Lisa and Marine live a life of relative companionship together, where the only man permitted into the equation is Lisa’s young son, Leo. However, their simple existence is thrown into disarray when Marie meets and falls in love with Alex, a customer at her bookshop. Lisa is left feeling excluded, and tension develop. But soon an unexpected accident forces all of those involved to reassess the situation and adopt a different position in each other’s lives.

Manager Pascaline and chef Angelo have been, for several years, striving toward earning the coveted “chef’s hat” in the Gault Millau restaurant guide. Tonight is Valentine’s Day: one of the busiest nights of the year. Angelo provides an appropriate menu and Pascaline lovingly sets the tables. As always, Pascaline has everything under control. Her customers expect a lot tonight. For every couple that has won a table they expect to get love on their plate. Hopefully nothing goes wrong.

The peeping tom rom-com ‘How To Meet Girls From A Distance’ is a funny and heartwarming film that looks at how far we go for a crush. Premiering in Wellington as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival, How To Meet Girls From A Distance tells the story of Toby. Trying to win the heart of the beautiful Phoebe, he is determined to become the man of her dreams.

Worlds collide when a team of brilliant scientists are recruited to work with a secretive government run project called the Phoenix Program to develop counter measures for climate based weaponry. Special Agents Bob Smith and Tom Jones hand picked the team after observing their success with building the worlds first space elevator for the Bonner Prize a secret recruitment project purposed to find the worlds best and brightest. A newly formed terrorist group is using climate based weapons to hold the US and its allies hostage. Using extremely low frequency delivery methods the terrorists can cause earthquakes, alter rain patterns, cause droughts, and create deadly storms seeming out of thin air; but the terrorist threat is not the only challenge for the team. A deadly, vindictive mercenary from their past, Jamal Duegro, has launched a revenge operation to reacquire technologies his clients want returned to them and will stop at nothing in order to protect his interests.

Sakurai Tomoki goes on a trip to a hot spring, and is soon up to his usual perverted antics. In addition, he’s about to receive his first love confession! However, his desire to pass his days peacefully is challenged once again by another Angeloid. Compared with the hostile Angeloids he had encountered in the past, this new Type Zeta Angeloid is by far the most powerful!

Three girls living in Los Angeles, CA in the 1980s found cult fame when they “accidentally” transitioned from models to B-movie actresses, coinciding with the major direct-to-video horror film boom of the era. Known as “The Terrifying Trio,” Linnea Quigley (The Return of the Living Dead), Brinke Stevens (The Slumber Party Massacre) and Michelle Bauer (The Tomb), headlined upwards of ten films per year, fending off men in rubber monster suits, pubescent teenage boys, and deadly showers. They joined together in campy cult films like Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama (1988) and Nightmare Sisters (1987). They traveled all over the world, met President Reagan, and built mini-empires of trading cards, comic books, and model kits. Then it all came crashing down. This documentary remembers these actresses – and their most common collaborators – on how smart they were to play stupid

Detroit’s story has encapsulated the iconic narrative of America over the last century – the Great Migration of African Americans escaping Jim Crow; the rise of manufacturing and the middle class; the love affair with automobiles; the flowering of the American dream; and now… the collapse of the economy and the fading American mythos.

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)

The documentary intersperses archival footage with first-person interviews with disability rights activists who fought discrimination such as Fred Fay, I. King Jordan, Judi Chamberlin and Judith Heumann, and with legislators who helped draft and secure the passage of the ADA, including Tony Coelho and Tom Harkin. From the beginnings of the disability rights movement, when veterans with disabilities returning home from World War II began to demand an end to discrimination and for better access to employment and other social opportunities, Lives Worth Living traces the history of the movement in the United States in roughly chronological order. The film documents how, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, activists with disabilities began to adopt the some of the tactics and strategies used by civil rights activists a decade earlier, including marches, protests, and civil disobedience.

When Tom gets hit on the head by a cricket ball, he finds himself on the miserable children’s ward of St Hugo’s Hospital, where he is greeted by a terrifying-looking porter and wicked matron. But things aren’t as bad as they seem and Tom is soon to embark on the most thrilling journey of a lifetime!

I AM is an utterly engaging and entertaining non-fiction film that poses two practical and provocative questions: what’s wrong with our world, and what can we do to make it better? The filmmaker behind the inquiry is Tom Shadyac, one of Hollywood’s leading comedy practitioners and the creative force behind such blockbusters as “Ace Ventura,” “Liar Liar,” “The Nutty Professor,” and “Bruce Almighty.” However, in I AM, Shadyac steps in front of the camera to recount what happened to him after a cycling accident left him incapacitated, possibly for good. Though he ultimately recovered, he emerged with a new sense of purpose, determined to share his own awakening to his prior life of excess and greed, and to investigate how he as an individual, and we as a race, could improve the way we live and walk in the world.

