June Meeting Advisory Candidates

The Arbor - documentary - Clio Barnard
RT: 90 MC: 87
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvahJ-SjMZU" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvahJ-SjMZU
Wildly successful and dead by age 29, British playwright Andrea Dunbar (1961-1990) wrote the screenplay for "Rita, Sue and Bob Too!" based on her own hardscrabble life. Roger Ebert, writing about the film in 1987: "An angry comedy... If it were an American film, it would be an R-rated sex romp without a brain in its head, a soft-core baby-sitter saga... But this is a movie about two tough, deprived girls... and an irresponsible feather-brained adult who thinks he's taking advantage of them, when in fact they're a whole lot more worldly and cynical than he is." "The Arbor" revisits this material through a innovative technique known as verbatim theater: actors lip-synching documentary recordings of the people they're playing. Dunbar's daughters update a family saga of alcoholism, drugs, prostitution, sexual abuse and violence. Rarely has the cyclical nature of poverty been so brilliantly and believably dramatized.

Beats, Rhymes & Life; The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest - documentary - Michael Rapaport
RT: N/A MC: N/A
HYPERLINK "http://youtu.be/bbCT6_HAOmM" http://youtu.be/bbCT6_HAOmM
"BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE: THE TRAVELS OF A TRIBE CALLED QUEST is a documentary film directed by Michael Rapaport about one of the most influential and groundbreaking musical groups in hip-hop history. Having released five gold and platinum selling albums within eight years, A Tribe Called Quest has been one of the most commercially successful and artistically significant musical groups in recent history, and regarded as iconic pioneers of hip hop. The band’s sudden break-up in 1998 shocked the industry and saddened the scores of fans, whose appetite for the group’s innovative musical stylings never seems to diminish. A hard-core fan himself, Rapaport sets out on tour with A Tribe Called Quest in 2008, when they reunited to perform sold-out concerts across the country, almost ten years after the release of their last album, The Love Movement. As he travels with the band members (Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White), Rapaport captures the story of how tenuous their relationship has become; how their personal differences and unresolved conflicts continue to be a threat to their creative cohesion. When mounting tensions erupt backstage during a show in San Francisco, we get a behind-the-scenes look at their journey and contributions as a band and what currently is at stake for these long-time friends and collaborators. Rarely heard stories from New York’s legendary DJ Red Alert, Native Tongues members like Monie Love, the Jungle Brothers, Busta Rhymes, and De La Soul bring an intimacy to the days when young artists discovered the freedom of artistic expression, while rejecting the confines of gangster rap and negative stereotypes. Chronicles of songs like “Scenario” and “Check the Rhime” paint a vivid picture of growing up in Queens, and how the band’s unique approach to hip hop helped transform and influence the genre for years to come. A New York native, Rapaport’s lifelong love for hip hop helps achieve intimate, all-access interviews and cinéma vérité-style filmmaking, fostering a conversation for A Tribe Called Quest to determine if there is a possibility to mend the wounds from over the years. In addition to chronicling the past, present and uncertain future of the band, the film includes interviews from the Beastie Boys, Kanye West, Pharrell, Mos Def, Santigold, Monie Love, Pete Rock, Large Professor, De La Soul, The Jungle Brothers and Common, all of whom attribute some combination of love, respect, and inspiration drawn from the legacy of A Tribe Called Quest."
The Beaver - comedy/Drama - Jodie Foster
RT: 63 MC: 59
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttv-gvOzaPw" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttv-gvOzaPw
Two-time Academy Award® winner Jodie Foster directs and co-stars with two-time Academy Award® winner Mel Gibson in ""The Beaver"" – an emotional story about a man on a journey to re-discover his family and re-start his life. Plagued by his own demons, Walter Black was once a successful toy executive and family man who now suffers from depression. No matter what he tries, Walter can't seem to get himself back on track... until a beaver hand puppet enters his life.

