October 8, 2013

THE STUART HALL PROJECT

NYC PREMIERE Acclaimed at the Sundance Film Festival, John Akomfrah’s new film is an emotionally charged portrait of cultural theorist Stuart Hall. A complex and deeply insightful thinker about subjects as diverse as feminism, Marxist methodology, migration and American hippies, the 82-year-old, Jamaican-born Hall is one of the most inspiring voices of the post-war Left. […]

October 8, 2013

THE SQUARE

For more than two years, Egyptians have turned out in massive numbers to occupy Cairo’s Tahrir Square and demand change from their leaders. During the many dramatic shifts over that time, director Jehane Noujaim and her crew have captured what’s happened in the square through the eyes of several young revolutionaries. They range in background […]

October 8, 2013

THE SARNOS – A LIFE IN DIRTY MOVIES

US PREMIERE In the 1960s and ‘70s, Joe Sarno was a master of softcore porn, known as the Ingmar Bergman of 42nd Street for his striking B&W photography and focus on women’s desire in films like Sin In The Suburbs, Young Playthings, and Confessions of a Young American Housewife. While his career faded as sexploitation […]

October 8, 2013

THE ROAD TO FAME

NYC PREMIERE China’s top drama academy stages the American musical Fame in the country’s first official collaboration with Broadway. During the eight-month rehearsal, five students compete for roles, struggle with pressure from family and authority, and prepare to graduate into China’s corrupt entertainment industry. Part of China’s single-child generation, they must confront complex social realities […]

October 8, 2013

THE PUNK SINGER

NYC PREMIERE Kathleen Hanna, known to many as the lead singer of seminal bands Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, was one of the music world’s most outspoken performers and a pioneer of the riot grrrl movement—until she inexplicably vanished from the scene for several years. Sini Anderson’s candid and intimate portrait reveals why, while also […]

October 8, 2013

THE PLEASURES OF BEING OUT OF STEP

2013 METROPOLIS COMPETITION WINNER NYC PREMIERE A pioneer in music criticism, Nat Hentoff has spent more than six decades championing jazz in the pages of the Village Voice, The Wall Street Journal, Down Beat, and numerous other publications. Mirroring music’s free flow, he has also been an outspoken civil libertarian and free speech advocate, often […]

October 8, 2013

THE MANOR

NYC PREMIERE Director Shawney Cohen is called back to his small hometown to help out with his family’s unorthodox business, the eponymous strip club and adjoining motel they’ve run since he was six years old. Try as he might to escape their pull, he finds himself having to face his parents’ extreme weight issues, his […]

October 8, 2013

THE FINAL MEMBER

NYC PREMIERE This funny and sometimes bizarre exploration of the Icelandic Phallological Museum shows a very different side to penis envy. Siggi, the museum’s curator, has spent decades collecting every mammal’s member save one— the human’s. Enter Páll, a now-ancient legendary Icelandic adventurer and lothario, willing to donate his upon death; and Tom, an oddball […]

October 8, 2013

THE DARK MATTER OF LOVE

US PREMIERE Director Sarah McCarthy (The Sound of Mumbai: A Musical) looks at the timely topic of Americans adopting Russian orphans—just prior to the controversial ban imposed by Vladimir Putin. Former Disney employees Claudio and Cheryl Diaz decide to adopt a girl and twin boys at once, but nothing can prepare them for what’s to […]

October 8, 2013

THE CRASH REEL

Set in the world of extreme sports, The Crash Reel follows one of its heroes, the snowboarder Kevin Pearce, who’s forced to reflect on the dangers inherent in his passion. Just before the 2010 Olympics, where he was expected to be the chief rival to gold medalist Shaun White, Pearce suffered a horrific accident during […]