Co-directors Peter Yost & Michael Rohatyn’s DROP DEAD CITY is the first-ever feature documentary devoted to the NYC Fiscal  Crisis of 1975, an extraordinary, overlooked episode in urban American history that saw an already crumbling city of eight million people brought to the edge of bankruptcy and social chaos by a perfect storm of debt, greed, ambitious social policy and poor governance. Named after the famous New York Daily News headline “Ford to City: Drop Dead,” Drop Dead City overturns present day assumptions about politics and compromise, showing what bitter rivals achieved through shared sacrifice. It stands as a cautionary tale to every city facing post-Covid challenges of plunging revenue and ever-greater public service obligations. Built entirely of 16mm archival footage, it features present day interviews with people who were “in the room,” in an immersive, ticking-clock drama, by following a year in the life and near-death of this iconic city. It examines the origins of the crisis and documents the increasingly desperate clashes of stakeholders – unions, banks, local, state and federal governments, and average citizens  – as, together, they slide ever nearer to the unthinkable – bankruptcy.  Co-directors Peter Yost & Michael Rohatyn join us to talk about their personal connection to the financial crisis and finding many of the key people who worked to get New York City back on solid financial footing, gathering together an amazing array of archival material and the satisfaction of telling a very complex story in a way that illuminates the recent past while putting forward a noteworthy perspective on our own future.

For more go to: dropdeadcitythemovie.com

Drop Dead City directors Michael Rohatyn and Peter Yost will participate in Q&A’s after the evening screenings on May 22 at the NoHo and May 23 and 24 at the Monica Film Center.

About the filmmaker – produced/directed dozens of high-end documentary projects for leading broadcasters and streamers through his company, Pangloss Films. Peter recently produced and directed the acclaimed, nationally broadcast 4-part series for WGBH / PBS Mysteries of Mental Illness about the history of psychiatry. Past projects include Inside North Korea and The Color Of Oil (both Emmy nominated); and Solitary Confinement, which led to prison reforms in Colorado and elsewhere. He has also produced seven films for PBS/NOVA, including Infinite Universe Revealed and Rise of the Drones, and more than a dozen films for National Geographic’s “Specials” unit. 

About the filmmaker – Producer/Director Michael Rohatyn is a screenwriter and musician who has worked in features and documentaries such as Forty Shades of Blue (dir. Ira Sachs) and Maggie’s Plan (dir. Rebecca Miller). He scored the Emmy-nominated doc Arthur Miller: Writer for HBO. As a boy in 1975, Michael had a front row seat to many of the dramas that are featured in DROP DEAD CITY, and knew many of the players personally. Felix Rohatyn, chairman of MAC, was his father.

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“An extraordinary historical documentary. The delight of “Drop Dead City” is that it’s a symphony of voices, past and present. Tells an enormously complex story… with a deft touch and a brisk sense of wonder.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“An evenhanded account of how things got so bad, who was to blame, and what New York inevitably lost in the process.” – Alissa Wilkerson,  The New York Times

“The footage from the period paints a vivid depiction of the era; how people dressed, talked and interacted (the music choices on the soundtrack enhance this portraiture) as the filmmakers effectively show how the complexity of NYC led to financial chaos.” – Joseph Neff, Spectrum Culture

“The archival footage is splendid…The filmmakers also convey, crisply and succinctly, what exactly made the city so expensive to maintain.” – Jason Bailey, RogerEbert

“Drop Dead City succeeds superbly… Entertaining and unexpectedly poignant.” – Chris Barsanti, Pop Matters

“Gripping. “Drop Dead City” charts how those pivotal months of 1975 unfolded like a thriller. A fascinating glimpse into how New York City’s financial crisis revealed a crack in the liberal dream.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

“Despite its focus on events 50 years ago, the film raises striking parallels with the present. The 103-minute film is a visual delight for anyone who enjoys footage of vintage New York City…Set to a funk and soul soundtrack that would make Quentin Tarantino’s music supervisor bow in respect.” – WNYC / Gothamist

In director Eli Craig’s (Tucker and Dale vs Evil) latest twisted tale, Quinn and her father have just moved to the quiet town of Kettle Springs hoping for a fresh start. Instead, she discovers a fractured community that has fallen on hard times after the treasured Baypen Corn Syrup Factory burned down. As the locals bicker amongst themselves and tensions boil over, a sinister, grinning figure emerges from the cornfields to cleanse the town of its burdens, one bloody victim at a time. Welcome to Kettle Springs. The real fun starts when Frendo the clown comes out to play. Based on Adam Cesare’s fast paced novel the script Craig leans into the subtext of a country staring into the abyss of a generational divide that much of the country, if not the world, faces today. Frendo the clown, in happier times, was a beloved company mascot but now he has morphed into a symbol embodying all the embitterment, spite and aggrievement— those emotions that conflate violence with justice— of those left behind. Director and co-screenwriter Eli Craig joins \us to talk about gathering together a terrific cast of upcoming and veteran actors, led by Katie Douglas, Carson MacCormac and Will Sasso, that bring to life a fevered tale where rural Gen Z are humanized; both rebellious and flawed but also forward thinking and hopeful. 

For more go to: clowninacornfield.com

About the filmmaker – Eli Craig is an American/Canadian director, writer, and actor who was the director and co-writer for CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD. He is previously known for writing and directing the horror-comedy cult classic, Tucker and Dale vs Evil, The Netflix Adam Scott & Evangeline Lilly comedy Little Evil and the award winning comedy short, The Tao of Pong. Before moving towards writing and directing, he acted in several feature films such as: Space Cowboys, Carrie II: The Rage, and Deal of a Lifetime. He also worked for many years as an Outward Bound instructor and a mountain guide. He currently lives in North Vancouver, Canada with his wife, actor and ex-power-ranger Sasha Craig, his two children, Noah and Colin, and his dog Fluffy. 

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75% on RottenTomatoes

“One of the biggest surprises of 2025. This throwback slasher re-lives the fun of the early 2000 entrants into the genre while somehow managing to produce a few laughs along the way as well.” – David Griffiths, Subculture Entertainment

“[It’s] a love letter to the slashers of the late ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, invoking the mood of Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Scream. But while those slashers were for adults about teens, Clown in a Cornfield has a YA heart and tone for a new audience.” – Sara Clements, Peliplat

“Clown in a Cornfield is the rare slasher movie with meta-commentary and humor that actually feels fresh. The gnarly kills are a sweet bonus, enough to guarantee a new following for Frendo among horror fans.” – James Preston Poole, Discussing Film

“Craig is so in command of the movie’s tone that he can have a character say, “It’s like we’re stuck in some awful ’80s slasher movie,” without diminishing the genuine terror of clowns in cornfields.” – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

“Douglas makes Quinn an intriguing Final Girl; she’s quite good, smart and tough. Like everything else in the movie, there is an obvious self-awareness and a meta quality to how she and the other teens navigate the horror.” – Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic

Loosely based on Iair Said’s real-life experiences when his own father died, MOST PEOPLE DIE ON SUNDAYS is the story David (Iair Said), a young middle-class Jewish man–corpulent, homosexual and afraid of flying–returns to Buenos Aires from Europe for the funeral of his uncle. On his return, David learns that his mother has decided to disconnect his father’s respirator, the only thing that has kept him alive for years. David will oscillate between living in close quarters with his mother, alienated by the pain of the imminent loss of her husband, and a voracity to fill his existential anguish, occupying his hours learning to drive, seeking low-cost medical  treatments, and trying to have sex with any man who shows him a little attention. Circumstances do little to help David mature until he is finally forced to face his father’s mortality head-on and begin thinking about the future in concrete terms. Deftly wielding both pathos and humor, writer / director Iair Said starts from the question: What is the price that those of us who are left have to pay when a loved one dies? In addition to writing and directing, Iair Said also stars as David. He joins us to talk about the insiration for the film and how he went about assembling a stellar cast that includes; legendary Latin American stage and screen actor Rita Cortese (“Wild Tales,” “Herencia”), famous Argentine singer Juliana Gattas and Pablo Larrain favorite Antonia Zegers (“The Club,” The Punishment”).

For more go to: bigworldpictures.org/mostpeopledieonsundays

Opening in New York and Los Angeles

Opens 5/2/25 Quad Cinema, New York, NY – Theatrical Premiere!

Opens 5/9/25 Laemmle Royal, West L.A., CA

Opens 5/9/25 Laemmle Town Center, Encino, CA

About the filmmaker – Director, writer Iair Said graduated as a scriptwriter at Patricio Vega’s school. His first short film, “9 vacunas,” won the BAFICI (2013) and the “Black PearlAward” for best short film at Abu Dhabi Film Festival (2012), having participated in more than 30 festivals. His second short film, “Imperfect Present,” was selected in the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2015 and at BAFICI, among other festivals. His first feature-length film, “Flora’s life is no picnic,” was shown for 9 months at the MALBA Museum, Buenos Aires.

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83% on RottenTomatoes

“A marvel, chaotic, sweet and sour, emotional and purely detailed…” – Spanglish Cinema

“It’s a slight but fast-moving mixture of reality, regret and the absurdity of life: it is unexpectedly moving and funny at the same time.” – Alexa Dalby, Dog and Wolf

“But this work by Said, as sensitive as it is intimate, focuses on overcoming conflicts and accepting identity, individually and collectively, with infinite tenderness.” – Pablo De Vita, La Nación 

“Brings this somewhat mournful portrait to a quietly moving grace note suggesting the silver lining of loss is a motivational reminder to the living.” – Ioncinema

“A tender tribute to the misfits, to those who, from their peripheral and marginal position, see the world better than the winners.”– Troiscouleurs 

Director Peter McDowell’s emotionally gripping journey, JIMMY IN SAIGON takes us right into the heart begins of his personal exploration into the mysterious death and radical life of his brother, Jimmy McDowell, an American 24-year-old Vietnam veteran who died as a civilian in Saigon in 1972, when the filmmaker was only five years old. While  investigating Jimmy’s drug use and sexuality, Peter takes us from the US Midwest to Vietnam, France and back home again. In his quest to get to know his brother, he uncovers a hidden romance, new family ties and a remarkable global love story. Jimmy’s rejection of his family’s traditional Midwestern values coupled with his death, created deep trauma within the lives of his surviving family. Peter begins filming relatives and friends who knew Jimmy, hoping to put Jimmy’s memory to rest. While getting to know Jimmy through countless interviews and hundreds of his letters, Peter travels to Saigon hoping to meet members of the Vietnamese  family Jimmy lived with — the Trần family — specifically the two eldest siblings, Luyến and Dũng, who knew Jimmy best during the last year of his life. Director and brother Peter McDowell joins us to talk about his own journey of discovery and reconciliation with the death of Jimmy,  the emotional state of the McDowell family and working with Executive Producer San Savage.

For more go to: jimmyinsaigon.com

About the filmmaker – Director, Producer and subject Peter McDowell’s storytelling reflects his training as an actor, musician, curator and producer, stemming from a childhood surrounded by opera and the arts. Previous films, including the acclaimed I Dream of Dorothy, have been shown at festivals around the world. A recipient of the highly competitive DeVos Institute for Arts Management International Fellowship at the University of Maryland, Peter also received a Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events Individual Artists Program grant and a California Humanities Council grant for Jimmy in Saigon. Peter lived in San Francisco from 1992-1996 and 2010-2011. He worked for the San Francisco Opera and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where he was part of the inaugural staff. Two of Peter’s short films played at the Frameline Film Festival, in 1994 and 1995. Peter is the founder of Peter McDowell Arts Consulting and recently served as the Director of Development for American Friends of the Louvre. He currently resides in Los Angeles. 

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89% on Rotten Tomatoes

“Confronting a veil of sadness that he’s always felt in his family, filmmaker Peter McDowell documents his impressive investigation to discover the facts about the big brother he barely knew.” – Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

“a poetic documentary that exposes the secrets, lies, and taboo love that existed a half century ago, as well as the self-hatred and homophobia inherent in both the Vietnamese and American cultures.” – Frank J. Avella, Edge Media Network

“Deftly edited with an eye for detail, this is a personal story which reminds us that history is comprised not simply of great events but of human experiences.” – Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film

“Engrossing, heartfelt and gripping.” – Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru

“…McDowell takes viewers along the same discovery process he experienced …This approach works well, particularly for viewers too young to remember the 1970s…” –  Sarah Boslaugh, TheArtsStl

Co-directors Jay Arthur Sterrenberg & Kelly Anderson compelling and informative documentary EMERGENT CITY tales place over a decade, within the borders of a single Brooklyn community district, a microcosm of American democracy emerges. Residents of Sunset Park face a tangled web of rising rents, a legacy of environmental racism, and the loss of the industrial jobs that once sustained their community. When a global developer purchases Industry City — a massive industrial complex on the waterfront — and begins to transform it into an “innovation district,” a battle erupts over the future of the neighborhood and of New York City itself.  EMERGENT CITY is a meticulously crafted civic epic. It sheds light on power and process, illuminating systems and giving viewers a front-row seat to the public and private spaces where the city is shaped. With extraordinary access, it tracks an ensemble of participants, including the local council members, Industry City’s developers, and community members with divergent stakes. The film explores the profound intersections of gentrification, climate crisis, and real estate development and asks how change might emerge from dialogue and collective action in a world where too many outcomes are constrained by money, politics, and business as usual. Co-directors Jay Arthur Sterrenberg and Kelly Anderson join us to talk about their commitment, professional and personal to document a story that is playing out across America and much of the world regarding residential displacement in a world where massive hedge funds and corporate real estate projects take priority over the interests of the people live and work in local communities.

