Sundance Channel : Printable Film Descriptions

Printable Film Descriptions

November 2009

Find out more about the films and series Sundance Channel has in store this month.

Agnes Martin: With My Back To The World

In the last decade of her life, Saskatchewan-born abstract painter Agnes Martin (1912-2004) met with filmmaker Mary Lance to reflect on her life and work for this "touching" New York Times cinematic portrait. A self-described abstract expressionist --whose canvases of broad bands of color are often categorized as minimalist --Martin here defiantly rejects facts and ideas. Yet as the film implies, the landscapes of Canada and New Mexico are not too far away. "A multi-layered demonstration of living in almost perfect harmony" -- Slant.

(2002) Color (56 mins)

MONDAY NOV 2 1PM | MONDAY NOV 2 4:10PM

Alexander The Last

Director - Joe Swanberg

In his fifth feature, nano-budget filmmaker Joe Swanberg (HANNAH TAKES THE STAIRS) continues his frank exploration of 20-something relationships with a story of an immature marriage and the intersection of art and life. Jess Weixler delivers a vibrant and charismatic performance as Alex, a young actress living in New York who is left alone when her musician husband (Justin Rice) goes on tour. She soon develops a vague, flirty interest in her on-stage leading man (Barlow Jacobs) even as she introduces him to her attractive sister (Amy Seimetz).

(2009) Color (72 mins)

THURSDAY NOV 5 8PM | FRIDAY NOV 6 5:50AM | SUNDAY NOV 15 7:45PM

Approaching Union Square

Director - Marc Meyers

The lives of eleven passengers on a New York City bus are revealed in a series of individual monologue vignettes in this debut feature from Marc Meyers. While largely anonymous to each other, the travelers - including a tourist, an immigrant, a sex addict and a psychic - harbor secrets, longings, connections and intriguing inner lives otherwise invisible. Adapted from Meyers's original stage play Love & Sex: Tales From the Trenches. "A startlingly accomplished debut ... smart, confessional, rueful, funny and sad" - Montreal Gazette.

(2006) Color (81 mins)

Avenue Montaigne

Director - Daniele Thompson

A huge hit in France, filmmaker Daniele Thompson's delightful ensemble piece uses a Parisian cafe as the setting for a wry reflection on human disquiet and desire. Cecile de France plays a wide-eyed newcomer to the city who takes a job as the first female waiter at an exclusive cafe catering to citizens from the worlds of theater, music, fashion and art. There she bounces from table to table as customers deal with crises of doubt, ingratitude, vanity and longing. "Delicious ... tart and sweet, steeped in Parisian glamour" - Salon.

(2006) Color (105 mins)

Big Ideas For A Small Planet - 313

This episode considers green alternatives when raising a newborn. Ideas include frozen organic baby food, green diapers and an eco-friendly baby store. Guests include journalist Katrina Heron, author Dr. Alan Greene and model/entrepreneur Cindy Crawford.

(2009) Color (25 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 1 10AM

Spectacle: Bill Clinton

Director - Dave Russell

Elvis Costello and the 42nd President of the United States in an unprecedented and revealing chat about President Bill Clinton's early career aspirations as a jazz saxophonist; the astonishing degree to which music shaped him as a man, a politician and a President; the challenges - and critical importance - of music education; the shared skills of musicians and politicians; with observations on Elvis (Presley), John Coltrane, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Nina Simone and N.W.A. Special guest musicians on the episode include Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny.

(2008) Color (60 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 22 8PM

Bittersweet Place

Director - Alexandra Brodsky

Seymour Cassel, veteran player in many John Cassavetes classics, stars in Alexandra Brodsky's directorial debut as the patriarch of a troubled Long Island family. Weary Pappy Schaffer (Cassel) oversees a limo business that's seen better days and his two daughters, Paulie (Elizabeth Moss) and Susannah (Jen Albano), who are still living at home. When Paulie defiantly goes off her meds and Pappy becomes concerned about his daughters' future, his mortality and the meaning of life, the Schaffer clan must face their greatest challenge.

(2005) Color (89 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 3 6:30PM | SATURDAY NOV 7 8:30AM | THURSDAY NOV 26 9:30AM | THURSDAY NOV 26 3:15PM | FRIDAY NOV 27 12:15PM

Black Book

Director - Paul Verhoeven

BLACK BOOK (aka ZWARTBOEK) Holland's bad-boy filmmaker Paul Verhoeven (BASIC INSTINCT; ROBOCOP) returns home from Hollywood for an award-winning World War II tale of espionage, daring escapes and double crosses - his first Dutch film in more than 20 years. With an "energetic performance" (San Francisco Chronicle), Carice van Houten plays a smart, resourceful Jewish cabaret singer who tries to balance duty and desire as she employs her physical charms to infiltrate the local Nazi command. As always, Verhoeven is a master of breathless narrative and stunning visuals.

(2006) Color (146 mins)

THURSDAY NOV 5 12:45AM | SATURDAY NOV 14 1:35AM | SUNDAY NOV 29 10PM

The Blonde Mystique

Director - Sally Aitken

Hugh Hefner says it's an indication that a woman wants to be noticed. Madonna calls it a different state of mind that comes with an incredible sexual connotation. Attempting to investigate exactly how fair hair seems to affect the dynamics between men and women, filmmaker Sally Aitken teams with three female subjects (two brunettes and one blonde) for a series of simple yet very revealing psychological experiments. The results may enrage or fascinate and help explain why manufacturers of hair dye say blonde shades sell 5 to 1.

(2007) Color (52 mins)

MONDAY NOV 9 8PM | TUESDAY NOV 10 8:05AM | TUESDAY NOV 10 2:25PM

Bob Le Flambeur

Director - Jean-Pierre Melville

American recognition of French master Jean-Pierre Melville (1917 - 1973) began with the rediscovery of this stylish noir thriller, Melville's fourth film. Roger Duchesne plays titular Bob Montagne, a middle-aged gambler with a notable white pompadour and Parisian sang-froid, who bets everything on a daring plan to rob a fashionable casino. A major influence on filmmakers ranging from Jean-Luc Godard to Quentin Tarantino, BOB was hailed by the Village Voice as "the cinematic birth of the cool! Melville's drollest, most likable gangster movie."

(1956) B&W (102 mins)

The Bow

Director - Ki-duk Kim

With his 12th feature, controversial Korean auteur Kim Ki-duk (THE ISLE; BAD GUY) embarks on a challenging voyage into unconventional realms of love, desire and trust. A grizzled fishing boat owner (Jeon Seong-hwang) lives at sea with a 16-year-old girl (Han Yeo-reum), whom he has raised in isolation since she was a child. Her world revolves around her elderly protector, and the two plan to marry when she turns 17. However, their watery idyll is upended by the unexpected appearance of a young man (Seo Si-jeok) who falls for her.

(2005) Color (89 mins)

THURSDAY NOV 19 3:35AM | SATURDAY NOV 28 1:15AM

Live From Abbey Road - Season 2: Brian Wilson, Martha Wainright and Teddy Thompson

Director - AJ Jankel

This episode from the second season features Brian Wilson, Martha Wainright and Teddy Thompson.

