework), Director Jaime Humberto Hermosillo continues his story, now of a young man completing an assignment for his film/video class. The young man invites Marieda, a middle-aged woman, over to his aunt’s house to rehearse for a video drama she believes they will eventually record. But she doesn’t realize that she is being videotaped since her arrival. After a faux-sex scene rehearsal, they do make love, which causes an unexpected reaction within the young man. Minutes later the real horror of their true relationship is revealed!
Unhinged by his girlfriend’s sudden departure, artist Angus begins slipping into a dark layer of reality ruled by a powerful demon. Believing that the key to finding her lies within, Angus plunges deeper into the infernal netherworld.
The Jewish Cardinal tells the amazing true story of Jean-Marie Lustiger, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, who maintained his cultural identity as a Jew even after converting to Catholicism at a young age, and later joining the priesthood. Quickly rising within the ranks of the Church, Lustiger was appointed Archbishop of Paris by Pope John Paul II―and found a new platform to celebrate his dual identity as a Catholic Jew, earning him both friends and enemies from either group. When Carmelite nuns settle down to build a convent within the cursed walls of Auschwitz, Lustiger finds himself a mediator between the two communities―and he may be forced, at last, to choose his side.
After Satoru Watarai graduated from elementary school, he dropped out of school and decided to live within his apartment complex, never to venture outside. Satoru Watari then meets his old friends as they are coming back from their middle school classes. Satoru has now gotten a job at a cake shop within the apartment complex and eventually gets engaged to one of his friends. Satoru, still lives within the apartment complex only, but, as time passes, more of his friends leave ..
Set within the Kaga Domain in the Edo Period. Oharu is an excellent cook and recognized for her skills. Due to her cooking talents, she marries Yasunobu, who is an heir in the Funaki family. The Funaki family serves as the cook for the Kaga Domain. Nevertheless, Yasunobu himself is a terrible cook. With the help of Oharu’s mother-in-law Mitsuru, she begins to teach Yasunobu how to cook.
Eleanor Shellstrop, an ordinary woman who, through an extraordinary string of events, enters the afterlife where she comes to realize that she hasn’t been a very good person. With the help of her wise afterlife mentor, she’s determined to shed her old way of living and discover the awesome (or at least the pretty good) person within.
On 28 November 1979, an Air New Zealand jet with 257 passengers went missing during a sightseeing tour over Antarctica. Within hours 11 ordinary police officers were called to duty to face the formidable Mount Erebus. As the police recovered the victims, an investigation team tried to uncover the mystery of how a jet could fly into a mountain in broad daylight. Did the airline have a secret it wanted to bury? This film tells the story of four New Zealand police officers who went to Antarctica as part of the police operation to recover the victims of the crash. Set in the beautiful yet hostile environment of Antarctica, this is the emotional and compelling true story of an extraordinary police operation.
Four erotic tales from in various historical eras. The first, ‘The Tide’, is set in the present day, and concerns a student and his young female cousin stranded on the beach by the tide, secluded from prying eyes. ‘Therese Philosophe’ is set in the nineteenth century, and concerns a girl being locked in her bedroom, where she contemplates the erotic potential of the objects contained within it. ‘Erzsebet Bathory’ is a portrait of the sixteenth-century countess who allegedly bathed in the blood of virgins, while ‘Lucrezia Borgia’ concerns an incestuous fifteenth-century orgy involving Lucrezia, her brother, and her father the Pope.
The ostensibly simple story of a sympathetic veteran teacher giving Italian lessons to a weekly class of diverse immigrants is given infinitely more depth and complexity by the manner in which director Daniele Gaglianone renders his story. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, truth and artifice, and between documentary and drama, Gaglianone has created a film within a film. You see the apparent artifice of Gaglianone’s crew using professionals, including the noted film actor Valerio Mastandrea as the teacher, interlinked with ‘real’ immigrant protagonists, studying the language to improve their chances of employment and of gaining a permanent residence permit. Thus in the course of the lessons there is simultaneously the painful and upsetting relation of the students’ personal stories but also humour, as they interact and share their humanity, bridging cultural differences, united in their striving to make a better life for themselves. (Source: LFF programme)