For more go to: emergentcitydoc.com

The theatrical premiere of directors Kelly Anderson (My Brooklyn, Chair of the Department of Film and Media Studies at Hunter College, CUNY) and Jay Arthur Sterrenberg (co-founder of the Meerkat Media Collective), Emergent City opens in U.S. theatres starting Friday, April 25^th (New York’s DCTV Firehouse Cinema) after world premiering at Tribeca Festival 2024 (Spotlight Documentary) and screening at DC/DOX and Big Sky Documentary Film Fest among other festivals.

About the filmmaker – Kelly Anderson is a Sunset Park based documentary filmmaker whose most recent film is Rabble Rousers: Frances Goldin and the Fight for Cooper Square (w. Ryan Joseph and Kathryn Barnier). Her 2012 film My Brooklyn, about the hidden forces driving gentrification, was broadcast on PBS’ America ReFramed. Kelly produced and directed Every Mother’s Son (PBS, 2004, w. Tami Gold), about mothers whose children were killed by police, which won the Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award and aired on POV. She also produced and directed Out At Work (HBO, 2000, w. Tami Gold), which premiered at Sundance and won a GLAAD Best Documentary award. From 2015-17 she co-chaired the cooperative distribution company New Day Films. Kelly is currently the Chair of the Department of Film and Media Studies at Hunter College (CUNY).

About the filmmaker – Jay Arthur Sterrenberg is a New York City based director, and editor. His documentary editing credits include Academy Award short-listed Dark Money (PBS, 2018), Emmy winning Trophy (CNN Films, 2018), Tribeca award-winning Untouchable (2016), Academy Award short-listed Netflix Original After Maria (2019) and the 2020 Netflix doc series Immigration Nation, which won a Peabody Award and Best New Documentary Series at the Independent Spirit Awards. Jay is a co-founder of the Sunset Park based Meerkat Media Collective. His short documentary Public Money (PBS, 2018) is an observed portrait of an experiment in participatory democracy in Sunset Park.

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“The best New York City-based documentary in a decade.” – Max Rivlin Nadler, Hell Gate

“An old-school documentary that tells a story by presenting and arranging information and expecting you to meet it halfway rather than having everything spoon-fed to you.”  Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com

“‘An absorbing study…you can see the architecture of how modern cities are designed and who they are made for.” – Stephen Saito, The Moveable Feast

“‘Emergent City is not a polemic, nor does it fall into the “all sides” trap of equivocation. It’s curious and patient, taking the time to understand its subject. It leaves enough wiggle room for the audience to make up its own mind, a kind of nonfiction Rorschach test to help us illuminate how we really think about everything from housing costs to climate change.” – Alan Zilberman, Washington City Paper

“A vividly thrilling story about democracy.”- Kathy Ou, Hyperallergic

Neil Berkeley’s latest documentary feature, GROUP THERAPY, is an intimate exploration of mental health through the frame of a group therapy session with  some of today’s funniest comedians. In their group dialogue, personal confessionals, and stand-up clips they bravely reveal the connection between their professional and mental health journeys. Revelatory, emotional, and hilarious, this documentary sheds new light and opens new doorways  into a critical  and necessary conversation about the state of mental health in our culture today. Hosted by Tony and Emmy award-winning performer, Neil Patrick Harris, the comedy-forward documentary features Tig Notaro, Nicole Byer, Mike Birbiglia, London Hughes, Gary Gulman, and Atsuko Okatsuka. Director Neil Berkeley on why he wanted to be a part of this project, “One of my favorite artists, Wassily Kandinsky, has a quote from his book, “Concerning The Spiritual In Art,” that sums up what this film means to me. In it he writes, “That is beautiful which is produced by internal necessity, which springs from the soul.”  What has sprung from the souls of the artists that joined us for a few days in Atlanta is certainly beautiful. In developing this film we talked often of wanting to explore that place where mental health and stand up comedy meet and material is formed. That’s not to say all comedy has to be personal or cathartic, and I think these subjects would agree, but it’s true that they’ve all brought very painful, personal and honest stories to the stage.” Neil Berkeley joins us for a conversation on his insightful film, Group Therapy.

To watch go to: Primevideo.com/Group-Therapy

About the filmmaker – Neil Berkeley is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker. His third feature film, Gilbert, chronicles the life and career of beloved and intensely private comedian, Gilbert Gottfried.  The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017 and was distributed by Gravitas Ventures with exclusive SVOD on Hulu.  His first feature film, Beauty Is Embarrassing, premiered at SXSW in 2012 and chronicles the life and times of the inspiring artist Wayne White. The film won several Best Documentary Awards and was featured in PBS’ Independent Lens in January of 2013. His second feature, Harmontown, premiered at SXSW in 2014 and follows self-destructive TV writer Dan Harmon on an emotional, cross-country journey of self-discovery. In 2018, Neil served as showrunner for Amazon’s Inside Jokes series and has produced two features, Power Trip and Maestra. His most recent feature, Group Therapy, is in the final stages of post production and will premiere in June of this year at the Tribeca Film Festival.

About Hartbeat- Founded by Kevin Hart, Hartbeat is the global, multi-platform entertainment company creating content and experiences at the intersection of comedy and culture – with a mission to keep the world laughing together. Hartbeat finances, develops, and produces content for all platforms; connects with consumers around the world through events and the company’s expansive distribution network; and co-creates entertainment and builds award-winning IP alongside brands. Hartbeat’s flagship consumer brand, the LOL! Network, reaches audiences across its O&O social media, audio, and OTT partners. Led by an award-winning team, Hartbeat is a valuable partner to the biggest entertainment companies, platforms and brands in the world, driving cultural currency and generating sales, subscriptions, buzz, and conversation with some of the most coveted audiences.

75% on RottenTomatoes

“This documentary gathers some of today’s biggest comedians for an unflinching conversation about mental health, with the group discussing (in front of a live audience) the struggles they’ve experienced and how it impacts their comedy careers.” – Collider Staff, Collider

“… Berkeley’s “Group Therapy” is a simply constructed, simply executed discussion of the intersection between comedy and mental health that will have you laughing in shared joy in one moment and crying in shared pain in another.” – Douglas Davidson, Elements of Madness

“Group Therapy is a testament to the power of humor in healing and a call to recognize and address mental health issues openly.” – Valerie Complex, Deadline Hollywood Daily

“Without many ambitions, the film manages to connect on an emotional level with the viewer, showing them that even the most successful or happy or fun people have their own struggles, but that they can use their problems to move on.” – Sebastian Zavala Kahn, Cinencuentro

“Funny, touching, and emotionally relevant, “Group Therapy” shows that too often there really is a fine line between comedy and tragedy.” – Frank J. Avella. Edge Media Network

In the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda, TV Host-turned-teacher Jaya leaves their job and unsupportive boyfriend to pursue their passion for drag in hopes of winning the “Ms. Gay Sicogon” Pageant. Before leaving, they run into their former student, Arnel, heading in the same direction in hopes of finding his father. Banding together, the unlikely duo’s difficult yet cathartic journey is marked by a series of encounters with victims of the recent environmental devastation. ASOG, the sophomore directorial feature from Seán Devlin, a Juno-nominated comedian and consulting producer on the Oscar-nominated Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm, emphatically reiterates the importance of resistance and companionship in a world of environmental, economic and social precarity. ASOG has made a significant impact, garnering widespread international recognition for a film that features a cast made up entirely of Super Typhoon survivors – none of whom were trained actors. The film’s final act exposes a corporate land grab in the Philippines, specifically the post typhoon displacement of 784 families on Sicogon Island by Ayala Land Inc. (ALI), the Philippines’ oldest corporation and largest real estate developer. Director Sean Devlin joins us for a lively discussion on the making of this wildly entertaining film.

For more go to: asogfilm.com

About the filmmakers – Executive Produced by Academy Award winning filmmaker Adam McKay (The Big Short & HBO’s Succession), Emmy-winner Alan Cumming (Eyes Wide Shut) and Emmy nominee Joel Kim Booster (Fire Island). ASOG is the sophomore feature from Filipino- Canadian auteur and Juno-nominated comedian Seán Devlin, who was a Consulting Producer on the Oscar- nominated Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm. 

“When I first saw Asog I was floored by the world the film took me into, the depth of the artistry, and the feelings I experienced for characters on the other side of the planet. ASOG is a special movie and Seán is a uniquely original filmmaker.” – Adam McKay, Executive Producer 

“ASOG is the film we need right now. It is full of such passion and urgency and humour and love that it gurgles out of the screen and into your soul. I want every single person I know and many, many I don’t to see this thing of scarred beauty and queer, savage joy.” – Alan Cumming, Executive Producer 

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100% on RottenTomatoes

 “Jaya is a comedian first and foremost and the film honors their sense of humor, the impulse to laugh as a break from crying.” – Drew Gregory, Autostraddle

“Asog isn’t just a movie; it’s a luminous testament to the human spirit to move on after disaster.” – Alan Ng, Film Threat

“Takes you down a funny road but also makes you really see it, potholes and all.” – Emily Wheeler, Film Inquiry

“Asog is essential viewing as queer cinema, as political cinema and as climate cinema. It’s a story about grief, of trauma and of injustice, but also of community, love, joy and laughter. It is moving and funny, informative and dream-like; an all-around fantastic blend of reality and fiction.” – Nina Doherty, EasternKicks.com

“A remarkable and beautiful film that is part documentary, part fiction, and entirely extraordinary….. [T]his is a truly special, one-of-a-kind film.”– Queer Street

“Devlin’s docufiction offers a unique and genuine perspective of political and national history, tackling diverse subjects with uncensored and brave commentary. “- Federica Giampaolo, Asian Movie Pulse

FREE FOR ALL: THE PUBLIC LIBRARY, a new documentary premiering on PBS April 29, chronicles the fascinating evolution of the American public library, from the original “Free Library Movement” in the late 19th century to the present, when many libraries find themselves caught in the crosshairs of the culture wars and struggling to survive amid budget cuts and closures. Director Dawn Logsdon had visited over 100 libraries by the time she was 12 as she and her teacher-parents road-tripped across America during their summer vacations. In FREE FOR ALL: THE PUBLIC LIBRARY she and co-director Lucie Faulknor embark on a new journey — a fun and eye-opening jaunt from Louisiana to California, Massachusetts to Wisconsin, New York to Oregon and more, visiting landmark sites in library history and uncovering the stories of the colorful personalities who shaped our libraries and the communities they serve. The film profiles inspiring librarians past and present, mostly women, who have dedicated their lives to upholding the library’s integral position within our democracy, spreading literacy, offering solace and refuge, and uplifting their communities. Co-directors Lucie Faulknor (Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans) and Dawn Logsdon (Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton) join us to talk about the enduring importance of libraries as a public gathering place, a no cost opportunity for self education and a public institution that has consistently stood for unfettered access to controversial ideas.

For more go to: pbs.org/independentlens/free-for-all

A film by Dawn Logsdon and Lucie Faulknor, “Free For All: The Public Library”will debut on PBS’s INDEPENDENT LENS on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, at 10 p.m. (check local listings). The film will also be available to stream on the PBS app.  

About the filmmaker – Producer / Director / Editor / Narrator Dawn Logsdon has been dedicated to making films about civic issues and city life, particularly at the neighborhood level. She directed and produced Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans (2008), which premiered at the Tribeca Festival and went on to win the SFIFF Golden Gate Award for Best Documentary and was a PBS Black History Month feature presentation three years in a row. Logsdon co-directed and edited Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton (2013) and Lindy Boggs: Steel and Velvet (2008). She edited the Sundance Award-winning Paragraph 175 by Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Freidman, Academy Award-nominated Weather Underground by Sam Green, Emmy Award-winning Have You Heard from Johannesburg? by Connie Field, and the Peabody Award-winning The Castro by Peter Stein. Short films she produced and directed include Tomboy, which was exhibited at the Whitney Museum and aired on PBS. Logsdon received a BA in Philosophy from UC Berkeley. Her honors include a Soros OSI Media Fellowship, California Arts Council Artist Residency, BAVC Media Maker Award, Djerassi Artist Residency, Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellowship, New Orleans Contemporary Art Center Artist Fellowship, and the New Orleans Arts Council Award.

About the filmmaker – Producer / Co-Director Lucie Faulknor produced and researched Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans and has worked with award-winning directors Dorothy Fadiman and Lynn Hershman-Leeson in the areas of fundraising, publicity, outreach and community engagement. Faulknor has also produced Dublin, Ireland’s first Women in Film & Television film festival and presented a lecture series that included Laurie Anderson, Bobby McFerrin, Wayne Shorter, Sydney Pollack and others. She has worked for a number of arts organizations, including City Arts & Lectures, SFJAZZ, Palace of Fine Arts Theater, the Irish Arts Foundation, Stern Grove Festival, Yerba Buena Gardens, Dublin (IRL) Fringe Festival and for a number individual performing and visual artists including Jim Campilongo, Storm Large, Tracy Snelling and Kevin Woodson. She has a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Administration from USF’s School of Business & Professional Studies and a BA in Arts Management from SFSU. Faulknor is a fourth generation San Francisco Public Library user.