(2008) Color (51 mins)

MONDAY NOV 23 8PM | FRIDAY NOV 27 11PM | SATURDAY NOV 28 2:45AM | SATURDAY NOV 28 11:30AM | SUNDAY NOV 29 2PM

Bright Future

Director - Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Japan's Kiyoshi Kurosawa (CURE) - a cinematic surrealist likened to David Lynch and Luis Bunuel - delivers an unsettling story of modern alienation and apocalyptic horror. Kurosawa masterfully builds tension as he follows the enigmatic relationship of two young workers at a towel factory, and how manipulation, murderous impulses and a deadly red jellyfish affect their fates. A quietly creepy tale with both a wealth of chills and unexpected glimmers of hope. "Moving and unconventional" - Senses of Cinema.

(2003) Color (92 mins)

MONDAY NOV 23 12:15AM

Iconoclasts - Season 4: Cameron Diaz + Cameron Sinclair

Director - Joe Berlinger

In addition to her successful acting career, Cameron Diaz is a longtime environmental advocate, committed to practicing and promoting conservation and sustaining the planet’s resources. Cameron Sinclair is the co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, a global organization that seeks sustainable architectural solutions to humanitarian crisis and communities in need. Take a journey as they travel to New Orleans and Biloxi, Mississippi to witness the enduring environmental and human impact of Hurricane Katrina. Watch as these passionate problem solvers each seek to challenge the status quo in different ways.

(2008) Color (59 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 1 1PM

Che: Part One - The Argentine

Director - Steven Soderbergh

Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh's epic biographical portrait of Latin-American revolutionary Che Guevara features Benicio Del Toro in his Cannes Film Festival Best Actor award-winning role. Part One concentrates primarily on the years 1956 to 1958 when Che met Cuban exile Fidel Castro (Demián Bichir) and waged a mountain-based guerrilla campaign that eventually overthrew Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship. Del Toro gives a "technically flawless [performance infused...] with the full and considerable measure of his own charisma" -- New York Times.

(2008) Color and B&W (134 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 13 at MIDNIGHT | SUNDAY NOV 15 at MIDNIGHT | SUNDAY NOV 22 at MIDNIGHT | MONDAY NOV 23 at MIDNIGHT | THURSDAY NOV 26 at MIDNIGHT

Che: Part Two - Guerrilla

Director - Steven Soderbergh

The second half of Steven Soderbergh's epic portrait of revolutionary Che Guevara follows Che's star-crossed attempt to spark a popular uprising in Bolivia. Che and a few dozen foreign soldiers set up camp deep in the jungle, yet find little sympathy from locals. Che must contend with everything from asthma attacks to resistance from elite Bolivian special forces trained by American advisors. More personal and introspective than Part One, Guerrilla is a sobering and ironic counterpart to Soderbergh's depiction of the Cuban triumph of 1958.

(2008) Color and B&W (135 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 13 at MIDNIGHT | SUNDAY NOV 15 at MIDNIGHT | MONDAY NOV 23 at MIDNIGHT | TUESDAY NOV 24 at MIDNIGHT | THURSDAY NOV 26 at MIDNIGHT

Children Of The Sun

Director - Ran Tal

Documentary filmmaker Ran Tal reveals a fascinating slice of Israeli history with the story of the first generation of children raised under the utopian kibbutz experiment. Following a Zionist ideal to create a new kind of human, kibbutz children were separated from their parents at birth and brought up collectively in a world of synchronized sports and manual labor. Tal, himself one of the kibbutz children, tells the story with archival home movies and colorful recollections from many of the surviving children. "Engrossing" -- Jerusalem Post.

(2007) Color (70 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 13 8:30AM

Choking Man

Director - Steve Barron

Melding acute insight into the immigrant experience with visionary magical realism, Steve Barron serves up a parable set in New York's multi-ethnic Jamaica neighborhood. Octavio Gómez Berrios plays a near-mute dishwasher from Equador toiling at a shabby diner, while quietly pining for a radiant fellow immigrant (Eugenia Yuan). His inner world is revealed in surreal animated interludes featuring rabbits and diagrammatic figures from a Heimlich maneuver first-aid poster. Mandy Patinkin costars. "Thoroughly charming" — Salon.

(2006) Color (85 mins)

A Christmas Tale

Director - Arnaud Desplechin

France's Arnaud Desplechin (KINGS AND QUEEN) continues to prove himself one of the world's most intriguing filmmakers with this smart, award-winning family saga. As the holidays approach, the Vuillard family - a messy intergenerational collection of neuroses, resentments and guilt - gathers to (among other things) discover if any of the three adult children is a suitable bone marrow donor for their mother (Catherine Deneuve) who is dying of cancer. Mathieu Amalric and Emmanuelle Devos costar. "Almost indecently satisfying" - New York Times.

(2008) Color (152 mins)

MONDAY NOV 2 2AM | MONDAY NOV 2 9AM | SATURDAY NOV 7 1:40AM | THURSDAY NOV 19 12:30AM | THURSDAY NOV 26 11:30PM

Colma: The Musical

Director - Richard Wong

"Irresistible" (L.A. Times), an "unexpected delight" (Variety) and "refreshing" (New York Times), filmmaker Richard Wong and writer/composer/actor H.P. Mendoza's DIY musical follows three high-school friends on the verge of adulthood. Tired of Colma - a sleepy San Francisco suburb famed for its many cemeteries - Billy (Jake Moreno), Rodel (Mendoza) and Maribel (L.A. Renigen) are energetic and eager for life. Featuring 13 bouncy numbers with clever lyrics and close harmonies. "An itty-bitty movie with a great big heart" - New York Times.

(2006) Color (101 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 17 11PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 18 6:30AM | SUNDAY NOV 22 8:15AM | FRIDAY NOV 27 7:25AM | SATURDAY NOV 28 5:10AM

Comedy Of Power

Director - Claude Chabrol

Filmmaker Claude Chabrol and actress Isabelle Huppert, "one of the cinema's great actress-director collaborations" San Francisco Chronicle, reunite for a droll comedy of manners inspired by France's biggest business scandal. Huppert plays a dogged Parisian magistrate whose investigation brings her face-to-face with a corporate boys' club rife with sexism and abuse of power. Less courtroom thriller than a witty observation of contemporary attitudes, COMEDY OF POWER provides Huppert the opportunity to deliver another riveting performance.

(2006) Color (110 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 3 4:15AM | TUESDAY NOV 17 10:30AM | TUESDAY NOV 17 4:30PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 25 10:45AM | WEDNESDAY NOV 25 6:25PM

Congorama

Director - Philippe Falardeau

Canadian filmmaker Philippe Falardeau serves up a playful drama about cultural identity, parenthood and the fate of the electric car. After Michel (Olivier Gourmet), a middle-aged Belgian engineer, learns from his dying father (Jean-Pierre Cassel) that Michel was adopted - and was born in a Quebec barn - he treks to Canada to learn about his birth parents. Fate brings him into contact with Louis (Paul Ahmarani), the driver of an electric car, and the two men uncover mysterious parallels as their lives become inextricably entangled.

