BRAZIL – 2005 – 99 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN GERMAN & PORTUGUESE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
A FILM BY MARCELO GOMES
The Brazilian, recalling his great-uncle’s yarns, spins a tale about the encounter of two men in search of a better future: Johann, a young German fleeing the war, and Ranulpho, a Brazilian seeking an escape from the oppressive drought in his home province. Merrily rolling from village to village, they screen a film advertising the miraculous powers of a patent medicine, thereby introducing the rural folk to the magic of cinema.
USA – 2007 – 85 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY HOWARD BIBERMAN
BRUSH WITH LIFE: THE ART OF BEING EDWARD BIBERMAN brings alive a remarkable artist’s passionate journey through a turbulent century. Both epic and surprisingly intimate, the film presents a classic American immigrant saga, an inspiring search for artistic independence, and a great romance. Along the way, Biberman's growing commitment to social justice and struggle against McCarthy-era repression (his brother, director Herbert Biberman, went to prison as one of The Hollywood Ten) combine with his efforts to create both a loving family life and a groundbreaking body of work.
USA – 2003 – 111 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY RICK MCKAY
The most important, ambitious and comprehensive film ever made about America's most celebrated indigenous art form. It is award-winning filmmaker Rick McKay's journey over 4 continents and 5 years to find out whether there had been a golden age of theatre and why it had never been documented. He soon learned that great films can be restored, fine literature can be kept in print — but historic Broadway performances of the past are the most endangered... In their own words — and not a moment too soon — BROADWAY tells the stories of our theatrical legends, how they came to New York, and how they created this legendary century in theatre.
USA – 2012 – 70 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY C. SCOTT SHUFFITT
On February 13, 2010, John Timmons (owner of ear X-tacy Records in Louisville, Kentucky) held a press conference to inform the local community that his business was in financial trouble and would potentially have to close its doors after nearly twenty-five years of service. How could this happen? How could this cultural center within my community close? What would my city look like without its influence? All these questions started running through my mind and a few days after the press conference, I decided I had to look deeper into this story.
Ear X-tacy is a landmark within Louisville. It has hosted scores of in-store performances by a growing list of artists that include the Foo Fighters, My Morning Jacket and John Mayer. Jim James, lead singer of My Morning Jacket, says that there would be no My Morning Jacket if it were not for ear X-tacy. The store has consistently been ranked at the top of its industry by magazines including Playboy, Rolling Stone, Paste, and Spin. Timmons, who worked in record stores for over thirty-five years, has been a mentor and vital influence in the local community, and was instrumental in the organization of Louisville Independent Business Association.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
The ear X-tacy story didn't pop up on my radar immediately it was though facebook that I started hearing about the shop being in trouble.
I missed the first press conference, but I was thinking a lot about the situation and what the store meant to me, and the community. A day or so after the press conference I woke up around 5 am and it was then that I decided to move forward with the documentary. I called John the next day and told him about my idea and he was willing to give me an interview and open up the store to me. Our first interview was on February 22nd 2009, from that point I've spent hours with John and his staff and have traveled to Birmingham, Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville, Cincinnati, Lexington and Austin following the store of what indie record shops mean to their communities, what struggles the owners are facing and how they are facing them.
USA – 2011 – 80 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY ALMA HAR'EL
The desolate and surreal Salton Sea in California stands as a formidable metaphor for the broken American dream. The largest lake in all of California, was created when the Colorado River flooded the windswept desert, carrying the river’s entire volume into the Salton Sink over a period of approximately two years. A dam was built and water filled the basin — the Salton Sea was born.
CANADA – 2004 – 90 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY JERRY CICCORITTI
Genie Award nominee for Best Actress, Emily Hampshire
Best Adapted Screenplay, Jerry Ciccoritti
Adapted from the critically-acclaimed play by tour-de-force author Tom Walmsley, BLOOD tells the story of reuniting siblings Noelle and Chris. They trade control and fantasies in a debate between destroying and reconciling with the other. By experimenting with the many manifestations of love, the result is a blunt, passionate, and darkly comic look at two people struggling for salvation.
