First Run Features (Firm)
Pub. Date
2017.
Description
This is the story of The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, the site of layer upon layer of buried members of the once-vibrant Jewish community. Almost a million people from all over the world now visit the cemetery each year, and HOUSE OF LIFE chronicles its history, which is rich in lore, mysticism, tradition and philosophy. Tales of great rabbis and philanthropists and the story of the giant golem, created from clay to protect the Jewish people, are...
Pub. Date
2016.
Description
The Professor: Tai Chi's Journey West is a feature documentary about Tai Chi and one of its greatest masters, Cheng Man-Ching, a man who brought Tai Chi and Chinese culture to the West during the swinging, turbulent 60's. Though Cheng is an important transformational figure, his teachings have been overlooked. This documentary film tells the story of his remarkable life and features Tai Chi as a martial art and a spiritual practice..
Pub. Date
2016.
Description
You beat the weight or the weight beats you – it’s the test every powerlifter faces when approaching the bar. But the weight that’s been pressing down on coach and gym owner Paul Steinman is something far more challenging than sport. Bombing out on his squats at the 2012 American Open was just one more failure for Paul. It had been a bad stretch both in and out of the gym but it was nobody’s business and so Paul didn’t talk about it. But...
Pub. Date
2017.
Description
Carmo would do anything to escape the hellhole of a Brazilian border town where she lives. So when a lonesome, wheelchair-bound low-life named Marco arrives on the scene, she jumps at the chance to help him transport a shipment of smuggled goods. An unlikely romance unfolds as the two are chased through a lush and jagged South American landscape by bandidos, the police and their own passions alike. A lawless, reckless journey of self-discovery, this...
Pub. Date
2017.
Description
Judith Ralitzer, novelist and femme fatale, is seeking characters for her next best-seller. Meanwhile a serial killer has just escaped from a high security prison. Their paths are about to cross in Claude Lelouch's tricky thriller, which features a number of characters and a timeline that skips back and forth, keeping the audience guessing
Pub. Date
2017.
Description
Simply and eloquently, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz explains how the world's economy works. Drawing not only from his academic expertise but also from time spent on the ground in countries around the world, Stiglitz offers fresh thinking about the questions and challenges facing all of us - from well-off Americans to those mired in Third World poverty. This five part series will appeal to experts and non-experts alike, as Stiglitz's...
7) Proteus
Pub. Date
2004.
Description
For the 19th century, the world beneath the sea played much the same role that outer space played for the 20th. The ocean depths were both the ultimate scientific frontier and the home of imagination and the fantastic...Twenty years in the making and based on images of 19th century painters, photographers and scientific illustrators, Proteus brings these undersea worlds to life in a wonderfully unique film...The central figure of PROTEUS is biologist...
8) Tangerines
Pub. Date
2014.
Description
A story of awakening humanity in the midst of violence, told with intimacy and elegance by writer/director Zaza Urushadze, Tangerines is the spare, yet haunting tale of an older Estonian man who cares for two wounded soldiers from opposite sides of the 1990s-era war in Georgia. The film reveals compassion to be the ultimate response to centuries of political, cultural and ethnic conflict, a compelling and relevant message for contemporary audiences....
Pub. Date
2005.
Description
First-class pool shark and all-around hustler Jaeckie Zucker is up to his ears in debt, again. He faces jail, divorce and general ruin. When word comes that his mother has died, leaving an inheritance, it's a stroke of luck. But according to his mother's will, before he can cash in Zucker must first reconcile with his long-estranged, Orthodox brother Samuel, who is arriving the next day, family in tow, expecting to sit shiva for seven days. Can Zucker,...
Pub. Date
2015.
Description
The Nation, America’s oldest weekly magazine, founded in 1865 and now in its 150th year, has long been considered one of America’s definitive journalistic voices. Hot Type, the new film by Barbara Kopple, a two-time Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Feature, tells the riveting and surprising story of The Nation.. The film captures daily life at the magazine, introduces staff writers and editors past and present, and follows members of...
