Starring: Suheir Hammad, Riyad Ideis, Saleh Bakri
Part of the Arab Women in the Arts Showcase. To make an additional $10 donation to Arab Film & Media Institute, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.
Soraya, born in Brooklyn in a working class community of Palestinian refugees, discovers that her grandfather’s savings were frozen in a bank account in Jaffa when he was exiled in 1948. Stubborn, passionate and determined to reclaim what is hers, she fulfills her life-long dream of “returning” to Palestine. Once there, slowly she is taken apart by the reality around her and is forced to confront her own anger. She meets Emad, a young Palestinian whose ambition, contrary to hers, is to leave forever. Tired of the constraints that dictate their lives, they know in order to be free, they must take things into their own hands, even if it’s illegal. In this quest for life, we follow their trail through remains of Palestine.
This prize winning film is the debut feature length work from Annemarie Jacir (Like Twenty Impossibles) and premiered at Cannes to critical acclaim. Featuring Palestinian poet Suheir Hammad and emerging Palestinian star Saleh Bakri in their first lead roles, Jacir’s film also picked up twelve international awards and was theatrically released in Europe, the US, and Asia.
Starring: Yle Vianello, Salvatore Cantalupo, Anita Caprioli, Renato Carpentieri, Paola Lavini, Pasqualina Scuncia
The acclaimed debut feature of Alice Rohrwacher (Happy as Lazzaro), Corpo Celeste is the story of 13 year old Marta, immersed in Catholic Confirmation classes after moving to Italy from Switzerland. A silent observer of her new surroundings, Marta approaches the classes with the same curiosity as the trash pickers in her neighborhood. The beautiful super 16mm cinematography of Hélène Louvart (The Beaches of Agnès) captures the urban landscape in a way that reflects Marta’s experience – non-judgmental, inquisitive – resulting in a distinctive approach to a coming-of-age story.
Lisa Cortés’ Sundance opening night documentary Little Richard: I Am Everything tells the story of the Black queer origins of rock n’ roll, exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator – the originator – Richard Penniman.
Through a wealth of archive and performance that brings us into Richard’s complicated inner world, the film unspools the icon’s life story with all its switchbacks and contradictions. In interviews with family, musicians, and cutting-edge Black and queer scholars, the film reveals how Richard created an art form for ultimate self-expression, yet what he gave to the world he was never able to give to himself. Throughout his life, Richard careened like a shiny cracked pinball between God, sex and rock n’ roll. The world tried to put him in a box, but Richard was an omni being who contained multitudes – he was unabashedly everything.
Starring: Tomoko Kaneda, Rinko Kikuchi, Lu Ningjuan, Taro Yabe, Yûya Yagira
The seven short films making up Genius Party couldn’t be more diverse, linked only by a high standard of quality and inspiration.
Atsuko Fukushima’s intro piece is a fantastic abstraction to soak up with the eyes. Masaaki Yuasa, of Mind Game and Cat Soup fame, brings his distinctive and deceptively simple graphic style and dream-state logic to the table with Happy Machine, his spin on a child’s earliest year. Shinji Kimura’s spookier Deathtic 4, meanwhile, seems to tap into the creepier corners of a child’s imagination and open up a toybox full of dark delights. Hideki Futamura’s Limit Cycle conjures up a vision of virtual reality, while Yuji Fukuyama’s Doorbell and Baby Blue by Shinichiro Watanabe use understated realism for very surreal purposes. And Shoji Kawamori, with Shanghai Dragon, takes the tropes and conventions of traditional anime out for very fun joyride.
Starring: Shintarô Sakamoto, Ren Komai, Tomoya Maeno, Tateto Serizawa, Kami Hiraiwa, Naoto Takenaka
When you’re a bored teenager looking for thrills, sometimes the only thing you can turn to is rock ‘n roll. Having no skill, money, or even a full set of drums, a feared trio of high school delinquents nevertheless decide they are destined for musical glory in a quest to impress their only friend Aya, avoid a rival gang, and – – most importantly — jam out. Animated almost entirely by director Kenji Iwaisawa, and featuring a lead performance by Japanese alt-rock legend Shintaro Sakamoto, On-Gaku: Our Sound brings its own sound and vision to the Hiroyuki Ohashi manga from which it was adapted. With pitch-perfect deadpan humor, the film presents a highly original take on the beloved slacker comedy: a lo-fi buddy film with a blaring musical finale that will leave you wanting an immediate encore.
Screening on VHS! METAL!! 🤘
Recorded live on April 3, 1985 at Studio 54 in New York. Live footage and interviews with Slayer, Venom & Exodus. Venom’s live clips are from other videos because Mantas had chickenpox.
Followed by a panel discussion and an after party in Lo-Res with an all vinyl metal set by DJ Horror Boobs
Starring: Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Helena Rojo, Cecilia Rivera
Featuring a Live Sound Cinema score by Reel Orchestrette
Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski), a ruthless Spanish conquistador, vies for power while part of an expedition in Peru to find El Dorado, the mythical seven cities of gold. Accompanied by his daughter, Flores (Cecilia Rivera), Aguirre faces off against his superior, Don Pedro de Ursua (Ruy Guerra), and grows increasingly volatile after seizing control of the group. As Aguirre presses deeper into the Amazonian jungle, he descends further into madness.
Starring: Linnea Quigley, C. Courtney Joyner, Kurt Levee, Nova Sheppard, Emilie Jo Tisdale
Considered a ‘lost’ Linnea Quigley movie, Scream Queen is not only a solid 1990s Shot-on-Video slasher, but also takes swift jabs at the independent horror movie scene of the time. Linnea stars as horror star Malicia Tombs, who mysteriously dies after leaving the set of her latest, now unfinished, low budget shocker. Soon, an unseen masked killer is chopping and hacking his/her way through the cast and crew as punishment for Tomb’s death – leaving a bloody trail of revenge. This super obscurity was shot in 1998 by indy horror stalwart Brad Sykes, and finally finished in 2002.
Hosted by Matt Desiderio of Horror Boobs with free giveaways of Blu-rays, DVDs and collectibles. Followed by an after party in Lo-Res where Desiderio will DJ an all-vinyl set.
Starring: Carol Carr, Melissa Moore, Nikki Riggins, Jesse Raye
Donald Farmer’s Scream Dream is both the perfect example of a regional Shot-On-Video film, and one of the best heavy metal horror movies of all time, made during the height of 1980s ‘Satanic Panic’ in the USA.
When frontwoman Michelle Shocked is fired from her band for bad press related to Satanic rumors, she proves everyone right by transforming into a bloodthirsty demon who embarks on a spree of killing and possession. Scream Dream overflows with rubber monster action, gore-drenched murders, unisex teased hair and more bar band metal music than you can shake a studded wristband at.
Hosted by Matt Desiderio of Horror Boobs with free giveaways of Blu-rays, DVDs and collectibles. Followed by an after party in Lo-Res where Desiderio will DJ an all-vinyl set.
Starring: Bill White, Ed Hubbard, Wendy Bednarz, Laura Mclauchlin, Mick McCleery
A pair of paranormal investigators are making their nightly rounds on the seedy streets of New York City when they encounter a group of party-hopping girls looking for a warehouse rave – who have also just accidentally opened a portal to hell. What follows is a night of practical effects monster mayhem as the group try to save themselves, and the entire planet, from a demonic invasion. From prolific 1990s Shot-On-Video writer, producer, director Kevin J. Lindenmuth.
Hosted by Matt Desiderio of Horror Boobs with free giveaways of Blu-rays, DVDs and collectibles. Followed by an after party in Lo-Res where Desiderio will DJ an all-vinyl set.
