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Louis Ortiz, a down on his luck 40-something Puerto Rican resident of the Bronx, looks in the mirror one day and believes he’s found gold—he’s a dead ringer for Barack Obama. With visions of finally living the American Dream, the charismatic Ortiz launches a complete makeover. He dons Obama’s trademark suit, adopts his mannerisms, mimics his voice and steps out onto the street as a presidential impersonator. Taken on by a casting agent, Ortiz and a gang of other political impersonators, including a Bill Clinton and a Mitt Romney, hit the road during the run-up to the 2012 presidential election to perform satirical debates for mostly Republican conventions, throwing Ortiz into conflict with his personal political beliefs. As Ortiz struggles to make ends meet, the distance between the White House and the Bronx becomes increasingly acute. The life of a president isn’t always as easy as it looks.
Some thirty years ago, a working-class subculture was taking grip of cities across the UK that has left a lasting legacy. This began on the back of the mod revival of the late 1970s when notorious football firms from the cities like Liverpool, Manchester and London stole expensive designer sportswear from the countries they visited. It didn’t start with the high-street giants telling these lads what to wear. Instead, they set the trends and the high-street stores caught up. As the 1980s began in Britain, under the radar the ‘casual’ had already arrived. From Barcelona to Berlin, Milan to Moscow, teenagers today are copying fashions and a culture that developed on the streets and terraces of British cities. But how did the football casual subculture come about? What did they stand for? What made them tick? Why it’s legacy is still having an impact on today’s fashion industry.
In 1956, Elvis Presley was in love with small-town girl June Juanico, whom he picked out of the crowd at one of his concerts. This documentary contains never-before-seen home movie footage, which captures a rare glimpse of the 21-year-old Elvis.
In 1986 Michael Morton’s wife Christine is brutally murdered in front of their only child, and Michael is convicted of the crime. Locked away in Texas prisons for a quarter century, he has years to ponder questions of justice and innocence, truth and fate. Though he is virtually invisible to society, a team of dedicated attorneys spends years fighting for the right to test DNA evidence found at the murder scene. Their discoveries ultimately reveal that the price of a wrongful conviction goes well beyond one man’s loss of freedom.
In Hong Kong’s Paradise Cove Sharon (Chrissie Chau) and Rachel (Theresa Fu) work at a restaurant of their kung fu master uncle Tao (Lo Mang) while taking on rivals in beach volleyball matches. The wealthy Bu family has plans to have the beach made into a playground for the rich and getting rid of the youth at the beach. Mrs. Bu’s two Eurasian daughters, Natalie (Jessica C) and Phoenix (Phoenix Valen) challenge Sharon and Rachel to a volleyball match which Natalie and Phoenix win. Phoenix and Natalie give Rachel and Sharon a challenge: if the two local girls enter and win the upcoming All Hong Kong Women’s Volleyball tournament, Mrs. Bu will revise her plans to further develop the area. Sharon and Rachel feel they don’t have a chance to win the tournament. Their uncle then Tao teaches the girls kung fu skills that they apply to volleyball.
When bullied Molly Flowers declares her dislike of boys, her boozy and self medicated mother invents a story to shock her into a more sympathetic view. The tale of how Molly had actually been born a boy called Bradford Dillman but, because of Mum’s want for a little girl, she asked the doctors to chop her willy off. The offending item has been kept for Molly in a shoebox on top of her wardrobe which now looms over everything she does. Molly’s over active imagination manifests itself into the arrival of Bradford Dillman. When Mum denies all knowledge of the tale, who will Molly choose to believe in?
Director Tominaga Masanori (Pandora’s Box) brings Motoya Yukiko’s offbeat play Ranbo to Taiki to the big screen in a juicy, neurotic tangle of love, hate and voyeurism. Hidenori (Asano Tadanobu) and Nanase (Minami) have lived together for ten years in a tense, platonic relationship. The wheels of change are set in motion when married couple Takao (Yamada Takayuki) and Azusa (Koike Eiko) move in next door. After Hidenori catches Nanase and Takao having an affair, he becomes obsessed with watching Nanase through a peephole, and planning his cruel revenge.