Dan Mahowny was a rising star at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. At twenty-four he was assistant manager of a major branch in the heart of Toronto’s financial district. To his colleagues he was a workaholic. To his customers, he was astute, decisive and helpful. To his friends, he was a quiet, but humorous man who enjoyed watching sports on television. To his girlfriend, he was shy but engaging. None of them knew the other side of Dan Mahowny–the side that executed the largest single-handed bank fraud in Canadian history, grossing over $10 million in eighteen months to feed his gambling obsession.

Ray Charles plays himself in this film where he helps blind boy David (Piers Bishop) in his struggle to regain his sight. David’s over-protective mother Peggy (Mary Peach) is afraid of the risks connected with restoring his sight. Ray tries to help the whole family, offering the heavy-drinking Peggy’s heavy-drinking partner Steve (Tom Bell) an opportunity to work with his band.

For a seventy-year period, when America cared little about the education of African-Americans, and discrimination was law and custom, The Bordentown School was an educational utopia. An incubator for black pride and intellect, it taught values, discipline, and life skills to generations of black children. This is the story of that remarkable school, as told by Bordentown alumni, historians, and remarkable archival footage. It is also the story of black education in America across three centuries, presenting a nuanced, rarely seen portrait of a separate black space; and a much-needed preface to the growing national discussion about historically black institutions and their role in nurturing identity and accomplishment. What was lost and what was gained in the march toward equality?

A network of older spies from the West recruits a young intelligence officer with a photographic memory to accompany them on a mission inside Russia. They must recover a letter written by the CIA that promises American assistance to Russia if China gets the atomic bomb.

Trek follows a young Mormon teenager named Tom and his friends on their handcart journey. Along the way they try to smuggle in unsanctioned food, battle sibling rivalry, encounter a “special ops” Young Men’s leader, match wits with a twinkie-loving skunk, and ponder doctrinal brain teasers like, “Do general Authorities go to PG-13 movies?” But, when they encounter unexpected trouble, their faith is tested much like their pioneer ancestors.

THE KIDS MENU is a feature documentary from the team that brought you “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.” As filmmaker Joe Cross spent time traveling the world with his previous two films, he met thousands of people and one issue that came up again and again was what to do about the growing childhood obesity problem. In THE KIDS MENU, Joe meets with experts, parents, teachers and kids, coming to the realization that childhood obesity isn’t the real issue, but rather a symptom of a bigger problem. The lack of knowledge of what healthy foods are. Lack of access to healthy and affordable options. And the influence of negative role models, whether a parent, teacher or even a celebrity. All of this together seems to be a lot to overcome, but when empowered, kids often make the surprising choice of the healthier path.

Considered too dangerous to be on the force, ex-cop Mickey McCardle is tormented by the brutal murder of his partner. Obsessed, McCardle must rise from the shambles of his life and take up a trail of revenge. Stars Joe Ambrose and Tom Billett.

TAKE TWO is a true story of a man named Robert and his daughter Kristi. As a decadent Hollywood film producer who bottoms out in Los Angeles and loses everything, he continues to wake up every morning to his same failed life. He decides to leave LA to seek a new life, only to quickly realize he has taken himself with him. In the beginning of his trek he meets a beautiful young woman in a bar in Wyoming and has a one night affair that leads to the birth of a baby girl. He later discovers that he is the father of a 3 year old daughter who is enduring a living hell of abuse, neglect, and poverty; raising her younger siblings on her own. Accepting his new calling to do whatever it takes to rescue his daughter; his journey leads him to cry out to God and cleanup in the process. Together, they discover the meaning of sacrifice, the love of a Father, and God’s sovereignty in the midst of brokenness as they save each other through His faithfulness.

Tommy Tyler, a lazy Caribbean sailor, and his tom-boy daughter, Spring, are out to search for a buried treasure. Tommy brings aboard William Ashton, a young lawyer, to help with the search. Ashton turns out to be handy when they encounter dangerous rivals. Tommy also tries to play match maker between Ashton and Spring – a difficult task indeed.

Tom Turner, a naturalist, comes to the “Topa Topa” district (named for the mountain), and falls in love with widow Margaret Weston…

Eighties teen romp involving Bill and his new apartment, Jim and his rebellious antics, Tom and his crazy self, and Anita with her older man David.

