May Advisory Meeting Candidates (as of April)

12 - crime/drama - Nikita Mikhalkov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c02QRDk5XrI
When a Russian youth is put on trial for the murder of his adoptive father, it's up to a room full of jurors divided by racism and prejudice to determine the boy's ultimate fate in director Nikita Mikhalkov's loose remake of Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men. At the center of the storm is a broodingly silent foreman (Mikhalkov). As the deliberation grows increasingly tense, a racist Russian cabbie (Sergei Garmash) attempts to sway the vote of a well-dressed television producer (Yuri Stoyanov) by staging a vivid recreation of a gruesome murder scene; an elderly Jewish man (Valentin Gaft) recovers the nightmares of the Holocaust; and a Caucasus surgeon (Sergei Gazarov) is pushed over the edge by a hateful rant about the brutishness of Chechens. Later, after one soft-spoken juror (Sergei Makovetsky) wins the jury over with a heartfelt monologue about intemperance and redemption, the volatile group struggles to settle on a final verdict.

Absurdistan – comedy - Veit Helmer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP5zDckXUj8
Welcome to Absurdistan, a small village in the high desert mountains, just on the outskirts of reality, where magical visions and bizarre events fuse together, but the sexes are divided. The village is facing a water shortage, but the men are too lazy to fix a rickety pipeline and the women are getting fed up with their good-for-nothing husbands. Led by young Aya (Kristyna Malerova), the women make a simple vow: “No water, no sex.” The men’s only hope is Temelko (Maximilian Mauff), whose long-promised wedding with Aya is put on hold until he finds a solution to the water problem. From the wild imagination of the award-winning director of Tuvalu comes this perfectly pitched lyrical comedy that is romantic, surreal and boundlessly poetic.

America Betrayed – documentary - Leslie Cardé
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWzZBhkT0jM
America's national infrastructure was once considered one of our crowning achievements, but in this documentary narrated by Academy Award winner Richard Dreyfuss and directed by Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist Leslie Cardé, viewers learn how our country's crumbling bridges, dams, levees, and highways put millions of Americans at risk every day. Using an investigation into the little-known causes of the post-Katrina levee failures as a springboard to examine how corruption, collusion, and cronyism have infected the highest levels of government, Cardé and company reveal how the Army Corps of Engineers -- the very agency charged with insuring that our national infrastructure remains intact -- has sacrificed the needs of our nation in favor of entering into self-serving deals with corporate America. Having wasted billions of dollars in taxpayer money on rebuilding other nation's infrastructures while neglecting to ensure that our own are properly maintained, we are forced to watch our streets crumble as lobbyists and gluttonous politicians funnel money into pointless pet projects, and those sent to investigate the matter are bribed into covering up their true findings. Interviews with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, top scientists, United States senators and congressmen, and whistleblowers who risk their lives and livelihood in order to speak out, America Betrayed is a sobering wake-up call to anyone who places blind trust in government, and a challenge to Washington to hold corrupted officials accountable for their misdeeds.

Big Man Japan – comedy - Hitoshi Matsumoto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTAoxSspBJE
Director Hitoshi Matsumoto weaves this darkly comic mockumentary about a Japanese man who continues the long-standing family tradition of facing off against Tokyo's most formidable monsters. Constantly caught in the middle of everyone's battles, Daisato finds his sincere efforts to keep the peace repeatedly belittled; he's divorced, his neighbors have covered his house in graffiti, and he gets nothing but dirty looks when he walks down the street. When we first meet Daisato, he is the subject of a television documentary. Though on the surface Daisato may seem like your average, slightly unkempt salaryman -- completely unremarkable in all respects -- it soon becomes apparent just how deceiving first impressions can be. After lamenting on camera the fact that he never gets any vacation time due to frequent calls from the Defense Department, the camera follows Daisato as he rides his motorbike to a Tokyo power plant, receives the jolt of electricity that transforms him into a hulking super-human crime fighter, and clashes with a gargantuan leviathan intent on destroying Tokyo. Daisato comes from a long line of heroic heavyweights, yet while his ancestors were once championed with parades for their noble efforts, public interest in giant invaders has waned and Daisato has become something of a joke to the citizens of Tokyo. Not only is noise generated by Daisato's battles regarded as a public nuisance, the property damages that he causes while defending the city has the citizens downright angry. Now, as Daisato attempts to balance his responsibilities to his ex-wife, his daughter, his agent, and his senile grandfather, the crushing weight of both his personal and professional obligations simply becomes too much to bear.

