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Tom Waits is one of the most original musicians of the last five decades. Renowned for his gravelly voice and dazzling mix of musical styles, he’s also one of modern music’s most enigmatic and influential artists. Using rare archive, audio recordings and interviews, this film is a bewitching after-hours trip through the surreal, moonlit world of Waits’ music – a portrait of a pioneering musician and his unique, alternative American songbook.
THE DWARVENAUT gives viewers a glimpse into the unique mind of Brooklyn-based artist and entrepreneur Stefan Pokorny. Director Josh Bishop weaves memories of Stefan’s tumultuous childhood with his current struggles and triumphs to paint a mesmerizing portrait. An art prodigy obsessed from a young age with Dungeons & Dragons, Stefan navigates absurd adventures—from Wisconsin to Venice to Bushwick—on a quest to bring his most personal project to life through an ambitious multimillion dollar Kickstarter campaign. Part philosopher, part jester, he preaches the virtues of fantasy gaming as a vehicle for uniting the human race on his whimsical, bizarre life’s journey.
There are 100,000 US citizens in solitary confinement across the country, a staggering number prompting comment from both President Obama and the Pope. Situated in rural Virginia, 300 miles from any urban center, Red Onion State Prison is one of over 40 supermax prisons across the US built to hold prisoners in eight-by-ten-foot cells for 23 hours a day. Filmed over the course of one year, this eye-opening film braids stark prison imagery, stories from correction officers, and intimate reflections from the men who are locked up in isolation. The inmates share the paths that led them to prison and their daily struggles to maintain their sanity.
Shot mainly in South East London, it’s about Micky Mason, a skilled manual worker who, since the Crash, can find nothing but menial zero hours jobs. He takes a course of action that is completely out of character, but it’s the only way he can see of keeping his family together. It is about surviving, but it’s not all anguish and despair – it’s also warm and tender, and funny. It’s about people finding their way through. It’s about Micky Mason; a man out there, right now, doing his best.
After 20 years of praying for his daughter to let him back into her life, a 65-year-old Ty gets his wish when the prodigal requests his help in dealing with a financial bind and her rebellious teenage son. Ty’s first encounter with his grandson, whom the grandfather has never met, leads to a challenge for a two mile race that alters the course of life of the young man as well as the grandfather.
“If buildings could talk, what would they say about us?” CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE offers six startling responses. This 3D film project about the soul of buildings allows six iconic and very different buildings to speak for themselves, examining human life from the unblinking perspective of a manmade structure. Six acclaimed filmmakers bring their own visual style and artistic approach to the project. Buildings, they show us, are material manifestations of human thought and action: the Berlin Philharmonic, an icon of modernity; the National Library of Russia, a kingdom of thoughts; Halden Prison, the world’s most humane prison; the Salk Institute, an institute for breakthrough science; the Oslo Opera House, a futuristic symbiosis of art and life; and the Centre Pompidou, a modern culture machine. CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE explores how each of these landmarks reflects our culture and guards our collective memory.
An absentee father and his bipolar son are forced to live together as they struggle with a recent family tragedy. The tension and anxiety boil as they live and try to cope in a tiny apartment. As time passes, they realize their shared pain is not their only source of grief, as they find the outside world is a cruel and unjust place.
Why do human beings get married in almost every society in the world? Why do we cheat? Why is monogamy so important to a relationship and why does infidelity cause so much grief? These are some of the questions acclaimed documentary filmmaker Dhruv Dhawan confronts in his next feature length documentary which explores why human beings evolved cultures of marriage and monogamy that are rife with infidelity. As he attends various lavish weddings occurring within his family, Dhruv is pestered to follow suit but is haunted by his family’s history of infidelity, as well as his own and embarks on a personal quest to discover the origins of marriage, the reasons for monogamy and the pain of infidelity as he tries to mediate an open relationship with the woman he loves. Dhruv’s search takes us on a journey into the biology of sex, the history of patriarchy and the politics of monogamy told through the lives of scientists, swingers, adulterers and Dhruv’s own family.
