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Candice longs to escape the boredom of her seaside town, but when a boy she dreams about turns up in real life, she becomes involved with a dangerous local gang.
During the time of the Stolen Generations, thousands upon thousands of Aboriginal girls were taken from their families and pressed into domestic servitude by the Australian Government. They were supposedly employed as servants, but with total control over their movements, wages and living conditions, their lives all too frequently became an inescapable cycle of abuse, rape and enslavement, with consequences that echo powerfully to this day. Recounting the stories of five of these women – Rita, Violet and the three Wenberg sisters – Servant or Slave is a commanding piece of first-person testimony to a dark and unacknowledged corner of Australian history. Shot with admirable craft and humanity by documentarian Steven McGregor (Croker Island Exodus, MIFF 2012), Servant or Slave is a work of great sadness and urgency, bringing to forceful life the human tragedy of Australia’s Indigenous history in the unadorned words of those who lived it.
Eunjin who is a living legend among the gangsters dominates the male-centered underworld wielding only a pair of her trademark blades. One day, Eun-jin finds her sister from whom she was separated at an orphanage during childhood, and her sister tells Eun-jin that her last dying wish is to see that Eun-jin gets married.
The story of the Polish fliers who found themselves fighting for the freedom of their own country in foreign skies. Seen through the eyes of Jan Zumbach, fighter ace and adventurer, it tells how the Poles, driven across Europe by the German war machine, finally made their last stand. Flying Hurricanes for the RAF over Britain, they became a key component in the legend of ‘The Few’. Up against the might of the Luftwaffe they hoped that, by saving Great Britain from Nazi invasion, they were keeping the dream of a free Poland alive.
Twenty years ago, the young ‘Five Fingers’ fought for the rural town of Marseilles, against brutal police oppression. Now, after fleeing in disgrace, freedom-fighter-turned-‘outlaw’ Tau returns to Marseilles, seeking only a peaceful pastoral life. When he finds the town under new threat, he must reluctantly fight to free it. Can he free himself from his past? Will the Five Fingers stand again?
Based on a true story, and set in late 1990 against the backdrop of the first gulf war, An American in Texas is the story of lifelong friends as they reach the cusp of adulthood and must decide between the hollow values of corporate careerism; or the narrow way of individualism and freedom.
Ashley Bell and a team of elephant rescuers led by world renowned Asian elephant conservationist Lek Chailert, embark on a daring 48-hour mission across Thailand to rescue a 70-year old captive blind Asian elephant and bring her to freedom.
After years of domestic abuse, Donnie and his agoraphobic mother Helen attempt to make a normal life for themselves, only to find that they can’t shake their unforgiving past.
Richard and Rachel, a couple in the throes of infertility, try to maintain their marriage as they descend deeper and deeper into the insular world of assisted reproduction and domestic adoption.
Lisa Spinelli is a Staten Island teacher who is unusually devoted to her students. When she discovers one of her five-year-olds is a prodigy, she becomes fascinated with the boy, ultimately risking her family and freedom to nurture his talent.
A timid and reclusive 18-year-old high school student is alienated by her parents and ruthlessly rejected by her peers. Desperate and isolated, she confides in her own reflection — and in the mirror she finds her imagined evil twin, someone who supports her, encourages her and knows all her secret desires. When the “girls” trade places, repressed sexuality and a ferocious violence erupt with a dangerous sense of freedom.
Director Robin Hardy’s reimagining of his eerie 1973 film, The Wicker Man. Young Christians Beth and Steve, a gospel singer and her cowboy boyfriend, leave Texas to preach door-to-door in Scotland. When, after initial abuse, they are welcomed with joy and elation to Tressock, the border fiefdom of Sir Lachlan Morrison, they assume their hosts simply want to hear more about Jesus. How innocent and wrong they are.
A classic of the silent age, this film tells the story of the doomed but ultimately canonized 15th-century teenage warrior. On trial for claiming she’d spoken to God, Jeanne d’Arc is subjected to inhumane treatment and scare tactics at the hands of church court officials. Initially bullied into changing her story, Jeanne eventually opts for what she sees as the truth. Her punishment, a famously brutal execution, earns her perpetual martyrdom.
