The story behind the latest documentary from award-winning and Oscar nominated director John Sheinfeld, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS has to be seen to be believed. Blood, Sweat & Tears, known for hits such as “Spinning Wheel”, “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy”, and “And When I Die”, headlined the legendary Woodstock Festival and won multiple Grammy Awards, most notably 1970’s win for Album of The Year, beating The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” and “Johnny Cash Live at San Quentin.” This is the incredible never-before-told story about a top rock band that was unknowingly embroiled in a political rat’s nest involving the U.S. State Department, the Nixon White House and a controversial concert tour of Yugoslavia, Romania and Poland, countries that were behind what was then known as the Iron Curtain.  As a result, they found themselves in the crosshairs of a polarized America -as divided then as it is now – and became an early victim of cancel culture. Written, produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker John Scheinfeld (The U.S. vs. John Lennon, Chasing Trane, Who Is Harry Nilsson?, Herb Alpert Is…), and executive produced by James Sears Bryant, the film was created with the full cooperation of Blood, Sweat & Tears. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS features never-before-seen film and photos of the band, as well as present day interviews with five of the nine band members including distinctive lead singer David Clayton-Thomas, sax player and musical arranger Fred Lipsius, innovative bass player Jim Fielder, outspoken guitarist Steve Katz and drummer and band leader Bobby Colomby.

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For more go to: bstdoc.com

About the filmmaker – John Scheinfeld – From pop culture to politics, sports to world religions, Venice and Toronto film festivals to PBS, Emmy®, Grammy® and Writers Guild Award nominee John Scheinfeld is a critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker with a broad range of subjects and productions to his credit. In addition to directing, writing and producing Herb Alpert Is…, Scheinfeld is in post-production on a primetime documentary special about comedy legend Garry Marshall that will air on ABC in the Spring of 2020. Another Scheinfeld feature documentary, Sergio Mendes: In The Key of Joy, had its World Premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in January 2020 and will be released worldwide on multiple media platforms later in the year. Previously, his feature documentary, Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary, was an official selection of the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival before playing on 175 theater screens worldwide during the spring of 2017. In November 2017 it was the season premiere of Independent Lens, the largest showcase for independent documentary film on television. Scheinfeld is best known for two widely acclaimed feature documentaries: The U.S. vs. John Lennon, which tells the true story of the US government’s attempt to silence the beloved musician and iconic advocate for peace and Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him)?, a compelling yet wildly entertaining documentary about one of the most talented and uncompromising singer-songwriters in pop music history. For more on the work of John Scheinfeld go to: crewneckproductions.com

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“The documentary raises some interesting if ultimately unanswerable questions as it compellingly inhabits its very specific place in time.” – Michael Rechtshaffen, Los Angeles Times

“A singular piece of rock history, even if hardly anyone knows about it. I didn’t know about it, but now that I’ve seen the film I’d call it essential.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

“More than it knows, this movie is an engaging, and sometimes enraging, exposé of chronic insularity.” – Anthony Lane, New Yorker

“What The Hell Happened To Blood, Sweat & Tears? Catchy name for a doc, a political thriller, one hell of a tale. Documentary footage had to be smuggled out of (Iron Curtain countries) to avoid seizure but the film was never made.” – Anne Brodie, What She Said

“A compelling never-before-told story.” – Dennis Schwartz, Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING drops us into a devastating battle between a diabolical giant turtle and the elite defenders of civil society, Tobacco Force After the deadly encounter Tobacco Force is sent on a mandatory week-long retreat to strengthen their decaying group cohesion. Their sojourn goes wonderfully well until Lézardin, Emperor of Evil, decides to annihilate planet Earth. A wildly inventive new comedy from Quentin Dupieux follows the misadventures of a team of five superheroes known as the Tobacco Force – Benzene (Gilles Lellouche), Nicotine (Anaïs Demoustier), Methanol (Vincent Lacoste), Mercury (Jean-Pascal Zadi), and Ammonia (Oulaya Amamra). After a devastating battle against a diabolical giant turtle, the Tobacco Force is sent on a mandatory week-long retreat to strengthen their decaying group cohesion. Their sojourn goes wonderfully well until Lézardin, Emperor of Evil, decides to annihilate planet Earth. Director and writer Quentin Dupieux (Mandibles, Deerskin, Rubber) joins us for a conversation on the inspiration for a film that latches onto a dark and very twisted version Saturday morning children programming as a vehicle to deliver a powerful punch to self-absorbed complacency and climate denial in delivering a film that has a lot more on its mind that might first meet the eye.

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For more go to: magnetreleasing.com/smokingcausescoughing

About the filmmaker – Quentin Dupieux was born in Paris on April 14th, 1974. At 18, he discovered filmmaking and bought his first synthesizer. As Mr Oizo, he released the classic track Flat Beat and albums including Analog Worms Attack, Moustache (Half a Scissor) and Lambs Anger. In 2007, Dupieux directed, shot, edited and scored his feature debut, Steak. Next came the absurdist horror Rubber (2010), and the comedy Wrong. Further director credits include Wrong Cops (2012), Reality (2014), Keep an Eye Out (2018) starring Benoît Poelvoorde and Grégoire Ludig, Deerskin (2019) starring Jean Dujardin and Adèle Haenel, and Mandibles (2021), starring Grégoire Ludig and David Marsais. 

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90% on RottenTomatoes

“The cast is uniformly excellent and delivers enthusiastic performances, even the ones played by puppets, and the pacing is lively and not at all boring.” – Josh Kupecki, Austin Chronicle

“While Dupieux’s Rubber and Deerskin are his best films, Smoking Causes Coughing is hands down his funniest – not to mention most enjoyable – to date. It’s bloody, absurd, and sports a Super Sentai influence in all the best ways imaginable.” – Chris Sawin, Bounding Into Comics

“Smoking Causes Coughing isn’t just an anti-superhero superhero film, but, thanks to Tristram Shandy-like levels of discursivity, something akin to an anti-film.’ – William Repass, Slant Magazine

“The plot is able to seamlessly move from segment to segment without ever losing the audience. What should be jarring is instead funny. Yes, it is still nonsensical, but that does not take away from how entertaining it all is.” – Nathaniel Muir, AIPT

“Absolutely entertaining and ingenious, Dupieux’s disparate imagination doesn’t expire.” – Sara Martínez Ruiz, Espinof

From Academy Award® nominated filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi (FIRE AT SEA, NOTTURNO) comes IN VIAGGIO: THE TRAVELS OF POPE FRANCIS. Rosi chronicles the travels of the head of the Catholic church, Pope Francis, as he crisscrosses the globe to meet with political, secular and religious leaders. Composed mostly of archival footage, the film grants rare access to the public life of the pontiff, from the elevated security of his pulpit and traveling through large crowds to the personal interaction with impoverished, the frail and the incarcerated. In the first nine years of his  pontificate, Pope Francis made 37 trips visiting 53 countries, focusing on his most important issues: poverty, migration, the  environment, solidarity and war. Intrigued by the fact that two of Francis’s trips – the first to the refugees landing in Lampedusa; the second in 2021 to the Middle East – so closely mirrored the itineraries of his films Fuocoammare (Fire At Sea, 2016) and Notturno (2020), Rosi follows the Pope’s Stations of the Cross. He sees what he sees, hears what he says and creates a dialogue between archival footage of Francis’ travels, images taken by Rosi himself, recent history and the state of the world today. Director Gianfranco Rosi joins us for a conversation on meeting Pope Francis, his affinity for connecting with people, the spiritual and metaphysical importance of the “journey” towards a greater understanding our own humanity.

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For more go to: inviaggiodoc.com

About the filmmaker – Gianfranco Rosi, born in Asmara, Eritrea, graduated from the New York University Film School. In India, he makes Boatman, about a boatman on the Ganges, presented at Sundance, Locarno and Toronto. In California he shoots Below Sea Level, about a community of homeless people, and wins the Orizzonti award at the Venice Film Festival. The next film is El Sicario ‐ Room 164, about a killer for Mexican cartels, which wins the Fipresci Prize at the Venice Film Festival. With Sacro Gra for the first time a documentary wins the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. With Fuocoammare he wins the Golden Bear in Berlin, the European Film Academy award and other international prizes, and is nominated for an Oscar. Notturno, shot in the Middle East, in competition at the Venice Film Festival, was shortlisted for the Oscars. 

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“The documentary is remarkable for its access into Pope Francis’s life and its elegant footage, stylishly directed and edited by Gianfranco Rosi.” – Leila Latif, indieWire

“In Viaggio captures the complexity of Pope Francis’s humanity yet also the sacredness of this most holy journey.” – Richard Propes, TheIndependentCritic.com

“It doesn’t offer easy answers, and it certainly doesn’t suggest that the Catholic Church has them either — but it’s a moving reflection on the world’s trials, and a tribute to those who seek to change them.” – Anna Smith, Deadline Hollywood Daily

?Rosi allows the Pope to speak for himself without interruption or commentary from historians or theologians, offering modern viewers a unique opportunity to experience his words and doctrines as they have existed over the years.” – Eve O’Dea, Next Best Picture

Director Ben Lawrence’s fly-on-the-wall documentary, ITHAKA, weaves together historic archive and intimate behind-the-scenes footage, as it tracks WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s father, John Shipton and Assange’s wife Stella Moris as they join forces to advocate for Julian’s freedom. We witness Shipton’s European odyssey to rally a global network of supporters, advocate to politicians and cautiously step into the media’s glare for his son. With Julian facing the possibility of extradition to the US, his family members are confronting the prospect of losing Julian forever to the abyss of the US justice system. The world’s most famous political prisoner, Julian Assange, has become an emblem of an international struggle over freedom of journalism, government corruption and unpunished war crimes. In light of Julian’s health declining in a British maximum-security  prison and the American government pushing for him to face trial in the America, this David-and-Goliath struggle has become deeply personal for John and Stella. Director Ben Lawrence joins us to talk about ITHAKA’s timely reminder of the global issues at stake in this case, as well as an insight into the personal toll inflicted by the arduous, often lonely task of fighting for a cause bigger than oneself.

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For more go to: ithaka.movie

About the filmmaker – Nominated by Australia’s most prestigious journalism awards in 2022, Ben Lawrence is also a four-time Australian Writers Guild Award winner across feature film, documentary and podcast categories. His films have screened at Toronto, Busan, Sydney, Edinburgh, Clermont-Ferrand, Sitges, Sheffield, DocNYC, Melbourne, Palm Springs, Taormina, Tallin and Sao Paulo Film Festivals. In 2020 he was awarded the Australian Directors Guild highest award for his feature film, Hearts and Bones – which starred Hugo Weaving and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. His 2018 documentary, Ghosthunter won the Sydney Film Festival Best Documentary award and was nominated for the esteemed Illuminate Award at Sheffield DocFest. His Audible podcast based on Ghosthunter, which he presented & co-wrote was voted top 5 podcasts of 2019 by Rolling Stone Magazine. His latest documentary, Ithaka was also an Australian Academy of Cinema & TV Award nominee and and opened the Berlin Human Rights Film festival – where it won the Audience Award and also screened in competition at the Sydney, DocNYC, Sheffield and DocEdge Festival – where Ben was awarded Best International Director.