After losing his twin brother to cancer, Dave Nowick is left to fulfill his brother’s parting wish, “Take care of our wrestling club.” Coach Dave walks the fine line between winning and personal growth in one of the world’s elite sports, finding a new perspective and healing along the way.
Twenty-five years after Roseanne Barr’s groundbreaking number-one sitcom, Roseanne for President tells the tale of her 2012 grassroots campaign for President of the United States. While Roseanne may have revolutionized the way Americans talked about family, class, race, gender, and gay rights, this campaign trail adventure is a personal account of Roseanne’s thoughts on these subjects—and others, as we have never heard them before. What seems at first like a political profile quickly becomes a humorous and sentimental picture of an icon. This surprising journey uncovers raw and revealing moments from Roseanne’s private world, while juxtaposing her current influence as a politician with her role as a comedy leader in the ’90s.
Paul “OtaKing” Johnson drops a real treat in the form of this “Star Wars: TIE Fighter” animated short. Complete with appropriately radical electric guitar solos and impressive attention to detail, “TIE Fighter” casts the forces of the Galactic Empire not in the role of disposable cannon fodder seen in the Star Wars films, but as near-suicidally reckless angels of death. Johnson animated this 7-minute short over the course of “four years’ worth of weekends,” and his love and attention-to-detail shows.
As society tackles the problem of feeding our expanding population safely and sustainably, a schism has arisen between scientists and consumers, motivated by fear and distrust. Food Evolution, narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, explores the polarized debate surrounding GMOs. Looking at the real-world application of food science in the past and present, the film argues for sound science and open-mindedness in a culture that increasingly shows resistance to both.
This documentary covers the span of George Michael’s entire career, concentrating on the formative period in the late Grammy® Award winner’s life and career, leading up to and following the making of his acclaimed, best-selling album “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1” and his subsequent, infamous High Court battle with his record label that followed, while also becoming poignantly personal about the death of his late partner and first love, Anselmo Feleppa.
This two-hour premiere special analyzes with new details and revelations the case that led to Simpson’s conviction for armed robbery. Included: the scene of the crime in room 1203 at the Palace Station Casino and the chilling details that led to O.J. Simpson’s verdict.
Imagine eating nothing but traditional, authentic Japanese cooking for 12 weeks. What sort of health benefits would this kind of diet have on one’s body? In a dieting experiment similar to Supersize Me, but towards improving health, award-winning actor and comedian Craig Anderson does just this. Through a series of entertaining and educational scenarios filled with culinary secrets and cultural chaos, Craig investigates how the traditional Japanese diet, along with their active lifestyles, results in the Japanese population being the healthiest and longest living people on the planet. Miso Hungry is a light-hearted documentary about one man’s journey to find a simple, painless path towards a healthier life.
Drawing on the collections of major Russian institutions, contributions from contemporary artists, curators and performers and personal testimony from the descendants of those involved, the film brings the artists of the Russian Avant-Garde to life. It tells the stories of artists like Chagall, Kandinsky and Malevich – pioneers who flourished in response to the challenge of building a new art for a new world, only to be broken by implacable authority after 15 short years and silenced by Stalin’s Socialist Realism.
“How comes no one has ever made a film about The Melvins?” Well, no one has ever tried or thought it even possible…..until now that is. The Colossus Of Destiny – A Melvins Tale is a film about a band who have defied all the rules, for over 32 years and counting, and still managed to succeed and do it their own way. The journey of band members King Buzzo and Dale Crover leads us from the backwards-waters of the Chehalis River in Washington State, down through the Golden Gate of Northern California, and finally settling into the Los Angeles River Basin of Southern California. With the rest of the world thrown in along the way. You will witness first hand the beliefs and attitudes, values and obscenities, slows and fasts, triumphs and toils, loves and hates, wits and giggles of a hugely talented and influential band. And you will also come away with a lesson in how to survive in the wicked world of the music biz without taking yourself too damn seriously.
Creepers – Horror Anthology Movie Volume Two features four tales of terror from contemporary authors Joe R. Lansdale and Jeff Strand and classic horror writers Edgar Allan Poe and Lafcadio Hearn. Directed by filmmakers Jeremiah Kipp, Gregory Lamberson, Christian Walker and Mike T. Lyddon.