Beginners - comedy - Mike Mills
RT: 85 MC: 81
HYPERLINK "http://youtu.be/rXUFUp6vsxg" http://youtu.be/rXUFUp6vsxg
When it comes to relationships, we're all beginners. From writer/director Mike Mills comes a comedy/drama about how deeply funny and transformative life can be, even at its most serious moments. "Beginners" imaginatively explores the hilarity, confusion, and surprises of love through the evolving consciousness of Oliver (Golden Globe Award nominee Ewan McGregor). Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna (Mélanie Laurent of "Inglourious Basterds") only months after his father Hal (Academy Award nominee Christopher Plummer) has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father, who, following the death of his wife of 45 years, came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life. The upheavals of Hal's new honesty, by turns funny and moving, brought father and son closer than they'd ever been able to be. Now Oliver endeavors to love Anna with all the bravery, humor, and hope that his father taught him. At once deeply personal and universal, the film was inspired by Mike Mills' own father and is meant in turn to inspire everyone weighing their chances and choices in life and love.
Bellflower - action/drama - Evan Glodell
RT: n/a MC: n/a
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgVod-LzV6M&feature=related" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgVod-LzV6M&feature=related
"Best friends Woodrow and Aiden spend all of their free time building Mad Max-inspired flamethrowers and muscle cars in preparation for a global apocalypse. But when Woodrow meets a charismatic young woman and falls hard in love, he and Aiden quickly integrate into a new group of friends, setting off on a journey of love and hate, betrayal, infidelity and extreme violence more devastating and fiery than any of their apocalyptic fantasies

Bill Cunningham New York - documentary - Richard Press
RT: N/A MC: N/A
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu6YoshWd_A" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu6YoshWd_A
Bill Cunningham is a fashion photographer, but unlike most in his profession, he rarely spends a day in a photo studio. Cunningham's work has been a long-time fixture in The New York Times; in his "Evening Hours" column, he presents pictures he's snapped of the wealthy and influential and what they're wearing to social events, while "On the Street" documents bold and individual looks worn by everyday people on the sidewalks of New York City. Cunningham captures the glamorous lives of others and has been hailed as one of the most important men in New York fashion, yet he prefers to live a simple life -- he rides a bicycle around town, makes his home in a modest apartment, has his film processed at a corner store, and keeps his personal life to himself. Filmmaker Richard Press offers a look into the life and art of this influential and enigmatic figure in the documentary Bill Cunningham New York, which follows him as he works and tries to reveal what makes this unique artist tick. Bill Cunningham New York was an official selection at the 2010 Silverdocs Documentary Film Festival.
Bride Flight - drama - Ben Sombogaart
RT: 78 MC: 83
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeoQjFm4610&feature=relmfu" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeoQjFm4610&feature=relmfu
BRIDE FLIGHT is a lavish romantic drama that charts the lives of three women who escape the gloom of post-WWII Holland for what they hope will be a better life in New Zealand. Ada, the shy but sensual farm girl, Marjorie, who dreams of a big family, and Esther, a Holocaust survivor who aspires to be a fashion designer, become fast friends during the long flight taking them to their waiting husbands, who have already settled in Christchurch. On the flight the women also meet Frank, a dashing young man who will play a large role in each of their lives. Upon arrival, they part ways to start their new lives, but their paths continue to cross with chance meetings resulting in adultery, betrayal and near tragedy leading up to a reunion fifty years later.

Buck - documentary - Cindy Meehl
RT: 90 MC: 76
HYPERLINK "http://www.ifcfilms.com/videos/the-buck" http://www.ifcfilms.com/videos/the-buck
"Your horse is a mirror to your soul, and sometimes you may not like what you see. Sometimes, you will.” So says Buck Brannaman, a true American cowboy and sage on horseback who travels the country for nine grueling months a year helping horses with people problems. BUCK, a richly textured and visually stunning film, follows Brannaman from his abusive childhood to his phenomenally successful approach to horses. A real-life “horse-whisperer”, he eschews the violence of his upbringing and teaches people to communicate with their horses through leadership and sensitivity, not punishment. Buck possesses near magical abilities as he dramatically transforms horses – and people – with his understanding, compassion and respect. In this film, the animal-human relationship becomes a metaphor for facing the daily challenges of life. A truly American story about an unsung hero, BUCK is about an ordinary man who has made an extraordinary life despite tremendous odds.

Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff - documentary - Craig McCall
RT: 95 MC: 71
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN_aejkbh9c" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN_aejkbh9c
Jack Cardiff's career spanned an incredible nine of moving picture's first ten decades and his work behind the camera altered the look of films forever through his use of Technicolor photography. Craig McCall's passionate film about the legendary cinematographer reveals a unique figure in British and international cinema.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams - documentary - Werner Herzog
RT: 96 MC: 86
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZFP5HfJPTY" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZFP5HfJPTY
"Cave of Forgotten Dreams,"" a breathtaking new 3D documentary from the incomparable Werner Herzog (""Encounters at the End of the World,"" ""Grizzly Man"") follows an exclusive expedition into the nearly inaccessible Chauvet Cave in France, home to the most ancient visual art known to have been created by man. A hit at this year's Toronto Film Festival, ""Cave of Forgotten Dreams"" is an unforgettable cinematic experience that provides a unique glimpse of pristine artwork dating back to human hands over 30,000 years ago -- almost twice as old as any previous discovery.
"
Circo - documentary - Aaron Schock
RT: 92 MC: 77
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HXld94WqUc" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HXld94WqUc
Gorgeously filmed along the back roads of rural Mexico, CIRCO follows the Ponce family's hardscrabble circus as it struggles to stay together despite mounting debt, dwindling audiences, and a simmering family conflict. Tino, the ringmaster, is driven by his dream to lead his parents' circus to success and corrals the energy of his whole family, including his four young children, towards this singular goal. But his wife Ivonne is determined to make a change. Feeling exploited by her in-laws, she longs to return to her kids a childhood lost to laboring in the circus. Through this intricately woven story of a marriage in trouble and of a century-old family tradition that hangs in the balance, CIRCO opens the viewer to the luminous world of a traveling circus while examining the universal themes of family bonds, filial responsibility, and the weight of cultural inheritance. With Original Music by CALEXICO.

Circumstance - drama - Maryam Keshavarz
RT: n/a MC: N/a
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td-cYUVOg4Q" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td-cYUVOg4Q
Winner of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award, this vibrant, sexy drama depicts the rapid changes happening in Iran and throughout the Middle East through the prism of one Tehran family and their rebellious children.

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop - documentary - Rodman Flender
RT: 67 MC: 63
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRdpC1jtZE0" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRdpC1jtZE0
"After a much-publicized departure from hosting NBC's ""Tonight Show"" - and the severing of a 22-year relationship with the network - O'Brien hit the road with a 32-city music-and-comedy show to exercise his performing chops and exorcise a few demons. The ""Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour"" was O'Brien's answer to a contractual stipulation that banned his appearance on television, radio and the Internet for six months following his last show. Filmmaker Rodman Flender's resulting documentary, Conan O'Brien Can't Stop, is an intimate portrait of an artist trained in improvisation, captured at the most improvisational time of his career. It offers a window into the private writers room and rehearsal halls as O'Brien's ""half-assed show"" (his words) is almost instantly assembled and mounted to an adoring fan base. At times angry, mostly hilarious, O'Brien works out his feelings about the very-public separation with comedy and rockabilly music, engaging in bits with on-stage guests such as Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and Jim Carrey, duetting with Jack White and sweating out manic Elvis Presley covers with his band and back-up singers. We see a comic who does not stop -- performing, singing, pushing his staff and himself. Did Conan O'Brien hit the road to give something back to his loyal fans, or did he travel across the continent, stopping at cities large (New York, Las Vegas) and remote (Enoch, Alberta) to fill a void within himself?

The Double Hour - crime/drama - Giuseppe Capotondi
RT: 83 MC: 72
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4yzgbspy5Y" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4yzgbspy5Y
Guido (Timi), a former cop, is a luckless veteran of the speed-dating scene in Turin. But, much to his surprise, he meets Slovenian immigrant Sonia (Rappoport), a chambermaid at a high-end hotel. The two hit it off, and a passionate romance develops. After they leave the city for a romantic getaway in the country, things suddenly take a dark turn. As Sonia's murky past resurfaces, her reality starts to crumble. Everything in her life begins to change—questions arise and answers only arrive through a continuous twist and turn of events keeping viewers on edge until the film's final moments.

Film Socialisme - drama - Jean-Luc Godard
RT: 52 MC: 63
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGV21s2P5YU" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGV21s2P5YU
Legendary director Jean-Luc Godard returns to the screen with Film Socialisme, a magisterial essay on the decline of European Civilization. As a garish cruise ship travels the Mediterranean (with Patti Smith among its guests), Godard embarks on a state of the EU address in a vibrant collage of philosophical quotes, historical revelations and pure cinematographic beauty.

