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

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For more go to: theleaguedocumentary.com

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

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97% on RottenTomatoes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Watch at: netflix.com/The Deepest Breath

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

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86% on RottenTomatoes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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90% on RottenTomatoes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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For more go to: ifcfilms.com/biosphere

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

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#Biosphere

86% on RottenTomatoes

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

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

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

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

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

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For more go to: fractalclouds.com

Watch on: AmazonPrime and AppleTV

One night only:

July 17th | Nitehawk Cinema | Brooklyn, NY

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

Chicago – Midwest Access Coalition 

Austin – AVOV

Los Angeles – National Network of Abortion Funds 

Brooklyn – NY Abortion Access Fund

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

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

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

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100% on RottenTomatoes

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

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

“A wild ride” – Reel News Daily

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

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

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

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For more go to: thecrusadesfilm.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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100% on RottenTomatoes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Watch on: netflix.com/Transatlantic

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

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95% on RottenTomatoes

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

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

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

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

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

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For more go to: goodsideofbad.com

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

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

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

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

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94% on RottenTomatoes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For more go to: itsbasicdocumentary.com

World Premiere at Tribeca Festival 2023 in the Spotlight Documentary Section

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

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

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Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite brings the viewer into the lives of the scientist / astronauts orbiting the planet aboard the International Space Station. Two crews of scientists, American and Russian, conduct research towards the betterment of humanity. Tensions flare in the near future aboard the International Space Station as the astronauts receive orders from the ground that are both horrifying and unfathomable. The cold harshness of space comes into stark reality as thriller and science fiction combine to form an engrossing look at power dynamics and the places they exist regardless of Earth and space. Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, working with Nick Shafir’s Blacklist script, brings together a stellar cast that includes Academy Award winner Ariana DeBose, Chris Messina, Pilou Asbaek, John Gallagher Jr., Costa Ronin, and Masha Mashkova, in a high-stakes thriller set entirely in the confines of the I.S.S. as astronauts are called to duty in fateful and terrifying ways.

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To watch now: tribecafilm.com/films/i-s-s-2023

About the filmmaker – Gabriela Cowperthwaite has been directing both documentaries and narrative films for over 20 years, rising to prominence with the 2013 release of Blackfish, which examined the plight of orcas and their trainers at SeaWorld. Blackfish quickly became one of the highest grossing documentaries of all time. In addition to being shortlisted for an Academy Award, Blackfish was nominated for a BAFTA, a Broadcast Critics’ Awards, an International Documentary Association Award, and won the Satellite Award for Best Feature. Most recently, Gabriela completed ISS, a space station thriller starring Academy Award winner Arianna DeBose. Her critically acclaimed film Our Friend, starring Casey Affleck, Dakota Johnson, and Jason Segel was released in 2020. Based on a true life story, Our Friend told the story of a couple struggling through a diagnosis alongside their best friend. Megan Leavey, which marked Gabriela’s narrative directorial debut in 2015 is based on the true life story of a Marine corporal (Kate Mara), whose unique bond with her military combat dog saved many lives during their deployment in Iraq. Gabriela’s latest documentary THE GRAB, a geo-political thriller, follows a shadowy world of powerful entities who are grabbing up the world’s food and water while we all look the other way. THE GRAB opened TIFF this year (2022) and is being hailed as the “holy sh*t documentary of the year”.  gabrielacowperthwaite.com

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

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For more go to: maggiecontreras.com

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

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Where do we draw the line between love and devotion? An intimate and haunting portrayal of a quest for love and acceptance at any cost, Q depicts the insidious influence of a secretive matriarchal religious order in Lebanon on three generations of women in the Chehab family. First-time filmmaker Jude Chehab potently documents the unspoken ties and consequences of loyalty that have bonded her mother, Hiba, grandmother, and herself to the mysterious organization. When she’s not teaching the Quran to students or taking part in poetry readings with peers, Hiba strictly obeys the detailed writings of the Anisa (the leader of the order) who instills in her followers the need to closely observe and practice full days of prayer. A masterful portrait of the toll that decades of unrequited love, lost hope, abuse, and despair takes on a person, Q is a multigenerational tale of the eternal search for meaning. A love story of a different kind, the film delicately portrays the complexities of the unseen power that intermesh the lives of those who love a woman whose heart is in the hands of someone else. Director Jude Chehab stops by to talk about her personal journey with Qubaysiat, engaging in an extended cinematic conversation with her family about the influence the group has had on them, particularly her mother, and what being a part of the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival means for Q and her own artistic trajectory.

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For more go to: tribecafilm.com/films/q-2023

About the filmmaker – Jude Chehab is a Lebanese-American filmmaker based between New York and Beirut. Her cinematic interests have drawn Jude to the exploration of the esoteric, the spiritual and the unspoken. A richly layered visual and intimate personal shooting style developed under the mentorship of Abbas Kiarostami’s final student group; Jude has been credited in collaborations with the BBC, Refinery29, Oxfam GB, and Doctors Without Borders. She has worked as a DP internationally, on films in Somalia, Sudan and Pakistan and was an AP on Sesame Street’s Ahlan Simsim. Her work has been awarded fellowships through: CAAM, BGDM, NeXtDoc, Points North Institute, Firelight Media, Close-Up and Chicken and Egg. Jude’s first feature documentary has been supported by: IDA, ITVS, TFI, and Sundance. In 2021, Filmmaker Magazine named her one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film.

About the subject – Hiba Khodr is an Associate professor at the Department of Political Studies and Public Administration at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and has served as the department Chair. Currently, she is a visiting Associate Professor at Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. Apart from academia, she is the founder of Al Makan, a cultural center in the heart of Beirut that reflects a long-term endeavor to create a much-needed new cultural dynamic in the region. It is a community hub which promotes the mission to foster a safe and stimulating space for the nourishment of one’s creativity, intellect, curiosity and spirituality. 

