A lyrical tapestry of a place and people, KING COAL meditates on the complex history and future of the coal industry, the communities it has built, and the myths it has created. Director Elaine McMillion Sheldon reshapes the boundaries of documentary filmmaking in a spectacularly beautiful and deeply moving immersion into Central Appalachia where coal is not just a resource, but a way of life, imagining the ways a community can re-envision itself. Central Appalachia is a place of mountains and myth and Academy Award-nominated and Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon knows this well, calling those mountains home. KING COAL has had a profound influence on this community’s identity, but Sheldon dares to consider what future stories might look like out of the shadow of coal, now that relationships to coal are changing. She takes us on an alluring cinematic journey through the past, present, and future of Appalachia. Sheldon’s distinct vision remixes present-day moments of life in a coal-mining town with archival footage and atmospheric invocations of the land to alchemize something new — a rare, nuanced depiction of this community. A young girl learning the story of coal anchors the journey while Sheldon’s poetic voiceover guides us through the experience and an expressive score differentiates the reality of coal from a more imaginative world. This hybrid approach allows our guest, Elaine McMillion Sheldon to explore the act of storytelling itself and is a magical reclamation of the power of stories to shape how a region sees itself. Emerging from the long shadows of the coal mines, KING COAL untangles the pain from the beauty, and illuminates the innately human capacity for change.

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For more go to: kingcoalfilm.com

Los Angeles, CA – August 25 @ Laemmle Glendale

About the filmmaker – Elaine McMillion Sheldon is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker. She is the director of two Netflix Original Documentaries – “Heroin(e)” and “Recovery Boys” – that explore America’s opioid crisis. “Heroin(e)” was nominated for a 2018 Academy Award and won the 2018 Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Documentary. In 2013, she released “Hollow,” an interactive documentary that examines the future of rural America through the eyes and voices of West Virginians. Hollow received a Peabody, Emmy nomination and 3rd Prize in the World Press Photo Multimedia Awards. Sheldon has appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Anthony Bourdain’s CNN Show Parts Unknown and Meet The Press with Chuck Todd. She was recently named a 2018 USA Fellow by United States Artists, one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker Magazine and one of “50 People Changing The South” by Southern Living Magazine. In 2016, Chicken & Egg Pictures awarded her with the inaugural “Breakthrough Filmmaker” award. She’s a founding member of All Y’all Southern Documentary Collective. She has been commissioned by Netflix, Frontline PBS, The Center for Investigative Reporting, The New York Times Op-Docs, TEDWomen, Field of Vision, and The Bitter Southerner.  elainemcmillionsheldon.com

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85% on RottenTomatoes

“Filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon, a native of [West Virginia], has done a breathtakingly expressive job of capturing the strangeness, the beauty and the devastation of her homeland in the poetic, entrancing documentary King Coal.” – Kyle Smith, Wall Street Journal

“harsh, haunted, and spiritual but hopeful still…[told] from the POV of a girl both loyal and inquisitive about the reign of what she calls “King Coal,” the film is an artwork and a tribute told with poetic and visual lyricism.” – Sherin Nicole, Geek Girl Riot

“As a work of cinema, King Coal proves aesthetically stunning, while also holding our attention as cultural anthropology.” – Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Film Festival Today

“Pleasingly difficult to pin down when the narrative truly feels moved by the spirit, the fact that “King Coal” comes alive in the mind full of possibility makes one think the same potential exists on the ground.” – Stephen Saito, Moveable Fest

“Sheldon also locates the beauty, potentiality and sorrow of the region to its surrounding mountain ranges, from forested rolling hills to the mounds of coal on river barges.” – Robert Daniels, New York Times

Filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou step away from their wildly successful career video work via YouTube and by bringing a sharp edged sensibility to the world of horror in TALK TO ME. Conjuring spirits has become the latest local party craze, and looking for a distraction on the anniversary of her mother’s death, teenage Mia (Sophie Wilde) is determined to get a piece of the otherworldly action. When her group of friends gathers for another unruly séance with the mysterious embalmed hand that promises a direct line to the spirits, they’re unprepared for the consequences of bending the rules through prolonged contact. As the boundary between worlds collapses and disturbing supernatural visions increasingly haunt Mia, she rushes to undo the horrific damage before it’s irreversible. Filmmaking duo (and twin brothers) Danny and Michael Philippou of @RackaRacka YouTube channel fame suspend us in the foreboding and nightmarish realm of their debut feature film.  Making the most of their twisted propensity for the surreal and grotesque while effortlessly blending the creepiness of a ghost tale with the modern sensibilities of a horror-thriller for the Insta-generation, TALK TO ME exposes an uncanny reality where the dead roam eerily close to the living. Co-directors Danny and Michael Philippou join us for a lively conversation on their very popular YouTube video work, why and how they have been so successful in their short form videos, and the importance of creating a completely believable world for their characters to inhabit.

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For more go to: bankside-films.com/talk-to-me

For even more go to: a24films.com/films/talk-to-me

About the filmmakers – Filmmaking twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou are RackaRacka, on-line purveyors of comic horror and action. Their YouTube videos have been watched over 1.5 billion times and amassed over 6.6 million subscribers. In 2015, their channel was awarded Best International YouTube Channel at the 6th Streamy Awards. Named one of Variety’s 2016 Fame Changers and ranked 5th on Financial Review’s Cultural Power List, the brothers have won numerous awards, including Best Overall at the Online Video Awards and the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award for the Best Web Show. Talk to Me is their debut feature film.

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95% on RottenTomatoes

“The concept is deftly and artfully executed by the Philippou brothers, who don’t fall back on cheap jump scares, but rely on a dexterous cinematic style and grisly imagery to make a film that is truly dark and terrifying.” – Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

“Talk to Me’s unique take on possession cleverly depicts the struggles associated with grief and depression. It’s also scary, often invoking a sense of dread through an impressive use of sound, practical effects, and meaningful cinematography.” – Kenneth Seward Jr., IGN Movies

“Talk to Me is a terrifically scary horror offering thanks to powerful performances, creepy creature designs, a splash of blood and gore, and practical effects that’ll blow your mind and chill your spine.” – Kristy Puchko, Mashable

“The reason the film works so well is in its well-established teenage relationships – the Philippous show the attraction of being in with the cool kids and that the dangers this presents are particularly acute for those who are emotionally vulnerable” – Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film

“One of the scariest horror films in recent years! Impressive practical effects, superb makeup, hypnotizing performances – Sophie Wilde clearly stands out the most – and impeccable execution of truly shocking, gory, unpredictable moments of violence.” – Manuel São Bento, FirstShowing.net

THE ETERNAL MEMORY tells a profound and moving love story that balances vibrant individual and collective remembrance with the longevity of an unbreakable human bond. Augusto and Paulina have been together and in love for 25 years. Eight years ago, their lives were forever changed by Augusto’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. As one of Chile’s most prominent cultural commentators and television presenters, Augusto is no stranger to building an archive of memory. Now he turns that work to his own life, trying to hold on to his identity with the help of his beloved Paulina, whose own pre-eminence as a famous actress and Chilean Minister of Culture predates her ceaselessly inventive manner of engaging with her husband. Day by day, the couple face this challenge head-on, relying on the tender affection and sense of humor shared between them that remains, remarkably, fully intact. THE ETERNAL MEMORY was the winner of the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema – Documentary in 2023. Oscar nominated director Maite Alberdi (The Mole Agent) joins us for a conversation on her first encounter with Paulina and Augusto together and how seeing the fully integrated lives they were living inspired her, watching them embrace the withering psychological, emotional and physically journey they were both on, and the connected themes of love, compassion, empathy and devotion that The Mole Agent and The Eternal Memory share.

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For more go to: facebook.com/mtvdocs

About the filmmaker – An Academy Award® Nominated Director and Producer, Maite Alberdi is the first Chilean woman to be nominated for an Oscar®. She has developed a particular style that is characterized by the intimate portrayal of small worlds and her unique approach has led her to become one of the most important voices in Latin American documentary. In 2011, she released her first feature film, THE LIFEGUARD. Through Micromundo, her production company, Maite directed her second film, TEA TIME (La Once), which has won more than a dozen international awards and was nominated for the 2016 Goya for Best Ibero-American Film. In 2016, she released the short film I AM NOT FROM HERE, which was nominated for the European Film Awards, and she also premiered her third feature film, THE GROWN-UPS, which received 10 international awards. In Sundance 2020, she premiered THE MOLE AGENT, the first Chilean documentary to be nominated for an Academy Award®. Her latest film, THE ETERNAL MEMORY premiered at Sundance 2023, where it won the Grand Jury Award for World Cinema Documentary, and had its international premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival. 

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92% on RottenTomatoes

“Balances personal reflection and historical consciousness……the warm, gentle touch of Alberdi’s filmmaking” – Variety

“A beautiful and affecting love story.”  Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist

“An intimate, understated and often wrenching portrayal” – Screen

“Witnessing the grief Augusto has for his own life and Pauli for their life together is absolutely heartbreaking.  Yet, one will walk away longing for the type of love they have been so fortunate to experience in this lifetime if only for a moment.” – Carla Renata, The Curvy Film Critic

“Get tissues ready to witness one of the most selfless and patient forms of love that graced our screens, shared and magnified through pockets of joy that Alberdi’s camera celebrates with a generous side of empathy and sense of humor.” – Tomris Laffly, Harper’s Bazaar

“A moving chronicle” – The Hollywood Reporter

“Could any film completely capture such a private dynamic? Surely not, but at moments, “The Eternal Memory” appears to come close.” – Ben Kenigsberg, New York Times

“Perhaps the greatest feat of the courageous The Eternal Memory is Alberdi, Góngora and Urrutia’s ability to broach the subject with an emphasis on life, not death.” – Aurora Amidon, Paste Magazine

Filmmakers Emily Mackenzie and Noah Collier’s divinely off-kilter documentary explores the world of psychedelic carpets that line our hotel hallways, casinos, and  convention centers can be traced to one  town: Dalton, Georgia, the “Carpet Capital of the World.” In this bastion of American manufacturing we find an interwoven set of locals who are the unsung creators and developers behind the majority of the country’s carpets, always looking at the ground for their next big break. Among them is Roderick James, a Scottish expat and freelance textile designer living his life as a modern-day cowboy with an ambitious slew of eclectic business ventures. Through Rod’s journey chasing after The American Dream and the experiences of his peers in Dalton, CARPET COWBOYS explores the tensions between personal and national identity, and the rapidly changing global economic model of theUnited States that too often leaves so many behind. Where does the myth of American identity begin and where does it end, and who ultimately gets to cash in? Co-directors Emily Mackenzie & Noah Collier stop by to talk about the circumstances that brought them to Dalton, Georgia, meeting Roderick James and the other very colorful array of people who call the “carpet capitol of the world” home, and why it was vital that all the people we meet in Carpet Cowboys are be seen as authentic.