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In 2003, eight young Rhode Islanders created a secret apartment in a hidden space inside the Providence Place Mall and lived in it for four years, filming everything along the way. Led by local artist Michael Townsend they snuck in furniture, tapped into the mall’s electricity, and even secretly constructed a brick wall with a locking door, smuggling in over 2 tons of cinderblock. Far more than just a wild prank, the secret apartment became a deeply meaningful place for all its inhabitants – a personal expression of defiance against local gentrification, a boundary-pushing work of public/private art, and finally, a 750 square foot space that sticks it to the man! Director and editor Jeremy Workman (The World Before Your Feet)  wrote: “Making SECRET MALL APARTMENT was an absolutely joyful and meaningful experience. I feel privileged to share this incredible tale and bring it to a new audience. Hopefully, the story can resonate further. We all continue to live in the shadows of these larger economic systems. Corporations come and remake our neighborhoods, and we’re forced to adjust to their whims. We all are under the thumb of an increasingly commodified lifestyle, harder and harder to stand up and assert our identity. SECRET MALL APARTMENT is a reminder to declare your presence and individuality in the most unlikely and unique ways. It’s also one heck of an incredible story.” Workman joins us to talk about Secret Mall Apartment and working with Executive Producer Jessie Eisenberg.

For more go to: secretmallapartment.com

About the filmmaker – Jeremy Workman is the director of the documentaries LILY TOPPLES THE WORLD (Discovery), THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET (Greenwich Entertainment / Kino Lorber), MAGICAL UNIVERSE (IFC Films), and DECIDING VOTE (The New Yorker), among others. Jeremy’s documentaries have been released in theaters and on TV and played at prestigious film festivals throughout the world. His 2023 short documentary DECIDING VOTE – about George Michaels’s 1970 tie-breaking vote on New York’s abortion bill – premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and won multiple film festival awards, before being acquired by The New Yorker. It was shortlisted for the 96th Academy Awards in the Documentary Short Film category. His 2021 feature documentary LILY TOPPLES THE WORLD – about acclaimed domino artist Lily Hevesh – was the Grand Prize Winner for Best Documentary at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival. Soon after, it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2021 San Francisco Intl Film Festival. It went on to become a high-profile acquisition for Discovery/Discovery+ and was released to acclaim in August 2021. Rotten Tomatoes “Certified Fresh,” it can now be streamed on MAX. Jeremy’s 2018 documentary THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET – about Matt Green’s mission to walk every street of New York City – premiered at SXSW and subsequently was released in over 75 US cities during 2018/2019. Executive Produced by Jesse Eisenberg, it was hailed upon its release and played in US and Canadian theaters for nearly 6 months. Since its release, it’s played in theaters in the Yukon, Vladivostok, Estonia, and Jordan, among dozens of other international locales. It currently stands at 100% on RottenTomatoes. Previously, Jeremy’s 2014 documentary MAGICAL UNIVERSE – about outsider artist Al Carbee – was released theatrically across the US by IFC Films. The documentary won several film festival awards and was a Los Angeles Times and Village Voice Critic’s Pick upon its release. It was featured by The New York Times as “recommended watching” when it debuted on Netflix 2015. Additionally, Jeremy is well-known for his editing work, particularly for indie movie trailers. A two-time Emmy award nominee, Jeremy is the Creative Director of Wheelhouse Creative, a movie trailer company that caters to indie films.  For more go to: jeremyworkman.com

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“Remarkable…A dazzling doc that’s a kiss-off to gentrification.” – The Daily Beast

“Secret Mall Apartment shines the light on the kind of art – and the kinds of artists – who work beyond the limelight, pushing both the law and the very definition of “art” itself to their limits.” – Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, AWFJ.org

“Secret Mall Apartment succeeds because director Jeremy Workman knows how to tell a story.” – Alan Ng, Film Threat

“At its core, the film offers unique insights into gentrification, consumerism, and the impermanence of art.” – Naina Srivastava, Austin Chronicle

“Impossibly compelling… Has the tension and fun of a crime caper.” – Paste Magazine

“Fascinating” – Rogerebert.com

A gripping and emotional drama filmed and  set in the West Bank of Palestine, THE TEACHER, the debut feature from Oscar-nominated director Farah Nabulsi. The film stars renowned Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri (The Band’s Visit)  — who Farah dubs “the Daniel Day-Lewis of the Arab world” — and the acclaimed British actress Imogen Poots (“Outer Range”, The Father, Green Room). Inspired by true events and having won over 18 International Film Festival Awards, THE TEACHER follows Palestinian schoolteacher Basem (Saleh Bakri) faces personal turmoil after a tragic incident involving his son. He finds solace in a deep bond with his student Adam and British social worker Lisa (Imogen Poots). Meanwhile, an American attorney and his wife push for the return of their son, an Israeli soldier held by a Palestinian resistance group, leading to tensions over a potential prisoner exchange. The intertwining stories highlight themes of empathy and conflict, culminating in a powerful narrative marked by unexpected twists. Director, Screenwriter and Executive Producer Farah Nabulsi (Today They Took My Son) joins us to talk about how the short she did with lead actor Saleh Bakri morphed into The Teacher, Working with Imogen Poots and Muhammad Abed El Rahman and the significance of releasing The Teacher in this fraught political environment.

For more go to: watermelonpictures.com/the-teacher

For more on where to watch, go to: Watermelon Pictures

AWARDS

Official Selection – Toronto International FIlm Festival

Winner – Audience Award – San Francisco International Film Festival

Longlist – British Academy of Film and TV Arts

Winner Best Actor & Winner Jury Award – Red Sea International Film Festival

Audience Award – Washington DC International Film Festival

About the filmmaker – Farah Nabulsi is an Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA-winning Palestinian-British filmmaker and human rights advocate. She is the daughter of Palestinians who were fortunate enough to make a home in 1970’s Britain — unlike the millions who continue to remain stateless in refugee camps. Born, raised and educated in London, Farah began her career as an institutional equity stockbroker. She ended up with a CFA designation at JP Morgan Chase before moving on to build a children-focused business that she ran for 10 years. Since 2016, she has been writing and producing fiction films inspired by socially relevant themes. Her first short film, Today They Took My Son, was endorsed by British director Ken Loach and screened at the United Nations.The Present, her directorial debut, which she also co-wrote and produced, premiered at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 2020 and won the coveted Audience Award for Best Film. It went on to win over 60 International Film Festival Jury and Audience Awards, a BAFTA award, and it scored an Academy Award nomination.  The Present was licensed internationally including to Canal+ and Netflix Worldwide. The Teacher, Farah’s directorial feature-length debut, had its World Premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. It had its MENA Premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where it took home the Best Actor award and the main Jury Prize (the jury was headed by director Baz Lurhmann). The film stars renowned Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri and British actress Imogen Poots and has won over 15 International Film Festival Awards. Farah has been invited to serve as a jury member at numerous festivals and as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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87% on RottenTomatoes

“Gripping and full of tension, The Teacher not only makes for a wonderful cinematic experience, but poses some all-important questions the wider world has seemingly avoided answering for too long.” – Grace Dodd, LITTLE WHITE LIES

“Riveting…an intimate, eye-opening exploration of life in occupied Palestine. At the core of [The Teacher] are three compelling performances, led by the striking and understated intensity of Saleh Bakri.” – Sheri Linden, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

“Ground zero here – for the characters, for the nations, for the filmmaker – is futility. Nabulsi drops us on that ground and doesn’t let us pretend it’s anything else.” – Steve Pond, TheWrap

“Bakri’s sensitivity and intelligence commands the screen and Nabulsi hits the dramatic beats with confidence.” – Peter Bradshaw, THE GUARDIAN

Filmmakers Zach Ingrasci and Chris Temple’s VITALIK: AN ETHEREUM STORY is a gripping feature documentary chronicling the extraordinary rise of Vitalik Buterin, the visionary prodigy who set out to revolutionize the internet. From a teenage coder to the architect of Ethereum, his radical innovation not only ignited a trillion-dollar industry but also triggered a high-stakes battle over the future of digital freedom. With unprecedented access, the film captures the wild NFT gold rush, devastating industry collapses, a geopolitical war reshaping global power, and the most ambitious software upgrade in history—all through the eyes of an unlikely leader thrust into the spotlight. Through Vitalik, we get a human story about the people behind the technologies we rely on, the values embedded in our systems, and the uncomfortable truth that the visionaries shaping our future are, in the end, just as human as the rest of us. Filmmakers Zach Ingrasci and Chris Temple stop by to talk about their debut feature documentary, how meeting Vitalik Buterin has impacted their own perspectives on a promising technology and why he is seen as a visionary with an ability to gather people together with a goal of creating a sustainable future.

For more go to: ethereumfilm.xyz

To watch go to: optimist.co/films/vitalik-an-ethereum-story

About the subject – Vitalik Buterin, born in 1994 in Russia, is a pioneer in the world of blockchain technology. He has a bold vision for the future of the internet—creating a digital world free from government or corporate control. This drive stems from his family’s history of fleeing Russia during the financial turmoil of the 90s. In 2013, at just 19 years old, Buterin proposed the Ethereum Project. Since its launch, Ethereum has drawn billions of dollars in investments, making it a key player in the digital currency space. Buterin’s innovative work has not only earned him accolades like a Thiel Fellowship and a spot on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list but also significant wealth, with a reported net worth of over $1 billion. Known for his nomadic lifestyle, Buterin travels the world, sharing his knowledge. His profound impact on the technology landscape was also captured in a Time Magazine cover story titled THE PRINCE OF CRYPTO HAS CONCERNS, highlighting his critical views on the industry’s future. 

About the filmmaker – Zach Ingrasci is best known for directing & producing the feature documentaries Five Years North, Salam Neighbor, and Living on One Dollar. His films have premiered at top film festivals including Tribeca, DOCNYC, Full Frame, AFI Docs, & MountainFilm, and have been distributed globally by Netflix, HBO, Hulu, and PBS. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Variety, and The Atlantic, and has helped raise over $91 million dollars for poverty alleviation and refugee support efforts. He’s been honored with the 2016 Muslim Public Affairs Council Annual Media Award; recognized alongside Bill Gates and Angelina Jolie as one of the top 100 visionary leaders of 2015 by YPO’s Real Leaders Magazine; and accepted by the U.S. State Department into the American Film Showcase. On the branded side, his work at Optimist has won 4 Shorty Awards, 2 ADDY Awards, 1 Webby Award, and 2 AVA Digital Awards. In 2022, he has recently finished a new feature documentary about the psychology of investing called This is Not Financial Advice, made in partnership with XTR, Cinetic, and NY Times’ Nathaniel Popper. He’s also directing a film about Vitalik Buterin.

About the filmmaker – Chris Temple is a film director and the founder of Optimist, a production studio in Los Angeles. He is best known for directing the feature documentaries Living On One Dollar, Salam Neighbor, Five Years North, and This Is Not Financial Advice. His films have been released by Netflix, HBO, Hulu, National Geographic, and The Atlantic, and have screened at major film festivals including Tribeca, DOC NYC, Full Frame, AFI Docs, CPH:DOX, and many others. Chris has been honored as a finalist for the duPont-Columbia award for outstanding journalism; awarded the Muslim Public Affairs Council Annual Media Award; and recognized alongside Bill Gates and Angelina Jolie as one of the top 100 visionary leaders by YPO’s Real Leaders Magazine. His work has won 1 Gold Telly Award, 1 Imagen Award, 4 Shorty Awards, 2 ADDY Awards, 1 Webby Award, and 2 AVA Digital Awards. In 2022, he was honored by HBO as 40 under 40 filmmakers to watch. Every film he makes at Optimist is structured with a social impact campaign to change minds, lives, and policies. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Variety, and The Atlantic, and has helped raise over $92.5 million dollars for poverty alleviation and refugee support efforts.

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Director and writer Pat Collins’ latest feature film, THAT THEY MAY FACE THE RISING SUN, is set in the late 1970s in rural Ireland, just before the communications revolution vastly changed the dynamics of these small, close knit communities. Joe and Kate Ruttledge, having returned from London five years earlier to set up home near where Joe grew up, are now deeply embedded in their small, lakeside community. To a great extent this film is a portrait of a community and a way of life in rural Ireland that remained largely unchanged for many decades until the coming of radio, television and phones. In that society, neighbours helped each other with all the big jobs of the farming calendar – lambing, shearing, saving hay, cutting turf, etc – and visited each other’s houses to share news and talk by the fire. Complex, but mutually understood codes of manners determined people’s obligations to each other. THAT THEY MAY FACE THE RISING SUN is based on the novel of the same name by celebrated Irish writer, John McGahern. It is a deeply rooted portrait of a lost Ireland, with a tangible, authentic sense of place in an elegiac and poetic exploration of language, landscape and life itself. Award-winning Irish director Pat Collins (Silence, Song of Granite) on behalf of his new film, That They May Face the Rising Sun starring Barry Ward (Bad Sisters, Extra Ordinary, Dating Amber) and Anna Bederke (Soul Kitchen, Frau Ella) alongside accomplished Irish actors Lalor Roddy, Ruth McCabe, and Sean McGinley. The film is an adaptation of John McGahern’s acclaimed final novel, following a year in the life of a rural lakeside community in 1970s Ireland and its cast of authentic, memorable characters.