Naoki works as a not so popular host at the host club Akegarasu in Shinagawa, Tokyo. His repayment day is coming soon and he has prepared 10 million yen to pay off his debt. Naoki has a party with his co-workers to celebrate this event, but, when he wakes up the next night, he finds that his money is all gone. Naoki asks his co-workers at the club about his money, but all of them say they didn’t see it. Did Naoki dream he had 10 million yen? If He doesn’t get the money soon, he will be thrown into the bottom of Tokyo Bay. Naoki can’t trust anyone.

Sen no Rikyu (Ebizo Ichikawa) is the son of a fish shop owner. Sen no Rikyu then studies tea and eventually becomes one of the primary influences upon the Japanese tea ceremony. With his elegant esthetics, Sen no Rikyu is favored by the most powerful man in Japan Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Nao Omori) and becomes one of his closest advisors. Due to conflicts, Toyotomi Hideyoshi then orders Sen no Rikyu to commit seppuku (suicide). Notes

Tommy and Gary are criminals engaging in grand thefts in order to make ends meet. They are opportunists and have no fear. After a routine robbery goes awry, the friends are forced to put their criminal activity behind them. As Tommy’s relationship flourishes with his new girlfriend Scarlet, his economic hardships become obvious. Scarlet soon proposes a notion that will make all their money troubles vanish – the heist of a half a million dollar painting. With just a short window of opportunity, Tommy and Gary design an ambitious plan, one that will ultimately determine their fate.

Kim lives with his dad, sells weed to skaters, writes poetry, and snorts painkillers to get through the day. One evening, while strolling through the subdivision painted up as his alter ego Shadow Zombie, Kim catches the eye of a registered nurse and part-time clown Brandi. What follows is a brief romance marked by destruction by the very real phantoms emanating from Kim’s dead-end present and Brandi’s traumatic past. Shooting under near-documentary conditions in and around Lafayette, Louisiana, Jorge Torres-Torres operates peopling his film with a coterie of genuine Acadiana misfits. The merciless and at times unexpectedly poignant observation of Kim’s world dares to see through to the human core of a drug addict or clinically depressed clown.

Get ready to experience the world-famous Scooby-Doo! and Crew like never before in this all-new, original puppet movie! What begins as a routine night for the Gang – which includes the slobbering sleuth and Shaggy eating a triple-extra-large Scooby snack pizza – becomes a mad dash to find the frightening Phantom Parrot, who has a map to pirate Gnarlybeard’s hidden treasure. Scooby sniffs out the map’s clues, which lead him right to a spooky pirate ship. Ruh-roh! What will Gnarlybeard be willing to do to protect his booty? The whole family will love casting off on this mysterious, fun-filled voyage again and again.

Every town has a devil. For the small community of Braxton, that devil is Tommy Miller. A bullied and tormented teen who finally snapped, killing his friends and family at the annual Braxton town hall party, Miller escaped into the woods, never to be seen or heard from again. Until now. Ten years later, a group of fresh-faced teens find themselves targeted by a masked man in a hooded cloak. It’s up to Detective Ryan Fenton and his fish-out-of-water partner to protect the town from Miller’s clutches; there’s just one issue – Ryan himself is a survivor of the original massacre. Is Miller opening up a new chapter, or has he returned to attend to some unfinished business?

In New York’s West Village, the elderly residents of a unique artist community continue to question, challenge and create as though there is no tomorrow.

The Bad Boy Squad, a variety of private detective agency, is composed of King (Ekin Cheng Yi-kin), Queen (Kristy Yeung), and Jack (Louis Koo Tin-lok), whose primary source of business is the reuniting of clientèle with their first flames, and when the trio of young operatives returns to Hong Kong from an assignment in Thailand and the Squad’s next three customers supply photographs of lost loves, the women in the pictures appear to be the same individual.

‘Smiling Through the Apocalypse’ chronicles a man whose editorial instincts produced one of the greatest magazines ever: Harold Hayes, the swinging editor and cultural provocateur of the iconic Esquire Magazine of the Sixties. Through the narrative of his son Tom, a journey ensues opening unprecedented access to some of the Esquire magazine’s most compelling talents, from Nora Ephron to George Lois, and Tom Wolfe to Gore Vidal. The film is a story of risk, triumph, and challenge told by the people that helped make the magazine great, and a son who only come to understand his father’s editorial greatness 23 years after his passing.

The bar in an old Pennsylvania steel town, housed with many of life’s losers and disillusioned men, is the main setting for this slice-of-life film. Michael Madsen is the bar owner, who is deep in debt to the town’s book-maker and loan shark Burt Young. Chris Penn is one of the bar’s main inhabitants as he hides from his failing marriage to Mary Stuart Masterson. The bartender’s sister (Virginia Madsen) is about to be married, and her former fiancé (Tom Sizemore) shows up in town, after leaving her at the altar years before. Con man James Belushi runs a con on Perry to steal the money for the wedding caterer. As every plot in this multi layered story seems to be at it’s worst, things look up because of an unlikely hero.

