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Timely and wise, this feature documentary explores the state of prostitution laws in Canada. Buying Sex captures the complexity of the issue by listening to the frequently conflicting voices of sex workers, policy-makers, lawyers and even the male buyers who make their claim for why prostitution is good for society. Examining the realities in Sweden and New Zealand, and respecting the differences of ideology as Canada works its way toward an uneasy consensus, the film challenges us to think for ourselves and offers a gripping and invaluable account of just what is at stake for all of us.
A story set in Indochina in 1959, a lawless land controlled by the criminal class: Vietnamese warlords and European war-criminals. Den-Dhin-Chan Labor Camp is run by four such dangerous men. The worst prison in the land, it is here that an Irish, former-champion boxer Martin Tillman has made a name for himself fighting tournaments, on which wealthy criminals gamble in high stakes events. When Tillman is due for release, he just wants to return home, but the corrupt forces running the jail will do everything in their power to keep him locked down. When all that Tillman holds dear is taken away in a vicious act of violence, he is forced to confront the men responsible and take his revenge. The birth of a legend.
In 1945, as Stalin sets his hands over Poland, famous painter Wladislaw Strzeminski refuses to compromise on his art with the doctrines of social realism. Persecuted, expelled from his chair at the University, he’s eventually erased from the museums’ walls. With the help of some of his students, he starts fighting against the Party and becomes the symbol of an artistic resistance against intellectual tyranny.
This remake of 1981’s Goodbye Pork Pie tracks the escapades of a trio of accidental outlaws as they travel the length of New Zealand protesting conformity and chasing lost love, with a posse of cops and a media frenzy in pursuit.
When an American cop witnesses his mentor’s murder in a trade deal gone wrong, he finds himself on the wrong side of the law in Thailand. But despite the bounty on his head and pressure to leave the country, he teams up with an ex-military mercenary out to settle a score of his own to bring the killers to justice. Their quest for vengeance brings them face-to-face with a band of notorious
Accused of killing his brother during adolescence, Salvador lives alone in the middle of Patagonia. Several decades later, his brother Marcos and his sister-in-law Laura, come to convince him to sell the lands they share by inheritance.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is really just as much the story of Gabriel John Utterson, a lawyer and good friend of Dr. Henry Jekyll. More importantly, Utterson is a Victorian Gentleman, who is guided by a chivalry-like code to remain loyal to his friends and maintain his status in society. It is loyalty that drives Utterson to play detective in an effort to protect Jekyll from the malicious and scheming Mr. Hyde. Eventually, Utterson finds himself introduced to a world that he is neither ready to enter nor accept. The story takes place in Victorian-era England, after the Industrial Revolution. Utterson, a lawyer, and true Victorian Gentleman, discovers that his long-time friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, has become involved with a mysterious and dangerous man named Edward Hyde. Jekyll is a tall, handsome man with a very high social status, which he is expected to maintain. Hyde is a complete opposite, short and vulgar, with an unidentifiable deformity.
Trained in clandestine combat from childhood, the Jinyiwei were masters of the 14 Blades; eight being for torture, five for killing, and the last blade reserved for suicide when a mission failed. An elite force of secret agents with a license to kill, the Jinyiwei devoted their lives and lethal prowess to the service of the Emperor alone. When the Imperial Court is taken over by evil eunuch Jia (Law Kar Ying), the best of the Jinyiwei, Qinglong (Donnie Yen) is assigned to steal a list identifying those still loyal to the Emperor. However unbeknownst to Qinglong, the Jinyiwei have fallen under the control of Jia, and during the mission Qinglong is betrayed and barely escapes with his life. Now as the most wanted man in the land, Qinglong must seek out and rally the loyalists to rise against Jia and restore the Emperor to power. In his way are the deadliest assassins in the land, his former brethren, the Jinyiwei.