Burma VJ – documentary - Anders Østergaard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V08EBWQLzyU
Armed with small handy cams undercover Video Journalists in Burma keep up the flow of news from their closed country. Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, acclaimed director Anders Østergaard, brings us close to the video journalists who deliver the footage. Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens of Burma live the essence of journalism as they insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country. The Burma VJs stop at nothing to make their reportages from the streets of Rangoon. Their material is smuggled out of the country and broadcast back into Burma via satellite and offered as free usage for international media. The whole world has witnessed single event clips made by the VJs, but for the very first time, their individual images have been carefully put together and at once, they tell a much bigger story. ”Joshua”, age 27, is one of the young video journalists, who works undercover to counter the propaganda of the military regime. Foreign TV crews are suddenly banned from the country, so it’s left to Joshua and his crew to keep the revolution alive on TV screens all over. With Joshua as the psychological lens, the Burmese condition is made tangible to a global audience so we can understand it, feel it, and smell it. The film offers a unique insight into high-risk journalism and dissidence in a police state, while at the same time providing a thorough documentation of the historical and dramatic days of September 2007, when the Buddhist monks started marching.

The Country Teacher – drama - Bohdan Sláma
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnH4ovseOh0
A sexually confused natural science teacher turns down a prestigious job in Prague in favor of working in a remote Czech village, in the process forming a close bond with a lonely widow and her insolent seventeen year old son. Having recently come off of a failed homosexual relationship, the troubled teacher makes the difficult decision to leave his family behind and relocate to a quaint village in the countryside where he can create a new identity from the ground up. Shortly after getting settled in and landing a job teaching at the local school, he meets pretty widow Marie (Zuzana Bydzovská) whose husband has disappeared to work on the family farm. In the process of forming a friendship with Marie, who clearly wants to take their relationship a step further, the teacher also forms a connection with her rebellious adolescent son (Ladislav Sedivý). Marie simply doesn't understand that the teacher left Prague in order to find himself in the country, and due to the rampant homophobia in the rural area it's difficult for him to express his true motivations to her. An already complicated situation intensifies tenfold when, out of nowhere, the teacher's former lover arrives in town determined to find out why their relationship was broken off so suddenly and unceremoniously.

Departures – drama - Yôjirô Takita
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY70USlpIlI
Academy Award® winner for Best Foreign Language Film. Director Yojiro Takita and writer Kundo Koyama examine the rituals surrounding death in Japan with this tale of an out-of-work cellist who accepts a job as a "Nokanashi" or "encoffineer" (the Japanese equivalent of an undertaker) in order to provide for himself and his young wife. Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) is a talented musician, but when his orchestra is abruptly disbanded, he suddenly finds himself without a source of steady income. Making the decision to move back to his small hometown, Daigo answers a classified ad for a company called "Departures," mistakenly assuming that he will be working for a travel agency. Upon discovering that he will actually be preparing the bodies of the recently deceased for their trip to the afterlife, Daigo accepts the position as gatekeeper between life and death and gradually gains a greater appreciation for life. But while Daigo's wife and friends universally despise his new line of work, he takes a great amount of pride in the fact that he is helping to ensure that the dead receive a proper send-off from this state of being.