Pub. Date
2017.
Description
Simply and eloquently, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz explains how the world's economy works. Drawing not only from his academic expertise but also from time spent on the ground in countries around the world, Stiglitz offers fresh thinking about the questions and challenges facing all of us - from well-off Americans to those mired in Third World poverty. This five part series will appeal to experts and non-experts alike, as Stiglitz's...
Pub. Date
2017.
Description
From a Butoh-inspired portrait of a demented aristocrat, to a sensual bedroom metamorphosis, to an intimate moment interrupted by a burst water pipe, this latest collection of award-winning dance films from around the world will "bewitch, bedazzle and bewilder." (Deirdre Towers, Dance on Camera Festival Director) For over five decades now international dancers and filmmakers have been creating these short experimental films, which generally have only...
13) Argentina
Pub. Date
2015.
Description
Argentina explores the heart of traditional Argentine folklore via a series of choreographed tableaux retracing a history rich in original culture. The unique mise en scene of the dance mixed with awe-inspiring traditional songs performed by the musicians make it unique. Poetic, riveting and moving, this live performance choreographed by Carlos Saura calls on the entire history of a country set to the tune of guitars and accordions. Argentina shows...
Pub. Date
2011.
Description
What would it be like to grow up and become president of the United States?. In I Can Be President: A Kid’s Eye View, a diverse group of children candidly share their thoughts on the subject, affirming the importance of having dreams at any age.. I Can Be President features interviews with elementary schoolers whose hopes and dreams - both hilarious and touching - come to life in animated sequences created by the award-winning animator Michael Sporn.....
15) Midnight Dancers
Pub. Date
1994.
Description
Banned in its native Philippines, Midnight Dancers tells the story of three brothers who work as exotic dancers and prostitutes in a Manila gay club. Joel has been selling himself for seven years and at 23 is ready to quit. Dennis has joined a violent street gang and deliberately flirts with danger. Sonny, the youngest brother, returns from the University to find work, but soon is forced to join his brothers on the stage and in the back rooms. As...
16) Tomcat
Pub. Date
2016.
Description
Andreas and Stefan lead an idyllic life near Vienna and even work in the same orchestra, as manager and musician. But one morning an unexpected outburst of violence from Stefan shakes their harmonious relationship to its core. Writer-director Klaus demonstrates exceptional sensitivity for the male psyche, drawing the viewer into Andreas’ and Stefan’s most intimate physical and emotional moments in this poetic ballad about the fragility of love...Warning:...
Pub. Date
2015.
Description
On March 8, 1971, a group of citizens broke into an FBI office in Media, PA, took every file, and shared them with the public. Their actions exposed the FBI's illegal surveillance program of law-abiding Americans. Now, these previously anonymous Americans publicly share their story for the first time.. The FBI, established in 1908, was for 60 years held unaccountable and untouchable until 1971, when The Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI,...
Pub. Date
1997.
Description
Arguing the World is the story of four brilliant and engaging men caught up in the central struggles of our time. This enthralling film creates a vivid picture of intellectual life in the 20th century. For more than half a century, Irving Howe, Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer and Irving Kristol have all passionately believed that ideas can change the world-especially their ideas. And they have been fighting over those ideas ever since they entered New...
Pub. Date
2015.
Description
Troublemakers unearths the history of land art in the tumultuous late 1960s and early 1970s. The film features a cadre of renegade New York artists that sought to transcend the limitations of painting and sculpture by producing earthworks on a monumental scale in the desolate desert spaces of the American southwest.. Today these works remain impressive not only for the sheer audacity of their makers but also for their out-sized ambitions to break...
Pub. Date
2011.
Description
Rousseau is a bestselling crime novelist from Paris, troubled by writer’s block. Candice Lecoeur is a local beauty, gracing the famous ”Belle de Jura"cheese packaging, who has gotten it into her head that she might well be the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe. The two will meet in the coldest village in France, but only after Candice has been found dead. The case was closed before it even opened and the cause of death declared suicide by sleeping...