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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
CLOSING NIGHT FILM US PREMIERE Fans of comic documentaries can rejoice. If you’ve never heard of the Yes Men, you’re in for a treat; if you’ve followed their antics in earlier films, you’ll delight in a new barrage. Either way, you’ll find in this film a fresh reflection on the question: How does one sustain a […]
US PREMIERE Televangelist, multi-millionaire and leader of the religious right, Pat Robertson is a man on a mission. During an escalating refugee crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Robertson ran a media blitz on the Christian Broadcasting Network to raise money for his charity, Operation Blessing. Over the airwaves, he gave glowing reports of […]
Collectors, curiosity seekers, and compulsives. Flutter (USA/Canada, 8 min., Dara Bratt) explores a lonely retiree’s love of butterfly collecting, while Bug People (USA, 15 min., Paul Meyers) examines our odd aversion to insects. Tango (Brazil, 6 min., Louis Robin) questions racetrack attendees about gambling. Discarded photos lead to a search for vaudeville performers Derby & […]
People and their animals. A Bedouin sheepherder contemplates moving his family to the city in Faces (Jordan, 16 min., Said Najmi). Herd in Iceland (USA, 28 min., Lindsay Blatt & Paul Taggart) chronicles the annual roundup of the country’s purebred horses, after a summer roaming free. Of Cows and Men (USA, 4 min., Emily Fraser) follows a dairy farmer during difficult […]
These five shorts capture the honesty and wisdom of youth. Cancer upends a dancer’s dreams in Like a Dance (USA, 6 min., Jill Orschel). Follow My Steps (USA, 16 min., Andrew Hida) details a friendship between a 13-year-old and a 21-year-old, bonded by physical disability. An undocumented young woman shares her story in I Was […]
This program demonstrates the bonds of family, even under the most trying circumstances. In Beyond Broken, Vasso, dependent on her family after a brutal attack, turns to art to find the will to go on (USA, 38 min., Andrew Morreale). A grandson realizes his late grandfather’s secret dream of becoming a filmmaker in quicksand (USA, 8 min., Lance […]