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The themes, images, and cultural vernacular of Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz continue to haunt David Lynch’s art and filmography—from his very first short, The Alphabet, to his latest series, Twin Peaks: The Return. LYNCH/OZ posits that no filmmaker has so consistently drawn inspiration—consciously or unconsciously—from a single work. Is David Lynch trapped in the land of Oz? If so, can we derive a new appreciation for Lynch’s body of work from taking a closer look at how it intersects and communicates with The Wizard of Oz? In turn, do Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway, or The Elephant Man have something to say about the enduring resonance of one of America’s most beloved classic movies? Through six distinct perspectives and narrated by some of contemporary cinema’s most exciting voices; film critic Amy Nicholson, Rodney Ascher (Room 237), John Waters (Pecker), Karyn Kusama (The Invitation), Justin Benson (The Endless), Aaron Moorhead (Something in the Dirt), David Lowery (A Ghost Story). LYNCH/OZ will take us down the proverbial rabbit hole, help us re-experience and re-interpret The Wizard of Oz by way of David Lynch, to deliver a whole new appreciation for Lynch’s symbolism through the lens of his greatest influence. Director Alexandre O. Philippe (78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene, You Can Call Me Bill) joins us for a conversation on unpacking the sometimes impenetrable world of a modern cinema wizard.

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For more go to: lynchoz.official.film

For screenings: lynchoz.official.film/screening-schedule

About the filmmaker – Alexandre O. Philippe holds an MFA in dramatic writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and serves as creative director at Exhibit A Pictures. With a body of work that includes Doc of the Dead (SXSW, 2014), 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene (Sundance Film Festival, 2017), and Memory: The Origins of “Alien” (Sundance, 2019), Philippe has developed his own brand of cinema essay exploring the art of filmmaking and its practitioners. His most recent works include Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on “The Exorcist” (Venice Film Festival, 2019; Sundance, 2020), and The Taking, which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival and Fantastic Fest in late 2021. Lynch/Oz is his tenth feature film. 

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84% on RottenTomatoes

“Phillipe’s clever and complex film should leave you wanting to watch his doc again, let alone run out and watch everything that Lynch has ever filmed.” – Jeff YorkThe Establishing Shot

“It’s a Cubist documentary. The stream-of-conscious, connect-the-dots vibe is nearly overwhelming. Yet somehow it all works and fits each disparate piece together to form a complete picture.” – David Fear, Rolling Stone

“With its impressive array of hundreds of film clips, frenetic editing and whip-smart narrators, Lynch/Oz offers an exciting prism through which to view Lynch’s oeuvre. – Tara Judah, Screen International

“… Anyone who calls themselves a film lover should have a working knowledge of perhaps the last true artist in American movies. And from his niche, Philippe has universal lessons about the nature of influence.” – Danny Leigh, Financial Times

“If “The Wizard of Oz” is one of your favorite movies, and if Lynch is one of your favorite filmmakers, then watching “Lynch/Oz” is like seeing two old cinematic friends sitting around talking to each other.’ – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Sean Claffey’s latest documentary AMERICONNED focuses on the chronic and corrosive reality of income inequality in the US and the destabilizing effects its having on the vast majority of Americans. Radical inequality has led to radicalization at every level of society, and this powerful documentary depicts what happens when America hits its tipping point by looking back through our history at similar critical moments of instability. The labor movement of the past was born in times like these. Despite an increase in productivity in recent decades, compensation for the American worker has been stagnant. In addition, 47% of American jobs are at high risk of being lost to automation and A.I. by the mid-2030s. In the United States, there has been an upward redistribution of over $50 trillion from the bottom 90% to the top 1% over the last 40 years. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have created a protection racket for the rich, and corporations are deliberately crushing unions. In this David vs. Goliath story, Chris Smalls leads a movement to unionize Amazon workers for the first time, after the corporation fired Smalls for speaking up for workers’ rights. They are inspiring legions of workers to, as the late, great Congressman John Lewis said, get into “good trouble.” AMERICONNED director Seal Claffey joins us for a spirited conversation on the success and on-going efforts to organize major American companies and industry, the public’s increasing positive regarding the value of a workforce where people are able to afford housing, healthcare, and a comfortable future for themselves and their families as seen through the organizing efforts of people like Chris Smalls.

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For more go to: shinethelightfilms.com/Americonned

Award-winning documentary AMERICONNED will open theatrically in New York (Cinema Village), Los Angeles (Laemmle Monica Film Center) and major cities on June 9 with a VOD release in the US and Canada to follow on major platforms on June 13. 

About the filmmaker – Director/Writer/Producer Sean Claffey has more than 25 years in the film industry spanning feature films, TV pilots, industry documentaries and commercials. Sean’s mission is to tell the stories of the voiceless and oppressed to shine the light into the darkness and expose oppression wherever it may be. Shine the Light Films was formed in 2020 and is committed to producing quality documentaries that shine a light on injustices around the globe. More information: https://shinethelightfilms.com 

About the subject – Christian Smalls is the founder and president of the Amazon Labor Union, an independent, democratic, worker-led labor union at Amazon in Staten Island. He is also the founder of The Congress of Essential Workers (TCOEW), a nationwide collective of essential workers and allies fighting for better working conditions, better wages, and a better world. Smalls was formerly an Amazon warehouse supervisor, helping open three major warehouses in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut during his five years with the company, but he was fired in 2020 after organizing a protest against the company’s unsafe pandemic conditions. Smalls has been profiled by media outlets worldwide, including The New York Times, USA Today, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, CBC Radio, Salon, and Jacobin. He lives in Hackensack, New Jersey.

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“Shines a light on the grim reality we’re facing as a nation.” – Jason Delgado, Film Threat

“a call to arms documentary promoting unions to return a balance of power to the American worker.” – Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews

Vicaria is a brilliant teenager who believes death is a disease that can be cured. After the brutal and sudden murder of her brother, she embarks on a dangerous journey to bring him back to life. Writer and director Bomani J. Story makes his directorial debut, THE ANGRY BLACK GIRL AND HER MONSTER, as a reimagining of Mary Shelley’s classic literary horror story, Frankenstein, filmed through a modern lens. Having World Premiered at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival, Bomani J. Story undeniably pushes boundaries while breaking  down barriers in the film industry. THE ANGRY BLACK GIRL AND HER MONSTER, is an essential piece of contemporary horror cinema that shows what happens when Black creators are given the space to tell their stories. Director and writer Bomani J. Story joins us to talk about casting Laya DeLeon Hayes in the leading role of Vicaria, watching her blossom in that crucial role, his use of sound and set design, finding a way to skillfully blend horror, comedy, family trauma and social commentary and putting a new spin on a very familiar tale.