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“The heart-rending personal story of Assange’s family’s battle to free him” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

This is a fascinating in-depth study of Assange as he is reflected in the awards bestowed, and the people and the eminent organisations that have rallied around him.- Jane Freebury, The Canberra Times (Australia)

“Ithaka does make a strong argument for the notion that he’s being targeted precisely to nail shut any future leakage of inconvenient government secrets… never mind those pesky First Amendment protections.” – Dennis Harvey, 48 Hills

“A Masterful Piece of Film Making” – Dirty Movies

“A valuable and important piece of cinema that is completely riveting” – Margaret Pomeranz

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Stephen Talbot’s THE MOVEMENT AND THE MADMAN shows how two anti-war protests in the fall of 1969 — the largest the country had ever seen — pressured President Nixon to cancel what he called his “madman” plans for a massive escalation of the U.S. war in Vietnam, including a threat to use nuclear weapons. At the time, protestors had no idea how influential they could be and how many lives they may have saved. Told through remarkable archival footage and firsthand accounts from movement leaders, Nixon administration officials, historians, and others, the film explores how the leaders of the antiwar movement mobilized disparate groups from coast to coast to create two massive protests that changed history. Director and Producer Stephen Talbot (The Best Campaign Money Can Buy, Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders) joins us for a lively conversation on an untold, but very important chapter in American presidential history that, had it played out as the Nixon Administration wanted, would have doomed hundreds of thousands Vietnamese people to nuclear annihilation, dramatically lower the world’s threshold for the use of weapons of mass destruction and set off a catastrophic reaction in the US population, already veering towards a domestic civil war.

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For more: pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience

The Movement and the “Madman” premieres as a Special Presentation of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE on Tuesday, March 28, 9:00-10:30 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS App. The Movement and the “Madman” will stream simultaneously with broadcast and be available on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS App, available on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. The film will also be available for streaming with closed captioning in English and Spanish. “The Movement and the “Madman” is distributed internationally byPBS International.

For 35 years, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE has been television’s most-watched history series, bringing to life the incredible characters and epic stories that have shaped America’s past and present. AMERICAN EXPERIENCE documentaries have been honored with every major broadcast award, including 30 Emmy Awards, four duPont-Columbia Awards and 19 George Foster Peabody Awards. PBS’s signature history series also creates original digital content that innovates new forms of storytelling to connect our collective past with the present. Cameo George is the series executive producer. AMERICAN EXPERIENCE is produced for PBS by GBH Boston. Visit pbs.org/americanexperience and follow us on FacebookTwitter, Instagram and YouTubeto learn more.

About the filmmaker – Born in Hollywood in 1949, the son of actor Lyle Talbot, Stephen Talbot became a child actor, appearing as Beaver’s friend, Gilbert, in more than 50 episodes of the iconic baby boomer series “Leave It To Beaver.” He also appeared in many TV shows of the late ’50s and early ’60s, including “Perry Mason,” “Lassie,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Wanted: Dead of Alive,” “The Donna Reed Show,” and “The Lucy Show.”As an adult, Talbot turned to reporting and documentary filmmaking. He began as a producer and on-air reporter for KQED, the public television station in San Francisco. He had early success with two documentaries that set the tone for his career: “Broken Arrow” (1980) an investigation of nuclear weapons accidents, and “The Case of Dashiell Hammett” (1982), a portrait of the mystery writer. Both films won George Foster Peabody Awards and established Talbot as someone who could do both investigative reporting and biographies. Talbot began producing documentaries for the critically acclaimed PBS series, “Frontline,” in 1992 with his film on the Bush-Clinton presidential race, “The Best Campaign Money Can Buy,” which won a DuPont / Columbia University Award. It was the start of a long association with “Frontline,” where he produced and wrote ten documentaries for the series, including “News War: What’s Happening to the News” (2007) with reporter Lowell Bergman, “Justice for Sale” (1999) with Bill Moyers, “Spying on Saddam” (1999), “The Long March of Newt Gingrich” (1996) and “Rush Limbaugh’s America” (1995) with Peter Boyer, and “The Heartbeat of America” (1993) with Robert Krulwich about the travails of General Motors. Talbot is an Emmy, DuPont and Peabody award-winning filmmaker who has produced, written or directed more than 40 documentaries for public television, primarily for the PBS series Frontline and KQED (San Francisco). He directed the PBS history special, 1968: The Year that Shaped a Generation, as well as producing and writing PBS biographies of authors Dashiell Hammett, Ken Kesey, Carlos Fuentes, Maxine Hong Kingston and John Dos Passos. He was the co-creator and executive producer of the PBS music specials, Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders. Talbot also served as the series editor for Frontline’s international series, Frontline World: Stories from a Small Planet, and the senior producer of documentary shorts for the PBS series Independent Lens. As a student at Wesleyan University, he made his first documentary film about the November 1969 anti-war protests in Washington, DC. Talbot’s recent documentaries include a one-hour biography he wrote for public television about the late San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, “Moscone: A Legacy of Change” (2018) and four documentaries he co-wrote and produced for the NBC series “Bay Area Revelations,” including “Loma Prieta Earthquake: 30 Years Later” (2019) and “Riding the Waves” (2020) about surfing in northern California.

Dominik Moll’s brilliant new film, THE NIGHT OF THE 12th (La Nuit Du 12) is a contemplative look into the corridors of a confounding police investigation. It is said that all the investigators have a crime that haunts them. Without always knowing why the case starts spinning in their heads to the point of obsession. THE NIGHT OF THE 12th focuses on the young and ambitious Captain Vivés has just been appointed group leader at the Grenoble Criminal Squad when Clara’s murder case lands on his desk. Vivés and his team investigate Clara’s complex life and relations, but what starts as a professional and methodical immersion into the victim’s life soon turns into a haunting obsession. It’s clear that the attack was pre-meditated, and the violent nature of the crime suggests revenge. Vivés’ team methodically digs through the details of Clara’s life, uncovering her secrets in hopes of weeding out the killer. Certain their suspect is a scorned ex-lover, Vivés is confronted with another, more complicated question: which one? Posing uneasy questions about the male-dominated world of law enforcement, and their ability to handle the violent crimes routinely perpetrated against women victims. Winner of six César Awards (2023) including Best Film, Best Director (Dominik Moll), Best Adapted Screenplay (Gilles Marchand & Dominik Moll), Best Supporting Actor (Bouli Lanners), Best Sound (Francois Maurel, Olivier Mortier, Luc Thomas) and Most Promising Actor (Bastien Boullion) . Director and co-screenwriter Dominik Moll and Co-screenwriter Gilles Marchand join us to talk about the challenge of adapting the work of Pauline Guéna‘s book 18.3, and  the joy of working with an outstanding group of veteran and promising new actors.

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For more go to: filmmovement.com/the-night-of-the-12th

About the filmmaker – Director, producer, writer Dominik Moll was born in 1962 from a German father and a French mother. After growing up in Germany, he studied film at the City College of New York and the French National Film School (IDHEC). He then worked as assistant editor, editor and assistant director, among others with Marcel Ophuls and Laurent Cantet. His first feature film, Intimité, was released in 1994. In 2000, his second feature, With a Friend Like Harry, was shown in official competition in Cannes, and won several “César” awards in France. His third film, Lemming, opened the Cannes Film Festival in 2005. Since then, he has worked as co-writer on Gilles Marchand’s new film, and is presently working on a new project which he plans to shoot in 2008.

About the filmmaker – Gilles Marchand (born 18 June 1963) is a French film director and screenwriter. He has directed five films since 1987, including Who Killed Bambi, Black Heaven, Into the Forest and Who Killed Little Gregory. His film Qui a tué Bambi? was screened out of competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.

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80% on RottenTomatoes

“A deft and satisfying police procedural in command of its unusual tone, The Night of the 12th (La Nuit du 12) is perfectly cast and constructed with quietly thrilling rigour.” – Lisa Nesselson, Screen Daily
“Always engaging, with Bouillon and Lanners both tearing into their respective roles with relish. A moody and fascinating piece of work.” – Boyd van Hoeij, The Film Verdict
“A brooding, serpentine investigative drama that brings to mind movies like Zodiac and Memories of Murder, [A] taut and piercing thriller….” – Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter
“Dominik Moll crafts a French-style Zodiac, an ensemble police investigation both highly effective and brilliantly acted, where procedures and mindsets reveal a frayed society.” – Fabien Lemercier, Cineuropa
“The grandeur of the film comes from the depth of emotion. These may be the hard-boiled characters, but they are still human.” – Paul Byrnes, Sydney Morning Herald

ALL THE WORLD IS SLEEPING follows Chama (Melissa Barrera), who as a young girl in New Mexico, strived to be different from her mother. Now in her twenties, she’s found herself falling into a similar cycle of generational addiction. This struggle then threatens her balance as a mother to her own daughter. As Chama tries to keep it all together, a harrowing accident will spiral her out of control, causing her daughter to be taken from her custody. With nothing left, she’ll have to confront her past in order to fight for a future — one that can either guide her closer to getting her daughter back or lead her deeper into this dangerous cycle. ALL THE WORLD IS SLEEPING centers the complex role of motherhood, addresses generational cycles of addiction and beautifully highlights a community that is not often represented in films. As a filmmaker whose own life has also been scarred by addiction, Director and writer Ryan Lacen joins us to talk about focusing a unique cinematic lens while shaping these stories to create a film that would feel both singularly raw and universally connected.

