WORLD PREMIERE A provocative exploration of the contentious issue of gun control, Jessica Solce’s film profiles two men at opposite ends of the debate: The outspoken Cody Wilson, a radical libertarian anarchist who made headlines by designing “the Liberator,” the first open-source 3D-printable gun; and artist Greg Bokor, who develops an interactive installation consisting of […]
WORLD PREMIERE Volunteering in Haiti in the immediate aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake, Victoria Campbell encounters Gaston, a charming voodoo priest who shows leadership during the emergency, and later manages to open a small, much-needed medical clinic with the support of a foreign funder. He becomes a local hero, a symbol of ingenuity in […]
NYC PREMIERE Nearing 30, first-generation Indian-American Ravi Patel breaks up with his secret white girlfriend to seek the Indian woman of his parents’ dreams—who should also be named Patel, keeping with tradition. Eliciting the matchmaking skills of his hilarious, unforgettable parents, Ravi—with sister Geeta behind the camera—subjects himself to delightfully awkward blind dates across North […]
NYC PREMIERE In 1979, teenager Mark DeFriest received a four-year prison sentence for stealing his own tools. After countless outrageous jailbreak attempts—many humorously recounted here through animated sequences—he’s still incarcerated and will be until 2084. Shortly after his confinement began, Mark’s mental competency was questioned, but the opinion of Dr. Robert Berland, a single dissenting […]
WORLD PREMIERE Following the devastation of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Yuki visits her estranged parents in Kasama, Japan, a rural artist community. Harboring resentment against them for abandoning her as a teenager in the East Village after a failed attempt to live as artists in New York City, Yuki presses her elderly parents for […]
NYC PREMIERE By now, the idea of Civil War re-enactment is familiar, but the subjects of Mike Attie and Meghan O’Hara’s intriguing film relive the battles of a far more surprising conflict: Vietnam. Drawing a mix of combat enthusiasts, Iraq War soldiers, actual Vietnam veterans, and even a former South Vietnamese Army officer, this band […]
2014 VIEWFINDERS COMPETITION WINNER NYC PREMIERE Cairo Drive expertly balances humor, frustration and a distinctive sense of fatalistic irony to offer a view of Egypt unseen in recent documentaries about the Arab Spring. Shot before, during and after the revolution, Sherief Elkatsha’s entertaining film explores Cairo from the street level through the perspectives of its […]
WORLD PREMIERE After Dan Rybicky and Aaron Wickenden meet octogenarian Peter Anton, they become fascinated by a series of elaborate autobiographical collage diaries that the eccentric outsider artist has created, stretching back decades. Becoming enmeshed in his life—as they later learn, like so many before them—the filmmakers help him mount a gallery exhibition for the […]
NYC PREMIERE In George Hencken’s impressively constructed portrait, Spandau Ballet, one of the bands that defined the 1980s, tell their own story, set against a backdrop of evocative period footage, including never-before-seen home movies. Bandmates reveal how a group of working-class Brits came to conquer music and influence fashion around the world, only to break […]
WORLD PREMIERE Every year, thousands of children swarm Hollywood in search of fame, but what they often find under the surface is a deep and disturbing underbelly of manipulation and abuse. An Open Secret, directed by Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Amy Berg (West of Memphis; Deliver Us From Evil), is a sobering look at the lives of […]