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For more: theangryblackgirlandhermonstermovie.com

About the filmmaker – Bomani J. Story was born in Riverside, California and raised in Redlands, California. Growing up, Bomani always had a love of reading literature and watching films. He even spent time writing his own short stories as a child. Upon graduation from high school, Bomani cut his teeth on filmmaking when he started making short films with his fellow collaborators. After two years at San Bernardino Valley College, Bomani was accepted into the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts to study film production. After graduating from USC in 2010, he began honing his skills as a writer and director. In 2018, he wrote his first feature, “Rock Steady Row“. The film World Premiered at the 2018 Slamdance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury and Audience Award for Best Feature Film. From there, he went on to write his second feature and directorial debut, “The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster“, which World Premiered at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival. The film then screened at the 2023 Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival where it won Best Horror/Sci-fi Feature and Best Director – Narrative Feature for Bomani. The film also screened at the 2023 Calgary Underground Film Festival where it won Best Narrative Feature. “The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster” was sold to RLJE films, and is headed for a U.S. theatrical release on June 9, 2023. 

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86% on RottenTomatoes

“A horror ride with a unique and contemporary artistic vision.” – Sabina Dana Plasse, Film Threat

“In a tight 92-minute runtime, the film takes us through a community as a microcosm of culture, delivers shivering gore, and crafts characters worth caring about.” – Peyton Robinson, RogerEbert.com

“Though we know the story, nothing about Angry Black Girl and Her Monster ever feels stale or staid, and the film plays like a monstrous scream into the darkness.” – Brent McKnight, The Last Thing I See

“Fiery, passionate and deeply intelligent, The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster takes Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and creates something altogether its own.” – Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, AWFJ.org

“Bomani J. Story’s The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster is as heartbreaking as it is terrifying. The scariness doesn’t come so much from the jump scares as it does the tragic subject matter.” – Cassondra Feltus, Black Girl Nerds

Director Abbas Rezaie debut feature documentary takes the viewer inside the office of the city’s most widely read newspaper, The Etilaat Roz. The film is a gripping firsthand account of the August 2021 takeover of Kabul by the Taliban. Afghan filmmaker and Etilaat Roz staff member Abbas Rezaie relentlessly films and questions his passionate colleagues on the editorial team in the days leading up to, during, and after the takeover as they try to decide whether to stay and continue reporting – risking torture, imprisonment and death – or join thousands of others attempting to flee the country. What begins as shock at a surreal situation gradually shifts to realization of an inescapable reality at their doorstep.  Tensions rise as Rezaie’s colleagues must balance their families’ safety with their dedication to providing honest reporting, while the Taliban sets its sights on curbing the free press. This dramatic account of a group of courageous journalists in their struggle for truth, freedom and life is poignantly captured by Rezaie’s camera, fully immersing the viewer in this rapidly changing environment. We are joined by the co-director and editor-in-chief of Etilaat Roz Zaki Daryabi for a conversation on the harrowing days of dread and fear that Daryabi and his colleagues endured watching their beloved country fall under the heavy hand of the Taliban, fearing for their lives and being forced to abandon the offices and the mission of Etilaat Roz.

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Winner, Best First Feature, IDFA 2022

Digital screening: 
Available to watch at your own pace, any time between June 5 and June 11, 2023, on the festival’s digital streaming platform.

Human Rights Watch Film Festival – May 31 – June 11

Director’s Statement – Our history has always been narrated from the ruler’s point of view, whereas the people who change the course of history with their resilience, bravery, and sacrifices are not shown anywhere except in the newsreels. I want to get as close to the people as possible and continue recording their lives. This time it’s a personal film, with lots of poetry and, of course, history.” – Abbas Rezaie, co-director, The Etilaat Roz

“The Etilaat Roz is a piece of history. It depicts the most heartbreaking moments of Kabul’s collapse, which make every Afghan emotional, including me. But it also demonstrates how strong our defenders of free speech are.” –  Fereshta Abbasi, researcher, Asia Division, Human Rights Watch

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The astonishingly assured debut feature from French Canadian actress Charlotte Le Bon, FALCON LAKE stars Joseph Engel as Bastien, a 13-year-old Parisian who, while on a holiday with his family in rural Quebec, becomes increasingly close to Chloé (Sara Montpetit), the 16-year-old daughter of an old friend of his mother. A tender tale of first love that progresses with the disconcertingly eerie mood of a gothic horror film—the lake by the family’s rented  cabin is haunted by a ghost legend—Le Bon’s ruminative, atmospheric drama subverts every coming of age cliché to create something entirely distinctive, quietly unnerving, and achingly emotional, seeking out the darkness on the fringes of a sunny summer idyll. Director, co-screenwriter, co-producer, actor, Charlotte Le Bon joins us to talk about casting Joseph Engel (Bastien) and Sara Montpetit (Chloé), their different approach to the roles, the symbolic importance of water in telling the story of young love and how she found her  cinematic sweet spot between a coming of age love story and indigenous mythology.