Every Little Step – documentary - Adam Del Deo and James Stern
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jn9qQATNRs
The central premise of the Kirkwood-Dante-Kleban-Hamlisch Broadway musical A Chorus Line is by now overly familiar, examining as it does the 17 actors auditioning for spots in a chorus line on the Great White Way. Recalling Donn Pennebaker's Moon Over Broadway and other similar efforts, documentarians Adam Del Deo and James D. Stern's film Every Little Step travels behind the scenes of the auditions for 2006 revival of A Chorus Line to investigate the goings-on and the interplay among the hopefuls. The film thus establishes a neat corollary between the events of the play itself and the offstage experiences of the aspiring tryouts. On top of this, Stern and Del Deo work in a layer that pertains to the original genesis of the show, and its evolution from an idea by Michael Bennett, who recorded an ensemble of dancers speaking confessionally and used that as the basis for everything else. Here, the filmmakers play those original tapes back, on-camera, thus resurrecting old ghosts; score composer Marvin Hamlisch also turns up and revokes the past, courtesy of a revealing and racy little nugget about the history of the tune "Dance: Ten; Looks: Three." Above all else, the film works in extensive footage of the auditions themselves, on songs such as "At the Ballet" and "I Can Do That" -- thus interweaving an aura of suspense throughout the narrative over who will eventually wind up in the production itself. The title of the documentary, of course, is a reference to the lyric of the seminal tune "One" ("One singular sensation, every little step she takes").

Examined Life – documentary - Astra Taylor
http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/examinedlife/
In Examined Life, filmmaker Astra Taylor accompanies some of today’s most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas. Peter Singer’s thoughts on the ethics of consumption are amplified against the backdrop of Fifth Avenue’s posh boutiques. Slavoj Zizek questions current beliefs about the environment while sifting through a garbage dump. Michael Hardt ponders the nature of revolution while surrounded by symbols of wealth and leisure. Judith Butler and a friend stroll through San Francisco’s Mission District questioning our culture’s fixation and individualism. And while driving through Manhattan, Cornel West—perhaps America’s best-known public intellectual—compares philosophy to jazz and blues, reminding us how intense and invigorating a life of the mind can be. Offering privileged moments with great thinkers from fields ranging from moral philosophy to cultural theory, Examined Life reveals philosophy’s power to transform the way we see the world around us and imagine our place in it. Featuring Cornel West, Avital Ronell, Peter Singer, Kwarne Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Michael Hardt, Slavoj Zizek, Judith Butler and Sunaura Taylor.

Fados – musical - Carlos Saura
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofPIDWpAAWo
If references to the fado - an ancient Portuguese form of music - fail to strike a chord with even the most cultured American viewers, this is only attributable to the genre's longtime obscurity. A Portuguese musical mode borne out of early 19th century Lisbon, and characterized by long, ornate, emotionally-heavy ballads lamenting lost loves and shattered dreams, the fado began to experience a stunning and unpredicted resurgence in the early 21st century. Carlos Saura's 2007 documentary Fados captures the musical genre at this point, as it begins to reattain popularity. As the third and concluding installment in the director's 'musical trilogy' that began with Flamenco (1995) and Tango (1998), the film first traces the history of the fado form, then moves into a veritable concert of fado all-stars (or fadistas) including Mariza, Camane, Caetano Veloso and others - staged and filmed on a succession of elaborate sets such as a recreation of a period Lisbon bar. Saura also works in tributes to such past fado performers as Amalia Rodrigues and Chico Buarque.

The Garden – documentary - Scott Hamilton Kennedy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhhfr_hIL7A
In the aftermath of the 1992 L.A. riots, something truly remarkable happened at the intersection of 41st Street and Alameda Avenue thanks to an uncharacteristically charitable move by the city government; where once existed a barren field littered with garbage and syringes, suddenly appeared a 14-acre community garden. Dubbed the South Central Farm, the produce garden soon began yielding fresh lettuce, ripe tomatoes, and sweet papayas. Now the local farmers could enjoy their own crops rather than relying on food stamps for subsistance. Not only that, but it also replaced a scene of urban blight with a scene of unusual beauty. For over a decade, the South Central Farm thrived, though in December of 2003 it appeared that the days of this inner-city oasis may be numbered. As the farmers receive eviction notices and bulldozers prepare to level the garden to make room for warehouses, filmmaker Scott Hamilton Kennedy documents the two-and-a-half year court battle to save the South Central Farm.