CANADA / FRANCE – 2012 – 72 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - NO SPOKEN LANGUAGE
A FILM BY DENIS CÔTÉ
Animals/People: Along the rhythm of the changing seasons they watch one another. BESTIAIRE unfolds like a filmed picture book about mutual observation, about peculiar perception. A contemplation of a stable imbalance, and of lose, calm and indefinable elements.
USA – 2005 – 118 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY DAN GELLER & DAYNA GOLDFINE
The revolutionary 20th-century dance troupe known as the Ballets Russes began as a group of Russian refugees, who never danced in Russia, and became not one but two rival dance troupes. 'Ballets Russes' begins with the company's Diaghilev-era in turn-of-the-century Paris -- when artists such as Nijinsky, Balanchine, Picasso, Miro, Matisse and Stravinsky united in an unparalleled collaboration. The film then explores the company's halcyon days of the 1930s and '40s, when the Ballets Russes toured America and finally the company's demise in 1950s and '60s.
CANADA – 2014 – 120 MIN – COLOUR
CREATED BY PATRICK CROWE AND THOMAS WALLNER
Anxietyville is the story of six urban neurotics living technologically accelerated lives in a world that feels increasingly unreal… because it is.
In fact, these people don’t live in the real world at all.
CANADA – 2013 – 90 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY KIRK SCHRIEFER
NON-THEATRICAL: AVAILABLE FOR TV, VOD & FILM FESTIVALS ONLY
Pete Miller, Janet Sloan and Stan Winston attend the funeral of their friend, Keith Owens, and discover that Keith left his pub, “The Angel Inn”, to them under the condition that all three of them take equal ownership. Despite Keith's weird offer, Pete, Janet and Stan each find reasons to accept.
USA – 1970 – 90 MIN – COLOUR / BLACK & WHITE - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY EMILE DE ANTONIO
Eugene McCarthy's 1968 Campaign for the presidency. The making of a political alliance against an unpopular war and President. The failure at Chicago. Decisive on the working of Democratic politics from college town to convention.
CHINA – 2004 – 133 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN MANDARIN, RUSSIAN, AND ENGLISH
A FILM BY JIA ZHANGKE
THE WORLD focuses on a young dancer, her security-guard boyfriend and others who work at World Park, a bizarre cross-pollination of Las Vegas and Epcot Center where visitors can interact with famous international monuments without ever leaving the Bejing suburbs. Daily lavish shows are performed amongst replicas of the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, St. Mark’s Square, Big Ben, the Pyramids and even the Twin Towers. But working beyond the kitsch potential, THE WORLD casts a compassionate eye on the daily loves, friendships and desperate dreams of these provincial workers.
Jia, whom The Village Voice calls “the world’s greatest filmmaker under 40,” has created his funniest, most inventive and touching work to date, from the sensational opening tracking shot to poetic flourishes of animation and clever use of text-messaging.
USA – 2010 – 93 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY EMMETT MALLOY
In the summer of 2007, shortly after the release of their 6th album Icky Thump, The White Stripes headed north of their hometown of Detroit to embark on an ambitious journey across Canada. The plan was to play a show in every province and territory in Canada, from B.C. to Newfoundland to Nunavut. “Having never done a tour of Canada, Meg and I thought it was high time to go whole hog… from the ocean to the permafrost” says Jack White. “We wanted to play out of the way towns that don’t usually get shows… the shows are better, it’s better for the people, it’s a better experience, it’s way more unique, something interesting is going to happen…hopefully.”
