Author and rehabber Terry Masear (Every Little Thing) wants to save every injured hummingbird in Los Angeles. Terry takes in the most fragile of patients through her volunteer hummingbird rescue, but the path to survival is fraught with uncertainty and drama. Over the course of Sally Aitken’s intimate and moving documentary, we become invested in Terry’s  hummingbird patients – including Cactus, Jimmy, Wasabi, Raisin, and Mikhail – celebrating their small victories and lamenting their tiny tragedies. Through the eyes of America’s busiest bird rehabilitator, each bird becomes memorable, mighty and heroic. As she nurtures the wounded hummingbirds back to health, Terry finds herself on her own transformative journey, unraveling a visually captivating and magical tale of love, healing, and the delicate beauty in tiny acts of greatness. Director and Writer Sally Aitken (Playing with Sharks, A Cinematic Life)joins us to talk about getting to know Terry Masear, meeting the challenge of filming these remarkable creatures in a way that brings their stories to life and how the timing of the release of EVERY LITTLE THING could not be happening at a more fitting time for the film lovers of Southern California.

For more go to: kinolorber.com/every-little-thing

Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival

Every Little Thing will be screening beginning January 17th at Laemmle’s Monica Film Center.

About the filmmaker – Sally Aitken is an Emmy® nominated director and writer, and a showrunner of multiple international series. Known for visually arresting work characterized by sensitivity and humor she relishes unknown stories and the world’s complexities. Her most recent feature, Every Little Thing, is her second feature film to debut in competition at the Sundance Film Festival following her 2021 Sundance hit, Playing with Sharks (Disney+). Following the remarkable life of maverick conservationist Valerie Taylor and her love affair with the ocean’s most terrifying predator, Playing with Sharks was named by The Hollywood Reporter as one of the 15 best films of the year. Sally’s debut feature, A Cinematic Life, about esteemed film critic David Stratton and his love affair with the movies, appeared in an official competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017. Sally was also nominated for the Camera d’Or. Other major works include directing The Pacific with Sam Neill, a 6-part television series with the actor and raconteur retracing Captain Cook’s voyages and the indigenous perspective on Cook’s impact. Her architectural films include Getting Frank Gehry (2015, BBC/ABC) with the iconoclast starchitect as well as Streets of Your Town (2016, ABC) for which Sally collected both the Australian Director’s Guild Award as well as the Australian Writer’s Award for Best Documentary series.

About the subject Terry Masear has been running Los Angeles Hummingbird Rescue since 2004 and is the longest-practicing hummingbird rehabilitation expert in the country. Los Angeles Hummingbird Rescue receives five thousand calls each year and has been involved in the rehabilitation and release of 10,000 rescued hummingbirds in Southern California. The film Every Little Thing, based on Terry’s best-selling book, Fastest Things on Wings (2015), documents the trials and triumphs of a summer spent rehabilitating orphaned and injured hummingbirds in Los Angeles. The book has been featured by National Geographic, Here & Now, MSNBC, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.   Terry’s extensive rescue work has led to several remarkable discoveries about hummingbird breeding and nesting practices unknown to science. Terry received her PhD from UCLA and taught English as a Second Language and postgraduate research and writing at UCLA for twenty years.

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94% on RottenTomatoes

“Big hearted…effortlessly riveting. Offers a vision of compassion as a way of life.”– Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter

“A shimmering, densely layered film about love and resilience…[with] kindness at the core.”– Andrew Stafford, The Guardian

“Grab your tissues and prepare to have your heart stolen by delicate yet fierce creatures in Every Little Thing” – Rebecca Murray, Showbiz Junkies

“The director, Sally Aitken, unfolds the narrative gently; it’s a soothing film, even though it often deals with somber themes.” – Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times

“Every Little Thing comes to embody the fragile yet uncontainable mystery of all life.” – Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture

“While Masear is a great character, the stars of the film are the birds themselves. Masear and Aitken know it.” – Pat Mullen, POV Magazine

“It’s loosely arranged through one caring cycle of birds, from intake to release, but Every Little Thing works it way toward a deeply satisfying conclusion, a big celebration of tiny things and the special person who has made it all possible.”  – Kate Erbland, Indiewire

Director and co-screenwriter Steven Feder’s latest film, A BROOKLYN LOVE STORY, is just that, a romance between a man and a woman and a love letter to the quaint New York City borough. Mike’s grandpa started a little fruit and vegetable store years ago in Bay Ridge called The Golden Gate, which was passed to Pops Moona (Dan Grimaldi). A vengeful developer with a grudge is threatening to buy the store out from under Pops. Local mobster and his men (Michael Rispoli,  Vincent Pastore, and Joseph D’Onofrio, respectively) love that place and concoct a cockamamie scheme to ensure its safety. Meanwhile Mike meets Honey (Katie McCarty),the developer’s secretary, and the two share instant chemistry. While Mike and Honey bond right away, the fact that she works for the person trying to destroy Mike’s livelihood is a significant impediment. Is there a way around it for the two to make a real go at things? Will The Golden Gate survive to see another customer? A BROOKLYN LOVE STORY, filmmaker Steven Feder, collaborated with John Cortes on the screenplay. Director / Producer / Writer Steven Feder (Charlie Irish, On Freddie Roach, State of Play) joins us for a conversation about his personal connection to this particular story, assembling a terrific cast of very engaging actors and the art of shooting a complicated independent film on a very compressed timeline and limited budget. 

For more go to: instagram.com/abrooklynlovestorymovie

About the filmmaker – Born and raised in New York, Steven Feder began his career performing stand-up in numerous comedy clubs while studying acting under Bill Esper at the prestigious William Esper Studio. As a member of The Creative Actors Repertory Theater, he performed, directed, and produced numerous plays, including Savage In Limbo, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Danny And The Deep Blue Sea, and Speed The Plow. He transitioned from theater to film by producing and co-writing The Big Gig. The film won three International Grand Prize Awards, the Nicholson Award, and the coveted Audience Award at The Hamptons International Film Festival. Next, Steven wrote, produced, and directed the Dramatic Feature Jury Prize-winning film The Cottonwood, starring Pruitt Taylor Vince, Gia Carides, Stacy Edwards, Cynthia Nixon, Michael Wright, Tony Sirico, and Missi Pyle, featured on Showtime’s Best of Independent Film Directors Cut Series. Next, he wrote, directed, and produced the romantic comedy It Had To Be You, starring Natasha Henstridge, Michael Vartan, Michael Rispoli, and Olivia d’Abo. Steven collaborated with Academy Award winners Barry Levinson and Al Pacino on his scripted crime thriller Charlie Irish for Warner Bros. and Golden Globe winners James Gandolfini and Alec Baldwin on his scripted comedy/drama With A Bullet, which was based on the music industry in 1977. Steven recently completed the feature A Brooklyn Love Story, which he wrote and directed for producers Jeff Mazzola, John Scaccia, and Morris Levy, distributed by Quiver, premiering on Amazon, starring Michael Rispoli, Dan Grimaldi, Vincent Pastore, Joseph D’Onofrio, Katie McCarty, Michael Morano, and Christopher Ryan. Steven has been a director, screenwriter, script doctor, ghostwriter, and author for over two decades. He has written on dozens of films, directed music videos, and produced documentaries, including The Promoter, which he produced with Peter Berg for HBO on the life of legendary boxing promoter Bob Arum.  Steven appears as himself in the Peter Berg-directed Emmy Award-winning HBO doc-series On Freddie Roach and State of Play episode “A Fighting Chance.” Steven resides in Los Angeles, CA. For more go to: blacksheepent.com

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Reviews:

“A Brooklyn Love Story is charming, funny, and romantic in all senses of the word. The cast is excellent, bringing the drama and silliness to proper life.” – Bobby LePire, Film Threat

Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Errol Morris confronts one of the darkest chapters in recent American history: family separations. Based on NBC News Political and National Correspondent Jacob Soboroff’s book, Separated: Inside an American Tragedy, Morris merges bombshell interviews with government officials and artful narrative vignettes tracing one migrant family’s plight. The extraordinary cruelty of this political calculation was not a byproduct of the surging immigration rhetoric, but rather its purpose. By inflicting such unspeakable trauma on the families—the majority of them from the Central American countries Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras—the government aimed to deter others from traveling to the U.S. seeking asylum. With searing incisiveness, Errol Morris, the Academy Award®-winning filmmaker behind seminal non-fiction works including “The Fog of War” and “The Thin Blue Line,” probes at this bleak chapter in recent American history by merging hard-hitting interviews with government officials who were both alarmed by or complicit with these policy decisions, as well with artful narrative vignettes that immerse the viewer in the migrants’ plight as they journey across the border. The resulting film is a devastatingly moving and thoroughly researched exposé of how several high-ranking Trump Administration officials aided and abetted the separation of toddlers and young children from their parents.  By the summer of 2018 Trump administration’s hard-line stance on immigration resulted in a series of devastating policies that affected thousands of people, many of which continue to have shattering repercussions for some of the country’s most vulnerable populations. Against this backdrop, audiences can begin to absorb the U.S. government’s role in developing and implementing policies that have kept over 1,300 children without confirmed reunifications years later, according to the Department of Homeland Security. NBC News Political and National Correspondent Jacob Soboroff joins us for a frank conversation on the past, present and future of immigration policy, possibility that separated family’s can be or will ever be re-united and whether the endless rancor will ever be put aside long enough for an honest conversation on immigration.

For more go to: msnbc.com/Separated

About the subject – Jacob Soboroff (Journalist/Author/Executive Producer) is a Political and National Correspondent for NBC News and the author of the New York Times best seller and Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist “Separated: Inside an American Tragedy.” For his reporting on the Trump administration’s child separation policy, he received the Walter Cronkite Award for Individual Achievement by a National Journalist and the Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism. He is also the recipient of a Ruben Salazar Journalism Award from the California Chicano News Media Association, and in 2022 was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy® Award for his reporting from Haiti. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Nicole Cari and their two children.

About the filmmaker – Roger Ebert has said, “After twenty years of reviewing films, I haven’t found another filmmaker who intrigues me more…Errol Morris is like a magician, and as great a filmmaker as Hitchcock or Fellini.” Errol Morris’ films have won many awards, including an Oscar for “The Fog of War,” the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival for “A Brief History of Time,” the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for “Standard Operating Procedure,” and the Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America for “The Thin Blue Line.”  His films have been honored by the National Society of Film Critics and the National Board of Review. Morris’ work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Roger Ebert, a champion of Morris’ work, called his first film, “Gates of Heaven,” one of the ten best films of all time. The Guardian listed him as one of the ten most important film directors in the world. Morris is the author of two New York Times bestsellers, “Believing is Seeing” and “A Wilderness of Error,” and is a regular contributor to The New York Times opinion pages and Op-Docs series. His most recent book, “The Ashtray,” was published in 2018.  Morris has directed over 1000 television commercials, including campaigns for Apple, Levi’s, Nike, Target, Citibank, and Miller High Life. He has directed short films for the 2002 and 2007 Academy Awards, ESPN, and many charitable and political organizations. In 2001, Morris won an Emmy for Photobooth, a commercial for PBS. Morris has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2007, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a graduate student at Princeton University and the University of California-Berkeley. He has received the Columbia Journalism Award and honorary degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Brandeis University, and Middlebury College. Morris lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife, Julia Sheehan, an art historian, andtheir French Bulldog, Esmeralda.their French Bulldog, Esmeralda. For more go to: errolmorris.com

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96% on RottenTomatoes

“It’s a story of dehumanisation, children in cages, and the blurting, vote-craving policy-making of government by id — and it’s shattering to experience.” – Philip De Semlyen, Time Out

“The cruelty was the point. In documenting Trump’s policy of family separation, Separated shows the route by which the US crossed over into darkness. It is an exacting, harrowing and quietly furious film.” – Xan Brooks, Guardian

““Separated” finds Morris back in “The Fog of War” mode: angry, engaged and determined to expose an injustice too monumental to be ignored.” – Peter Debruge, Variety

“Kudos to Morris and Soboroff for telling the story, which is hopefully never repeated.” – Jason Delgado, Film Threat

“White’s fire, and his soaring warnings about how political sycophants willing to effect a policy like family separation will always exist, are powerful enough.” – Ben Kenigsberg, New York Times

“It’s illuminating in the most chilling way.” – Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com

“Nonetheless, what we glean from the totality of the interviews and research, and Morris’ well-honed style of coalescing information, is damning enough.” – Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

Alexis Bloom’s blistering documentary THE BIBI FILES is an urgent journalistic exposé based on unseen leaked footage of police interrogations of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,  as well as his wife Sara and son Yair. The film explores the corruption cases that resulted in Netanyahu’s indictment on breach of trust, bribery, and fraud in 2019.. Many Israelis believe that Netanyahu’s attempts to delay his trial  are key to understanding his current policies regarding war and the return of Israeli hostages. Working with Oscar-winning Producer Alex Gibney, Bloom uses never-seen-before interrogation footage of Netanyahu and his inner circle that provides an unflinching gaze into the private world behind the headlines. In Netanyahu’s corruption, Israel’s far right senses unprecedented political opportunity. Bibi’s embrace of their extremism results in deadly consequences. The Bibi Files has secured distribution in multiple international territories, while the Jerusalem courts rejected the Israeli prime minister’s attempts to block the film. Director Alexis Bloom (Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks) joins us for a frank and informative conversation on the impact and consequences of Netanyahu’s rise to power and his desperate tactics to remain there, at all costs.