(2006) Color (105 mins)

The Cowboy And The Frenchman

Director - David Lynch

Shortly after making BLUE VELVET, David Lynch wrote and directed this playful short film about cultural divides in which a clichéd Frenchman (Frederick Golchan), complete with baguette and beret, has a run-in with some Wild West cowboys... and a few cowgirls. Lynch regular Harry Dean Stanton stars. Originally created as part of a series of films "France as Seen By..."

(1988) Color (26 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 1 7:55AM | SUNDAY NOV 1 12:30PM | TUESDAY NOV 17 10:25PM | FRIDAY NOV 20 9PM

The Danish Poet

Director - Torill Kove

Inspired in part by the story of her own parents, animator Torill Kove tells the tale of a blocked poet who goes on a pilgrimage to meet famed Nobel Prize-winning novelist Sigrid Unset. En route he meets and falls in love with a Norwegian farmer's daughter, who is already engaged to another. Liv Ullmann narrates this wise and witty modern fairy tale about fate and personal choice, which won an Oscar® for Best Animated Short of 2007.

(2006) Color (15 mins)

SATURDAY NOV 14 11:45PM

Dans Paris

Director - Christophe Honoré

Louis Garrel and Romain Duris play contrasting adult brothers in Christophe Honoré's insightful examination of family dynamics. When not falling into bed with his many female conquests, footloose Jonathan (Garrel) lives with his father (Guy Marchand) in a cluttered Parisan flat. As Christmas approaches, Jonathan's older brother Paul (Duris) has returned home depressed and suicidal after a romantic breakup. Resurrecting the wistful spirit of '60s New Wave classics, Honoré presents a sober and often delightful tale of love, loss and healing.

(2006) Color (93 mins)

THURSDAY NOV 26 8:25PM

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu

Director - Cristi Puiu

Inspired by a true medical case history, Romanian filmmaker Cristi Puiu's relentlessly observed chronicle of one man's descent into healthcare hell is also a haunting parable about how we treat one another. Elderly widower Dante Remus Lazarescu (Ion Fiscuteanu) has had a headache for four days. When an ambulance finally removes him from his shabby, foul apartment, he begins a dark and mordantly comic Dante-esque journey, shuttling from hospital to hospital. "Among the great works of cinematic humanism of our time" — British Film Institute.

(2005) Color (150 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 20 2:15AM

Derek

Director - Isaac Julien

Appeared at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival
The same year she won the Oscar® for Best Supporting Actress in Michael Clayton, Tilda Swinton wrote and appeared in this moving yet sorrowful tribute to her artistic mentor and close friend, British filmmaker Derek Jarman (1942 -1994). Gone for more than a decade, Jarman (Caravaggio) is vividly alive in Isaac Julien's film, appearing in extended excerpts from a 1990 interview in which he discusses his work, career and role as a fearless and provocative gay activist during the Thatcher years. "An earnest ode to an outlaw artist"-- Slant.

(2008) Color (76 mins)

MONDAY NOV 23 9AM | MONDAY NOV 23 1:45PM

A Dirty Carnival

Director - Yoo Ha

Korean filmmaker Yoo Ha's action-packed gangster saga has been dubbed the "Asian GODFATHER" for its accomplished melding of the story of a mobster's rise and fall with tightly choreographed fight sequences. Jo In-Seong stars as Kim Byung-Doo, a bright but poor low-level enforcer who seizes an opportunity for advancement with the murder of a troublesome public prosecutor. Yet the seeds for Kim's later downfall are already sown. "Full of swiftly etched, well-developed characters ... elevates the genre to an epic narrative level" - Variety. (2006)

(2006) Color (140 mins)

Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoi

Director - Luis Bunuel

In the last decade of his career, Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel achieved his greatest popular and critical success with this Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner, a caustic and surreal social comedy about hypocrisy and frustration. Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Cassel and Stephane Audran play middle class friends who, in fact, are neither discreet nor charming and discover that their plans for dinner together invariably go awry. "A stiletto heel of a film ... his most fully realized work" - John Baxter, Bunuel's biographer.

(1972) Color (101 mins)

Donkey In Lahore - Sundance Film

(0) (0 mins)

MONDAY NOV 9 9PM | TUESDAY NOV 10 2:35AM | TUESDAY NOV 10 6:15AM | TUESDAY NOV 10 12:30PM

Dororo

Director - Akihiko Shiota

Based on a classic Japanese manga, this fantasy/horror epic follows a nameless samurai (Satoshi Tsumabuki) on a quest to reclaim his missing body parts from powerful demons and solve the riddle of his father's betrayal. Along the way, he meets a callow but brave young female thief (pop singer Kou Shibasaki), who decides to take up his cause in hopes of achieving her own aims.

(2007) Color (139 mins)

MONDAY NOV 16 at MIDNIGHT | FRIDAY NOV 27 2:05AM

Drop Back Ten

Director - Stacy Cochran

Appeared at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival
Filmmaker Stacy Cochran (MY NEW GUN; BOYS) and actor James LeGros reunite with a story about a hard-luck sports journalist who discovers the dangers of getting too close to his subject. Peter Barnes (LeGros) takes an assignment to write a puff profile of up-and-coming actor Spanks Voley (Desmond Harrington), who is slated to star in a football movie. However, when a nasty beating cancels Voley's big break, Barnes starts digging into his past. Tate Donovan delievers a memorable turn as the fictional film's high-strung producer.

(2000) Color (93 mins)

E2: Design I - 101 : The Green Apple

Director - Tad Fettig

Learn how cutting-edge innovators are rethinking the way we live to improve our quality of life and the future of our planet. Brad Pitt narrates this critically acclaimed documentary series focusing on everything from sustainable architecture and microfinance to public transportation and the future of food. The opening program considers New York City not as urban nightmare, but as a laboratory for exciting new ideas, like energy-efficient glass and concrete, and buildings that make people feel better.

(2006) Color (25 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 10 8PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 11 3AM | SUNDAY NOV 15 10AM

E2: Design I - 102 : Green for All

Director - Tad Fettig

Learn how cutting-edge innovators are rethinking the way we live to improve our quality of life and the future of our planet. Brad Pitt narrates this critically acclaimed documentary series focusing on everything from sustainable architecture and microfinance to public transportation and the future of food. This episode profiles visionary architect and activist Sergio Palleroni, a promoter of design ethics -- rather than aesthetics -- when creating sustainable low-income housing.

(2006) Color (25 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 17 8PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 18 2:40AM | SUNDAY NOV 22 10AM

E2: Design I - 103 : The Green Machine

Director - Tad Fettig

Learn how cutting-edge innovators are rethinking the way we live to improve our quality of life and the future of our planet. Brad Pitt narrates this critically acclaimed documentary series focusing on everything from sustainable architecture and microfinance to public transportation and the future of food. This episode visits Chicago, where Mayor Richard Daley demonstrates his city's commitment to green design and construction, including an integrated solar-powered public transportation system.