Antarctica lives in our dreams as the most remote, the most forbidding continent on Planet Earth. It is a huge land covered with ice as thick as three miles, seemingly invulnerable, cold and dark for eight months of the year. Yet Antarctica is also a fragile place, home to an incredible variety of life along its edges, arguably the most stunning, breathtaking and still-pristine place on earth. The one constant is that it is constantly changing, every season, every day, every hour. I’ve been fortunate to travel to Antarctica many times; most recently with 3D cameras, a first for the continent. The result is our new film, Antarctica: On the Edge.
German American artist Eva Hesse (1936 – 1970) created her innovative art in latex and fiberglass in the whirling aesthetic vortex of 1960s New York. Her flowing forms were in part a reaction to the rigid structures of then-popular minimalism, a male-dominated movement. Hesse’s complicated personal life encompassed not only a chaotic 1930s Germany, but also illness and the immigrant culture of New York in the 1940s. One of the twentieth century’s most intriguing artists, she finally receives her due in this film, an emotionally gripping journey with a gifted woman of great courage.
Beyond Food explores the ways a group of extraordinary people live amazing lives, eat delicious food while extracting more energy and mental focus from their daily rituals. Biohackers, Paleo, Vegan, Neuroscientists, Athletes, Foragers, Ranchers, Farmers, Gut scientists. Some of our characters are Dave Asprey (Bulletproof Exec), Mariel Hemingway, Laird Hamilton, James Hardt (Biocybernaut Institute Advanced Neurofeedback) Our target audience is everyone who is desiring to learn how to fuel and create an extraordinary life. Our main purpose is to share the lessons from the journey we lived because it changed our lives.
Disturbing the Peace follows a group of former enemy combatants – Israeli soldiers from the most elite units, and Palestinian fighters, many of whom served years in prison – who have come together to challenge the status quo and and say “enough”. The film traces their transformational journeys from soldiers committed to armed battle to non-violent peace activists. It is a story of the human potential unleashed when we stop participating in a story that no longer serves us, and with the power of our convictions take action to create a new possibility.
“Chile On Hell” was filmed at the Teatro Caupolican in Santiago, Chile on May 10, 2013, and features Anthrax – Joey Belladonna/vocals, Scott Ian/guitar, Charlie Benante/drums, Frank Bello/bass and Jon Donais/lead guitar. The band performed an extended set that featured songs from Anthrax’s entire catalogue – all the fan-favorites including “I Am The Law,” “Indians,” “Madhouse,” “Caught In A Mosh,” “The Devil You Know,” and “I’m Alive.” “Santiago was the perfect place to film the show for this,” said Anthrax’s Charlie Benante. “When we’d played there in the past, we’d finish our set, play our encore and go back to the dressing room. But every time, the fans would continue to scream and cheer and clap. I mean, they went on and on, they wouldn’t stop. One time Scott and I walked out to the side of the stage just to watch what was going on in the audience, it was intense. Why wouldn’t we want to film a DVD in front of an audience like that?
Rise follows real life events of a young nurse, Will McIntyre, who has his freedom taken after a one night stand leads to a charge of rape. Despite his innocence, he is found guilty upon trial. We are taken into the maximum security prison where Jimmy Cove, a hardened inmate, infamous for a string of armed robberies is positively impacted by Will’s courage and struggle to make sense of it all. Meanwhile, a Queen’s Counsel Barrister, Julie Nile, is challenged to compromise her status and wage to prove his innocence.
A military expedition in Siberia gone wrong. The existence of humanity is in peril as Inanna, Sumerian goddess of lust and war has summoned a giant meteor to destroy the planet, after being accidentally set free from her ancient prison. The government has been overturned in a Communist take-over and the citizens of the world; brainwashed. In humanity’s darkest hour, the ancient entity of Gilgamesh, older than the cosmos themselves, must decide whether or not to serve of mankind’s final hope. Meanwhile, Inanna has hand selected the one man; married man and archaeologist, David Murphy, to live out the rest of eternity with her. Gilgamesh and Inanna are quickly targeted by the new government as potential weapons of mass destruction, and soon the apocalypse has begun.