The Girlfriend Experience – comedy - Steven Soderbergh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqNvnicN-PY
The high-priced world of call girls is opened up in the Steven Soderbergh-helmed indie feature, returning the director to the low-budget cross-platform release à la 2005's Bubble. Brian Koppelman and David Levien provide the script, with adult film actress Sasha Grey stepping into the lead role for the 2929 Entertainment release.

Goodbye Solo – comedy - Ramin Bahrani
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5IGC59Q9y8
A Senegalese taxi driver living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina makes the decision to befriend a depressive passenger with a tragic plan in director Ramin Bahrani's deeply humanistic drama. Solo (Souléymane Sy Savané) is a cab driver whose believes that everyone should be engaged and concerned with one another, and thus lacks the self-conscious view of relationships so prevalent in North American society. When a seventy year old passenger named William (Red West) hails Solo's cab and books him for another ride in two weeks during the course of his ride, it quickly becomes apparent over the course of their negotiation that the man isn't planning to return from his impending trip. Troubled at the thought of what his passenger has planned, Solo does his best to strike up a friendship and convince William to reconsider. But William harbors a pain more deep-rooted than Solo first senses, displaying a visible desire for privacy that immediately putts him at odds with the genuinely concerned cab driver.

Hunger – drama - Steve McQueen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmVPCX0LxN8
The final months of Bobby Sands, the Irish Republican Army activist who protested his treatment at the hands of British prison guards with a hunger strike, are chronicled in this historical drama, the first feature film from artist-turned-filmmaker Steve McQueen. Davey Gillen (Brian Milligan) is an IRA volunteer who is sentenced to Belfast's infamous Maze prison, where he shares a cell with fellow IRA member Gerry Campbell (Liam McMahon). Like most of the IRA volunteers behind bars, Gillen and Campbell are subjected to frequent violence by the guards, who in turn live with the constant threat of assassination at the hands of Republicans during their off-hours. Campbell and Gillen are taking part in a protest in which they and their fellow IRA inmates are refusing to wear standard prison-issue uniforms as a protest against Britain's refusal to recognize them as political prisoners, a move that is complicating their efforts to pass information among the other prisoners. As the protest fails to get results, one IRA member behind bars, Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender), decides to take a different tack and begins a hunger strike, refusing to eat until Irish officials are willing to acknowledge the IRA as a legitimate political organization. However, while Sands' protest gains the attention both inside prison walls and in the international news, not everyone believes what he's doing is right, and Sands finds himself verbally sparring with a priest (Liam Cunningham) who questions the ethics and effectiveness of the strike. Hunger received its world premiere at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened as part of the Un Certain Regard program.

Jerichow – drama - Christian Petzold
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlgHdr2-SBM
The Turkish diaspora in Germany proves the catalyst for this noir-flavored drama concerning the unlikely friendship between a veteran of the Afghan-Soviet war and a middle-aged Turk in need of a helping hand. Returning home for his mother's funeral when he happens across a business associate to whom he owes a sizable debt, Thomas (Benno Fürmann) subsequently stumbles into intoxicated Turk Ali (Hilmi Sözer) while fleeing in haste. Ali has nearly driven his van into a local canal, and now he needs a driver to chauffeur him around his modest kingdom of crumbling snack bars. Recognizing the opportunity to make some quick and easy cash, Thomas agrees. But Thomas doesn't know that Ali is an intensely jealous and distrustful man, two traits that threaten to spell tragedy when Thomas enters into a passionate affair with Ali's gorgeous German bride (Nina Hoss).

Julia - drama/thriller - Erick zonka
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDDWeWknMl0
Tilda Swinton stars in director Erick Zonca's drama about a forty year old alcoholic who, in a rare moment of sobriety, sees where her life is headed and makes one last ditch attempt to steer herself away from the disastrous path that she has been locked on for as far back as she can remember. Julia may be manipulative, notoriously untrustworthy, and completely incapable of uttering any word that isn't an outright lie, but somehow - perhaps due to sheer charisma - this statuesque deceiver has always managed to get by. But Julia has been hardened by too many vodkas and too many one-night stands, and lately the lonely life of drifting from job to job in her 1979 Chrysler New Yorker has left her wanting something more. While her old boyfriend Mitch occasionally tries to break through Julia's haze, lately she has surrendered herself to the fact that she is simply one of life's losers. As her finances begin to run short and panic begins to set in, a desperate Julia turns to crime but is forced to go on the run with a young boy named Tom after her plan falls hopelessly apart.