For more go to: jolt.film/watch/the-bibi-files

To watch, go to: dogwoof.com/the-bibi-files

About the filmmaker – Born in South Africa, Director and Producer Alexis Bloom worked for the National Geographic Channel, BBC World and PBS Frontline in her early career. In 2014, she won the PGA Award for “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks,” for Universal Pictures. In 2017, Alexis co-directed HBO’s “Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds“, nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Directing, and an Emmy for Exceptional Merit. In 2019 she directed “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes” (also nominated for an Emmy Award.)  Her last film, “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg” was released by Magnolia Pictures in May 2024.

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“The Bibi Files paints a damning portrait of its subject’s machinations to stay in power.” – Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

“Alexis Bloom’s riveting film — whose producers include prolific documentarist Alex Gibney — is built around leaked footage of Netanyahu, his family and associates testifying to police.” – Jonathan Romney, Financial Times

“Essential viewing.” – Wendy Ide, Observer (UK)

“Beyond the videos, the movie takes a thorough, methodical approach to laying out the case against Netanyahu, even if few of its arguments are new.” – Ben Kenigsberg, New York Times

“The brown-envelope claims may not seem important compared with the deaths of 45,000 Palestinians over the past year. As several commentators note, systemic corruption of the type alleged here creates a need for the fog of permanent warfare.” – Tara Brady, Irish Times

“This is a repellent but fascinating portrait that is all too relevant for U.S. viewers, whatever turn our policies in the Middle East take in coming months.” – Dennis Harvey, 48 Hills

Following a life-altering accident, Christopher Reeve persevered, by using his fame to speak of hope and to change our perception of paralysis, all while remaining a dedicated activist, actor and filmmaker, devoted dad, and loving husband to Dana Reeve, the beating heart of the family. Chronicling his personal and professional life before and after the near-fatal horseback riding accident in 1995 that left him paralyzed from the neck down, SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY uses Reeve’s own words, as well as intimate input from his closest family members and friends, to paint a rich, nuanced portrait of a man who refused to be defined by his physicality and who proved that you don’t need tights and a cape to be a hero. The film also features the first-ever extended interviews filmed with Reeve’s children, as well as insight from Reeve’s brother, his first wife Gae Exton, and Hollywood colleagues and friends such as Susan Sarandon and Glenn Close. The film also features extensive archival footage of Reeve with his best friend and Juilliard classmate Robin Williams, who, with his wife Marsha, was a constant source of support for Reeve and his family. A moving and cinematic story of bravery and perseverance, triumph and tragedy, love and devotion, SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY tells the remarkable story of a man who not only embodied a supernatural hero on screen, but also through his dedication and endurance, became a real life hero and symbol of hope to his wife, his family and the millions of people he touched throughout his life. Co-director Peter Ettedgui (Ian Bonhôte) stops by to talk with us about getting to know Christopher Reeve’s immediate and extended family members, in particularly the fierce courage, tenacity and unwavering love from his second wife Dana became the north star for this enthralling and inspiring film.

For more go to: hbo.com/super/man-the-christopher-reeve-story

Watch at: warnerbros.com/superman-christopher-reeve-story

Continue their work at: Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.org

About the filmmaker(s) – Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s creative partnership began with McQueen (2018), the theatrical feature documentary they wrote and directed about the iconic fashion designer Alexander McQueen. Described as “supremely engrossing and elegant” by Variety, the film was nominated for two BAFTAs (Best British Film and Documentary). Rising Phoenix (2020) told the thrilling story of the Paralympic movement, which rose from the ashes of the Second World War, transforming attitudes toward disability, and it became the world’s third biggest sporting event. Released globally by Netflix, the film won two Emmys. Before embarking on their latest film, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, Peter, and Ian also created, and executive produced  Kingdom of Dreams, the hit four-part docuseries about the seductive but sinister world of luxury fashion for Sky and Fremantle. Prior to working with Peter, Bonhôte co-founded Pulse Films in 2005 alongside Thomas Benski and Marisa Clifford, directing music videos and commercials for clients such as Puma, Nike, Pepsi, Mumford & Sons, Tom Jones, and fashion designers Matthew Williamson and Hussein Chalayan. After 13 years at Pulse, the company was sold to Vice Media, and Ian left to set up Misfits Entertainment with Andee Ryder. He made his feature film directorial debut with Alleycats (2016), a London-based thriller that was distributed internationally by Universal Pictures in over 25 territories. Apart from Bonhôte’s non-fiction collaborations with Ettedgui, Misfits has also produced the scripted action adventure film Viking Destiny (2019), starring Terence Stamp, and The Contestant (2023), set in the world of 1990s Japanese reality TV, which TIFF’s Thom Powers described as “the most WTF story in this year’s documentary selection.”

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98% on RottenTomatoes

“A powerful story of human endurance.” – David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

“As much as it’s a movie about one man’s struggle, it’s a family drama too, and the way his paralysis shifts their dynamic over the years is enrapturing to watch.” – Siddhant Adlakha, indieWire

“A moving, wrenching, compellingly well-made documentary…” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

“The best kind of superhero is one who leans into frailty and fear and still manages to be brave. In the lovely, poignant “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” we meet many such heroes, none of whom are invincible, but all of them valiant.” – Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Film Festival Today

““Super/Man” is a weeper, to be sure, for the reminder it brings to fans that this Man of Steel was only flesh and blood.” – Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post

“Yet any anxieties about compromised artistry are almost immediately allayed in this extraordinarily moving and frequently unvarnished portrait of Superman star Christopher Reeve.” – Kevin MaherTimes (UK)

This highly anticipated follow-up to director James Fox’s blockbuster UFO documentaries, The Phenomenon and Moment of Contact, THE PROGRAM explores the unprecedented bipartisan Congressional effort to uncover what intelligence agencies really know about UFOs, now referred to as UAP. The first two public hearings in over half a century included testimony under oath from military and intelligence  officers with jaw-dropping allegations of a clandestine program to analyze recovered materials and non-human biologics. Through candid interviews with high-ranking insiders, elected officials, physicists, intelligence officers, and military whistleblowers, THE PROGRAM goes behind the scenes to leave even the staunchest skeptics astounded by the assertions from a growing chorus of insiders that we are not alone. Director / Producer James Fox (The Phenomenon, Moment of Contact) stops by for a conversation on the personal journey he has been on for decades to explore the little known and hidden history of alien life interactions and impact on human life, sitting down with people who have been inside government agencies now willing to talk about what they have seen and what all of this might bode for the future of humanity.

For more go to: lab9films.com

To watch go to: geni.us/TheProgram

Director Statement – “I’ve been making on the topic of UFO’s (now referred to as UAP – Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) since the early 1990s. I never thought I would live to see the day when high level military officials would testify, under oath, to a bi-partisan group of lawmakers that the United States government has been hiding definitive proof that we are not alone. Disclosure is upon us.” – James Fox 

About the filmmaker – James Fox is a director and filmmaker specializing in UFO documentaries. Fox was director, writer and producer of the 2003 TV movie “Out of the Blue” which explores UFOs and alleged cover ups by governments. He wrote and directed the feature length documentary, “The Phenomenon” (2020). Most recently James Fox directed and appeared in “Moment of Contact” (2022), an exploration of events reported in Varginha, Brazil in 1966. The Program (2024) explores the unprecedented bipartisan Congressional effort to uncover what intelligence agencies really know about UFOs, now referred to as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP).

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Reviews:

“What starts as a focused investigation about a secretive operation run by the United States government becomes a globe-trotting affair that discusses sightings from around the world and, eventually, even aliens.” – Nathaniel Muir, AIPT

Set against the backdrop of 1990s Cuba, LOS FRIKIS tells the raw, unforgettable story of brotherhood, sacrifice, and the search for freedom. Inspired by true events, the film follows Gustavo, who idolizes his older brother Paco and his punk bandmates—the “Frikis.” As oppression and extreme poverty tighten their grip, the Frikis take a desperate and defiant stand, intentionally infecting themselves with HIV to gain refuge in government-run sanitariums. There, in a world meant for isolation, they carve out their own anarchic utopia—an oasis of rock ‘n’ roll, joy, and freedom, where the spirit of resistance thrives, and Gustavo will risk everything to be reunited with those he loves. LOS FRIKIS was inspired by true events set against the backdrop of Cuba’s 1990’s punk subculture. It’s a powerful coming-of-age story centering from co-directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz (Peanut Butter Falcon) and Academy Award-winning© producers Lord Miller (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse). Featuring an original score from Academy Award-winner© Steven Price (Gravity) and cinematography from Santiago Gonzalez (Beyonce: Black is King).

For more go to: losfrikismovie.com

WINNER Miami Film Festival

WINNER Nantucket Film Festival

WINNER San Antonio Film Festival

WINNER Middlebury Film Festival

About the filmmaker – Tyler Nilson is a filmmaker from North Carolina. He explored the seas of the South Pacific as an adventurer for a handful of years, and eventually decided to take his rich desire to tell stories and move to Los Angeles. He has appeared in a Judd Apatow film alongside actors like John C Reilly, and in countless commercials selling products that people don’t really need, like NFL jerseys and beer. He also is one of the world’s top hand models and enjoys making easy money doubling his hands for actors like Brad Pitt. Last year he released a narrative short film called The Moped Diaries, which people seemed to enjoy. His first feature film The Peanut Butter Falcon is scheduled for release in 2017.

About the filmmaker – Michael Schwartz is a filmmaker from Northern California. His roots as a traveler and artist are constant influences on the projects he chooses and people he surrounds himself with.  Some of his accomplishments include riding his bicycle across the country, planting an orchard, and growing a really big beard.  In 2014 Michael and Tyler Nilson collaborated on a short film called The Moped Diaries and co-founded a production company called Lucky Treehouse; together they make films, commercials, and marinara sauce. 

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81% on RottenTomatoes

“Los Frikis offers a profoundly emotional journey, revealing new depths of Nilson and Schwartz’s artistry honed over the past five years. Their maturing sensibilities solidify their status as master storytellers.” – Mark Johnson, Awards Daily

“Such a novel and wondrous film with just a great energy unlike anything else in theater currently.” – Edward Douglas, The Weekend Warrior

“I had heard very little about Los Frikis before seeing it, but now, it has easily turned into one of my favourite films of the year.” – Sebastian Zavala Kahn,Loud and Clear

“Rather than simplistically lionizing the frikis, the directors honor their plight by portraying them as an example of how the human spirit perseveres even when nearly crushed.” – Carlos Aguilar, Variety

“The result is a difficult and no-less-impressive film that smashes the spirited human condition against aspects of fulfilling indepdence people should never take for granted.” – Don Shanahan, Film Obsessive

Winner of the 2023 British Independent Film Award for Best Debut Feature Documentary THE TASTE OF MANGO, the debut feature from filmmaker and video artist Chloe Abrahams (Trust Me), is an enveloping, hypnotic, urgently personal meditation on family, memory, identity, violence, and love. At its center are three extraordinary women: the director’s mother, Rozana; her grandmother, Jean; and the director herself. Their stories, by turns difficult and jubilant, testify to the entangled and ever-changing nature of inheritance, and the ways in which we both hurt and protect the ones we love. Director Chloe Abrahams joins us for a insightful conversation on her intimate and beautifully rendered ode to friendship, beauty, memories lost, generational relationships and how to hold on to the things that matter most.

For more go to: Tasteofmango.oscilloscope.net

About the filmmaker – Chloe Abrahams is a Sri Lankan British artist and filmmaker. Using methods drawn from both documentary and fiction practices, she investigates the therapeutic potential of the confessional, culminating in visceral work spanning moving image, sound, writing and performance. Chloe’s debut non-fiction film, The Taste of Mango, premiered at True/False 2023 where it was named the #1 film by Sight & Sound. The film went on to win the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the BFI London Film Festival, followed by the BIFA for Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary. In 2020 Chloe was awarded the John Brabourne Award and has three times been shortlisted for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries (2018, 2019, 2022). She had her first solo exhibition at OVADA (2014), and has since been selected for exhibitions worldwide, including The London Open at the Whitechapel Gallery 2022.  Previously, Chloe worked as the Marketing Coordinator for documentary distributor Dogwoof, responsible for the execution of all UK theatrical campaigns, and recently completed a Master’s in Moving Image at the Royal College of Art where she was nominated for the HIGH Prize for Excellence.