For more go to: facerisingsun.com

About the filmmaker – Award winning Irish director, writer, and producer, Pat Collins is also known for narrative features  Song of Granite and Silence, as well as documentary films including The Dance and Henry Glassie: Field Work.  Since 1999, Collins has made over 30 films, many of which have premiered at festivals including SXSW, the London International Film Festival, the Absolute Gallery at Galway Arts Festival, BFI London Film Festival, Cork Film Festival, among others.

SOCIAL MEDIA   

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“…beautifully realised and quietly beguiling…” – Screen Daily, Allan Hunter

“… The film is true to the spirit of McGahern’s prose in the sense that nothing much happens, yet everything happens too, something veteran documentary maker Pat Collins – making his fiction debut – understands.” – Alistair Harkness, Scotsman

“…subtle and dignified performances across the board…” – The Guardian, Phil Hoad

“The provincial life, told in delicate movements in a script by Collins and Eamon Little, asks big questions about the nature of happiness. A half-finished garden structure is emblematic of a larger temporal standstill.” – Tara Brady, Irish Times

“…here’s a film that unwraps its mysteries slowly, revealing underits quiet surface the human condition writ delicate but deep.” – Financial Times

JULIE KEEPS QUIET focuses on the star player, Julie, at an elite youth tennis academy. Julie’s life revolves around the game she loves. She trains hard, pausing only for class or physical therapy before returning to the gym fixated on making it into the Belgian Tennis Federation. When her coach Jérémy is suddenly suspended following the suicide of one of his female protégées, all the players at the academy are encouraged to speak up about their experiences with him. Julie, however, decides to keep quiet. Despite strong suspicions from those around her that Julie’s relationship with Jérémy was inappropriate at best, her persistent silence begins to speak volumes. Confused and full of anxiety, the pressure she once channeled solely towards training shifts inward, affecting her confidence, her focus, and her game. Executive produced by tennis champion Naomi Osaka, JULIE KEEPS QUIET is a “tense, taut, artfully hushed debut feature (Variety) by Belgian writer-director Leonardo van Dijl. Led by newcomer Tessa Van den Broeck whose performance embodies the different ways trauma is internalized, JULIE KEEPS QUIET respectfully and empathetically examines why some victims choose to remain silent. Director Leonardo Van Dijl’s joins us to talk about his exceptional and critically acclaimed drama artfully understated feature debut, which made a splash at last year’s Cannes in the Critics’ Week section,

For more go to: filmmovement.com/julie-keeps-quiet

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Belgium’s Official Entry for the 2025 Academy Awards® for Best Internationational Feature

About the filmmaker – Director and writer Leonardo van Dijl is a Belgian filmmaker renowned for his distinctive and thought-provoking storytelling. His acclaimed short film Stephanie (2020), which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, delves into the intense pressures faced by a young gymnast. Van Dijl’s feature film Julie Keeps Quiet, which premiered at Critics’ Week in Cannes in 2024, further showcases his talent, exploring silence and resilience in the face of adversity. The film gained significant attention when tennis star Naomi Osaka, moved by its powerful message, joined as an executive producer to amplify its reach globally. Julie Keeps Quiet has received glowing reviews from major publications. The Guardian praised its emotional depth, Variety commended its nuanced character portrayal, and The Hollywood Reporter highlighted van Dijl’s meticulous attention to detail. Additionally, Letterboxd mentioned it as one of the top ten movies to watch at Cannes. He is currently writing a new feature, with the ambition to amplify voices and spark important conversations both on and off the court.

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90% on RottenTomatoes

”[A] tense, absorbing movie of silences and absences… a gripping study in dysfunction and repression.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

““Julie Keeps Quiet,” the feature directorial debut from Leonardo Van Dijl, is a taut, haunting character study whose patient rhythms effectively breeds inescapable tension.” – Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

“A tense, taut, artfully hushed debut feature by Belgian writer-director Leonardo van Dijl, Julie Keeps Quiet also knows the value of control — though its own calm is fraught with anxiety and anger… A standout of this year’s Critics’ Week.” – Guy Lodge, Variety

“The movie’s silence is so loaded with the anxiety, obstinance, inchoate anger and desire for anonymity of the traumatized teenage sportswoman that the constant thwack of her racquet hitting the ball cuts through the tension like violent shocks… This is an austerely effective work.” – David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

An expansive and revelatory inside look at the 18 months John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent living in Greenwich Village in the early 1970s, Oscar®-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald and Co-director / Editor Sam Rice-Edwards’ ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO delivers an immersive cinematic experience that brings to life electrifying, never-before-seen material and newly restored footage of Lennon’s only full-length, post-Beatles concert. With mind-blowing remastered audio overseen by their son, Sean Ono Lennon, the film is a seismic revelation that will challenge pre-existing notions of the iconic couple. On August 30, 1972, in New York City, John Lennon played his only full-length show after leaving The Beatles, the One to One Benefit Concert, a rollicking, dazzling performance from him and Yoko Ono. Macdonald’s riveting documentary takes that legendary musical event and uses it as the starting point to explore eighteen defining months in the lives of John and Yoko. By 1971 the couple was newly arrived in the United States— living in a tiny apartment in Greenwich Village and watching a huge amount of American television. The film uses a riotous mélange of American TV to conjure the era through what the two would have been seeing on the screen: the Vietnam War, The Price is Right, Nixon, Coca-Cola ads, Cronkite, The Waltons. As they experience a year of love and transformation in the US, John and Yoko begin to change their approach to protest  — ultimately leading to the One to One concert, which was inspired by a Geraldo Rivera exposé they watched on TV. Filmed in a meticulously faithful reproduction of the NYC apartment the duo shared, ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO offers a bold new take on a seminal time in the lives of two of history’s most influential artists.  Co-director / Editor Sam Rice-Edwards joins us for a conversation on how he and co-director Kevin Macdonald, with the help of Music Producer Sean Lennon, were able to pull together this multi-faceted story that jumps of the screen by providing in-depth context to the complicated lives of John and Yoko during a tumultuous time in New York City and beyond.

For more go to: onetoonefilm.com

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87% on RottenTomatoes

“The medium, surely, has [John Lennon] well covered already. But Macdonald and Rice-Edwards have managed to find and mine a rich source of material, tightly tucked away amid all the other wildcat wells. – Xan Brooks, Guardian

“The best tribute of all in Kevin MacDonald’s stirring celebration of the 18 months that the singer/songwriter and his partner spent living in a two-bedroom loft in Greenwich Village is that it’s never overworked.” – Stephen Salto, Moveable Feast

“The film employs a channel-flipping aesthetic to switch between the various archive and concert videos, a smart decision that gives the film a strong sense of pace” – Matthew Turner, NME (New Musical Express)

“One to One is a reminder of the future we kids imagined in 1972. It’s also an act of encouragement. Lennon put it well when he told a concert audience, “OK, so flower power didn’t work. So what? We start again.” – Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter

“[John Lennon] truly was a walking contradiction… All of that ripples through “One to One,” making it the rare rock doc that’s a must-see.” Owen Gleiberman, Variety

It’s January 2021. The United Kingdom has just entered its 3rd lockdown and all theatres remain closed. For actors Sam Crane and Mark Osterveen, the future looks bleak. As  the pandemic drags on Mark who lives alone is increasingly socially isolated, while Sam is panicking about how he is going to support his family. They channel their midlife frustrations by immersing their avatars in the horrifically violent yet beautifully rendered virtual world of Grand Theft Auto Online. In one gaming session they stumble across a theatre and have an idea. Why not stage Hamlet inside the game? Well, there are several reasons why not, chiefly that most people in the game are intent on ruthless annihilation, not polite appreciation of a theatrical production. But wasn’t theatre just as dangerous and rowdy a business in Shakespeare’s time, and isn’t Hamlet, a play about revenge the perfect choice for this place? GRAND THEFT HAMLET is shot entirely inside the world of Grand Theft Auto. By using the in-game phone camera we were able to get intimate close ups and cinematic pans across landscapes – enabling a more cinematic visual language  and moments of pathos, emotion and lyricism to exist within the chaos and violence of this undiscovered country. Co-directors Sam Crane & Pinny Grylls join us for a conversation on the arc of their own journey into this virtual world, casting on-line netizens to play these iconic characters, how they came to grasp and utilize the boundless potential of this space, the genuinely funny travails of “rehearsing” the actors and so much more regarding this exceptionally successful debut feature “documentary”.

For more go to: undiscoveredcountryfilm.com

For more go to: grandthefthamlet.com

SXSW – Grand Jury Prize winner – Documentary Feature

BIFA –  Maverick Award & Best Debut Director – Documentary Feature

Sitges International Film Festival  – Best Documentary 

Vancouver International Film Festival –  Audience Award 

DMZ International Film Fest  – Frontier Competition – Grand Prize

About the filmmaker – In 2002 Pinny Grylls co-founded Bird’s Eye View Film Festival to promote female directors in the industry. Her first short documentary ‘Peter and Ben’ won awards at festivals, including, Aspen, IDFA, LSFF, and SXSW and toured festivals internationally. Grand Theft Hamlet is her first feature documentary and is co-directed with her life-partner actor and video artist Sam Crane. In 2024 she won the Chanel BFI Filmmaker Award for Creative Audacity.  Pinny has a special interest in documentaries about theatre and performance. Using her skills for compassionate observation and quirky humour she has directed and edited independent documentaries for BBC, BFI Doc Society, The Guardian, Channel 4 and the National Theatre and The Royal Opera House. Documentaries include ‘The Hour’, ‘Who Do You Think You Were’, ‘Skin Hunger’ and ‘Thank you Women’. Her commercials include British Gas, Aldi and The Dove Real Beauty Campaign. Her films have been collected by the BFI Archive. In 2023 she was awarded BFI Development funding for her first fiction feature film ‘Hear My Voice’, a story about a young  Congolese boy who dreams of being an opera singer while trying to reconnect with his estranged father who like Pinny is losing his hearing. It is a comedy and a musical. Pinny is a lipreader, a hearing aid user and is learning BSL Sign Language Level 3. Like many other people with disabilities – she has found gaming a wonderfully accessible and freeing environment in which to have fun and make films. She uses live captioning when she is gaming. For more go to: pinnygrylls.co.uk

About the filmmaker – In a theatre career spanning twenty years, Sam Crane has been critically acclaimed for his performances at the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, in the West End and on Broadway. His films have been screened at contemporary art and film festivals worldwide. He won the Critics’ Choice award at Milan Machinima Festival, First Prize for Video Art at The Athens Digital Arts Festival and was longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize and the Lumen Prize. His production of Hamlet in Grand Theft Auto won The Stage Innovation Award 2023 and is the subject of a forthcoming feature length documentary. He is currently playing Harry Potter in the West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and can soon be seen as Jacques-Louis David in Ridley Scott’s forthcoming film Napoleon for Sony Pictures and Apple TV. He is a PhD candidate at York University’s School of Arts and Creative Technologies (under the supervision of Dr Ben Kirman and Dr Karen Quigley) and is a member of the PEERS programme of artistic researchers at Zurich University of the Arts. He read Classics as an undergraduate at Oxford University and trained as an actor at LAMDA where he won the Nicholas Hytner scholarship. He co-directs Grand Theft Hamlet with his wife filmmaker Pinny Grylls. For more go to: rusticmascara.com

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94% on RottenTomatoes

“Grand Theft Hamlet wrings lots of grim laughs out of this material. However, there’s also something unexpectedly relevant about watching Sam and Mark try to craft some unity in a virtual world of guns and debauchery.” – Lisa Laman, Culturess

“Not just one of the most deeply inventive and thoughtful documentaries of the 2020s so far, but it’s an especially moving tribute to Shakespeare’s work, performed by a motley crew of anonymous strangers seeking video game refuge during the pandemic.” – Matt Mitchell, Paste Magazine

‘“Grand Theft Hamlet” is really about a number of other themes: artistic obsession, community, and, I think most important, what constitutes “real” life in a world pervaded by digital existences.” – Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times

“A poignantly hilarious documentary about creating art in a crisis.” – David Ehrlich, INDIEWIRE

“Grand Theft Hamlet captures this wacky and surprisingly moving affair with dry British wit, vulnerable introspection, and a lot of failed attempts at rehearsing a classic play in a video game where the goal is to gun down everyone around you.” – Allegra Frank, The Daily Beast

MEANWHILE is a docu-poem in six verses about artists breathing through chaos. In dynamic collaboration, Jacqueline Woodson (text), Meshell Ndegeocello (soundscape), Erika Dilday (support), M. Trevino (structure), and Catherine Gund (direction), combine artists’ expressions with historical and observational footage to unveil a rare cinematic mediation about identity, race, racism and resistance as they shape our shared breath. Centering breath as a  symbol of resilience, MEANWHILE captures raw, unfinished moments— dancers in rehearsal, artists midway through their work—focusing on the act of creation. Rooted in the upheavals of 2020, the film uses breath as its through-line to symbolize collective survival. It invites viewers to witness the process of liberation and be present in the “meanwhile”—a moment of creation, struggle, and hope that transcends fixed identities. Director Catherine Gund (Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices From a Plantation Prison) joins us for a conversation on breathing through the chaos, navigating the complexities of race, racism and creative resistance, how the idea of a six-part cinematic poem brought MEANWHILE to life, and why this docu-essay can be seen as a reminder of our collective strength and flexibility.