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For more go to: memory.is/carpet-cowboys

About the filmmaker – Emily MacKenzie is a New Orleans based director and producer. She is a graduate of Bard College and the New School’s Documentary Media Studies program. MacKenzie co-wrote and edited Nina Davenport’s feature length HBO Documentary FIRST COMES LOVE (2010) and has produced and directed for Vice, MTV, Fuse, Animal Planet, and WEtv. MacKenzie’s short documentary SCAR STORY was featured on The Atlantic’s website in 2016 and was viewed over 80 thousand times. She is currently completing TAPESTRIES, a feminist audio series depicting queer breast cancer narratives. For more go to: memilymack.com

About the filmmaker – Noah Collier is a director and cinematographer born in New York City. As a Director of Photography, Collier has primarily created non-fiction work, including the Sundance Special Jury Award -winning  JAWLINE (Hulu 2019), SANTA CAMP (HBO 2022), and THE COME UP (Freeform 2022). For more go to: noahcollier.online

About the filmmaker – Executive Producer John Wilson is a documentary filmmaker most well known for his HBO show “How To With John Wilson”

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“If Errol Morris, circa Vernon, Florida, Ricky Gervais and Christopher Guest, after a night of heavy drinking in 1990, having reckoned with the burden of the death of cinema, chipped in to make a movie together about carpets, this would be it.” – Rick Alverson, Director of: The Mountain, Entertainment, The Comedy

“Truly fascinating look at the far reaching American myths and symbols and the fibs that all that represents” – Bill Ross, Co-director of Empty Nose Bloody Pockets, Western

“What a gift to experience a movie exploring dreams, decay and homoeroticism through the lens of delusional “straight” white men… with a healthy heap of cringe to wash it down.” – TJ Martin, Oscar winner Best Documentary 2012, LA92

Laurel Parmet’s astute feature narrative debut, THE STARLING GIRL zeroes in on the life of seventeen-year-old Jem Starling as she struggles to define her place within her fundamentalist Christian community of rural Kentucky. Even her greatest joy of dancing with the church group is tempered by worry that her actions are sinful and she is caught between a burgeoning awareness of her own sexuality and her religious devotion. With the return of Owen, an enigmatic youth pastor, Jem soon finds herself attracted to his worldliness and charm. Slowly, he draws her into a dangerous relationship that could upend their entire community. THE STARLING GIRL centers on Jem’s agency as Scanlen and a gruffly charismatic Lewis Pullman generate a palpable chemistry, even as the film steadily reaffirms Jem’s youthful naivete and Owen’s position of authority. Writer-director Laurel Parmet delicately balances the intoxication and inappropriateness of the pair’s transgressive connection in this morally complex, sensitive coming-of-age story. A stellar Eliza Scanlen beautifully conveys the impetuous, conflicted Jem’s tentative journey toward understanding her growingly complicated ideas about herself, her family, and the faith that has always guided her life.

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For more go to: bleeckerstreetmedia.com/the-starling-girl

About the filmmaker – Laurel Parmet is a screenwriter and director whose feature directorial debut, THE STARLING GIRL, will be premiering in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Parmet received her MFA in directing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and has written and directed several award-winning short films; the latest, KIRA BURNING, having premiered at SXSW and screened at MoMA in the Future of Film is Female series. Her previous short film, SPRING, screened at SXSW, Outfest, Palm Springs and many more. Parmet developed THE STARLING GIRL as a fellow of the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program and was recently named one of Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch for 2023. 

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92% on RottenTomatoes

“Scanlen’s work here is steeped in the feeling of a real-life being lived right in front of you.” – Jason Bailey, The Playlist

“The power of this sensitive and devilishly detailed coming-of-age drama is rooted in the friction that it finds between biblical paternalism and modern personhood.” – David Ehrlich, indieWire

“The language and strictures of their religious community are perfectly rendered by writer and director Laurel Parmet, who captures the complicated interplay of power and immaturity that can blossom in isolated communities.” – Alissa Wilkinson, Vox

“At a time when very little nuance is allowed in our culture, Parmet exquisitely manages to tell a complex story in the least judgmental manner, focusing primarily on the inner and outer world of her protagonist, perfectly embodied by Eliza Scanlen.. – Frank J. Avella, Edge Media Network

“Parmet’s strong script and surety behind the camera navigates the audience through this complicated story of religion and sexuality, patriarchy and power, brought to eerily accurate life by the ensemble of excellent actors.” – Katie Walsh, TheWrap

Tommy Hyde’s beguiling feature documentary debut UNDERDOG follows a hardscrabble Vermont dairy farmer Doug Butler. Doug has an offbeat passion – dog mushing. A local folk hero, Doug trains his team of mutts on the family farm with a dream to compete at the world championships in Alaska. But the demands of being a small-scale family farmer in a changing world are constant. Keenly aware of the fate of the other family farms that used to dot the landscape, Doug has managed for years to play one creditor off against the next to survive another season. But with the debt now insurmountable and Doug’s thoughts plunging into depression, his dogs offer solace…and perhaps a way out. On a cold March morning Doug pulls out of his driveway in a rusted-out truck carrying 22 dogs, bound for Alaska. The journey will prepare him for what he’ll confront when he gets back: the sale of his farm and a race to craft a new destiny. Director, cinematographer, editor Tommy Hyde joins us for a conversation on how met his charismatic subject, being welcomed into Doug’s energetic world, traveling across country with Doug and working how working with UNDERDOG producer and writer, Aaron Woolf and producer Kyra Schaefer from Mosaic Films Productions made this possible.

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For more go to: underdogfilm.org

Check out other great films at: First Run Features

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Don’t miss the theatrical premiere of UNDERDOG at Laemmle Royal this Thursday, August 10th. Screening to be followed by a Q&A with filmmakers Tommy Hyde and Aaron Woolf, as wells as the film’s unforgettable subject Doug Butler.

About the filmmaker – Tommy Hyde (Director, Camera, Editor) is a documentary filmmaker whose work explores people and stories at the fringes of society. Underdog, a film ten years in the making, is his directorial debut. He frequently collaborates with Mosaic Films, and is currently in production on two docu-series with them as a producer and writer. He is a graduate of Middlebury College and resides in Burlington, VT.

Kyra Schaefer (Co-Producer) is a NY-based documentary producer and editor whose work centers around the intersection of faith and feminism. She holds a B.A. in digital media and video production from Marymount Manhattan College. She is the co-producer of The Happening (in production) and Ordinary Saints (in production), both Mosaic Films Productions.

Aaron Woolf (Producer & Writer) is a Rockie, Logie and Peabody award-winning documentary filmmaker who tells stories that depict the human dimension of government policy. His work has been released theatrically in the US, Europe and Japan and broadcast on PBS, the Sundance Channel, and numerous international networks including RAI, ARTE, and SBS. Aaron is active in community and conservation efforts in New York’s Adirondack North Country, and in 2014 he was the Democratic nominee for Congress from the New York’s 21st district.

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“Tommy Hyde’s heartwarming documentary traces the life of an aging Vermont dairy farmer. Hyde’s subtlety as a filmmaker, along with the fabulous, eccentric central figure, bring to mind David Lynch’s The Straight Story. Both films are remarkable for how seemingly unremarkable they are. Stick with it, and the film’s subliminal power will sneak up on you.”-Alex Saveliev, FILM THREAT

In the wildly entertaining and refreshingly unfiltered documentary KOKOMO CITY, filmmaker D. Smith passes the mic to four Black transgender sex workers in Atlanta and New York City – Daniella Carter, Koko Da Doll, Liyah Mitchell, and Dominique Silver – who unapologetically break down the walls of their profession. Holding nothing back, the film vibrates with energy, sex, challenge, and hard-earned wisdom. This vital portrait, edited and shot by Smith in bold black and white, is her feature directorial debut. A two-time Grammy-nominated producer, singer, and songwriter, Smith made history as the first trans woman cast on a primetime unscripted TV show. Executive produced by Lena Waithe, KOKOMO CITY won the Sundance Film Festival’s NEXT Innovator Award and NEXT Audience Award, as well as the Berlinale’s Audience Award in the Panorama Documentary section. Director D. Smith joins us for a conversation on her own journey from the world of music to the world of filmmaking, telling a story that would appeal to people outside the LBGTQ+ community, working with Executive Producer Lena Waithe, sharing the private life of sex workers, morning the loss of a friend and why shooting in black and white was the right choice for KOKOMO CITY.

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For more go to: magpictures.com/kokomocity

**WINNER**

NEXT Innovator Award – Sundance FF 2023

NEXT Audience Award – Sundance FF 2023

Panorama Documentary Audience Award – Berlin Int’l FF 2023

About the filmmaker – Director/Editor/Cinematographer/Producer D. Smith is a two-time Grammy nominated producer, singer, and songwriter and is now making her film debut as a director of the documentary KOKOMO CITY. Smith’s father was a world-renowned drummer, and she wrote her first song at 10 years-old for the choir at church in Miami, Florida. From 4th grade through High School, Smith was a visual arts student, winning multiple awards for her eye including winning the statewide NAACP Act So award for photography and the statewide Scholastics Congressional award for drawing and was flown to the Capital in D.C. where her work was displayed. After coming out to her father as a teen, Smith was kicked out her house and was taken in by a church member. After graduating High School, Smith used the last of her money on a one-way bus ticket to New York City. She then began singing in the subway where she was first discovered and offered a publishing deal from Sony ATV.  As a producer, Smith teamed with songwriter Stacy Barthe and they began placing records with major artists in the music business. Smith produced “Shoot Me Down” for Lil Wayne’s Carter III album which went 8 times platinum and performed with Lil Wayne on Jimmy Kimmel. Smith then signed a major publishing deal with Universal Music. She has produced and written for Cee-lo Green, Estelle, Katy Perry, Andre 3000, Monica, Lloyd, Fantasia, Nipsey Hussle, Ciara, Neyo, and Billy Porter. She has also collaborated with super producers like Timbaland and Marc Ronson. In 2014, Smith decided to walk in her truth and transition into the woman she always knew she was. She was unaware that living in her truth meant that she would have to sacrifice the thing she loved the most, which was making music for a living. People stopped calling. And eventually after running out of money and options, she knew she had to move on from the life she once knew. The silver lining came with the creation of KOKOMO CITY which has breathed new life into her. She devoted almost 3 years to it while crashing on different friends’ couches. All the while diving into the lives of four trans women who had a story to tell. Smith was over the moon to receive the call that KOKOMO CITY was to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. 

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96% on RottenTomatoes

“Smith’s music and photography instincts carry the film cinematically, but the real stars of Kokomo City are its honest and dynamic subjects.” – Jude Dry, indieWire

“It is a powerful and moving film that raises important questions and encourages viewers to think more deeply about the complexities of the trans experience.” – Michael Levine, Bust Magazine

“Director D. Smith’s stunning film composition and whip-smart comic timing make this heavy subject matter compelling and accessible.” – Jeanine T. Abraham, Black Girl Nerds

“Eye-and-ear-opening and mind-expanding and easily the most colorful black and white documentary you’re going to see this year. Guaranteed.” – Roger Moore, Movie Nation

“This doc rocks, using music to set the tempo for its snappy mix of head-turning talking heads, tongue-in-cheek reenactments and outside-the-box supporting visuals.” – Peter Debruge, Variety

Directed by two-time Oscar® nominated filmmaker Steve James (Hoop, Life Itself, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail), A COMPASSIONATE SPY is a gripping real-life spy thriller about controversial Manhattan Project physicist Ted Hall, who infamously provided nuclear secrets to  the Soviet Union, told through the perspective of his loving wife Joan, who protected his secret for decades. Recruited in 1944 as an 18-year-old Harvard undergraduate to help Robert Oppenheimer and his team create a bomb, Hall was the youngest physicist on the Manhattan Project, and didn’t share his colleagues’ elation after the successful detonation of the world’s first atomic bomb. Concerned that a U.S. post-war monopoly on such a powerful weapon could lead to nuclear catastrophe, Hall began passing key information about the bomb’s construction to the Soviet Union. After the war, he met, fell in love with, and married Joan, a fellow student with whom he shared a passion for classical music and socialist causes — and the explosive secret of his espionage. The pair raised a family while living under a cloud of suspicion and years of FBI surveillance and intimidation. A COMPASSIONATE SPY reveals the twists and turns of this real-life spy story, its profound impact on nuclear history, and the couple’s remarkable love and life together during more than 50 years of marriage. Award winning filmmaker Steve James (Abacus: Small Enough To Jail, City So Real, America To Me) joins us for a conversation on the fraught political circumstances that brought Ted Hall to make such a radical decision, how Joan and Ted navigated their post war life, and why having a more nuanced understanding of the Cold War and nuclear destruction may save the world from an unimaginable conflagration. 