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For more go to:falconlakefilm.com

Watch in a theatre: falconlakefilm.com

For more on Charlotte Le Bon: lebonlebon.com

About the filmmaker – Charlotte Le Bon grew up in Québec before moving to Paris. She worked as an actor with French directors such as Michel Gondry and Jalil Lespert. In the US, she has appeared in films of Lasse Hallström, Robert Zemeckis, and Sean Ellis. As a visual artist, Charlotte explores her taste for strangeness through paintings, drawings, and lithographs. Her passion for genre films led her to write and direct Judith Hotel, a short film presented at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2018. Her first feature film, Falcon Lake, had its world premiere at Cannes Directors Fortnight in 2022. For more on Charlotte Le Bon: lebonlebon.com

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97% on RottenTomatoes

“A bold, haunting, coming of age story.” – Caitlin Quinlan, The Playlist

“It becomes clear that we’re watching the best moments of a story that’s destined to end badly. Yet we keep watching, due in large part to the deeply human performances from Engel and Montpetit.” – Christian Zilko, indieWire

“A smartly executed hybrid of teenage rite-of-passage drama and traditional ghost story, ever so slowly tightens its grip as it plays with our preconceived notions.” – Michael Rechtshaffen, Los Angeles Times

“A bold, haunting, coming of age story.” – Caitlin Quinlan, The Playlist

“Le Bon’s world is so intimately constructed that it’s easy to be immersed in the present moment, as the characters are, and lose sight of the rest.” – Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film

“Charlotte Le Bon’s exceptionally assured first directorial film is full of light mischief yet heavy with horror-movie mood.” – Jessica Kiang, Variety

Director Srđan Keča’s searingly direct new documentary, MUSEUM OF THE REVOLUTION, begins with a Serbian proverb, “The wind got up in the night and took our plans away.” It’s a reference to the 1961 plan to build a grand museum in Belgrade as a tribute to Socialist Yugoslavia. Meant to “safeguard the truth” about the Yugoslav people, the plan never got beyond the construction of the basement. The derelict building now tells a very different story from the one envisioned by the initiators 60 years ago. The cavernous, damp, pitch-dark space is inhabited by the outcasts of a society reshaped by capitalism: a precocious and energetic little girl who earns cash on the street by cleaning car windows with her mother, and their friend, an older woman also living in the basement. In his award-winning, visually stunning and formally daring feature documentary debut, director and cinematographer Director and writer Srđan Keča powerfully illuminates the tender relationship between the three women – a source of refuge, community, and hope – against the backdrop of a city in transformation.

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For more go to: museumoftherevolutionfilm.com

Opens in NYC on Friday, May 19th at DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema

Watch at: mubi.com/films/stay-awake

About the filmmaker – Director, Writer & Cinematographer Srđan Keča’s medium-length films include A Letter To Dad (IDFA 2011, Dokufest 2011 – Best Balkan Documentary) and Mirage (Jihlava IDFF 2012 – Best Central and Eastern European Documentary) both screened at leading documentary film festivals, while his video installations have been exhibited at venues like the Venice Biennale of Architecture and the Whitechapel Gallery. The found-footage feature documentary Flotel Europa, produced and edited by Keča, premiered at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival, winning the Tagesspiegel Jury Prize. His debut feature documentary as director, Museum of the Revolution, premiered at IDFA 2021.Keča is a graduate of the Ateliers Varan and the UK National Film and Television School (NFTS). Since 2015 he has worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art & Art History at Stanford University, teaching in the MFA Documentary Film Program.

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“Magical.” – Die Zeit

“Wondrous.” – Senses of Cinema

“Museum of the Revolution is an immersive experience that  allows viewers to enter the spaces the women inhabit and witness with intimate immediacy the precariousness with which they live day by day.“ – POV Magazine

“Monumental in its tender exploration of hope lost and found.” – Kirsten Johnson

“Incredibly intimate, patient and formally ambitious… unlike anything we’ve ever seen.” – Jury Statement, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

“This is an engrossing documentary, and one that raises questions about the ethics of intervening (or not) in the lives of people struggling to get by.” – Natalia Winkelman, New York Times

Premiering Tuesday, May 23 on MAX, HOW TO CREATE A SEX SCANDAL delves into the topics of mass hysteria, coerced memories and the intense emotional journey the town went on as they were forced to reconsider everything they thought they knew. In 2005, the sleepy community of Mineola, Texas, is thrown into turmoil when local children reveal shocking stories about a pedophile sex ring that took place at a local swingers club. As arrests are made, life sentences handed down, and lives ruined, it soon becomes apparent that there is a lot more to the story than meets the eye. Now, the startling long-term repercussions of the scandal are revealed. Inspired by series of articles, “Mineola’s Swingers Club”, written by Texas Monthly reporter Michael Hall, HOW TO CREATE A SEX SCANDAL brings to life the startling and scarcely believable telling of a crime story that really is stranger than fiction. We’re joined by Director and Executive Producer Julian P. Hobbs (Cave of Forgotten Dreams) and Executive Producer Elli Hakami (Life Below Zero) join us for a conversation on the circumstances that drew them to this unbelievable story, gaining the confidence of the pivotable people involved in the imbroglio, their take on the social, political and judicial factors that played into the investigation, the rush to judgement and why it matters that we all stay vigilant when it comes to the prosecution of the less powerful among us.

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Watch How to Create a Sex Scandal at: max.com

HOW TO CREATE A SEX SCANDAL MIND is a  three-part docu-series that launches on MAX on May 23.

About the filmmaker – Elli Hakami headed up MTV’s East Coast Production and Development team and the unscripted unit for BBC Worldwide Production in LA.  During this time, she created and produced a wide range of projects including: HBO’s feature documentary, Americans in Bed, and National Geographic’s Emmy Award-Winning Life Below Zero. During her tenure, Hakami developed and executive produced a dynamic slate of successful on-air series and specials including: What Not to Wear (TLC), Richard Hammond’s Crash Course (BBC America), Gold Rush: Alaska (Discovery), and Dual Survivor (Discovery).  Elli also received commissions from a wide range of networks including Bravo, CW, Lifetime, TNT, A&E, History Channel, and Discovery Channel. talosfilms.com/what-we-do

About the filmmaker – Julian P. Hobbs served as a VP and EP at History Channel where he served as the Executive Producer for feature documentaries, including: Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Errol Morris’ Emmy nominated The Unknown Known, and Barbara Kopple’s Emmy nominated Woodstock: Now and Then.  Hobbs also Executive Produced the Emmy Winning Outstanding Non-Fiction Special Gettysburg with Tony and Ridley Scott, as well as America: The Story of US, and Mankind.  While heading up scripted development and production at History Channel, Hobbs launched The Bible with Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, the breakout drama Vikings, and Gangland Undercover. talosfilms.com/what-weve-done

