Directed By Writer
Stick It
HDHaley Graham is a former gymnast turned juvenile-delinquent who, after one too many run-ins with the law, is forced to enroll at an elite gymnastics academy, the VGA in Houston, Texas which is run by legendary Olympic gymnast Burt Vickerman. But the rebellious Haley is not welcomed into the academy by the other teenage gymnasts who despise her for walking out on her Junior Olympic team years earlier during a competition, which cost them the gold medal. But Haley is not a docile person either and makes every effort to provoke conflicts with the other girls. Vickerman takes it upon himself to coach Haley in his own way to make her regain her self-respect for the VGA's coming spot on the Gymnastic Nationals.
Sophie and the Rising Sun
HDSet in the autumn of 1941 in Salty Creek, a fishing village in South Carolina, the film tells the dramatic story of interracial lovers swept up in the tides of history. As World War II rages in Europe a wounded stranger, Mr. Ohta, appears in the town under mysterious circumstances. Sophie, a native of Salty Creek, quickly becomes transfixed by Mr. Ohta and a friendship born of their mutual love of art blossoms into a delicate and forbidden courtship. As their secret relationship evolves the war escalates tragically. When Pearl Harbor is bombed, a surge of misguided patriotism, bigotry and violence sweeps through the town, threatening Mr. Ohta's life. A trio of women, each with her own secrets - Sophie, along with the town matriarch and her housekeeper - rejects law and propriety, risking their lives with their actions.
Marie Antoinette
HD"All eyes will be on you," says the Austrian Empress, Maria Theresa to her youngest daughter Marie Antoinette. The film, marketed for a teen audience, is an impressionistic retelling of Marie Antoinette's life as a young queen in the opulent and eccentric court at Versailles. The film focuses on Marie Antoinette, as she matures from a teenage bride to a young woman and eventual queen of France.
Paris, je t'aime
HD'Paris, Je T'aime] is about the plurality of cinema in one mythic location: Paris, the City of Love. 20 filmmakers have five minutes each; the audience must weave a single narrative out of twenty moments. The 20 moments are fused by transitional interstitial sequences and also via the introduction and epilogue. Each transition begins with the last shot of the previous film and ends with the first shot of the following film, extending the enchantment and the emotion of the previous segment, preparing the audience for a surprise, and providing a cohesive atmosphere. There's a reappearing mysterious character who is a witness to the Parisian life. A common theme of Paris and love fuses all.
Deliver Us from Evil
HDFormer Catholic priest Oliver O'Grady - Father Ollie in more familiar circumstances - talks about his life as priest, including what he saw as his many failings in that role. Although not stating it as one of those failings, he also speaks about the sexual abuse of minors, both girls and boys, in his role as a priest, where his victims number in the hundreds covering approximately two decades in Central California, with his youngest known victim being nine months old. He admits that he spent as much time planning his abuses, which included gaining the confidences of parents sometimes also in sexual means, than he did with actual ministering. A handful of his victims and their support networks speak of how the abuse was able to happen, how it has negatively affected their collective lives to this day (while Father Ollie walks seemingly happy a free man in his native Ireland), and how they are trying to regain their faith in a holistic manner. Experts talk about how items specific to the Catholic religious structure institutionalize such abuse where power rests in the hands of a small few, while the flock - the masses - are meant, as good Catholics, to be subservient to that power, and why the abuse of girls is treated differently by the church than that of boys. This documentary then opens up the discussion to the fact that clergy abuse within the Catholic church is not isolated only to Father Ollie, but is widespread, may be institutionalized psychologically, and efforts are still made at almost every step by those in positions of power, including the Pope, to protect the abusers at the expense of the victims. In Father Ollie's case, he was moved from parish to parish within his diocese (the Los Angeles Diocese) and often promoted, while his victims were told he would be moved not only into therapy but into positions where children could no longer be abused.
Population 436
HDWhile traveling to Rockwell Falls in an assignment of the US Census Bureau, the surveyor from Chicago Steve Kady has two flat tires nearby the small town. The local Deputy Bobby Caine brings him to the town and the Mayor Grateman lodges him in a farm, where the gorgeous Courtney Lovett lives with her mother. Steve finds that Rockwell Falls, considered by the locals as the most perfect place on Earth, has the same population since 1860 and sooner he discloses the meaning and the dark secret of their creed of solidarity and steadfastness.
Lady in the Water
HDThe super Cleveland Heep finds a woman swimming in the swimming pool of the condominium during the night; he slips, hits his head on the floor and faints in the water, and she rescues him. He discloses that she is a "Narf" called Story, a character of bedtime stories, that is chased by a "Scrunt" and she needs to return to her Blue World with an eagle. Cleveland convinces the tenants to help and protect Story.