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For more go to: magpictures.com/acompassionatespy

Watch at home at: magpictures.com/acompassionatespy

About the filmmaker – Steve James was born in Hampton, Virginia, USA. One of America’s most acclaimed documentary directors, Steve’s first film, Hoop Dreams, is the story of two inner city Chicago teens striving to make it out of their neighborhoods and to the NBA. The film won every major critics’ award as well as the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, Peabody, and Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, awards from the Directors Guild of America, MTV Movie Award’s “Best New Filmmaker” honor and hundreds of other awards and accolades, making it the most awarded film of the year. Recently, Hoop Dreams was selected for the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, signifying the film’s enduring importance to American film history. James is also known for other award winning documentary films including; The Interrupters (2011), Life Itself (2014) and Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2016). His documentary series works include America to Me (2018), City So Real (2020) and most recently, The Luckiest Guy in the World (2023). Steve James has been based in Chicago, Illinois for his entire career.

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93% on RottenTomatoes

“This first-rate portrait gets intimate with an atomic-age Edward Snowden, all the better to cast a long shadow.” – Phil Hoad, Guardian

“The documentary doubles as a mournful reflection on the age of nuclear proliferation – and a tribute to those who opposed the buildup.” – Tim Grierson, Screen International

“A Compassionate Spy borrows the look and feel of a historical espionage thriller and builds some momentum and moral complexity along the way, but it finds its real potency as a generational family drama.” – Dan Fienberg, Hollywood Reporter

“The film demonstrates its director’s characteristic nose for strong material and knack for gripping, straightforward storytelling.” – Guy Lodge, Variety

“It’s worth being reminded by James’s layered, grippingly told account of a principled betrayal that when it comes to the biggest threats facing the globe, sometimes one person in the right circumstance can make a difference.” – Robert Abele, TheWrap

BOBI WINE: THE PEOPLE’S PRESIDENT, the award-winning feature documentary debut from directors Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp and produced by Christopher Sharp, alongside two-time Academy Award winner John Battsek’s Ventureland. BOBI WINE: THE PEOPLE’S PRESIDENT follows Bobi Wine, who was born in the slums of Kampala and became one of Uganda’s most popular musical talents the country has ever seen. In the midst of the violence, corruption and injustice of the ruthless regime led by Yoweri Museveni, Bobi decides to become the Ugandan opposition leader in the much-disputed 2021 presidential election. Using his music to denounce the dictatorial regime and support his life’s mission to defend the oppressed and the voiceless people of Uganda, Bobi risks his life and the lives of his wife, Barbie, and their children to take on the country’s corrupt police and military, who are not afraid to use violence and torture in a vain attempt to intimidate and silence Bobi and his supporters. Co-directors Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp join us for a conversation on the incredible level of access they have in the life of Bobi, Barbie, his family and his trusted circle of advisors as well as the extremely dangerous situations brought on by Bobi’s decision to stand against a dictatorial regime and stand up for the people in Uganda who want a better life for themselves and the beloved nation.

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For more go to: nationalgeographic.com/bobi-wine

Opens LA This Friday 7/28 at the Laemmle Royal

About the subject –Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, famously known as Bobi Wine, is a musician turned politician who is the current leader of the National Unity Platform (NUP) and the People Power Movement. Bobi was born in Mpigi District in Uganda on Feb. 12, 1982. He grew up in the Kamwokya slums in the northeast part of Kampala. His mother was a nurse, and his father was a veterinarian and farmer.Bobi is a singer, musician, actor and activist. He has campaigned for hospital sanitization, malaria prevention, refugees’ rights and children’s education. His songs are known as peaceful protest and edutainment (a mix between education and entertainment), focusing on the struggles of Uganda’s underprivileged and low-income earners and calling upon young people to join politics and change their country’s destiny. He is married to Barbara Itungo Kyagulanyi, known as Barbie, with whom he has four children.His characteristic enthusiasm for democratic discourse and the popularity he had earned from his prior artistic and philanthropic endeavors successfully endured his transition to politics. Bobi Wine continues to lead the NUP, the largest political opposition party in Uganda and has become the main opposition leader to President Museveni’s rule.

About the Subject – Barbara “Barbie” Itungo Kyagulanyi is an author, philanthropist and human rights activist. Barbie’s 2012 book, “Golden Memories of a Village Belle,” gives insight into her early childhood experiences with village politics and local council elections, her African family unit, and the abject poverty that led to the early marriages of her childhood friends. In 2013, Barbie founded Caring Hearts Uganda, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that seeks to champion development projects in rural areas, prioritizing health care, maternity, education and sanitary programs. The NGO supports empowering leadership in girls through HIV/AIDS eradication, menstrual hygiene instruction, and continuing education, teaching traditional Ugandan values while encouraging girls to stay in school. In the community, the NGO has extended entrepreneurship skills to teen mothers for personal development and sustainability. With a master’s degree in human rights law from the University of London, Barbie has taken on the mantle of demanding equity and equality for women in political spaces through the women’s wing of the National Unity Platform political party, which is led by her husband, Kyagulanyi Ssentamu.

About the filmmaker – Christopher Sharp was born in Uganda and has a deep appreciation for the country’s people, culture and extraordinary natural beauty. He spent his early working life as a film editor in London and more recently has revisited the profession as director of ‘Bobi Wine: The People’s President’.He met Bobi and Barbie in 2017 and was inspired by their courage. Christopher believed in their extraordinary capacity to enact change, and instantly knew that their enormous sacrifice and resilience needed to be documented.He worked closely with a number of talented individuals, including Editor Paul Carlin, as well as acclaimed Producer John Battsek, Co-Director Moses Bwayo, and other inspirational cinematographers. Collectively they have made a film which he hopes gives courage to all those who struggle under oppressive regimes.

About the filmmaker – Moses Bwayo is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker known for shooting and co-directing the award-winning feature documentary “Bobi Wine: The People’s President” (2023). Born in the village of Bududa on the slopes of Mount Elgon in eastern Uganda, Moses was introduced to filmmaking by peeking through cracks in the walls of local kibandas, bootleg movie theatres housed in wooden shacks. In 2013, he graduated with honors with his Bachelor of Arts in journalism and mass communication. Moses went on to earn a postgraduate diploma at Kampala Film School, the nation’s top film and television conservatory, and started working as a production sound recordist and cinematographer. His life changed when he met Oscar®-nominated director Mira Nair, who was facilitating a workshop for aspiring filmmakers at her Maisha Film Labs. He was chosen as a boom operator on Nair’s short documentary “A Fork, a Spoon and a Knight” (2014). Subsequently, Nair took Moses under her wing and mentored him for two years, during which he performed sundry jobs for Disney’s “Queen of Katwe” (2016), travelling to the United States for the first time for the final mix with Nair in New York. In 2016, Moses started his own production company in Kampala, Jajja Productions, where he oversaw production and post-production services on various commercial, documentary, and feature films. Moses’ reputation as a courageous verité cinematographer and local fixer began to grow, shooting for ABC, BBC, and VICE News for their Uganda-based productions. In late 2017 His life changed again when he began work on the feature documentary “Bobi Wine: The People’s President.” Working closely with co-director and producer Christopher, Moses spent five harrowing years following Bobi Wine, a pop star turned politician who ran for president opposing Yoweri Museveni, a dictator who has been in power since 1986. During the production, Moses was arrested, imprisoned, and shot in the face at close range while filming. Two-time Oscar winner John Battsek also produced the film. With mounting threats to him and his family for making the film, Moses fled Uganda to the United States. 

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100% on RottenTomatoes

 “A universally relevant portrait … consistently potent” – The Hollywood Reporter, Daniel Fienberg

 “Gripping … An intimate portrait of a hugely engaging figure” – Screen Daily, Allan Hunter

“A shocking, tender work” – The Economist”

“This is a profile of unfathomable courage that deserves to be seen, in part to honor those who supported the film’s supply of footage and cannot be listed in the credits for fear of repercussion” – The Playlist

“His personality shines brightly throughout the film, which resonates with his hopeful protest songs. The more intensely violent situations he faces often turn the film into a nerve-shredding thriller.” – Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

“The film is a moving portrait of an inspiring young man and a reminder of the tenuous contract between a government and its citizens if democracy is going to prevail.’ – Scott Phillips, Forbes

Director Luke McManus’ rousing and sublime documentary NORTH CIRCULAR is a musical ode that travels the length of Dublin’s North Circular Road, from the Phoenix Park to Dublin Port, exploring the history, music and streetscapes of a street that links some of the country’s most beloved and infamous places. Told in black and white 4:3 Academy ratio, the film evokes many narratives from the history of the city and nation, from colonialism, to mental health, to the struggle for women’s liberation while also engaging with urgent issues of today, including the battle to save the legendary Cobblestone Pub, centre of Dublin’s recent folk revival, from destruction at the hands of cynical property developers. The film also includes musical performances from artists local to the North Circular, including John Francis Flynn, Séan Ó Túama, Eoghan O’Ceannabháin, Ian Lynch & Gemma Dunleavy. Director Luke McManus joins us for a conversation on the personal connection that he has to this historic roadway, how the road has played into the history of Dublin, highlighting the vital role that traditional Irish music has in the life of this community, what makes the Cobblestone Pub the most essential venue on North Circular and how stumbling upon Music Night at the Pub changed the course of the film, and the importance of contributing to the local economy.

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For more go to: northcircularfilm.com

About the filmmaker – Luke McManus is a filmmaker based in Grangegorman, just off the North Circular Road. Luke has produced and directed award-winning documentary projects for NBC, Netflix, RTÉ, Virgin Media Television, TG4, NDR/ARD, Al Jazeera and Channel 4, winning four IFTAs, one Celtic Media Award and the Radharc Award in the process. His debut feature as producer was The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid, which premiered in the Main Competition at IDFA in 2018, won the George Morrison Award for Best Feature Documentary at the Irish Film & Television Awards and the Best Irish Film Award at the Dublin International Film Festival.  North Circular is his debut feature documentary as a director.  For more go to: lukemcmanusdirector.com

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“A love letter to hard-scrabble North Dublin” – Will Hermes, The New York Times

“Resonant, vivid and beautifully shot… pregnant with images and ideas… a film made with real artistry” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian.

“Insightful, exquisite…beautifully observed and evocative.”-  John Maguire, Business Post

“A fascinating psychogeography… captivating, positively operatic.” – Donald Clarke, Irish Times

“A glorious documentary… brilliant… told with beautiful photography and glorious music… I love this film! …A gorgeous, beautiful, important story… a glorious trip!”, – John Fardy, Newstalk

“Beautiful, visually and sonically striking…A heartfelt love letter to Dublin.”- Leo Barraclough, Variety

“A film full of astonishing imagery…a remarkable contemporary document of places, people, lives and times” – Luke Maxwell, Dublin Inquirer

“A time-capsule charmer…beguiling…If ever a film was a rallying cry against isolation, it’s this one.” – Harry Guerin, RTÉ

A 2018 fatal shark attack on a boogie boarder in the town of Wellfleet, Massachusetts rocked visitors and residents in the idyllic summer community of Cape Cod, forcing them to respond to the encroachment of apex predators. With the numbers of sharks increasing every year, Ivy Meeropol’s expansive documentary AFTER THE BITE explores the repercussions for this beach community when rapid changes in the natural world begin to clash with a cherished way of life. Great white sharks have dominated headlines in recent years, as their deadly interactions with people have increased in the waters stretching from Maine to the Cape and Islands. Those charged with protecting the public have been forced to address the risk of serious injuries with stop-the-bleed kits mounted at public access beaches, warning billboards, the use of shark-tracking apps, spotter planes and new training programs and protocols for lifeguards. A portrait of an interconnected community of people and wildlife, AFTER THE BITE features a range of voices from different sides of these issues and considers the larger question of how far humans can push nature before it bites back.  Director Ivy Meeropol (Bully. Coward. Victim. The Roy Cohn Story.  Indian Point) joins us to talk about blending into the Cape Cod community of Wellfleet, enlisting the experts like Lisa Sette from the Center of Costal Studies; Dr. Greg Skomal and Meg Winton of the Atlantic White Shark Conservatory, to talk about the science and the lifeguards, conservationists, fishermen, journalists, paramedics, town residents, and activists to talk about the impact of the dramatic changes taking place since the tragic death of Arthur Medici.