USA – 2002 – 92 MIN – COLOUR / BLACK & WHITE - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY SAM GREEN & BILL SIEGEL
USA – 2014 – 120 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY EDET BELZBERG
WATCHERS OF THE SKY interweaves four stories of remarkable courage, compassion, and determination, while setting out to uncover the forgotten life of Raphael Lemkin — the man who created the word "genocide," and believed the law could protect the world from mass atrocities. Inspired by Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Problem From Hell, WATCHERS OF THE SKY takes you on a provocative journey from Nuremberg to The Hague, from Bosnia to Darfur, from criminality to justice, and from apathy to action.
CANADA – 1972 – 69 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY JACK CHRISTIE & MICHAEL HIRSH
Canadian-made experimental flick featuring a groundbreaking potpourri of live action and animation, backed by a rollicking soundtrack of 1960s hits. As portrayed by Kupferberg, there’s no messing with this Yahweh who’d just as soon enjoy a blow job from an inflatable schmoo as mastermind a presidential election from the cozy confines of his bathtub in Hashish Seventh Heaven, where a cast of pipe-dreaming souls journeys to be reborn. All hell breaks loose when the angel of the Lord attempts to cover up his failure to avert the sacrifice of young Isaac by his father, Abraham.
USA – 2013 – 87 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY GODFREY REGGIO
FEATURING MUSIC BY PHILLIP GLASS
Thirty years after Koyaanisqatsi, Godfrey Reggio – with the support of Philip Glass and Jon Kane – once again leapfrogs over earth-bound filmmakers and creates another stunning, wordless portrait of modern life. Presented by Steven Soderbergh in Black and White digital 4K projection, VISITORS reveals humanity’s trancelike relationship with technology, which, when commandeered by extreme emotional states, produces massive effects far beyond the human species. The film is visceral, offering the audience an experience beyond information about the moment in which we live. Comprised of only seventy-four shots, VISITORS takes viewers on a journey to the moon and back to confront them with themselves.
CANADA – 2013 – 95 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
A FILM BY DENIS CÔTÉ
Victoria, an ex-convict in her sixties, wants to start new life in a remote sugar shack. Under the supervision of Guillaume, a young, sympathetic parole officer, she tries to get her life back on track along with Florence, her former cellmate with whom she shared years of intimacy in prison. Stalked by ghosts of the past, their new life together is unexpectedly jeopardized.
BELGIUM – 2009 – 75 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
A FILM BY STÉPHANE AUBIER & VINCENT PATAR
Animated plastic toys like Cowboy, Indian and Horse have problems, too. Cowboy and Indian’s plan to surprise Horse with a homemade birthday gift backfires when they destroy his house instead. Surreal adventures take over as the trio travel to the center of the earth, trek across frozen tundra and discover a parallel underwater universe where pointy headed (and dishonest!) creatures live.
GERMANY / UNITED KINGDOM – 2004 – 98 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY THOMAS RIEDELSHEIMER
At the heart of every life form there is rhythm, movement, flow, change, renewal and repetition are all based on rhythm. It is only in rhythm, that we can experience time. Without vibration, without oscillation, there is statis. There is nothing. Stbility and solidity are illusions. Everything oscillates and vibrates — from the bridge of steel and concrete, to the energy shells around an atom. Even colours oscillate at different frequencies. We recognize and experience our world through rhuthm. Everything vibrates — everything speaks. It is, in essence, a universe of sound.
Evelyn Glennnie lives in this universe in a way that almost no one else does. Together with her, this film dives into the world of sound and rhythm — and into the world of our origins.
Hearing images, seeing sound.
Evenly Glennie embarks upon the recording of a new CD, within the four walls of a vast, decaying, industrial warehouse. She is the top classical, solo percussionist in the world — a role virtually of her own creation; a musician especially for whom an entire corpus of works has been written, yet, for this CD the pages of the score are blank. She sits in this light-filled space with Fred Frith — the great master of avant-garde music. Together they will create a CD as an improvisational exploration of sound and image using the space around them, as well as their instuments and intuititve talent, they follow this twin-track route. Hearing images. Seeing sound.