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From Oscar®-winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, WILD LIFE follows conservationist Kris Tompkins on an epic, decades-spanning love story as wild as the landscapes she dedicated her life to protecting. After falling in love in midlife, Kris and the outdoorsman and entrepreneur Doug Tompkins left behind the world of the massively successful outdoor brands they’d helped pioneer — Patagonia, The North Face and Esprit — and turned their attention to a visionary effort to create national parks throughout Chile and Argentina via their nonprofit Tompkins Conservation. WILD LIFE chronicles the highs and lows of their journey to affect the largest private land donation in history. Co-directors Chai Vasarhelyi (Meru, The Rescue) and Jimmy Chin (Free Solo, Return to Space) join us for a conversation on how the dedication and vision of a small group of remarkable people became something extraordinary, their personal connection to Doug and Kris Tompkins, Yvon Chouinard, Rick Ridgeway, the challenge of detailing a decades long love story, and the determined leadership of Kris Tompkins to ensure that nearly 15 million acres of pristine habitat will survive and thrive. 

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For more go to: nationalgeographic.com/wild-life

WILD LIFE will have its broadcast debut on National Geographic Channel starting May 25 and Streaming May 26 on Disney+ 

About the Tompkins Foundation – Founded by the late Douglas Tompkins and cofounded by Kristine Tompkins, Tompkins Conservation is protecting and restoring wild beauty and biodiversity by creating national parks, bringing back species through rewilding, and helping communities thrive through nature-based tourism. Over three decades, the nonprofit has protected approximately 14.8 million acres of parklands in Chile and Argentina through the creation or expansion of 15 national parks in those countries, in addition to two marine protected areas of 30 million acres. Through active rewilding, the organization is bringing back over a dozen species that are in critical numbers, endangered or locally extinct. In 2015, a kayaking accident in Patagonia took Doug’s life. Alongside his wife, Kris, the couple is amongst the foremost conservation philanthropists in history. Today, their work continues through the offspring organizations Rewilding Argentina and Rewilding Chile. The future of the planet depends on the power within each of us to create change for the better. Read on to learn more about the work Tompkins Conservation is doing and to get in involved, visit TompkinsConservation.org

About the filmmakers – Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin are Academy® Award-winning filmmakers. The two are the directors and producers of “Free Solo,” an intimate, unflinching portrait of rock climber Alex Honnold, which was awarded a BAFTA and the Academy® Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2019. Their first film together, “Meru,” won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015 and was on the 2016 Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary Feature. More recently, they directed the BAFTA and DGA-nominated documentary “The Rescue,” chronicling the against-all-odds rescue of twelve boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in Northern Thailand. Other projects include “Return to Space,” about SpaceX and NASA’s first joint spaceflight, which hit the top 10 on Netflix’s most watched films list, and the National Geographic series “Edge of the Unknown With Jimmy Chin”. Chin and Vasarhelyi are currently working on their first scripted feature for Netflix, “Nyad”, about Diana Nyad’s swim from Cuba to Florida.Vasarhelyi’s other films as a director include “Incorruptible” (Truer Than Fiction Independent Spirit Award 2016); “Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love” (Oscilloscope, 2009), which premiered at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals; “A Normal Life” (Tribeca Film Festival, Best Documentary 2003); and “Touba” (SXSW, Special Jury Prize Best Cinematography in 2013). Vasarhelyi has directed two New York Times Op Docs, two episodes for Netflix’s nonfiction design series “Abstract” and two episodes for ESPN’s nonfiction series “Enhanced.” She has received grants from the Sundance Institute, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Bertha Britdoc, and the National Endowment of the Arts. She is a member of the DGA, the AMPAS, and holds a B.A. in comparative literature from Princeton University. Jimmy Chin is also a National Geographic photographer and professional climber and skier who has led and documented cutting-edge expeditions around the world for over 20 years. He has climbed and skied Mount Everest from the summit and made the coveted first ascent of the Shark’s Fin on Mount Meru. His photographs have graced the covers of National Geographic Magazine and the New York Times Magazine and his first book of photography, There and Back, became a New York Times Best Seller in 2021. Vasarhelyi and Chin split their time between New York City and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with their daughter, Marina, and son, James.

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90% on RottenTomatoes

“Vasarhelyi and Chin guide another exhilarating and emphatic look at the world around us and the way in which one set of individuals is choosing to make a difference.” – Abe Friedtanzer, AwardsWatch

“It’s so well made, and puts you in the middle of some really breathtaking scenery.” – Christy Lemire, Film Week, KPCC (NPR)

“Another breathtaking journey from Chin and Vasarhelyi, one that fits snugly in their canon about indomitable rule breakers who achieved greatness and broke their barriers by persistence and unwavering dedication.” – Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News

“A warming, epic story that exemplifies how it’s not too late to make big changes.” – Nick Allen, RogerEbert.com

“Wild Life becomes a call to action … as well as a touching act of preserving the mission and memory of a conservationist, friend, and husband.” – Mark Dujsik, Mark Reviews Movies

Rae de Leon, is a new staff reporter working at The Center for Investigative Reporting, when she discovers a surprising number of legal cases nationwide that involve women reporting sexual assault to the police, only to be accused of fabricating their allegations. These women are then charged with crimes, sometimes facing years in prison. This powerful and shocking documentary VICTIM / SUSPECT follows de Leon as she gathers firsthand accounts from numerous young women and their families and interviews police and legal experts. Simultaneously, de Leon re-examines elements of the initial police investigations, unearthing telling recordings of police interviews of women reporting their sexual assault. In her latest documentary feature, VICTIM / SUSPECT Director Nancy Schwartzman (Roll Red Roll) crafts a deeply compelling and provocative investigative documentary, sure to elicit both empathy and outrage, that stands as a powerful testament to the carefully constructed work of determined reporters like de Leon. Director / Producer Nancy Schwartzman joins us for a conversation on the multi-faceted way that VICTIM / SUSPECT illuminates how local and nationwide systemic policing policies both motivate detectives to treat victims like suspects, and directly impact not only these vulnerable women’s cases, but also their lives.