(2006) Color (25 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 24 8PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 25 1:15AM | SUNDAY NOV 29 10AM

Spectacle: Elton John

Director - Dave Russell

Elvis and Elton explore Elton John's love and passion for many of the musicians who've had an impact on his life and career - from Leon Russell to Laura Nyro - with some candid and hilarious anecdotes along the way. Elton sheds light on his 40 year working relationship with lyricist Bernie Taupin, and the show also includes an amusing exchange about Elvis and Elton's real and stage names. Plus, Elton at the piano spontaneously demonstrating styles and influences; Elvis covering a couple of Elton John classics; special musical guests Allen Toussaint and James Burton joining Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher of Elvis Costello's band The Imposters; and Elton and Elvis's first ever televised performance together.

(2008) Color (60 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 22 6PM

Engine 371

Director - Kevin Langdale

Kevin Langdale's wordless animated film considers the idea of progress by recalling how the natural wilderness was transformed during the construction of Canada's transcontinental railroad.

(2007) Color (9 mins)

Carbon Cops: Episode 1

Director - Sophie Meyrick
Director - Sean Cousins

In the opening episode, the Carbon Cops visit the Barries, a family that has made a conscious effort to save energy. However, an energy audit reveals that their home and lifestyle create carbon emissions more than five times the national average.

(2007) Color (26 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 10 8:30PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 11 3:30AM | SUNDAY NOV 15 10:30AM

Carbon Cops: Episode 2

Director - Sophie Meyrick
Director - Sean Cousins

In the second episode, the Carbon Cops visit the McSweeney-Glenwrights, a country family whose home has proved unbearably hot in summer and freezing in winter. Alas, installations to regulate the temperature have only made things worse.

(2007) Color (26 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 17 8:30PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 18 3:10AM | SUNDAY NOV 22 10:30AM

Shameless Season 4: Episode 2

In this episode, Frank tries to keep Sheila from realizing that he is still legally married to Monica (Annabelle Apsion).

(2007) Color (60 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 6 7PM

Iconoclasts - Season 2: Episode 2: Mikhail Baryshnikov + Alice Waters

Director - Bruce Sinofsky
Director - Joe Berlinger

In this episode, dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and chef Alice Waters share their philosophies of art, food, teaching and community with visits to New York's Baryshnikov Arts Center, the Edible Schoolyard Project in Berkeley, California and at a dinner at Waters's legendary restaurant Chez Panisse.

(2006) Color (45 mins)

SATURDAY NOV 21 9PM | SUNDAY NOV 22 1:45AM | SUNDAY NOV 22 1PM

Shameless Season 4: Episode 3

In this episode, Frank, now saddled with two wives, is forced to choose between Sheila (Maggie O'Neill) and Monica (Annabelle Apsion).

(2007) Color (60 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 6 8PM

Carbon Cops: Episode 3

In the third episode, the Carbon Cops drop in on a group of 20-something student renters. Realizing that they will live with the reality of global warming in the future, the students take on a three-week challenge in which they try living with the predicted shortages of water, power and fuel.

(2007) Color (27 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 24 8:30PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 25 1:45AM | SUNDAY NOV 29 10:30AM

Shameless Season 4: Episode 4

In this episode, Ian (Gerard Kearns) falls for a girl and discovers she comes with some excess baggage.

(2007) Color (60 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 13 7PM

Iconoclasts - Season 2: Episode 5: Paul Simon + Lorne Michaels

Director - Bruce Sinofsky
Director - Joe Berlinger

In this episode, legendary musician Paul Simon and long-time friend and "Saturday Night Live" executive producer Lorne Michaels reminisce about the early days of SNL and discuss music, comedy and show business. The pair also explores New York's theater district and visits one of their favorite restaurants.

(2006) Color (45 mins)

SATURDAY NOV 7 9PM | SUNDAY NOV 8 3:15AM | SUNDAY NOV 8 1PM

The Lazy Environmentalist: Episode 6

In this episode, Josh explores landscaping options with a designer and water conservation expert and later suggests how his brother can cut a $500-a-month utility bill.

(2009) Color (27 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 1 10:30AM

Iconoclasts - Season 2: Episode 6: Dave Chappelle + Maya Angelou

Director - Bruce Sinofsky
Director - Joe Berlinger

In this episode, comedian Dave Chappelle and poet Maya Angelou spend a day together at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where they discuss how poetry and comedy can bridge both genders and generations.

(2006) Color (45 mins)

SATURDAY NOV 14 9PM | SUNDAY NOV 15 3:15AM | SUNDAY NOV 15 1PM

The Lazy Environmentalist: Episode 7

In this episode, Josh visits a Brooklyn bar to explore options in eco-friendly imbibing, and advises an entertainment business on reducing waste and unnecessary travel.

(2009) Color (24 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 3 8:30PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 4 3:30AM | SUNDAY NOV 8 10:30AM

Everlasting Moments

Director - Jan Troell

Swedish filmmaker Jan Troell (THE EMIGRANTS; HAMSUN) presents an "engrossing and satisfying" (New York Times) domestic drama capturing rich slices of everyday life during the early 20th century. Maria (Maria Heiskanen), a strong-willed mother of seven married to a hard-drinking laborer, lives a seemingly conventional existence until chance and encouragement from a shop owner reveals her innate talent for photography. Told by Maria's eldest daughter (Callin Ohrvall), EVERLASTING MOMENTS is an elegiac memoir of love and personal fulfillment.

(2008) Color (131 mins)

WEDNESDAY NOV 4 10:30PM | MONDAY NOV 16 2:20AM | FRIDAY NOV 20 at MIDNIGHT

F.T.A.

Director - Francine Parker

At the height of her activism against the Vietnam War, Jane Fonda joined forces with Donald Sutherland, Peter Boyle, singer Holly Near and legendary screenwriter Dalton Trumbo to present F.T.A., a subversive satirical revue for American servicemen. Conceived as an alternative to Bob Hope's U.S.O. tours, F.T.A. brought anti-war sketches and protest songs to military bases in the Pacific Rim. Seldom screened since its brief release, Francine Parker's documentary mixes highlights from the show with revealing interviews with dissident servicemen.

(1972) Color (97 mins)

Fair Trade

Director - Michael Dreher

Michael Dreher's unsettling short film, set in Morocco and Gibraltar, considers the economic and social distance between life in the Third World and in Western industrial nations with a story about colliding human needs as an illegal adoption goes awry. FAIR TRADE won numerous awards including the Best Short Film Award at the Aspen Shortfest and the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Award.