John H. Groberg, a middle class kid from Idaho Falls, crosses the Pacific to become a Mormon missionary in the remote and exotic Tongan island kingdom during the 1950’s. He leaves behind a loving family and the true love of his life, Jean. Through letters and musings across the miles, John shares his humbling and sometimes hilarious adventures with “the girl back home”, and her letters buoy up his spirits in difficult times. John must struggle to overcome language barriers, physical hardship and deep-rooted suspicion to earn the trust and love of the Tongan people he has come to serve. Throughout his adventure-filled three years on the islands, he discovers friends and wisdom in the most unlikely places. John H. Groberg’s Tongan odyssey will change his life forever.
It’s been five years since Terry’s friend Glen discovered The Gate to hell in his backyard. Glen has now moved away and Terry begins practicing rituals in Glen’s old house and eventually bringing back demons through The Gate and leading to demoniac possession and near world domination.
A hitchhiker named Martel Gordone gets in a fight with two bikers over a prostitute, and one of the bikers is killed. Gordone is arrested and sent to prison, where he joins the prison’s boxing team in an effort to secure an early parole and to establish his dominance over the prison’s toughest gang.
Although he’s credited only for story, the dialogue has Fuller’s headline punch, and of course newspapering was an alternative universe he knew inside out. A publisher whose once-honest New York tabloid has been ideologically hijacked is aiming to make a course correction. Minutes after saying, “The power of the press is the freedom to tell the truth–it is not the freedom to twist the truth,” he’s a dead man. The rest of the movie deals with the efforts of his old friend, small-town newsman Guy Kibbee, to complete the paper’s redemption. Made in mid World War II, the picture angrily and explicitly likens homegrown demagoguery to Nazism–and its condemnation of media organizations “playing on the prejudices of stupid people” has acquired fresh relevance. Otto Kruger and Victor Jory (“a little Himmler”) supply the villainy, while Lee Tracy steps up to save the day as a casehardened yellow journalist named Griff.
David Hare’s account of a one-time French freedom fighter who gradually realizes that her post-war life is not meeting her expectations.
A film adaptation of the novelette of the same title written by Dominik Tatarka depicts the life of a young generation of artists that was formed in Slovakia during the war. Anabella, a young and beautiful girl meets a group of artists. She awakens their erotic desires but also pure feelings of love; she becomes the object of their secret fantasies as well as their artistic inspiration. And it seems that the boundaries between reality and fantasy suddenly cease to exist.
A Connecticut nurse finds herself at the center of a political firestorm and a Supreme Court case centering on eminent domain.
Rich Froning Jr entered the 2014 CrossFit Games competition with three consecutive victories, a feat that no other athlete had accomplished. After finding CrossFit in 2009, Froning began a history-making career, finishing second at the CrossFit Games in 2010 and dominating the competition for the next four years. His four titles, five trips to the podium, 16 event wins, 35 top-five event finishes and 45 top-10 event finishes are all records, and he’s revered in the community. Froning’s athletic prowess has been under the microscope for five years, but there’s much more to the man from Tennessee than snatches and pull-ups. In this in-depth documentary by Heber Cannon, take a look into the life and childhood of the fittest man in history, follow his quest to a fourth straight CrossFit Games championship, and see him as a son, a husband, and a new father.
This martial arts spectacular showcases 20-year-old Erh Tung-sheng (a.k.a. Derek Yee). Even Variety noted: “Erh’s charismatic screen presence should take him to superstardom like his older brother, David Chiang.” The prediction proved correct, and his performance as ace swordsman Third Master is just what any producer would want. He fights evil, saves damsels in distress (including a kindhearted prostitute played by Chow Yun-fat’s first wife, Yu An-an), and duels rival swordsmen to the, well, death.
Julia Lambert is a true diva: beautiful, talented, weathly and famous. She has it all – including a devoted husband who has mastermined her brilliant career – but after years of shining in the spotlight she begins to suffer from a severe case of boredom and longs for something new and exciting to put the twinkle back in her eye. Julia finds exactly what she’s looking for in a handsome young American fan, but it isn’t long before the novelty fling adds a few more sparks than she was hoping for. Fortuately for her, this surprise twist in the plot will thrust her back into the greatest role of her life.
In foggy London Dr Jekyll experiments on newly deceased women determined to discover an elixir for immortal life. Success enables his spectacular transformation into the beautiful but psychotic Sister Hyde who stalks the dark alleys of Whitechapel for young, innocent, female victims, ensuring continuation of the bloodstained research. With each transformation Sister Hyde becomes the more dominant personality, determined to eventually suppress the frail, ineffectual Dr Jekyll forever.