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For more go to: hbo.com/movies/after-the-bite

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About the filmmaker – Ivy Meeropol is a producer and director of an array of acclaimed documentary feature films and television series. 2019 saw the release of Bully. Victim. Coward. The Story of Roy Cohn on the life of the notorious mob lawyer, acolyte  to the infamous Senator Joseph McCarthy, and mentor to Donald Trump. Meeropol rose to prominence in 2004 with her deeply personal film, Heir to An Execution, about the legacy of her grandparents Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (Sundance Film Festival, Academy Award short-list, HBO). Her film Indian Point questions safety standards overseen by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in light of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi disaster – while observing daily operations at an aging nuclear power plant just 35 miles north of New York City. (Winner of MacArthur Foundation documentary grant, premiere at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival). Meeropol created and directed non-fiction television series The Hill (Sundance Channel), a comedic, behind-the-scenes look at the young staffers of a US Congressman (2007 International Documentary Association nominee for Best Limited Series). Meeropol is also a director for CNN’s Death Row Stories and National Geographic’s Years of Living Dangerously.

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“An impressive tapestry of conflicting perspectives—man and animal—that’s far more entertaining and insightful than your average Shark Week fare.” – Nick Allen, RogerEbert.com

“Through the eyes of a Cape Cod community where disaster strikes, director Ivy Meeropol gently moves beyond the spectacle that defines the history of sharks to immerse us further in their world while grappling with many pressing questions on the journey.” – Chase Hutchinson, Collider

“By the end, though we ourselves hope to never become food, we at least have food for thought.” – Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Hammer to Nail

“It’s a serious-minded documentary in a genre that has strayed far from anything serious-minded.’ – Dan Fienberg, Hollywood Reporter

THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY opens with young woman reeling from a devastating loss and embarking down an unknown road of discovery and renewal. Tana (Lily Gladstone) is pulled back into the world by an unexpected invitation to her cousin’s wedding. She packs up her late grandmother’s Cadillac and hits the open road, driving from her home in Minnesota to South Dakota. After reconnecting with her Oglala Lakota family, Tana sets off to retrace a surreal journey that her grandmother took decades ago, searching for  the spot captured in an old family photograph. As she travels, Tana finds connection in the stories of everyday people who’ve settled down far off the main roads including Isaac (Raymond Lee), who provides a pivotal clue to understanding the lost location that could cultivate closure. A personal reverie summoned from a beguiling mix of fact and fiction, THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY is an arresting debut feature from Morrisa Maltz. Director  / Producer / Writer Morrisa Maltz (Ingrid, Odyssea) joins us for a conversation on the long journey she took figuratively and literally in the making of The Unknown Country, her evolving collaboration with lead actor Lily Gladstone and film producer and actor Lainey Bearkiller, editor Vanara Taing and cinematographer Andrew Hajek, the incorporation of storylines that occurred during the cross country shoot and what it has taught her about trusting her instincts as a filmmaker.

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For more, go to: musicboxfilms.com/the-unknown-country

About the filmmaker – Morrisa Maltz is an artist and filmmaker. She studied visual arts at Columbia University. Her art, film, and performance work have been shown at MOCA, Los Angeles, as well as at the MCA, Santa Barbara and galleries internationally. In 2012, she created Mofones, an art product for iPhone that was sold at Urban Outfitters, Nordstrom and Museum stores worldwide. Her first short film, The Caretaker, won best narrative short at LES Film Festival and in 2014 her short film, Odyssea, premiered at Slamdance film festival. Morrisa’s first feature documentary, Ingrid, was applauded as a “festival gem” on the 2018 festival circuit and won several awards. Ingrid screened on PBS in 2019 and is distributed by Ryan Krivoshey’s Grasshopper Films. Her first narrative feature, The Unknown Country, premiered at SXSW 2022. The film has been hailed by Indiewire as “a stunning spiritual companion to Terrence Malick and ‘Nomadland,” and was acquired by Music Box Films. She was recently nominated for Mill Valley Film Festival’s Mind The Gap 2022 Creation Prize and signed with UTA in all areas. 

About the artist – Lily Gladstone – Born in Montana, Gladstone was raised on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and later near Seattle, WA. She graduated with high honors from the University of Montana in 2008 with a BFA in Acting/Directing, and a minor in Native American Studies. Gladstone was introduced to audiences in Alex and Andrew Smith’s adaptation of Winter in the Blood, a NYT best seller and seminal novel by Blackfeet/Gros Ventre author James Welch. Her breakout role came in 2016 from Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women, a performance which earned her the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress, Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as nominations for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female and Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Actor. In 2017 Gladstone joined the Oregon Shakespeare Festival acting company, and in 2020 she stared in the Yale Repertory Theater production of Mary Kathryn Nagle’s Manahattan. In 2019 Gladstone reunited with Reichardt for First Cow. The film won Best Film at the 2020 New York Film Critics Circle Awards, and was named one of the ten best films of 2020 by the National Board of Review.

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85% on RottenTomatoes

“Though every destination and person contains a beauty Maltz is delicately attuned to, it is Gladstone who emerges once more as a driving force like no other. She brings a grace to every frame, gently crafting an experience as eternal as it is magnificent.” – Chase Hutchinson, Collider

“A memorable, heart-expanding journey.” – Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter

“Puts us in the presence of a major talent, bearing something profound in her artistic inclinations.” – Carlos Aguilar, indieWire

“A beautiful film with a thoughtfully profound journey that slowly reveals itself. As a Native American critic, it is also an admittedly terrifying film considering the plight of MMIW. Lily Gladstone does an exceptional.” – Vincent Schilling, Native Viewpoint

“This is minimalistic storytelling at its finest with outstanding work from Lily Gladstone. The stories from all involved are rich with personality” – Robert Kojder, Flickering Myth

HAVE YOU GOT IT YET? THE STORY OF SYD BARRETT AND PINK FLOYD asks and answers many of the perplexing questions that swirled around the life and decline of Syd Barrett, founding member, initial songwriter and leader of the world famous rock group Pink Floyd. Was he a drug casualty of the sixties? Did he walk away from the pressures of the commercial music  world? Did he suffer from an undiagnosed mental illness? Pink Floyd were caught in the epicenter of the ‘underground’ explosion of the 60s as the psychedelic house band of the UFO club in London, with Syd Barrett its enigmatic  figurehead, inspiring such musicians as David Bowie and Marc Bolan. Though he named the group, wrote the first two hit songs and was the lead vocalist and guitarist, Barrett was pushed out of the band by its members who were convinced he was having an LSD induced psychotic breakdown. After leaving the group, Barrett struggled to record two solo records but eventually dropped out of the music industry completely, living as a recluse  for thirty years – while Pink Floyd went on to worldwide fame as one of the  biggest selling bands of all time. Ironically, much of Pink Floyd’s most noted work (Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here) examined themes of genius and madness certainly mourning their long lost friend. HAVE YOU GOT IT YET? THE STORY OF SYD BARRETT AND PINK FLOYD is at once a chronicle and a mosaic, an investigation of fame and its personal cost while also exploring the larger social context of the 60s, its hopes and failures, and a compelling story that involves us all in discovery and how one chooses a path in life, measured by the outside world or one’s own inner voice. Co-director Roddy Bogawa (Storm Thorgerson) joins us for a conversation on working with Thorerson, renown artist and long-time friend of David Gilmore, Nick Mason and Roger Waters, separating the truth from the mythology regarding Barrett and what made Barrett’s work with Pink Floyd and his own solo music so intriguing and influential for generations of musicians and artists.

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For more go to: abramorama.com/film/have-you-got-it-yet-syd-barrett

There more here too: sydbarrettfilm.com

About the filmmaker – New York Filmmaker Roddy Bogawa completed his Master of Fine Arts at the University of California at San Diego in 1989 and then attended the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art. His filmography includes the features Junk and Some Divine Wind and the shorts If Andy Warhol’s Super-8 Camera Could Talk, Four or Five Accidents, One June…, and The Imagined, The Longed-For, The Conquered, and The Sublime. His films have been shown at the Sundance Film Festival, the Mannheim International Film Festival, and the Asian American International Film Festival among others, as well as the Biennial Exhibitions of the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1993 and 1995, the Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum, and Wexner Center for the Arts. His awards and grants include the Jerome Foundation Independent Filmmaker Grant, New York State Council on the Arts, American Center Foundation, and The Russell Foundation. His most recent film, Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd delves into the mythology, lies, and the truth surrounding the musician / artist life before, during and after his founding of the legendary rock band Pink Floyd.

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“If you are a fan of Pink Floyd or music from the acid days of the 60’s then this film is a must-watch.” – Crockett Houghton, Film Inquiry

“Roddy Bogawa and Storm Thorgerson must rely on archive footage, music, and extensive interviews with just about everyone whose lives and careers intersected with Barrett, all given chronological structure by Jason Isaacs’ narration.” – Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle

“The story is familiar, but it’s never been told in such detail.” – Jem Aswad, Variety

“It’s as comprehensive and coherent an account of Barrett’s counterculture tragedy as one could hope for.” – Glenn Kenny, New York Times

“[The film] is an admirable effort that intends to explore the life and career of the charismatic, enigmatic, and psychedelic rocker, an assemblage of diverse materials that seeks to shed light on the dark side of Barrett’s psyche.” – Ayeen Forootan, In Review Online

In this deeply personal documentary EAT YOUR CATFISH we meet the matriarch of the Arjomand family, Kathryn, now dependent on round-the-clock care, due to a harrowing diagnosis. She clings to a mordant wit while yearning to witness her daughter’s wedding. Co-directors and producers Adam Isenberg, Senem Tüzen and Noah Amir Arjomand — who is Kathryn’s son — deliver a brutally frank and darkly humorous portrait of a family teetering on the brink, grappling with the daily demands of disability and in-home caregiving. With her daughter Minou’s wedding day approaching, Kathryn is determined to live to  see her child get married. Years with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease, have left Kathryn paralyzed and needing 24-hour care. She relies on an eye-tracking, speech-generating computer to impart her wishes, but it can be an uphill struggle to be ‘heard’. With her mind intact and having opted for mechanical breathing, she could live like this indefinitely. EAT YOUR CATFISH is draws on 930 hours of footage – all filmed without any crew present from a fixed camera and narrated by Kathryn. The result is a profoundly intimate, layered and wryly funny portrait of a family at its breaking point. Co-directors Noah Amir Arjomand & Adam Isenberg (Senem Tüzen) joins us to talk about the ways this film project came about, why they adopted the POV approach to telling the story and how seeing the world from the point-of-view Kathryn could positively impact other family’s dealing with a loved one in a comparable medical condition.

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For more go to: eatyourcatfish.com

For more on the POV screening: pbs.org/pov/eatyourcatfish

EAT YOUR CATFISH makes its national broadcast premiere on POV Monday, July 24, 2023 at 10pm ET/ 9pm CT (check local listings) and will be available to stream at pbs.org, and the PBS App until October 22, 2023. In addition to standard closed captioning for the film, POV, in partnership with audio description service DiCapta, provides real time audio interpretations. EAT YOUR CATFISH is produced by Zela Film. Adam Isenberg, Senem Tüzen and Noah Amir Arjomand are the co-directors and producers. Noah Amir Arjomand is the cinematographer. Adam Isenberg and Senem Tüzen are the editors. Erika Dilday and Chris White are the executive producers for American Documentary | POV.

EAT YOUR CATFISH made its world premiere in 2021 at IDFA in the Envision Competition and received a nomination for Best Documentary. In 2022, the film won Best Documentary at the Istanbul International Film Festival and won Best International Documentary at the Antenna Documentary Festival. The same year it was also nominated for a Best Feature Documentary Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and Turkish Film Critics Association (SIYAD) Awards. The documentary also received a nomination for the Youth Jury Award at the 2022 Sheffield International Documentary Festival.