(2006) Color (15 mins)

Fido

Director - Andrew Currie

In an inspired mating of film genres, filmmaker Andrew Currie serves up a darkly comic satire that mixes everything from zombie horror classics and Lassie to '50s communist paranoia screeds and forbidden-love melodramas. Billy Connelly plays the title character, a flesh-eating zombie, who like other members of the undead has been domesticated to serve the living. In the case of Fido, his new home is with the Robinson family: mom (Carrie-Anne Moss), dad (Dylan Baker) and their often-bullied son (K'Sun Ray). "Deliciously funny" - LA Times.

(2006) Color (0 mins)

MONDAY NOV 9 2:05AM | MONDAY NOV 23 10:20PM | TUESDAY NOV 24 4:20AM

For The Bible Tells Me So

Director - Daniel Karslake

Appeared at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
Bravely tackling one of the most politically and religiously divisive issues in contemporary America, documentary filmmaker Daniel Karslake presents a consideration of the intersection of scripture and homosexuality. Profiled are five devout families who each have dealt with the disclosure that a relative was gay or lesbian. Discussion is given to the importance of mutual understanding and unconditional parental love, while often-cited Biblical passages come in for scholarly interpretation and reconsideration. "Admirable and moving." - Salon.

(2007) Color (101 mins)

MONDAY NOV 9 8AM | MONDAY NOV 9 3PM

The Fortune Hunter

Director - Twan Huys

Somali-born author, political activist and critic of Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali became world famous when her collaborator, Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, was murdered by a radical Islamist. (Hirsi Ali wrote the screenplay for Van Gogh's Submission, a provocative short film critical of Muslim treatment of women.) Filmmaker Twan Huys follows Hirsi Ali as she endures death threats and travels to the United States, where she takes a job at a conservative thinktank and is named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential persons of the world.

(2006) (45 mins)

MONDAY NOV 2 2PM | MONDAY NOV 2 5:10PM | SUNDAY NOV 8 12:15PM

French Film

Director - Jackie Oudney

British writer Aschlin Ditta and director Jackie Oudney serve up a likeable and incisively truthful romantic comedy about a hapless journalist (Hugh Bonneville) whose relationship with his longtime girlfriend (Victoria Hamilton) has hit the skids. To make matters worse, his latest assignment is to interview smug Thierry Grimandi (soccer player Eric Cantona), France's auteur of cinematic romance. "Brings together the best elements of Richard Curtis' London movies and Nora Ephron's romantic comedies, with a strong whiff of Woody Allen" - The Observer.

(2009) Color (87 mins)

WEDNESDAY NOV 11 10:30PM | THURSDAY NOV 12 2:45AM | SATURDAY NOV 21 1:45AM | SATURDAY NOV 21 6:40AM

Big Ideas for a Small Planet - Season 3: Games

This episode looks at games intended to change the world. Ideas for planet-saving alternatives include a green football team, role-playing the future and xtreme green sports. Guests include Jamais Cascio from Superstruct and Jeff Wilson of Quiksilver.

(2009) Color (25 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 3 8PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 4 3AM | SUNDAY NOV 8 10AM

Garage

Director - Leonard Abrahamson

Comedian Pat Shortt costars with the breathtaking beauty of the west Irish countryside in filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson's acclaimed look at a dying community. Expectations are modest for middle-aged, mentally challenged Josie (Shortt), who oversees a decrepit rural filling station. However, after he forms the first friendship of his adult life with a teenage assistant (Conor Ryan), Josie senses life offers more than he previously assumed. Anne-Marie Duff costars. "Gentle and elegiac... beautifully shot and just as beautifully acted" - Guardian.

(2007) Color (82 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 8 1:45AM | FRIDAY NOV 27 4:25AM

Gay Muslims

Director - Cara Lavan

Islam is known for its fierce antagonism toward homosexuality, yet many devout Muslims hide their sexuality, quietly living in a manner condemned by fundamentalist followers. In this revealing documentary, filmmaker Cara Lavan investigates the largely hidden population of gay Muslims in Britain. At a Pride parade, gay activists wear rainbow colored hijabs; anonymous gay and lesbian Muslims reflect on how they reconcile their religion with their lifestyle; and a scholar offers insight into Shariah law and passages from the Qur'an.

(2006) Color (49 mins)

A Girl Cut In Two

Director - Claude Chabrol

Claude Chabrol (La cérémonie), who has wittily mapped the darker reaches of the human heart in more than 60 features, tells an erotically charged story of love, jealousy and murder. Ludivine Sagnier (SWIMMING POOL) plays a smart, flirty yet relatively naïve TV weathergirl who catches the eyes of two of Lyon's most prominent citizens: a cynical novelist (Francois Berleand) with a taste for unconventional sexual adventure, and the unstable heir to a local fortune (Benoît Magimel). "Impeccably made and uncompromisingly adult" -- Los Angeles Times.

(2007) Color (114 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 13 2:25AM | SUNDAY NOV 29 3:35AM

The Glass House

Director - Hamid Rahmanian

Documentarian Hamid Rahmanian lifts the veil on a segment of Iranian society with inspiring profiles of four independent women coping with poverty, repression and physical brutality. At Tehran's unique Omid e Mehr rehabilitation center for women, Nazila, an aspiring rap singer; Samira, a 14-year-old with a drug addiction; and Mitra and Sussan, who have endured insults, beatings and rape at home, learn the importance of self-esteem, personal expression and tools to take control of their lives. "Moving and harrowing" -- Philadelphia Weekly.

(2009) Color (93 mins)

MONDAY NOV 16 9PM | TUESDAY NOV 17 12:25PM | FRIDAY NOV 27 5:50AM | FRIDAY NOV 27 1:45PM

Good Morning Heartache

Director - Anna Negri

Appeared at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival
When newly married Giovanni (Marco Foschi) and Lucia (Alba Rohrwacher) decide to become the subjects of a documentary about working temp jobs in the Italian film business while raising a toddler, they don't realize how much their lives will change. Soon documentarians Giorgio (Stefano Fresi) and Eros (Alessandro Averone) are recording a marital breakup in intimate detail. And it hardly helps that one of the filmmakers is falling in love with his subject. Anna Negri directs this amusing and bittersweet drama.

(2008) Color (93 mins)

SATURDAY NOV 14 5:05AM | TUESDAY NOV 24 at MIDNIGHT

The Great Global Warming Swindle

Director - Martin Durkin

Provocative and controversial, this documentary by Martin Durkin makes the argument that scientific consensus about global warming and climate change is incorrect, with evidence supporting an alternative viewpoint. When broadcast in England by Channel 4, THE GREAT GLOBAL WARMING SWINDLE became one of the most debated films of recent memory, earning approbation from the conservative press ("Devastating" -- The Washington Times; "Brilliant" -- Mail on Sunday) and condemnation from Greenpeace and much of the scientific community.

(2008) Color (52 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 17 12:15AM | TUESDAY NOV 17 5AM

Guard Dog

Director - Bill Plympton

Animator Bill Plympton (THE TUNE) garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Film with this comic tale exploring the no-longer mysterious mind of an extremely yappy pooch.