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“The sum effect is at once densely textured and appealingly direct, its experimental aspects only serving to communicate more vividly the bonds tested but also strengthened by great adversity.” – Dennis Harvey, Variety

“Abrahams’s film-making language has a supple informality and immediacy, revealing what you might call the unofficial drama of family life, the guilt and pain which she has brought out of the shadows.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

“The Taste of Mango is most notable for making a compelling argument for nonfiction cinema as therapy.” – Clara Cuccaro, In Review Online

“Abrahams’ film reaffirms the strength of generational bonds and champions the desire of the new generation to question and provoke and demand answers.” – Tom Davidson, London Evening Standard

“Patriarchal violence and rape culture have impacted this family deeply, but it’s a genuine honour to be privy to this filmic act of reconciliation and hope.” – Isy Santini, The List

Ripped from her life of domesticity, Santosh, a young widow now desperate to support herself, accepts an opportunity to inherit her husband’s job as a police officer in the rural badlands of India. Quickly taken under the wing of Sharma, a charismatic and commanding older female inspector, Santosh begins an investigation into a low-caste girl’s brutal murder that plunges her into a gritty world of crime and corruption, forcing her to confront not only the brokenness of the system around her, but her own place within it. Her first major investigation—answering an impoverished father’s plea to find his missing teen daughter, a case no one seems to care about—throws her into an abyss. But it is Shahana Goswami’s immersive, moving performance that brings the audience not only along for the dark truths Santosh discovers but into her thrilling internal transformation. As clues unravel, so too does Santosh’s idea of who she might become in her new reality. Writer / director Sandhya Suri’s story unfold through raw, seamlessly naturalistic storytelling, gliding from atmospheric neo-noir thriller to penetrating social commentary to moving portrait of a woman figuring out how to strike out on her own path, then leveling that path to search for something better. SANTOSH features a quietly devastating performance from Shahanna Goswam. SANTOSH is the United Kingdom’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards®.

For more go to: santoshfilm.com

Screening at LA’s Laemmle Royal January 10 & 11 – Q&A after 7 PM screening w/ Sandhya Suri

Screening January 18 at NYC’s Metrograp.Theatre

About the filmmaker – SANDHYA SURI is a British-Indian writer and director based in London. Her feature documentary I For India premiered in the World Competition section of the Sundance Film Festival, garnering several international awards before being released theatrically to critical acclaim in the UK and the US. In 2017, the British Film Institute commissioned filmmaker Sandhya Suri to trawl through its national archive and direct a documentary drawn from films shot during colonial rule in India. The result was Around India With A Movie Camera, a fascinating and thought-provoking 72-minute chronicle of how the British viewed its empire, and how its subjects returned the gaze. Her first fiction short The Field was produced by Thomes Bidegain and Balthazar de Ganay, won Best International Short Film at TIFF in 2018, and was BAFTA- nominated for Best Short Film in 2019. In 2016 she was selected for both the Sundance Screenwriters’ and Directors’ Lab with her first fiction feature Santosh, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. 

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“Santosh reveals a world where right and wrong rarely exist in absolutes. Instead, the justice system operates in shades of gray, shaped as much by caste, religion, and gender as by evidence or law.” – Paul Emmanuel Enicola, The Movie Buff

“Writer/director Sandhya Suri – who has a documentary background – is keen to show that everyone plays their part in the prejudices and corruption of the legal system” – Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film

“Caste and religion and class and gender are all part of this system, and that’s the broader critique in “Santosh,” which is quite furious by the end.” – Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times

“Such a unique take on the police-crime drama, one that introduces us to a brave and strong woman who finds herself having to work within a system that’s not ideal and is greatly biased against women and lower castes.” – Edward Douglas, The Weekend Warrior (Substack)

“Santosh’s brilliance is that it makes us feel culpable — it first has us feel persuaded by the easiness of prejudice, only to afterwards have us see that we have been beguiled.” – Alisha Mughal, Film Daze

Director Moin Hussain feature film debut SKY PEALS tells the complex and cryptic story of Adam Muhammed (Faraz Ayub), a man in his mid-thirties who lives a life of isolation, having carefully constructed a routine that protects him from the unexpected. Upon hearing that his estranged father, Hassan, has died, Adam finds himself thrust out of his static existence in search of answers. As Adam pieces together a strange and complicated image of his father, he learns Hassan, adopted as a child, once told Adam’s uncle that he believed he ‘was sent from somewhere else.’ Adam’s mind is drawn to the strange episodes he has been having, in which he blacks out, beautiful lights appear, and voices beckon him closer. He thinks about his inability to communicate and connect with people and how he’s never fit in with those around him. Adam begins to wonder if his father might actually have been a being from another place. And if he was, what does that make Adam?  Written and directed by Moin Hussain, his debut feature SKY PEALS joins us for a conversation on the cinematic inspiration for this film, the casting Faraz Ayub, Natalie Gavin, Claire Rushbrook, and Simon Nagra, working with cinematographer Nick Cooke and the decision to shoot Sky Peals on 35mm film stock.

To watch go to: mubi.com/us/films/sky-peals

For more go to: film4productions.com/productions/sky-peals

The production company link: escapefilms.co.uk

About the filmmaker – Moin Hussain: Writer/Director is a London based Writer and Director. His short films have screened in competition at festivals around the world, including Cannes Semaine De La Critique, Sitges, BFI London Film Festival and Edinburgh International Film Festival. Moin’s first feature Sky Peals is currently in post-production. Supported and financed by Film4, the BFI and Screen Yorkshire, the project was developed in conjunction with the Torino ScriptLab and took part in the Cannes Cinefondation for film and television by Casarotto Ramsay & Associates. L’atelier. He has been named as one of Screen International’s ‘Stars of Tomorrow’ and is represented for film and television by Casarotto Ramsay & Associates.

100% on RottenTomatoes

“The whole thing would fall apart without its central performance, but Faraz Ayub gives the movie its touching emotional core. It’s one of the most tender, nuanced depictions of depression that I think I’ve ever seen.” – Eric Langberg, Everything’s Interesting

“Hussain’s script displays a real sense of empathy, deftly exploring the emotional toll of existing as a modern man who feels out of step with the world around him, not quite part of it despite desiring closeness.” – Hannah Strong, Little White Lies

“An unusually intimate, exploratory film underscored by dry humour, Sky Peals has an atmosphere that you won’t find anywhere else.” – Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film

“Sky Peals is an intriguing sci-fi drama and a very promising debut from Moin Hussain… once you strip the sci-fi elements and the multicoloured visions, you realise how measured and universal the story is.” – Daniel Allen, Loud and Clear

“Sky Peals is unsettling and effective in its story through its compelling action and stylised shots. With a runtime of 90 minutes, this quirky sci-fi film is worth investing your time in.” – Romey Norton, Film Focus Online

Director Gints Zilbalodis’ animated masterpiece, FLOW, the world seems to be coming to an end, teeming with the vestiges of a human presence. Cat is a solitary animal, but as his home is devastated by a great flood, he finds refuge on a boat populated by a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog, and will have to team up with them despite their differences. In the lonesome boat sailing through mystical overflowed landscapes, they navigate the challenges and dangers of adapting to this new world. A wondrous journey, through realms natural and mystical, FLOW follows a courageous cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. In order to survive and find dry land, they must rely on trust, courage, and wits to survive the perils of a newly aquatic planet. From the boundless imagination of the award-winning Gints Zilbalodis (Away) comes a  thrilling animated spectacle as well as a profound meditation on the fragility of the environment and the spirit of friendship and community. Steeped in the soaring possibilities of visual storytelling, FLOW is a feast for the senses and a treasure for the heart. Director Gints Zilbalodis joins us for lively conversation on his remarkably nuanced and soul enriching animated film.

For more go to: flow.movie

ANNECY ANIMATION FESTIVALWinner – Audience Award

Winner – Jury Award

Winner – Special Prize Best Original Music

Winner – Gan Foundation Award

2024 Cannes Film Festival – Official Selection, Un Certain Regard

2024 Toronto International Film Festival – Official Selection

About the filmmaker – Gints Zilbalodis (1994) is a Latvian filmmaker and animator. His debut feature film Away which he made entirely by himself won the Best Feature Film Contrechamp Award in Annecy. It has been selected in more than 90 festivals and sold in 18 territories. His fascination for filmmaking began at an early age watching classic films and making shorts. Prior to Away he made 7 short films in various mediums including hand-drawn animation, 3D animation and live-action and often mixing their characteristic aesthetics. Flow is his second animated feature film, having its World premiere at the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes. 

About the filmmaker – Matīss Kaža (1995) is a Latvian writer, director and producer. He got his BFA in Film & TV from Tisch School of the Arts in New York, and an MA in Audiovisual & Performing Arts from the Latvian Academy of Culture. He has directed, written and produced a number of internationally recognized Baltic films, and runs the production company Trickster Pictures while also being a lead producer at the animation studio Dream Well Studio. While many of his works have a social  resonance, the primary criteria for his projects is a strong sense of authorship and cinematic vision  that resonates beyond national borders. His latest directed film “Neon Spring” (2022) premiered  in Edinburgh Film Festival and was screened in festivals around the world. Most recently, he  produced “Sisters” (2022, Warsaw Film Festival 1+2 Competition Winner) by Linda Olte, co-  produced “Drowning Dry” (2024, two awards in Locarno Main Competition) by Laurynas Bareiša  and co-wrote and produced “Flow” (2024, Cannes Un Certain Regard, two awards in Annecy Film Festival) by Gints Zilbalodis. When he’s not working in film, Matīss writes and directs for the theatre and works as a lecturer at the Latvian Academy of Culture. 

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98% on  RottenTomatoes

“One of the most moving animated films in recent memory, and, beyond that, groundbreaking too…It’s rare you feel like you’re watching something entirely new.” – Christian Blauvelt, IndieWire

“Simply Stunning. It’s a little like watching the most thrilling nature documentary ever sketched.” – David Fear, Rolling Store

“A joy to experience but also a deeply affecting story, the work of a unique talent who deserves to be ranked among the world’s great animation artists.” – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

“We desperately need more animated features like Flow, movies that lodge themselves in our minds by imagining things we have never seen before and presenting emotions we’re not already expecting to feel. It’s a true masterclass in dialogue-free animation.” – Ryan Guar Discussing Film

“Flow is a work of immense cinematic art… a profound, emphatic, and empathetic experience.” – Nadine Whitney, AWFJ.org

YOU & I  is a tender slice of life romance about former flames, Sara (Summer Shelton) and Joseph (Clayne Crawford),  who  are reunited for a weekend. An accident of  circumstance leaves the two of them alone at his house after the small celebration, and what unfolds feels like a stage play as the former couple descends into the maelstrom of their past relationship. Through long takes and emotional dialogues, Shelton carries a film that leaves the audience questioning the past, present, and future of Sara and Joseph’s love, while pondering the parallels of their own current or former relationships, They intensely explore the “what ifs?” that might have been with “the one that got away.” Director, writer, co-producer, editor and co-lead actor Summer Shelton joins us for a conversation on why she decided to make this particular script her directorial debut, how working with her co-lead actor and co-producer Clayne Crawford helped her navigate the challenges of being behind and in front of the camera, and why the reaction to You & I has been so gratifying.

For more go to: summershelton.com/films

Now streaming on Amazon, AppleTV+, Vimeo and Fandango

Polish Film Institute General Director’s Award (US & Canada in Progress, 2021)

American Film Festival (International Premiere, 2023 Official Selection; Spectrum Competition)

Nashville Film Festival (2023 Official Selection; Grand Jury Nominee, Best Tennessee Feature)

New Orleans Film Festival (2023 Official Selection; Narrative Competition)

River Run International Film Festival (2024 Official Selection; Carolina Stories)

About the filmmaker – In 2023, her directorial debut YOU & I which she also wrote, produced and co-starred opposite veteran actor Clayne Crawford screened as an Official Selection at the Nashville Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, River Run International Film Festival and debuted internationally at the American Film Festival. The film will be released in 2024 by Slated Distribution. Feature works she produced included MAINE (Orion Classics, 2018 Tribeca Film Festival) and KEEP THE CHANGE (KINO LORBER, 2017 Tribeca Film Festival Best Narrative Feature; FIPRESCI Critics’ Prize at the 2017 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival).  She was Executive Producer of PEOPLE PLACES THINGS which premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, produced ICARUS (short) which premiered at the 2015 New Directors/New Films Festival and produced LITTLE ACCIDENTS, which had its World Premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.  She worked alongside critically acclaimed director Ramin Bahrani as Associate Producer of GOODBYE SOLO (2008), an official selection of the Venice Film Festival; Co-Producer of PLASTIC BAG (2009), opening night short film of the Corto Cortissimo at the Venice Film Festival and Associate Producer of AT ANY PRICE (2012), which premiered in main competition at the Venice Film Festival and most recently as Co-Producer of short documentary IF DREAMS WERE LIGHTING, RURAL HEALTH CRISIS (2023), which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival.  She was the recipient of the inaugural Bingham Ray Creative Producing Fellowship, awarded by the Sundance Institute (2012), a Rotterdam Producing Fellowship (2013), Film Independent Sloan Producing Fellowship (2014) and Cannes Producing Fellowship (2021) awarded by the Gotham.  Prior to her filmmaking career, Shelton was a former high school English teacher, she remains connected to the classroom as a University Lecturer, Adjunct Professor and provides educational consulting services to arts non-profits. 