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“An unusually unsentimental, everyday document of ALS, tender in the expressly painful manner of a fresh bruise.” – Guy Lodge, Variety

“Intimate, brutally honest…crucially, the film gives Kathryn a platform to tell – and indeed show – her story, in her own unique way. Her lingering hope is that viewers don’t think she’s pathetic, but plucky. Painstakingly edited by Adam Isenberg and Senem Tüzen, this film grants her that wish.” – Nikki Baughan, Screen International

“This enthralling documentary following a woman with ALS will leave you vibrating with empathy, rage and joy.” – Christopher Lloyd, The Film Yap

“A very powerful and moving film about perspective” – Rob Aldam, Backseat Mafia

LAKOTA NATION vs UNITED STATES begins and ends with it’s focus on “the most sacred place on earth,” the birthplace of the Lakota that has shaped thought, identity and philosophy for the Očéti Šakówiŋ since time immemorial-the life-giving land known as the Black Hills. Yet with the arrival of the first Europeans in 1492, the sacred land has been the site of conflict between the people it has nurtured, and the settler state seeking to exploit and redefine it in its own image. Lakota Nation vs. United States is a searing testament to the strength of the Oyate nation and the people. It is also a visually stunning rejoinder to the distorted imagery of a people and culture long shaped by racist mainstream films, art, books and history taught to our children. In spite of the string of broken treaties or the action of war criminal General Custer at Little Big Horn or the slaughter of millions of buffalo or forced removal of native children into government run “boarding” schools the Oglala Tetonowan Oyate have survived. Lakota Nation vs. United States is a lyrical and provocative testament to a land and a people who have survived removal, exploitation and genocide–and whose best days are yet to come.  Co-directors Jesse Short Bull (Istinma) and Laura Tomaselli (MLK/FBI) join us for a conversation on the powerful familial connection that Jesse has the battle of Little Big Horn, how and why the American government ignored or violated recognized treaties before the ink was dry, and how the political, economic and cultural violence against the Oyate remain firmly embedded in the policies of the state and federal government to this day.

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For more go to: ifcfilms.com/lakota-nation-vs-the-united-states

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About the filmmaker – Jesse Short Bull, Director, wrote and produced the 2013 short Istinma, set in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota. A graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts, Short Bull received a 2016 Sundance Institute Native American and Indigenous Program Development Grant and also attended the Creative Producing Summit at Sundance. In 2014 he was part of the effort to change the name of Shannon County to Oglala Lakota County in South Dakota. Currently employed by the Oglala Lakota tribal government, Short Bull is a member of the board of the Black Hills Film Festival. With the First Peoples Fund he leads youth filmmaking workshops in the Oglala Lakota Nation.

About the filmmaker – Laura Tomaselli, Director and Editor is a filmmaker with credits spanning narrative, documentary, and commercial projects. Most recently, she edited the documentary features MLK/FBI and Surge as well as the nonfiction shorts Feathers and Lowland Kids. For her work on MLK/FBI Tomaselli received a Cinema Eye Award Nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Editing. Her films have screened at Sundance, SXSW, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Toronto International Film Festival.

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100% on RottenTomatoes!

“A powerful documentation about a beautiful struggle. You’ll be astounded. It’s like taking a grad course in Native American studies and loving the professor.” – Dwight Brown, DwightBrownInk.com

“[A] stunning film…” – Concepción de León, New York Times

“Jesse Short Bull and Laura Tomaselli’s vital Lakota Nation vs. United States doesn’t waste any of its 121 minutes, but it also boasts a number of moments that effectively squeeze the film’s entire perspective into a single unforgettable image.” –  David Ehrlich, indieWire

“There’s a lot of stuff here, and it’s all infuriating.” – Peter Rainer, FilmWeek (KPCC – NPR Los Angeles)

“Visually stunning and indelible… an authentic and heartfelt portrait of righteous indignation against social injustice.” – Ruth Maramis, FlixChatter Film Blog

“Powerful, illuminating and emotionally resonating. One of the best documentaries of the year.” – Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru

In a nod to Turner Classic Movies (TCM)’s “Silent Sunday Nights,” hosted by Academy Museum Director and President Jacqueline Stewart, the museum is launching a series of silent film screenings. Both TCM and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures are dedicated to showcasing the films of this important period in filmmaking history as part of our cultural heritage. Film historian David Pierce has concluded that only 26% of American silent features survive in complete form.  Taking place on Sundays at 2 pm, and screening at the world renown David Geffen Theatre, Silent Sundays will showcase iconic movies from the silent era as well as forgotten gems and international classics. Each screening will also feature live musical accompaniment. The opening film on July 23 is Earth (Zemlya) by director Oleksandr Dovzhenko. It is the first screening of the  Earth (Zemlya)  outside of Europe and accompanied by a live musical performance from Kyiv-based composer Luke Corradine. K.J. Relth-Miller, Interim Director of Film Programs at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures joins us for a conversation what went into selecting the first slate of silent film era classics, the thrill of watching great films with live musical, and how many of the filmmakers from the silent era went on to become cinematic icons; Keaton, Chaplin, Hitchcock, Lang,  Lubitsch, DeMille and Hawks.

 

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For more go to: academymuseum.org/programs/silent-sundays

David Geffen Theatre – A grand presentation space for major film events, public programs, live performances, movie premieres, and other special events with the world’s leading filmmakers, the 966-seat David Geffen Theater is an unforgettable part of visitors’ museum experience. The museum’s large theater is fully equipped to present film in many formats, including nitrate, 35mm, 70mm, and laser projection supporting Dolby Vision, which allows visitors to see the subtle details and ultra-vivid colors creating multi-dimensional visuals. The theater also features Dolby Atmos, a truly immersive audio experience. The Geffen Theater’s stage can accommodate a 60-piece orchestra; its seating layout can be arranged to accommodate a sound booth; and catwalks can be rigged with theater lighting. Dolby is the exclusive audio and visual sponsor of this theater. For more go to: academymuseum.org

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Davide Ferrario’s UMBERTO ECO is a documentary immersion into all things Eco. His sublimely intimate film takes us on a tour of Umberto Eco’s private library, guided by the author himself. Combining new footage with material he shot with Eco in 2015 for a video installation for the Venice Biennale, Ferrario documents this incredible collection and the man who amassed it. As Eco leads us among the more than 50,000 volumes and his family reflects on his legacy, we also gain  insight into the library of the mind of this vastly prolific and original thinker. UMBERTO ECO director Davide Ferrario (After Midnight, We All Fall Down), joins us for a lively conversation on how he approached his humble and warm-hearted subject, enlisting Umberto’s family, Renate, Stefano and Carlotta, into this joyful collaboration and how important he felt it was to make Umberto’s sonorous collection of literature the other “character” in this exhilarating ode to the author of The Name of  the Rose, Umberto Eco. 

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For more go to cinemaguild.com/umbertoeco

About the filmmaker – Davide Ferrario was born in Lombardy in 1956, lives in Torino. He graduated in American Literature from Milan University in 1981. He began as a film critic in the 70’s, writing essays and books. He also funded a distribution company who released in Italy films by Wenders, Fassbinder, Wajda. Later, he became an Italian agent for such American independents as John Sayles and Jim Jarmusch. His debut as a director was La fine della notte, 1989, voted Best Italian Independent Film of the year. Since then he has directed fiction films and documentaries shown in international festivals like Berlin, Sundance, Venice, Toronto, Locarno. Ferrario holds a peculiar place in the Italian scene. Sternly independent, he runs his own production company, Rossofuoco, with which he has produced all his movies since 2002. Among them, Dopo mezzanotte (After Midnight), a great success at the Berlinale and sold to over 100 countries; and the documentary La strada di Levi (Primo Levi’s Journey), long-listed for the Academy Award. His most recent direction is Blood on the Crown, starring Harvey Keitel and Malcolm McDowell. Ferrario is also a novelist: his book Dissolvenza al nero (Fade to Black) has been translated in many languages and has been adapted for the screen by Oliver Parker in 2006. He is a regular contributor to Corriere della Sera; he is also active as a visual artist and a photographer. 

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“Exploring fictional worlds with Eco for a guide remains a diverting and often enlightening pursuit.” – Nicolas Rapold, New York Times

“As we wander through the labyrinth we are drawn further and further into its trap, made ever more keenly aware of our own hunger for knowledge, for understanding.” – Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film

“The contemporary Italian philosopher, medievalist, critic, commentator and reluctant novelist comes to buoyant, engaging life in this look back at the man and his books, through the eyes of family and friends, and in the author’s own words.” – Chris Knight, Original Cin

“This swooning homage to printed matter is for the most part razor sharp, and if it convinces anyone that physical media is crucial for civilization, then all the better.” – Pat Padua, Spectrum Culture

“The film becomes a timely epistemological rumination on the difference between knowledge and information, the relationship between memory and technology.” – William Repass, Slant Magazine

Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI), and executive produced by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (Oscar-winning SUMMER OF SOUL), Tariq Trotter (DESCENDANT), and produced by RadicalMedia , THE LEAGUE celebrates the dynamic journey of Negro League baseball’s triumphs and challenges through the first half of the twentieth century. The story is told through previously unearthed archival footage and never-before-seen interviews with legendary players like Satchel Paige and Buck O’Neil – whose early careers paved the way for the Jackie Robinson era – as well as celebrated Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Hank Aaron who started out in the Negro Leagues. From entrepreneurial titans Cumberland Posey and Gus Greenlee, whose intense rivalry fueled the rise of two of the best baseball teams ever to play the game, to Effa Manley, the activist owner of the Newark Eagles and the only woman ever admitted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, THE LEAGUE explores Black baseball as an economic and social pillar of Black communities and a stage for some of the greatest athletes to ever play the game, while also examining the unintended consequences of integration. Director Sam Pollard (Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power, Citizen Ashe, Tiger) joins us for a conversation on the multi-layered history of the Black ballplayer’s quest for inclusion, compensation and respect. The story begins in 1890’s Jim Crow laws forcing out the few Black players already playing with white players in the nascent professional leagues and culminates with the signing of Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson to a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers and soon after Larry Dolby to a contract with the American League’s Cleveland Indians.

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For more go to: theleaguedocumentary.com

About the filmmaker – Sam Pollard is a veteran feature film and television video editor, and documentary producer/director. Between 1990 and 2010, he edited a number of Spike Lee films: Mo’ Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Girl 6, Clockers, and Bamboozled. Pollard and Lee co-produced a number of documentary productions for the small and big screen, including Four Little Girls, a feature-length documentary about the 1963 Birmingham church bombings which was nominated for an Academy Award® in 1998 and When The Levees Broke, a four-part documentary that won numerous awards, including a Peabody and three Emmy Awards. Five years later 2010 he co-produced and supervised the edit on the follow up, If God Is Willing And Da Creek Don’t Rise. As a producer/director, since 2015, his credits include: Slavery By Another Name, (2015) a 90-minute documentary for PBS that was in competition at the Sundance Festival; August Wilson: The Ground On Which I Stand, (2015) a 90-minute documentary for American Masters; Two Trains Runnin, a feature length documentary, which premiered at the Full Frame Film Festival in 2016; and Sammy Davis Jr., I’ve Gotta Be Me for American Masters premièred at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. In 2019, he co-directed the six-part series, Why We Hate, which premiered on The Discovery Channel. In 2020 he was one of the directors on the 2020 HBO Series Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children. also that year, he completed MLK/FBI,  which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and was also featured at the New York Film Festival. 