(2004) Color (5 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 13 9PM

Guide Dog

Director - Bill Plympton

In a sequel to his Oscar nominated short Guard Dog, Animator Bill Plympton (I Married a Strange Person) follows the travails of an overly eager yet hapless canine who applies for work as a seeing-eye dog.

(2006) Color (6 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 13 9:05PM

Hair: Let The Sun Shine In

Director - Pola Rapaport

Filmmakers Wolfgang Held and Pola Rapaport pay tribute to the revolutionary '60s rock musical Hair. Created during the height of the Vietnam War, Hair was a seminal countercultural touchstone with its celebration of peace, love and psychedelics and on-stage nudity. Archive news clips, interviews with the creators and former cast members -- including Melba Moore, Ben Vereen, Keith Carradine, writer James Rado and composer Galt MacDermot -- and footage of the original Broadway cast highlight an all-too-brief trip back to the days of flower power.

(2007) Color (54 mins)

THURSDAY NOV 5 1PM | THURSDAY NOV 5 5:30PM | MONDAY NOV 16 8AM

Harvie Krumpet

Director - Adam Elliott

Appeared at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival
Australian filmmaker Adam Elliot’s Oscar® winner for Best Animated Short Film tells the darkly comic biography of Harvie Krumpet, a nobody with perpetual bad luck. Harvie is a working-class Polish boy, diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome, who is ineptly home-schooled by his mother, giving him a twisted view of the world. From Australian immigration and marriage to parenting and old age, Elliot chronicles Harvie’s engrossing saga using stop-motion animation and a deadpan narrative delivered by Geoffrey Rush. “A mini-Candide” — Village Voice.

(2003) Color (22 mins)

THURSDAY NOV 5 12:35PM | SUNDAY NOV 8 9:35AM | MONDAY NOV 23 6:05AM

Hotel Very Welcome

Director - Sonja Heiss

Making her directorial debut, filmmaker Sonja Heiss melds light comedy with wry observation for an incisive tale about five privileged young Europeans backpacking in Asia. Told in alternating narrative strands, HOTEL VERY WELCOME separately follows the quintet -- who have trekked East for enlightenment, escape or ecstasy -- as they encounter scheduling snafus, dwindling bank accounts, cultural confusion and other mundane frustrations they had hoped to avoid when they initially left home. "An episodic charmer … neatly played" -- Variety.

(2007) Color (90 mins)

THURSDAY NOV 5 11:05PM | SUNDAY NOV 15 1:45AM

Hunger

Director - Steve McQueen

In 1981, Bobby Sands and nine other Irish Republican Army prisoners captured headlines with a dramatic hunger strike at Belfast's Maze Prison. In his award-winning feature debut, British artist/filmmaker Steve McQueen uses this story for a harrowing meditation on human dignity and resolve. No conventional political drama, HUNGER is told in striking set pieces ranging from an extraordinary 20-minute dialogue to controversial allusions to religious art. Winner of the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. "Enthralling" -- The Independent.

(2008) Color (96 mins)

SATURDAY NOV 28 10PM | SUNDAY NOV 29 5:35AM

I for India

Director - Sandhya Suri

Appeared at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival
Sandhya Suri's intimate documentary considers issues of cultural identity and family obligation with the story of her father, a young doctor who emigrated from India to England in 1965. Over the years, Yash Pal Suri and his family in India kept in touch by corresponding via Super-8 movies and tape recordings. Four decades later, these family movies — supplemented with interviews and historic film clips — offer a revealing chronicle of assimilation, racism, changing cultures and one family's evolution. "A miraculous mini-epic" — The Guardian.

(2005) Color (70 mins)

MONDAY NOV 23 11:30AM | MONDAY NOV 23 4:15PM

Ice People

Director - Anne Aghion

Offering a rare glimpse of scientists at work under extreme physical conditions, Ice People visits some intrepid geologists in Antarctica in search of evidence of a million-year-old alpine lake ecosystem. Filmmaker Anne Aghion and her cameras witness the breathtaking natural beauty as the six-month Antarctic night subsides; document the geologists' tedious and difficult field work; and capture the strained interpersonal dynamics between the few academics and the much larger support staff at the famed American-run McMurdo research station.

(2008) Color (77 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 17 9PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 18 3:40AM | SUNDAY NOV 22 11AM

In A Day

Director - Evan Richards

Ashley (Lorraine Pilkington), a pianist who moonlights at a London sandwich shop, is having a horrible morning. A chance encounter with a creep ends badly. Soon another stranger, Michael (Finlay Robertson), an odd yet kind graphic designer who frequents the shop, announces that Ashley needs a "wonderful day" and treats her to a series of generous and often eccentric gestures and gifts. But what exactly is his motive? American actor-writer-director Evan Richards presents a whimsical yet edgy comic romance about honesty and redemption.

(2008) Color (85 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 27 9:35PM | SATURDAY NOV 28 3:45AM

In Memory Of My Father

Director - Christopher Jaymes

In this darkly comic family farce about Hollywood celebrity, filmmaker Christopher Jaymes opens the doors on the dysfunctional carnival following the recent death of a flashy movie producer. His three sons (Jeremy Sisto, Matt Keeslar and Jaymes) arrive at the farewell party burdened by resentments and personal problems, only to discover their family tree is closer to a thorny bush. Winner of major awards at the San Diego, Santa Barbara and Sonoma Valley film festivals. "The likeably unlikeable ensemble cast is uniformly excellent"-- Empire.

(2005) Color (0 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 6 12:45AM | SUNDAY NOV 22 2:45AM

In Short: Bruce Weber: Wine And Cupcakes

Director - Bruce Weber

Filmmaker and photographer Bruce Weber presents a valentine to New York City featuring Scottish songstress Angela McCluskey and her husband, the composer Paul Cantelon. The pair takes a stroll through Central Park to the strains of "Autumn in New York."

(2007) Color (0 mins)

MONDAY NOV 2 1:45AM | WEDNESDAY NOV 4 9:45PM | THURSDAY NOV 5 5:25AM

Jam

Director - Mark Woollen

In the '60s and '70s, roller derby telecasts drew more viewers than major league baseball. A few years later, the sport was virtually dead. As he follows recent attempts to revive the American Roller Derby Association, award-winning documentary filmmaker Mark Woollen profiles some of the sport's aging superstars, a collection of eccentrics - many openly gay - who, with humor and honest sentiment, talk of their personal lives, their struggles and their addiction to the roar of the crowd. "An inspiring underdog story" - Daily Texan.

(2008) Color (85 mins)

MONDAY NOV 16 9AM | MONDAY NOV 16 1:30PM

Spectacle: James Taylor

Director - Dave Russell

James Taylor epitomizes the term "singer-songwriter", and in this rare, in-depth interview, he sheds light on the various influences that have shaped his music over the past 40 years or so. With a guitar readily at hand throughout the hour, Taylor shifts easily and engagingly from conversation to performance mode, playing some of his best-known songs ("Fire and Rain", "Sweet Baby James") and some of his favorites by other writers, including Carole King and George Jones. Elvis joins James in song a couple of times, to charming effect. The intimate conversation includes the very personal (Taylor's upbringing, family and occasional struggles with personal demons) and, naturally, the very musical (influences, collaborations and inspirations). Throughout it all, the pure, sweet James Taylor voice that has seduced music fans for four decades now remains a thing of beauty and comfort.