In a Copenhagen hotel, disparate lives intersect through accident or fate: A stewardess desperate for intimacy. An immigrant obsessed with revenge. A hotel manager lost in despair. A wife abandoned by her husband. A receptionist with blood on his hands. People meet in the intimacy of hotel rooms, secrets are revealed and unexpected events merge into a dramatic tale of love and longing.
Frank is left with the responsibility for his nephew Bo on an already planned canoe trip. Frank’s mate Casper is also coming along. Weighed down a with their obligation, Frank and Casper nevertheless look forward to ending the trip at Skanderborg Festival where there’s plenty there for the guys, a spree of drinking and women. Not the best example to set for young Bo. And how do their partners see it all?
Xiaoxian’s life is right on track. She has a steady job at an upscale wedding planning company, a cute apartment, and most importantly, a loving boyfriend of 7 years. Any day now, Xiaoxian is sure that he’ll pop the question. But everything comes crashing down when she discovers that he’s actually cheating on her— with her best friend. How could things go so wrong? Dumped and heartbroken, Xiaoxian is a total mess. It doesn’t help that she has to face perky brides every day. Things go from bad to worse until her sassy, but jaded, co-worker Jian intervenes. It’s not that Jian really cares. It’s more that he’s sick of witnessing her pathetic decline. Xiaoxian seriously needs to get a grip. 33 days into her breakup, Jian’s brand of tough love is working, but Xiaoxian still can’t help wondering: will she ever get a chance at love again?
A series of short stories explore the connection of love between dogs and people.
Kung (Eric Tsang) and Kin’s (Jacky Cheung) rivalry goes way back to the seventies when they fought over the same girl, who eventually became Kung’s wife (Anita Yuen). Now they run competing phone stores right across from each other on Mongkok’s busiest street, and stretch their minds trying to outdo each other with crazy promotions. There’s absolutely no mixing with the enemy in these parts – until Kung and Kin’s kids fall for each other! Further chaos breaks out when the landlord triples the rent of all the shop owners to force them out for redevelopment.
This outrageous standup performance documentary, premiering on Comedy Central, spotlights a category of black comedian rarely witnessed: the nerd variety.
Damien Shadows introduces you to 5 blood curdling horror films, all of which are actually enchanted and or cursed. Damien shows you how to ward off the spirits after each terrifying tale in this anthology. From demented sisters, to panty raids gone wrong, to killer mimes and bad periods, this film will take you on one wild ride!
What starts off as a day of yard work and random to-dos for the neighbors turns into a series of misunderstandings. Inspired by actual events, Fenced Off explores the reality that loving your neighbor can be complicated.
Abandoned by his father, a young boy is left in the hands of an unqualified childcare provider.
A starry-eyed young girl journeys from the mountains of Appalachia to the stage at Dollywood, where she discovers the impact of African-Americans on the world of country music – while at the same time competing in a country music competition for kids, hosted by Dolly Parton herself.
The elections are approaching and the largest opposition party in the country do not look good. Its leader, Enrico Oliveri can not stand the pressure and disappears. Fearing a scandal, the eminence grise of the party had brought into play the twin brother of the politician. Even if looks like two drops of water with his brother Giovanni may have a different personality. His ideas are innovative and direct approach to get the party in the polls …
The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunites. But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital ocean of mass culture? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.
The King of Bali invites Chhota Bheem and his friends to attend the coronation of the state’s prince. After reaching Bali, Bheem and his friends find that the state is captured by a witch named Rangda who wants to rule the country. Rangda is very powerful and has Leyaks, magical creatures, as her army. She arrests the king and queen of Bali, but, with the assistance of Chhota Bheem and his friends, the young prince of Bali manages to escape. Now, Chhota Bheem and his friends attempt to save the people of Bali from Rangda’s black magic. Meanwhile Rangda causes destruction and diseases in Bali with her magical power. Two little Indonesian village girls Aci and Ayu help Bheem and his friends to save Bali from Rangda.
Yoo-Suk looks for a girlfriend who disappeared. Ae-Yeon has a fake diamond which her ex-boyfriend gave to her. Ae-Yeon was dumped by her ex boyfriend. Byung-Chan does not believe in love. Bok-Nam is in love with a friend of a friend.
