NYC PREMIERE As Israel was fighting to establish a nation in 1948, it was badly wanting for an air force. Using secret means in defiance of the US Neutrality Act, Israel recruited American pilots who had fought in WWII. Above and Beyond recounts this hidden chapter of history, interviewing pilots and making skillful use of […]
NYC PREMIERE Before his untimely death last year, composer Marvin Hamlisch was a triple-threat in the worlds of music, film and theatre. A Juilliard prodigy, he developed into a hit-maker, creating instant classics like “The Way We Were” and the score for “A Chorus Line,” winning every major award—Pulitzer, Tony, Grammy, Emmy and Oscar. His […]
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 […]
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 […]
NYC PREMIERE Though raised in a Modern Orthodox Jewish New Jersey household, director Anna Wexler rejected religion as a teen, finding friends with similar backgrounds. After they studied in Israel, however, these once-rebellious friends re-committed to their faith, puzzling her in the process. Teaming with Nadja Oertelt, who was raised secular, Anna follows three diverse […]
WORLD PREMIERE Director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) applies his playful imagination to animating a series of conversations with the esteemed linguist, philosopher, political commentator and activist Noam Chomsky. At the heart of these talks is Chomsky’s theory of the emergence of language. In this intellectual feast, Gondry uses drawings to make […]
NYC PREMIERE Together with contemporaries Diane Arbus and Robert Frank, Saul Leiter is recognized as one of the founders of The New York School of photography of the 1940s and ‘50s, but he never sought the spotlight. Instead, he’s worked steadily, amassing an archive that threatens to take over the NYC apartment he’s called home […]
NYC PREMIERE After Nina Leichter committed suicide, her daughter, Kathy, returned to the New York City apartment in which she was raised and found a hidden box of audiotapes. Nearly two decades later, she is finally ready to listen to the messages her mother left behind, which provide frank insight into a strong and beloved […]
NYC PREMIERE Linor Abargil is an Israeli beauty contestant who won Miss World. But she was also the victim of a violent stabbing and rape. Director Cecilia Peck (who made Shut Up and Sing with Barbara Kopple) follows Abargil as she speaks out about rape around the world. When her rapist comes up for parole, […]
NYC PREMIERE In 1970, a countercultural caravan left San Francisco to return to nature, ultimately landing in rural Tennessee and establishing The Farm under the guidance of guru Stephen Gaskin. Filmmaker siblings Rena Mundo Croshere and Nadine Mundo were born there, the children of the rocky union between a Beverly Hills Jewish woman and a […]