Open on gorgeous swamplands of the Atchafalaya Basin in the summer. Lots of beautiful teens are at the beach the weekend before Gator Fest. That night an animal smuggling deal goes wrong and a large sea creature escapes into a swampy backwoods river. At the McDaniel’s “Gator Shack” restaurant, a local, Jackson is drunk, and gets mangled to bits. The town sheriff blames the carnage on the McDaniel’s “escaped” pack of gators and tries hauling them off to jail. Rachel McDaniel, head of the family, claims to have seen the fin of a shark! Rachel and her family, along with the help of a mysterious stranger, Charlie, take on the Swampshark and the law to clear their names, save Rachel’s kid sister Krystal and prevent the unwitting folks at the upcoming Gator Fest from being torn to shreds by a beast the likes of which no one has ever seen!
A young woman faces her future as a lawyer in a small New England town where the annual Christmas ice sculpting competition in which she and her father have always competed has been cancelled. Working to save the festival, she meets a reluctant sculptor who reignites her passion, in more ways than one.
The provocative tale of a woman who snaps under crushing life pressures and assumes the psyche of a vicious dog. Her philandering, absentee husband is forced to become reacquainted with his four children and sister-in-law as they attempt to keep the family together during this bizarre crisis.
In the dusty streets of Crow’s Landing, outlaws, wealthy plantation owners, runaway slaves, a half Cherokee girl, a pair of brothel owners and a woman days away from giving birth all end up in a bloody shoot out and running for their lives.
Meet Captain BRET HUNTER (Ryan Caldwell), a former Alliance navy man gone AWOL, and his ragtag crew and passengers aboard the OVERLAND, a scrappy transport ship on the outskirts of the galaxy and the law. Along for the ride are: CAROLINE STACK (Jennifer Wenger), a formidable bounty huntress and co-owner of the ship. Ships pilot TRAVIS “YOKE” SANDSPUR (Peter Weidman), an old Navy buddy of the captain. RUSTY DUVALL (Zack Finfrock), awkward and genius ships mechanic. MARIBELLE CRAWFORD (Tybee Diskin), a runaway Governor’s daughter and master markswoman as well as JON “CHOW” ZHOU (Ewan Chung), a traveling salesman/conman attempting to make a buck and show his worth on board. After rounding up ANNIE WHITEHALL (Alex Marshall-Brown), an unlikely bounty wanted for murder, Stack commissions Captain Hunter to deliver the girl to a border planet, but COMMODORE WOODRUFF (Vic Mignogna) may have other plans.
On the eve of legalization a marijuana grower is brutally murdered. His best friend, against the advice of his mentor (Cheech Marin, Up in Smoke), teams up with a suspended narcotics investigator (A.C. Peterson, Shooter) to find the killer. Dark Harvest’s lawless marijuana landscape creates a web of sexual intrigue and violence in which the cop and grower are forced to settle their moral differences to stop a cunning psychopath, and uncover a truth much bigger than the stolen drugs.
In Providence, Rhode Island, habitually widowed Atalanta pays a visit to her second-rate lawyer Barry Dragonetti. Intending to settle her latest husband’s affairs, this larger-than-life Greek tightwad quickly becomes a nightmare for her cheesy, self-aggrandizing attorney.
McCord’s gang robs the stage carrying money to pay Indians for their land, and the notorious outlaw “The Oklahoma Kid” Jim Kincaid takes the money from McCord. McCord stakes a “sooner” claim on land which is to be used for a new town; in exchange for giving it up he gets control of gambling and saloons. When Kincaid’s father runs for mayor, McCord incites a mob to lynch the old man whom McCord has already framed for murder.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg now 84, and still inspired by the lawyers who defended free speech during the Red Scare, Ginsburg refuses to relinquish her passionate duty, steadily fighting for equal rights for all citizens under the law. Through intimate interviews and unprecedented access to Ginsburg’s life outside the court, RBG tells the electric story of Ginsburg’s consuming love affairs with both the Constitution and her beloved husband Marty—and of a life’s work that led her to become an icon of justice in the highest court in the land.
Big-city lawyer Casey McKay, is drawn to a small town by his ex-wife to defend her brother, accused of murdering a DA. He discovers a web of conspiracy that puts him face-to-face with the town’s most corrupt land developer, Mr. Gates.