Lemon Tree – drama - Eran Riklis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIoowHIpUT0
Widow and empty-nester Salma Zidane lives on the Palestinian West Bank, in a little house flanked by lemon trees planted by her great grand parents. Unfortunately, when the Israeli minister of defense builds a house adjacent to her own, her lemon trees are deemed a security risk. Salma hires a lawyer to prevent the powerful man from having her ancestral trees removed, but the odds are stacked against her and to make matters worse, she begins to fall in love with her lawyer. Things look bleak, but it looks like hope could shine in from an unexpected source, when the minister's neglected wife develops sympathy for Salma's plight.

Limits of Control - crime/drama - Jim Jarmusch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPFRaCnkVzE
A mysterious loner attempts to successfully complete his criminal mission while operating outside of the law in contemporary Spain. His objectives shrouded in secrecy, the untrusting lone wolf (Isaach de Bankolé) sets out on his latest assignment knowing that the law is never too far behind. Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, and Gael García Bernal co-star in a crime drama from acclaimed indie filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (Mystery Train, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai).

Little Ashes - drama - Paul Morrison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFh51hwufl8
For years, scholars have debated the nature of the relationship between surrealist painter Salvador Dali and poet Federico Garcia Lorca; director Paul Morrison's Little Ashes delves into their personal interaction and their acquaintanceship with Spanish surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel, with whom Dali made L'Age d'Or and Un Chien Andalou. In 1922 Madrid, bohemian lifestyles are flourishing -- from the arrival of jazz music to the en vogue teachings of Sigmund Freud. As the tale opens, Salvador Dali (Robert Pattinson) is only 18, but his dreams of artistic glory lie poised in front of him; his outré personality and social attitudes soon draw the full-fledged attention of two from the in-crowd -- Lorca (Javier Beltrán) and Buñuel (Matthew McNulty). For a temporary period, the three become the most "in" clique in all of Spain and find themselves virtually defining the currents of modernism; however, Buñuel then leaves for Paris, and Salvador and Federico are thrust together even closer than before -- so close that one night, their relations suddenly cross the line from platonic friendship to something far more intimate.

Our City Dreams – documentary - Chiara Clemente
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyZA5qjK44E
Filmmaker Chiara Clemente profiles five diverse female artists, each of whom calls New York City home, in this intimate documentary. In the late '50s and '60s, Nancy Spero was on the front lines of the feminist movement. Today she creates art that challenges the polemics of warfare and sexual identity. Pioneering performance artist Marina Abramovic, meanwhile, responds to contemporary cultural issued by using her body as a canvas. Glass, plaster, ceramic, bronze, and paper provide Kiki Smith with the appropriate tools to address philosophical, social, and spiritual aspects of the human body, and Ghada Amer rails against "institutionalized feminism" by painting erotic canvases with traditional needle and thread. Lastly, emerging New York artist Swoon creates vibrant street art that amplifies the pulse of urban life. Over the course of the two years in which Our City Dreams was shot, each artist faces triumphs and challenges that give the viewer a tantalizing glimpse into the creative process.

Outrage – documentary - Kirby Dick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtoB0yuC-t8
Kirby Dick, the Academy Award-nominated director of This Film is Not Yet Rated, exposes the hypocrisy of closeted politicians who actively campaign against the very community they secretly belong to. Some of the most influential policymakers in the United States are gay, but you wouldn't know it to look at their voting records. Because despite being members of the LGBT community, many closeted politicians actually vote against the proposals designed to give that community equal rights. In speaking with such members of the gay community as US Representatives Tammy Baldwin and Barney Frank, as well as radio personality Michelangelo Signorile, activist Larry Kramer, and former NJ Governor Jim McGreevey, Dick is able to explore the complexities of leading a double lifestyle, as well as highlight the double standards of a media that has become obsessed with covering the sex lives of gay public figures.