After the sheriff of the small town of Boggy Creek receives reports of attacks from a vicious beast bearing resemblance to the legendary Sasquatch, he enlists the help of an expert survivalist (The Outsider’s C. Thomas Howell) and sets out to hunt down the creature. However, as they wander into the wilderness they discover that an entire tribe of Sasquatches awaits them. Now the enraged creatures descend from the hills and into the town to declare war upon its citizens.
“Yorktown” is a 1970’s inspired thriller/horror film that takes place in the City of Yorktown. It’s about a group of eight friends that upon hearing of Yorktown Memorial Hospital from an ill guided bar patron, played by actor/comedian and NBC’s Last Comic’s Standing finalist Dante, the group decides to take a road trip to the haunted location and “investigate”, despite the heeded warnings from the bartender, played by actress Rebekah Kochan. What they don’t realize is that someone has taken up residence in the building and someone is trying to revenge a death. When you don’t pay attention to your friends, bad things happen. The movie takes a traditional plot and adds modern social elements with a plot twist.
For those who don’t believe that Aliens from outer space have invaded our planet, this amazing documentary reveals the facts they DON’T want you to know. Join UFO researcher Bill Knell in this cult classic presentation covering suppressed and hidden information about the strangest and most fantastic UFO incidents in recent history. You will be amazed and bewildered by countless UFO sightings.
Underneath Times Square, there’s a strip club filled with beautiful women. Behind the club’s bathroom door is Shoes, a bathroom attendant. For three years, Shoes gives advice, compliments or a sympathetic ear to his visitors, getting occasional tips. But on the night of his three-year anniversary at the club, Shoes’ customers and coworkers start to make him look into his own life.
Ferdinand is a long-standing employee at Fish Land, the aquatic centre within the globalised leisure complex “Worlds Apart”. He’s a small, bald forty year-old, and a solitary, anxious introvert, entirely devoted to his passion for fish. But Ferdinand’s obsessive little existence is turned upside down the day Fish Land closes down for six months of renovation. He is transferred to another section of “Worlds Apart”, the Finnish-Turkish Delight spa, entirely geared towards the pleasure of saunas and steam rooms. Ferdinand is suddenly thrown into a world of nudity, sensuality, relaxation and letting go… In short, everything he could possibly be afraid of! HOT HOT HOT is the belated journey of initiation of an inhibited little man, who slowly but surely learns to open up to the pleasures of life. It paints a colourful yet sensitive picture of a world caught between artificiality and authenticity, between norm and peculiarity.
Siberia. Late autumn. In taiga, in the deserted village there lives an old man Ivan & his seven-year-old grandson Leshia. A pack of feral dogs devours everything alive in the neighborhood. One of these dogs is Leshia’s best friend. Sometimes their relative uncle Yuri brings food to them. Once on his way back from Ivan’s village uncle Yuri is attacked by dogs & perishes. Ivan & Leshia stay without supply. Once Leshia witnesses Ivan shooting at ‘his’ dog & runs away. The old Man finds him in a dry well, but he fails to get him out on his own. Ivan sets out through taiga in search of help. Now the dogs are hunting him… And the boy is waiting for his father…
Against the backdrop of a missing girl case, lost souls throughout Los Angeles search for meaning and redemption and affect each other in ways they don’t always see.
Beloved by children of all ages around the world, Elmo is an international icon. Few people know his creator, Kevin Clash, who dreamed of working with his idol, master puppeteer Jim Henson. Displaying his creativity and talent at a young age, Kevin ultimately found a home on Sesame Street. Narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, this documentary includes rare archival footage, interviews with Frank Oz, Rosie O’Donnell, Cheryl Henson, Joan Ganz Cooney and others and offers a behind-the-scenes look at Sesame Street and the Jim Henson Workshop.
Set towards the end of World War II, Nomura (Masatoshi Nagase) is a writer who is in despair. A woman works in bar and is a former prostitute. Many years ago, her father sold her to a brothel due to the family’s severe financial hardships. The writer and the woman then agree to live as husband and wife until the war ends. The woman doesn’t feel sexual pleasures due to her past, while the man lusts for the woman’s body. Meanwhile, Ohira (Jun Murakami) fought for Japan in China. He participated in unconscionable acts against civilians in the name of war. He returns to Japan with only one arm. Ohira then begins to prey on innocent women.
