USA – 2010 – 93 MIN – COLOUR / BLACK & WHITE - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY TAMRA DAVIES
This thoroughly engaging documentary, charts the meteoric rise and fall of the inimitable New York painter with rock-star status and one of the leading lights of late-20th-century art. The film is centered on a rare interview that director and friend Tamra Davis shot with Basquiat over twenty years ago. Much can be gleaned from insider interviews and archival footage, but it is Basquiat's own words and work that powerfully convey the mystique and allure of both the artist and the man.
USA – 2003 – 88 MIN – COLOUR / BLACK & WHITE - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY CHAD FREIDRICHS
JANDEK ON CORWOOD is the 88-minute documentary that explores this man, his world and his music. Jandek released his first album, Ready for the House, in 1978 on his own record label, Corwood Industries (he is, of course, the only artist on this label). The release went relatively overlooked until a review by Phil Milstein appeared in Op magazine in 1980. Bolstered by that slight measure of notice, Jandek set about releasing at least one album per year over the next quarter century of his unique brand of cacophonous rock and suicide-note blues.
CHINA – 2010 – 118 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN MANDARIN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
A FILM BY JIA ZHANGE KE
Shanghai has hosted all kinds of people – revolutionaries, capitalists, politicians, soldiers, artists, and gangsters. Shanghai has also hosted revolutions, assassinations, love stories.
After the Chinese Communists’ victory in 1949, thousands of Shanghaiers left for Hong Kong and Taiwan. To leave meant being separated from home for thirty years; to stay meant suffering through the Cultural Revolution and China’s other political disasters.
Eighteen people from these three cities — Shanghai, Taipei and Hong Kong — recall their lives in Shanghai. Their personal experiences, like eighteen chapters of a novel, tell stories of Shanghai lives from the 1930s to 2010.
An eternally wandering soul returns to Shanghai and, walking along the banks of the Huangpu River, awakens to all the changes the city has undergone.
USA – 2013 – 100 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY STEVIE NICKS & DAVE STEWART
Decadent rock star, ’70s survivor, gypsy songbird, white-winged dove — the inimitable Stevie Nicks has entranced millions of fans worldwide with her poetic lyrics, sultry singing and featherand-lace style. In 2010 Nicks embarked on the recording of a new solo album, IN YOUR DREAMS, produced by former Eurythmics mastermind Dave Stewart. With cameras in tow, documentarian Stewart and diva Nicks set up shop in her home studio and reveal their collaborative creative process. Shifting dynamically among video formats, painstaking recording sessions and revealing interviews, this magic-tinged musical journey is a loving and tuneful portrait of the eternally bewitching Gold Dust Woman.
GERMAN / RUSSIAN / LATVIAN / DUTCH / BELORUSSIAN – 2012 – 128 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN RUSSIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
A FILM BY SERGEI LOZNITSA
Western frontiers of the USSR 1942. The region is under German occupation and local partisans are fighting a brutal resistance campaign.
A train is derailed not far from the village, where Sushenya, a rail worker, lives with his family. Innocent Sushenya is arrested with a group of saboteurs, but the German officer makes a decision not to hang him with the others and sets him free. Rumours of Sushenya’s treason spread quickly and partisans Burov and Voitik arrive from the forest to get revenge.
As the partisans lead their victim through the forest, they are ambushed, and Sushenya finds himself one-to-one with his wounded enemy.
Deep in an ancient forest, where there are neither friends nor enemies and where the line between treason and heroism disappears, Sushenya is forced to make a moral choice un- der immoral circumstances.
USA – 2009 – 93 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY MICHEL O. SCOTT
How far would you travel to heal someone you love? An intensely personal yet epic spiritual journey, THE HORSE BOY follows one Texas couple and their autistic son as they trek on horseback through Outer Mongolia in a desperate attempt to treat his condition with shamanic healing. When two-year-old Rowan was diagnosed with autism, Rupert Isaacson, a writer and former horse trainer, and his wife Kristin Neff, a psychology professor, sought the best possible medical care for their son — but traditional therapies had little effect. Then they discovered that Rowan has a profound affinity for animals — particularly horses — and the family set off on a quest for a possible cure…
GERMANY – 2012 – 110 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN GERMAN & ENGLISH
A FILM BY MARGARETHE VON TROTTA
The film portrays Hannah Arendt (Barbara Sukowa) during the four years, (1960-64), that she observes, writes, and endures the furious reception for her work about the trial of the Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann. Watching Arendt as she attends the trial, staying by her side as she is both barraged by her critics and supported by a tight band of loyal friends, we experience the intensity of this powerful Jewish woman who fled Nazi Germany in 1933. The fierce, chain-smoking Arendt is an exile who is happy and flourishing in America, but whose penetrating vision makes her an outsider wherever she goes.