What is art and how does it relate to society? Is its value determined by its popularity or originality? Is the goal profit or expressing one’s personal vision? These are some of the questions raised as we follow fiercely independent New York artist Robert Cenedella in his artistic journey through decades of struggling for creative expression. A student, protégé and friend of German artist George Grosz, Cenedella is now passing on the legacy of Grosz’s approach to art, in the very same room where Grosz taught. In portraying Cenedella’s determination to buck the system of what’s popular while critiquing that popularity in his attempt to turn the art world upside down, ART BASTARD is a funny, touching, and insightful look inside the maverick mind of a true original.
During the “Made in Germany” tour, Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund filmed two acclaimed Rammstein concerts in March 2012 – each for an audience of 17,000 at the Bercy Arena in Paris. In the resulting film (with 16 songs from the entire repertoire), Jonas Åkerlund takes a radically new approach to capturing the emotion and thrill of Rammstein’s live performance. Jonas Åkerlund: “We shot two nights in Paris, and we had 30 cameras, so that gives you 60 angles, plus we shot a dress rehearsal for close-ups. That gives you a massive amount of footage. This is a whole Rammstein-show, and I take the footage and cut it with the same precision that I would a 3-4 minute music video. Even with a big crew of editors, it took us over a year to nail down the edit. Looking at it now – that is the strength of this project. It really brings the show alive and shows what Rammstein is all about.”
Jack, an unappreciated American writer in his sixties, comes to the off-season peninsula of Hel in the north of Poland and isolates himself to write a script. He meets Kail, a local who earns money by making lie-detector tests. Jack doesn’t find any inspiration until some tourists mysteriously disappear – one of them found dead with his tongue cut off. Kail, persuaded by his friend Mila that Jack is the murderer, begins an investigation. The truth turns out to be more twisted when he discovers that Jack is writing about him.
Four desperate teenagers. A night of sexy mayhem. The big city. Or so the plan goes, until a series of misadventures later, Babai, Pele, Ria and Payal end up in a locked shopping mall in the dead of the night. Alone at last… until an old couple appears out of nowhere with a piece of folded leather and a glass container with two dice made of bone. A game. Simple, but deadly. They call it Ludo. A game defiled by a young couple centuries ago. An unbreakable curse, a living board, eons of bloodbath spanning the subcontinent. A game that has reached this city. Not just monsters, but prisoners of fate. Immortal lovers existing under a curse that will not die. They live within the game. Blood must spill. Bone must shatter. Beware the rattle of the Ludo dice.
After his mother unexpectedly dies, 17-year-old Ethan discovers he is the owner of his mother’s horse – a horse he never even knew existed. He travels cross country to live with his grandparents and investigate the mystery. His grandmother is supportive but his angry grandfather Otto doesn’t seem to want him around. Next door live three children who are taking riding lessons at the same farm where his mother’s horse is boarded. Their lives intersect as Ethan deals with his grief over his mother’s death and the children deal with a neighborhood bully whose father works at the horse farm. The journey for Ethan, Otto, the three children, the bully and her father all revolve around a gentle and faithful horse called Bear who deeply touches all their lives. This is a delightful redemption-themed family movie that will appeal to children, teens, horse-lovers and people of all ages.
A documentary exploring the birth, death and resurrection of illustrated movie poster art. Through interviews with a number of key art personalities from the 70s and 80s, as well as many modern, alternative poster artists, “Twenty-Four by Thirty-Six” aims to answer the question: What happened to the illustrated movie poster? Where did it disappear to, and why? In the mid 2000s, filling the void left behind by Hollywood’s abandonment of illustrated movie posters, independent artists and galleries began selling limited edition, screenprinted posters — a movement that has quickly exploded into a booming industry with prints selling out online in seconds, inspiring Hollywood studios to take notice of illustration in movie posters once more.
Johnny Cash: American Rebel is built around 12 essential Johnny Cash tracks spanning four decades that each deliver the passion, musicality and messages against war, injustice, racism and prejudice, including “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Jackson,” “San Quentin,” “Man in Black,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” “Ring of Fire” and “Hurt.” Each song illustrates a chapter in his life, as well the story of an ever-changing America from the 1950s to modern day, as told through interviews, archival concert footage, photographs and personal artifacts from the Cash family.