We have all made mistakes. Little white lies that blow up in our face, being selfish to a loved one, or just drinking too much the night before. Its all the same, eventually you wish you had a chance to do it over. People say they can’t change the past, but what would you say if you were given the chance to make things right? That is the question presented to a young waitress as she travels back in time, not just once, but three times, to save her older sister from being murdered. TIME AGAIN takes the audience on a wild sci-fi adventure into the notorious criminal underworld. After a young waitress receives strange coins for a tip, she inadvertently becomes embroiled in an underworld battle with a notorious criminal that leads to her death. With the help of a mysterious old lady, the waitress’s younger sister goes back in time to save her from being murdered.
See what makes Skid Row tick, a tell all, never before seen, raw documentary about the harsh reality of the street life in Los Scandalous – Skid Row. The homeless capital of The United States. Watch through my lens, as I show the true gutter life in Los Angeles; from prostitution, homelessness, hard addiction, the drug dealers perspective, police corruption and the system designed to keep them all there. My name is Shanks Rajendran and I’m a 28 year old Australian filmmaker. I shot this documentary to uncover the truth about Skid Row, the people, the place, and the politics behind it.
3-D puppet animation adventure about two kids from Warsaw in Poland who discover an old piano in amongst a pile of junk that transforms into a magical flying machine. The kids, Anna and her cousin Chip Chip, use the Flying Machine to fly across Europe to find Anna’s father in London. Before it happens, they have to learn how to fly the magical machine… On their way they have to navigate an obstacle course of hot air-balloons, swoop into Paris on a mission of the flying machine, weather a fierce storm in the English Channel, and with sunset fast approaching find dad in the big darkening city of London. Before they reach him they are torn from the flying machine by a magic storm, and find themselves back in the pile of junk in Warsaw. However maybe the Dad saw something in the stormy skies of London, because the next day he comes home to his daughter.
Henry Harper is a successful novelist who has it all. But after surviving a recent trauma he finds himself haunted by a dream that terrifies him. Convinced that the only way to understand what the dream means is to write his way through it, Henry decides to go to a remote second home to begin work on his next novel, a thriller. While on his way there he encounters a strangely familiar drifter who confronts him with information that threatens to turn everything he knows to be true, upside down. Written by producer
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Martin Scorsese and his longtime documentary collaborator David Tedeschi, A 50 Year Argument rides the waves of literary, political, and cultural history as charted by the The New York Review of Books, America’s leading journal of ideas for over 50 years. Provocative, idiosyncratic and incendiary, the film weaves rarely seen archival material, contributor interviews, excerpts from writings by such icons as James Baldwin, Gore Vidal, and Joan Didion along with original verité footage filmed in the Review’s West Village offices. Confrontation and original argument are in the Review’s DNA – the magazine seems as vital now as when it was run by its indefatigable founding editors, Robert Silvers and the late Barbara Epstein. Co-produced with the BBC’s award-winning Arena and shaped by Scorcese’s vivid filmmaking style, The Fifty Year Argument captures the power of ideas in influencing history.
3 years on from hospitalité, Kiki Sugino and Koji Fukada are back again with this socially-conscious film about a 18-year-old girl in-between adolescence and adulthood who spends a summer in a valley and enjoys romance. Sakuko, a 18-year-old girl studying for her university entrance exams, decides to accompany her aunt Mikie on a trip to a seaside town. There she befriends Takashi, a refugee from Fukushima who has dropped out of high school and works at a motel run by Ukichi, a friend of Mikie. In-between childhood and adulthood, Sakuko starts to understand the difficulties of becoming an adult.
The funny, quirky story of Darryl Strozka, an ambitionless 24-year old who travels hundreds of miles in a wagon hooked onto the back of his friend’s electric wheelchair, in hopes of tracking down his childhood crush.
Climb inside the mind of a sociopath; an office worker kills his way into management but gets into trouble with his talkative girlfriend and a corrupt detective. Jim Collins has decided to kill his way to the top. He begins by strangling Harry, his manager, one night on an abandoned highway. Complications emerge when, at Harry’s wake, Jim learns Gail, his girlfriend, had slept with Harry months ago. Being interrogated by the intimidating detective Scott Hume doesn’t help things either. Jim’s psychosis kicks into high gear when he decides that Gail, who knows that Jim killed Harry and is going to tell the cop, has to be terminated.
