All Recommendations
Antarctica: A Year on Ice
Filling the giant screen with stunning time-lapse vistas of Antarctica, and detailing year-round life at McMurdo and Scott Base, Anthony Powell’s documentary is a potent hymn to the icy continent and the heavens above.
I Am
I AM is an utterly engaging and entertaining non-fiction film that poses two practical and provocative questions: what’s wrong with our world, and what can we do to make it better? The filmmaker behind the inquiry is Tom Shadyac, one of Hollywood’s leading comedy practitioners and the creative force behind such blockbusters as “Ace Ventura,” “Liar Liar,” “The Nutty Professor,” and “Bruce Almighty.” However, in I AM, Shadyac steps in front of the camera to recount what happened to him after a cycling accident left him incapacitated, possibly for good. Though he ultimately recovered, he emerged with a new sense of purpose, determined to share his own awakening to his prior life of excess and greed, and to investigate how he as an individual, and we as a race, could improve the way we live and walk in the world.
Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer
British documentarian Nick Broomfield creates a follow-up piece to his 1992 documentary of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was convicted of killing six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Interviewing an increasingly mentally unstable Wuornos, Broomfield captures the distorted mind of a murderer whom the state of Florida deems of sound mind -- and therefore fit to execute. Throughout the film, Broomfield includes footage of his testimony at Wuornos' trial.
Room 666
During the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, Wenders asks a number of global film directors to, one at a time, go into a hotel room, turn on the camera and answer a simple question: "What is the future of cinema?"
Brother's Keeper
This documentary by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky details the murder trial of Delbert Ward. Delbert was a member of a family of four elderly brothers, working as semi-literate farmers and living together in isolation from the rest of society until William's death.
Christmas Oranges
In a town not so far away and a time not so long ago, baby Rose was left on the porch of Greenwoods Orphanage, where Mrs. Hartley and the children under her tender care become her family. But when tragedy strikes, Rose loses the only home she has ever known and she is abruptly shipped to Irongates—a place that seems as cold and cruel as her previous home was kind. Strict headmaster Mr. Crampton immediately seems to dislike Rose and makes sure she and the other children are punished for any minor infraction of his rules. Rose soon makes friends with Emily, but in spite of her gentle and forgiving nature, some of the children will take any chance they can to get her into trouble. When she learns that every Christmas Mr. Crampton’s generous brother gives an orange to each child, Rose waits in eager anticipation.
The Mad Masters
The subject of the film was the Hauka movement. The Hauka movement consisted of mimicry and dancing to become possessed by French Colonial administrators. The participants performed the same elaborate military ceremonies of their colonial occupiers, but in more of a trance than true recreation.
Little Bi Peep
Down and out, directionless, and without a driver's license, Emma is going nowhere fast and she knows it. The men and women this bisexual enigma has been sleeping with think she's a waitress, an artist or a kindergarten teacher... while in reality, she works in a seedy porn shop, dressing up nightly as various "sexy" characters. One night at the local Albany bar, Emma meets Mason, a transgender IT technician who seems to have it all. Could Mason be the knight in shining armor she's been searching for? Soon, Emma finds her web of carefully crafted lies beginning to unravel when she encounters one of the few things she hasn't before- sincere feelings for another person. Little Bi Peep... it's hard to find someone to love ewe.
Reel Rock 7
The biggest stories from the climbing world, told with humor, heart, and mind-bending action. Featuring Alex Honnold in Honnold 3.0, Chris Sharma and Adam Ondra in La Dura Dura, Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk in Shark's Fin, The Wide Boyz, Sasha DiGiulian, Daila Ojeda and more.
My Best Fiend
A film that describes the love-hate relationship between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, the deep trust between the director and the actor, and their independently and simultaneously hatched plans to murder one another.
Into the Abyss
We do not know when and how we will die. Death Row inmates do. Werner Herzog embarks on a dialogue with Death Row inmates, asks questions about life and death and looks deep into these individuals, their stories, their crimes.
A War
Company commander Claus Michael Pedersen and his men are stationed in Helmand, Afghanistan. Meanwhile back in Denmark, with a husband at war and three children missing their father, everyday life is a struggle for Claus' wife Maria. During a routine mission, the soldiers are caught in heavy Taliban crossfire. In order to save his men, Claus makes a decision that ultimately sees him return to Denmark accused of a war crime.
Helvetica
Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.
Stroszek
Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and warned to stop drinking. He has few skills and fewer expectations: with a glockenspiel and an accordion, he ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck and they join his neighbor, Scheitz, an elderly eccentric, when he leaves Germany to live in Wisconsin.
Ex Drummer
Three handicapped losers who form a band ask famous writer Dries to be their drummer. He joins the band and starts manipulating them.
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
Frustrated with her mundane life, a Tokyo office worker becomes obsessed with a fictional movie that she mistakes for a documentary. Fixating on a scene where stolen cash is buried in North Dakota, she travels to America to find it.
Grizzly Man
Werner Herzog's documentary film about the "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell and what the thirteen summers in a National Park in Alaska were like in one man's attempt to protect the grizzly bears. The film is full of unique images and a look into the spirit of a man who sacrificed himself for nature.
Safe
Carol White, a Los Angeles housewife in the late 1980s, comes down with a debilitating illness with no clear diagnosis.
The Thomas Crown Affair
Young businessman Thomas Crown is bored and decides to plan a robbery and assigns a professional agent with the right information to the job. However, Crown is soon betrayed yet cannot blow his cover because he’s in love.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans
Terrence McDonagh is a New Orleans Police sergeant, who recieves a medal and a promotion to lieutenant for heroism during Hurricane Katrina. Due to his heroic act, McDonagh injures his back and becomes addicted to prescription pain medication. He then finds himself involved with a drug dealer who is suspected of murdering a family of African immigrants.