 

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For more go to: alltheworldissleeping.com

NY HBO Latino Film Festival – Winner of Best Film

Las Cruces International Film Festival – Winner of Best Film & Grand Jury Prize

Los Angeles Diversity Film Festival – Winner of Best Editing

Santa Fe Independent Film Festival – Winner of Best Film

Ojai International Film Festival – Honorable Mention Best Director

Seattle Latino Film Festival – Honorable Mention Best Film, Best Director

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“Barrera spent time with these women and their families to gain insight for her performance. This makes the drama a genuine ethnographic study in the oral tradition as much as a dramatic feature. The result is one of the most honest and harrowing studies of addiction since Requiem for a Dream.” – Michael Talbot-Haynes, FilmThreat.com

“…unlike other films, All the World [is Sleeping] exposes the lack of resources that are needed by single mothers trapped in this cycle.” – Donnie Lopez, BlackGirlNerds.com

“I’m honored to be part of something this important,” [Doralee] Urban says. “There have been so many women that have been in situations I’ve been in before. It’s like we’re invisible a lot of the time, and I wanted to be a part of this to express that we are people. There’s a real issue out there. We are people and should be seen.” Urban is overwhelmed by the response to the film.” – Adrian Gomez, Albuquerque Journal

Inspired by Matthew Miller and Matt Johnson’s THE DIRTIES, teenage angst, and a certainty that last thing any teenager is going to remember about high school is a great lesson plan, director / writer / actor Ethan Eng and producer / actor Justin Morrice hurl themselves head first into all the other things that makes high school memorable in his award winning debut film, THERAPY DOGS. Ethan and Justin are students trying to make sense of their high school existence. In what will be the last chapter of their teenage lives, the beginning of adulthood and beyond, the two filmmakers decide to make the ultimate senior video in the search for answers. Exploring teenage suburbia in a no-brakes adventure, questions arise whether there’s more to their lives than simply growing up. Director, writer and lead actor Ethan Eng joins us for a conversation on the remarkably accomplished debut film that masterfully blends together documentary, narrative, skater punk and high school “senior project” elements to create something wholly unique and compelling, as well as how his collaboration with fellow lead actor and producer Justin Morrice came about and hanging out with Executive Producers Matthew Miller and Matt Johnson (The Dirties, Operation Avalanche) changed the course of the project we now know as Therapy Dogs.

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For more go to: therapydogs.world

Director Statement – School sucks. While Justin and I were going through high school we were really confused about our lives, and everywhere we tried to find something relatable was met with nostalgic clichés. That’s why we decided to tell a high school story in the midst of living it. There are certain things that only matter when you’re 17 and we wanted to capture that. This is a movie kids today can relate to. A coming of age story without easy answers. – Ethan Eng

About the filmmaker Director, Writer, Actor Ethan Eng is a 20-year-old filmmaker from Toronto. His debut feature film Therapy Dogs had its World Premiere at Slamdance in January 2022. He is currently working on his next feature film about the 20’s and the 2020’s titled A New Age.

About the filmmaker – Writer, Actor Justin Morrice is an actor, stuntman, fighter, and punk. He is the embodiment of the free teenage spirit and the soul of THERAPY DOGS. He developed the story alongside Ethan Eng and starred in it.

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“Therapy Dogs, is at once, a war cry, a manifesto, and an absolute jewel for those of us who love the energy and intensity of true indie filmmaking.” – Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, AWFJ.org

“You get to see how these teens live and how most of the preconceived ideas people have aren’t true.” – Rachel Wagner, rachelsreviews.net

“Here adolescent experience is both universal, and fleeting – and Eng has crafted an elegiac if vibrant record of its passing.” – Anton Bitel, Projected Figures

“Eng’s Therapy Dogs is as authentic a high school movie as it gets.” – Andrew Murray, The Upcoming

“… conveys a raw authenticity that digs beneath the goofy surface with genuine insight and poignancy about adolescent angst and an uncertain future that resonates beyond geographical and generational boundaries.”  – Todd Jorgenson, Cinemalogue

“A raw, impressionistic portrait of high school as it’s happening. Or, at least, as it’s experienced by teenage boys in a Canadian suburb, in all their wayward hooliganism.” – Brandon Yu, New York Times

Based on an explosive true story, I GOT A MONSTER retells in highly dramatic fashion one of the nation’s biggest police corruption scandals. In 2017, Baltimore was rocked by the Federal indictment of Wayne Jenkins, a highly decorated super-cop and leader of the Baltimore Police Department’s elite Gun Trace Task Force along with six other members on racketeering charges. In a city plagued by racial tension and violence, plain-clothes detectives from the Gun Trace Task Force had been celebrated for holding the Thin Blue Line, but in fact were terrorizing Baltimore’s Black community. These dirty cops were stealing and reselling millions of dollars of drugs while brazenly planting evidence and falsifying police reports. However, they didn’t plan for a campaigning defense attorney or a secret FBI wiretap operation to end their crime spree and expose decades of criminality inside the police department. I GOT A MONSTER takes viewers around every twist and turn of a real-life cat-and-mouse game where cops are also robbers and those meant to protect our safety turn out to be the ones jeopardizing it. Director Kevin Abrams (Left at the Rio Grande, Indirect Actions) joins us for a conversation on the depth and scope of police corruption within this decorated unit, as well as the havoc that was visited upon people, mostly, people of color, guilty of nothing except being in the wrong place, the flawed rationale behind the formation of “Special” police units and the citizens who stood up to the corruption and intimidation.

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For more go to: greenwichentertainment.com/i-got-a-monster

About the filmmaker –  graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and a recipient of an MFA in directing from the prestigious American Film Institute, Kevin Abrams has worked in film and television for the past fifteen years. From editing to producing, to sound, to cinematography, Kevin has been involved in programming that has appeared on PBS, Discovery, MTV, ABC, VH1, Animal Planet and a host of other networks. He has worked in editorial on the Emmy-nominated Whale Wars as well as on the Oscar-nominated documentary feature “Daughter of Danang”. In 2006 Kevin founded the multi-media production company Fairtrade Films which has since produced music videos, created video game installations for Disney/Epcot Center, wrote the best-selling video games, “Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction” and “Dirt 3”, and authored the acclaimed graphic novel, “Vendor”. In addition, Fairtrade Films has set-up fiction shows with Landscape Entertainment, Fremantle Entertainment and Kaplan Entertainment. Fairtrade saw the release of their first produced feature, “The Dynamiter” which had its world premiere at the esteemed 2011 Berlin Film Festival and its North American premiere at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Feature Under 500k and Cinematography at the 2012 Independent Spirit Awards.  Kevin is currently co-founder and President of Alpine Labs, a full service multimedia production company based in Los Angeles.

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“One of the most startling police corruption scandals in a generation.” – The New York Times

“I Got a Monster moves like a rocket, keeping you captivated with the in-depth way it explores what happened in Baltimore and what it means.” – Mike McGranaghan, Aisle Seat

“This is a slam bang thriller that will leave you breathless as you hear the evidence and experience the difficulties of the few good men.” – Neely Swanson, Easy Reader

“The documentary can feel a little scattered due to its multiple angles, but it remains a fascinating and relevant tale, examining how any criminal justice system built around the idea that cops never lie is ripe for abuse.” – Noel Murray, Los Angeles Times

“A glaringly honest recount of one city and its participants that will live in your spirit and psyche long after the credits roll.” – Carla Renata, RogerEbert.com

In their illuminating and infuriating documentary film, PAY OR DIE, filmmakers Scott Ruderman and Rachael Dyer, cinematically ask the question, how and why are nearly 2 million type 1 diabetic Americans are being held for ransom? Without insulin, they would all be dead in days. PAY OR DIE follows 3 families on the receiving end of these ransom notes, revealing the harrowing reality of life with chronic illness in the richest country in the world. From a mother-and-daughter struggling to rebuild their lives after losing their home when they had to spend their rent money on insulin, to a young adult diagnosed with type 1 diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic, to a Minnesota family thrust into the national spotlight when their 26-year-old son dies from rationing his insulin, PAY OR DIE lays bare the human cost of America’s insulin affordability crisis. Co-directors Scott Alexander Ruderman and Rachael Dyer join us to talk about their own personal connection to the scourge of diabetes, the misconceptions about the disease and the people who are infected by it and the film’s premiere and Grand Jury Prize nomination at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival. 

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“Most of my adult life has been defined by one inescapable question: How can I make enough money as a filmmaker to afford the insulin I need to stay alive?” – Scott Alexander Ruderm

About the filmmaker – Director / Producer / Cinematographer Scott Alexander Ruderman lives with type 1 diabetes and is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has been screened in film festivals around the world as well as on Netflix, BBC, HBO, A&E, Hulu, and Discovery +. Scott’s documentary short, PIANO CRAFTMAN, premiered at Big Sky Documentary Festival and Mountain Film Festival, and won a best director award at Madrid Art Film Festival. Scott’s recent cinematography credits include ANDY WARHOL’S AMERICA (2022), and a BBC mini-series, CHASING GHISLAINE (2021). His cinematography work can also be seen on HBO Max’s THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY (2021), Netflix’s (Un)WELL (2020), and Hulu’s TASTE THE NATION (2020), which was nominated for an IFP Gotham Award. Ruderman’s producing credits include UNANSWERED IVES, which was awarded the Czech Crystal at the 2019 Golden Prague International Film Festival, and WHITER SHADE OF TERROR, a film about the global spread of anti-muslim rhetoric and an increasingly violent white supremacy movement. Most recently, Scott was a producer on the film ROCK CHICKS, an upcoming documentary that tells the stories of women in rock’n’roll. Ruderman holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Social Documentary Film from the School of Visual Arts. 

About the filmmaker – Director and Producer Rachael Dyer, an Australian native, and Canadian citizen based in New York, is an award-winning producer and journalist whose career has taken her across the globe, featuring stories seen on Netflix, Apple TV+, Disney, HBO Max, Hulu, Peacock, Oxygen, Discovery ID, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network and BBC. Most recently, she was a senior producer on Hillary & Chelsea Clinton’s documentary series, GUTSY (2022) for Apple TV +, a 4-part series, KEEP THIS BETWEEN US (2022), for Disney’s Freeform channel and Hulu and a 90-minute special for Oxygen and Peacock titled; SHERI PAPINI: LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES (2022). Her previous credits can be found on Netflix’s hit series (UN)WELL (2020) and Quibis ANSWERED by Vox (2020). Prior to her work in documentary, she worked in the field covering breaking news stories for BBC, Australian networks 7, 9, and ABC, and Channel News Asia. Rachael was awarded the Southern California’s Journalist Award for best international feature, as well as a Clio Entertainment Grand winning entry for her work on THE GREATEST SHOWMAN LIVE – the world’s first live commercial for a theatrical release. 