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Reviews:

“You & I is passionate without being overtly explicit, yet the reverberating echoes of those instinctual feelings are intense and even morose in their own way.” – Don Shanahan, Film Obsessive

“I so loved Summer Shelton’s “You and I.” Her feature directorial debut was a gem with so many different facets and edges, and complexities of beauty. It’s a sexy film, with intense emotions.” – Rebecca Martin, Editor of Cinema Femme magazine 

Sandi DuBowski’s epic documentary SABBATH QUEEN — shot over the span of 21 years—follows Amichai Lau-Lavie, an Israeli descended from an unbroken line of 38 rabbis stretching back a thousand years. Yet as the film opens, Lau-Lavie is newly arrived in New York in the late 1990s, a young gay man declaring “Artists are the new rabbis” and appearing around the city in drag as Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross, the widow of six Hasidic rabbis (all from the same extended family). As the years pass, Lau-Lavie embraces a range of creative spiritual endeavors, including Storahtelling and Lab/Shul—until he shocks everyone with his decision to become a rabbi himself, studying in the Conservative tradition of Judaism. Sabbath Queen is witness to Lau-Lavie’s unfailing courage and grace, as he grapples with key questions of who we are and who we will be. Stimulating and moving, DuBowski’s film ends with Lau-Lavie’s words on Israel and Palestine post-October 7th as he evokes the  challenge of our lifetime: “How do we reimagine our sacred traditions to achieve peace?” SABBATH QUEEN director Sandi Dubawski joins us to talk about Amichai and his lifelong quest to creatively and radically reinvent religion and ritual, challenge patriarchy and supremacy, champion interfaith love, and stand up for peace, ceasefire, and an end to the Occupation in Israel/Palestine. The film interrogates what Jewish survival means in a difficult rapidly changing 21st century.

For more go to: sabbathqueen.com

About the filmmaker – Sandi DuBowski, Director/Producer of Sabbath Queen, Director/Producer of Trembling Before G-d, Producer of A Jihad for Love, and Co-Producer of Budrus. His award-winning work has screened at Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca and Toronto, theatrically released in 150 cities, and broadcast on ZDF/Arte, BBC, Channel 4, PBS.  In 2020, he was invited to become a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. DuBowski spearheaded a groundbreaking impact campaign with the award-winning Trembling Before G-d, personally conducting 850 live events, for over 250,000 people, which changed the lives of countless individuals, their families, religious leaders, and communities around the world. Feature stories on the project appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NPR, The Globe and Mail, and BBC News. From 2009-2016, DuBowski worked with over 125 of the world’s best social justice documentaries as the Outreach Director of Doc Society’s Good Pitch. He is Co-Founder of The Creative Resistance, a collective of media makers who create award-winning political ads and design. In the mid-1990’s he began his media and activism work at Planned Parenthood Federation of America focused on the Christian right and the anti-abortion movement. Three generations of DuBowski’s family made chocolate syrup in Deep Coastal Brooklyn. 

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“The director delicately contextualizes his subject’s desired legacy by threading Lau-Lavie’s harrowing familial history into the narrative.” – Robyn Bahr, The Hollywood Reporter

“That’s all well and good, but something special happens in the film’s last quarter that makes it required viewing not just for queer people, not just for Jews, but for everyone.” – Dan Bayer, Next Best Picture

“DuBowski affords his subject’s spiritual journey the epic quality it deserves where triumph is simply waking up at peace with where you are, recognizing all the places emotionally – and in Lau-Lavie’s case, geographically – you have to go to get there.” – Stephen Saito, Moveable Fest

“This fast-paced, well-shot doc does place its finger on the quickening pulse of an ever-wider gap between liberalizing Western social values and the Orthodox sphere that believes they are antithetical to Judaism.” – Dennis HarveyVariety

“Though some may not agree with all of his opinions or the way he practices his religion, this documentary makes it impossible to deny his startlingly authentic spirituality.” – Abe Friedtanzer, Awards Buzz

OBSESSED WITH LIGHT pulls back the curtain on Loïe Fuller (1862-1928), a wildly original performer who pioneered modern dance though combining fabric and movement to develop a completely new kind of spectacle. Creating a dialogue between the past and the present, filmmakers Sabine Krayenbühl and Zeva Oelbaum delve into the astonishing influence Fuller’s work has had on contemporary culture including artists like Taylor Swift, Bill T. Jones, Shakira, William Kentridge, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among many others. “A rich tapestry of discoveries by a passionately devoted mover and transformer of light and shape,” (Eye On Dance) OBSESSED WITH LIGHT is a close study of a woman who became famous on her own terms – unapologetic about her body type, open about her sexuality, and protective of her signature, often mimicked, style. OBSESSED WITH LIGHT is a meditation on light and the enduring obsession to create as well as about how Marie Louise Fuller became famous on her own terms– unapologetic about her body type and open about her life partner, a woman. It is about a visionary artist who disrupted the prevailing notions of dance and the imagined limits of the human body. Co-directors Sabine Krayenbuhle and Zeva Oelbaum join us for a conversation on how her friendship impacted contemporaries like inventor Thomas Edison, dancer Isadora Duncan and sculptor Auguste Rodin and why Loïe Fuller’s story is crucial to understanding both early cinema and theatre, as well as why contemporary artists like William Kentridge, singer / songwriter Taylor Swift, fashion designers Alexander McQueen and Dior continue to draw inspiration from her visionary work.

For where to watch and more go to: filmmovement.com/obsessed-with-light

For more go to: obsessedwithlightdocumentary.com

About the filmmaker – Sabine Krayenbühl is an award-winning filmmaker with over twenty theatrical documentaries and narrative features to her credit. She co-directed and edited the NEH-supported documentary  Letters from Baghdad, which showed in the US in over 70 venues and was broadcast on PBS, ARTE and the BBC. Her editing work includes Oscar and Independent Spirit Award nominated My Architect for which she received an American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie Award nomination and the Emmy-winning The Hunt for Planet B. Additional credits include Mad Hot Ballroom, one of the top twenty highest grossing documentaries, The Bridge produced by IFC, Picasso and Braque go to the Movies, produced by Martin Scorsese, Virgin Tales, Ahead of Time, Jennifer Fox’s Emmy nominated My Reincarnation, Salinger on which she consulted and HBO’s The Price of Everything. Krayenbühl has a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and is a  member of NYWIFT and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

About the filmmaker – Zeva Oelbaum is an award winning filmmaker. She co-directed and produced the NEH- supported documentary Letters from Baghdad, which showed theatrically in over 125 theaters in the U.S. and U.K. and premiered on PBS in 2018. The film is voiced and exec. produced by Tilda Swinton. Oelbaum also produced Ahead of Time, a feature length documentary about journalist Ruth Gruber, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival before garnering six Best Documentary awards. She comes to film from a career in still photography and her work has been published in periodicals such as The New York Times Magazine and collected in public collections such as the Bibliothèque nationale de France, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and The Brooklyn Museum. Two monographs of Oelbaum’s photographs have been published by Rizzoli International Publishers. She is a  magna cum laude  graduate of Brandeis University with a degree in anthropology and a member of the Producers Guild.

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Reviews:

“With someone as fascinating as Fuller, a more lyrical approach might draw all the pieces together more fruitfully. Still, I liked “Obsessed With Light” for that older footage.” – Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times

“As is often the case with films like this, it is both baffling that it took this long to tell Fuller’s story and comforting that finally great women pioneers like her are getting the attention they deserve.” – Louis Roberts, Loud and Clear Reviews

“A captivating, well-edited and illuminating albeit often hagiographic documentary biopic on Loïe Fuller. The breathtaking footage of Fuller dancing ultimately speaks louder than words.” – Avi Offer. NYC Movie Guru

In this fascinating documentary of self discovery Director Alison Tavel set out to reconstruct the story behind inventor and her father, Don Tavel. Tavel died suddenly when, Alison, his newborn daughter was just ten weeks old. Growing up surrounded by mythical stories of her “genius” father, Alison’s life is consequently absent from any meaningful connection to him. Not until she is in her mid-twenties and on tour with rock musician Grace Potter is the seed planted to discover what he invented. RESYNATOR is a narrative documentary that begins when Alison rescues Don’s synthesizer prototype from her grandmother’s attic. What starts off as a curious resurrection project of her dad’s Resynator soon launches into an insatiable, globe-trotting quest to untangle the web of myths and unlock the deep secrets surrounding his life and invention. Aided by estranged family, lost friends, fellow inventors and celebrated musicians (Grace Potter, Peter Gabriel, Fred Armisen, Gotye, Jon Anderson, Mark Ronson and more), Alison soon comes to discover Don’s brilliance herself. But in unpacking his life, she also discovers unsettling truths about her father that don’t align with her long-held perception of him, as the picture of a vulnerable man emerges to replace the superhero version she had imagined all her life. Not only can she finally relate to him on a human level, but their parallel Resynator journeys reveal an indomitable bond between them. Director Alison Tavel joins us for a conversation about gripping and heartfelt multi-layered journey into an unknown world of musicians, artist, engineers, friends and family who were touched by her father and how they have now inspired her. 

For more go to: resynator.com

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100% on Rotten Tomatoes

“It’s bursting with heart, and genuinely moving in its improbable journey to close the distance between the dead and the living.” – Kimberley Jones, Austin Chronicle

“Tavel puts the emotion first, making it a powerful experience. She builds and builds to a singular conclusion, and it’s impressive to see something so intricate from a debut feature.” – Alan French, Sunshine State Cineplex

“While a rock doc on the surface, Resynator showcases all the conflicting nuances of reality with higher clarity than previous documentaries.” – Michael Talbot-Haynes, Film Threat

“Much like the device itself, “Resynator” hardly feels revolutionary among its contemporaries, but there’s enough charm and heart beneath it to make it stand out from a crowded field.” – Clint Worthington, RogerEbert.com

“At its core, this is a daughter’s love letter to someone whom the world knew as a Renaissance man ahead of his time, but whom she wished she’d always known as just ‘dad’.” – Paul Emmanuel Enicola, The Movie Buff

“Rather amazing and completely fascinating…it’s a fabulous film.” – Screen Anarchy

“Fascinating…an honest and moving experience.” – Loud and Clear Reviews

Director Michael John Warren FREEDIVER explores the geopolitics that  forced Alexey Molchanov – the world’s greatest living freediver and the son of freediving pioneer Natalia Molchanova into exile. In 2023 Alexey is on a journey to reclaim his athletic glory & honor his iconic mother’s towering legacy by attempting the most dominant season in the history of the deadly sport. His near-suicidal quest to set five world records in under four months brings him to the  farthest reaches of the globe and to the very edges of human performance. In the process, he’s forced to reevaluate all the skills and beliefs on which he has built his entire life. FREEDIVER is directed by American filmmaker Michael John Warren, director of many doc musicals, The Magic of Heineken, and the docuseries “Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza” this year, plus many other projects. Produced by Picturestart, Skydance Sports, GQ Studios, and Boardwalk Pictures; along with Michael John Warren, Erik Feig, Samie Kim Falvey, David Ellison, Jesse Sisgold, Jon Weinbach, Andrew Fried, Dane Lillegard, Jordan Wynn, Helen Estabrook, Sarah Amos, Lexy Altman, Katherine Dunn, Nan Sandle, Talin Middleton. Director Michael John Warren (Spring Awakening, Oh, Hello on Broadway) joins us to talk about how he came to know the story behind the Molchanova’s family story, understanding what drove Natalia and Alexey to push themselves to the outer limits of mental, psychological and physical human capability in an unforgiving realm.

For more go to: youtube.com/@paramountmovies

Paramount Movies will debut Freediver ddirect-to-VOD to watch at home starting December 7th, 2024

About the filmmaker – Michael John Warren is a six-time Emmy nominated writer, director, showrunner, and executive producer known for highly stylized yet story-driven documentary series, music documentaries, and innovative concert films. Most recently, Warren was the Showrunner for Amazon Prime’s explosive true-crime series, Free Meek. The critically acclaimed series features an investigation of the systemic corruption and racism in the Philadelphia Police Department and the Pennsylvania Judicial System-unearthing new facts that ultimately led to the release of Meek Mill and the dismissal of the charges that kept him entangled in the system for twelve years. Warren made his directorial debut with what many consider to be the greatest hip-hop film of all time – Jay-Z’s Fade To Black. Since then, he has gone on to profile many of the biggest names in the music industry with Drake: Better Than Good Enough (2010), Nicki Minaj: My Time Now (2010), Nicki Minah: My Time Again (2015), Vh1’s Heavy: The Story of Metal (2006) and the theatrical concert film Hillsong: Let Hope Rise (2016). It’s recently been announced that Warren is writing, directing, and executive producing a documentary series on Nick Minaj for HBO Max. This is Michael’s third collaboration with the musical icon. Warren’s work extends into the sports world as well. In 2007, Warren directed the award-winning Kobe Mentu-a Nike documentary series in Mandarin seen by tens of millions across China. He was a major creative force behind the controversial series Friday Night Tykes (2014). The hit show made a significant impact by revealing the shocking intensity of youth football in Texas. In 2016 Warren directed the spine-tingling documentary series about professional bull riding called Fearless for Netflix. The cinematic series was nominated for 3 Emmys, including Warren’s second nomination for “Outstanding Long Form Editing.” In 2018, Warren showran and directed the IDA-nominated basketball documentary series Best Shot (Executive Produced by LeBron James), which premiered on YouTube Premium and found a second life on ESPN. In 2018, Warren also directed the Eleven Madison Park episode of the Netflix series 7 Days Out. The film focuses on the “#1 restaurant in the world” as it underwent a gut renovation and raced against the clock to reclaim its culinary glory despite harrowing conditions. Warren made history by filming several iconic shows on Broadway. In 2008, he captured the first-ever complete “live” performance in a Broadway theater with Rent: Filmed Live On Broadway. The remarkable achievement was so successful that DreamWorks soon followed suit, and Warren helmed Shrek The Musical Live On Broadway (2013). In 2015, Warren was invited to film selections from the Tony Award-Winning musical Hamilton just days before it opened on Broadway. This noteworthy work was heavily featured in Great Performances: Hamilton’s America on PBS, 60 Minutes, The 2016 Tony Award broadcast on CBS, and many other outlets. His latest Broadway offering, Oh Hello On Broadway, starring Nick Kroll and John Mulaney, premiered on Netflix in June 2017 to rave reviews, with The New York Times calling the show “stupendously entertaining.” Warren has directed all over the world, including Africa, Asia, The Caribbean, Australia, Europe, South America, and North America.