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About the filmmaker – Nancy Schwartzman is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and author based in Los Angeles. Her debut feature, Roll Red Roll (POV/Netflix 2019), was nominated for a Peabody Award and exposed the notorious Steubenville, Ohio, teen sexual assault case. She is the creator and director of a nonfiction project in production with XTR for Freeform/Disney.

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“[A] powerful, hard-hitting investigative documentary.” – Kent Turner, Film-Forward.com

“A strong, powerful documentary that, despite feeling a tad neat and cold at times, benefits from De Leon’s presence. And most importantly: it is a film that will remain engraved in your memories for a long time. “ – Sebastian Zavala Kahn, Cinencuentro

“A very solid, depressing piece of accessible documentary journalism about a very troubling trend.” – Cory Woodroof, 615 Film

“It’s all so very sober, so deeply sobering, that when actual emotion pops, that’s what jars. It shouldn’t be the case — all of this should rattle us and move us into action.” – Kate Erbland, indieWire

In Francisca Alegría’s poignant and stunning debut feature, THE COW WHO SANG A SONG INTO THE FUTURE, we are introduced to a world delicately constructed by fantasy, mystery, and magical realism. The story begins in a river in the south of Chile where fish are dying due to pollution from a nearby factory. Amid their floating bodies, long-deceased Magdalena (Mia Maestro) bubbles up to the surface gasping for air, bringing with her old wounds and a wave of family secrets. This shocking return sends her widowed husband into turmoil and prompts their daughter Cecilia (Leonor Varela) to return home to the family’s dairy farm with her own children. Magdalena’s presence reverberates among her family, instigating fits of laughter and despair in equal measure with all but Cecilia’s eldest child, who finds much-needed comfort in their grandmother’s love and unconditional understanding during a time of transition. THE COW WHO SANG A SONG INTO THE FUTURE is an ambitious proposal for acceptance and healing, suggesting that the dead return when they are most needed. Director Francisca Alegria joins us for a conversation on her ambitious undertaking and how she was able to successfully tell her story as a lyrical rumination on family, nature, renewal, and resurrection.

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For more go to: kinolorber.com/film/the-cow-who-sang

THE COW WHO SANG A SONG INTO THE FUTURE opens May 19 at the Quad Cinema in New York and May 26 at the Landmark Nuart  in Los Angeles and the Laemmle Glendale followed by national expansion.

About the filmmaker – Francisca Alegría is an award-winning filmmaker who obtained her degree in Directing from the Universidad Católica de Chile and her M.F.A. in Screenwriting and Film Directing at Columbia University. Her short film AND THE WHOLE SKY FIT IN THE DEAD COW’S EYE received the award for Best International Fiction Short Film at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, Best Latin American Short Film at Miami Film Festival and was selected at Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and New York Film Festival. Alegría’s debut feature, The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future was selected for the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Labs and will premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. 

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98% on RottenTomatoes

“Mysterious and elegiac. A tale of warning about a collapsing ecosystem and about deep family wounds.” – Alissa Wilkinson, Vox

“A beautifully eerie and resonant tale about motherhood and the natural world… Solidly grounded, teeming with thought-provoking ideas, wonderfully atmospheric, and often visually striking.” – Jonathan Holland, Screen Daily

“Hauntingly moving and hopeful… A folkloric tale that uses magical realism as a way to connect the intimate story of a family suffering from generational trauma with a timely environmentalist fable.”  – Rafael Motamayor, IndieWire

“An intimate story about one family and a vast story about the Earth…Feels like the arrival of a totally new voice.” – Drew Gregory, Autostraddle

“The Cow Who Sang A Song Into The Future emerges as part of a growing body of work which is striving to address desperation with imagination, to find new ways to be.” – Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film

Allison Otto’s so unbelievable it has to be true documentary, THE THIEF COLLECTOR, follows the brazen broad daylight theft of renown artist Willem de Kooning’s landmark painting “Woman-Ochre,” in 1985. Considered to be one of the most valuable paintings of the 20th century, it vanished into the Arizona desert after being cut from its frame at the University of Arizona Museum of Art. Thirty-Two years later, the $160 million painting was found hanging in the home of Jerry and Rita Alter in rural New Mexico. THE THIEF COLLECTOR takes a deep look at how, and why, this mild-mannered couple pulled off one of the greatest art heists of a generation, exploring the complicated dynamics of family, the contours of criminality, and just how far people will go to weave their own grandiose narratives. Featuring Glenn Howerton (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and Sarah Minnich (Army of the Dead) in the “heist re-enactment”. Director Allison Otto (The Love Bugs) stops by to talk about how she came to the project, following the wildly improbable story of retired school teachers and avid world travelers led her to New Mexico and a cryptic book, written by Jerry Alter that hints at multiple art heists and even more disturbing activities that the couple may have engaged in. 

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For more go to: xtr.com/films/the-thief-collector

About the filmmaker – Director Allison Otto is an Emmy winning documentary filmmaker, cinematographer, and visual journalist. Her documentary short, The Love Bugs (2019), was awarded Best Short Documentary in the 42nd Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards after screening on POV Shorts Season 3 (2020). The film was also shortlisted for a 2019 International Documentary Association Award and is touring globally with the American Film Showcase. Allison is a 2019 recipient of the SFFILM Catapult Film Fellowship, a 2018 and 2011 Telluride Mountainfilm Commitment grant recipient, and a 2018 Roy W. Dean grant winner. Her journalism clients have included National Geographic, BBC America, NBC, the Sierra Club, Travel Channel, Atlas Obscura, and Lonely Planet. Her first feature-length documentary, THE THIEF COLLECTOR, premiered in the Feature Documentary competition at SXSW 2022.