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“Bluntly if appropriately titled, Pay or Die serves as an infuriating reminder of the economic and social injustice permeating our system…” – Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

“The film is as straightforward as it gets and often raw in quality or form despite some nice but sporadic use of animation. However, the subject and people involved need no artifice to convince or connect with viewers.” – Hanna B, Film Threat

“Filmmakers Rachael Dyer and Scott Alexander Ruderman make an emotional plea to stop the exorbitant prices of insulin for those afflicted with diabetes.” – Ethan Anderton, Slashfilm

“Pay or Die profiles three families impacted by type 1 diabetes, chronicling the healthcare crisis that faces three million Americans dependent on insulin, the sixth most expensive liquid in the world, costing $113,000 per gallon.” – Diane Carson, AWFJ.org

Directors Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev (a sister-and-brother filmmaking team) are native filmmakers who document a remarkable event of global significance in their Arctic homeland in the Academy Award nominated documentary short film HAULOUT. This urgent film follows a marine biologist, Maxim Chakilev, living in the Siberian Arctic walrus haulout. The gathering of thousands of these marine mammals is a consequence of climate change; warming seas have forced the walruses to congregate on land, where stampedes and trampling can result in fatalities. The audience is literally placed in the middle of the climate crisis. The claustrophobic and crumbling hut feels unsafe and fragile, just like the animals surrounding it and the human being inside. Co-director Evgenia Arbugaeva (Maxim Arbugaev) join us for a conversation on how they met and then decided to follow marine biologist Maxim Chakilev, the challenges of living at the site where Maxim was collecting data on the walruses and the moment Evgenia and her brother Maxim found out that they were the first Yakutian filmmakers to be nominated for an Academy Award.

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For more go to; gonella-productions.com/haulout

Watch HAULOUT at: newyorkeryoutubesub

About the subject – Maxim Chakilev was born in 1987 in the small village of Kuva in Perm region in Russia. He studied microbiology in the university. After graduation he moved to Anadyr, the capital of Chukotka to work in the Marine Mammal Laboratory at the Pacific Branch of the Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography. Since then every autumn for the past decade Maxim studied Pacific walruses on the Cape Serdtse-Kamen (Cape Heart-Stone) in Chukchi Sea. His solitary field work takes place in August and throughout November when he observes the haulout of almost the entire population of Pacific walruses.

About the filmmaker – Evgenia Arbugaeva is a world-renowned photographer who was born in the small town of Tiksi, located on the shore of the Laptev Sea and rose to prominence as her work has appeared in The New Yorker, National Geographic, and perhaps most famously, on the cover of TIME Magazine. She photographed Greta Thunberg for TIME‘s 2019 Person of the Year cover. She has been a National Geographic Society fellow.

About the filmmaker – Maxim Arbugaev is a documentary filmmaker and cinematographer. He received the Special Award for Cinematography – World Cinema Documentary at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival for his work on the documentary Genesis 2.0, which he co-directed with Christian Frei.

About the Haulout – A haulout is a place of refuge where walruses gather, reproduce, and socialize. It includes female and male animals as well as calves. Normally, walruses spend most of their time at sea hauled out on ice floes as they forage for food on the ocean floor, but climate change and sea ice decline forces them to haul out on land instead. Throughout the Arctic, sea ice is forming later in the season and disappearing earlier, limiting the amount of space available for walruses to congregate. Floating summer sea ice is also receding further north to where the water is too deep for the animals to dive and feed. This forces them to seek refuge ashore. Once on land, the walruses must travel much longer distances — up to 250 miles round trip—to reach their food supply, This leads to exhaustion and vulnerability to injuries and deaths in the crowded haulouts where stampedes and trampling happen several times a day. Pacific walruses reached record-low numbers in the early 1960s due to commercial hunting but rebounded by the 1980s following significant conservation efforts. Currently, the Pacific walrus population is once again in decline — with about 129,000 animals left.

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“Please read nothing about the Oscar-nominated documentary short Haulout and just watch for the best shot of someone opening a door since The Wizard of Oz.” – Katey Rich, Vanity Fair

“Contains one of the most jaw-dropping reveals you’re likely to see.” – Michael J. Casey, Boulder Weekly

“Haulout has one of the most cinematic moments I’ve ever seen.” – The Columbian

“Incredible.” “Amazing.” “Visually stunning.” “Powerful.” – Anne Thompson, IndieWire’s Screen Talk Podcast

“It’s great cinema.” “It frickin’ rocks.” “Haulout is so great.” – Eric Kohn, IndieWire’s Screen Talk Podcast

“Stunning.” “Gorgeous cinematography.” “With very few words, the film communicates a monumentally poignant picture of the effects of climate change.” – Jude Dry, IndieWire

“Has a transition that blew my mind.” – Marcus Jones, IndieWire’s Screen Talk Podcast

“Unforgettable.” – Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

“Astonishing.” “Even Planet Earth would be jealous of this footage. Someone send David Attenborough a screener.” – Redmond Bacon, Director’s Notes

“Entrancing.” “Captured so beautifully.” – Alex Billington, First Showing

“Astonishing.” – Ben Nicholson, The Film Verdict

“Remarkable.” “Extraordinary in imagery and messaging, Haulout is without question one of 2022’s best documentary shorts.” – Richard Propes, The Independent Critic

“An incredible sight.” – Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film

“★★★★” – Ken Rudolph, Letterboxd

When Elsa Mercado (Michelle Veintimilla) is released from prison after serving 16 years for killing her father, New York City Councilwoman Sandy James (Karen Pittman) and corporate attorney Paul Jenkins (Corey Stoll) are forced to grapple with their involvement in the original crime. WHAT WE DO NEXT is a timely emotional thriller sitting at the intersection of race, class and criminal justice. WHAT WE DO NEXT features a superb cast that includes Corey Stoll (Billions, House of Cards), Karen Pittman (The Morning Show, And Just Like That), Michelle Veintimilla (The Good Wife). Director, writer, and playwright Stephen Belber joins us to talk about the challenges working on a very tight shooting schedule, staging it on Zoom before an on set production, recruiting actors with a strong stage background and bringing in a cinematographer with an extensive documentary resume.

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For more go to: stephenbelber.com/film

About the filmmaker – Stephen Belber’s plays have been produced on Broadway and in over 25 countries. In addition to Broadway, his plays have world premiered at Roundabout Theater, Atlantic Theater, Manhattan Class Company (MCC), Primary Stages, Labyrinth Theater, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Naked Angels, L.A.’s Geffen Playhouse, Boston’s Huntington Theater, Pittsburgh’s City Theater, and The Humana Festival. He was an Associate Writer and actor for The Laramie Project, and co-writer/actor on The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. Belber has also written and directed three feature films, Management (Jennifer Aniston/Woody Harrelson), Match (Patrick Stewart/Carla Gugino), and What We Do Next (Corey Stoll/Karen Pittman). He has written the movies Tape (Ethan Hawke/Uma Thurman, directed by Richard Linklater), The Laramie Project (associate writer), Drifting Elegant, and O.G., (Jeffrey Wright, HBO Films). Television credits include Law & Order SVU, Rescue Me, Tommy, The First, and pilots for Netflix, HBO, F/X, USA, TNT, ABC, History Channel, and Fox TV. Has worked on numerous studio films (including Dallas Buyers Club), and developed movies with Will Smith, Todd Phillips, Bennett Miller, Jay Roach, George Tillman, Greg Mottola, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Anthony Mackie, Sam Rockwell, David Gordon Green, and others. Currently writing the pilot for a series about The Chateau Marmont for John Krasinski’s Sunday Night Productions and Paramount, and developing a series for Netflix based on his original script The Madness. His next film directing project is an adaptation of his stage play Dusk Rings A Bell, starring Jessica Biel and Chris Messina. 

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“A spellbinding, provocative and gripping political thriller.” – Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru

“While it doesn’t venture far from its evident stage roots, neither does “What We Do Next,” a sinewy, tautly calibrated morality play, ever stray from the decidedly contemporary issues at its complex core.” – Michael Rechtshaffen, Los Angeles Times

“One of the best of the early indie releases of 2023 is the riveting three-hander “What We Do Next.”… The film soars because of the three actors delivering committed and courageous performance.” – Frank J. Avella, Edge Media Network

“What we do next is an impressive film about the consequences of acts that seem harmless in the face of crisis, but that represent a possible turn when the control you think you had is actually very far away from your grasp.” – Federico Furzan, Movie-Blogger.com

“Spare in approach, but layered in meaning, What We Do Next definitely depends on a lot of talking. But the best conversations may be the ones you have after you finish watching it, and debate what you would have done under the same circumstances.” – Stephen Whitty, Film Racket

“There’s a lot to savor and digest in this morality play that is filmed and acted so well.” – Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News

Set in rural California and Mexico’s Pacific coast, director Rodrigo Reyes’ documentary, Sansón and Me, is a moving portrait of the unlikely friendship of two Mexican migrants, told within the frame of the dramatic clash between systemic forces and personal choices that envelop young, incarcerated men of color in America. Sansón’s life is defined by borders—between Mexico and the United States, between freedom and incarceration, between fact and fiction. While serving two life sentences for first-degree murder in Pelican Bay State Prison, Sansón grapples with the ways he has traversed these borders, moving from country to country, from rural California to solitary confinement, and from the truths of his life to the mythologies he’s created. A tale told through dramatic re-enactments,  Sansón and Me recreates a life of multilayered border crossing as told by Sansón to his interpreter-turned-friend, filmmaker Rodrigo Reyes. Director and producer joins us to talk about his vividly portrayal of Sansón’s life from orphaned Mexican child to American prisoner, focusing on one man’s attempt at reconciling the things that have happened to him and the things he has brought on himself. 

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For more on the work of Rodrigo Reyes go to: rrcinema.com

WINNER – Best Film, Sheffield DocFest 2022

Official Selection – Tribeca Festival 2022

Official Selection – SFFilm Doc Stories 2022

About the filmmaker – Director Rodrigo Reyes (Mexico City, 1983), makes films deeply grounded in his identity as an immigrant artist, crafting a poetic gaze from the margins, using striking imagery to portray the contradictory nature of our shared world, while revealing the potential for transformative change. He has received the support of The Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE), Sundance and Tribeca Institutes, while his films have screened on PBS and Netflix. His film 499, won Best Cinematography at Tribeca and the Special Jury Award at Hot Docs. Rodrigo is a recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim and Creative Capital Awards, as well as the Rainin Fellowship and the SF Indie Vanguard Award. For years, he has worked to mentor the next generation of diverse artists through his work as a member of the Board of Directors for Video Consortium and Co-Director of the BAVC Mediamaker Fellowship, and teaching masterclasses at renowned institutions such as Berkeley’s Journalism School, Princeton, The New School, UCLA as well as being a guest lecturer at the Stanford MFA in Documentary Film.