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97% on RottenTomatoes

“Pollard’s “The League” is a rich, engrossing, and necessary tribute to a critical early wave in the Civil Rights movement.” – Robert Daniels, indieWire

“If one measure of a documentary’s quality is whether it inspires you to learn more about its subject after the credits roll, “The League” is an unqualified success.” – Michael Nordine, Variety

“Ultimately, Pollard’s film is equal parts tribute and lament, as complicated as this country.” – Noel Murray, Los Angeles Times

“Where “The League” sparkles is in its retrieving interviews with the great pitcher Paige, Monte Irvin and other Negro Leagues stars who lived long enough for the country to start interviewing Black baseball players about those years.” – Roger Moore, Movie Nation

“This history has surely been well-covered elsewhere, but “The League” recounts it movingly.” – Ben Kenigsberg, New York Times

Champion freediver Alessia Zecchini fell in love with the sport as a child growing up in Italy, astounding coaches with her raw talent and determination in pool swims and open water contests before she was even old enough to legally compete. Irish adventurer turned expert safety diver Stephen Keenan, meanwhile, was raised near the sea, but as a young man he set out on a quest to find himself, traveling across Africa before landing in Dahab, Egypt and establishing a dive school. Despite their very different paths, the two would meet at the pinnacle of the competitive freediving world, discovering a shared passion for pushing their limits and forming a powerful relationship that felt like fate. From director Laura McGann, this thrilling documentary takes a look inside one of the most dangerous sports in the world, using everything from raw underwater dive footage to childhood home movies to chronicle Zecchini and Keenan’s lives and careers. Director and writer Laura McGann (The 8th, Revolutions) stops by to talk about her exploration of the bond between Zecchini and Keenan that propels THE DEEPEST BREATH emotional journey into the stunning, silent depths of the ocean, a breathtaking place unseen by all but the fortunate few – where exhilarating accomplishments and the unavoidable risks that await them.

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Watch at: netflix.com/The Deepest Breath

About the filmmaker – Director / Producer / Cinematographer Laura McGann is a documentary filmmaker from Ireland who started making films and producing theater when she was 15 years old. She went on to study film in Ballyfermot, Dublin, before getting her masters at Hope University in Liverpool, England. She has worked in Ireland and abroad shooting and directing numerous documentary projects for RTE, SKY, PBS, BBC, Lonely Planet and UTV.

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86% on RottenTomatoes

“The Deepest Breath offers an absorbing insight into this most extreme of sports and the motivations of those brave enough to attempt it.” – Paul Whitington, Irish Independent

“It’s the stuff of epic melodrama, and one of the obvious gifts of the director Laura McGann is her capacity for shaping eccentric non-fiction material into pleasingly familiar Hollywood rhythms.” – Kevin Maher, Times (UK)

“In the most literal sense, The Deepest Breath is a breathtaking documentary, one filled with eye-popping visuals, thrilling competitions and a deftly presented love story.” – Dan Fienberg, Hollywood Reporter

“I had chills the entire film. There wasn’t a moment I wasn’t completely caught up in the story, fully immersed in their experiences and what they were going through. It’s an astonishing doc.” – Alex Billington, FirstShowing.net

“Rounding out the pervasive sense of fear and ecstasy is a mesmerizing, sometimes mind-altering, depiction of the ocean’s depths.” – Lauren Mechling, Guardian

Filmmaker Nancy Buirski (The Loving Story, The Rape of Recy Taylor, By Sidney Lumet) journey through the last 100 years of American cultural, political and artistic touchstones continues with Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy.  A half century after its release, John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy remains one of the most original and groundbreaking movies of the modern era. With beguiling performances from Jon Voight (Coming Home) and Dustin Hoffman (The Graduate) as two loners who join forces out of desperation, black list survivor Waldo Salt’s brilliant screenplay, and Schlesinger’s fearless direction, the 1969 film became the only X- rated film to ever win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Its vivid and compassionate depiction of a more realistic, un-sanitized New York City and its inhabitants paved the way for a generation’s worth of gritty movies with complex characters and adult themes. But this is not a documentary about the making of Midnight Cowboy: it is about the deeply gifted and flawed people behind a dark and difficult masterpiece; New York City in a troubled time of cultural ferment; and the era that made a movie and the movie that made an era. Director and producer  Nancy Buirski joins us to talk about gathering the extensive archival material and compelling new interviews, and how this one film, Midnight Cowboy captured the essence of a time and a place, reflecting a rapidly changing society with striking clarity.

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For more go to: zeitgeistfilms.com/desperate-souls-dark-city-and-the-legend-of-midnight-cowboy

About the filmmaker – Nancy Buirski is the director, producer and writer of award-winning films THE LOVING STORY; AFTERNOON OF A FAUN: TANAQUIL LE CLERCQ; BY SIDNEY LUMET; THE RAPE OF RECY TAYLOR; and A CRIME ON THE BAYOU. THE LOVING STORY, shortlisted for Oscar and winner of a Peabody Award was turned into the feature LOVING, co-produced by Buirski. Both DESPERATE SOULS and THE RAPE OF RECY TAYLOR premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where the latter was awarded the prestigious Human Rights Nights Award. Buirski has consulted on many documentaries, including Academy Award winner SUMMER OF SOUL. Prior to filmmaking, Buirski founded and ran the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. She is the former Foreign Picture Editor at The New York Times and wrote and photographed Earth Angels: Migrant Children in America. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

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90% on RottenTomatoes

“A sumptuous documentary…” – Kevin Maher, Times (UK)

“Burski eloquently conveys the impeccable (but unpredictable) alchemy of the production by underscoring, with frequency, how much of its brilliance was an accidental confluence, how its specific magic was the right combination of people, events, and timing” – Jason Bailey, The Playlist

“The juiciest parts are digging into the film itself, a work of art that warrants the lavish treatment Buirski gives it and can be expected to get everybody talking again.” – Stephen Saito, Moveable Fest

“Midnight Cowboy remains littered with contradictions… All that makes Nancy Buirski’s new documentary about its production and legacy more interesting.” – Adam Solomons, indieWire

“A snapshot of a time but also a continuation of a conversation.” – Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International

Marking the directorial debut of long-time Duplass brothers’ collaborator, Mel Eslyn, BIOSPHERE drops us into the confined lives of Billy (Mark Duplass) and Ray (Sterling K. Brown), lifelong best friends and the last two men on earth. Their survival is largely due to Ray, a brilliant scientist who designed a domed structure with all the systems necessary to sustain life on a planet that could no longer support it. Their custom biosphere is outfitted with basic necessities and creature comforts that make it possible to retain a sense of what life used to be like. A hydroponic garden provides fresh vegetables and a carefully managed fishpond supplies essential protein. Recently, however, fish have begun dying at an alarming rate. With a mere three fish remaining, Billy and Ray face an ominous future. But life may yet find a way. Uproarious and tender in equal measure, BIOSPHERE was a festival favorite. Director Mel Eslyn (Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off, The Lady and the Dale) joins us to talk about making the leap from producing into the director’s chair, as well as finding the credible cinematic space where humor and pathos can co-exist as well as they do in BIOSPHERE.

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For more go to: ifcfilms.com/biosphere

About the filmmaker – Mel Eslyn is a film and television producer, writer and director, and President of Duplass Brothers Productions.  Winner of the 2016 Independent Spirit Producer’s Award, Eslyn is the veteran producer behind films that include the 2014 Sundance hit “The One I Love”, Clea DuVall’s debut “The Intervention”, Lynn Shelton’s “Outside In”, Miguel Arteta’s “Duck Butter”, Jeff Baena’s “Horse Girl”, Natalie Morales’ “Language Lessons”, and Roshan Sethi’s “7 Days” for which she won her 2nd Spirit Award.  On the smaller screen, her television producing credits include HBO’s “Room 104” on which she also frequently wrote and directed, the Independent Spirit Award nominated docu-series “The Lady and the Dale”, Hulu’s “Sasquatch”, and Showtime’s “Cinema Toast”. Most recently she produced the breakout comedy “Somebody Somewhere” as well as Sam Jones’ latest documentary “Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off”, both of which aired on HBO. Upcoming releases include Sarah Adina Smith’s “The Drop”, Jeff Baena’s “Spin Me Round”, and Nnamdi Asomugha’s debut feature “The Knife”. “Biosphere” is Eslyn’s own feature directorial debut.

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86% on RottenTomatoes

“Biosphere, though sometimes larky in tone, is also a frowningly intense venture that never stops being about itself.” – Anthony Lane, New Yorker

“Post-apocalyptic survival meets the anxious buddy humor of Humpday in Biosphere, a mysterious and hilarious pic that really can’t be discussed much without saying things a prospective viewer would be better off not hearing.” – John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter

“’Biosphere’ is weird and unconventional and literally nothing like you’ve seen before. Its exploration of masculinity is authentic and hilarious and horrifying.” – Stacey Yvonne, Black Girl Nerds

“Like “Humpday,” it’s an act of daring — we’re waiting for the movie to cop out because most movies do. This one doesn’t, and bravo for that.” – Jason Bailey, The Playlist

A warning for a future that could be, GIVE ME AN A features 17 films created by 17 female filmmakers to recount the overturning of Roe v. Wade through a multi-genre lens. GIVE ME AN A is fully committed to address the attack on women’s rights, all proceeds from the screenings will be donated to non-profit organizations in their local markets. GIVE ME AN A is an urgent and passionate response from a group of women committed to protecting or securing their right to privacy, bodily autonomy and healthcare. From satire to horror, to dark comedy, to science fiction, these films are a unifying voice that tells the world how they feel about the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Co-director Natasha Halevi, and actors Molly C. Quinn and Jennifer Holland join us for a conversation on why they, along with all of the participating filmmakers and actors, have devoted their time and skills to this timely project, as well as, how the Dobbs decision could lead to further erosion of women’s autonomy, freedom and health.

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For more go to: fractalclouds.com

Watch on: AmazonPrime and AppleTV

One night only:

July 17th | Nitehawk Cinema | Brooklyn, NY

*All proceeds will be donated to the following non-profit organizations in local markets: 

Chicago – Midwest Access Coalition 

Austin – AVOV

Los Angeles – National Network of Abortion Funds 

Brooklyn – NY Abortion Access Fund

Participating filmmakers –  NATASHA HALEVI, MEG SWERTLOW, BONNIE DISCEPOLO, DANIN JACQUAY, ERICA MARY WRIGHT, MONICA MOORE-SURIYAGE, SARAH KOPKIN, CAITLIN HARGRAVES, MEGAN ROSATI, HANNAH ALLINE, AVITAL ASH, MARY C. RUSSELL, VALERIE FINKEL, LOREN ESCANDÓN, FRANCESCA MALDONADO, KELLY NYGAARD, ERIKA MIRANDA

Participating actors – ALYSSA MILANO, VIRGINIA MADSEN, GINA TORRES, MILANA VAYNTRUBl, JENNIFER HOLLAND, SEAN GUNN, MOLLY C. QUINN, JASON GEORGE, JACKIE TOHN, MONIQUE COLEMAN

From the filmmakers – There is a void in filmmaking – the female voice. We’re here to fill the void. We started with “Lunch Break Feminist Club” in 2014 as a reaction to feminist issues we saw in the news, on social media and in our lives. This was before the #metoo era and feminism was confusing and not particularly cool. Today, we continue to explore feminist topics like reproductive rights with “Give Me An A” and strive to expand that conversation to all communities affected by reproductive rights and women’s rights including people who are female identifying, transgender, and non-binary. We support inclusivity in voices and pride ourselves in supporting storytelling with new perspectives we haven’t seen in film before. We intend to explore the Female Gaze and Female Lens as we support a new era of storytellers who will change film. Fractal Clouds was formed in 2014 with the intention to create horror, sci-fi and satire films that ask questions about how we relate to the world.For more go to: fractalclouds.com

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“Give Me An A is a vital piece of filmmaking.” – Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film

“Though the tones don’t always mesh and the ideas of the films in total don’t always coalesce clearly, there’s no denying the prophetic nature of executive producer Natasha Halevi’s project. … will audiences heed the warning or will it all come true? – Douglas Davidson, Elements of Madness

“A wild ride” – Reel News Daily

“Give Me An A is both a battle cry and a warning of the future that works through complex emotions in the wake of the overturning of Roe v Wade.” – Molly Henery, The Blogging Banshee

“A powerful counter-punch of a film” – Knockturnal

THE CRUSADES follows three friends from private all-boys high school as they receive earth-shattering news about an upcoming merger with their rival school, The bad news sets them and their friends careening towards one last epic weekend before everything changes. Leo (Rudy Pankow, Outer Banks, Uncharted) balances multiple love interests in a constant quest for popularity. Caught in the crossfire is Ryan (Ashley Nicole Williams, Motherland: Fort Salem), a hopeless romantic with a bad habit of giving unlimited second chances. Sean (Khalil Everage, Cobra Kai) struggles with his responsibilities to his cold and calculated girlfriend Jess (Indiana Massara, Hero Mode, Chicken Girls), who is always one step ahead of everyone. Jack (Ryan Ashton) repeatedly clashes with authority and the administration in a never-ending struggle to avoid all responsibility. To make matters worse, the boys unknowingly made an enemy out of Vince (Blaine Maye, Joe Bell) and The Wrecking Crew, who are hell-bent on settling their vendetta at all costs. Completely unaware that the choices made over this fateful weekend could end up impacting their lives more than any merger ever could. Director, writer and producer Leo Milano joins us for a conversation on the long and winding road that The Crusades has taken him and his dedicated crew on, how his career as an actor, Stand-in and Production Assistant on has given him the experience and the confidence to make his debut feature film, The Crusades.