In Norway on 22 July 2011, right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik murdered 77 young people attending a Labour Party Youth Camp on Utöya Island outside of Oslo. This three-part story will focus on the survivors of the attacks, the political leadership of Norway, and the lawyers involved.
A happy and unbelievably lucky young Irish immigrant, John Lawless, lands a job as the butler of an unconventional millionaire, Biddle. His daughter, Cordelia Drexel Biddle, tires of the unusual antics of her father–especially since the nice young men around town all fear him. Wouldn’t you fear a father-in-law that keeps alligators for pets and teaches boxing at his daily Bible classes?
Kenya McQueen, a corporate lawyer finds love in the most unexpected place when she agrees to go on a blind date with Brian Kelly, a sexy and free-spirited landscaper.
Spirited New Yorker Linda Voss goes to work for international lawyer and secret Office of Strategic Services operative Ed Leland just before World War II. As they fall in love, the United States enters the fight against Hitler, and Linda volunteers to work for Ed spying undercover behind Nazi lines. Assigned to uncover information about a German bomb, Linda also has personal motives to fulfill: discovering the fate of her Jewish family members in Berlin.
Over four years of unprecedented access, the story of a brave group of black and Latino whistleblower cops and one unrelenting private investigator who, amidst a landmark lawsuit, risk everything to expose illegal quota practices and their impact on young minorities.
“100 Years” is the David vs. Goliath story of Elouise Cobell, a petite, Native American Warrior who filed the largest class action lawsuit ever filed against the United States Government and won a $3.4 billion settlement for 300,000 Native Americans whose mineral-rich lands were mismanaged by the Department of the Interior.
Tom “Putuparri” Lawford is a man caught between two worlds: his past and present in modern society, where he battles with alcoholism and domestic violence; and his future as a leader of his people, reconnecting with his ancestral lands, learning about his traditional culture and shouldering his responsibility to pass this knowledge on to the next generation. Director Nicole Ma spent more than a decade documenting Putuparri’s journey, travelling with him and his family on numerous occasions to Kurtal, in the Kimberley’s Great Sandy Desert region – traditionally a site of great significance as a place where people ritually make rain – as they fight for their native title claim over the area. Set against the backdrop of this long fight for ownership of traditional lands, the MIFF Premiere Fund-supported Putuparri and the Rainmakers is an emotional, visually breathtaking story of love, hope and the survival of Aboriginal law and culture against all odds.
Dubbed “The Cannibal Cop,” former NYPD officer Gilberto Valle was convicted of conspiring to kidnap and eat women in March 2013. Valle had argued it was all a fantasy, but the prosecution’s narrative convinced jurors otherwise. His story made headlines not only for its chilling details, but also because of its landmark decision regarding a man many consider “patient zero” in a growing thought-police trend across the nation. Featuring unprecedented, intimate interviews with Valle and his family, as well as insights from lawyers, journalists, psychological professionals and criminal experts, THOUGHT CRIMES: THE CASE OF THE CANNIBAL COP explores this complicated case, asking if someone can be found guilty for his or her most dangerous thoughts.
A young man, armed with a magical bow and arrows, embarks on a mystical journey through a mystical land to rid it of all evil and joins forces with an outlaw to take down an evil witch bent on claiming the magic bow for evil.
Speedboat racing champion and multimillionaire, Ben Aronoff (Don Aronow), leads a double life that lands him in trouble with the law and drug lords.
A doomsday virus of madness and death has destoyed the world’s adult population. Only the young survive. They watch in horror as their parents go mad and die. Haunted by terrifying memories, they fight for life in a bleak wasteland. Gangs of teens and outlaw children roam the scarred landscape. Sisters Evie and Fran keep to themselves, two outsiders gathering food and moving from town to town.
Heading on a transatlantic voyage at sea from an Italian lab to America, D’Agostino is the story of a human clone left for dead at the shores of Santorini Greece. This lost cargo, commissioned by wealthy individuals for organ tranplants, is abandoned as the freight cannot be recovered. Allan Dawson has recently inherited his grandmother’s island estate. He’s in a loveless relationship with his common law spouse Sylvia. As he finds this interesting freight, what follows is a macabre tale of self realization as Allan proceeds to set himself out of his sedentary existence to mold his latest discovery into a new best friend with dire consequences.