The Future - drama - Miranda July
RT: 83 MC: N/a
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3CptIWoCik" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3CptIWoCik
In her follow-up to ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW, internationally-acclaimed artist, author and filmmaker Miranda July returns with this story of a thirty-something couple whose decision to adopt a cat changes their perspective on life, literally altering the course of time and testing their faith in themselves and each other.

Hey Boo: Harper Lee and To Kill A Mockingbird - documentary - Mary Murphy
RT: 76 MC: 64
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7hE4MCHIjQ" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7hE4MCHIjQ
Fifty years after winning the Pulitzer Prize, To Kill a Mockingbird remains a beloved bestseller and quite possibly the most influential American novel of the 20th Century. Nearly one million copies are sold each year and the novel has been translated into more than forty languages worldwide. The film version, starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, won a trio of Academy Awards, and the U.S. Postal Service's new stamp honoring Peck depicts him wearing glasses, as Finch. Behind it all was a young Southern girl named Nelle Harper Lee, who once said that she wanted to be South Alabama's Jane Austen. Hey, Boo explores Lee's life and unravels some of the mysteries surrounding her, including why she never published again. Containing never-before-seen photos and letters and an exclusive interview with Lee’s sister, Alice Finch Lee, the film also brings to light the context and history of the novel's Deep South setting and the social changes it inspired after publication. Tom Brokaw, Rosanne Cash, Wally Lamb, Anna Quindlen, Richard Russo, Scott Turow, Oprah Winfrey, Andrew Young and others reflect on the novel's power, influence, and popularity, and the many ways it has shaped their lives.

If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front - documentary - Marshall Curry
RT: n/a MC: n/a
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAGxy85R380" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAGxy85R380
On December 7th, 2005, federal agents conducted a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front -- an organization the FBI has called America's "number one domestic terrorism threat." "If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front" is the remarkable story of the group's rise and fall, told through the transformation and radicalization of one of its members, Daniel McGowan. Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thriller, the film interweaves a chronicle of McGowan facing life in prison with a dramatic investigation of the events that led to his involvement with the ELF. Using never-before-seen archival footage and intimate interviews -- with cell members and with the prosecutor and detective who were chasing them -- "If a Tree Falls" asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism.

Incendies - drama - Denis Villeneuve
RT: 100 MC: N/A
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDf-XuYid1A" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDf-XuYid1A
Director Denis Villeneuve adapts Wajdi Mouawad's play concerning a pair of twins who make a life-altering discovery following the death of their mother. Upon learning that their absentee father is still very much alive and they also have a brother they have never met, the pair travels to the Middle East on a mission to uncover the truth about their mystery-shrouded past.

The Last Mountain - documentary - Bill Haney
RT: 79 MC: 60
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5wmUkpOCKE&feature=player_embedded" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5wmUkpOCKE&feature=player_embedded
In the valleys of Appalachia, a battle is being fought over a mountain. It is a battle with severe consequences that affect every American, regardless of their social status, economic background or where they live. It is a battle that has taken many lives and continues to do so the longer it is waged. It is a battle over protecting our health and environment from the destructive power of Big Coal.

Life, Above All - drama - Oliver Schmitz
RT: 93 MC: N/A
HYPERLINK "http://youtu.be/H8cMjWE9BK4" http://youtu.be/H8cMjWE9BK4
Just after the death of her newly-born sister, Chanda, 12 years old, learns of a rumor that spreads like wildfire through her small, dust-ridden village near Johannesburg. It destroys her family and forces her mother to flee. Sensing that the gossip stems from prejudice and superstition, Chanda leaves home and school in search of her mother and the truth. LIFE, ABOVE ALL is an emotional and universal drama about a young girl (stunningly performed by first-time-actress Khomotso Manyaka) who fights the fear and shame that have poisoned her community. The film captures the enduring strength of loyalty and a courage powered by the heart. Directed by South African filmmaker Oliver Schmitz (Mapantsula; Paris, je t-aime), it is based on the international award winning novel Chanda’s Secrets by Allan Stratton.