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Reviews:

“Freediver isn’t aiming to be a riveting suspense piece, instead offering a straightforward look at a truly unhinged pursuit.” – Josh Bell, Crooked Marquee

“Natalia haunts “Freediver,” making it both tender and psychologically absorbing. The film is dedicated to her.” – Lisa Kennedy, Variety

“An exhilarating, well-edited and heartfelt documentary” – Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru

Flint isn’t America’s first major lead crisis, and it will not be the last.  LEAD AND COPPER director William Hart explores how and why that long before the Flint water crisis became national news in 2014, the region had already suffered  through decades of economic hardship. When the  city of Detroit terminates its agreement to continue supplying water to  neighboring Flint, they switched water sources  to the Flint River, a cost-saving measure enacted by former Governor Rick Snyder and  his appointed Emergency Manager. This reckless bureaucratic decision results in the untreated river water from the Flint River, begins corroding Flint’s lead pipes, slowly poisoning tens of thousands of families throughout the city. As months go by, citizens  begin experiencing a wave of horrific symptoms, including rashes, hair loss, aching muscles and joints, nausea, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. However, the community is – at first – left completely in the dark about the real and present danger looming underground. This decision poisoned a city that had already been neglected for  decades. Over the course of 8 years, through interviews of members of Congress, local officials, environmental and engineering scientists, former EPA employees, and the families affected by lead poisoning, LEAD & COPPER makes it clear that the politicians who were entrusted to protect the people of Flint – were woefully unprepared and incapable of curtailing the budding tragedy. What’s more, the authorities were also actively denying the full extent of the crisis. Lead and Copper investigates how city, state, and federal policies contributed to environmental crises like those experienced in Flint, Newark, and Washington, D.C. Director William Hart stops by to talk why the disastrous turn of events in Flint is much more than polluted water, it is an issue of governance with no accountability, class, race and systemic neglect that is happening across America

For more go to: leadandcopperfilm.com

About the filmmaker – William Hart is a director and cinematographer. He has worked on award winning documentaries like Half- Time following Jennifer Lopez’s journey to the Super Bowl halftime show and Copyright Infringement, the documentary about Australian artist CJ Hendry. He also followed and photographed The Doobie Brothers during their 50th Anniversary Tour, and has directed music videos for artists such as: Pile, Rachika Nayar, Maneka, Bambara, Shop Talk and more. His previous shorts have been shown at deadCenter, Nashville Film Festival, Athens International, Hollyshorts, and more. 

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“A stunning exposé on the Flint water crisis, and a compelling human interest story about the resilience of its residents.” – Morgan Rojas, Cinemacy

“An essential social justice documentary about the horrific poisoned situation in Flint, Michigan.” – Federico Furzan, Movie-Blogger.com

“Lead and Copper is a documentary that shines a light over neglected people with basic needs, what happens when those needs are not being met and how important it is to demand better people in government.” – Alejandro Turdó, Hoy Sale Cine

“To say that Lead and Copper extensively researched the subject is an understatement. The film presents not just the bloated bureaucracy that stands in the way of a solution but hits the ground into the lives of its citizens who must create a grass-roots level effort to ensure that “Flint Lives Matter” is heard by all levels of government.” – Andy Ng, FilmThreat

“If you’re shocked by the facts it presents at the outset, you’re going to be open-mouthed by the end.” – Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film

“William Hart keeps ears and eyes transfixed and the textured editing adequately complements the attention to detail. This flick is further embellished by archive footage and telling camera-work.” – Ronak Kotechka, Review Ron

Director Pirie Martin’s mind-bending PSYCHOSIS combines surrealist Noir, Horror, and ‘Arthouse Action’ to create a truly unique audio-visual experience inspired by the limitation and manipulation of human perception. It follows Cliff Van Aarle (played by breakout talent Derryn Amoroso); a criminal fixer with a unique psychological condition that gives him an edge in the  criminal underworld, but when he’s hired by two amateur drug dealers claiming they were attacked by ‘zombies,’ Van Aarle is dragged into a terrifying and bizarre mystery that will test him to his limits. Amid a cacophony of hallucinatory voices guiding him from his subconscious, Van Aarle digs for answers along a hauntingly familiar path of death and   psychological torture… the same path that once nearly killed him and gave rise to his unusual condition. Aiding him on his journey is a troupe of unusual allies; his gung-ho ex business partner Hess (Kate Holly Hall); the hopelessly naïve drug dealing duo Brodie & Aaron (Henry Errington and Michael Wilkop); a ‘sharehouse shaman’ and master chemist inexplicably named ‘No-Arms’ (Mark Healy); The case gets stranger still with the arrival of a delusional vigilante LoneWolf (PJ Van Gyen), and the revelation that the mastermind behind it all may be more monster than man. A surreal conspiracy of mind control, psychedelic drugs, and a criminal underbelly terrified of the enigmatic drug lord ‘Joubini’, who uses hypnosis with lethal effect. Van Aarle may be the only one equipped to bring him down, but only if his mind survives the trip. South Australian independent writer/director Pirie Martin talks about the meticulous detail that went into telling a Noir-Horror story with a heavy dose of Paracusia, an auditory verbal hallucinations, and 1930’s expressionist staging. 

For more, go to:psychosisfilm.com

About the filmmaker – Writer, Director, Producer Pirie Martin is a filmmaker, writer and artist based in Adelaide, South Australia – where he’s been making films in one form or another since the age of five. In 2010 he co-founded the partnership ‘Kessel Run Productions’ where he filled numerous production roles on corporate videos, music videos, promotional media and commercials for 11years. During this time Pirie co-produced, shot, and edited a number of short films, including ‘Cheaters’ (2017, dir. J. Bhatia) which screened at 12 international festivals and took home a handful of awards. Pirie was also on the writing team for MarVista Entertainments ‘Raising the Bar’ (Dir. Clay Glen, 2016) Pirie’s first independent short film, ‘Andy’s Venture’ (2017) was nominated ‘Best short Comedy’ at the 2017 Houston Comedy Film Festival, followed by a Special Mention at The 2018 London Worldwide Comedy Festival, and was later picked up for limited online distribution. ‘Psychosis’ is Pirie’s debut feature film.

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“It’s the precise type of unconventional visual storytelling that evokes extreme reactions. But it’s so daring in form and mythology that it’s hard not to be impressed.” – Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting

“Psychosis is offbeat and surreal, exactly as Martin intended.” – Bobby LePire, Film Threat

“a disorienting take on film noir, as distorting stylizations and unhinged plotting play out like nightmares in a damaged brain, hoodwinking and gaslighting the viewer from any sure grip on what is going on.” – Anton Bitel, Projected Figures

“Its square aspect ratio occasionally host to brief, jarring color, Psychosis is a noirishly styled nightmare that in content is closer to the arch surrealism of something like Donnie Darko, albeit on a much smaller budget…” – Dennis Harvey, 48 Hills

“Psychosis takes viewers on a triptastic journey into a monochrome world they will never forget.” – Matthew Pejkovic, Matt’s Movie Reviews

Oscar-nominated Waad Al-Kateab’s, DEATH WITHOUT MERCY is wrenching feature documentary that focuses on the early hours of February 6, 2023, when a devastating earthquake measuring 7.8  struck a vast region of Turkey and Syria that resulted in over 55,000 deaths and illustrated the destructive instability that had torn this region apart. DEATH WITHOUT MERCY, directed by Waad Al-Kateab, is a powerful record of the disaster from the personal perspective of two Syrian families searching for their loved ones over 10 days in the earthquake’s aftermath.  The shock of this disaster soon gives way to a damning record of human failure highlighting official incompetence and the lack of humanitarian aid impeding the search for these survivors.  Through intimate first-hand survivor footage from under the rubble interwoven with television news reports, social media interaction, and closed circuit tv and drone footage, the film is at once a moving testament to human dignity and a heartfelt tribute to the lives that have been lost in this catastrophic event. Director Waad Al-Kateab (For Sama) joins to talk about shattering experience of watching the real time footage of buildings, bridges collapsing and knowing that as horrific as that was, knowing that the regional and international leadership essentially turned their collective back on the unspeakable misery that has been visited upon these innocent people. And when she knew she had to make DEATH WITHOUT MERCY.

For more go to: thefilmcollaborative.org/deathwithoutmercy

About the filmmaker – In 2011, when protests against the Assad regime swept the country, Waad taught herself how to film and became a citizen journalist, determined to document the horrors around her. During that time, Waad began reporting for Channel 4 News in the UK. This series of reports – titled Inside Aleppo – on Channel 4 News became the most watched pieces on the UK news program and received almost half a billion views online and won 24 awards – including the 2016 International Emmy for breaking news coverage. Waad documented her whole life over 5 years in Aleppo, as she fell in love with a doctor, Hamza; gave birth to their first daughter Sama (Sky); up until their forced displacement out of Syria and the birth of their second child, Taima. This footage became the basis of the feature documentary released in 2019, For Sama. Directed together with Edward Watts, For Sama won the Prix L’Œil d’or for best documentary at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, receiving a six-minute standing ovation. At the 73rd British Academy Film Awards in 2020, For Sama became the most nominated documentary in the history of the BAFTAs with four nominations, ultimately winning for Best Documentary. The same year, For Sama received a nomination for Best Documentary Feature at the 2020 Academy Awards. Waad has received numerous personal recognitions for her work as an activist and filmmaker, including the IDA Courage Under Fire Award, a Special Recognition for Courage in Filmmaking at DOC NYC Festival, and a place in the 2020 Time100 List of Most Influential People. She now works as a filmmaker on various projects, including a documentary on the Olympic Refugee Team, and dedicates time to her advocacy campaign, Action For Sama, which was set up to turn the worldwide reaction to For Sama into positive action for Syrians. The campaign, launched in 2019, focuses on utilizing For Sama as a unique educational tool to build more empathetic responses to the situation in Syria and end impunity for the war crimes committed there. Action For Sama’s ultimate aim is to see the perpetrators of war crimes in Syria be held to account – and thereby end the ongoing targeting of civilians and hospitals in Syria. Waad’s latest film, Death Without Mercy is a powerful, personal and moving piece about the stories of two families over the course of 10 days following the devastating Syria-Turkey earthquake in Feb 2023.

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Reviews:

“An engrossing, enraging and illuminating human rights documentary.” – Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru

After 20 years away, Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) washes up on the shores of Ithaca, haggard and unrecognizable. The King has returned from the Trojan War, but much has changed in his kingdom. His beloved wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche) is a prisoner in her own home, hounded by suitors vying to be king. Their son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) faces death at the hands of these suitors, who see him as merely an obstacle to their pursuit of the kingdom. Odysseus has also changed—scarred by his experience of the Trojan war, he is no longer the mighty warrior from years past— but he must rediscover his strength in order to win back all that he has lost.  Director, Co-producer and Co-screenwriter Uberto Pasolini (Nowhere Special) joins us for a conversation on the when, where and why he made the decision to move forward on a project that he began working on over 30 years before, his collaboration with The Returns principal actors, Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche and how this 3,000 year old story still captures the essence of so many of our basic and base human motivations.

For more go to: bleeckerstreetmedia.com/the-return

About the filmmaker – Uberto Pasolini founded Red Wave Films in 1993. He produced THE FULL MONTY, which took over 250 million dollars at the worldwide box office, won a Bafta for Best Film and was nominated for four Oscars. Other Red Wave produced films include PALOOKAVILLE and THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES. Pasolini made his directorial debut in 2008 with Sri Lanka set MACHAN which won numerous international awards. He followed this with STILL LIFE which starred Eddie Marsan and Joanne Froggatt and premiered at the Venice Film Festival where he was awarded Best Director, Orizzonti. NOWHERE SPECIAL starring James Norton which also premiered in Orizzonti was recently released in the US to great critical acclaim. 