For more go to: abramorama.com/film/meanwhile

For more about the filmmaker go to: aubinpictures.com

About the filmmaker – Founder and Director of Aubin Pictures, Catherine Gund is an Emmy-nominated and Academy-shortlisted producer, director, writer, and activist. Her media work focuses on strategic and sustainable social transformation, arts and culture, HIV/AIDS and racial, reproductive and environmental justice. Her films have screened around the world in festivals, theaters, museums, and schools; on PBS, HBO, Paramount+, the Discovery Channel, Sundance Channel, Free Speech TV, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. She won the 2023 Gracie Award for Documentary Producer. Her films include: Paint Me a Road Out of Here, Meanwhile, Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices From a Plantation Prison, Primera, Aggie, Chavela, and Born to Fly. She has served on several arts, media, and justice nonprofit boards and has been a creative advisor on numerous documentary films. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. An alumnus of Brown University and the Whitney Independent Study Program, she has four children and lives in NYC. For more go to: aubinpictures.com

SOCIAL MEDIA

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Reviews:

“A provocation and a request to consider what flourishing looks like in this chaotic moment — for Black Americans, and for anyone who finds themselves drowning, struggling to breathe.” – Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times

“An unconventional, lyrical and thought-provoking documentary.” – Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru

“This “docu-poem” essay film is an essential experience right now, never mind that it’s meant to reflect the upheavals of 2020. It applies to the upheavals of 2025 just as well.” – Christopher Campbell, Nonfics (Substack)

Director Laura Nix’s enlightening and alarming documentary film DEMOCRACY UNDER SIEGE is punctuated by the sharp and witty political commentary of Pulitzer-prize winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes, from the  Washington Post, from her bird’s eye view in the cat seat of the United States capital, Washington D.C.. In this hard-hitting film top political analysts lay bare the complex history and challenges of the world’s most influential political system. Oscar-nominated Director Laura Nix trains her insightful lens on one of American democracy’s most extreme and vital moments in its nearly 250 years of existence. The film connects present-day crises with their roots in American history via commentary with A-list political observers who explore executive overreach, a crisis in judicial ethics, and a media environment saturated with disinformation, as the country grapples with fundamental challenges that transcend individual presidencies. With innovative dark humor, the film examines how the promise of American multiracial democracy faces a renewed backlash, culminating in fears of an actual authoritarian takeover. Can the nation preserve its democratic ideals amidst severe polarization  and a political party which has embraced extremism? Oscar nominated Producer / Director Laura Nix (The Light in Her Eyes, The Yes Men are Revolting) joins us to talk about her how intelligent and thorough DEMOCRACY UNDER SIEGE plays to anyone with even a passing understand of civics, as well as how incredibly important it is for all Americans to understand and strengthen the civil and voting rights many of us have taken for granted for far too long.

For more go to: drawforchangetheseries.com/democracy-under-siege

Or go to: autlookfilms.com/democracy-under-siege

Or go to: clindoeilfilms.be

About the subject – Ann Telnaes creates editorial cartoons in various mediums — animation, visual essays, live sketches and traditional print. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for her print cartoons and the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year for 2016. She was awarded the international EWK Award, named after the legendary Swedish cartoonist Ewert Karlsson, in 2021. Telnaes was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her illustrated reporting and cartooning in 2022 and awarded the Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning in 2023.  After working for The Washington Post for over sixteen years, Telnaes resigned after a cartoon she submitted was rejected because it criticized billionaire tech and media executives, including Jeff Bezos, for trying to curry favor with President Trump. Telnaes’ print work was shown in a solo exhibition at the Great Hall in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress in 2004. Her first book, Humor’s Edge, was published by Pomegranate Press and the Library of Congress in 2004. A collection of Vice President Cheney cartoons, Dick, was self-published by Telnaes and Sara Thaves in 2006. Her most recent book, Trump’s ABC, was published by Fantagraphics in 2018.   Telnaes’ work has also been exhibited in Paris, Jerusalem, and Lisbon. Telnaes attended California Institute of the Arts and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, specializing in character animation. Before beginning her career as an editorial cartoonist, Telnaes worked for several years as a designer for Walt Disney Imagineering. She has also animated and designed for various studios in Los Angeles, New York, London, and Taiwan. Other awards include: The National Cartoonists Society Reuben division award for Editorial Cartoons (2016), The National Press Foundation’s Berryman Award (2006) – The Maggie Award, Planned Parenthood (2002) – 15th Annual International Dutch Cartoon Festival (2007) – The National Headliner Award (1997) – The Population Institute XVII Global Media Awards (1996) – Sixth Annual Environmental Media Awards (1996)

About the filmmaker – Laura Nix is a director, writer and producer working in non-fiction and fiction. Her short film, WALK RUN CHA-CHA, was nominated for a 2020 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject after its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and winning Best Short at Viet Film Fest. The New York Times series, FROM HERE TO HOME, in which the film appears, was also nominated for a 2020 News and Documentary Emmy in the category of Outstanding New Approaches: Arts, Lifestyle and Culture. The film is currently streaming on New York Times Op-Docs. Her feature documentary INVENTING TOMORROW, about teenagers from around the globe tackling environmental issues through science, premiered in the US Competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, followed by screenings at numerous film festivals worldwide and earning multiple awards including a 2019 Peabody Award and the Grand Jury Prize at Seattle International Film Festival. In 2018 she was also named a Chicken & Egg Breakthrough Filmmaker,  a prestigious award given annually to five experienced women filmmakers based in the United States who have each been acknowledged for their extraordinary careers in the industry. Awarded the 2017 Sundance Institute/Discovery Impact Fellowship, Nix also directed THE YES MEN ARE REVOLTING, a comedy about activism and climate change that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014 and the Berlinale 2015 and has gone on to play in over 85 film festivals internationally. It was theatrically released in North America by the Orchard, and appeared theatrically and on television internationally. Previously she directed the documentary THE LIGHT IN HER EYES, about a Syrian Qur’an school for women, which premiered at IDFA in 2011, was broadcast on the PBS series POV as well as internationally on Al-Jazeera Middle East and others, and toured the world with Sundance’s Film Forward. Nix was also a writer on the Emmy nominated documentary CALIFORNIA STATE OF MIND: THE LEGACY OF PAT BROWN. Nix wrote and directed the comedic narrative feature THE POLITICS OF FUR, which played in over 70 film festivals internationally and won numerous awards, including the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at Outfest Los Angeles 2002 and Best Feature at Boston Underground 2003. She has directed music videos for several artists including Sweaters, Rajae el Mouhandiz, and the classical Vienna-based ensemble Vivante. In 2001, Nix co-founded the production company Automat Pictures, where she produced and/or directed over 100 presentations, including the feature documentary WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT: THE STORY OF HEDWIG, which played in over a dozen film festivals in the U.S. and worldwide. Previously she was a member of Oscar-winning filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s production company Telling Pictures, where she was Associate Producer on THE CELLULOID CLOSET. Nix’s nonfiction television work has appeared on HBO, PBS, Arte, ZDF, CBC, NHK, Canal +, IFC, New York Times Op-Docs, Planet Green, and the History Channel. She was a MacDowell Colony Fellow in 2006 and a Film Independent and IFP fellow in 2011. She has served as an adviser to the Hot Docs Blue Ice Fund and East Africa’s Docubox, is currently a film expert for the U.S. State Department’s American Film Showcase, and is a member of the documentary branch of the Academy for Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, where she serves on the Executive Committee of the Documentary Branch. Nix is the owner of Felt Films, a production company based in Los Angeles that produces non-fiction and fiction content, and she is repped for commercials and branded content by Majority Film in Los Angeles.For more go to: feltfilms.com

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Long (Hiệp Trần Nghĩais an elderly Vietnamese driver in Southern California answers a late-night call for a ride.  Already in his pajamas, he reluctantly accepts, picking up a man, Tây (Dustin Nguyen), and his two companions. But the men, recently escaped convicts from an Orange County jail, take Long hostage at gunpoint, thrusting him into their getaway plan. When complications arise, the fugitives and their hostage hole up at a motel, and a tense waiting game unfolds. Sing J. Lee’s striking visuals and mood driven aesthetic set the tone for unnerving intensity, punctuated by moments of humor and warmth. Inspired by a true story, this is not just a crime film, but a stirring portrait of this lonely, old man and his relationship with a dangerous and troubled criminal by the name of Tây. Co-screenwriter and director Sing J. Lee won the Best Director Award at the 3023 Sundance Film Festival for his work on The Accidental Getaway Driver. The Sundance Jurors responsible for picking the winner of the award wrote, “The jury (which included Jeremy O. Harris, Eliza Hittman, and Marlee Matlin) was bowled over by this director’s singular vision that merged the grit of a Western crime film and the poetic imagery of Asian New Wave. This hybridized approach revealed the complexities of existing between cultures and evoked an enormous amount of empathy for its protagonist and the true story underneath it.” Co-screenwriter and director Sing J. Lee joins us for a conversation on how his work in producing high profile music videos helped prepare him for his noir-ish look and feel for his award winning debut feature film.

To watch go to: theaccidentalgetawaydriver.official.film

About the filmmaker – Sing J. Lee is an award-winning writer and director. Born in Manchester, of Hong Kong descent, his work is often characterized by his distinctvisual language that explores the human condition. Alongside the widespread recognition for his early short films, including BBC’s Best of the North, Lee’s music videos also received international acclaim, awarded by Cannes Lions, VMA’s and Clios. In 2016, Lee was commissioned by the British Council to direct a sci-fi adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, commemorating the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare.Selected as Variety’s Top Ten Storytellers to Watch in 2019, Lee’s notable collaborations have included Donald Glover, Alicia Keys & The Killers.In 2023, his select work was showcased at the Barbican Centre as part of Carrie Mae Weems: Reflections for Now exhibition. He was subsequently named a BAFTA Breakthrough Fellow that same year. Lee premiered his directorial feature debut,The Accidental Getaway Driver, at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where he received the Directing Award for U.S. Dramatic.

85% on RottenTomatoes

“Although the film starts as a gritty crime thriller, it pivots, unexpectedly but effectively, into something much more tender. It’s a testament to Lee’s confidence and his sensitivity that the shift from white-knuckle tension to earnest emotion works as well as it does.” – Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter

“One of those rare, where-did-this-come-from films that every so often pops up to invigorate adventurous viewers on the lookout for something fresh and different.” – Todd McCarthy, Deadline

“Lee’s too subtle to say it out loud, but there’s a hushed irony in that Long attempted to rebuild a life halfway around the world only to wind up in the same place: captive at gunpoint.” – Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times

“The Accidental Getaway Driver is a quiet examination of the things we hold onto and how they haunt us.” – Sharai Bohannon, Dread Central

“A bold and graceful crime movie. Lee’s confident film has numerous moments of filmmaking magic.” – Nick Allen, Roger Ebert. com

That’s not all folks! From Ketchup Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation, director Pete Browngardt, and the creative team behind the award-winning “Looney Tunes Cartoons” comes THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE, a brand new buddy comedy starring one of the greatest comedic duos in history–Porky Pig and Daffy Duck! This  richly-crafted, hand-drawn 2D animated adventure marks the first fully-animated feature-length film in Looney Tunes history, told on a scope and scale that’s truly out of this world. Porky Pig and Daffy Duck venture to the big screen as unlikely heroes and Earth’s only hope when their antics at the local bubble gum factory uncover a secret alien mind control plot. Faced with cosmic odds, the two are determined to save their town (and the world!)… that is if they don’t drive each other totally looney in the process. Featuring the voices of acclaimed actors Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, Peter MacNicol, Wayne Knight, and Laraine Newman with the laugh-out-loud gags, vibrant visuals, and beloved characters that make the Looney Tunes so timeless and iconic. Director, co-executive producer   and co-writer Pete Browngardt stops by to talk about his own journey through the world of animated filmmaking and personal fandom that includes his admiration for the genius of of Mel Blanc, working with the new generation of very gifted animation voice actors that includes, Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, Peter MacNicol, and the joy of bringing the Looney Tunes characters to a new generation of filmgoers.

For more go to: ketchupentertainment.com

About the filmmaker – Director & Executive Producer Pete Browngardt is the director of The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie. Prior to the movie, Browngardt served as the executive producer of the award-winning Looney Tunes Cartoons. He was the creator and executive producer of the Emmy® Award winning series Uncle Grandpa as well as creator of the Annecy and Emmy® Award winning series Secret Mountain Fort Awesome. Previous credits also include work on a number of Cartoon Network shows including Chowder, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, and Adventure Time. Pete studied character animation at CalArts and began working professionally on Futurama at age 19, followed by Industrial Light & Magic and MTV Animation.