Magic Trip - documentary - Alex gibney and Alison Ellwood
RT: n/a MC: n/a
HYPERLINK "http://youtu.be/FZt82oqpkE4" http://youtu.be/FZt82oqpkE4
In 1964, Ken Kesey, the famed author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” set off on a legendary, LSD-fuelled cross-country road trip to the New York World’s Fair. He was joined by “The Merry Band of Pranksters,” a renegade group of counterculture truth-seekers, including Neal Cassady, the American icon immortalized in Kerouac’s “On the Road,” and the driver and painter of the psychedelic Magic Bus. Kesey and the Pranksters intended to make a documentary about their trip, shooting footage on 16MM, but the film was never finished and the footage has remained virtually unseen. With MAGIC TRIP, Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood were given unprecedented access to this raw footage by the Kesey family. They worked with the Film Foundation, HISTORY and the UCLA Film Archives to restore over 100 hours of film and audiotape, and have shaped an invaluable document of this extraordinary piece of American history.

The Names of Love - comedy/drama - Michel Leclerc
RT: n/a MC: n/a
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipig9HfESFM" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipig9HfESFM
Baya Benmahmoud, a young, extroverted liberal, lives by the old hippie slogan: “Make love, not war” to convert right-wing men to her left-wing political causes by sleeping with them. She seduces many and so far has received exceptional results – until she meets Arthur Martin, a Jewish middle aged, middle-of-the road scientist. Bound by common tragic family histories (the Algerian War and Holocaust under Vichy), the duo improbably falls in love. Amid the bubbly amour, humorous lasciviousness and moments of sheer madness, filmmaker Michel Leclerc injects satirical riffs on such hot-button sociopolitical issues as Arab-Jewish relations, anti-Semitism, immigration, and racial and cultural identity.
Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times - documentary - Andrew Rossi
RT: 79 MC: 74
HYPERLINK "http://youtu.be/ajfeAXg9fTk" http://youtu.be/ajfeAXg9fTk
In the tradition of great fly-on-the-wall documentaries, PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES deftly gains unprecedented access to The New York Times newsroom and the inner workings of the Media Desk. With the Internet surpassing print as our main news source and newspapers all over the country going bankrupt, PAGE ONE chronicles the transformation of the media industry at its time of greatest turmoil. Writers like Brian Stelter, Tim Arango and the salty but brilliant David Carr track print journalism’s metamorphosis even as their own paper struggles to stay vital and solvent. Meanwhile, their editors and publishers grapple with existential challenges from players like WikiLeaks, new platforms ranging from Twitter to tablet computers, and readers’ expectations that news online should be free. But rigorous journalism is thriving. PAGE ONE gives us an up-close look at the vibrant cross-cubicle debates and collaborations, tenacious jockeying for on-the-record quotes, and skillful page-one pitching that produce the “daily miracle” of a great news organization. What emerges is a nuanced portrait of journalists continuing to produce extraordinary work—under increasingly difficult circumstances. At the heart of the film is the burning question on the minds of everyone who cares about a rigorous American press, Times lover or not: what will happen if the fast-moving future of media leaves behind the fact-based, original reporting that helps to define our society?"
Pianomania - documentary - Robert Cibis
RT: 100 MC: n/a
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2TX9KYIKpA&feature=player_embedded" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2TX9KYIKpA&feature=player_embedded
Pianomania takes you into the secret world of sounds - a place where passion and the pursuit of perfection collide with artistic obsession and a little bit of madness. As Steinway & Sons’ chief technician and Master Tuner in Vienna, Stefan Knüpfer is dedicated to the unusual task of pairing world-class instruments with world-famous pianists. Juggling the demands of the pianist, the piano, and the piece to find the perfect match requires boundless enthusiasm, but also endless patience and nerves of steel. No detail is too small or too inconsequential for Knüpfer, not even the tiniest speck of dust on a piano string. Pianomania is a humorous and surprisingly suspenseful peek into the heated clash of wills between a genius craftsman and the renowned pianists who rely on his talent – including Lang Lang, Alfred Brendel, Rudolf Buchbinder and Pierre-Laurent Aimand – as they search together for that elusive perfect tone.
Project Nim - documentary - James Marsh
RT: 100 MC: N/a
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_vha0FI0j8" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_vha0FI0j8
From the Academy Award winning team behind MAN ON WIRE comes the story of Nim, a chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a landmark experiment which aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. What was learned about his true nature – and indeed our own – is comic, revealing and profoundly unsettling.