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“An ever-engaging, innovative and moving treatment of race, class, and the criminal-justice system.” – Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Hammer to Nail

 “★★★★. With this startling and sombre documentary, Mexican film-maker Rodrigo Reyes has conducted an experiment in verbatim cinema, or what you might call witness cinema.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“Outstanding and multifaceted creative non-fiction film… the power of cinema is used to visibilize a person that society has tried to make invisible.”  – Ricardo Gallegos, La Estatuilla

“This film is taking a much more sobering sweep than more frequently made films about jail time, which tend to end with exoneration or freedom, which Reyes notes from the start is not within this documentary’s gift.” – Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film

“The film conveys the full dimensionality of Sansón’s experience that has so tragically been reduced to the size of a small cell.” – Stephen Saito, Moveable Fest

Robert Machoian’s latest drama, The Integrity of Joseph Chambers recounts the riveting and morally convulsive drama an an insurance salesman and family man Joseph Chambers (Clayne Crawford) who wants to acquire the skills to be able to take care of his family in case of an apocalypse. He decides to go deer hunting by himself for the first time ever, despite his wife’s objections. Setting out into the mountains with a borrowed rifle, Joe roams the woods aimlessly in his search for deer. His boredom is short-lived, however, when in the blink of an eye, Joe undergoes a traumatic experience. What starts as an experiment to prove himself as a capable father and husband turns into a nightmare as Joe finds himself faced with a terrible choice that he must make. Lead actor and Executive Producer Clayne Crawford (The Killing of Two Lovers, Convergence) joins us for a conversation on the inspiration for the troubling tale, juggling the in-front-of and behind the cameras as actor and producer and collaborating once again with the brilliant writer and director Robert Machoian.

 

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88% on RottenTomatoes

“A slow and methodical disintegration of American Masculinity as spied on from just far off enough as to give us the full devastating picture. Crawford is tremendous. Gorgeously lensed, contemplative… one of the best films I have seen this year” – Jason Adams, Pajiba

“A taut and engaging character study.” – Stephen Saito, Movable Feast

“Writer director Robert Machoian continues to impress with this blistering Tribeca offering.” – Martin Carr, We Got This Covered

“In many ways, the film is like a brutally effective modern-day retelling of the classic Jack London short story To Build a Fire, another tale in which a guy determined to prove himself to himself finds himself in a very bad way for no real reason at all.” – Peter Soboczynski, The Spool

“Writer/director Robert Machoian follows up his masterful “The Killing of Two Lovers” with the same crew and star for another exploration of the male ego pummeled into vulnerable submission.” – Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews

“The message here has some severe buckshot to it, and Clayne Crawford delivers an astonishing performance that brilliantly balances goofball humor and heavy drama.” – Robert Kojder, Flickering Myth

For generations, Monopoly has been America’s favorite board game, a love letter to unbridled capitalism and — for better or worse — the impulses that make our free-market society tick. But behind the myth of the game’s creation is an untold tale of theft, obsession and corporate double-dealing. Part detective story, part sharp social commentary and part pop-culture celebration, Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History presents the fascinating true story behind America’s favorite game.  Contrary to the folksy legend spread by Parker Brothers, Monopoly’s secret history is a surprising saga that features a radical feminist, Lizzie Magie. a community of Quakers in Atlantic City, America’s greatest game company, and an unemployed Depression-era engineer. According to the official origin story, during the Great Depression, an amateur inventor named Charles Darrow sketched out the now-famous Monopoly board on a piece of oilcloth on his kitchen table. His game became a best-seller, Darrow became a wealthy man, and Parker Brothers was saved from bankruptcy. It was a classic American success story. But it wasn’t true. The real story behind the creation of the game might never have come to light if it weren’t for the determination of an economics professor and impassioned anti-monopolist named Ralph Anspach. Director and writer Stephen Ives joins us to talk about his own journey to unlock the vault of obfuscation and corporate greed regarding the forgotten history of this distinctively American rite of passage / iconic board game.

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To watch go to: pbs.org/americanexperience/ruthless-monopoly

Written and directed by Stephen Ives and executive produced by Cameo George, Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History premieres on AMERICAN EXPERIENCE on Monday, February 20, 9:00-10:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS App.

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Filmed on the real locations where the events took placr, Argentina, 1985 is inspired by the true story of Julio Strassera, Luis Moreno Ocampo and their young legal team of unlikely heroes in their David-vs-Goliath battle to prosecute Argentina’s bloodiest military dictatorship against all odds and in a race against time to bring justice to the victims of the Military Junta. In the nascent days of the Argentine Republic’s newly formed government after the restoration of democracy in 1983, newly appointed federal chief prosecutor Julio César Strassera (Ricardo Darin) and his assistant, deputy prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, (Peter Lanzani) led the investigation and the trial against the brutal military dictatorship that plunged Argentina into chaos for almost ten years. And entrusted with the Herculean task of putting the country’s most powerful and dangerous men behind bars, the young lawyers and their inexperienced legal team played with fire while seeking justice for the crimes committed during the Dirty War of 1976-1983. Argentina, 1985 is the 2023 winner of the Golden Globe® winner for Best Picture (Foreign Language) and an Oscar® nomination for Best International Feature. Director and screenwriter Santiago Mitre joins us for a conversation on the cinematic challenge of finding the most effective way to tell the story behind the struggle to bring a measure of justice to the authoritarian leadership that ruled his beloved country, injecting a degree of humanity and humor into the film, working with his superb cast of actors and his personal satisfaction of seeing Argentinians embrace his film.

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For more go to: infinityhillfilms.com/argentina-1985

To watch go to:amazon.com/Argentina-1985

Academy Award nominated – Best International Feature

Golden Globe winner – Best Foreign Film

Goya Award winner – Best Latin American Film

BAFTA nominee – Best Feature in Foreign Language

About the filmmaker – Director, Producer, Screenwriter Santiago Mitre is a screenwriter and director, was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He studied and graduated from the Universidad del Cine (FUC). In 2004 he co-directed El amor – primera parte with his colleagues Alejandro Fadel, Martín Mauregui and Juan Schnitman, a feature film that was presented at BAFICI and the Settimana Internazionale della Critica in Venice. Two years later, he began writing for film and television. It was during that time that he wrote three feature films that ended up “in competition” at the world renown Cannes Film Festival from 2008 to 2012.  In 2008, Leonera was nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or award;  in 2010  Carancho was nominated for the Un Certain Regard Award and in 2012 Elefante Blanco also received an Un Certain Regard Award. In 2011, Mitre partnered with Agustina Llambí Campbell, Alejandro Fadel and Martín Mauregui, to found the independent production company La Unión de los Ríos. They went on to produce Mitre’s first feature film as a director, El Estudiante in 2011. The production participated in festivals around the world and won several awards. In April 2013, he presented the medium-length film Los Posibles, co-directed with Juan Onofri Barbato at BAFICI. His second feature, Paulina, premiered in the La Semaine de la Critique section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. It went on to win the Grand Prix for Best Film and the Fipresci Award.  In 2017, Mitre directed an Argentine thriller, La Cordillera. His most recent film, Argentina, 1985 has won numerous awards worldwide, as well as a nomination for the 2023 Oscar® in the Best International Feature category.

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95% on RottenTomatoes

“An entertaining biopic about recent Argentine history that takes the baton from Shakespeare’s idea that “some men have greatness thrust upon them.” – Sophie Monks Kaufman, IndieWire

“A courtroom drama with a committed, awards-worthy performance from Ricardo Darin, this tense, lengthy film stands with the best of the genre, but with added resonance.” – Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International

“Though the dramatic atmosphere could hardly be denser, it’s also pierced by surprising shafts of comedy; there is courage to be had, Mitre reminds us, in preserving a lightness of heart.” – Anthony Lane, New York Times

“Apart from the moving testimonies of surviving victims, the movie’s power comes from the desperate needs for justice and to prevent this authoritarian, terrorist scourge from ever taking hold again.” – Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times

“It’s a forthright, muscular and potent movie.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

From writer and director, Alice Rohrwacher, and Academy Award® winning producer, Alfonso Cuarón, “Le Pupille” is a tale of innocence, greed and fantasy. This 2023 Oscar® nominated Live Action Short is about desires, pure and selfish, about freedom and devotion, and about the anarchy that is capable of flowering in the minds of girls within the confines of a strict religious boarding. Inspired by a letter Italian novelist Elsa Morante sent to her friend, LE PUPILLE is a magical fable about a group of mischievous young Catholic schoolgirls during an imaginary wartime. Unfolding over the Christmas holiday, the orphaned girls find themselves blessed with a scrumptious red cake from a generous countess and must evade Mother Superior’s (Alba Rohrwacher) watchful eye for a taste of decadence. Alice Rohrwacher with her signature whimsical touch, crafts a joyously playful tale about childhood desire, greed and freedom. Director Alice Rohrwacher (The Wonders, Heavenly Body), joins us for a conversation on the challenge of finding the right tone and cadence for this beguiling tale, casting the “right” Serafina, working with her sister and her collaboration with her gifted collaborators.

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Le Pupille is available at: disneyplus.com

About the filmmaker – Director, writer, producer Alice Rohrwacher studied in Turin and Lisbon. Her first experience in filmmaking was in 2006, when directing a part of the Italian documentary  Checosamanca. In 2011, she directed her first feature film, Heavenly Body, which premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight during the 2011 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim. Her second feature film, The Wonders, won the Grand Prix at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Also in 2014, Rohrwacher was appointed the President of the International Jury for the “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. She announced filming of her third film Lazzaro Felice in 2017 with the film starring Sergi López and Rohrwacher’s sister Alba Rohrwacher. The film premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival where it won the award for Best Screenplay. It was released by Netflix in December of that year.  Her most recent film, Le Pupille, was nominated for the  2023 Oscar® for best Live Action Short. 

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90% on RottenTomatoes

“Its wide-ranging cast of characters—nuns and supplicants, laborers and clergymen—evoke a world of troubles, such as poverty, wartime fears, and religious dogmatism, alongside the children’s vital energies and complex yearnings.” – Richard Brody, New York Times

“This charming and surprisingly suspenseful film shares with Rohrwacher’s other work a puckish sense of humor and a deep understanding of how sometimes, in the name of righteousness, people can be awfully wicked.” Noel Murray, LosAngeles Times

“The continuous religious shaming takes a terrific unexpected turn: by telling very little, Rohrwacher is able to tell absolutely everything.” – Randy Meeks, Espinof

“Brewing in the subtext are lightly provocative ruminations on conformity, morality and purity. A little joy goes a long way, and Le Pupille is bursting with it.” – John Serba, Decider

“… A Christmas story of utmost beauty, charm, humor, and humanity so infrequent in contemporary cinema.” – Diego Batlle, Otroscines

Director Daniel Roher explores the life and work of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who, after years of campaigning against corruption, has developed powerful enemies – including President Vladimir Putin. In August 2020, Navalny was secretly poisoned with a military-grade chemical nerve agent in a shockingly brazen attempt on his life. Beyond his staff and his loyal family, Navalny ends up being secretly surrounded by a small  group of investigative journalists including Bulgarian Christo Grozev with Bellingcat and Russian Maria Pevchikh with the Anti-Corruption Foundation who knew that the state would not investigate the poisoning. What to do with their findings culminates with Navalny’s highly publicized return to Moscow on January 17, 2021. After being transferred to Germany for medical attention, a recovering Navalny worked closely with international news organizations Bellingcat and CNN to investigate the crime, ultimately linking the poison to Russian security services, despite denials from the Kremlin. Eye-opening and revelatory, NAVALNY chronicles the politician and activist’s brave stand against the government that tried to silence him – and his never-ending fight for democracy. Director Daniel Roher (Once We Were Brothers) stops by to talk about the 2023 Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature, what he did and did not know about Navalny, Vladimir Putin, Russian politics, gaining the trust of Alexei’s inner circle, and his personal reaction to some of the mind-boggling events that unfolded in front of his camera.

