2009 Film Selections

It is Kate’s 16th birthday and she has never been kissed. This “day-in-the-life” by Emmy-nominated writer/director Becky Smith (Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) puts a wry, witty, and unpredictable ensemble cast in a small-town locale along the Mississippi River. (2008, Director: Becky Smith, 118min)

11/6/2009 at 6:30pm | Tickets | Trailer

Three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen narrates this documentary about Hannah Senesh, a World War II-era Hungarian poet who with 31 other Jewish-Palestinians parachuted in into Nazi occupied Hungary to rescue Jews. It was the only outside rescue mission for Jews during the Holocaust. Hannah was captured, tortured and ultimately executed. A discussion will follow the screening. (2008, Director: Roberta Grossman, 85min)

11/7/2009 at 9:00pm | Tickets | Trailer

Follows 15 years in the life of a photo journalist in some of the most dangerous places on earth: Sarajevo in 1993; Grozny in 1997, and Iraq in 2007, embedded with the US military. This film addresses the two questions that are always asked of those who report wars: Why do you do it? How does it affect you? (2008, Director: Richard Parry, 78min)

11/5/2009 at 9:30pm | Tickets | Trailer

A young New York couple, Daryl and Zoe, want something more and so embark on a break-up stratagem by creating a maze of rules and boundaries, hoping to avoid the pain of a separation by slowly weaning themselves off of each other. The film, an uncensored look at young love, blurs the line between documentary and narrative by casting real life couple (and filmmakers) Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones as themselves. (2008, Director: Daryl Wein, 90min)

11/5/2009 at 9:30pm | Tickets | Trailer

An intimate portrait of the four film pioneers who founded and ran Warner Bros. for over 50 years— little-known major player, Harry Warner; honest Abe; visionary Sam; and volatile Jack -- the original Hollywood independent filmmakers, who ultimately used films to “educate, entertain, and enlighten” while being commercially successful and creating social change, all during the Golden Years of Hollywood. (2008, Director: Cass Warner, 90min)

Aging rock star Pat Corcoran Lopez embarks on a mid-life crisis road trip into rural Mexico with a beautiful young woman. Unpaved roads treat the pair to a dusty adventure full of anger management, Beethoven, The Doors, lust, and God as the road trip becomes a journey full of lessons and revelations. A discussion will follow the screening. (2009, Director: Alfonso Corona, 100min)

11/7/2009 at 6:30pm | Tickets | Trailer

11/6/2009 at 6:30pm | Tickets | Trailer

A dark comedy about a man's battle for his soul. Angel, a selfish and morally bankrupt man, wakes up one morning with wings on his back. Despite numerous attempts to hide his new appendages, Angel is exposed to his community. After much ridicule, he desperately tries to rid himself of the good wings, but eventually finds himself fighting those who view the wings as their ticket to fame and fortune. Is Angel’s misguided soul capable of being rescued? (2008, Director: Bill Plympton, 80min)

11/7/2009 at 6:30pm | Tickets | Trailer

Johnson is a 20-something, would-be entrepreneur who travels to Shanghai, China, to produce the next blocbuster novelty item—a “humorous personal hygiene product.” From cosmopolitan night clubs, to rural China, to ancient gardens, to the teeming market streets, Johnson must overcome a string of bad luck if he is to succeed. (2008, Director: Judi Krant, 87min)

11/6/2009 at 9:00pm | Tickets | Trailer

A genre-bending tale of unrequited teen-age love. When a drive through the countryside beyond their suburban community leads to the discovery of the heretofore missing girl’s mysteriously animated corpse, two high-school boys secretly transport the undead Wendy to an empty house in hopes of somehow bringing her back to life. (2008, Directors: The Deagol Brothers, 105min)

Observes what happens when the biggest mall developer in the Northeast comes to the smallest county in New York to build its biggest mall yet on a toxic dump, one mile from the filmmakers' homes. That move sparks a citizen uprising which lasts almost 20 years. A discussion will follow the screening. (2008, Directors: Roger Grange, Sarah Mondale and Vera Aronow, 80min)

Each year over eight million families around the world suffer the loss of a child. In “Motherland,” a 17-day trip to South Africa transforms the lives of six grieving women from disparate parts of the US. A discussion will follow the screening. (2009, Director: Jennifer Steinman, 79min)

11/8/2009 at 12:30pm | Tickets | Trailer

Filmmaker Roger Nygard roams the globe to the source of the world’s philosophies, religions, and belief systems interviewing spiritual leaders, scholars, scientists, artists, pizza chefs, weirdos and others who have influenced, inspired, or freaked out humanity to offer a challenging, entertaining, and enlightening exploration of “why are we here.” A discussion will follow the screening. (2009, Director: Roger Nygard, 94 min)

11/5/2009 at 7pm | Tickets | Trailer

A look at a cultured, prosperous Argentine couple whose three children have grown and gone. For Leonardo and Martha, there are no more excuses for not addressing all those little grievances and annoyances that have piled up over the years. (2007, Director: Daniel Burman, 91min)

11/6/2009 at 9:15pm | Tickets | Trailer

“Our Disappeared”/“Nuestros Desaparecidos” is director Juan Mandelbaum’s personal search for the souls of friends and loved ones who were caught in the vise of the military and “disappeared” in his native Argentina during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. A discussion will follow the screening. (2008, Director: Juan Mandelbaum, 99min)

11/7/2009 at 12:00pm | Tickets | Trailer

During WWII, the Japanese military developed a new weapon intended to strike directly at the American continent – the balloon bomb. One of these bombs made it to American soil where it detonated, killing six, making them the only people killed on the continental U.S. during WWII. Forty years later, Japanese women who worked in the bomb factories travel to America to apologize. A discussion will follow the screening. (2008, Director: Nana Sol, 67min)

11/7/2009 at 2:00pm | Tickets | Trailer

Lucky and Levon work the underbelly of New York's wholesale fashion district. Lucky's world is turned upside down when a toddler is suddenly thrust into his life. While Lucky copes with his new domestic dilemma, Levon struggles to save a marriage that is falling apart. Shot in a fast-paced guerilla style--like reality TV-- the film reveals the lives of immigrants in urban America. (2008, Director: Sean Baker, 100min)

11/5/2009 at 7pm | Tickets | Trailer

Truly one of Hitchcock’s finest films. A photojournalist (Jimmy Stewart) is confined to a wheelchair with a broken leg, and believes that a murder has been committed by his neighbor in the courtyard adjoining the rear of his apartment. (1954, Director: Alfred Hitchcock, 112min)

11/8/2009 at 3:00pm | Tickets | Trailer

“The greatest break-up story ever told,” Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by email. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this animated interpretation of the Indian epic Ramayana and including the 1920s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw. (2008, Director: Nina Paley, 82min)

11/7/2009 at 9:00pm | Tickets | Trailer

Carty Fox, a recovering alcoholic, finds a twenty-dollar bill with a mysterious message on it. His quest to discover its meaning takes him across the country into a Lynchian landscape of shame, rage, and pain that forces him to reflect on his own life and, perhaps, unlock the person he has imprisoned for all these years in his drunken state of mind. (2008, Director: Chopper Bernet, 92min)

11/7/2009 at 12:00pm | Tickets | Trailer