Endless Poetry
A portrait of the director’s young adulthood, set in the 1940s–1950s, in the electric capital city of Santiago. There, he decides to become a poet and is introduced, by destiny, into the foremost bohemian and artistic circle of the time.
Window Horses
Rosie Ming, a young Canadian poet, is invited to perform at a Poetry Festival in Shiraz, Iran, but she’d rather be in Paris. She lives at home with her over-protective Chinese grandparents and has never been anywhere by herself. Once in Iran, she finds herself in the company of poets and Persians, all who tell her stories that force her to confront her past; the Iranian father she assumed abandoned her and the nature of Poetry itself. It’s about building bridges between cultural and generational divides. It’s about being curious. Staying open. And finding your own voice through the magic of poetry. Rosie goes on an unwitting journey of forgiveness, reconciliation, and perhaps above all, understanding, through learning about her father’s past, her own cultural identity, and her responsibility to it.
Gary Gulman: The Great Depresh
In his first HBO comedy special, Gary Gulman offers candid reflections on his struggles with depression through stand-up and short documentary interludes. While speaking to issues of mental health, Gulman also offers his observations on a number of topics, including his admiration for Millennial attitudes toward bullying, the intersection of masculinity and sports, and how his mother's voice is always in his head.
Potato Dreams of America
A true story about a gay boy growing up in the collapsing USSR, his courageous mail-order bride mother, and their adventurous escape to Seattle in the 90s.
Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out
Stewart Copeland, drummer for The Police, compiles his Super 8 footage to offer an intimate look at what it was like to be a member of one of the most important rock bands of all time.
Rocks in My Pockets
The personal story of a woman struggling with an inherited illness, as told by Signe Baumane, the Latvian director-animator living in New York City. With humour and courage, the director sets out on a challenging journey to discover her family’s best-kept secret. Featuring five stories about the courageous women in Signe’s family and their battles with madness, visual metaphors, surreal images and director’s narration.
The 8-Year Engagement
Hisashi and Mai are a happy couple in their 20s who are engaged to be married. But three months before their wedding, Mai becomes seriously ill. Her heart stops momentarily, and she falls into a deep coma. Hisashi visits Mai at the hospital every day before work. With no idea if or when she will ever awake, Mai’s parents encourage Hisashi to find someone else, but he refuses to give up and continues to pray for her recovery. As if his prayers are answered, Mai begins to regain consciousness several years later, and even utters a few words. But tragically, she has suffered brain damage and has no memory of Hisashi.
Rokkâzu
Guitarist Ko-chan is a mess of sexual repression after a childhood at the mercy of two elder sisters eager to use him as a guinea pig for their make-up skills. Bassist Gaku-chan keeps a bucket in the wings for whenever his nerves get the better of him, and drummer Momo-chan is doomed to forever carrying the botched childhood attempts at self-tattooing. It's not until this foursome is forced to look for an additional guitar player after Jin's dad burns his Stratocaster, that attitude and musical ability enter into the equation. Leather-clad, shade-wearing Tani (Tamaki), inseparable from his black Les Paul, is introduced as the king of R'n'R cool and Jinnai keeps him firmly seated on his throne throughout the film, retroactively proclaiming the guitarist, rather than himself, as the band's true hero.
Frank and Cindy
G.J. Echternkamp tells the story of his relationship with his parents, his mother Cindy and his step-father, Frank. Frank used to be a member of OXO, a band from the '80s whose one hit wonder scored with the song "Whirly Girl". Cindy was the ultimate groupie who married Frank and thought life would be glamorous and award shows, but it's not how it turned out.
A Time to Live and a Time to Die
An autobiographical film based on Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien's memories of his youth growing up in Taiwan after emigrating from mainland China.
Blue
Against a plain, unchanging blue screen, a densely interwoven soundtrack of voices, sound effects and music attempt to convey a portrait of Derek Jarman's experiences with AIDS, both literally and allegorically, together with an exploration of the meanings associated with the colour blue.
My Childhood
The first part of Bill Douglas' influential trilogy harks back to his impoverished upbringing in early-'40s Scotland. Cinema was his only escape - he paid for it with the money he made from returning empty jam jars - and this escape is reflected most closely at this time of his life as an eight-year-old living on the breadline with his half-brother and sick grandmother in a poor mining village.
A Moment of Innocence
A semi-autobiographical account of Makhmalbaf's experience as a teenager when, as a 17-year-old, he stabbed a policeman at a protest rally. Two decades later, he tracks down the policeman he injured in an attempt to make amends.
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