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For news and updates go to: dogwoof.com/navalny

About the filmmaker – Daniel Roher’s films have taken him to every corner of the globe, from Japan to Uganda to Nunavut and beyond. His feature documentary debut, ONCE THEY WERE BROTHERS: ROBBIE ROBERTSON AND THE BAND was executive produced by Martin Scorsese and Ron Howard. It was the opening night film at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival

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99% on RottenTomatoes

“An inspiring and profoundly important story.”  – Variety

★★★★ “This is undoubtedly one of the most thrilling documentaries to be released this, or any, year.” – The Times

★★★★ “A genuinely exciting piece of storytelling, a propulsive real-life quest for truth” – Observer

★★★★ “A pulsing thriller that would give one of the early Bourne movies a run for its money.”  – TimeOut

★★★★  “Roher’s doc is told with refreshing frankness, immediately compelling through the screen presence of its central subject.” – The i Paper

“It’s a swift, inspiring, propulsive film with a dashing and intelligent central figure” – Deadline

“Thrilling, intelligent, insightful, and even moving… Roher has made the absolute most of his astonishing access to deliver a compelling and crucial documentation of this period of history.” – POV Magazine

“Nalvany is a must-see film.” – Uproxxx

“There has never been a documentary quite like Daniel Roher’s Navalny” – RogerEbert.com

Cameron Edwin (Jim Gaffigan), the host of a failing children’s science TV show called “Above & Beyond”, has always had aspirations of being an astronaut. After a satellite falls from orbit and crashes into the suburban home of a dysfunctional family in Ohio. The father seizes the opportunity to fulfill his dream of becoming an astronaut by re-building it into his own rocket ship. While his wife and daughter believe he’s experiencing a midlife crisis, his relationship with his wife (Rhea Seehorn) and daughter (Katelyn Nacon) start to strain.  A series of surreal events begin unfolding around him — a doppelgänger moving into the house next door, a car falling from the sky, and an unusual teenage boy forging a friendship with him. As Cameron slowly starts to piece these events together to ultimately reveal that there’s more to his life story than he once thought and forcing him to reconsider how interconnected their lives truly are. Director and writer Colin West joins us for a conversation on the inspiration for Linoleum, pulling together a wonderful cast that included, Michael Ina Black, Amy Hargreaves, and Tony Shalhoub, how comedian / actor Jim Gaffigan became the lead in this whimsical and poignant tale about taking chances and living without regret.

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For more go to: linoleummovie.com

About the filmmaker – Colin West is an award-winning writer & director from the Midwest now based in Los Angeles. His feature film credits include LINOLEUM starring Jim Gaffigan, Rhea Seehorn, Katelyn Nacon, Michael Ian Black and Tony Shalhoub, which world premiered at SXSW Film Festival in 2022 and DOUBLE WALKER co-written by and starring Sylvie Mix, which was released in 2021. He also produced SURVIVAL SKILLS, the Stacy Keach and Vayu O’Donnell lead feature film sponsored by Film Independent. His films have premiered at festivals including SXSW, Fantasia, Cinequest, Raindance, Calgary Film Festival, and The Chicago Underground Film Festival, among many others. He was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Science in Cinema prize at SFIFF in 2022 and was an Annenberg Foundation MFA Fellow at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

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95% on RottenTomatoes

“Jim Gaffigan gives a career-best performance in Linoleum.” – Ethan Anderton, Slashfilm

“Thoughtful performances and earnest (if especially subtle) writing keep the film compelling enough until its final minutes, which are even more startling in their heart-wrenching effectiveness than in their mind-bending twists.” – Angie Han, Hollywood Reporter

“With this film about people trying to find what makes them extraordinary, West has made an extraordinary tale of the personal universes we all inhabit, the strange messiness of life, and the beauty of how everything all shakes out in the end.” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

“Linoleums conclusion is a savvy surprise, one that capitalizes on the investment the audience is sure to make in Cam, his family and his happiness.” – Hope Madden, MaddWolf

“If you want to take a chance on something different, then this is a gem of a Donnie Darko style slice of science-fiction, which asks you to succumb to its strange ways and strap yourselves in for a uniquely triumphant human story.” – Matt Rodgers, Flickering Myth

Award winning actor turned director Sandrine Kiberlain feature film debut is set in Paris, summer 1942 where Irene, played by Rebecca Marder, 2023 César for Best Female Newcomer nominated for her performance), is a vibrant 19-year-old aspiring actress without a care in the world. She is honing her passion for the theater, rehearsing for the entrance exam to the coveted Conservatory, making new friends and discovering love, without realizing that time is running out in Nazi-occupied France, as her close-knit  family is watching. In turns enchanting and devastating, Ms. Kiberlain’s drama, which she also wrote, is not a traditional Holocaust narrative, but a unique coming-of-age tale about the freedoms of youth amidst a changing world, anchored by a star-making performance by Ms. Marder “which more than delivers on the luminous promise of the English title” (Screen Daily). Partly inspired by Ms. Kiberlain’s own family story, the film shows the dangers of complacency in the face of fascism, as well as moments of beauty that are possible even under the hardest of circumstances. Director Sandrine Kiberlain and Actor Rebecca Marder joins us for a conversation on the relevance of a story about isms – authoritarianism, fascism, anti-semitism, collaborating as director / actor and actor and finding the right balance tonally in a story that is guardedly optimistic about the aspirations of a young women as her  world comes face-to-face with genocide.

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For more go to: filmmovement.com/a-radiant-girl

Best Female Newcomer – 2023 César Nomination (Rebecca Marder)

Official Selection – Cannes Film Festival’s Critics Week

Winner – Best Screenplay – Torino Film Festival

About the filmmaker – One of France’s most prolific and versatile French stars, Sandrine Kiberlain came to prominence with her Most Promising Actress César-winning performance in Laetitia Masson’s To Have or Not, and has since worked with many of France’s top directors including Alain Resnais (Life of Riley), Jacques Audiard (A Self-Made Hero), Benoît Jacquot (Seventh Heaven), André Téchiné (Being 17), Claude Miller (Betty Fisher and Other Stories), Stéphane Brizé (Mademoiselle Chambon, Another World), Maïwen (Polisse) and Cédric Jimenez (November). She has received nine César nominations and won two César Awards. A RADIANT GIRL marks her feature debut as a writer-director.

About the Actor – Rebecca Marder is a former member of France’s legendary classical theater troupe La Comédie Française where she was admitted at the age of 20. Ms. Marder was selected for the César Academy’s annual “Revelations” list of rising stars leading up to the nomination. She will next be seen as one of the leads in François Ozon’s new film The Crime is Mine opposite Isabelle Huppert. 

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88% on RottenTomatoes

“There’s plenty to engage in A Radiant Girl, not least a performance by Rebecca Marder which more than delivers on the luminous promise of the English title.” – Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily

“Between Marder’s exquisite performance and Kiberlain’s powerful yet subdued storytelling, radiant is the perfect word to summarise the writer-director’s feature debut.” – Andrew Murray, The Upcoming

“Kiberlain presents an adeptly conceived character portrait contained in just the right way to remain chillingly effective and memorable.” – Nicholas Bell, Ion Cinema

“Marder does indeed live up to the film’s title as the infectiously vivacious Irene, and “A Radiant Girl” is laced with enlivening bursts of creativity…. Making the most of a moment isn’t only a skill of Kiberlain’s, but a means of survival in “A Radiant Girl” when it’s clear there’s no assurances of how long it’ll last.” – Stephen Saito, The Moveable Fest

Rebecca Marder is marvelous in the leading role of Irene and delivers a star-making performance in A Radiant Girl.” – Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies
“A masterfully assembled coming-of-age that falls in love, enchants, unsettles, and breaks your heart.” – Ricardo Gallegos, La Estatuilla

“A Radiant Girl offers a chilling look at fascism’s accumulating evil in a way that lulls its audience into a sense of complacency — a pointed mirroring — and then pierces right straight through the heart when it’s least expected.” – Matthew Lucas, In Review Online

Co-directors Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchy unexpectedly moving and insightful 2023 Oscar nominated documentary short, THE MARTHA MITCHELL EFFECT, is an archival-based portrait of one of the most unlikely whistleblowers in the history of Washington DC. During the course of the unfolding Watergate scandal, Mitchell was expected to keep quiet, she did not. As a consequence  Mitchell was a Republican cabinet wife who was gaslighted by the Nixon Administration to keep her quiet.  THE MARTHA MITCHELL EFFECT offers a female gaze on the scandal through the voice of the woman herself and shows viewers why we need to believe women whistleblowers – something that sadly hasn’t improved much since Martha’s time. As President Richard Nixon himself once said, “If it hadn’t been for Martha, there’d have been no Watergate.” Co-directors Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchy join us for a conversation on the life and times of Martha Mitchell in Washington DC, how the behavior of her husband and Attorney General John Mitchell dramatically impacted her life, and how the unlikely friendship between Martha Mitchell and respected journalist Helen Thomas changed the course of American political history.

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THE MARTHA MITCHELL EFFECT (currently streaming on Netflix). 