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94% on RottenTomatoes

“The film’s open affection for the Looney Tunes franchise has a restorative quality.” – Jake Cole, Slant Magazine

“It’s the prettiest animated movie Warner Bros. has released since ‘The Iron Giant,’ which would make for a formidable double feature.” – William Bibbiani, TheWrap

“[This] new feature ably captures the Looney Tunes spirit, which is something our world can always use more of — and which is a far more formidable endeavor than might at first seem.” – Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture

“[T]he film captures the manic, creative spirit of these characters.” – Mark Dujsik, Mark Reviews Movies

“The Day the Earth Blew Up is a crazy unique take on alien invasion and zombie films. The eye-popping animation is gorgeous and glorious. It captures the magic of the classics while delivering something entirely fresh and worthwhile.” – Chris Sawin, Bounding Into Comics

BOB TREVINO LIKES IT is inspired by the true friendship that writer/director Tracie Laymon found with a stranger when looking for her father online. Often playing the role of caretaker to people like her father who should be caring for her, Lily Trevino longs for a familial connection, having been abandoned by her mother as a child and then suddenly by her father in her twenties. Often playing the role of caretaker to people like her father, who should be caring for her, Lily Trevino longs for familial connection. When her father, Robert, finally checks out of her life, Lily looks for him on the internet. She tries to “friend” a man she believes is her father on Facebook. But instead of finding Robert Trevino, she finds Bob Trevino instead. Bob Trevino works long, hours at a construction company to support his wife Jeanie’s elaborate scrapbooking habit. The couple has endured a lot in the past decade, and Bob has prioritized his wife’s healing to the  point of ignoring his feelings and sense of loneliness. When Bob gets an unexpected Facebook message from a stranger named Lily Trevino, he discerns she needs a friend as much as he does.  Lily and Bob’s blossoming friendship becomes a vital source of connection and healing in both their lives. Bob’s small acts of fatherly kindness fill a familial void in Lily’s life and hold the power to change her direction forever. In their own ways, these two must both learn they are worthy of extraordinary love exemplified through small acts of kindness. Director / writer Tracie Laymon joins us for a conversation on her journey as a filmmaker, gathering together a great ensemble cast that includes Barbie Ferriera, John Leguizamo, French Stewart, Lauren “Lolo” Spencer, and Rachel Bay Jones and sharing the feedback she has gotten from hundreds of filmgoers eager to share their own stories of familial trauma, neglect and abuse, as well as  reconciliation and forgiveness and the bushel of awards that the film has received during its festival run.

For more go to: bobtrevinolikesit.com

About the filmmaker – Named to IFC’s “Icons and Film Innovators”, Tracie Laymon is an independent writer and director hailing from Houston and Austin, Texas. Tracie moved to Russia at 14 and attended the American School of Moscow. Back in Houston, she was accepted into the magnet program at Bellaire Foreign Language Academy, focusing on Russian language studies, and later returned to Moscow as a foreign exchange student. At 17, she survived a near-fatal accident and learned to walk again through an extended period of intense rehabilitation. While studying at the University of Texas, Tracie interned for Richard Linklater’s company Detour Film (“Boyhood”, “Dazed and Confused”), worked as a photographer and video journalist for Time Warner News, and directed multiple short films and award-winning music videos in the Austin area. Tracie’s directorial projects have won jury awards at SXSW and many other festivals and competitions. She received a grant to make a segment of the women’s anthology film “Girls!Girls!Girls!”, starring Elaine Hendrix and Octavia Spencer, and won the Jury Award for Short Film of the Year from the Women’s Image Network. Her original scripted material has also won and placed highly in over twenty competitions– Best Screenplay at the LA Comedy Festival, Best TV Pilot at HollyShorts, and Runner-up at the annual Scriptapalooza competition, and more. Tracie directed the the first half hour series for Hulu “Goodnight Burbank”, featuring Dominic Monaghan, which was further acquired by Mark Cuban for HDNet. She also wrote and directed “Mixed Signals”, which premiered at Oscar-qualifying LA Shorts in 2018 and won her multiple awards for Best Director in 2018 and 2019 (Women Texas Film Festival, Independent Shorts Awards, and The Method Fest in Beverly Hills.). Tracie also directed a comedic and dramatic proof of concept pilot project for Tess Allen’s “Matched” and shadowed as observing director on Showtime’s “Shameless”. She also taught animation for several organizations including Ghetto Film School and live action filmmaking on the Stanford and Berkeley campuses. Her short film “Ghosted” garnered Best Director awards at Big Bear Film Summit, Big Sur Film Festival, Seattle Film Festival and the Hollywood Gold Awards. It also won Best Short Film and Best Writer at Seattle, the audience award for Best Short Film at Big Bear Film Summit and many more. Tracie is a passionate and fierce advocate for cast and crew with disabilities, in front of and behind the camera. Tracie’s debut feature “Bob Trevino Likes It” starring Barbie Ferreira and John Leguizamo World Premiered at SXSW 2024, where it was awarded both the Grand Jury Award and the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. It went on to win 25 other film festival awards, including 13 Audience Awards for Best Feature. To find out more go to: laymonsterms.com

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94% on RottenTomatoes

“With a hat trick of strong performances from Barbie Ferreira, John Leguizamo, and French Stewart, this wonderfully personal story is filled to the brim with a seemingly endless reservoir of laughs and tears.” – Aidan Kelley, Collider

“Like its heroine, the comedy can be bright and bouncy and frequently funny. But also like her, it’s secretly a tearjerker, and never more effectively than when it’s at its very sweetest.” – Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter

“This film embraces a hopeful path, expressing with absolute sincerity that believing in the humanity of others is essential to healing.” – Ferdosa Abdi, Screen Rant

“The ensemble cast is exceptional together, bringing Tracie Laymon’s sweet/bittersweet story to life without sentimentality, bringing every viewer along on their emotional journey.” – Leslie Combemale. AWFJ.org

“Writer/director Tracie Laymon takes this potentially silly premise and grounds it with humor and emotion, making it one of the most moving movies I have seen in years.” – Seth Freilich, Pajiba

“This film deservedly won SXSW’s grand jury prize for its commitment to endearing characters and the surprising ways in which they find each other.” – Abe Friedtanzer, Cinema Daily US

WHO BY FIRE begins opens with a plane landing on a lake for a friendly getaway at a secluded log cabin in the forest, but quickly becomes the site of escalating, multi-generational tensions and anxieties in this disquieting, impeccably mounted coming-of-age drama from Quebecois filmmaker Philippe Lesage (Genesis, New Directors/New Films). Ostensibly a merry reunion between well-known film director Blake Cadieux (Arieh Worthalter, 2024 César winner for Best Actor for The Goldman Case) and his longtime friend and former collaborator Albert Gary (Paul Ahmarani), the vacation gradually becomes something far more complex and less stable, especially with the combustible admixture of Albert’s teen son’s best friend, Jeff (Noah Parker), and Albert’s self-asserting daughter Aliocha (Aurélia Arandi-Longpré). Long-simmering middle-aged resentments surface, set against the anxieties of the young, all captured sensitively by Lesage, who in recent years has proven unparalleled in evoking the psychological contours of teenagers finding their paths through treacherous emotional landscapes. Featuring thrillingly choreographed dinner sequences of mounting tension, WHO BY FIRE confirms Lesage as a major contemporary filmmaker, with its assured tonal negotiation of the naturalistic and the oneiric, the joyous (especially an epic dance interlude to The B-52s) and the ominous. Director and writer Philippe Lesage stops by for a spirited conversation on male toxicity, simmering rivalry, sexual anxiety, betrayal, erratic canoeing and wine swapping.

For more go to: kimstim.com/who-by-fire

WHO BY FIRE opens March 14th at NY’s Film at Lincoln Center and March 21st at LA’s Laemmle Theatres followed by a national release courtesy of KimStim: To watch go to: kimstim.com/who-by-fire  

About the filmmaker – Canadian director, screenwriter, producer, photographer and actor Philippe Lesage was born in Saint-Agapit (Quebec) in 1977. He worked as a Film teacher at the European Film College in Denmark. He directed the documentary films ‘Pourrons-nous vivre ensemble?’ (2006), ‘How Can You Tell If the Little Fish Are Happy’ (2009), ‘Ce coeur qui bat’ (2010, which harvested the Jutra Award for Best Documentary) and ‘Laylou’ (2012), before debuting in fiction with the feature film ‘Copenhagen: A Love Story’ (2015). That same year he participated in the Official Section of the San Sebastian Festival with ‘The Demons’, which was later invited to more than 60 international festivals. ‘The Demons’ won the San Francisco Golden Gate Award, was included in the TIFF top ten, and was named one of the top ten films of 2015 by ‘Variety’. In 2018, he directed ‘Genesis’. Premiered at the Locarno Festival in the international competition, the film has won numerous awards including the Golden Wolf (Festival of New Cinema, Montreal), the Best Film and Best Director Awards at the Valladolid International Film Festival (Spain) and the Best Film prize at the Los Cabos Film Festival (Mexico). His latest film, Who By Fire, won the Grand Prix of the Generation 14plus International Jury, Best Film at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival. 

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84% on RottenTomatoes

“Lesage demonstrates a keen eye for nuance and meditative mise-en-scène, even as he eventually leads us to some explosive and wrenching events, where tables are turned and expectations reversed.” – Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Film Festival Today

“Lesage supplies exemplary tension and intrigue over the course of two plus hours, while at the same time suggesting to the viewer, accurately, that anything in the way of a definitive resolution is not in the cards.” – Glenn Kenny, RogerEbert.com

“Lesage’s characters may talk a lot, but because he avoids exposition, he ends up overloading the story with dramatically heightened episodes.” – Manohla Dargis, New York Times

“All three younger actors are terrific, with the ebullient Arandi-Longpré standing out as a teenage girl who refuses to be hemmed in by the bruised male egos surrounding her.” – Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter

“Lesage underlines his ability to carve a semblance of a horror movie from everyday domestic drama — confirming him as a filmmaker of considerable grace and daring.” – Guy Lodge, Variety

“Despite its unassuming scenario, Lesage orchestrates these various storylines like a conductor, slowly bringing each story into a solo before unleashing their collective sounds in a symphony.” – Monica Castillo, RogerEbert.com

Carson Lund’s feature film debut, EEPHUS, focuses on two recreational baseball teams, the River Dogs and Adler’s Paint. The two teams have been meeting on their New England field on Sunday afternoons for longer than anyone can remember. These middle-aged sportsmen can’t run as fast as they used to or connect as reliably with a pitch, but their vigorous appetite for socializing, squabbling, and busting chops remains  undiminished. After the know-nothing county board opts to raze the baseball diamond to make way for a school, the teams meet for one final game at their beloved Soldier’s Field, with girlfriends, kids, and local hooligans as intermittent spectators. As day turns to night and innings bleed together, the players face the uncertainty of a new era. Lovingly laid in a vanished Massachusetts of the mid-1990s, Carson Lund’s poignant feature  debut plays like a lazy afternoon, perfectly attuned to the rhythms of America’s eternal pastime. Named for a rarely-deployed curveball, Eephus is both a ribald comedy for the baseball connoisseur and a movie for anyone who’s ever lamented their community slipping away. Director and writer Carson Lund stops by to talk about his own personal connection to this story, baseball in New Hampshire, mortality, this being his feature film debut, casting Eephus aficionado Bill “Spaceman” Lee, casting legendary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, and explaining what in the hell an eeuphus is?

For more go to: eephusfilm.com

To watch, go to: musicboxfilms.com/eephus

About the filmmaker – Carson Lund was born in Nashua, New Hampshire and currently resides in Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts in Film Production from Emerson College. He has worked extensively as a director, editor and cinematographer on various narrative and commercial projects, and currently shoots and cuts online and broadcast work for a wide range of clients at Razorfish, one of the world’s leading digital ad agencies. His debut feature as a DP and producer is Ham on Rye(2019), directed by Tyler Taormina and now available on Amazon Prime. Apart from filmmaking, Carson is a film writer for Slant Magazine and the Harvard Film Archive. He is also the frontman of LA-based chamber pop duo Mines Falls and the former frontman of indie rock band Old Abram Brown.

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“Eephus isn’t exactly a baseball movie — it’s something closer to movie-baseball, where characters endlessly jostle back and forth under no real time constraints, watching the day slowly pass them by, simply out of love for the sport.” – Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter

“Has about it a mournful, lightly absurd poetry of the mundane, a rapt attention to the intimacy of transience and the meanings we make from relics and rituals of a time we’re passing through.” – Isaac Feldberg, RogerEbert.com

“Carson Lund treats the power of a shared interest with profound, elegiac empathy.” – Jake Cole, Slant Magazine

“Lund’s new film is one of the best discoveries in the Directors’ Fortnight line-up at Cannes 2024. I’m glad I took the time to sit down and watch this one – and hopefully other baseball fans will feel the same way.” – Alex Billington, FirstShowing.net

“This thoroughly charming film is a paean to community, male friendship and a way of life slowly being lost, a comedy steeped in nostalgia which sends its players off into the darkness like the ghosts of “Field of Dreams.’” – Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews

“Eephus is the best sports movie in years.” – Alex Papaioannou, InSession Film

Director Atom Egoyan’s (The Sweet Hereafter) latest work follows an earnest theatre director Jeanine (Amanda Seyfried) as she is preparing for the daunting task of remounting her former mentor’s most famous work, the opera “Salome”. Haunted by dark and disturbing memories from her past, Jeanine allows her repressed trauma to color the present as she re-enters the opera world after so many years away. Egoyan first directed the opera, Salome, in 1996, the first opera in what would be many to come over his career. Best known as a prominent film director since the 1980s, Egoyan has proven he is a master of both mediums. “I’ve been involved with opera for a number of years, doing it parallel to my film work. I always wondered if there was a way to bring the two worlds together”. More recently, Egoyan was interested in exploring what the production of Salome would mean in our current culture. This interest led him to write the script for SEVEN VEILS, about a remount of Salome that he ffilmed at the same time the opera was on stage, using the opera singers from Salome in the film. Director / Producer / Screenwriter Atom Egoyan joins us to talk about his fascination with this complicated Biblical tale, the more recent history of a contemporary update by Oscar Wilde and the re-interpreted version by composer Richard Strauss, working with a stellar cast led by a stand out performance by Amanda Seyfried and how modern themes around cultural appropriation, identity politics and sensitivities to sexual misconduct in his remount of Salome permeate this contemporary and compelling version, SEVEN VEILS.