USA – 2012 – 89 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY TOM DONAHUE
FEATURING: MARTIN SCORSESE, WOODY ALLEN, CLINT EASTWOOD, GLENN CLOSE, ROBERT DUVALL, JEFF BRIDGES, AL PACINO, ROBERT DE NIRO, DIANE LANE, JON VOIGHT, BETTE MIDLER AND JOHN TRAVOLTA
Putting the spotlight on filmmaking’s unsung heroes – the casting director – CASTING BY takes us on a fast-paced journey through the last half century of Hollywood history from an entirely new perspective. Pioneers like Marion Dougherty and Lynn Stalmaster were iconoclasts whose exquisite taste and gut instincts helped to put the final nail in the coffin of the old studio system and usher in the New Hollywood.
UNITED KINGDOM / IRELAND – 2012 – 101 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
FILM BY LISA BARROS D’SA AND GLENN LEYBURN
Terri Hooley is a radical, rebel and music-lover in 1970s Belfast, when the bloody conflict known as the Troubles shuts down his city. As all his friends take sides and take up arms, Terri opens a record shop on the most bombed half-mile in Europe and calls it Good Vibrations. Through it he discovers a compelling voice of resistance in the city’s nascent underground punk scene. Galvanising the young musicians into action, he becomes the unlikely leader of a motley band of kids and punks who join him in his mission to create a new community, an alternative ulster, to bring his city back to life.
GERMANY – 2013 – 101 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN GERMAN & ENGLISH
A FILM BY THOMAS ARSLAN
FEATURING NINA HOSS, MARKO MANDIC, UWE BOHM, LARS RUDOLPH, PETER KURTH , ROSA ENSKAT, WOLFGANG PACKHÄUSER
Summer 1898. Canada during the Klondike Gold Rush. Emily Meyer joins a group of seven German American immigrants. Together they embark on the long journey to the newly discovered gold fields in Dawson. Brought together by shady businessman Wilhelm Laser's advertisement, the members of the group put it all on the line to change their miserable lives. Recommended by Laser, they decide to take the Ashcroft Trail, a route through the Canadian interior. With horses and a covered wagon, they take off without an exact idea of the dangers and strains that this journey has in store for them. Hardly any of them will have known that from their point of departure in Ashcroft, the distance to Dawson was more than 2,500 kilometres.
USA – 2014 – 95 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY SARAH-VIOLET BLISS AND CHARLES ROGERS
A comedy about Allie and Harper and their needlessly difficult journey to the beach.
Fort Tilden: New York City’s secluded seaside nirvana where, like flies to honey, Brooklyn’s hip millennial set flocks on sweltering weekend afternoons for unbridled summertime indulgence. Amidst the vexing stagnation of quarter-life crises, Allie (Clare McNulty) struggles to prepare for the Peace Corps, while Harper (Bridey Elliott) awaits checks from her father to fund her artistic dreams. But the two friends quickly shun responsibilities for the day when a pair of good-looking guys invites them along for a carefree Fort Tilden afternoon. As the two young women board their fixed-gear bicycles and embark on a lengthy journey to the beach, they quickly realize that, akin to their confusing, transitioning lives, they neither know where they’re going nor how they plan to get there.
The debut feature film of directors Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers – and showcasing the comedic versatility of Clare McNulty and Bridey Elliott as Allie and Harper – FORT TILDEN is a hilariously insightful and recognizable look at the consequences of extended adolescence.
SWEDEN – 2014 – 118 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN SWEDISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
A FILM BY RUBEN ÖSTLUND
A Swedish family travels to the French Alps to enjoy a few days of skiing and spend some precious time with each other. The sun is shining and the slopes are spectacular but, during a lunch at a mountainside restaurant, an avalanche turns everything upside down. With diners fleeing in all directions, mother Ebba calls for her husband Tomas as she tries to protect their children. Tomas, meanwhile, is running for his life...