A solitary middle-aged bachelor and a naive Irish teenager transform one another’s lives to arrive at a place of recognition, redemption and wisdom in Atom Egoyan’s adaptation of William Trevor’s celebrated 1994 novel. Seventeen and pregnant, Felicia travels to England in search of her lover and is found instead by Joseph Ambrose Hilditch, a helpful catering manager whose kindness masks a serial killer. Hilditch has murdered several young women, but he has no conscious awareness of the crimes; like Felicia, he doesn’t see his true self. Felicia’s Journey is a story of innocence lost and regained: Felicia awakens to the world’s dangers and duplicities; and Hilditch, who grew up lonely and unloved, comes to realize what was taken from him, and what he himself has taken.

A quartet of disaffected Korean youths have robbed a Seoul gas station. After taking the gas station over, their wacky antics ensue; forcing the manager to sing, kidnapping customers that complain about the service, and staging fist-fights between street gang members and gas station employees; all of these reflect their own gripes against society.

A disillusioned young recluse hated his life, his boss and his job swindling folks at the bottom of a struggling economy. Two years later he had the perfect job, the perfect life and the perfect girl; it was the perfect time to throw it all away.

Tom Canboro is a police detective with a Christian sister, Eileen, a brother, Calvin, a wife, Susan, and eccentric brother-in-law, Jason. One night, Jason seemingly goes insane and tries to kill Eileen, calling her a “hater”. Tom soon realises this may be a conspiracy going as far as devil worship, but as he speeds in his car to get help, he suddenly looses control and crashes. Waking up in a strange hospital, he finds years have passed and people all over the world are wearing the mark of 666 on their right hands, and all those who don’t are being killed off. Franco Macalusso, the believer in world peace Jason was fond of, now controls the world, and is trying to bring the world together as it was at the tower of Babel. Meanwhile, the “Haters” or Christians are hiding out and airing TBN tapes on the air for people to realise the Messiah is really the Antichrist, but their leader, Helen Hannah, is arrested… Written by The Extra in the Background

Ah, the Pennytree Golf Club…lavish clubhouse, manicured greens, 18 holes of golfing paradise… NOT! Tattered and almost without any customers, Pennytree has become the target of a takeover by it’s neighbor and competitor, Bentwood Country Club, owned and operated by the conniving Simon Roosevelt (Dan Barkley). Inspired by a freak accident, Liberty Pennytree (Christy Tummond) hatches a plan to bring in more golfers and crush Simon’s takeover plans. Gorgeous ladies, hot bods and the fun filled “cart wash” are the attractions as busloads of new customers flock to the “new” Pennytree Golf Club. The ladies of Pennytree, led by “Barbara the Bod” (Amy Lynn Baxter), are a hit with the customers, money is rolling into Pennytree and Simon is steaming. Simon’s not giving up and issues the ultimate challenge, a winner-take-all-match between Pennytree and Brentwood, “your pro against my pro.” The winner

Tom Fiorini (Anthony Michael Hall, The Dead Zone) owns a successful construction company. After his long time foreman goes missing, events take a drastic turn for the worse. During the search for his foreman, Tom plummets down a slippery slope of violence and hired hit men, only to find the fire with which he plays is much hotter than he could have ever expected. Director Thomas Farone (Nate Dogg) brilliantly creates a haunting, emotional film with richly layered performances by its multi award-winning cast—which includes a tour-de-force by the late Chris Penn, in his final film. Absorbing and complex, Aftermath is a Cinequest 23 highlight and a stylish noir crime thriller that will have audiences talking long after.

An anxious young tailor dominated by his father, a master of the craft, is eager to do well with his clients; but his inadequacy in measuring leaves him frustrated and humiliated. His younger sister – an expert seamstress – arrives back in town, discovers his measuring weakness and begins a cruel reign of terror over him, humiliating him endlessly in front of customers. Pushed to the edge, the young tailor heads down the nightmarish road to insanity and murder.

Between getting trashed, tripping, blowing guys off and writing songs, Mark falls for Stephen. Fig and Sally put perform Marks songs between casual sex with anyone and everyone. Katie is a few-hit wonder who hit rock-bottom in L.A and returns to New Zealand to patch her life back together. Stephen, Mark and Katie branch out for a slumber party at a beach house of their better days. Fig and Sally arrive, and not long after Eddie arrives also (Katies American guy). Mark stops running away from Stephens love, Katie and Eddie get engaged and Fig and Sally … have sex?