Paris 36 – drama - Christophe Barratier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmkn6Sz-s-g
A star is born in a time of both celebration and instability in this historical drama with music from director Christophe Barratier. In the spring of 1936, Paris is in a state of uncertainty; while the rise of the Third Reich in Germany worries many, a leftist union-oriented candidate, Léon Blum, has been voted into power, and organized labor is feeling its new power by standing up to management. While such matters might normally seem unimportant to Germain Pigoil (Gérard Jugnot), who runs a small vaudeville house in the Faubourg district, the chaos of the city seems to be impacting his life and his work -- his wife, Viviane (Elisabeth Vitali), has run off with her lover, she demands custody of their son, Jojo (Maxence Perrin), and unscrupulous local entrepreneur Galapiat (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) threatens to put Germain's theater out of business. With the help of a local political organizer, Milou (Clovis Cornillac), and veteran entertainer Jacky Jacquet (Kad Merad), Germain strikes a deal with Galapiat to reopen the theater, but business is slow until a lovely young woman with a remarkable voice, Douce (Nora Arnezeder), comes looking for a spot in Germain's show. Faubourg 36 (aka Paris 36) received its North American premiere at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival.

Revanche - crime/drama/thriller - Götz Spielmann
http://www.revanche.at/TRAILER.63.0.html?&L=9
A happily married couple becomes unlikely friends with a man whose life has been marked by chaos and violence in this drama from Austria. Alex (Johannes Krisch) is a small-time criminal who after a stretch in prison finds himself working for Konecny (Hanno Poeschi), who run a grimy house of prostitution; unknown to Konecny, Alex is also involved with Tamara (Irina Potapenko), one of his whores. Wanting to raise some quick cash, Alex robs a bank in a nearby small town and hides out on a farm owned by his grandfather (Hannes Thanheiser) while he waits for the heat to cool down. Alex tries to keep a low profile while waiting for Tamara to join him in the country, and he's troubled by boredom and despair, but his mood brightens when he strikes up a friendship with Susanne (Ursula Strauss), a cheerful and generous woman who lives nearby. But Alex's new friend happens to be married to Robert (Andreas Lust), a member of the local police force. Revanche was screened as an official entry at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival.

Severed Ways – Adventure - Tony Stone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-32V9bgkY-4
Many historians contend that Norse explorers settled on the North American continent long before it was "discovered" by Columbus, and this adventure blends historical research with the filmmakers' imagination in the tale of two 11th Century Vikings and their struggle to survive in a new land. Orn (Tony Stone) and Volnard (Fiore Tedesco) are the only two survivors of a bloody clash between their Viking clan and a band of Native Americans; aware that their best hope of survival is to move on, they set out to find a new territory to settle. While making their way through the wilderness of what is now the Canadian province of Newfoundland, Orn and Volnard encounter a pair of monks from Ireland who have escaped from a Viking camp. They quickly slay one of the monks, but they allow the other (David Perry) to live, and he joins them in their daily battle to scratch out an existence in the beautiful but forbidding landscapes. Along the way, Orn wins an unlikely companion, a native woman (Noelle Bailey) who first saw him as he was laying waste to her village. Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America was the first feature film from writer and director Tony Stone, who also plays Orn; it received its premiere at the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival.