USA – 2014 – 84 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY JOHN MALOOF & CHARLIE SISKEL
A mysterious nanny, who secretly took over 100,000 photographs that were hidden in storage lockers and discovered decades later, is now considered among the 20th century’s greatest photographers. Maier’s strange and riveting life and art are revealed through never before seen photographs, films, and interviews with dozens who thought they knew her.
USA – 2013 – 90 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY RANDY MOORE
An epic battle begins when a middle-aged American husband and father of two learns that he has lost his job. Keeping the news from his nagging wife and wound-up children, he packs up the family and embarks on a full day of park hopping amid enchanted castles and fairytale princesses. Soon, the manufactured mirth of the fantasy land around him begins to haunt his subconscious. An idyllic family vacation quickly unravels into a surrealist and darkly comic nightmare of paranoid visions, bizarre encounters, and an obsessive pursuit of a pair of sexy Parisian teenagers. Chillingly shot in black and white, ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW dissects the mythology of artificial perfection while subversively attacking our culture's obsession with mass entertainment.
USA – 2013 – 75 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY DOUGLAS KASS & ROGER KASS
Based on a magazine essay written by noted best-selling novelist Jonathan Franzen for The New Yorker and widely republished around the world, EMPTYING THE SKIES chronicles the rampant poaching of migratory songbirds in southern Europe.
CZECH REPUBLIC / UK / DENMARK – 2007 – 100 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN CZECH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
A FILM BY JAN SVERAK
Czech literature teacher Josef unwillingly goes into retirement. Instead of a peaceful family life he chooses a part-time job in a supermarket at the bottle-return counter. The exciting new world that he creates there however leaves less and less room for his wife, Eliska, and she of course has no intention of getting used to it.
USA – 2010 – 74 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY TRISTAN PATTERSON
DRAGONSLAYER documents the transgressions of a lost skate punk falling in love in the stagnant suburbs of Fullerton, California in the aftermath of Americaʼs economic collapse. Taking the viewer through a golden SoCal haze of broken homes, abandoned swimming pools and stray glimpses of unusual beauty, DRAGONSLAYER captures the life and times of Josh “Skreech” Sandoval, a local skate legend and new father, as his endless summer finally collides with the future. Set to the alternately roaring and dreamy soundtrack of bands from the indie labels Mexican Summer and Kemado Records — including Best Coast, Bipolar Bear, Children, Dungen, Eddy Current and the Suppression Ring, Golden Triangle, Jacuzzi Boys, Little Girls, Real Estate, The Soft Pack, Saviours, as well as DEATH and Thee Oh Sees —DRAGONSLAYER is a punk- rock manifesto to youth, love and learning to survive after the decline of western civilization.
CANADA – 2011 – 81 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY KRIS ELGSTRAND & DYLAN AKIO SMITH
Following a near-death experience, Karl comes to believe that Paul is his doppelganger. When Karl finally reveals himself to Paul, a unique and troubled relationship begins to form, a relationship that is severely tested when Karl grants Paul the privilege of reading his 20, 000 page manuscript, A Book About How Much I Hate Myself.
GREECE – 2009 – 96 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN GREEK WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
A FILM BY YORGOS LANTHIMOS
The father, the mother and their three kids live at the outskirts of a city. There is a tall fence surrounding the house. The kids have never been outside that fence. They are being educated, entertained, bored and exercised in the manner that their parents deem appropriate, without any influence from the outside world. They believe that the airplanes flying over are toys and that zombies are small yellow flowers. The only person allowed to enter the house is Christina. She works as a security guard at the father’s business. The father arranges her visits to the house in order to appease the sexual urges of the son. The whole family is fond of her, especially the eldest daughter. One day Christina gives her as a present a headband that has stones that glow in the dark and asks for something in return.
USA – 2008 – 105 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY ONDI TIMONER
DIG! is the feature-length documentary shot over seven years about musicians Anton Newcombe, leader of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Courtney Taylor, head of The Dandy Warhols – star-crossed friends and bitter rivals.