Artist and life-long nerd Johannes Grenzfurthner is taking us on a personal road trip from the West Coast to the East Coast of the USA, to introduce us to places and people that shaped and inspired his art and politics. Traceroute wants to chase and question the ghosts of nerddom’s past, present and future. An exhilarating tour de farce into the guts of trauma, obsession and cognitive capitalism. Features interviews with Matt Winston, Sandy Stone, Bruce Sterling, Jason Scott, Christina Agapakis, Trevor Paglen, Ryan Finnigan, Kit Stubbs, V. Vale, Sean Bonner, Allison Cameron, Josh Ellingson, Maggie Mayhem, Paolo Pedercini, Steve Tolin, Dan Wilcox, Jon Lebkowsky, Jan “Varka” Mulders, Adam Flynn, Abie Hadjitarkhani, Kelly Poots…
The American Dream Is the cultural motif that has inspired North America for the last century. Work hard, save, sacrifice and you will get ahead. America offers the freedom of upward mobility. But over the last decade the American Dream has been called into question. For many, it no longer seems to be working. The MILLENNIAL DREAM is a feature length documentary that explores the values that may replace the cultural motif known as The American Dream. As the Millennial generation becomes the most significant portion of the work force what will change about what we want from our jobs, what education will look like, what kinds of companies will succeed in the new economy and what kinds of living communities will be desired? And what can cities and regions do to attract the new economy? Interviews with experts such as Seth Godin and the personal reflections of young workers will stir debate and dialogue around what might emerge as the Millennial Dream.
PRAYER NEVER FAILS is a gripping legal drama about an up-and-coming small town high school basketball coach, well on his way to a championship caliber season, when he is fired after he prays with one of his players who is in great need. The movie is powerful, and at its essence, epitomizes Stepping Out On Faith, Facing Failure, Staying In Prayer, Following Your Calling, and Honoring the Will of God.
In a country famous for its success in international beauty pageants, three young women are fighting to participate in their nation’s most celebrated cultural institution. But obtaining a place in the Miss Venezuela contest is no easy task. Women must endure grueling diets, consent to intensive plastic surgery, and find the resources necessary to transform themselves from ordinary citizens into famous and illustrious Misses. To Be a Miss is a character-driven documentary that takes the viewer through the inner workings of Venezuela’s renowned beauty factory, revealing the risks and rewards associated with this multi-billion dollar industry while exposing what nationalism, personal ambition, and the influence of mass media has meant for women in the country.
Four exceptional astronomers celebrate 50 years of work and friendship on a return road trip in the southwestern United States, recapturing youthful adventures and recounting each other’s influences on the most exciting period in astronomy’s history. Roger the instrument-maker, Donald the theoretician, Nick the visionary, and Wal the observer. Together they represent the most productive period astronomy has ever had. They helped build the world’s biggest observatories and made revolutionary discoveries about the evolving universe, discoveries that have the power to change the way humanity sees itself. Alison Rose’s film is a funny, insightful, humbling and intimate portrait of friendship, as the men reflect on how their profound work on the universe has reflected back on the individual, affecting their sense of religious faith, how life may have purpose, and what is knowable and unknowable.
Telling the incredible life story of one of Britain’s most successful athletes and arguably our country’s greatest ever Olympian, Mo Farah opens the doors to his home and gives us a personal insight into his life, enabling us to see a side of him never seen before. Join Mo, his family, and his team in the build up to and throughout the Rio Olympic Games, looking back over his career and remarkable personal journey from Somalia to four-time GB Olympic Champion. Mo reflects on the most memorable, emotional and impactful moments of his life, with contributions from his closest family, friends and sporting peers including Usain Bolt, Thierry Henry, Lord Sebastian Coe, Halie Gebreselassie, Alberto Salazar and Tania Farrah.
Can You Dig This explores the urban gardening revolution currently taking place in South Central Los Angeles, one of the largest food deserts in the country. We follow the inspirational personal journeys of five ‘gangster gardeners,’ all planting the seeds for a better life.