As Poland is placed under martial law in 1981, two confidence tricksters try to evade both the police and the army. They become embroiled in a web of schemes engineered by the secret service, fellow criminals and the democratic resistance.
In the shady campgrounds of Yosemite valley, climbers carved out a counterculture lifestyle of dumpster-diving and wild parties that clashed with the conservative values of the National Park Service. And up on the walls, generation after generation has pushed the limits of climbing, vying amongst each other for supremacy on Yosemite’s cliffs. “Valley Uprising” is the riveting, unforgettable tale of this bold rock climbing tradition in Yosemite National Park: half a century of struggle against the laws of gravity — and the laws of the land.
Bad Seed is the tale of a tiny little seed that some see as good and others believe is evil. Cannabis and hemp can drastically improve the quality of life of people suffering from a wide range of symptoms and illnesses yet people are denied relief due to marijuana’s bad reputation. Is cannabis a bad seed? Or have it’s extraordinary health benefits been unjustly suppressed by government, law enforcement and corporate manipulation? Following the story of a medical marijuana user and activist, filmmaker Shayne Metcalfe delves into the history of cannabis prohibition in Canada, the United States and Mexico over the past century. Incorporating the perspectives of law enforcement, doctors, lawyers, activists, commercial growers, medical patients, historians and entrepreneurs, Bad Seed tells the fascinating story of how one of nature’s gifts came to be vilified and provides an intriguing look at the rapidly changing marijuana landscape.
Law was a chauffeur for the rural tycoon Luk, and he was jailed for killing a major land owner in a car accident. It was rumored that Luk was behind the land owner’s death, which gave Luk a competitive edge in the native apartment development deal. When Law gets out of prison five years later, the world has changed. Luk’s corporation has grown more powerful, while Luk’s right-hand man Keung has his own agenda to pursue. But things take a surprising turn. With the help of Law’s prison mate and computer whiz Joe, Law drugs Sean and his brothers in the drinks, then modify their mobile phones for wiretapping, Joe gets acquainted with the materialistic single mom Eva, who turns out to have a dark history with both Law and Keung. Through the eavesdropping, Law realizes Keung’s ultimate plan, which may change Hong Kong’s land development forever.
For Robbing the Dead is a story of compassion – compassion toward those who may seem the least deserving of Christian love. It follows the story of Henry Heath, a law officer in 1862 Salt Lake City. Heath finds himself responsible for the well-being of a prisoner whom he despises – an impoverished French immigrant named Jean Baptiste who is convicted of robbing the graves of the recently deceased. Baptiste is exiled to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. With no one willing to look after this man, Henry Heath becomes Baptiste’s sole defense against the hostile isolation of Antelope Island and the contempt of an entire community. Through his somewhat reluctant service, Heath’s heart softens and his own sorrows find relief.
Tatsuya Ichihashi kills a British woman who taught English in Japan. Ichihashi escapes the police dragnet to Aomori, 550 kilometres away. Learning that he is wanted by the law, he cuts his own lips to change his features. Burdened by guilt, he continues to avoid the law enforcement. He travels 1000 kilometres to Shikoku to participate in a pilgrimage in hope of resurrecting his murder victim. Obviously it fails and he remains a fugitive. As if to escape his own guilt he changes his identity and has cosmetic surgery to further alter his features. He works at construction sites and when people get suspicious of him he flees to a far-off island in Okinawa where he relies on survival skills.
In this magical tale, two children, Nellie and George, are sent to stay at a country house while their parents are moving. While exploring the local forest, George mysteriously disappears into Faery Land. With the help of a friendly hobgoblin named Broom, Nellie eventually finds George playing with faeries. Since he has just eaten some of their food, he is bound by faerie law to remain in Faery Land forever. Nellie agrees to complete three tasks in return for her brother’s freedom.