Sin Nombre – thriller - Cary Fukunaga
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTSi0pKjC5g
Student Academy Award winner Cary Joji Fukunaga makes his feature directorial debut with this epic dramatic thriller following a Honduran teenager who reunites with her long-estranged father and attempts to emigrate to America with him in order to start a new life. Inspired by the director's firsthand experience with Central American immigrants, Sin Nombre opens to find dejected teenager Sayra (Paulina Gaitan) biding her time in Honduras while dreaming of a brighter future. Upon reuniting with the father she hasn't seen in years, Sayra seizes the opportunity to finally make her dreams a reality. Her father has a new family in the United States, and he's preparing to travel with her uncle to Mexico, where they will then cross the border to freedom. Meanwhile, in Mexico, Tapachula teen Casper, aka Willy (Edgar Flores), has gotten caught up with the notorious Mara Salvatrucha street gang. He's just delivered a new recruit to the Maras in the form of desperate 12-year-old Smiley (Kristyan Ferrer), and though the youngster's initiation proves particularly rough, she adapts to gang life rather quickly. As involved as Casper is with the Mara, he does his best to keep his relationship with girlfriend Martha Marlene (Diana Garcia) a secret from the gang. Just as Martha encounters ruthless Mara leader Lil' Mago (Tenoch Huerta Mejía) and suffers a grim fate at the hands of the gang, Sayra and her relatives arrive at the Tapachula train yards and prepare to rush a U.S.-bound freight train with a horde of other immigrants. Rather than attempting to gain access to the cars, Sayra and the rest of the immigrants decide to ride atop of the train. Little do they realize that their lives are now in danger, because Lil' Mago has recruited Casper and Smiley to rob the immigrants as they make their way to the United States. When dawn comes and Lil' Mago makes his move, Casper finally decides to stand up to the tyrannical gang leader. Now, as the train winds though the Mexican countryside, Sayra's only hope of surviving the journey and making her way to a new beginning is to align herself with Casper and face off against the most feared gangster in Tapachula.

Song of Sparrows - Majid Majidi
http://www.thesongofsparrowsmovie.com/
Fired from his job on an ostrich farm after one of the birds runs away and he is blamed for the loss, a man becomes so obsessed with collecting useless rubbish that he begins to neglect his wife and daughter while becoming completely oblivious to their familial hardships. Karim earned a decent living by working on the ostrich farm, so after he is fired he sets out on a futile attempt to locate the bird. One day, as Karim heads into town in order to have his daughter's hearing aid repaired, he offers a lift to a wandering man and decides that there is good money in the taxi business. But as his connection to the people of the city grows stronger, his personality begins to transform. Everyday, Karim returns home with a new haul of useless junk, giving his picturesque courtyard the appearance of a sprawling junkyard. When his wife offers a spare door from the courtyard to a neighbor in need, Karim completely looses his cool and sets out to retrieve the door. When Karim stumbles and breaks his foot while rummaging through his second-hand goods, the kindness of neighbors makes him realize that his priorities have taken a turn for the worse.

Sugar - drama/sports - Anna Boden/Ryan Fleck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-aLGmVr-zM
Filmmakers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (Half Nelson) weave this introspective sports drama concerning a talented Dominican baseball player who longs to break into the American big league and earn the money needed to support his impoverished family. Miguel Santos is a talented pitcher who might just have what it takes to earn a prized spot on a Major League Baseball team, but before that happens he'll have to prove his worth in the minor leagues. Advancing into the United States' minor league system at the tender age of 19, Miguel is warmly welcomed into the small-town Iowa home of his host family, but can't help but struggle with language and cultural barriers despite the kindness of strangers. Subsequently forced to reevaluate his life's ambition after his once-trusty arm becomes unreliable, the previously single-minded pitcher gradually begins to question both the world he lives in and the role he has chosen to play in it.

Tokyo! – drama - Joon-ho Bong, Leos Carax, Michel Gondry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhWLFW3te-k
In TOKYO!, three of the world's greatest filmmakers come together for an omnibus triptych examining the nature of one unforgettable city as it's shaped by the disparate people who live, work (and even run amok!) inside one enormous, constantly evolving, densely populated Japanese megalopolis – the ravishing and inimitable Tokyo. In the tradition of such films as NEW YORK STORIES, NIGHT ON EARTH, PARIS JE T'AIME and its forthcoming sequel NEW YORK JE T'AIME, TOKYO! addresses the timeless question of whether we shape cities, or if cities shape us - in the process revealing the rich humanity at the heart of modern urban life

Tokyo Sonata – drama - Kiyoshi Kurosawa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv9WS0aouIY
TOKYO SONATA is a portrait of a seemingly ordinary Japanese family. The father who abruptly loses his job conceals the truth from his family; the eldest son in college hardly returns home; the youngest son furtively takes piano lessons without telling his parents; and the mother, who knows deep down that her role is to keep the family together, cannot find the will to do so. From the exterior, all is normal and the same. But somehow, a single, unforeseeable chasm has appeared within the family, threatening to disintegrate them. Director Kurosawa’s use of light and dark to express a sense of simultaneous hope and horror verges on awe-inspiring and the ending will leave you enthralled.