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94% on RottenTomatoes

“A movie that has used art to touch something essential about how strangers — or maybe I should just say the downright strange — walk among us.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

“Unusually interesting film, even if it has nothing to say that is definitive about the theft.“ – Dennis Schwartz, Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

“Character driven true crime documentary about one of the most audacious art heists ever. Once the story shifts from the actual crime to those who may have committed it, things get really interesting.” – Nathaniel Muir, AIPT

“While not fully exploiting its stranger-than-fiction story, The Thief Collector is a documentary as entertaining as it is odd.” – Shaun Munro, Flickering Myth

“What begins as a spirited romp goes to dark places before it’s done’ – Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film

“This tantalizing documentary abounds with theories and rationales for the Alters’ actions.” – Kent Turner, Film-Forward.com

Jamie Sisley’s American indie debut drama, STAY AWAKE, is a fictionalized account of the filmmaker’s coming of age, as he struggles to get out from under the yoke of a prescription-drug-addicted mother in small-town Virginia. Life in the last, lame-duck months of high school, with a job at the Jolly Cow ice cream drive-in, would be cringe-inducing enough without a deeply depressed, self-destructive mother (Chrissy Metz, star of This is Us). Wyatt Oleff (City on Fire) and Fin Argus (Queer as Folk) play teenage brothers stuck in a cycle of discovering their mom passed out, dragging her to the hospital, and encouraging rehab. Despair quickly turns to hope and then boomerangs back again. Featuring three superb performances that find surprising humor and humanity amid the tragedy of parental addiction. Writer/Director Jamie Sisley (Farewell Ferris Wheel) joins us for a conversation on assembling a superb cast of actors, delivering a story of uncommon empathy that is very much of the moment, and a moving drama that subverts audience expectations about addicts.

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For more go to: instagram.com/stayawakethefilm

Opens Friday May 19 at Film Forum in NYC and

May 26 at Laemmle Royal in LA

About the filmmaker – Jamie Sisley is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker. Stay Awake, his narrative debut, premiered at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival, where it won the AG Kino Gilde Auteur Award. Sisley also received an Emmy Nomination for his feature documentary, Farewell Ferris Wheel. Sisley is a graduate of the University of Virginia.

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89% on RottenTomatoes

“Gorgeously shot, honest and deeply personal.” – Virgie Tovar, Forbes

“Especially resonant given the recent representation of America’s drug crisis.” – Manori Ravindran, Variety

“Youthful wisdom is laced throughout Jamie Sisley’s feature debut.” – Stephen Saito, The Moveable Fest

“A balancing act of addiction, compassion, difficult choices, that still manages hilarious moments and periods of joy. One of the best directorial debuts of the year.” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

“Sisley tells the story on a personal tone, showing how the drama goes hand to hand with humor, and how in the most difficult moments, humans can get a connection beyond any limit.” – Laura Hiros, Rincón de cine

Director Billy Miossi takes viewers on a thoroughly enjoyable look behind the scenes of an engaging group of engineers and scientist in It’s Quieter in the Twilight They watch the bright lights from a distance today. The headlines now go to big names with bigger bank accounts. But, they are comfortable in the quiet, it suits them. Yet this quirky team of brilliant engineers- like the Voyager spacecraft they pilot – are pushing the notion of true discovery, traveling among stars propelled only by dwindling sunlight. While the world has moved on to fancier ships and splashier front men–the celestial journey of the aging / spacecraft transcends earthly boundaries– from rural South Korea, the Jim Crow South and the U.S./Mexico border to cement a joint commitment to the mission which has traveled the furthest in human history as the clock winds down. Director Billy Miossi stops to talk about the low-key way that the Voyager team goes to extraordinary lengths to keep a 1970’s era spacecraft functioning, and the dedication of a crew that includes Sun Matsumoto, Enrique Medina, Fernando Peralta, Jefferson Hall, Todd Barber, Suzy Dodd, Chris Jones, Ed Stone, Andrea Angrum and Liu Yang.

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For more go to: itsquieterfilm.com

About the filmmaker – Billy Miossi is an Emmy-award-winning documentary filmmaker based in Cincinnati, Ohio. It’s Quieter in the Twilight combines Billy’s love of history, space and science to spotlight a dynamic underexposed in tech: aging and quiet dedication. Billy lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with his wife and three kids. For more go to: billy-miossi.com/films

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100% on RottenTomatoes

“An undeniably engrossing film.” – Peter Sobczynski, The Spool

“This film is magical.” “I love this film.”  “What an absolute delight. Highly recommended.” – Steve Kopian, Unseen Films

“Things go a bit sideways and we viewers suddenly find ourselves actively rooting for this beautiful, dumb, and amazing little hunk of metal that is so very far away. How it plays out is almost beside the point.” – Seth Freilich, Pajiba

“Miossi wisely avoids hammering home obvious connections about the age of human and machine, instead making this about how they care.” – Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle

“If you love all things space, It’s Quieter in the Twilight is must-see viewing… Science, nostalgia, and a bit of drama. What more could you ask for in a documentary?” – Alan Ng, Film Threat

Filmmaker Peter Hutchinson’s latest documentary THE CURE FOR HATE: BEARING WITNESS TO AUSCHWITZ follows Tony McAleer, a former Neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier. After spent 15 years in the white supremacist and neo-Nazi movement, starting as a skinhead before rising in the ranks into leadership, McAleer shed past life to become a founding member of the anti-hate activist group Life After Hate. positions. (the film) THE CURE FOR HATE: BEARING WITNESS TO AUSCHWITZ documents Tony’s profoundly personal journey of atonement to Auschwitz/Birkenau – exploring the conditions that allowed for the rise of fascism in 1930s Europe; shedding a unique light upon how men get into, and out of, violent extremist groups; and serving as a cautionary tale for our time that underscores the dangers in allowing hate to be left unchecked. Aware and deeply ashamed of the lineage of hate he’d once promoted, Tony had long-contemplated traveling to Auschwitz in the spirit of tshuvah – to bear witness to the inconceivable ravages of the Holocaust, and deepen his personal work against the rise of extremist politics. Director Peter Hutchinson (Requiem of the American Dream) and Subject Tony McAleer join us for a conversation on the road that brought them together, the size and scope of the Auschwitz industrial killing operation, and getting to know each other.

