First Run Features (Firm)
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...
22) Silent Waters
Pub. Date
2003.
Description
Silent Waters is set in 1979 in Pakistan, when General Zia-ul-Haq took control of the country and stoked the fires of Islamic nationalism. Ayesha, a Muslim woman who gets by on her late husband’s pension and by teaching young girls the Koran, invests her hopes in her beloved son Saleem. But when Saleem takes up with a group of Islamic fundamentalists just as a group of Sikh pilgrims come to town, Ayesha’s haunted past turns her present life upside...
23) 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
2015.
Description
Charismatic cleric Abdul Aziz Ghazi, an ISIS supporter and Taliban ally, is waging jihad against the Pakistani state. His dream is to impose a strict version of Shariah law throughout the country, as a model for the world. A flashpoint in Aziz's holy war took place in 2007, when the government leveled his flagship mosque to the ground, killing his mother, brother, only son and 150 students. With unprecedented access, Among the Believers follows Aziz...
Pub. Date
1990.
Description
In this film by Academy Award winner Cynthia Scott, seven old women become stranded at a deserted farmhouse miles from civilization. They don't have much food, or a decent place to sleep. Or much in common. But these surprising, remarkable women turn a crisis into a magical time of humor and spirit.
Pub. Date
2009.
Description
Shane Black (Lethal Weapon), John Carpenter (Halloween), Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption), William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver), and dozens of other Hollywood screenwriters share penetrating insights and hilarious anecdotes in Peter Hanson’s Tales from the Script, the most comprehensive documentary ever made about screenwriting. By analyzing their triumphs and recalling their failures, the participants...
Pub. Date
2017.
Description
Guy Martin is the chef of Le Grand Vefour, the legendary, Michelin 3-star Parisian restaurant. As a kid, he dreamed of being a doctor or a rock star. First trained in a pizzeria, 20 years later he is recognized as one of the best chefs in the world, with dozens of awards and restaurants in four countries. "Guy Martin: Portrait of a Grand Chef" reveals Martin's philosophy of cooking, which ranges from resolutely traditional to savagely creative. It...
28) The Personals
Pub. Date
1999.
Description
An attractive and successful doctor places a personal ad in a newspaper to try to meet (and eventually marry) Mr. Right. A succession of blind dates ensues, featuring men who are lonely, desperate, dangerous, perverted or all of the above. From a tightfisted businessman to a shy writer who brings his mother to a shoe fetishist and a pimp looking for call girls, the woman meets them all and patiently listens to their stories. What they don't know is...
Pub. Date
1991.
Description
In 1986, Ross McElwee and Marilyn Levine were making a film about the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall, when the imposing structure was still very much intact as the world’s most visible symbol of hardline Communism and Cold War lore. They thought they were making a documentary on the community of tourists, soldiers, and West Berliners who lived in the seemingly eternal presence of the graffiti emblazoned eyesore...But in 1989, as the original...
30) Tokyo Fiancee
Pub. Date
2014.
Description
Based on Amelie Nothomb's bestselling novel, Tokyo Fiancee is an entertaining romantic comedy that will appeal to fans of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie and Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation.. The young, pixie-like Amelie is in love with all things Japanese, which prompts her to buy a one-way ticket to Tokyo in order to completely immerse herself in Japanese culture. She offers to work as a French tutor, and soon finds herself enjoying a passionate...
Pub. Date
2015.
Description
Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant looms just 35 miles from Times Square. With over 50 million people living in close proximity to the aging facility, its continued operation has the support of the plant's operators and the NRC -- Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- yet has stoked a great deal of controversy in the surrounding community, including a vocal anti-nuclear contingent concerned that what happened at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant could happen...
32) September 11
Pub. Date
2002.
Description
Eleven acclaimed directors each make an 11 minute short film in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The result is a daring and moving global cinematic reply that "forces us to look at the entire event afresh" (The New York Times)...Featuring films by: Alejandro Gonzlez Inrritu (Babel, Amores Perros); Mira Nair (The Namesake, Vanity Fair); Ken Loach (The Wind That Shakes the Barley); Sean Penn (Into the Wild) and more.
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
2014.
Description
Largely unchanged for more than a century, the projection of photochemical film faces an uncertain future in the digital age. The practice of handing and projecting film is in danger of being lost; and the role of film projectionist is nearing extinction.. THE DYING OF THE LIGHT explores at the history and craft of motion picture presentation through the lives and stories of the last generation of career projectionists. By turns humorous and melancholic,...
Pub. Date
1987.
Description
The True Story of Evita, as told by her Father Confessor, Her Friends, and ... Her Enemies. Actress, seductress, political powerhouse and cultural icon of Argentina and the world, the life and legend of Maria Eva Duarte de Peron, or Evita, as she came to be known, endures to this day. Yet Evita, a woman of poor origins who rose to become the first lady of Argentina, was as hated by the upperclass of her country as she was loved by the poor masses...
36) Captive
Pub. Date
2012.
Description
In this relentless thriller, French star Isabelle Huppert brings passion and courage to her portrayal of a hostage caught in a seemingly hopeless situation. At a beach resort in the Philippines, 20 guests are kidnapped by an Islamic separatist group fighting for their independence. French social worker Therese Bourgoine is among those taken to a jungle island, with the Filipino army in pursuit. As the captors and their hostages journey through dense...
Pub. Date
1999.
Description
Winner of more than 25 top honors at film festivals worldwide, revered Chinese director Wu Tianming's THE KING OF MASKS is a poignant tale about a lonely old magician and a luckless child bound together by fate and suffering, and redeemed by the power of love. THE KING OF MASKS is an elderly master of the Sichuan opera art of changing silk masks so quickly that it appears to be magic. Bereft from the loss of his family many years ago, the old man...
Pub. Date
1993.
Description
Imagine: beauty makeovers for butch lesbians; tackle football for gay men: electroshock orgasmic reorientation... these and other funny, bizarre, and often terrifying methods have been used for decades to "cure" gays and lesbians of their homosexuality. ONE NATION UNDER GOD takes us into the strange world of "ex-gay" ministries and "conversion" therapies, revealing shocking techniques used to "straighten" out all those "twisted" souls. At the center...
39) Playing Dead
Pub. Date
2003.
Description
Jean, a 40-year-old unemployed actor, has hit rock bottom. Insufferably clueless and egotistical, his over-the-top "method" acting and high-maintenance personality have gotten him fired from countless jobs. At the unemployment office, his counselor sets him up with a rather odd job: helping the police reconstruct crime scenes by standing in for the dead victim. Jean's obsession for detail impresses the beautiful chief investigator, allowing him to...
Pub. Date
2009.
Description
America's 50-million strong Evangelical community is convinced that the world's future is foretold in Biblical prophecy - from the Rapture to the Battle of Armageddon. This astonishing documentary explores their world - in their homes, at conferences, and on a wide-ranging tour of Israel. By interweaving Christian, Zionist, Jewish and critical perspectives along with telling archival materials, the filmmakers probe the politically powerful - and potentially...