2023 Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Short

Also available on MUBI the-martha-mitchell-effect

About the filmmaker – Anne Alvergue is a documentary filmmaker and artist. Her short films have screened at film festivals and galleries internationally, including the Pacific Film Archive, and the San Francisco Art Institute. Her editing credits include Michael Apted’s Married in America, Tibet in Song, My Kid Could Paint That, and Africa Rising. Her work has aired on PBS, MTV, ESPN, Discovery, A&E, VH1 and Lifetime. She recently curated a show of experimental work at the Walter Maciel Gallery in LA. Anne received a Bachelor’s Degree from UC Berkeley and a Master’s Degree in Documentary Film from Stanford University.  Anne’s most recent project Love, Gilda has had theatrical and television distribution and premiered on opening night at the Tribeca Film Festival. For more go to: eyespyfilms.com

About the filmmaker – Debra McClutchy is a Brooklyn-based independent filmmaker and content creator. Her most recent film credits include co-director of THE MARTHA MITCHELL EFFECT, an Academy Award nominated 40-minute archival documentary short distributed by Netflix that premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Previously, she co-produced THE BOOKSELLERS, a feature documentary about the New York rare book world that premiered at the 2019 New York Film Festival and is distributed by Greenwich Entertainment. For eleven and a half years, she was a senior creative member at Oscilloscope Laboratories, a film distribution company in New York City founded by Adam Yauch of Beastie Boys. There, she created special-edition home video releases, managed film restorations and print publications, and co-created an interactive documentary about the founding of the company. She was also a producer for The Criterion Collection in New York City, and an associate producer in documentary television in New York City and San Francisco. When she’s not making films or creating other cool stuff, she’s biking around the five boroughs and practicing her pizzaiola skills. For more go to: debramcclutchy.com

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“Calling all history buffs to watch this stirring documentary about a woman’s life during a notable bygone era.” – Sabrina McFarland, Common Sense Media

“Utterly compelling! Crammed with enlightening information about Martha Mitchell’s life, her role in the Watergate scandal, how she was maligned and mistreated by Nixon and his cronies.” – Jennifer Merin, AWFJ.org

“Though brief, The Martha Mitchell Effect is a powerful, at times illusory document of a woman who refused to abide by the status quo of her era.” – Johnny Loftus, Decider

“Essential viewing not just for those interested in politics, but for everyone interested in human behaviour.” – Abhishek Srivastava, The Times of India

Kartiki Gonsalves’ enthralling and beguiling 2023 Oscar nominated documentary short, THE ELEPHANT WHISPERERS, follows an indigenous couple, Bomman and Bellie, as they fall in love with Raghu, an orphaned elephant given into their care, and tirelessly work to ensure his survival. The film highlights the beauty of the wild spaces of South India, and the oldest wild elephant reserve in Asia, Theppakadu Elephant Camp, as well as the people and animals who share this space. THE ELEPHANT WHISPERERS marks the directorial debut of Kartiki Gonsalves, a prolific wildlife and social documentary photographer, photojournalist and cinematographer. Raised in the Nilgiris Mountains of southern India where was filmed. THE ELEPHANT WHISPERERS director, co-writer and cinematographer Kartiki Gonsalves stops by to talk about returning to this stunningly beautiful region, meeting and spending time with Bomman, Bellie, Raghu and Ammu as well as forging what she describes as an “unbreakable bond” with these elephants.

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To watch go to: netflix.com/ElephantWhisperers

*2023 Academy Award® Nominee for Best Live Action Short Film

About the filmmaker – Kartiki Gonsalves is a Sony Artisan, one of the first women selected in India as a Sony Imaging Ambassador for the Sony Alpha series as a natural history and social documentary photographer & filmmaker. She is an Indian Natural History, Social Documentary photojournalist/ filmmaker currently based out of the Nilgiris and Bombay in India. Her work has two foci. One is environment, nature and wildlife, where she seeks to raise awareness about marvelous diversity of nature and wildlife and the importance of conservation. The other is cultures, communities and their connections. An avid traveller & explorer, her work primarily revolves around nature, cultures, communities, animals, and the environment and how they are all intertwined. Her most recent film is releasing on Netflix worldwide in December of 2022 called ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ which follows an indigenous couple as they fall in love with Raghu, an orphaned elephant given into their care, and tirelessly work to ensure his survival. The film highlights the beauty of the wild spaces in South India and the people and animals who share this space. Fo rmore go to: kartikigonsalves.com 

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“A tender and hopeful product that demonstrates the purity and conscience of animals, and why we must fight to keep their planet alive “ – Ricardo Gallegos, La Estatuilla

“Being a short docu, it’s a quick watch yet still manages a strong narrative, with ups and downs, triumphs and defeats, and moments of beauty and sadness.” – John Sooja, Common Sense Media

“Much of the beauty of The Elephant Whisperers lies in the understated coming-of-age of the film’s narrative that draws ample parallels between humans and animals.”  –  Poulomi Das, Firstpost

“It packs a punch and is definitely worth the watch, especially if you love elephants.” – Romey Norton, Ready Steady Cut

Operation Enduring Freedom Army veteran Justin McLaughlin (Jesse Gavin), lives a life of solitude on his boat in Connecticut, working a menial job and avoiding his past. When his estranged brother Charlie (Joseph Poliquin), “Project Power”), goes missing, Justin is forced from isolation and teams up with a private investigator named Frankie to track him down. Together, they discover Charlie’s been recruited by an extremist militia planning an unknown attack. Justin must decide how much of his Army past he’s willing to expose to extract Charlie from the clutches of their paramilitary leader, Billy, while reconciling his own sense of purpose and regaining his brother’s trust. Set during the Covid-19 pandemic, NORTHERN SHADE focuses on purpose and redemption in an age of heightened anxiety and isolation. Director, producer and co-writer Christopher Rucinski joins us for a conversation on the inspiration for this relevant tale of social disenchantment and fractured family, as well as the challenges of making a first feature film in the midst of a pandemic, an ambitious shooting schedule and working with a terrific cast that includes Jesse Gavin (The Burial, Loki) and Joseph Poliquin (Greyhound).

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Opening in LA at: laemmle.com/northern-shade

Virtual cinema: eventive.org/northernshade

About the filmmaker – Christopher Rucinski, who makes his feature film directorial debut, is a sought-after feature film editor in the Motion Picture Editors Guild; credits include Ford V Ferrari, The Adam Project, and War for the Planet of the Apes; he’s also proud of the fact that 35% of the cast and crew of NORTHERN SHADE are military veterans. The thriller also stars Titania Galliher (Dinner With Schwartzey), Alejandro Bravo (Cicada Song, Suicide Watch), Romano Orzari (NBC’s “Taken”, Assassin’s Creed Lineage, White House Down, “Marvel’s The Punisher: War Zone”), and Rose Marie Guess (“Recruiters: Mission First”), and the final sound mix was supervised by Oscar-winner Don Sylvester, who captured Best Sound for Ford V Ferrari.

Best Narrative Feature – Fargo Film Festival (2023)

Best Drama Feature – Legacy Theatre Film Festival (2022)

Best Actor (Jesse Gavin) – Legacy Theatre Film Festival (2022)

Best Feature 2nd Runner Up – Woods Hole Film Festival (2022)

Best Screenplay I Phoenix Film Festival (2022)

Best Feature I Poppy Jasper Film Festival (2022)

Best Actor I DTLA Film Festival (2022)

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Award-winning filmmaker Simon Lereng Wilmont (THE DISTANT BARKING OF DOGS) brings his intimate and empathetic touch to a rundown halfway house in Eastern Ukraine that houses some of the country’s most vulnerable – dozens of children cramped between an unstable and chaotic home life and the over-burdened foster care system. Wilmont’s A HOUSE MADE OF SPLINTERS documents the fast-disappearing childhoods of  these vulnerable young people amidst ever-worsening political strife with adroit warmth and unfettered access. As the film records how children suffer and survive violence and abandonment, the “orphanage” becomes a metaphor for a home, a country and a world where people entrusted with leadership fail to rise up to their responsibilities. Director, producer Simon Lereng Wilmont joins us for a conversation on the trove of love and hope that he found amongst the dysfunction and despair that has pushed so many children into institutional living, the spark of youth that refuses to be extinguished and the caring staff that do the best they can in a corner of the world that is imploding. 

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For more go to: cinephil.com/a-house-made-of-splinters

About the filmmaker – Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Simon graduated as a Documentary Film Director from The National Film School of Denmark in 2009. His first feature documentary film The Distant Barking of Dogs (2017), premiered at IDFA, and was awarded Best First Appearance. It has since gone on to win 35+ awards worldwide, among them the McBaine Documentary Feature Award at San Francisco’s SFFILM Festival, it was nominated for a European Film Award (2018), an Emmy (2020), and shortlisted for an Academy Award (2019). The film also won a Peabody Award (2020). As a director, his films include Dormitory Master (2009), Above Ground, Beneath the Sky (2008), Chikara – The Sumo Wrestler’s Son (2013) and The Fencing Champion (2014).

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94% on RottenTomatoes

“On paper it all sounds so miserable, but the best element of A House Made of Splinters is the manner in which it maneuvres past the tragedy to capture a genuine reflection of childhood.” – Grant Watson, Fiction Machine

“Instead of following an archival path or adopting an interview-driven format, Wilmont’s camera opts for an observational mode which unfolds with great patience…” – Marina Ashioti, Little White Lies

“Wilmont returns to Eastern Ukraine with this delicately wrenching diary of life in a halfway house for neglected children.” – Guy Lodge, Variety

“A House Made of Splinters nourishes hope in an at times hopeless war.” – Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

“With a camera that feels both urgent and unassuming, Wilmont proves he’s unambiguously earned the trust of his tiny subjects of colossal worries-a feat on so many different levels that concerns both outstanding filmmaking and exemplary humanism.“ – Tomris Laffly, Harper’s Bazaar

“A deeply human and compassionate documentary…” – Ricardo Gallegos

La Estatuilla

In this revealing observational portrait of political courage, Brandon Kramer’s THE FIRST STEP, focuses his lens on Black progressive activist and political commentator Van Jones as he faces a polarized society head on in an effort to reform a broken criminal justice system. Jones, known for calling Donald Trump’s election “a whitelash” live on primetime TV, navigates increasingly tense and isolating political and racial divides in his attempt to become a “bridge builder” during the Trump administration. Condemned by the right for his progressive beliefs, and by the left for embracing conservatives, this fraught and cinematically captured personal journey questions his integrity from all sides, forcing him to consider not only his activism but his own identity. THE FIRST STEP takes us behind the scenes of these dramatic power struggles, from internal divisions within both parties, to the lives of activists fighting on the frontlines for their communities. The First Step features Louis L. Reed, Jessica Jackson, Virgie Walker, Pete White, Tylo James. Including Jared Kushner, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Cory Booker, Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Shelly Capito, Senator Rand Paul, Senator Mike Lee, Congresswoman Karen Bass, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, Patrisse Cullors, Charlemagne Tha God, Karen Hunter, and Kim Kardashian. Director Brandon Kramer joins us to talk about the daunting challenge faced by Van ones as he attempts to find the common ground of common interest and policy reforms that will benefit all Americans, while being vilified by many of the same people he is working with.

