1990s

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“This neo-noir British crime drama, set at a decaying English beach resort, begins with a body dropped from a pier. Hairdresser Helen (Rachel Weisz) goes with local deejay Bob (Ben Daniels), but mute bicyclist Honda (Luka Petrusic), who secretly tapes people’s conversations, meets Helen at the beachfront and begins sending her flowers. Honda’s sad nympho sister Smokey (Macedonian-born Labina Mitevska) sings at a local club. A figure from Helen’s past, the enigmatic, mysterious Martin (Alessandro Nivola) checks out Helen but keeps his distance. Read More »

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This documentary focuses on drag queens living in New York City and their “house” culture, which provides a sense of community and support for the flamboyant and often socially shunned performers. Groups from each house compete in elaborate balls that take cues from the world of fashion. Also touching on issues of racism and poverty, the film features interviews with a number of renowned drag queens, including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija and Dorian Corey.Read More »

A young Jew in 1911 Wales tries to make his living by selling fabrics door to door, but to do so he must hide his nationality. On one of his sales he meets and falls in love with a demure young woman with a strong-willed father and a Jew-hating brother. The two fall in love and she becomes pregnant, but only then does she learn of his ethnic background. When anti-Jewish riots break out, the two are forced to flee and become separated.Read More »

In facing apartment units, two men share parallel stories. One, distraught over the death of John Lennon, contemplates on killing himself. The other goes into a fit deciding how to part with his 3-years-old toothbrush.Read More »

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Maverick British gay director Derek Jarman’s last film is a wordless compilation of his home movies from 1970 — six years before his debut feature “Sebastiane” — to 1986, set to a Brian Eno score. Footage ranges from casual snippets of home life to behind-the-scenes set footage, along with appearances from famous friends like William S. Burroughs and the Sex Pistols. As the years progress, the spread of AIDS begins to decimate Jarman’s social circle.Read More »

This film takes you on an extraordinary journey into the world of the Surrealists as the life and accomplishments of the surrealist collector, poet, and architect Edward James unfolds. For the last 20 years of his life, aided by 40 full time laborers and craftmen, he built one of the biggest and yet least known architectural monuments of the 20th century, dedicated to Surrealism and hidden in the jungles of Mexico. He created over 36 extraordinary concrete structures, some over 100 feet high, at a personal cost exceeding 5 million dollars.Read More »

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ontinuing his pattern of alternating critically praised arthouse projects with alienating personal studies, the controversial Peter Greenaway followed his unexpectedly popular The Pillow Book with 8½ Women, a playful and thoroughly obscure compendium of art history fetishism, film history, and globe-hopping comic debauchery. The results pleased few, but Greenaway fanatics will find it more rewarding than newcomers despite its glaring flaws.Read More »

Synopsis
Some days of the young man living in Almaty. Boozes, girlfriends, an idle talk, drugs – here the maintenance of his life. And, seemingly, it for a long time, if not forever. “I didn’t manage to appeal to the Marble Admiral as he turned on heels, precisely the horse who became on racks before the Pole star and specified to me that place on the cocked hat where I will have to carry out the life…”Read More »

In 1996, filmmaker Tatsuya Mori received permission to tape the inside activities of Japan’s religious cult Aum Shinrikyo—the enigmatic group that released sarin gas into Tokyo’s subway system in 1995. Focusing on the group’s bumbling, confused spokesperson Araki Hiroshi, Mori caught much more than the cult’s daily life with his camera. He captured the media frenzy that engulfed the group, the vicious tactics of undercover cops against cult members, and the anger of local residents who wanted to evict the cult from their community. Looking for more than a simple depiction of this controversial group, Mori exposes and examines the contradictions in Japanese society that would produce such a cult and then feed on it. This edgy, provocative documentary created a heated debate in Japan, where the cult still resides under a different name.Read More »