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88% on RottenTomatoes

“By telling a decidedly bare-bones version of a story known for its scale and excess, The Return’s harsh landscape and violent undertones highlight the all-too-human struggles at its center in ways that make its ancient source material feel brand new.” – Lacy Baugher, Paste Magazine

“Fiennes displays an impressively sinewy and shredded physique through much of “The Return.” He uncorks fiery machismo and badassery in his action scenes that we seldom see from him.” – Ankit Jhunjhunwala, The Playlist

“As tender and somber as it is thrilling, The Return proves a sword-and-sandals saga rooted in life’s biggest issues, all of them written on the unforgettable countenance of its illustrious star.” – Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

“Reminiscent of another Pasolini, Pier Paolo, in its minimalist take on a classic story, the film relies mainly on the elemental power of Fiennes and Binoche, both suitably haunting as the long-separated lovers who have lapsed into emotional despair.” – Frank Scheck, The Hollywood

A stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people and their way of life, SUGARCANE, the debut feature documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning. In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves was discovered on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada. After years of silence, the forced separation, assimilation and abuse many children experienced at these segregated boarding schools was brought to light, sparking a national outcry against a system designed to destroy Indigenous communities. Set amidst a groundbreaking investigation, SUGARCANE illuminates the beauty of a community breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and finding the strength to persevere. Co-directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie join us for a conversation on how their focus changed during the filming of SUGARCANE, getting to know the dedicated people like Whitney Spearing and Charlene Belleau who devoted themselves to uncovering the repugnant history of St. Joseph’s Residential School and the “Indian Problem”, capturing the unfolding relationship between Julian and his father, Ed Archie NoiseCat and filming the disturbing conversation between Former First Nation Chief Rick Gilbert and the Vatican’s Superior General Louis Lougen concerning san acknowledgment or apology from the Catholic Church regarding their administration of Residential Schools in North America. 

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For more go to: nationalgeographic.com/sugarcane

About the filmmaker – Julian Brave NoiseCat is a writer, filmmaker and student of Salish art and history. His first documentary, Sugarcane, directed alongside Emily Kassie, follows an investigation into abuse and missing children at the Indian residential school NoiseCat’s family was sent to near Williams Lake, British Columbia. Sugarcane premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival where NoiseCat and Kassie won the Directing Award in the U.S. Documentary Competition. A proud member of the Canim Lake Band Tsescen and descendant of the LilWat Nation of Mount Currie, he is concurrently finishing his first book, We Survived the Night, which will be published by Alfred A. Knopf in North America, Profile Books in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, Albin Michel in France and Aufbau Verlag in Germany. NoiseCat’s journalism has appeared in dozens of publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Yorker and has been recognized with many awards including the 2022 American Mosaic Journalism Prize, which honors excellence in long-form, narrative or deep reporting on stories about underrepresented and/or misrepresented groups in the present American landscape. In 2021, NoiseCat was named to the TIME100 Next list of emerging leaders alongside the starting point guard of his fantasy basketball team, Luka Doncic. For more go to: julianbravenoisecat.com

About the filmmaker – Emily Kassie is an Emmy® and Peabody®-nominated investigative journalist and filmmaker. Kassie shoots, directs and reports stories on geopolitical conflict, humanitarian crises, corruption and the people caught in the crossfire. Her work for The New York Times, PBS Frontline, Netflix, and others ranges from drug and weapons trafficking in the Saharan desert, to immigrant detention in the United States. In 2021, she smuggled into Taliban territory with PBS Newshour correspondent Jane Ferguson to report on their imminent siege of Kabul and targeted killing of female leaders. Her work has been honored with multiple Edward R. Murrow, World Press Photo and National Press Photographers awards. Her multimedia feature on the economic exploitation of the Syrian and West African refugee crises won the Overseas Press Club Award and made her the youngest person to win a National Magazine award. She previously oversaw visual journalism at Highline, Huffington Post’s investigative magazine, and at The Marshall Project. Kassie was named to Forbes 30 under 30 in 2020 and is a 2023 New America fellow. Her first documentary, I Married My Family’s Killer, following couples in post-genocide Rwanda, won a Student Academy Award in 2015.  For more go to: emilykassie.com

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“The product of humane and insightful filmmakers who are determined to never let anyone forget” – Variety

“A powerful reckoning” – The Hollywood Reporter

“Beautiful and compassionate” – PASTE

“As much a piece of art about the sins of the past as it is about living with the memory of those sins in the present.” – Indiewire

“Sugarcane is essential viewing. Emily Kassie and Julian Brave Noise Cat’s documentary film is a haunting and overwhelmingly powerful examination of religious assimilation.” – M.N. Miller, Geek Vibes Nation

“DEVASTATING…This is no superficial recounting of yet another injustice against native people. It goes bone deep. An important record and an artistic reckoning.” – Finn Halligan, SCREEN DAILY

“This is documentary filmmaking at its best. A credit to the genre. Compelling, spiritual and enlightening.” – Dwight Brown, DwightBrownInk.com

Director Elan Golod’s latest documentary film, NATHAN-ISM recounts the wildly improbable life and times of former US   Army soldier Nathan Hilu. Nathan is the son of Syrian Jewish immigrants to New York, who at the end of World War II receives a life-changing assignment from the superiors. He and his group are ordered to guard the top Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. This experience fueled a lifetime of artistic inspiration for Nathan, a virtually unknown “outsider artist”, who spent the next 70 years obsessively creating a visual narrative from his memories. But what happens when those memories take on a life of their own?  This gripping exploration follows the extraordinary journey of 18-year-old Nathan Hilu, the son of Syrian-Jewish immigrants to New York, who at the end of World War II receives a life-changing mission from the U.S. Army: to guard the most notorious Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. For a whole year, Hilu keeps suicide watch while getting an up-close and personal look at these men and the horrors they committed. This first-person exposure to humanity’s greatest evil serves as Nathan’s coming of age. Nathan, a virtually unknown “outsider artist”, would spend the next 70 years obsessively creating a visual narrative from his memories. Nathan-ism delves into Nathan’s relationship with his own stories, and the compulsion he has to share them with a world that doesn’t always listen. Filmmaker Elan Golod has created an enthralling documentary portrait of the aging artist but what begins as a peek at a unique witness to history grows into  an absorbing study of the function of art as archive and invention. Daring to question an artist’s stories, “Nathan-ism” is a fascinating look at one man’s need to share truths with a world that doesn’t always want to listen. Nathan-ism offers not only a narrative of historical significance but a captivating study of the function of art as archive. It offers an opportunity to confront the nature of memory, and the significance of collective memory in today’s global context.

For more go to: nathan-ism.com

Shortlisted for IDA Documentary of the Year Award 2023 Yad Vashem Award winner for  “Cinematic Excellence in Holocaust Documentary Filmmaking

About the filmmaker – After transitioning from a background in visual arts to filmmaking, Director /Editor Elan Golod made his mark in the New York film industry as an editor on a diverse array of projects and as a short-form documentary director. He was part of the editing team for Mike Birbiglia’s film “Sleepwalk with Me” (Sundance, SXSW) and co-directed and edited the documentary short “Mike Birbiglia: How to Make Whatever This Is.” While working on his feature documentary “Nathan-ism,” he co-edited Birbiglia’s “Don’t Think Twice” (SXSW, Tribeca) and Maya Zinshtein’s documentary “‘Til Kingdom Come” (DocAviv, IDFA).

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88% on RottenTomatoes

“Nathan-ism feels like a journey toward understanding the intersection of art and memory, truth and trauma, time and creativity…much like its subject matter, is far more complex than that which meets the eye.” – Richard Propes, The Independent Critic

“Drawing from the real-life inspiration and using animation to recreate key moments, this is an engaging story told with compassion by Golod.” – Dallas King Flick Feast

“…one of the most salient examinations of the vagaries of memory and the role of non-fiction filmmaking to weed out truth from the remembrances of a subject, no matter how charismatic or sympathetic they may be.” – POV Magazine

“Nathan-ism is a great exploration of an artist who dared to speak out loud about the monsters of war,all through the very special art he made.” – Movieblogger.com

“Nathan-ism is an intimate portrait of a peculiar and complex artist, the individual challenge of making art and the quest to keep memories alive and have them transcend the limits of our own existence.” – Hoy Sale Cine

The Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF) is thrilled to unveil the official program for its 24th edition, set to take place from December 6th to December 15th across venues in Anchorage, Alaska. This year’s festival is a landmark event, marking the first program curated by newly appointed Festival Directors, Pat McGee and Adam Linkenhelt. Both filmmakers, McGee and Linkenhelt, have committed to elevating the  quality of films showcased at the festival and enhancing the experience for visiting filmmakers and the local film community. The 10-day festival will spotlight more than 100 films spanning all genres, with a particular emphasis on independent films that have enjoyed successful festival runs and are vying for one final screening push before the Oscars shortlist is announced. “Our festival represents the last opportunity for some of these remarkable independent films to be discovered before the shortlist is released,” said McGee. “We’re raising the bar this year, and as we see the caliber of films elevate, we could very well be calling the Anchorage International Film Festival ‘The Icy Road to the Oscars.” 

For information on the full program, special events, and ticket sales for AIFF24 screenings are now available online at anchoragefilmfestival.org.

Opening Night & Key Screenings

AIFF’s Opening Night screening will be Bob Trevino Likes It, The film won Best Narrative and Audience Award at this year’s SXSW film festival. Director Tracie Laymon will be in attendance.

Festival Highlights

Festival highlights include The Way We Speak, starring Patrick Fabian (Better Call Saul), with both Fabian and director Ian Ebright in attendance. Porcelain War, Sundance Feature Documentary Grand Jury Prize Winner, will also be featured, with directors Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev in attendance. Set amid the backdrop of Ukraine, Porcelain War follows artists who remain behind during wartime, defying the destruction around them with resilience and beauty. Other notable films include the Belgian comedy Life’s a Bitch by director Xavier Seron, who will be in attendance, and Queen of the Ring, the inspirational true story of Mildred Burke, the first million-dollar female athlete in history, directed by Ash Avildsen and starring Josh Lucas and Emily Bett Rickards.

Spotlight on Narrative Features

This year’s lineup also features an exciting mix of narrative films from both seasoned and first-time filmmakers. First-time feature directors T.J. Sandella (Battersea) and Adam Boyer (Uphill), who grew up and filmed his debut feature just outside of Anchorage, will showcase their work at the festival. On the other end of the spectrum, AIFF welcomes prolific independent filmmaker Ryan Balas, whose latest narrative Midwinter marks his 25th independent feature in the past decade.

Special Events and Festival Experience

In addition to the remarkable film lineup, AIFF promises unforgettable Alaskan experiences for visiting filmmakers, including Northern Lights excursions, glacier hikes, and for the bold, a polar bear plunge – all in the spirit of AIFF’s signature theme: Films Worth Freezing For.

About the Festival Director – Pat McGee is an acclaimed documentary director and producer known for his work on both film and television, with a focus on character-driven stories that seek to find common ground in polarizing subjects. His storytelling has been praised as “gripping,” “humanistic,” and “illuminating” by critics from the LA Times to Variety. Now, as the newly appointed Festival Director of the 24th Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF), Pat, alongside longtime collaborator and fellow filmmaker Adam Linkenhelt, is building on AIFF’s long-standing tradition of showcasing “Films Worth Freezing For.” Together, they are crafting a new narrative, positioning the festival as the “Icy Road to the Oscars,” and curating a dynamic program of over 100 films that highlight bold, independent voices and thought-provoking stories from around the world.patmcgeepictures.com

About the Festival Director – Adam Linkenhelt is an innovative filmmaker who has spent the past decade immersed in the independent film world, focusing on documentary storytelling and shorts that explore the raw, emotional depths of real life. As a director, editor, and producer, his work has been praised as “gripping” and “humanistic” by LA Times and  Variety, with films and series airing on HULU, VICE, A&E, DISCOVERY, and PEACOCK. Adam’s shorts have toured the festival circuit, resonating with audiences worldwide for their authenticity and emotional impact. Now, as Festival Director of the Anchorage International Film Festival, Adam is committed to elevating bold, independent voices and fostering collaboration within the vibrant creative community of Alaska.

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Director and co-writer Klaudia Reynicke’s slow-burn family drama takes place during time of political upheaval. It follows sisters Lucia and Aurora as they are preparing to permanently leave their native country, Peru, with their mom, but they need their absentee father, Carlos, to sign exit papers. It’s been convenient for Carlos to not be a dad, but now if he wants his daughters love, he has to earn back his place before they leave. Reynicke subtly weaves a tale of shifts and sacrifices that shows, whatever the familial configuration, strength and loss are necessary parts of growth. Grounded by a strong performance from Jimena Lindo as Elena and a wonderfully inquisitive Abril Gjurinovic, a family is brought to life. Reynicke’s effective direction honors each community the camera focuses on, and her Lima, the city where Reynicke grew up, feels personal, like a memory or a version of a city that no longer exists but emerges vibrant and alive in the film. Reinas is truly an emotional trip, transporting the viewer to Lima in the ’90s, right into the heart of a family faced with a universal challenge: the search for a safer place. Director and co-writer (Diego Vega) Klaudia Reynick joins us to talk about the inspiration for her film about a family with a complicated dynamic that, while no longer together is brought together for the purpose of splitting up again, perhaps forever. Reynicke assembles a superb cast of actors that all deliver terrific performances, including the young sisters Abril Gjurnovic (Lucia) and Luana Vega (Aurora) and the parents Jimena Lindo (Elena) and Gonzalo Molina (Carlos). We also discuss Queens / Reinas designation as Switzerland’s 2024 Oscar submission for Best International Feature.

