2010s

In this gripping series of films, Academy-Award nominated filmmaker Werner Herzog (Into
the Abyss, Grizzly Man) delves deeper into the abyss of the human soul. Through
interviews with five inmates awaiting their appointment with a lethal injection in the Texas
and Florida prison systems, Herzog conducts a uniquely thought-provoking analysis of why
people, and the state, kill. Each of the four episodes features an intense interview with a
death row inmate in which we hear their own account of life in captivity and the crime that
condemned them. Herzog explores the emotions that these men and women go through as
they possess the haunting knowledge of exactly when – and how – they are going to die.
Utterly gripping, Death Row packs a strong emotional punch and is a truly unmissable
experience.Read More »

In the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli, they say there is an elephant that simply sits, unaffected by the pain and tribulations of the world at large. Manzhouli becomes an obsession for the protagonists of this film – a longed-for escape from the downward spiral in which they find themselves inextricably bound together. Among them is schoolboy, Bu, on the run after pushing Shuai down the stairs, who was bullying him previously. Bu’s classmate Ling has run away from her mother and fallen for the charms of her teacher. Shuai’s older brother Cheng feels responsible for the suicide of a friend. And finally there’s Mr. Wang, a sprightly pensioner whose son wants to offload him onto a home. In virtuoso visual compositions, the film tells the story of one single suspenseful day from dawn to dusk, when the train to Manzhouli is set to depart.Read More »

Quote:
56 Up is the latest instalment of the landmark TV documentary series which has returned every seven years to focus on a group of people from varying social backgrounds who were first filmed at the age of seven. The new series revisits all but one of the original group.Read More »

Synopsis
Three actresses at different stages of their career. One from before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, one popular star of today known throughout the country and a young girl longing to attend a drama conservatory.

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Documentary by Werner Herzog on the Making of the Music to CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS
recorded July 2010 at Protestant Church of Haarlem, The Netherlands
With composer and musician Ernst Reijseger and music producer Stefan Winter
2010, 40 min.Read More »

A man who returns to Los Angeles to wrap up his mother’s estate sets out in search of the mysterious woman named in her will.Read More »

An official selection of Cannes Critics Week and winner of the Special Jury Prize at SXSW, THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER is a youthful and tender coming-of-age drama from first-time writer/director David Robert Mitchell.Read More »

from imdb:
In nineteenth century Yorkshire wealthy orphan Anne Lister lives with an aunt and uncle, anxious for her to marry well and blissfully unaware that she is a lesbian,recording her thoughts and exploits in a coded diary. When her lover Mariana Belcombe makes a marriage of convenience to rich old Charles Lawton,she feels betrayed and,although Mariana visits and has sex with her,the relationship is going nowhere. Helped by old flame Tib she makes a play for innocent Miss Browne but sees she is barking up the wrong tree and diverts herself by renovating the family hall. A drunken Tib almost exposes her secret and scornful mine-owner Christopher Rawson,whose marriage proposal she rejects,tells her that her sexuality is a subject of local gossip. Undeterred Anne meets Ann Walker who becomes her new ‘wife’ and they open a coal-mine ,living happily together. An end title tells us that Anne Lister died prematurely in 1840 on holiday in Russia.Read More »

A young Kurdish refugee finds friendship from an unlikely source in Welcome, writer-director Philippe Lioret’s dramatic (chronicle of intersecting lives. The tale unfurls in Calais, a seaside community in the north of France where one can glimpse the white cliffs of Dover, England with the naked eye. Vincent Lindon stars as Simon, a local swimming instructor privately reeling in turmoil because he dreads an imminent divorce from his wife (Audrey Dana). Soon, his path unexpectedly criss-crosses with that of Bilal (Firat Ayverdi), a 17-year-old Kurdish refugee with two aspirations: swim the English Channel, and join his girlfriend in England following a lengthy separation. Despite their differing ages, the two men discover that they have a fair amount in common, and soon forge a tight bond marked by similar goals.)Read More »