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 For more go to: thecureforhatefilm.com

About the filmmaker – Peter Hutchison is an award-winning filmmaker, NY Times Bestselling author, educator & activist.His films include Requiem for the American Dream: Noam Chomsky and the Principles of Concentration of Wealth and Power (Netflix/Amazon Prime/Kanopy) – a NY Times Critics Pick, it’s companion book a NY Times Bestseller. The more recent Healing From Hate: Battle for the Soul of a Nation (Amazon Prime/Kanopy) – an exploration of hate group activity as seen through the lens of masculinity – has been described as a “raw masterpiece”.Devil Put the Coal in the Ground, a holistic look at the ravages of extractive industry and corporate power in West Virginia, is currently in festival release, having garnered 6 Best Documentary Feature Awards.His longstanding commitment to issues around male identity has resulted in the films You Throw Like A Girl: The Blind Spot of Masculinity (MEF), Angry White Men: Masculinity in the Age of Trump (Grasshopper), and The Man Card: White Male Identity Politics from Nixon to Trump(MEF).He holds an M.S. in Counseling Psychology with a focus on Addictions and Systems Dynamics.

About the subject – Tony McAleer spent 15 years in the white supremacist and neo-Nazi movement, starting as a skinhead before evolving to leadership positions. Instrumental in ushering in the use of the internet as a means to disseminate white supremacist propaganda, he was ultimately brought before the Canadian Human Rights Commission for his offenses in a case that captured nationwide attention.Following over a thousand hours of individual & group counseling to understand his own process, Tony was instrumental in helping to foundLife After Hate, an organization that supports those considering exiting hate groups. Tony served as its Executive Director from 2013-2017, andBoard Chair until his departure in 2019.Now a certified Life Coach, Tony works closely with law enforcement and government, from Attorney Generals to senior staff at the Department of Homeland Security. Tony has testified before Congress, and was recently invited to the Paris Summit for the Christchurch Call with the Prime Minister of New Zealand. He also supports Government and Law enforcement in Victoria, Australia helping them grapple with the rising problem of violent white supremacist groups.He is the Author of The Cure For Hate: A Former White Supremacist’s Journey from Violent Extremism to Radical Compassion, published byArsenal Pulp Press; his TED Talk on “Radical Compassion” is available via TEDx.

SOCIAL MEDIA

facebook.com/CureForHate

facebook.com/tony.mac.330

twitter.com/mcaleer

twitter.com/lifeafterhate

instagram.com/peterdhutchison

instagram.com/thecureforhate.film

“As the documentary points out, the number of Holocaust survivors is dwindling fast, and it’s documentaries like this one that must keep the memory of the horrors of genocide over ideology alive today, or dare we repeat the past.” – Alan Ng, Film Threat

“A well-filmed, no-holds-barred, raw masterpiece defining the causes and solutions for America’s ugliest disease: racism. A must-see for both victims and perpetrators of hate.” –  Daryl Davis (“Accidental Courtesy”)
“Thoughtful & compelling… a powerful case for compassion & empathy” –  Common Sense Media
“A hopeful expression of how hate does not need to be the end of the road” – CBS News
“Powerful & risky documentary that looks at racism in America… and how to enact change.” – AIPT

In a remote small town, a neuro-divergent teen forms an unlikely rapport with an international student from Shanghai volunteering at the hospital where she is a patient. Between the two, a bond forms, cemented by their candid conversations, nightly text messages, and exchange of their deepest secrets. The boundaries of their friendship quickly expand into something special, altering their inner alchemy. QUEENS OF THE QING DYNASTY is a story that breaches the absurd and poetic, the platonic and the romantic. Both intimate and intense, it explores the intrinsic beauty and innate flaws of what it is to be human, the profundity of connection, and the vortex of mental illness. The electronic music score blurs between cinema foley and sound design to create a feeling of an alternate plane. The film is an affectionate ode to women, asexuals, and neuro-diverse and gender queer individuals who exist beyond the norms of society. QUEENS OF THE QING DYNASTY is produced by Britt Kirr, Nelson MacDonald, and McKenzie, with music by Cecile Believe and Yu Su and cinematography by Scott Moore. Director and writer Ashley McKenzie (Werewolf) joins us for a conversation on the casting of film  stars Sarah Walker and Ziyin Zheng, working with them to get their pitch perfect performances, and finding her own creative space outside the cinematic circles, of Toronto and Montreal, in Nova Scotia working with local artist.

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For more go to: hi-visfilm.ca/Queens-of-the-Qing-Dynasty

About the filmmaker – Ashley McKenzie (she/they) is a filmmaker based in Unama’ki–Cape Breton Island, Canada. She writes and directs films in collaboration with people in her community, compelled by the stories near to her that may otherwise be overlooked. Casting locals and shooting on-location brings vitality to her work and visibility to the people and textures concealed in a remote place. Her debut feature, Werewolf, won the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association in 2017, the most generously endowed film prize in Canada. It was theatrically released by Factory 25 in the US and Les Alchimistes in Europe. Film Comment called Werewolf “an austere, marvelously focused debut feature,” while The New Yorker named it on their Best Movies of 2018 list. Ashley’s films have screened at the Berlinale, New York Film Festival, and Toronto International Film Festival, as well as been curated by the Criterion Channel, MUBI, and Anthology Film Archives. Queens of the Qing Dynasty, her latest feature, premiered in the Encounters Competition of the 2022 Berlinale.

SOCIAL MEDIA

twitter.com/hivisfilm

instagram.com/hivisfilm

instagram.com/queensoftheqingdynasty

instagram.com/sarahwalker_26

87% on RottenTomatoes

“Daring. Destabilizing in the best, mind expanding way”. – Nicolas Rapold, Artforum

“A rare, cathartic, and humane commodity. McKenzie has given us a movie worth talking about.” – Adam Nayman, Cinema-Scope

“Hopeful and deeply emotional. Feels like a fairytale for these isolating times.” – Jourdain Searles, IndieWire

“Ashley McKenzie’s film blossoms into a moving story about two people trapped by the institutions that they’re beholden to.” – Mark Hanson, Slant Magazine

“Ashley McKenzie is staking out territory as a showstopping neo-realist.” – Scout Tafoya, RogerEbert.com

“Impressive. Showcases McKenzie’s flair for complex characters hoping to break free from their ennui.” – Caitlin Quinlan, Variety