For more, go to: outsiderpictures.us/queens

Opens exclusively in New York and Los Angeles on November 29th at the Cinema Village and Laemmle Royal on November 30 & December 1 with in-person Q&A’s in Los Angeles

SWITZERLAND’S 2025 OSCAR SUBMISSION

WINNER BEST DIRECTOR, BERLIN – Grand Prix, Generations
WINNER, AUDIENCE AWARD – Locarno Film Festival
SUNDANCE – Official Selection

About the filmmaker – Klaudia Reynicke is a Swiss-Peruvian filmmaker raised in Peru, Switzerland, and the US. She holds a background in Fine Arts and Social Sciences. Her debut film, “Il Nido” (2016), competed at the Locarno film festival, followed by “Love Me Tender” (2019) at Locarno and TIFF. Her third feature, “Reinas,” had its world premiere at Sundance 2024, participating in the World Cinema competition. Subsequently, it premiered in Europe at the Berlinale Film Festival, competing in the Generation Kplus category, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature.

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88% on RottenTomatoes

“Klaudia Reynicke has crafted an authentic, poignant piece of cinema that will resonate with so many. It’s a personal, small-scale story told in the shadow of world-altering events, a perfect environment in which characters can be explored and developed.” – Rhys Bowen Jones, Talking Films

“Reinas is… a nostalgic love letter for home as well as a persuasive and provoking historical record.

All that we look for in good cinema” – New Indian Express

Reinas is a film with a lot of heart. Each person is multifaceted, with strengths, shortcomings, nightmares, and dreams – Carlos Aguilar, Variety

“A warm hearted, enveloping film – Reinas reigns supreme.” – AWFJ.org

“A confident and well-constructed tale that is built on the firm foundations of a great ensemble cast.” – Eye for Film

“…accessible, tenderly observed heartwarmer” – Screen International

PORCELAIN WAR is a powerful account of life amidst the chaos and destruction of the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine. The film follows three artists who defiantly find inspiration and beauty as they defend their culture and their country. In a war waged by professional soldiers against ordinary civilians, Slava Leontyev, Anya Stasenko and Andrey Stefanov choose to stay behind, armed with their art, their cameras and, for the first time in their lives, their guns. Despite daily shelling, Anya finds resistance and purpose in her art, Andrey takes the dangerous journey to get his young family to safety abroad, and Slava becomes a weapons instructor for ordinary people who have become unlikely soldiers. As the war intensifies, Andrey picks up his camera to film their story, and on tiny porcelain figurines, Anya and Slava capture their idyllic past, uncertain present and hope for the future. Co-directed by Slava Leontyev and Brendan Bellomo, with extraordinary footage from first-time cinematographer Andrey Stefanov, PORCELAIN WAR embodies the passion and fight, that only an artist can put back into the world when it’s crumbling around them. PORCELAIN WAR debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January where it won the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Documentary Competition and has gone on to win audience awards at festivals around the world. Porcelain War is a true cinematic gem. Co-directors Slava Leontyev and Brendan Bellomo manage to gracefully capture the dissonance between the horrors of war and the fragile beauty of nature and artistic practice. Anya’s and Slava’s porcelain pieces come to life in delicately crafted animations that offer context to their makers’ story and a stunning outlet for processing grief.

For more go to: porcelainwar.com

In NY at the IFC Center on 11/22

In LA at the Leammle Monica on 11/29

Winner — Sundance U.S. Grand Jury Prize

Official Selection — DOC NYC Shortlist

Official Selection — SCAD Savannah Film Festival

Winner — Best Documentary, Best Documentary Editing, Woodstock Film Festival

Cinema Eye Honors — Audience Choice Prize Longlist

About the filmmaker – SLAVA LEONTYEV (Director, Participant) is a first-time director born into a family of biologists in Ukraine. Merging his love of nature and art, Leontyev has spent his life studying painting, photography, graphic design and art theory. Alongside his wife and longtime collaborator Anya Stasenko, Leontyev now creates the porcelain sculptures featured in Porcelain War. He is also a former soldier of the Ukrainian Special Forces and a highly regarded weapons instructor for civilians who are currently defending their country against Russian aggression. 

About the filmmaker – BRENDAN BELLOMO (Director, Writer, Editor) was the recipient of a 2009 Student Academy Award® for Live Action Narrative. Bellomo’s passion for storytelling was first sparked when he was a child. Beginning his career in visual effects, he supervised the 2012 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner and Oscar® nominee for Best Picture Beasts of the Southern Wild (Fox Searchlight). Most recently, Bellomo was the executive producer on the Netflix Original Chupa. Bellomo worked closely with Annie Leibovitz on the global exhibit “Women: New Portraits” and designed the curriculum for the first visual effects course at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, which led him on the path to eventually pair with his directing partner, Slava Leontyev.

About the subject – ANYA STASENKO (Associate Producer, Participant) is a ceramics artist and experienced nature photographer who has been deeply engaged in the fine arts since her early childhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine. As such, Stasenko’s paintings have become her lifelong language. While studying at the Kharkiv School of Arts and Academy of Design and Arts, she developed a unique style of painting on ceramic miniatures. This is also where she began to collaborate with Slava Leontyev, now her husband. Together, they create the widely recognized tiny porcelain figurines featured in Porcelain War.

About the filmmaker and subject – ANDREY STEFANOV (Cinematographer, Participant) was born in Feodosia, a town in Crimea, Ukraine, and received his artistic education in Kharkiv. He then returned to his home in Crimea, where he became an artisan winemaker and recognized oil painter. For many years Stefanov created fine art photography, landscape paintings and still lifes. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Stefanov and his friend Slava Leontyev decided to pick up film cameras, discovering a new medium to express their artistic perspectives. This is Stefanov’s first feature credit as a cinematographer.

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instagram.com/stasenko1639

95% on RottenTomatoes

“A powerful testament to the resilience of the artistic spirit…” – Peter Howell, Toronto Star

“Cinematic essays take many forms: few are as fragile and contemplative as Porcelain War.” – Fionnuala Halligan, Screen Daily

“The importance of art in the fight against fascism is the point of “Porcelain War,” a documentary in competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival about artists who have turned into soldiers in the Ukrainian war against Russia.” – Sarah Manvel, In Their Own League

“A united resistance effort: war balanced by love, bloodshed by beauty.” – Guy Lodge, Variety

“A combination of whimsy and devastation.” – The Wall Street Journal

“Porcelain War masterfully illustrates the enduring power of art in the face of adversity.”- Awards Daily

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Raoul Peck’s ERNEST COLE: LOST AND FOUND is a new documentary chronicling the life and work of Ernest Cole, one of the first Black freelance photographers in South Africa, whose early pictures, shocking at the time of their first publication, revealed to the world Black life under apartheid. Cole fled South Africa in 1966 and lived in exile in the U.S., where he photographed extensively in New York City, as well as the American South, fascinated by the ways this country could be at times so vastly different, and at others eerily similar, to the segregated culture of his homeland. During this  period, he published his landmark book of photographs denouncing the apartheid, House of Bondage which, while banned in South Africa, cemented Cole’s place as one of the great photographers of his time at the age of 27. After his death, more than 60,000 of his 35mm film negatives were inexplicably discovered in a bank vault in Stockholm, Sweden. Most considered these forever lost, especially the thousands of pictures Cole shot in the U.S. Telling his own story through his writings, the recollections of those closest to him, and the lens of his uncompromising work, the film is a reintroduction of a pivotal Black artist to a new generation. Director Raoul Peck joins us to talk about his approach to telling Ernest Cole’s story, including the decision to bring in Lakeith Stanfield to voice Ernest narrative, why he has always shied away from doing “talking heads” documentaries and how Cole’s life experience growing up in apartheid South Africa and then coming to the promised land of America informed his clear-eyed photographs of societies living in delusion and informed by dangerous fairy tales.

For more go to: magpictures.com/ernestcole

2024 Cannes Film Festival – World Premiere, Special Screening

2024 Toronto International Film Festival

About the Subject – Born in 1940 as Ernest Levi Tsoloane Kole in Eersterust, Pretoria, Ernest Cole began his career sweeping the floors of a photography studio in Johannesburg in the late 1950s. He finally broke through ten years later, when he was hired as a freelance photographer for the famous Black magazine DRUM. His photos made him a target of the South African government and, having become a “persona non grata,” he left Johannesburg for Europe in 1966. He shipped some of his negatives and prints out of the country and left the rest of his work behind, safe in the hands of friends. After a stay in Europe, he settled in New York where he worked for the Magnum agency and published his first book of photographs denouncing apartheid. Entitled House of Bondage (1967), this book was inspired by the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson. Although banned in South Africa, the book was a landmark and earned Cole his status amongst the Black cultural community of the time. Later, Cole received a grant from the Ford Foundation to photograph the lives of Black people in the rural South and Northern cities of the United States. For unknown reasons, the book was never published. By the end of the 1970s he seemed to have abandoned photography and lost control of his archives. He went through periods of homelessness and died of pancreatic cancer in 1990, a few days after Nelson Mandela was released from prison. Ernest Cole, one of South Africa’s first Black photojournalists, created powerful images that shed light on the lives of Black people under the apartheid regime. These images represent his best-known and most widely distributed work. Anyone familiar with this chapter of South African history will recognize Cole’s iconic photo of a middle-aged white woman sitting on a park bench bearing the warning: “European’s only.” 

About the filmmaker – Raoul Peck’s complex oeuvre includes such films as: The Man by the Shore (Competition, Cannes Film Festival 1993); Lumumba (Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival 2000); Sometimes in April (Competition, Berlinale 2005); Moloch Tropical (TIFF 2009, Berlinale 2010) and Murder in Pacot (TIFF 2014, Berlinale 2015).  Raoul Peck was a member of the Berlinale jury in 2002 and of the Cannes Festival jury in 2012. In 2001, the Human Rights Watch Association awarded him the Irene Diamond Lifetime Achievement Award for his commitment to human rights. In 2017, his documentary on writer James Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary and won the Audience Award at the Toronto Festival and the Berlinale. In 2018, it won the BAFTA and the Cesar for Best Documentary. This film was co-produced with ARTE. His film, The Young Karl Marx, co-produced with Agat Films, was presented at the Berlinale the same year. Exterminate all the Brutes, is a groundbreaking four-part mini- series, produced for HBO, which tells a counter-narrative to white Euro-centric history and was also co-produced by ARTE. The mini-series won a Peabody Award in 2022. His latest film, Silver Dollar Road, had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. His company Velvet Film was founded in 1989 and operates in the United States, France and Haiti. All of Peck’s documentaries, feature films and television dramas have been produced or co-produced by Velvet Film.  For more go to: velvet-film.com/RaoulPeck

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95% on RottenTomatoes

“Peck spends so much time unpacking Cole’s inner life from his diaries and notebooks, because while the photos may live on in archives, those are the stories most at risk of disappearing from the frame.” – Monica Castillo, RogerEbert.com

“Peck’s film stands as a requisite biography, but also a personal homage: The response of one politically conscious artist to the call of another.” – Lisa Kennedy, New York Times

“Powerful historical documentary.” – Dennis Schwartz, Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

“Watching “Lost and Found,” you’re moved by a life that veered into tragedy, yet the place it lands lifts you up. More than a great photographer, Ernest Cole captured something essential. By the end you feel the ghost is speaking to you.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

“At the heart of Raoul Peck’s latest documentary “Ernest Cole, Lost And Found,” a stirring lament of the exiled South African photographer, is the devastating image of a life deferred” – Robert Daniels, Screen International

“You’re left feeling that he deserved better, a longer lasting legacy, for he was a pioneer in his field who deserved his flowers while he was alive.”- Chalice Williams, Black Girl Nerds

While fleeing a neglectful household, thirteen-year-old RITA (Giuliana Santa Cruz)  is placed in an oppressive state-run orphanage. Rita’s arrival provides a glimmer of hope to the girls inside, who share a prophecy that an angel will appear to release them. Encouraged by one another, the girls plan an escape to claim their freedom and expose the orphanage’s abuses of power. Based on the true story behind one of Guatemala’s most harrowing tragedies, RITA shines a light on the brave orphans whose fight for survival inspired a nationwide outcry for justice and reform. THE BACKSTORY of RITA – In Guatemala, 56 low-income girls and adolescents were burned on March 8, 2017. They were in a state protection home. Forty-one of them died, and 15 survived. Since 2013, there were reports of sexual violence and possible trafficking within the home, and it seems that “girl consumers” held important positions in the country. The fire occurred after all the girls in that institution created an escape riot to report the mistreatment and sexual abuse they were suffering, using the date of International Women’s Day as a reason. The 56 girls considered to be the leaders of the riot were locked up against their rights in a 4×4 square meter room. When the fire started inside the room, the police and guards who controlled the door to the outside waited 9 minutes before opening, despite the smoke, the piercing screams, and the smell of burning flesh. The firefighters tried to intervene immediately, but other guards made it difficult for them to enter the place. I am keen to explore the girls’ everyday lives, dispelling misconceptions of delinquency and delving into their camaraderie, friendship, love, and aspirations. I want to portray them as loyal companions united in their plight, despite the harsh conditions they faced. They strived to preserve their innocence amidst the harsh realities imposed on them at a young age. By narrating their stories, I aim to challenge societal norms, honor their resilience, and ensure that their voices are heard, resonating far beyond the confines of their tragic past. Director & Writer Jayro Bustamante joins us to talk about the heinous and despicable events that serve as the foundation for his powerful rebuttal to bigotry, misogyny and the absence of accountability that created the conditions for this to happen.