For more go to: variancefilms.com/seven-veils

About the filmmaker – Writer/Director Atom Egoyan is one of the most celebrated contemporary filmmakers on the international scene. His body of work – which includes theatre, music, and art installations – delves into issues of memory, displacement, and the impact of technology and media on modern life.  Egoyan has won numerous prizes at international film festivals including the Grand Prix and International Critics Awards from the Cannes Film Festival, two Academy Award® nominations, and numerous other honours. His films have won twenty-five Genies – including three Best Film Awards – and a prize for Best International Film Adaptation from The Frankfurt Book Fair. Egoyan’s films have been presented in numerous retrospectives across the world, including a complete career overview at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, followed by similar events at the Filmoteca Espagnol in Madrid, the Museum of The Moving Image in New York, and the Royal Cinematek in Brussels. Adoration won the Ecumenical Jury Award after premiering in Competition in Cannes, and Chloe was selected as Opening Night Premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain. With three major prizes at Cannes, two Academy Award® nominations, and unanimously positive reviews, THE SWEET HEREAFTER is widely regarded as the most acclaimed English- Canadian film ever made. Devil’s Knot premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013. The Captive, starring Ryan Reynolds, Mireille Enos, Scott Speedman, and Rosario Dawson, was released to great box-office success. Egoyan’s feature, Remember, starring Christopher Plummer premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released worldwide in 2015/16.  Egoyan returned to the theatre with his successful production of Richard Strauss’s SALOME, premiered by The Canadian Opera Company in 1996, and later presented by Houston Grand Opera and Vancouver Opera, before being remounted by the C.O.C. in 2002 and again in 2013. His original opera, ELSEWHERELESS, with music by Rodney Sharman, received over 30 performances throughout Canada, and was nominated for six Dora Awards. In 1998, Egoyan directed the world premiere of Gavin Bryars’ DR. OX’S EXPERIMENT for English National Opera in London, and also directed Richard Wagner’s DIE WALKÜRE as part of the Canadian Premiere of The Ring Cycle, winning the Dora Award for Outstanding Production. In 2015, his production of DIE WALKÜRE swept the Dora Awards with nine nominations, with Egoyan winning for Best Direction. Egoyan was honoured with a 2016 Opera Canada Award (Rubie) for Film and Stage Direction.  On the occasion of Samuel Beckett’s Centenary Celebration in 2006, Egoyan’s critically acclaimed interpretation of Beckett’s EH JOE starring Michael Gambon and Penelope Wilton, was presented by The Gate Theatre in Dublin, later transferring to London’s West End (where The Sunday Times proclaimed it, ‘the greatest half-hour in theatrical history’), and was then remounted with Liam Neeson as part of the Lincoln Center Festival in New York in 2008.  For this production, he won The Irish Times/ESB Award for Best Direction. Egoyan’s original production of Mozart’s COSÌ FAN TUTTE with the Canadian Opera Company was first performed in 2014, then remounted in 2019 by both the COC and Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv. In 2018, Egoyan mounted a theatrically-staged version of Alexander Zemlinsky’s LYRIC SYMPHONY combining the first movements of Alban Berg’s LYRIC SUITE. After the acclaimed production of Janáček’s JENŮFA at Pacific Opera Victoria in 2017, Egoyan returns to direct Benjamin Britten’s DEA TH IN VENICE in 2021.

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73% on RottenTomatoes

“Essentially serving as a constant spectator, looking in on both the production and her own tangled life, Seyfriend impressively conveys a myriad of tamped-down, long-repressed emotions with an economy of dialogue at her disposal.” – Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter

“A fascinating film about appropriation – not cultural but personal, the morally dubious territory in which the artist takes your trauma and spins it into gold.” – Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail

“Seven Veils is far from the first film to explore how art imitates life, but Atom Egoyan’s take on a familiar theme is so feverish that one can’t help being swept up in its mad vision.” – Tim Grierson, Screen International

“Amanda Seyfried gives a dynamic, complex performance as an opera director grappling with trauma in her past and present.” – Emily Zemler, Observer

“[Atom Egoyan] could have simply filmed his latest Canadian Opera Company remounting of “Salome,” a visceral Bible extrapolation… Instead he chose to make fresh drama out of it, syncing his screen and stage passions to mesmerizing effect.” – Peter Howell, Toronto Star

In this follow-up to her award-winning film THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY, Film Independent Spirit Awards nominee filmmaker Morrisa Maltz’s latest project, JAZZY, is an intimate portrait of Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux, a young Oglala Lakota girl growing up in Spearfish, South Dakota, from the ages of six to twelve. When Jazzy finds out her best friend Syriah (Syriah Fool Head Means) is moving, she is confronted with the pains of growing up and the realities of the adult world. JAZZY was shot over 6 years and overall, is a portrait of growing up, from a young  girl into teenage-hood. The film is fictional but also written by Jazzy and her friend Syriah as they developed over the years and shared their experiences with us — as life happened to them. Jazzy and her peer group have dazzled us with the poetry of growing up and their ability to story tell as collaborators and actors in this film. The film explores the lives and ever-changing relationships of their peer group as they leave the dreamlike world of childhood behind. Director and co-writer Morrisa Maltz joins us for a conversation on how the idea for JAZZY fell into place during the filming of THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY, seeing the  natural ability of Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux blossom, trusting that the chemistry between Jasmine and Syriah Fool Head Means would come across on the screen and knowing that she had a terrific production team that includes Lily Gladstone, Mark Duplass, Mel Eslyn, Jay Duplass, Jason Beck, and Bill Way to carry her across the finish line.

For more go to: vert-ent.com/films/jazzy

About the filmmaker – Morrisa Maltz is an artist and filmmaker. She holds a degree in Fine Art from Columbia University. Her work has been shown at MOCA, MCASB and galleries internationally. Morrisa’s first feature documentary, INGRID, premiered on PBS in 2019 and is distributed by Grasshopper Films. INGRID was a 2018 ”Festival Gem,” and featured on Hammer to Nail’s top 20 films of 2018 as well as featured in articles by The Sundance Institute and Movie Maker Magazine. Her first fiction feature, THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY, stars Lily Gladstone (lead in Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of The Flower Moon) and premiered at SXSW 2022. The film was hailed by Indiewire as ”A Stunning Spiritual Companion to Terrance Malick and Nomadland,” and was recently released theatrically to rave reviews by Music Box Films. After the film’s theatrical release Lily Gladstone won the 2023 Gotham Award for Outstanding Lead performance in the film. Morrisa was nominated for Mill Valley Film Festival’s Mind The Gap prize in 2022 Creation Prize, and the 2024 John Cassavetes Independent Spirit Award. JAZZY, Morrisa’s second narrative feature will be premiering at Tribeca in June. Morrisa is represented by UTA and Color Creative. 

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95% on RottenTomatoes

“It’s a coming-of-age drama where the way everything is shot and paced feels like we are looking back on the fragmented memories of childhood that are at risk of fading.” – Chase Hutchinson, Collider

“This is a filmmaker who knows how to tell story by showing it, and by trusting her audience to come along for the ride. How rare that has become these days.” – Kate Erbland, indieWire

“It’s just wonderful. It put me in the mind of Andrea Arnold’s films.” – Tim Cogshell, FilmWeek (KPCC – NPR Los Angeles)

“While the film progresses to show these girls entering the next phase of growing up, it still allows them the space to regress into being silly girls with one another when they want to…Jazzy is a film about dipping your toes into the next phase of life.” – Hayley Croke, Loud and Clear Reviews

“Maltz directs Jazzy with love at its fore: Jazzy and Syriah’s love for each other and Maltz’s dedication to her protagonist who over the years has become family. The irrepressible spirit of Jazzy forms a uniquely charming and poetic coming of age tale.” – Nadine Whitney, AWFJ.org

Director Halfdan Ullman Tøndel’s ARMAND follows defamed actress Elisabeth (Renate Reinsve) into a parent-teacher meeting after hours, she is presented with scathing allegations that trigger a tangled web of accusations between parents and faculty. As Elisabeth struggles to uncover the truth amid the empty school rooms and dark corridors, a chaotic fight for redemption arises where desire, madness and obsession prevail. It’s a dreary, sweltering early summer day, and within the confines of this Norwegian primary school, the adults are talking, and talking. Though they periodically recess in an effort to deflate the situation’s palpable tensions, these breaks allow for the characters to try to hash out their offscreen histories. Tøndel creates a very specific kind of tension and claustrophobia that becomes increasingly more difficult to escape. Truth or lie? Victim or abuser? Guilty or innocent? Play or violence? The story explores the murky boundaries between what’s right and wrong honing in on the conflicting notions as to what actually happened are so close to each other.  Director / Writer Halfdan Ullman Tøndel and Lead Actor / Executive Producer Renate Reinsve join us for a lively conversation on how their collaborative process provided Reinsve an opportunity  deepen her exploration of Elisabeth’s crippling trauma and Tøndel with the roadmap to a complex social / psychological enigma.

For more go to: ifcfilms.com/films/armand

Norway’s Official Selection for 2025 Oscar® Best International Feature

Winner, Golden Camera, Cannes Film Festival

Nominee, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival

Nominee, European Actress, European Film Awards

Nominee, Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director, Directors Guild of America

About the filmmaker – Writer / Director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel studied directing at Westerdals School of Arts. He made his debut with the short film BIRD HEARTS (2015), which premiered in Karlovy Vary and won the ‘Golden Chair’ award at the Grimstad Short Film Festival in 2016. It was nominated for an Amanda award, and was selected on Cineuropa’s list of the best European short films that year. In 2017, he made the short film FANNY, which premiered in Aspen and was also nominated for an Amanda award, as well as making the same list of Europe’s best short films. Both films have been screened at festivals around the world.  In 2024 his debut feature ARMAND, starring Renate Reinsve and Ellen Dorrit Petersen, premiered in Un Certain Regard in Cannes. 

About the filmmaker – Executive Producer / Lead actor Renate Reinsve made her huge breakout with the role of Julie in the critically acclaimed film THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD. The film premiered in the main competition at Cannes in 2021, and Renate won the award for Best Actress. The film was later nominated for two Oscars, and two BAFTAs, one of which was for Best Female Lead. The Norwegian actress’s performances has received universal acclaim, as critics commend her natural charisma, emotional depth, and captivating presence on screen. Some of her recent projects releasing this year includes; A DIFFERENT MAN (2024) and HANDLING THE UNDEAD (2024), as well as the upcoming Apple+ series PRESUMED INNOCENT (2024) and the highly anticipated ARMAND (2024), which debuted at the 2024 UnCertain Regard at Cannes. 

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75% on RottenTomatoes

“Why oh why was Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve never a part of the 2025 awards season conversation? Justly lauded for her turn in 2021’s “The Worst Person in the World,” Reinsve delivers an even more complex performance here. – Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews

“Reinsve, as Elisabeth, seems like she is in a different universe from everyone else in the school, which is both the point and appropriate to the character.” – Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times

“In Reinsve’s crumbling visage, we bear witness to what happens when the lives we delicately build threaten to chip and shatter before our eyes.” -TheWrap

“A fiercely visceral presence; Reinsve performs as if dancing on the edge of a knife.” – RogerEbert.com

“Armand is the best performance of her career so far […] from obstinate and defensive to levels of psychic meltdown.” – indieWire

“The film starts by promising a social drama about secrets and lies, suspicions and rivalries, and the troubled waters of juvenile and adult sexuality. What it ultimately becomes is much harder to define, but the result is resonant and haunting. “- Screen International

In this formally inventive historical drama, acclaimed American filmmaker Rob Tregenza explores the moral complexities of World War II and the permutations of history and its representation. Set in occupied Norway, THE FISHING PLACE follows Anna (Ellen Dorrit Petersen), a housekeeper who arrives to work for a German priest in rural Telemark. As the priest grapples with his faith amid the corruption of power, Anna navigates her own secrets through clandestine meetings with a local SS officer. Known for his masterful debut Talking to Strangers (1988)—which caught Jean-Luc Godard’s attention and led to their collaboration on Inside/Out (1997)—Tregenza brings his distinctive visual style to this nuanced exploration of war’s impact. Director Rob Tregenza, varied career includes his work as cinematographer for Béla Tarr’s Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), employs his characteristic philosophical depth to challenge conventional war narratives, crafting both a powerful meditation on human nature and a meta-commentary on cinema itself. Rob Tregenza’s Gavagai had its US theatrical release in 2018. “Cinema,” as Scorsese tells it, “is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out.” Tregenza’s approach to the long take traps the echoes of what exits the frame, and suggests its inevitable return. During a reel-length shot, his characters routinely enter and exit multiple times, constantly exerting gravitational force on the center. As he shifts gracefully across hospitals and desolate gas stations, space and time unfold on screen in tandem, offering themselves up for consideration and interrogation. Director / writer / cinematographer Rob Tregenza joins us for a lively conversation on his distinctive approach to filmmaking, working with Jean-Luc Godard, Norway’s role in World War Two and his latest, beautifully rendered film The Fishing Place.  

