NYC PREMIERE American Richard Adams married Australian Tony Sullivan in Boulder, Colorado in 1975, during a brief period when same-sex marriage was legal in that state, and subsequently filed for a green card for Tony. After receiving an explicitly homophobic denial and an order for deportation, the couple filed the first federal lawsuit seeking equality […]
WORLD PREMIERE In Sara Newens and Mina T. Son’s spirited sports film, three driven teenage athletes attempt to go for Olympic gold. Their sport? The perpetually popular but underappreciated game of table tennis. Northern California’s Ariel Hsing and Lily Zhang balance friendship and professional rivalry to see who’ll come out on top, while Long Island’s […]
Played since the 1930s, 9-Man, a variant of volleyball, was developed by Chinese immigrants to America as both an athletic pastime and a social outlet in a time of widespread anti-Chinese sentiment, discrimination and segregation. Ursula Liang’s film traces the game’s fascinating history as a backdrop to the present-day national championship, in which Asian-American players, […]
WORLD PREMIERE A Tibetan teenager travels from Minneapolis to India to compete in a most unlikely beauty pageant. Long separated from their ancient homeland, Tibet’s exile community struggles to maintain a sense of tradition in the face of modernity, emblematic in the contradictions of the Miss Tibet pageant. While its suave organizer insists that he […]
NYC PREMIERE Offering animation fans a rare look inside Japan’s Studio Ghibli, this fascinating film profiles its most famous creators, Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle), and his friendly rival and business partner, Isao Takahata (Pom Poko). As both men work on their swan songs—Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises and Takahata’s The Tale of The […]
NYC PREMIERE What makes a good parent? How do you prove you are one, after you’ve been deemed unfit? Having lost custody of their children to Child Protective Services, two parents in New York City and Seattle fight to win back the trust of the courts and reunite their families in Stephanie Wang-Breal’s moving film. […]
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 […]
Unexpected environments. A Beautiful Waste (USA, 6 min., Jon Kasbe) explores NYC’s vibrant sewer system, while men reflect on their time living in the tunnels under Lost Vegas (USA, 24 min., Steve Birnbaum). White Blaze (USA, 22 min., Brian Bolster) profiles a trail angel who helps Appalachian Trail hikers. An artist becomes walking artwork to […]
US PREMIERE After a celebrated theatrical run in Japan, Things Left Behind makes its US debut, exploring the transformative power of “ひろしまhiroshima,” the first major international art exhibit devoted to the atomic bomb. Renowned Japanese photographer Ishiuchi Miyako staged this exhibit of large-format color photographs of clothing once worn by those who perished. “The film […]
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 […]