Step Up
HDIn Baltimore, the troublemaker and street dancer Tyler Gage lives with his foster parents in a lower class neighborhood. His best friends are Mac Carter and his little brother Skinny Carter and they used to hang around together, going to parties and stealing cars. After being expelled from a party, the trio breaks in the Maryland School of Arts and commits vandalism, destroying the stage. Tyler is arrested and sentenced to 200 hours of community service in the school and Director Gordon assigns him to help the janitor cleaning the place. One afternoon, the ballet dancer Nora Clark sees Tyler dancing in the parking area and when her partner Andrew has a strain and Tyler offers to help her in the choreography, she accepts the offer; they rehearsal and become close to each other while Tyler becomes friend of the students Miles Darby and Lucy Avila. When Andrew returns, Tyler that is known for quitting everything he starts gives up dancing and leaves Nora alone. After an incident, Tyler has to decide to follow his dream or return to his life of rebel loser.
The Hottest State
HDA young actor from Texas tries to make it in New York while struggling in his relationship with a beautiful singer/songwriter.
Stranger Than Fiction
HDEverybody knows that your life is a story. But what if a story was your life? Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is your average I.R.S. Agent: monotonous, boring, and repetitive. But one day this all changes when Harold begins to hear an author inside of his head narrating his life. The narrator it is extraordinarily accurate, and Harold recognizes the voice as an esteemed author he saw on television. But when the narration reveals that he is going to die, Harold must find the author of the story, and ultimately his life, to convince her to change the ending of the story before it is too late.
Hard Luck
HDTwo converging story lines involving corrupt cops ripping off drug dealers and serial killers are followed as former drug dealer Lucky, trying to go straight after doing a prison stint, gets entangled within by a series of bad breaks. Shepherd plays a sadistic and vindictive mother of a handicapped son who along with her young kung-fu kicking boyfriend, abducts and tortures people who she feels scorn her son. Lucky, caught up in a shootout between dealers and cops, grabs two briefcases with $500,000 and goes on the run and has the hard luck of happening upon the serial killer's cabin.
Slash
HDFreshman Neil's Vanguard stories are all he cares about...until he meets the older Julia, who pushes him to put his own fan fic online. When the website's moderator takes a special interest in Neil's work, it opens up a whole new universe.
The Dead Girl
HDIn Los Angeles, a story about a dead girl, told in five chapters. A woman, miserable in her circumscribed life caring for her domineering mother, finds a body. Somehow, this discovery allows her to change. At the morgue, the sister of a girl missing for 15 years believes the body is that of her sister; this liberates her. An older woman, married to a man who pays her little attention, finds evidence in a storage unit; how will she handle it? The mother of the dead girl, who left home some years before, visits the last place her daughter lived and makes her own discoveries. Last, we flash back to the victim's final day.
Goya's Ghosts
HDThe painter Goya becomes involved with the Spanish Inquisition when his muse, Ines, is arrested by the church for heresy. Her father, Thomas, comes to him hoping that his connection with Brother Lorenzo, whom he is painting, can secure the release of his daughter.
Krisha
HDAfter a long decade of total estrangement, grizzled Aunt Krisha shows up at her sister's home one fine Thanksgiving morning. Swearing she's got her act together now, Krisha is desperate to re-enter the family circle; however, wounded Krisha has deeply hurt people in the past. As a result, as her beloved ones greet her with a volatile mix of sympathy and wariness, right from the start, a corrosive undercurrent of silent discomfort permeates the multi-generational gathering. But Krisha is determined to let nothing stand in the way of reconciliation, so, without a second thought, she undertakes the crucial, risky task of cooking the turkey: her big chance to build a bridge. As heat caresses the turkey's crisp brown skin, wary glances and private conversations ratchet up the tension, and painful secrets come to light. Is the family's lost lamb ready to make up for lost time?
Blood of the Tribades
HD2000 years after the great vampire Bathor established the village of Bathory, superstition and religious violence take over as the men and women battle for control. When the men are afflicted with a mysterious illness, they become certain that the vampire women of Bathory are responsible for their ills, and thus, the hunt begins! Long-forgotten lovers Élisabeth and Fantine find that, with the help of those who were banished, it is their fate to piece together the past and help preserve what little of their society remains before Bathor's impending return and judgment.
Hush
HDA deaf and mute writer who retreated into the woods to live a solitary life must fight for her life in silence when a masked killer appears at her window.
Hearts of Spring
HDA successful mommy blogger decides to re-enter the world of dating and discovers the man she has been falling for is the same man she has been sparring with online.