For more go to: gavagaifilm.com/the-fishing-place

THE FISHING PLACE will have its North American theatrical premiere at MoMA in New York City on February 6, and will open at Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles on March 7th. Other cities will follow. Director Rob Tregenza in person on February 6 after the 6:30pm screening at MoM

About the filmmaker – Transcendent formalism meets messy humanism in the work of East Coast independent Rob Tregenza. His audacious first feature,  Talking to Strangers—nine 10-minute sequences, each shot in a single take—galvanized the 1988 Berlin International Film Festival, gathering admirers including Jean-Luc Godard, who helped Tregenza make his third feature,  Inside/Out (1997). In his essay “Cinq Lettres a et sur Rob Tregenza,” Godard described Tregenza’s work as “remarkable and at times astonishing, that is, softly imbued with the marvelous.” This retrospective will include all four of Tregenza’s features, along with a sampling of his work as a cinematographer (for Bela Tarr, Alex Cox, Claude Miller, and others). As a testament to Tregenza’s multidisciplinary approach (director, writer, cinematographer and editor), Thinking with Cinema will include the world premiere of a new 35mm print of Inside/Out in addition to North American premieres for brand new prints of Talking to Strangers and The Arc, made directly from the original 35mm camera negatives and supervised by the filmmaker.

78% on RottenTomatoes

“The most intriguing figure in “The Fishing Place” is, in a manner of speaking, Tregenza, who throughout the film continuously draws attention to his camerawork, as he plays with the palette and different registers of realism.” – Manohla Dargis, New York Times

“Working on a relatively low budget, in isolation from Hollywood, Tregenza displays a virtuosity that is fully integrated into his comprehensive cinematic vision, his finely imagined re-creation of history, and his long-gestating complex of ideas.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“The film’s particular genius lies in a very consistent use of off-screen space.” – Zach Lewis, Slant Magazine

“War dramas can so easily stay inside of a box, something that THE FISHING PLACE seems actively bent on rebelling against. Simply for that reason, Trezenga’s film is worthy of consideration and conversation.” – Joshua Stevens, Loud and Clear

Angela Madsen’s life reads like a parable of resilience; beginning with the backstory of her childhood as a closeted gay woman, to a botched surgery during her time in the Marine Corps that left her paralyzed and homeless, to her remarkable rise to adaptive sports superstar as a three-time Paralympian and fourteen-time Guinness World Record holder, and finally to her attempt to row across the Pacific Ocean alone. ROW OF LIFE focuses on Angela’s incredible story and bond to her life partner, Deb, as they prepare for her final ocean crossing. In April 2020, Angela set off solo and unassisted in her 20’ ocean rowing boat, Row of Life, affixed with everything needed to be self-reliant for 100 days, across 2,500 miles of open ocean, from Los Angeles to Hawaii. ROW OF LIFE is a documentary about a promise made and ultimately kept, of what love does beyond the limitations of death, and how even when an ending is radically different than what was expected, it offers us unique lessons of resilience, grit, hope, and determination against all odds. Director Soraya Simi (Get Lifted) joins us for a conversation on getting to know Angela, Deb and her supporter and how this experience has impacted her own life, as well as the experience of working with Sue Bird, Tina Tozzi, Jess Robertson, Loren Hammonds, Amanda Alpert Muscat, Nicolas Weissman, and Jaime Chew.

For more go to: rowoflifefilm.com

Support @ filmindependent.org/sponsored-projects/row-of-life

About the subject – Angela Madsen was an American Paralympian sportswoman in both rowing and track and field. In a long career, Madsen moved from race rowing to ocean challenges before switching in 2011 to athletics, winning a bronze medal in the shot put at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. Madsen and teammate Helen Taylor were the first women to row across the Indian Ocean.

About the filmmaker – Soraya Simi is an award-winning independent filmmaker, published writer, and entrepreneur. Her strength lies in Directing, Producing, and Writing for film and television, with extensive experience in commercial work. Immediately graduating from USC Film School, Soraya embarked on her first feature documentary, ROW OF LIFE, which follows the story of Paralympian and Marine Veteran Angela Madsen and her harrowing solo row across the Pacific Ocean. It is Executive Produced by Sue Bird and co-produced with TOGETHXR and TIME Studios and is released in early 2025.  Her next project is a true crime docu-series about a wrongful conviction based in her hometown, Tucson, for which she is both a Co-Director and Executive Producer. It is Executive Produced by John Legend, co-produced with GET LIFTED, and currently in production. Soraya also runs a local membership-based organization in the Central Coast, 805 Film Collective, which offers events, jobs, and resources to the thriving local film community to help generate high-quality local film work. She is a published writer, with long-form essays in OUTSIDE magazine, The Sun, a plethora of surf and adventure publications, and is currently writing her first novel.

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Reviews:

“Angela Madsen’s journey is full of inspiration, love, and greatness while overcoming extreme challenges.” – Jason Delgado, Film Threat

Director Ash Avildesen’s Queen of the Ring is based on the true story of Mildred Burke. In a time when women’s pro wrestling was illegal, a small-town single mother risked everything to change the sport forever—becoming the first million-dollar female athlete in history. She is overall a three-time women’s world champion under different incarnations and recognitions. Burke’s heyday lasted from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, when she held the NWA World Women’s Champion for almost twenty years. Burke started out in 1935,  wrestling men at carnivals. In the 1930s, Burke wrestled over 200 men, but only lost to one of them. She was managed by her second husband, promoter Billy Wolfe. She is a charter member of WWE Hall of Fame’s Legacy Wing, Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, Women’s Wrestling Hall of Fame, and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame. The film is written, directed and co-produced by Ash Avildsen. Avildsen was inspired tp make the film after reading the book The Queen of the Ring: Sex, Muscles, Diamonds, and the Making of an American Legend by Jeff Leen, and Burke’s own manuscripts. Director Ash Avildsen stops by to talk about the long time between reading the inspiring book about Burke and the production of Queen of the Ring, getting a terrific performance from the lead actor Emily Bett Rickards and working with a sterling cast of performers that includes Josh Lucas, Marie Avgeropoulos, Walton Goggins, Francesca Eastwood, Deborah Ann Woll and Gavin Casalegno

For more go to: queenofthering.movie

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Reviews:

“Hugely entertaining…The film stars Emily Bett Rickards in a breakout performance…The wrestling sequences are particularly visceral…The film looks terrific…The acting proves consistently powerful… But it’s ultimately Rickards, who handles the intense physical and emotional demands of her role with consummate skill, that give the film its heart and soul.” – Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter 

“Ash Avildsen’s Queen of the Ring is a must-see for lovers of sports films, biopics, and period piece media.” – Ethan Padgett, Film Threat

“Queen of the Ring gives Burke full credit as a force who changed women’s wrestling forever and is well worth seeking out for wrestling fans and newcomers alike.” – Carmen Paddock, MovieJawn

“Queen of the Ring excels in matching the feel of the era, from the way the wrestlers dress, to the look of the wrestling show, with the design and cinematography making you feel like you were dropped into a world that’s now nearly a century gone by.” – Shawn Van Horn, Collider

“Enormously entertaining, genuinely heartfelt and empowering triumph that deserves to become a new classic sports movie.” – Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru

Director Michelle Smawley’s illuminating documentary film, Forgotten Hero: Walter White and the NAACP  goes a long way towards resurrecting one of the more significant figures of the early civil rights era, NAACP leader Walter White. While many consider the birth of the civil rights movement to b 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on an Alabama bus, the stage had been set decades before by activists of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Some of the NAACP leaders are familiar, including W.E.B. Du Bois and Thurgood Marshall, but Walter White, head of the NAACP from 1929 to 1955, has been all but forgotten. With his blond hair and blue eyes, Walter White looked white; he described himself as “an enigma, a Black man occupying a white body.”  Like virtually all light-skinned African Americans of his day, White was descended from enslaved Black women and powerful white men. But he was Black — by law, identity, and conviction and spent his entire life fighting for Black civil rights.  Forgotten Hero: Walter White and the NAACP traces, successes  of this neglected civil rights hero and seeks to explain his disappearance from our history. Director Michelle Smawley joins us to talk about lesser known but highly influential leader who’s life work galvanized a generation of powerful writers, journalist, jurist, organizers and clergy who challenged America’s political and institutional bigotry.

For more go to: pbs.org/americanexperience/forgotten-hero-walter-white-and-naacp

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

Forgotten Hero: Walter White and the NAACP

Premieres Tuesday, February 25, 2025

on PBS and Streaming on PBS.org

About the filmmaker – Veteran director Michelle Smawley most recently ran a year-long series for a statewide initiative for WNET. She was responsible for launching long form and documentary series programming. She was the founding Executive Producer for TRAX, the first podcast network for preteens. The network launched on PRX and was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. TRAX earned nominations from The Webbys, The Ambies and the 2021 Peabody Awards. Smawley is an award-winning director, series developer and educator. She has worked with ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, NPR, Sundance, HBO, NowThis, SONY Pictures, National Geographic and many others. Smawley is an adjunct professor at NYU. She has also served on the faculty of the Missouri School of Journalism and the Graduate Program in Social Documentary at the School of Visual Arts. She attended the graduate journalism program at the University of Missouri and earned a Bachelor of Arts from New York University.

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STOCKADE tells the story of Ahlam, a struggling Lebanese artist in New York City who takes a job delivering a package upstate, only to open a Pandora’s box. In this updated meditation on the pursuit of the American dream, Ahlam finds herself in dire financial straits and desperate to come by the funds to extend her artist’s visa. When she is offered a job to deliver a mysterious package upstate, Ahlam believes she has found a solution. Upon her arrival in the Hudson Valley, Ahlam encounters shady characters and quirky neighbors as she is unwittingly drawn into the world of ancient artifact trafficking. Every step of the way, STOCKADE keeps viewers guessing, and with its naturalistic yet expressionistic aesthetic, this noir thriller makes a unique addition to the crime genre. STOCKADE had its World Premiere at the 2023 Woodstock Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Ultra Indie Award. STOCKADE was produced by Anna Sang Park, Eric McGinty and Adam Vazquez. The cast features Sarah Bitar, Bahar Beihaghi and Guy de Lancey. Director and writer Eric McGinty (Wallabout) stops by to talk about his personal experience in the world of fine art and how that became an inspiration to create an ‘immigrant film noir,’ where characters and situations that are underrepresented in most mainstream films are instead at the center of STOCKADE

For more go to: veroniquefilms.com/stockade

STOCKADE will be available on all North American digital HD internet, cable and satellite platforms, as well as on DVD, on February 25, 2025 via Freestyle Digital Media. 

Awards:

Best Narrative Feature – Queens World Film Festival – 2024
Best Female Actor Narrative Feature – Sarah Bitar – Queens World Film Festival 

Nominations:

Best Narrative Feature – Queens World Film Festival – 2024

Best Director Narrative Feature – Queens World Film Festival – 2024

Best Female Actor – Feature – Queens World Film Festival – 2024

Best Ensemble Feature –  Queens World Film Festival – 2024

Best Narrative Feature Screenplay – Queens World Film Festival – 2024

About the filmmaker – Eric McGinty’s first feature, Wallabout, won the Best Narrative Feature Award at the 2015 Bushwick Film Festival and the Best Personal Narrative Award at the 2014 Manhattan Film Festival. In 2016, Wallabout had a theatrical release for a month at the venerable Paris art house, Cinéma Saint-André des Arts, where the esteemed film magazine, Positif, gave it 4 stars. As a first assistant director, Eric often collaborated with French directors who were shooting films in the US, including Cédric Klapisch, Luc Besson, Olivier Nakache/Eric Toledano and Rachid Bouchareb. Based in Brooklyn, Eric grew up in a bicultural environment, having been raised in Paris and Washington, D.C. by a French mother and an American father. He began his career in Paris working as an actor and stage manager in theater and modern dance. He attended the Sorbonne and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, concentrating his studies in film and literature. In STOCKADE, Eric also plays the role of Richard.

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Reviews:

“Eric McGinty skillfully crafts a thriller reminiscent of taut 1970s cinema,” Patrick Howard, Film Festival Today

“Stockade has a stripped-down Great Expectations quality to it. Blending cloak and dagger with the precarious nature of accepting gifts from phantom benefactors.”  – Kent Hill, Film Threat