For mor go to: shudder.com

To watch: shudder.com/watch/rita

Official Selection for Guatemala

Academy Award Best International Feature

About the filmmaker – Jayro Bustamante is a film director, producer, and writer. He was born in Guatemala and grew up in a Maya community on the shores of Lake Atitlán, an experience that deeply influenced his storytelling style. While studying social communication at the University of San Carlos of Guatemala, he worked at Ogilvy & Mather as a director and producer of advertising, where he took his first steps in the audiovisual world. He studied Film Directing in Paris at the Conservatoire Libre du Cinema Francais, and continued his studies in screenwriting at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. In 2009 he returned to Guatemala and founded La Casa de Produccion. He produced four short films and his debut feature, Ixcanul, which won him the Silver Bear at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival and more than 60 awards in international festivals. In 2018 he produced and directed his second film, Tremors, which premiered at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival and received several international awards. In September 2019 he premiered his third film, La Llorona, in Venice, winning the Best Director award in the Giornate degli Autori. Jayro is currently developing a number of films and series, as well as producing for other Guatemalan and foreign directors. He has been juror at Berlinale 2016, Brussels Film Festival 2018, Biarritz Festival 2018, Platino Awards and Fenix Awards, and Los Cabos Film Festival. He was President of the Jury for Horizontes Latinos in the San Sebastiaan 2020 Festival, and President of the Jury at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia, 2021. His film La Llorona was nominated as Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes and Best Ibero-American Film at the Goya Awards, both in 2021; it was nominated in eleven categories at the 2021 Platino Awards, and won five. In 2021, he directed and produced his fourth film, “Rita,” in co-production with Jonathan King. In 2022, he directed and produced his fifth film, “Cordillera de Fuego,” currently in post-production. In 2023, he directed the pilot for the series “The Border” for Disney and FX and earlier this year, he was honored as a Knight of the National Order of Merit of France. Currently, he is simultaneously directing and producing socially impactful advertising campaigns. He is also writing a new series titled “The Hacienda” for Apple TV and collaborating with other producers and directors to develop several feature film scripts, documentaries, and series.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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instagram.com/lacasadeproduccion

instagram.com/shudder

86% on RottenTomatoes

“Jayro Bustamante delivers one of the most impactful movies of the year in Rita, a difficult, haunting depiction of a real-life tragedy.” – Maxance Vincent, Loud and Clear Reviews

““Rita” serves both as a damning indictment of a corrupt system and as a showcase for a fearless filmmaker who continues to open the world’s eyes to injustices being done.” – Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News

“[Rita is] a harrowing, heartbreaking examination of both the oppression of the downtrodden and the exploitation that lead to a real-life 2017 tragedy that claimed the lives of forty-one young girls, and it is exceptional.” – J Hurtado, ScreenAnarchy

“There is blistering anger in its melange of baubles and feathers and tulle.” – Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film

“To powerful, even shocking effect, Bustamante’s incisive writing slowly deploys revelations that point us to rethink what we thought we knew about the narrative.” – Carlos Aguilar, Variety

In an election year where the battle over reproductive healthcare rights is at the heart of America’s political discourse, Zurawski v Texas reveals a historic courtroom challenge led by women demanding change. At the forefront is Amanda Zurawski, who suffered septic shock when doctors, constrained by restrictive abortion laws, refused to provide her with necessary medical care, leaving her ability to have children compromised. Amanda’s story is not unique. Samantha Casiano, a mother of  four, faced the devastating loss of her daughter, who was diagnosed with a fatal condition in utero. Forced to carry her baby to term, Samantha endured the heartbreak of her child’s near-immediate death. Lawyer Molly Duane leads the legal fight against a Texas law so oppressive that it has made doctors fearful of acting, even when their patients’ lives are at risk. Among these doctors is Austin Dennard, a plaintiff in the case who had to travel out of state to obtain her own abortion after learning that her pregnancy had a fatal diagnosis and a miscarriage was inevitable.These deeply personal stories from the emotional core of Zurawski v Texas, a documentary that uncovers the traumatic consequences of restrictive healthcare legislation. Directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Maisie Crow (Jackson) and Abbie Perrault, the film exposes the staggering personal costs of near-total abortion bans and the relentless fight to restore essential healthcare rights.

For more go to: togetherfilms.org/films/zurawski-v-texas

Zurawski v Texas was produced, in part, by HiddenLight Productions.  Executive producers include HiddenLight founders Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton, with Jennifer Lawrence and Justine Ciarrocchi also serving as executive producers through their company, Excellent Cadaver.

About the filmmaker – Abbie Perrault is a documentary filmmaker and journalist based in Chicago, Illinois. She is a director and producer of the feature documentary Zurawski v Texas. Previously she produced At The Ready, which premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at Sundance Film Festival in 2021 and streams on MAX. She has associate produced the documentary shorts An Abortion in Mississippi and Reproductive Rights Road Trip for The Intercept and was the impact producer on the Emmy-award winning documentary Jackson, which premiered on Showtime in 2016. Her previous work as managing editor of The Big Bend Sentinel and Presidio International  newspapers in Marfa, Texas has been recognized by the Texas Press Association for general excellence and her reporting received awards for outstanding feature writing and outstanding news writing. Her film work has been supported by the IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund, The Gotham, Catapult Film Fund, Ford Foundation, XTR, and the Austin Film Society, and she was a 2019 fellow in New Orleans Film Society’s Southern Producers Lab. For more go to: weareoutofnowhere.com

About the filmmaker – Maisie Crow is a documentary filmmaker and photojournalist based in Texas. Her films have aired on HBO and Showtime. She is a director and producer of Zurawski v Texas. Her 2021 documentary At the Ready premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and can now be seen on MAX. In 2018, her documentary, Jackson, received a News and Documentary Emmy award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary. The film won 15 film festival awards for best documentary and audience favorite. In 2022, she was part of This American Life’s reporting team on the Peabody-winning episode The Pink House at the Center of the World. Her short films The Last Clinic and A Life Alone were both nominated for News and Documentary Emmy awards. Her work has also been recognized by the Overseas Press Club, American Society of Magazine Editors, Pictures of the Year International and World Press Photo. Maisie has taught photojournalism and video storytelling as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. In 2019, Maisie and her husband took the helm of The Big Bend Sentinel and Presidio International newspapers in Far West Texas, building a community gathering space around the publications to help bolster readership and revenue. For more go to: weareoutofnowhere.com

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instagram.com/zurawskivtexas

100% on RottenTomatoes

“For the unconvinced, the informative Zurawski v Texas reframes abortion as, above all else, a lifesaving healthcare right.” – Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter

“This unflinching survey of Texas’s overly restrictive abortion laws smartly presents reproductive healthcare as a bipartisan issue.” – Tomris Laffly, Variety

“It’s the defiantly unslick, urgent intertwining of teamwork and private grief that lifts “Zurawski v Texas” out of the usual sea of issue documentaries, Crow and Perrault toggling between the high-stakes courtroom drama and raw human tragedy.” – Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

“In many ways, “Zurawski v Texas” is a film about America itself and the governmental failings that have brought us to this moment.” – Jourdain Searles, indieWire

“Though “Zurawski v Texas” may be straightforward and conventional in its presentation, that doesn’t take away from how vastly powerful and important this film is as it relates to current events.” – Ema Sasic, Next Best Picture

FACING THE WIND follows two women, whose lives are irrevocably changed by their husbands’ diagnosis with Lewy body  dementia (LBD) —a widespread, but little-known condition. After struggling to find information about her husband’s disease, Linda Szypula starts a podcast about LBD with Curry Wisenhunt, a Texan truck driver, who also has the disease. Their efforts grow into a unique online support community for those living with the disease and those caring for them. In a support group, Linda meets Carla Preyer, who has just quit her job to care for her husband Patrick. They bond over their shared challenges and the dark humor they use to cope.  Linda and Jim plan a “go-for-broke” road trip to see the country and visit friends from the support group. But only weeks into the trip, things begin to go awry, as  Jim struggles with the travel. Meanwhile, Carla plans a ceremony to renew her wedding vows, but Patrick takes a turn for the worse. As their husbands begin to disappear into dementia, Linda and Carla grow closer. Their friendship and their connection to the support group help them deal with their grief, rise to the demands of caregiving, and emerge whole on the other side. Director Deirdre Fishel stops by for a conversation on the slow-motion tragedy that Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) brings to those having to navigate its challenges. Fishel lovingly spotlights the afflicted and their care givers like Linda, Carla and LBD diagnosed Curry Whisenhunt as they endeavor to do the best they can. As Fishel puts it “every person will eventually need care or be a caregiver, our ageist, ablest, individualistic society expects each person or family to manage care on their own despite more cries for government and community support.”

facingthewindfilm.com

About the filmmaker – Deirdre Fishel is a director of documentaries and dramas that have been broadcast in 35 countries worldwide. Her latest documentary, Women in Blue (2020) looks at the lives of women officers trying to reform the Minneapolis Police Department in the years leading up to the murder of George Floyd. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens. Fishel’s Ford and MacArthur Foundation funded documentary Care (2016)looks at the lives of elder care workers and their clients and how America’s care system is failing both. It premiered at Sheffield Doc Fest and was broadcast on America Reframed. Fishel’s other projects include the groundbreaking documentary STILL DOING IT: The Intimate Lives of Women Over 65 which premiered at SXSW, Suicide on Campus a web documentary produced in conjunction with The New York Times Magazine and Risk a dramatic feature which premiered in competition at Sundance. Fishel is a professor and the director of the BFA in Film/Video at the City College of New York. For more go to: mindseyeprods.com

SOCIAL MEDIA

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Reviews:

“The memorable documentary Facing the Wind takes a candid look at two married couples coping with each husband having Lewy body dementia. It shows real and raw experiences from the caregivers’ perspectives.” – Carla Hay, Culture Mix

Coming to Streaming and DVD on December 3rd!

MUCH ADO ABOUT DYING begins when the filmmaker Simon Chambers receives a call from his elderly gay uncle, David Newlyn Gale, – “I think I may be dying!” – Simon takes it as a summons. As it turns out, eccentric Uncle  David, a retired actor living alone in a cluttered, mouse-infested London house, is being dramatic, sort of: For the next five years, Chambers both cares for and documents David, through all his performative exuberance (constantly acting out passages of King Lear) and anarchic charisma (swinging from boisterous humor to short temper), as various people (including a sexy young hustler) possibly take advantage of him. As their lives become encumbered by hospital visits, a house fire, and Britain’s inadequate eldercare system, the younger man (also single and queer) reflects with aching honesty on what may await him in the years to come, in this moving yet hilarious film. Director Simon Chambers for a conversation on the reasons he didn’t think he had a film about his uncle until he realized that he did, the push and pull that was his own life in service to David, saving him from himself and the pure joy that made being with David brought until the very end.

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For more go to: Much Ado About Dying at firstrunfeatures.com

About the filmmaker – Director, writer, producer Simon Chambers taught disadvantaged teenagers in London for 14 years before turning his hand to films. In 2006, with his first feature ‘Every Good Marriage Begins With Tears’, he realised that he had a knack for making the kind of documentaries that people want to watch. ‘Every Good Marriage’ was shown on BBC Storyville, and on TV in around 30 countries. In 2009 he completed feature length documentary ‘Cowboys in India’ which has also won several prizes and has shown on TV In 2010 he moved to New Delhi where he taught at an Islamic university. In 2015 he moved back to London to become the carer for his uncle, David Newlyn Gale, a retired gay actor who was living in squalor and needed support. When Uncle David died in 2020 Simon decided to make a film from the footage they had shot together. 

SOCIAL MEDIA

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86% on RottenTomatoes

“With Much Ado About Dying, Mr. Chambers has given us a sensitive portrait of a man playing his final part — which is, really, a little bit Lear but mostly David Gale. It’s a sui generis performance.” – Zachary Barnes, Wall Street Journal

“Joyous clarity…bittersweet empathy… in this achingly funny-sad film.” -Variety

“In its refreshingly frank look at the end of life, Much Ado About Dying becomes a thought-provoking study of what it means to live.” -Screen Daily

“The best kind of documentary. It will make you laugh and cry. It will also make you pause for thought.” -BackSeat Mafia

“One of the biggest hits emerging at IDFA…simultaneously touching, endearing and often riotously funny.” – Deadline

“Chambers’ family-filming-family masterpiece is a tender and often funny chronicle of a dying man who secretes his brilliant charisma…” -The Film Verdict

“[A] piercingly personal documentary…” – Guy Lodge, Variety