Le Quattro Volte - drama - Michelangelo Frammartino
RT: 93 MC: 80
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpDSlbNj8bE" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpDSlbNj8bE
Inspired by Pythagoras’s belief in four-fold transmigration — by which the soul is passed from human to animal to vegetable to mineral — Michelangelo Frammartino’s wondrous docu-essay traces the cycle of life through the daily rituals of life in the southern Italian region of Calabria.

Queen to Play - drama - Caroline Bottaro
RT: N/A MC: N/A
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RcBGcMJY7Y" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RcBGcMJY7Y
A middle-aged maid with few prospects before her finds a new lease on life via the game of chess, in this unusual tale that marked the first directorial go-round of acclaimed scriptwriter Caroline Bottaro (Les Aveux de l'innocent). French screen siren Sandrine Bonnaire (À Nos Amours) stars as Hélène, a Frenchwoman employed as a housekeeper in a posh Corsican hotel. Though devoted and diligent as a wife and mother, she lacks any real passion in her life. That changes in a single, defining instant when Helene espies a mysterious couple (the female played by Jennifer Beals) exchanging erotic glances and seductive gestures over a chessboard, on a nearby balcony. Feeling sexual arousal, Hélène misguidedly tries to parlay this into her own personal life by giving her boatworker husband an electronic chessboard, but the connection between this and a need for greater intimacy eludes him. Hélène's curiosity about chess nonetheless endures, and when she fails to teach herself to play sans assistance, she turns to an eccentric, reclusive American whose house she cleans, Dr. Kroger (Kevin Kline) and asks him to mentor her in the game. In time, her expertise outstrips Kroger's and she begins to live and breathe chess, but this very passion also threatens to alienate the woman's family, who perceive a form of infidelity in this new obsession.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - drama - Wayne Wang
RT: n/a MC: N/a
HYPERLINK "http://youtu.be/6wlk7TsdhsY" http://youtu.be/6wlk7TsdhsY
"Inspired by the bestselling novel ""Snow Flower and the Secret Fan"" by Lisa See, the film is a timeless portrait of female friendship. In 19th-century China, seven year old girls Snow Flower and Lily are matched as laotong – or ""old sames"" – bound together for eternity. Isolated by their families, they furtively communicate by taking turns writing in a secret language, nu shu, between the folds of a white silk fan. In a parallel story in present day Shanghai, the laotong's descendants, Nina and Sophia, struggle to maintain the intimacy of their own childhood friendship in the face of demanding careers, complicated love lives, and a relentlessly evolving Shanghai. Drawing on the lessons of the past, the two modern women must understand the story of their ancestral connection, hidden from them in the folds of the antique white silk fan, or risk losing one another forever. What unfolds are two stories, generations apart, but everlasting in their universal notion of love, hope and friendship.
Submarine - comedy - Richard Ayoade
RT: 85 MC: 78
HYPERLINK "http://youtu.be/4IVFfiv6wpY" http://youtu.be/4IVFfiv6wpY
Fifteen-year-old Oliver Tate has two big ambitions: to save his parents' marriage via carefully plotted intervention and to lose his virginity before his next birthday. Worried that his mom is having an affair with New Age weirdo Graham, Oliver monitors his parents' sex life by charting the dimmer switch in their bedroom. He also forges suggestive love letters from his mom to dad. Meanwhile, Oliver attempts to woo his classmate, Jordana, a self-professed pyromaniac who supervises his journal writing - especially the bits about her. When necessary, she orders him to cross things out. Based on Joe Dunthorne's acclaimed novel, ""Submarine"" is a captivating coming-of-age story with an offbeat edge.