(2008) Color (60 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 22 9PM

Jeu

Director - Georges Schwizgebel

Animator Georges Schwizgebel presents a dazzling Escher-like visual riff on the breakneck scherzo from Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto.

(2006) Color (4 mins)

THURSDAY NOV 19 8:55AM | FRIDAY NOV 20 3:55PM | SUNDAY NOV 29 12:55PM

Joan Mitchell: Portrait Of An Abstract Painter

Director - Marion Cajori

Joan Mitchell (1925-1992), one of the few women within the largely macho world of American abstract expressionists, was famously averse to personal disclosure. (The Chicago-born artist lived most of her life in France, where her work was dismissed as "sauvage.") Yet Marion Cajori, a lifetime friend who first met Mitchell when Cajori was only nine, persuaded her to discuss her art, life and influences in this candid award-winning documentary. "An unusually intimate portrayal of [an] independent, intensely private painter" -- New York Times.

(1993) Color (0 mins)

MONDAY NOV 23 12:45PM | MONDAY NOV 23 5:30PM

Kill Your Idols

Director - Scott Crary

Appropriately battered archive footage and recent interviews with a constellation of downtown music icons - including Lydia Lunch, Glenn Branca and Thurston Moore - tell the colorful and raucous story of avant rock. While documentary filmmaker Scott Crary anchors his tale around the No Wave movement of the early '80s, he also includes contemporary bands such as the "Yeah Yeah Yeahs" and the "Liars". And the fireworks aren't only musical: some '80s veterans are more than willing to dismiss their recent followers. "Niftily edited" - Variety.

(2004) Color and B&W (70 mins)

WEDNESDAY NOV 4 12:30PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 4 5PM | MONDAY NOV 9 10:45AM | SATURDAY NOV 28 at MIDNIGHT | SATURDAY NOV 28 7:05AM

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

Director - John Cassavetes

Unjustly neglected at the time of its release, John Cassavetes's highly individual foray into the shadowy world of contemporary noir profiles an unlucky strip-club owner (Ben Gazzara) forced to consider committing a murder in order to erase a debt to loan sharks and save his establishment. Gazzara gives an unforgettable performance as Cosmo Vitelli, a small-time businessman whose good-time grinning charisma obscures self-doubt and existential angst. This version is Cassavetes's original 1976 edit, 30 minutes longer than the 1978 release.

(1976) Color (134 mins)

WEDNESDAY NOV 4 12:45AM | WEDNESDAY NOV 4 5:15AM | THURSDAY NOV 12 at MIDNIGHT | MONDAY NOV 23 2AM

The King of Ping Pong

Director - Jens Jonsson

Appeared at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival
Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize and a Cinematography Award at the Sundance Film Festival, Jens Jonsson's gentle, dark and eccentric coming-of-age saga follows a baby-faced Swedish teen (Jerry Johansson) as he deals with a dysfunctional family and rumors about his paternity. Glacial detached humor - prompting a few critics to dub this "Sweden's NAPOLEON DYNAMITE" - and superb performances from Johansson and the supporting cast distinguish this sharp portrait of adolescent alienation, sibling rivalry and small-town life.

(2008) Color (107 mins)

THURSDAY NOV 26 6:30PM

Spectacle: Kris Kristofferson, Rosanne Cash, Norah Jones & John Mellencamp

Director - Dave Russell

The "guitar pull" is said to have started in Johnny Cash's living room in Tennessee, with writers and musicians like Kris Kristofferson, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan taking turns playing their songs for the Man in Black and his guests. Some years later, Elvis gathers a stellar group for a "guitar pull" of his own - and it includes a couple of people who were at the original gatherings in the Cash home, namely American songwriting royalty, Kris Kristofferson and Cash's daughter, Rosanne. Rounding out the group are the golden-voiced Norah Jones (who brings along a "new" song co-written by none other than Hank Williams) and American rock superstar John Mellencamp, who strips his music (old and new) down to the bare essentials. If not exactly a hootenanny, this star-studded edition of Spectacle is a showcase for - and an embarrassment of riches of - the craft of songwriting, from some of the best-known (and loved) tunes of the past 40 years to brand-new, previously-unheard compositions.

(2008) Color (60 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 29 9PM

Kurt Cobain: About a Son

Director - AJ Schnack

Documentary filmmaker A. J. Schnack (GIGANTIC: A TALE OF TWO JOHNS) breaks nearly every established rock documentary convention in this "deeply moving" (Village Voice) examination into the short life of Kurt Cobain. The voice of the Byronic grunge rock icon is heard in excerpts from revealing interviews recorded a little more than a year before his 1994 suicide. Cobain is heard ruminating about fame, drugs, his childhood and his band as impressionistic images of locales from Cobain's life in the Pacific Northwest provide a visual counterpoint.

(2006) Color (96 mins)

SATURDAY NOV 7 at MIDNIGHT | SATURDAY NOV 7 6:50AM | MONDAY NOV 16 6:15PM

Le Doulos

Director - Jean-Pierre Melville

A young Jean-Paul Belmondo stars as a stylish yet sinister mobster in this classic existential gangster thriller from French master Jean-Pierre Melville. Belmondo plays Silien, a Parisian hood enlisted by a recently paroled con (Serge Reggiani) for a safe-cracking job. Yet here criminal codes, double crosses and revenge rule. Melville creates a gorgeously noir Paris modeled on American crime films of the '30s and '40s. "An unforgettable voyage into a world of trench coats, betrayal and despair" -- Los Angeles Times.Michel Piccoli costars.

(1963) B&W (109 mins)

Lemon Sky

Director - Jan Egleson

Appeared at the 1988 Sundance Film Festival
Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick costar in this adaptation of Lanford Wilson's challenging stage play, told in flashbacks, that explores family dynamics and defining personal narratives. Bacon plays a young college student who attempts to reunite with his estranged, abusive, working-class father (Tom Atkins) and his father's new family. The film not only won director Jan Egleston a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, it also presented Casey Affleck in his screen debut and brought together Bacon and Sedgwick, who married shortly thereafter.

(1988) Color (106 mins)

Liberty Kid

Director - Ilya Chaiken

Acclaimed by many critics as the most affecting dramatic film about New York after 9/11, writer-director Ilya Chaiken's (MARGARITA HAPPY HOUR) feature follows the paths of two friends, Derrick (Al Thompson), a self-described visionary, and his buddy Tico (Kareem Savinon). Both lose their jobs when the Statue of Liberty closes, forcing Derrick to evaluate his dreams of going to college and Tico to consider working the streets. Named Best Film at the New York Latino Film Festival. "A simple story, engagingly told, wonderfully acted" -- Salon.