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For more go to: thecrusadesfilm.com

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About the filmmaker – Writer / Director / Actor / Producer Leo Milano is a Midwesterner, born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. It was here he discovered his passion for filmmaking and his desire to tell the stories of the blue collar upbringing he experienced between the coasts. Straight out of High School, Leo’s first job was PAing on Michael Bay’s Transformers 3 and then went on to work full time as Taylor Kinney’s stand-in on NBCs Chicago Fire for 50+ episodes as well as NBCs The Playboy Club and the YA blockbuster, Divergent, after attending film school at Columbia College Chicago. Over the last decade, Leo has directed several commercials, short films, a TV pilot and most recently the Indie feature, The Crusades starring Netflix star Rudy Pankow with veteran actors Nicholas Turturro and Mike Starr. Leo’s next project currently in development is the action filled dramatic comedy Ten Cent Beer Night, inspired by the incredible untold story of the Cleveland Indians riot in 1974. Leo is co-founder of Bad Little Thing, the production company behind Leo’s two features as well as several other projects in development. 

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“The performances of the three leads and all of the cast are all solid and authentic.” – Bradley Gibson, Film Threat

“What the actual hell? This was one of the freshest takes on the high school hijinks film that I’ve seen in forever. There are no authoritarian rules, which gives the film a sardonic anarchy and weird vibe … Leo Milano is a writer/director to watch.” – Patrick McDonald, WBGR-FM (93.7 FM)

Set in the heart of 1942 Warsaw, where Jews and refugees from across Poland were imprisoned in a ghetto and cut off from the outside world by a towering wall, LOVE GETS A ROOM follows Stefcia and her fellow Jewish theatre actors as they fight to keep their passion for performing alive. As life in the Nazi-occupied ghetto became a fierce fight against cold, hunger, and epidemics, the actors, against all odds, embark on a daring mission to stage Jerzy Jurandot’s play, risking their lives to create something beautiful in a world of chaos and destruction. Featuring a superb cast of actors led by Clara Rugaard (I Am Mother) as Stefcia, as well, Mark Ryder (City on a Hill),  Ferdia Walsh-Peelo (CODA), Anastasia Hille (Snow White and the Huntsman), Magnus Krepper (A Cure for Wellness), and Henry Goodman (The New Pope). Written and directed by visionary filmmaker Rodrigo Cortés (Buried, Concursante), the film takes you on an emotional journey back to the tumultuous time of World War II. With masterful direction and outstanding performances, LOVE GETS A ROOM is a poignant exploration of the power of love, hope, and sacrifice in the face of unimaginable adversity.

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For more go to: buffalo8.com/project/love-gets-a-room

Watch now on: Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu

About the filmmaker – In 2007, Rodrigo Cortés writes and directs CONCURSANTE, starring Leonardo Sbaraglia, which wins two Silver Biznagas at the Malaga Festival, including the Critics’ Award. In 2010 he directs BURIED, starring Ryan Reynolds, which wins the Forqué Award for Best Film, as well as ten Goya Awards nominations, of which the films receives three (Cortés receives the award for Best Editing). He also received the Grand Prize European Film Festival in Gold at the Sitges Festival.  In 2012 he directs RED LIGHTS (2012), a thriller starring Sigourney Waver, Cillian Murphy and Robert de Niro, for which he receives the Gaudí nomination for Best Non- Catalan Film and Best Sound, and in 2018 he releases DOWN A DARK HALL, in which he works with Uma Thurman and is again nominated at the Gaudí but this time for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. With his latest film LOVE GETS A ROOM, he wins the Feroz Award for Best Director, as well as five Film Writers Circle Medals, including Best Director, Original Screenplay and Editing. The film also received nominations for Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction at the Gaudí Awards, Best Costume Design and Best Production Direction at the Goya Awards, and received the Sant Jordi Award for Best Spanish Film.  He is currently working on his new film, ESCAPE, starring Mario Casas, Anna Castillo and other top Spanish actors such as José Sacristán and Blanca Portillo.  He also develops a successful parallel career as a writer and talks about cinema, literature and music in “Aquí hay dragones” and “Todopoderosos”, the two most listened Spanish podcasts of the moment. 

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“Co-writer/director Rodrigo Cortés … give[s] us some sense of why something so ordinary would be so vital and harrowing in this time and place.” – Mark Dujsik, Mark Reviews Movies

“A fine technical achievement, a moving inquiry into what young love can mean under such conditions, and Cortés’ strongest film since 2010’s Buried.” – Jonathan Holland, Screen International

“A titanic tour de force…” – Blai Morell, Fotogramas

“A beautiful, painful and fun reflection on art as an instrument of survival.” – Luis Martínez, El Mundo (Spain)

I’LL SHOW YOU MINE tells the story of Priya Sura (Poorna Jagannathan), an author who found breakout success when she wrote a memoir about her abusive father. She has since made a career of exploring her own trauma through a feminist lens. Recently, however, she has been finding it harder and harder to have an emotional connection in her writing. So she’s now mining someone else’s trauma by interviewing Nic (Casey Thomas Brown), her nephew by marriage, about his history of  exploitation as a gender nonconforming model and pansexual poster boy. But Nic won’t engage without a quid pro quo, so to get to the most hidden parts of his story, she must dig into areas she has scrupulously managed to avoid in her own. Director Megan Griffiths (Eden, Lucky Them) joins us for a conversation on the challenges and rewards that come from a two actor film project, working with the talented duo of Poorna Jagannathan (The Night Of, Never Have I Ever) and Casey Thomas Brown (The Kominsky Method) and how finding a cinematic sweet spot for an engaging, and insightful character driven story about trauma and recognition.

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For more go to: ill-show-you-mine-2023

About the filmmaker – Megan Griffiths is a writer/director working in film and television. In 2021/22, Griffiths directed two features: I’LL SHOW YOU MINE (with Duplass Brothers Productions), and YEAR OF THE FOX. Other feature credits include SADIE (SXSW 2018), THE NIGHT STALKER (SIFF 2016), LUCKY THEM (TIFF 2013), EDEN (SXSW 2012, winner: Audience Award, Emergent Narrative Director Award), and THE OFF HOURS (Sundance 2011). She has directed shows for HBO, EPIX, TNT, Hulu, USA, Fox, Netflix, and Amazon.  Additionally, Griffiths has produced projects including the Sundance comedy THE CATECHISM CATACLYSM, as well as YOUR SISTER’S SISTER, directed by the late Lynn Shelton, Griffiths’s close friend and frequent collaborator. Griffiths and Shelton also co-wrote a feature for This American Life, and together with producer Gregg Fienberg sold an original pitch to HBO.  Griffiths was recently invited to join the director’s branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. She was the recipient of the 2012 Stranger Genius Award for Film, was named the 2013 City Arts Film Artist of the Year, and received the 2015 Seattle Mayor’s Award for Film. She serves on the board of Northwest Film Forum and is an active advocate for sustainable production. More at www.thecinechick.com.

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“It’s a good thing that Jagannathan and Brown have training in the theater: They imbue Priya and Nic’s densely verbal jousts, dodges and truths with compelling chiaroscuro hues.” – Lisa Kennedy, New York Times

“Both Jagannathan and Brown are excellent at this combination therapy session/verbal joust, conveying their characters’ intelligence and affection for each other while also their capacity to conceal and deceive — especially themselves.” – Rob Thomas, Capital Times

“(Director Megan) Griffiths is as gifted as they come as a character-driven storyteller.” – Michael Ward, Should I See It

““I’ll Show You Mine” may be all talk, but well aware that the mind is an erogenous zone, it proves most stimulating.” – Stephen Saito, Moveable Fest

In this compelling Netflix original seven-part series, TRANSATLANTIC, takes us back to France in 1940, where American Varian Fry has traveled to Marseille carrying three thousand dollars and a list of imperiled artists and writers he hoped to help escape from the encroaching Nazi collaboration with the Vichy government, within a few weeks. Instead, he stayed more than a year, working to procure false documents, amass emergency funds, and arrange journeys across Spain and Portugal, where the refugees would embark for safer ports. His many clients included Hannah Arendt, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, and Marc Chagall, and the race against time to save them is a tale of forbidden love, high-stakes adventure, and unimaginable courage. TRANSATLANTIC features an excellent cast of American and international actors that includes; Gillian Jacobs, Corey Stoll, Lucas Englander, Corey Michael Smith and Ralph Amoussou. TRANSATLANTIC was produced and co-written by Anna Winger (Daniel Handler),  Co-directors Stephanie Chuat and Veronique Reymond (My Little Sister, join us for a conversation on the challenge of directing the first four of the seven episodes, how important it was for them to strike the appropriate tone for a “film” that moves between from life threatening to life affirming within each episodes, working with an international cast and their upcoming project, a English language reboot of their first film, The Little Bedroom.

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Watch on: netflix.com/Transatlantic

About the filmmakers – Stephanie Chuat and Veronique Reymond have known each other since their childhood. Both passionate about theatre, they were trained actresses and have performed in numerous Swiss and French theatrical productions.  They have created many shows as a stage duo as well, and their first step towards cinema was by including video in their plays. This led them to write and direct four short films. One of them, Berlin Backstage, shot in the prestigious Berlin Philharmony, won an award at the Berlin Today Award (Berlinale 2004). The duo moved on to write and direct their first feature film, La petite chambre (The Little Bedroom), starring legendary French actor Michel Bouquet. Premiered at the Locarno Film Festival 2010, the film was selected to represent Switzerland at the Academy Awards, was honered with two Swiss Quartz Prizes (Best Fiction Film and Best Screenplay), and received a dozen Awards in international festivals. Their second fiction feature My Little Sister, with major German actors Nina Hoss and Lars Eidinger was selected in Competition at the 70th Berlinale (2020), is the Swiss Oscars Contender for Best International Feature and wins a bunch of Awards in numerous festivals, among them five Quartz at the Swiss Film Awards. Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond have explored the documentary field by directing  Evening Class for grown-ups (2005) and Buffo, Buten & Howard, (2009). In 2018, they joined forces again to direct Ladies, a documentary premiered at Visons du Réel Film Festival, and selected by a number of festivals. It was nominated for the Swiss Film Award in the Best Documentary category and has been a box office success in Swiss theatres. The duo also wrote and directed Open Book (2014), a series broadcasted on Swiss and French Television. This successful experience led them to write a new series, Toxic, currently in development, produced by Gaumont-France in coproduction with RTS-Switzerland.In 2022, Chuat & Reymond directed Anna Winger’s (Unorthodox) new show Transatlantic, released on Netflix in April 2023. At the same time, the duet is working on developing new projects, among them the US reboot of their first feature La petite chambre-The Little Bedroom. Morgan Freeman, Kate Mara and Laurence Fishburne are attached to this US version of the film. The shooting is planned for 2023.

