Neither a conventional biopic nor a traditional concert film, JOAN BAEZ I AM A NOISE is a raw and intimate portrait of the legendary folk singer and activist that shifts back and forth through time as it follows Joan on her final tour and delves into her extraordinary archive, including newly discovered home movies, diaries, artwork, therapy tapes, and audio recordings. Baez is remarkably revealing about her life on and off stage – from her lifelong emotional struggles to her civil rights work with MLK and a heartbreaking romance with a young Bob Dylan. A searingly honest look at a…
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From Signe Baumane, director of Rocks in My Pockets, comes a new award-winning animated feature about a spirited young woman determined to find love in the bewildering world. My Love Affair With Marriage follows Zelma on her 23-year quest for perfect love and lasting marriage set against a backdrop of historic events in Eastern Europe. Told from a woman’s point of view, the film blends historical, biological, societal, and emotional arcs with a lively sense of humor and musical numbers. This animated film for adults tackles the issues of love, gender norms, domestic violence, fantasies and toxic relationships to propel…
An essential memoir of fashion pioneer Bethann Hardison, INVISIBLE BEAUTY shines a spotlight on the singular and unapologetic Hardison, one of the fashion industry’s most influential icons who, as a pioneering Black model, modeling agent and entrepreneur, has pushed the boundaries of fashion culture and has been at the forefront of progress throughout her career. In her lifetime, Hardison has seen the pendulum swing toward and away from the Black model. At every setback, she spoke up and rallied her colleagues and clients in the industry to advance change. https://vimeo.com/869448513?share=copy Now in her 70s, the Brooklyn native is writing her…
Few have had a film debut quite like Anaita Wali Zada in Fremont. The independent movie that debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival follows the extremely mundane goings-on of its protagonist, Donya, an Afghan refugee living in Fremont, Calif. Just five months before agreeing to be in the film, Zada, who had never acted before, had fled Afghanistan when the Taliban returned to power. While the role was not written for Zada, her life and that of the lead character share a lot in common. In fact, the only thing weirder than “coming to America and starring in an…
BOBI WINE: THE PEOPLE’S PRESIDENT, is documentary feature film about Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, famously known as Bobi Wine, who is a musician turned politician who is the current leader of the National Unity Platform (NUP) and the People Power MovementBorn in the slums of Kampala. Bobi Wine risks his life and the lives of his wife, Barbie, and their children to fight the ruthless regime led by Yoweri Museveni. Museveni has been in power since 1986 and changed Uganda’s constitution to enable him to run for yet another five-year term. Running in the country’s 2021 presidential elections, Bobi Wine uses…
The story of Cadejo Blanco is about Sarita who lives with her sister Bea in a working-class neighborhood in Guatemala City. One night after a party, Bea doesn’t come home. Convinced that her disappearance has something to do with Andrés, her sister’s dangerous ex, Sarita manages to befriend him and infiltrate his gang. Narrowly avoiding death at every turn, and with an unwavering determination in the face of the men who underestimate her, Sarita becomes increasingly involved with Andrés and the ruthless, violent world of his gang. As she searches for answers about what happened to her sister, she realizes…
Maryam Keshavarz’s sophomore feature, “The Persian Version,” premiered with pizzazz at Sundance this year. In-person screenings – even those starting at eight in the morning! – saw packed theaters, inviting audiences to laugh (and cry) each time. In this ode to the director’s own family, Keshavarz maps out the relational entanglements of a lesbian, Iranian American woman (played by fresh faces Layla Mohammadi and Chiara Stella) born to a household of seven boys, who — by some off-chance one-night-stand — becomes pregnant. In this heartfelt mother-daughter tale, Keshavarz invites her audiences on a rollercoaster of tenderness and tough love that…
In Where the Wind Blows, Hong Kong’s Oscar entry directed by Philip Yung, Young Lui Lok became a policeman to uphold justice. But the rampant corruption within the police force made it impossible for him to remain independent. He decides to make a name for himself within the police force by controlling organized crime. Nam Kong looks [like a] gentleman, but operates with a dagger under his cloak. He is socially active among the police force as well as the social circles, in fact laying the groundwork for the empire of corruption he builds with Lui Lok. Nam Kong and…
The story of the January , Latvia’s Oscar entry directed by Viesturs Kairiss happens in 1991 in Latvia and nineteen-year-old aspiring cinematographer Jazis’s whole world is thrown into chaos as he is dragged into the people’s peaceful protests against the Soviet Army’s attempted takeover of power in his country. January is an autobiographical take on the political upheaval in the early 1990s that changed the lives of the people of the former Soviet Union. Jazis and his friends Anna and Zeps are all aspiring filmmakers, trying to pursue their dreams of making movies and enjoying the freedom of young adulthood, when…
MAGNETIC FIELDS from director Yorgos Goussis, is the official international feature film Oscar entry from Greece for the 95th Academy Awards. MAGNETIC FIELDS is a tender, humorous road movie about two charismatic but lonely people who meet by chance. Their spontaneous need to connect delays their separation and a return to their everyday lives. The film is a nod towards the classic Claude Lelouch’s “Un Homme et Une Femme” and Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise”. Director writer Yorgos Goussis shot MAGNETIC FIELDS, his debut film, with a MiniDV camcorder and is known primarily for his work as a comic book creator.…