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For news and updates go to: meridianhillpictures.com

About the filmmaker – Brandon Kramer is a documentary filmmaker and co-founder of Meridian Hill Pictures. Brandon directed CITY OF TREES (Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, national broadcast on PBS’ America Reframed, Netflix); and the Webby Award-winning documentary series THE MESSY TRUTH WITH VAN JONES. Brandon won Best Director at the 2016 Chesapeake Film Festival and Indie Capital Awards, received the Audience Choice Award at the 2015 American Conservation Film Festival and was a 2015 DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Individual Arts Fellow. Brandon has directed over 30 short documentaries commissioned by public agencies and nonprofits including AARP and US Institute of Peace. Before starting MHP, Brandon served as a teaching artist for the John F. Kennedy Center’s national media education program. Brandon holds a bachelor’s degree in film and cultural anthropology from Boston University.

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87% on RottenTomatoes

“The First Step works because it’s as honest about the state of government as it is passionate about doing so.” – Alan Ng, Film Threat

“When progress is usually messier as it’s happening than when it’s remembered, the ability of The First Step to engage with the moment that it’s in is invaluable.” – Stephen Saito, Moveable Fest‘

“film’s a contemplative This Is Your Life piece that also seems to cover the major issues that have overloaded America’s prison system. Bipartisan success or conservative sell out? That’s your call.” – Elias Savada, Film International

“It’s a rare documentary that shows the step-by-step shepherding of a piece of legislation, while also providing an even rarer opportunity to put audiences in a position to sincerely root for Jared Kushner” – Stephen Silver, Tilt Magazine

When a policewoman, Samantha Romans, (Nadine Garner, Savage River, The Doctor Blake Mysteries) fails to intervene in a shooting where her own son dies, she draws the condemnation of her colleagues and community as well as the attention of ambitious journalist, Jamie Connard (Samantha Tolj). Keen to reignite the career she put on hold to have children, Jamie ignores Romans’ pleas to be left alone and pursues her relentlessly. LINE OF FIRE is one part tragic ripped-from-the-headlines shooting, part 21st century online bullying, lives may be destroyed. LINE OF FIRE is a taut, riveting thriller from Down Under. And with nothing to lose, Romans retaliates by forcing Jamie into a night of terror that threatens everything Jamie holds dear. Nominated for Best Indie Feature at the 2022 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards, LINE OF FIRE is sure to have audiences questioning their allegiances in a film they’ll not soon forget. Director Scott Major stops by to talk about the inspiration for his hard-hitting tale of revenge, the AACTA nomination, his collaboration with a fine cast of actors that includes award winning Nadine Garner, Samantha Doji, Damien Walshe-Howling and his screenwriter Christopher Gist.

 

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For more about the film go to: filmthreat.com/reviews/line-of-fire

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CHILDREN OF THE MIST focuses on a village hidden in the mist-shrouded Northwest Vietnamese mountains resides an indigenous Hmong community, home to 12-year-old Di, part of the first generation of her people with access to formal education. A free spirit, Di happily recounts her experiences to Vietnamese filmmaker Diễm Hà Lệ, who planted herself within Di’s family over the course of three years to  document this unique coming of age. As Di grows older, her carefree childhood gives way to an impulsive and sensitive adolescence, a dangerous temperament for what will happen next; in this insular community, girls must still endure the controversial but accepted tradition of “bride kidnapping.” One night, when the young girl’s parents return home from celebrating the Lunar New Year, they are shocked to find their house is silent: Di has disappeared. Winner of the Best Directing award at I.D.F.A and Shortlisted for the 2023 Academy Awards for Best Feature Documentary,  Diễm Hà Lệ’s documentary, CHILDREN OF THE MIST, is a tender portrait of a community on the cusp between tradition and modernity, and one girl tragically stuck in the middle.

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For news & screenings go to: filmmovement.com/children-of-the-mist

* 2023 Academy Award for Documentary Best Feature – Shortlist

For more go to: purinpictures.org/children-of-the-mist

To watch itunes.apple.com/children-of-the-mist

About the filmmaker -Hà Lệ Diễm was born in 1991 in Tay ethnic minority group living in the mountains of Northeast Vietnam. She left her hometown to study journalism at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Hanoi, from where she graduated in 2013. “Children of the Mist” is her first feature documentary film project. She is a “Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program Grantee.” 

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94% on RottenTomatoes

“…deceptively restrained in its first half, but that leads to a finale that’s raw in its pain and anguish. This is sobering filmmaking that illustrates a terrible injustice and the patriarchal attitudes that keep it thriving.” – Tim Grierson, Paste Magazine

“Extraordinary… riveting… first-rate… beautifully presented….” – Guy Lodge, Variety

“[R]emarkable…quite extraordinary…this is a very special work, illuminating, educational and deeply, profoundly emotional.” – Paddy Mulholland, Spectrum Culture

“For a Western audience, Children of the Mist does what a documentary should do. The filmmaker educates and entertains with a profoundly human story about the life of a young woman. Viewers will become invested in what happens to Di and learn about the Hmong tradition along the way.” – Bradley Gibson, Film Threat

“Diem’s intimate access and sensitive approach, together with editor Swann Dubus’ keen eye for texture and detail, make for a compelling and eye-opening drama.” — Nikki Baughan, Screen Dail

“Shattering…thought-provoking….” – Phuong Le, The Guardian

Inspired by the lawsuits filed in Florida challenging the state’s abortion ban on the basis of religious freedom, Director Paula Eiselt’s documentary short film, UNDER G-D is about the  national Jewish response to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization U.S. Supreme Court decision woven through the lived experiences of impacted Jewish women and the various lawsuits currently being launched by rabbis, Jewish organizations and interfaith leaders to challenge the overturning of Roe v. Wade, state by state. Through the lens of maintaining the separation between church and state, these nationwide efforts are predicated on ultimately protecting religious freedom – and democracy – for all. UNDER G-D weaves together the stories of a Jewish mother and activist in Indiana, a rabbi in Florida and lawyers throughout the country who are seeking to fight abortion bans in part by placing them in the legal and cultural context of religious freedom. In an ironic twist, the very laws that might support this work are the Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRAs), which have thus far been used to allow faith believers to make an end-run around civil rights protections, as in the notorious Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. or gay wedding cake cases at the U.S. Supreme Court. UNDER G-D introduces us to characters that are now flipping the very script used so effectively by Christian nationalists. Director Paula Eiselt (Aftershock, 93Queen) joins us to talk about the gathering momentum that these recent public protests and cases, as well as the work of Jewish leaders around the country are taking to protect women, and protect democracy, by preserving the constitutionally enshrined separation of church and state. 

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For more go to: paulaeiselt.com/under-g_d

World Premiere Screenings – 2023 Sundance Film Festival

About the filmmaker – Paula Eiselt is an award-winning independent feature-film filmmaker, producer, and activist known for her journalistic rigor in telling timely and intelligent cinematic stories led by  strong-willed characters. She has dedicated her filmmaking career to shining a light on trailblazers and everyday heroes from all walks of life and is most notably known for her two award-winning documentary features, 93QUEEN (POV/HBOMax) and most recently, AFTERSHOCK (Hulu / Disney+).  AFTERSHOCK, which spotlights the long-lasting effects of the US maternal health crisis, premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Doc Competition, and was awarded the Special Jury Award: Impact for Change. AFTERSHOCK was acquired out of Sundance by Disney’s Onyx Collective and ABC News Studios and released on Hulu in the US and on Disney+ worldwide on July 19. IndieWire named Paula one of 22 Rising Filmmakers to Watch in 2022. In 2019, she was named one of Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36.” Paula is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and serves on the board of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance. She currently lives in New Jersey with her husband and their 4 children.

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The remarkable life and legacy of an NBA superstar and civil rights icon is captured in the documentary Bill Russell: Legend. This two-part film  from award-winning director Sam Pollard features the last interview with Bill prior to his passing in 2022 as well as access to his sprawling personal archives. On the court, Russell went on to lead each and every one of his basketball teams to championships — two back-to-back NCAA titles, a gold medal at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, and 11 championship titles in his thirteen-year career as a Boston Celtic (his last two as the first Black head coach in NBA history). Off the court Russell was a force in the fight for human rights — marching with Martin Luther King Jr., leading boycotts in the NBA over racist practices and speaking out against segregation — efforts which earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Narrated by actors Jeffrey Wright and Corey Stoll and featuring exclusive interviews with the icon’s family and friends as well as Steph Curry, Chris Paul, “Magic” Johnson, Larry Bird, Jim Brown and more, Bill Russell: Legend illuminates the ways in which Russell stood tall in every sense of the word. Director Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI, Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power) joins us for a conversation on the player, the coach, the legend and the man who was one of the most influential figures in the history of sport and American civil society.

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Available on netflix.com/Bill Russell Legend

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

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“Russell talks about his childhood, his failures, his successes, his relationships, his activism, and his final thoughts on his life and career. It’s personal, but without being too vulnerable, there is a strength and power to his story that makes him a fighter, and someone who wanted to improve and be the best he could be.” – Romey Norton, Ready, Steady, Cut

ATTACHMENT is a horror romance about Maja, a has-been actress in Denmark, who falls in love with Leah, a young, Jewish academic visiting from the UK. When Leah suffers a mysterious seizure, Maja fears their whirlwind romance might be cut short and decides to follow Leah back to her home in London. There, Maja meets her new downstairs neighbour: Leah’s mother, Chana. An overbearing, seemingly religious and highly secretive woman, Chana seems resistant to all of Maja’s attempts to win her over. And as Maja notices strange occurrences in the building, she begins to suspect that Chana’s secrets could be much darker than first anticipated. Written for Josephine Park, Gislason’s longtime friend, and loosely inspired by stories from her life. Set in the Hasidic area of North London, where Gislason lived for years, the film draws heavily on Yiddish folklore art and literature, portraying a highly fictionalized — but deeply affectionate — rendering of the culture that originated them. Award-winning actor David Dencik (No Time to Die, Men & Chicken) Josephine Park, Ellie Kendrick, and Sofie Gråbøl. Director Gabriel Bier Gislason joins us for a conversation on writing the script with a specific actor in mind, drawing upon his own religious background in creating this gripping folkloric Danish tale of demonic possession, Jewish tradition, a mother’s love and other intimate relationships.

 

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*Official Selection – 2022 Tribeca Film Festival – World Premiere

*Official Selection – 2022 BFI London Film Festival

*Official Selection – 2022 Fantastic Fest

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“One of 2023’s most intimate, creepy horror films.”– The A.V. Club

“A captivating, confident and deeply moving little miracle of a film.” – AWFJ

“Gifts the horror genre an epic love tale that we’ve never seen before; it’s both exciting and important to behold.” – Dread Central

“Terrific performances, an atmospheric vibe, and intriguing concepts make Attachment a must-see.” – Kristy Strouse, Film Inquiry

“A supernaturally charged metaphor for codependency… Engaging performances, a unique and dread-soaked world, and a flair for spooky horror grounded in realism set Attachment apart.” – Bloody Disgusting