Treeless Mountain – drama - So Yong Kim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9ermzhKx54
The frozen space in a little girl's heart gradually begins to warm thanks to the love of her older sister in director So Yong Kim's portrait of a young innocent forced to come to terms with feelings of loss and abandonment. Six-year-old Jin (Hee Yeon Kim) and her younger sister, Bin (Song Hee Kim), live in a cramped apartment with their single mother. Though their lives are on the edge of disaster, both girls remain completely oblivious to the threats of the outside world. One morning, after Jin wets the bed, their mother packs up all their belongings and sends the girls to live with their alcoholic Big Aunt (Kim Mi-hyang). Suddenly thrust into a hostile and unfamiliar environment, the girls are given a piggy bank and a promise that their mother will return when it's finally been filled. Wrestling with feelings of abandonment despite the fact that she's not mature enough to understand why their mother has left or what may become of her and Bin in the future, Jin showers her younger sibling with affection in order to prevent her from feeling as if all hope has been lost.

Tulpan – comedy - Sergey Dvortsevoy
http://www.myfilm.gr/article3862.html#video
Having just completed his naval service, a young man travels back to the Kazakh steppe to take a bride and begin his new life as a shepherd. Asa is eager to go back to the countryside, where he plans on living a nomadic life along with his sister and her husband. His sister's husband is a shepherd, a career that Asa, too, hopes to someday undertake. But before that happens, Asa will have to find a bride -- not an easy task on the deserted steppe. Young Tulpan is the daughter of another shepherd family and the most obvious choice, yet she isn't attracted to Tulpan due to his big ears. Will Tulpan ever be able to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a shepherd, or is he forever condemned to lead the life of a lonely bachelor?

Tyson – documentary - James Toback
http://www.sonyclassics.com/tyson/site.html#/trailer/
Assembled from over 30 hours of interviews with the controversial heavyweight champion, director James Toback takes the helm for a feature-length documentary exploring the life and career of self-destructive pugilist Mike Tyson. From his early years under the wing of famed boxing promoter Don King to his notorious match against Evander Holyfield and his conviction on sexual assault charges, Tyson's turbulent life is explored in the kind of comprehensive manner that could only have been made possible with the subject's willing participation.

Valentino: The Last Emperor – documentary - Matt Tyrnauer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TcjeDq2e_M
One of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, Valentino Garavani developed an interest in design as a teenager and entered the world of haute couture in the early '50s, working under Jacques Fath, Balenciaga and Jean Desses. In 1959, Valentino opened his own house of fashion in Rome, and he soon became one of the leading lights in European design, known for his trademark shade of red and his clean, stylish lines. With Giancarlo Giammetti, who has been Valentino's business partner and significant other since 1960, the designer built an empire that remained one of the most prestigious in the fashion world until Valentino announced his retirement in the fall of 2007. Filmmaker and journalist Matt Tyrnauer, who has written about Valentino for Vanity Fair, examines the public and private lives of the fashion icon in his documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor. Granted unprecedented access to Valentino's home and office, the film offers an unusual look at his relationship with Giammetti, how his creations are made, his lavish lifestyle, and how changes in the world of haute couture have impacted him. Featuring an original score by Nino Rota, Valentino: The Last Emperor received its North American premiere at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival.

A Wink and A Smile – documentary - Deirdre Allen Timmons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhPw65N8pSM
Ten burlesque newcomers shed their inhibitions, emotional hang-ups, stereotypes, and, of course, clothing as they enter the Academy of Burlesque for a personal training session with famed Seattle dancer Miss Indigo Blue. By the time this lesson is over, these ladies will have gained the confidence to strut across the stage in true style, all the while knowing that every eye in the room is completely fixed on them.