A pack of domesticated dogs go on a killing spree in southern California.
10+10 is a project initiated by the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival to demonstrate the solidarity between Taiwanese film-makers. 20 directors are invited to make a 5-minute short film each on the theme of the “Uniqueness of Taiwan,” but allowed total freedom in all other aspects.
Joel Gilbert’s directing style is on full display here with a vapid look at how Donald Trump dominated the 2016 race, using The Art of the Insult to brand political opponents and bash the media all the way to the White House.
Shot at Bell County Jail in Texas, Ali Siddiq: It’s Bigger Than These Bars shares Ali’s hilarious experiences of both incarceration and freedom. Siddiq talks with jailers and the jailed about life in lockup, and explains why dousing yourself in baby oil and refusing to leave your cell is always a bad idea. Encouraging and inspiring his convict audience, Ali makes hard laughs out of hard time, restoring faith in the power of second chances.
From a graffiti artist speaking out against domestic violence in the favelas of Brazil to a dancer rehabilitating sex-trafficking survivors in India, Little Stones profiles four women, each of whom are contributing a stone to the mosaic of the women’s movement through their art. The film and accompanying education initiative have been designed to raise awareness about global women’s rights issues, and to celebrate creative, entrepreneurial, and arts-therapy based solutions to the most pressing challenges facing women globally.
Although evidence of meat consumption’s negative impact on the planet and on human health continue stacking up as animal welfare is on the decline, humanity’s love affair with hamburgers, steaks, nuggets and chops just doesn’t end. In The End of Meat, filmmaker Marc Pierschel embarks on a journey to discover what effect a post-meat world would have on the environment, the animals and ourselves. He meets Esther the Wonder Pig, who became an internet phenomenon; talks to pioneers leading the vegan movement in Germany; visits the first fully vegetarian city in India; witnesses rescued farm animals enjoying their newly found freedom; observes the future food innovators making meat and dairy without the animals, even harvesting “bacon” from the ocean and much more. The End of Meat reveals the hidden impact of meat consumption; explores the opportunities and benefits of a shift to a more compassionate diet; and raises critical questions about the future role of animals in our society.
For millennia, mankind has sought the mythical substance known as the “Elixir of Life.” The allure of Immortality has toppled kingdoms and changed the course of world power over a long course of history and conquest. From ancient Egypt to medieval Europe, great civilizations have secretly worked tirelessly to discover the power of its secret. Legends say the elixir was handed down from the gods at the dawn of time, and that it held as the ultimate power, the power to rule for eternity. While many have claimed to hold this most sacred of secrets, new research reveals a shocking clandestine secret hidden for centuries. Finally, the truth behind the Holy Grail and the Philosopher’s Stone can be revealed.
Based on a real warrior from Thailands Ayutthaya period, ‘Broken Sword Hero’ follows the heroics of legendary military general Thongdee. From the disparity as a young runaway to the toughest warrior among his people, a legendary fighter with unparalleled skills in Muay Thai and swordplay, fights for the freedom of his people.
While a virus that causes the dead to reanimate brings the world to its knees, the scientist responsible entrusts his cataclysmic findings to Katya Nevin, a troubled ex-war correspondent turned anchor-woman at W.W News. While she and the rest of her crew witness the collapse of society via video feeds from around the globe, a deadly special agent climbs the building floor by floor, his only goal to ensure her silence. Armed only with information and an indomitable will to live, Katya must overcome her crippling anxiety and learn to lead in order to make it out of the studio and into a terrifying new world where only the dead survive.
Documentary looking at the black market website known as the Silk Road, which emerged on the darknet in 2011. This ‘Amazon of illegal drugs’ was the brainchild of a mysterious, libertarian intellectual operating under the avatar The Dread Pirate Roberts. Promising its users complete anonymity and total freedom from government regulation or scrutiny, Silk Road became a million-dollar digital drugs cartel.
A story about four spanish people who see themselves as freaks and seldom go outside…
Hibiscus (Suivai Pilisipi Autagavaia, from short film Manurewa) and the take no nonsense Ruth (Anna-Maree Thomas) have been friends since school. But now Hibiscus is in her final year of university, and her domineering mother doesn’t want any boyfriends getting in the way; so Hibiscus enlists Ruth’s help, to handle the temptations of a line of potential suitors.