NYC PREMIERE At the height of apartheid, noted South African activist, author and attorney Albie Sachs was driven into exile, yet still faced threats to his life that cost him dearly. Rather than exchange violence for violence, his revenge took on the form of hope: drafting the nation’s new, inclusive constitution. A powerful testament to […]
WORLD PREMIERE Located just outside of Manhattan, the Lillian Booth Actors Home provides a most resonant setting for the staging of a classic play in which nothing is what it seems. Seeking ways to engage their residents, administrators bring in young professional Broadway directors to shepherd the charismatic retired performers through A Midsummer Night’s Dream. […]
NYC PREMIERE From Oh! Calcutta! and The Rocky Horror Picture Show to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, producer Michael White has helped bring enduring cultural touchstones to Broadway, London’s West End and the silver screen over the last four decades, but the bon vivant may be the most famous person you’ve never heard of. […]
NYC PREMIERE In 1996, during NASA’s Space Shuttle Mission, STS-76, Michael ‘Rich’ Clifford performed the first American spacewalk while docked to the Russian Mir Space Station. It was a flawless performance that paved the way for future spacewalks. Fifteen years later Rich Clifford reveals that he had Parkinson’s disease while performing that spacewalk and with […]
NYC PREMIERE Recognizing that music and rhythmic activity can help those suffering from Parkinson’s disease achieve greater control of their mobility, two dancers from New York’s Mark Morris Dance Group lead a workshop teaching dance and movement to a group of Parkinsonians. As the tenacious participants joyously regain a sense of bodily freedom, they rehearse […]
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE Olga Lvoff’s film is a sensitive examination of family, memory and mortality. Under the watchful eyes of her dutiful daughter Sonia, Regina recalls the Yiddish and French songs of her youth through music therapy sessions following a stroke. But the 93-year-old Holocaust survivor is starting to succumb to dementia. Fearful that their […]
NYC PREMIERE An unprecedented speed-dating event for seniors serves as the backdrop for this alternately poignant and funny look at love among the 70+ set. Thirty brave souls register—widows and widowers, longtime divorcees and the lovelorn—each willing to endure an anxiety-inducing, but mercifully brief, series of setups in their search for companionship in their golden […]
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 Sesame Street’s Big Bird may be one of the world’s most recognizable characters, but far less familiar is Caroll Spinney, the man who has brought to life the yellow- feathered Muppet—as well as the irascible Oscar the Grouch—since 1969. Through Spinney’s rich personal archive and behind-the-scenes show footage, this endearing film celebrates a […]
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 […]