The Tree - drama - Julie Bertuccelli
RT: n/a MC: n/a
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfrZaXVKuLE&NR=1" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfrZaXVKuLE&NR=1
The exquisite Charlotte Gainsbourg (Antichrist, I’m Not There) stars in French filmmaker Julie Bertuccelli’s achingly beautiful follow-up to her sleeper hit Since Otar Left. The Closing Night Film at Cannes in 2010, The Tree is a mystical drama of loss and rebirth in the Australian countryside. Not since classic 1970s works Picnic at Hanging Rock and Walkabout has the harshly gorgeous outback landscape been such a lyrical yet foreboding metaphor for grief and coming of age. Blindsided with anguish after her husband’s sudden death, Dawn (Gainsbourg)—along with her four young children—struggles to make sense of life without him. Eight-year-old Simone (unforgettable newcomer Morgana Davies) becomes convinced that her father is whispering to her through the leaves of the gargantuan fig tree that towers over their house. The family is initially comforted by its presence, but then the tree’s enormous roots slowly begin to encroach on the abode and threaten their fragile existence....

The Trip - comedy - Michael Winterbottom
RT: n/a MC: n/a
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qYwrmluoYU" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qYwrmluoYU
THE TRIP brings director Michael Winterbottom and the hilarious Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon (24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE, A COCK AND BULL STORY) back together in a side-splitting road comedy. The film follows the pair on a hysterical odyssey that has won over audiences at the Toronto and Tribeca Film Festivals, and has critics rolling in the aisles. When Steve Coogan is asked by The Observer to tour the country's finest restaurants, he envisions it as the perfect getaway with his beautiful girlfriend. But, when she backs out on him, he has no one to accompany him but his best friend and source of eternal aggravation, Rob Brydon. As the brilliant comic duo, freestyling with flair, drive each other mad with constant competition and showdowns of competing impressions (including dueling Michael Caines, Sean Connerys and Al Pacinos), the ultimate odd couple realize in the end a rich amount about not only good food, but the nature of fame, relationships and their own lives.

Trollhunter - comedy/horror - André Øvredal
RT: 79 MC: 61
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9dgeYkYOZA" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9dgeYkYOZA
Shot in a vérité style, "Trollhunter" is the story of a group of Norwegian film students that set out to capture real-life trolls on camera after learning their existence has been covered up for years by a government conspiracy. The government says there’s nothing to worry about – it’s just a problem with bears making trouble in the mountains and forests of Norway. But local hunters don’t believe it – and neither do a trio of college students who want to find out the truth. Armed with a video camera, they trail a mysterious “poacher,” who wants nothing to do with them. But their persistence lands them straight in the path of the objects of his pursuits: Trolls. They soon find themselves documenting every move of this grizzled, unlikely hero – The Troll Hunter – risking their lives to uncover the secrets of creatures only thought to exist in fairy tales.

Viva Riva - crime/action - Djo Tunda Wa Munga
RT: 82 MC: 63
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyjBiIgafGY" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyjBiIgafGY
Riva is a small time operator who has just returned to his hometown of Kinshasa, Congo after a decade away with a major score: a fortune in hijacked gasoline. Wads of cash in hand and out for a good time, Riva is soon entranced by beautiful night club denizen Nora, the kept woman of a local gangster. Into the mix comes an Angolan crime lord relentlessly seeking the return of his stolen shipment of gasoline. Director Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s Kinshasa is a seductively vibrant, lawless, fuel-starved sprawl of shantytowns, gated villas, bordellos and nightclubs and Riva is its perfect embodiment.

!Women Art Revolution - documentary - Lynn Hershman Lesson
RT: 64 MC: 69
HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjikMGTeyjc" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjikMGTeyjc
An entertaining and revelatory “secret history” of Feminist Art, !Women Art Revolution deftly illuminates this under-explored movement through conversations, observations, archival footage and works of visionary artists, historians, curators and critics. Starting from its roots in 1960s antiwar and civil rights protests, the film details major developments in women’s art through the 1970s and explores how the tenacity and courage of these pioneering artists resulted in what is now widely regarded as the most significant art movement of the late 20th century. For more than forty years, filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson (Teknolust, Strange Culture) has collected a plethora of interviews with her contemporaries—and shaped them into an intimate portrayal of their fight to break down barriers facing women both in the art world and society at large. With a rousing score by Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein, !W.A.R. features Miranda July, The Guerilla Girls, Yvonne Rainer, Judy Chicago, Marina Abramovic, Yoko Ono, Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, B. Ruby Rich, Ingrid Sischy, Carolee Schneemann, Miriam Schapiro, Marcia Tucker and countless other groundbreaking figures.