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95% on RottenTomatoes

“The series as a whole shines a light by association on the ongoing plight of refugees, on resurgent nativism and antisemitism, and the deaf ear we are liable to turn to any crisis not literally on our doorstep.” – Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times

“While the show isn’t afraid to get as dark as its circumstances require, it’s also not afraid to embrace the occasional moment of levity, from funny misunderstandings to romantic drama to even an unexpected musical number.” – Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence

“An effective, crowd-pleasing thriller. It moves briskly, lays out the story and stakes cleanly, and has three strong and likable lead performances by Cory Michael Smith as Fry, Gillian Jacobs as Gold, and Lucas Englander as Albert Hirschman.” – Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone

“A unique gem among World War II stories. The ensemble cast is what lifts Transatlantic into a status beyond just another WWII story, as Winger creates a fully lived world of nuances.” – Alberto Cox Délano, Pajiba

Alethea Root’s second feature film, GOOD SIDE OF BAD, tells the story of three estranged adult siblings, Sara (Jules Bruff), Peter (Alex Quijano), and Florence (Lexi Simonsen) brought back together after a mental health diagnosis forces them to confront harsh future realities regarding the mental state of one of their own. GOOD SIDE OF BAD is a raw and intimate look into what it means to be a family navigating the waters of mental illness. The film dives into humanity’s dark places while illuminating the love, laughter, and light discovered when you reconnect with those closest to you. Based on the bestselling book GOOD SIDE OF BAD, this raw family drama touches on our shared human experience of psychological isolation, and how connecting to each other is ultimately the best way to help one another push through the daunting challenges that face every person. In addition to Jules Bruff, Alex Quijano and Lexi Simonsen, the film also features Myles Grier, Kim Estes and Academy Award nominated actor Tess Harper (Crimes of the Heart). Director and co-writer Alethea Root and Producer, co-writer and actor Jules Bruff join us to talk about the source and inspiration for the film, being selected as the Opening Night film for the 2023 Dances with Film festival, and the hope that the audience will come away from the film with a better appreciation of living with mental illness and the fragility of family.

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For more go to: goodsideofbad.com

About the filmmaker – Alethea Root is an award-winning producer and director. She produced the Emmy®-winning short film, A LOVE STORY.  Her feature film directorial debut, PART TIME FABULOUS, streaming on Amazon, won eight film festival awards, including two Audience Choice awards, the Film4Change award, and the Exploring Humanity award. Root’s second feature film, Good Side of Bad, is the opening night film of the 2023 Dances With Films Festival in Los Angles.

About the filmmaker – JULES BRUFF (Writer, Producer, Actor) The first feature Jules wrote, produced, and acted in, PART TIME FABULOUS, now streaming on Amazon, won numerous awards, including two Best Actress awards for her performance, 2 Audience Choice awards, the Film4Change award, and the Exploring Humanity award. She can be seen in projects ranging from David Fincher’s ZODIAC to S.W.A.T on CBS to Award-Winning comedy FOR MURIAL with Mindy Sterling. 

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Georgia Oakley’s stunning directorial debut BLUE JEAN, is set in 1988 England and Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government is about to pass a law stigmatizing gays and lesbians, forcing Jean (Rosy McEwen, in a powerhouse performance), a gym teacher, to live a double life. As pressure mounts from all sides, the arrival of a new student catalyzes a crisis that will challenge Jean to her core. Something has to give, and McEwen embodies with exquisite insight the mounting strain upon a woman who has sought to keep hidden what now burns for some release or resolution. The catalyst for change is the arrival at Jean’s school of a new pupil, Lois (Lucy Halliday) – raw, vulnerable, and instinctively connected to Jean as soon as they meet. When Lois begins to frequent the lesbian bar that is Jean’s refuge, the boundaries between Jean’s worlds collapse, and she finds herself dangerously desperate to rebuild them. The BAFTA-nominated film won the Venice Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award, as well as four British Independent Film Awards. Director and writer Georgia Oakley joins us for a conversation on why a look back on laws (Section 28) “governing” the lives of the LGBTQ people provides a greater understanding of past bigotry as well as why it is vitally important to remain vigilant regarding the current threats to the human rights. BLUE JEAN features a slew of terrific performances, led by Rosy McEwen as Jean, Kerrie Hayes, Lucy Halliday and Lydia Page.

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For more go to: magpictures.com/bluejean

About the filmmaker – In Georgia Oakley’s stunning directorial debut BLUE JEAN, it’s 1988 England and Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government is about to pass a law stigmatizing gays and lesbians, forcing Jean (Rosy McEwen, in a powerhouse performance), a gym teacher, to live a double life. As pressure mounts from all sides, the arrival of a new student catalyzes a crisis that will challenge Jean to her core. The BAFTA-nominated film won the Venice Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award, as well as four British Independent Film Awards.

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94% on RottenTomatoes

“Oakley’s care and McEwen’s intense performance make “Blue Jean” one of this year’s most impressive movies.” Monica Castillo, RogerEbert.com

“It takes place 35 years ago, but this evocative and emotionally powerful British drama resonates with contemporary urgency.” – Todd Jorgenson, Cinemalogue

“Oakley’s made a depressingly timely film about an earlier “push back” against gay rights and equality, but a movie shot through with hope, the sure knowledge that history isn’t a river, it’s a tide that ebbs and flows.” – Roger Moore, Movie Nation

“Every aspect of Georgia Oakley’s debut feature – from Izabella Curry’s editing to Kirsty Halliday’s period costuming – is as restrained as Rosy McEwen’s excellent performance.” – Tara Brady, Irish Times

“Jean is a complicated sort of hero, full of indecision and regret. It’s something bracingly captured by McEwen, who plays her as someone in a perpetual state of fight-or-flight.” – Clarisse Loughrey, Independent (UK)

“The concealment of sexuality is attentively observed under Oakley’s intimate lens, a thorough exploration and tight script that is remarkable for a debut feature filmmaker.” – Emily Maskell, AwardsWatch

At a time of widespread economic uncertainty, few films tackle the issues, offer solutions and most importantly show the human side of the story in the way Marc Levin does in his latest documentary IT’S BASIC. How do we combat poverty, economic insecurity, and inequality? This film argues it’s basic – give people money!  IT’S BASIC looks at several pilot programs launched in the US that test the effects of giving everyday people an extra $500 to $1,000 monthly, with no strings attached. The film presents an unbiased account of the benefits, criticisms, and outcomes of providing unconditional money to people in need, and examines whether Basic Income pilot programs eradicate child poverty and level the racial playing field through community-centric solutions. This concept has been up for discussion many times throughout history, and in more recent times by Martin Luther King, Jr., and even Richard Nixon. The film highlights case studies and examples from among 100 cities across the United States that are running guaranteed income pilots. And here are the humans – real Americans – who are actually being helped by these programs that were activated by a movement that is building toward results in the face of dysfunctional gridlock in Washington, DC. The heart of IT’S BASIC chronicles participants in five cities and their real-life challenges. In addition, there is by commentary by Michael Tubbs, the founder of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, and participating mayors across the country. Director Marc Levin and film subject Michael D. Tubbs join us to talk about the continuing success of Guaranteed Basic Income in the community’s that have adopted it and the efforts underway to place GBI in forefront of a honest conversation on poverty. 

For more go to: itsbasicdocumentary.com

World Premiere at Tribeca Festival 2023 in the Spotlight Documentary Section

About the filmmaker – Marc Levin is an award-winning, independent filmmaker dedicated to telling powerful, real stories in an authentic style. He has won four Emmys, four duPont-Columbia awards, the Peabody Award, the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, among other prominent accolades. Highlights include SLAM, his breakout festival hit film about the impact of the spoken word movement; Brick City, the groundbreaking docu-series about Mayor Cory Booker and the city of Newark, New Jersey; Gang War: Bangin’ in Little Rock and Emmy-winning Thug Life in DC, both for HBO; and Chicagoland, a docu-series for CNN and Sundance Productions, nominated for an IDA award. One of America’s most respected filmmakers, Levin has directed over a dozen acclaimed documentaries for HBO with his producing partner, Daphne Pinkerson, including Class Divide, winner of the DOC NYC Grand Jury Prize.For more go to: blowbackproductions.com

About the subject – At the age of 26, Michael D. Tubbs became the youngest mayor of a major American city, lauded for his leadership and innovation. Under his stewardship, Stockton was named an “All-America City” in 2017 and 2018, saw a 40% drop in homicides in 2018 and 2019, led the state of California in the decline of officer-involved shootings in 2019, was named the second most fiscally healthy city in California and one of the top most fiscally healthy cities in the nation and was featured in an HBO documentary film, Stockton on My Mind. Tubbs raised over $20 million dollars to create the Stockton Scholars, a universal scholarship and mentorship program for Stockton students. He is the Founder and Chair of Mayors for Guaranteed Income. Tubbs has been named a fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics and The MIT Media Lab, a member of Fortune’s Top 40 under 40, a Forbes 30 under 30 All-star Alumni, the “Most Valuable Mayor” by The Nation, the 2021 Civic Leadership Award winner from The King Center, and 2019 New Frontier Award Winner from the JFK Library. Before taking the helm as Mayor,  Tubbs served as a Council Member for the City of Stockton District 6, was a high school educator, and a fellow for the Stanford Design School and the Emerson Collective. The author of the memoir The Deeper the Roots, Tubbs currently serves as the Special Advisor to California Governor Gavin Newsom for Economic Mobility and is the founder of End Poverty in California (EPIC).

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Five incredible women from around the world who are boldly breaking glass ceilings in the male-dominated world of orchestral conducting take center stage in MAESTRA, filmmaker Maggie Contreras’ directorial debut. These women gathered in Paris for ‘La Maestra’, the only competition in the world for female conductors, to show the world the singular talent that unites them and which, for far too long, has been considered the pursuit of only men. Mothers, daughters, rebels, leaders – over four days, each took to the stage to compete: a mother of young twins from Athens, determined to show her kids anything is possible; a Ukrainian doing all she can to focus on her art and the competition in front of her while Russia invades; a Polish student just starting out; a newlywed American grappling with the decision to start a family; and a French immigrant returning to the city that closed its doors to her many years ago. Personal stories of survival, passion and perseverance are woven together with the drama and excitement of this one-of-a-kind event. The struggles and triumphs of the gifted artists in MAESTRA offer a microcosm for the challenges faced by women in every industry and in every walk of life today, while also providing valuable insights into how we may conduct ourselves as we create a new movement for a more equitable future. Director Maggie Contreras (Gilbert, Jonathan Scott’s Power Trip) stops by for a conversation on opening at the Tribeca Film Festival, watching the way that the La Maestra competion rivalry grew into unity through a common struggle and common goal, and how following these five women helps to push the boundaries of conventional storytelling by giving voice to the women who have been marginalized for generations.

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For more go to: maggiecontreras.com

About the filmmaker – Director / Producer / Writer, Maggie Contreras’ has been a producer behind documentary films tackling a wide range of topics, from comics to solar energy. Jonathan Scott’s Power Trip (PBS Independent Lens ‘20) is the titular HGTV celebrity and activist’s journey across the USA to examine the antiquated utility monopoly system and how solar holds the key to energy freedom. In 2017, Gilbert premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was distributed by Gravitas Ventures with exclusive SVOD on Hulu. Digital series have been seen on AMC, NFL and Quibi. Her short film about the intersection of comedy and social justice is a permanent installation in The Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. Maestra is her first feature documentary film. maggiecontreras.com

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