The Adderall Diaries
HDAs a writer stymied by past success, writers block, substance abuse, relationship problems and a serious set of father issues, Elliott's cracked-out chronicle of a bizarre murder trial amounts to less than the sum of its parts. Not long into the 2007 trial of programmer Hans Reiser, accused of murdering his wife, the defendant's friend Sean Sturgeon obliquely confessed to several murders (though not the murder of Reiser's wife). Elliott, caught up in the film-ready twist and his tenuous connection to Sturgeon (they share a BDSM social circle), makes a record of the proceedings. The result is a scattered, self-indulgent romp through the mind of a depressive narcissist obsessed with his insecurities and childhood traumas.
Nina
HDThe story of the late jazz musician and classical pianist Nina Simone including her rise to fame and relationship with her manager Clifton Henderson.
Maggie's Plan
HDMaggie's plan to have a baby on her own is derailed when she falls in love with John, a married man, destroying his volatile marriage to the brilliant and impossible Georgette. But one daughter and three years later, Maggie is out of love and in a quandary: what do you do when you suspect your man and his ex wife are actually perfect for each other?
See You Then
HDA decade after abruptly breaking up with Naomi, Kris invites her to dinner to catch-up on their complicated lives, relationships, and Kris' transition.
Twisted Pair
HDIdentical twin brothers become hybrid A.I (artificial intelligence) entities, yet torn in different directions to achieve justice for humanity.
Private Life
HDRichard and Rachel, a couple in the throes of infertility, try to maintain their marriage as they descend deeper and deeper into the weird world of assisted reproduction and domestic adoption. When their doctor suggests third party reproduction, they bristle. But when Sadie, a recent college drop out, re-enters their life, they reconsider.
What They Had
HDWhen old, dementia/Alzheimer's stricken Ruth walks away from home on a snowy Christmas Eve, her husband, Burt, calls his son, Nick, the police etc. Nick calls his sister, Bridget, who flies to Chicago with her daughter, Emma. Ruth is found and at the hospital. She's OK but something has to be done. Burt is also off his mind as he's bought a big convertible and is driving around in the winter with the top down. He wants to move to Florida with Ruth, not accepting her condition and not wanting to be alone. Nick shows his bar to his sister and brings up memory care facility for mom and getting power of attorney.
Umma
HDAmanda and her daughter live a quiet life on an American farm, but when the remains of her estranged mother arrive from Korea, Amanda becomes haunted by the fear of turning into her own mother.
Karen Kingsbury's A Time to Dance
HDA Time to Dance follows the bittersweet story of longtime couple John and Abby, whose separation is postponed when they find out their daughter is getting married. Determined not to spoil their daughter's big moment, they secretly put their plans on hold only to have the wedding planning process draw them back together.
Chris Claremont's X-Men
HDChris Claremont came to Marvel as a young man, and was assigned a book that no one else wanted, a book on the brink of cancellation: X-Men. Over the next 17 years, his work on the title turned it into the biggest franchise in comic book history. Forty years later, his work has been adapted into 10 films, three TV series, countless video games and become a part of our cultural mythology.
Tallulah
HDAn intelligent but feral girl's boyfriend leaves unexpectedly causing her to search for him at his estranged mother's home. The two women begin to bond, finding supportive friendship in each other's troubled lives, changing their outlook forever.
Genius
HDWhen, one day in 1929, writer Thomas Wolfe decided to keep the appointment made by Max Perkins, editor at Scribner's, he had no illusions: his manuscript would be turned down as had invariably been the case. But, to his happy amazement, his novel, which was to become "Look Homeward, Angel," was accepted for publication. The only trouble was that it was overlong (by 300 pages) and had to be reduced. Although reluctant to see his poetic prose trimmed, Wolfe agreed and was helped by Perkins, who had become a true friend, with the result that it instantly became a favorite with the critics and a best seller. Success was even greater in 1935 when "Of Time and the River" appeared, but the fight for reducing Wolfe's logorrheic written expression had been even harder, with the novel originally at 5,000 pages. Perkins managed to cut 90,000 words from the book, and with bitterness ultimately taking its toll, the relationships between the two men gradually deteriorated. Wolfe did not feel grateful to Perkins any longer but had started resenting him for owing his success to him.
Window Horses: The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming
HDA young Canadian poet with Chinese and Persian parents travels to Iran to perform at a poetry festival.
An Impossible Love
HDIn the late 1950s in Châteauroux, France, Rachel, a modest office worker, meets Philippe, a brilliant young man born to a bourgeois family. This brief but passionate connection results in the birth of a daughter, Chantal. Philippe refuses to marry outside of his social class and Rachel has to raise their daughter alone. Regardless, Chantal is a great source of happiness for Rachel. She wishes for Philippe to legally acknowledge his daughter, which would give her his last name. A battle of more than ten years ensues, which will eventually break up all of their lives.