(2007) Color (92 mins)

The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico

Director - Michael Mabbott

Following the classic formula chronicling the rise and fall of a music legend, filmmaker Michael Mabbott's outrageous mockumentary tells the tale of Guy Terrifico, a '70s Canadian alt-country legend whose notorious outlaw persona came to overshadow his music. (And since he never managed to cut an album, his mystique has only grown since his sudden death.) On hand with vivid recollections are acquaintances like Merle Haggard, Levon Helm and Kris Kristofferson, while Matt Murphy supplies some tunes and plays the titular icon in archive clips.

(2005) Color (86 mins)

Life For A Child

Director - Edward Lachman

More than 3.8 million people die annually from diabetes. Ironically, since the discovery of insulin in 1921, many of these deaths are preventable. Noted cinematographer and filmmaker Edward Lachman's short documentary follows a group of children with type 1 diabetes in Nepal, one of the world's poorest countries.

(2008) Color (28 mins)

SATURDAY NOV 14 8PM | SUNDAY NOV 15 12:35PM | SUNDAY NOV 15 3:45PM

Lights in the Dusk

Director - Aki Kaurismäki

The final part of Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki's austere trilogy, which commenced with DRIFTING CLOUDS (1996) and continued with THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST (2002), is a haunting film noir about a solitary loser in contemporary Helsinki. Koistinen (Janne Hyytiainen), a night watchman, gets no respect. So when a blonde bombshell (Maria Jarvenhelmi) sidles up to him and says she senses he has rock and roll in his blood, Koistinen is oblivious that she might be interested in something other than his magnetism - like some secret security codes.

(2006) Color (75 mins)

Live From Abbey Road - 312

Director - Annabel Jankel

Marking the 40th anniversary of The Beatles' Abbey Road LP -- released September 26, 1969 -- contemporary artists including Seal, Sugarland and Counting Crows perform beloved songs from the influential album.

(2009) Color (60 mins)

Spectacle: Lou Reed and Julian Schnabel

Director - Dave Russell

The normally guarded Lou Reed - widely regarded since his Velvet Underground days as music's Prince of Darkness - opens up with Elvis Costello, revealing himself to be a witty and literate raconteur. He speaks movingly, and funnily, about his love of R&B, New York, art and the mysteries of writing and creativity. Lou's close friend and collaborator (on the film "Berlin"), Julian Schnabel, joins the fray mid-show, to both heartbreaking and hilarious effect, contributing some disarmingly candid and personal remarks, as well as a riveting - and totally spontaneous - spoken-word performance. Lou breaks down one of his classic compositions on guitar, and then joins Elvis for two amazing performances.

(2008) Color (60 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 22 7PM

Love Songs

Director - Christophe Honoré

French filmmaker Christophe Honoré (DANS PARIS) recaptures the invigorating spirit of early New Wave cinematic classics in this playful polysexual musical romance following a group of young Parisians as they experience love, loss and intimacy. An attractive cast headed by Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier, Chiara Mastroianni and Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, and 13 comic and heartbreaking songs by French pop composer Alex Beaupain, highlight Honoré's "rapturous and compelling" (Salon) tale that mixes the erotic, the farcical and the tragic.

(2007) Color (95 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 3 11PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 4 7:30AM | SUNDAY NOV 15 2PM

Mad Detective

Director - Johnnie To
Director - Ka-Fai Wai

An ex-detective (Lau Ching-Wan) with psychic abilities and a shaky grasp on reality emerges from seclusion to help solve the mystery of a cop's disappearance. The prime suspect: the officer's partner.

(2007) Color (89 mins)

MONDAY NOV 9 12:30AM | FRIDAY NOV 20 4:55AM

Madame Sata

Director - Karim Ainouz

Legendary Brazilian transvestite, criminal, hustler and carnival star, João Francisco dos Santos (1900-1976) lived a life that might have come from the pen of French writer Jean Genet. In an electrifying performance, Lázaro Ramos resurrects Rio's fabled nightclub performer and hot-tempered knife-fighter in Karim Ainouz's impressionistic biopic. Seething with sweat, carnal energy and unforgettable glimpses of '30s Brazil's seedy underworld, MADAME SATÃ was aptly described by the New York Times as "a voluptuous, hot-blooded portrait."

(2003) Color (99 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 8 at MIDNIGHT

Madame Tutli Putli

Director - Chris Lavis
Director - Maciek Szczerbowski

Appeared at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival
Filmmaker/stop-motion animators Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski present a haunting metaphysical adventure on a night train with a timid woman in red. Nominated for an Oscar® for Best Animated Short.

(2007) Color (17 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 10 10:35PM | SATURDAY NOV 28 11:40PM

Man Push Cart

Director - Ramin Bahrani

Appeared at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival
In his award-winning feature directorial debut, Ramin Bahrani presents an unforgettable character study of a typical Manhattan street vendor. Early every morning, Pakistani immigrant Ahmad (Ahmad Razvi) sets up a coffee-and-bagel pushcart in Midtown. Yet solitary and stoic Ahmad is a man with a past. His wife is dead and he is so poor, his son must live with in-laws. Back home, he was known as a pop star, but his life in New York is almost an existential parable about the futility of getting by. "Subtly resonant" — Village Voice.

(2005) Color (87 mins)

Man Shops Globe: Man Shops Globe - 105 : India

Director - Jeremy Simmons

In this episode, Johnson visits a warehouse of antiques in India where he gets excited by an old Raj-era birdcage.

(2009) Color (25 mins)

WEDNESDAY NOV 4 10PM | THURSDAY NOV 5 3:15AM | SATURDAY NOV 7 11AM | SATURDAY NOV 7 8:30PM

Man Shops Globe: Man Shops Globe - 106 : UK

Director - Jeremy Simmons

In this episode, Johnson is in the UK, where he discovers an antique baker's shelf and some unusual Union Jacks.

(2009) Color (26 mins)

WEDNESDAY NOV 11 10PM | THURSDAY NOV 12 2:15AM | SATURDAY NOV 14 11AM | SATURDAY NOV 14 8:30PM

Man Shops Globe: Man Shops Globe - 107 : Tunisia

Director - Jeremy Simmons

In this episode, Johnson jets to Tunisia where he visits artisans, glass blowers and weavers of prayer mats.

(2009) Color (26 mins)

WEDNESDAY NOV 18 10PM | THURSDAY NOV 19 3:05AM | SATURDAY NOV 21 11AM | SATURDAY NOV 21 8:30PM | SUNDAY NOV 22 5:55AM

Man Shops Globe: Man Shops Globe - 108 : Argentina

Director - Jeremy Simmons

On a working vacation in Argentina, Johnson searches for ceramics and iron garden chairs and visits an eccentric sculptor.

(2009) Color (25 mins)

WEDNESDAY NOV 25 10PM | THURSDAY NOV 26 2AM | SATURDAY NOV 28 11AM | SATURDAY NOV 28 8:30PM

Man Who Fell To Earth, The

Director - Nicolas Roeg

Nicholas Roeg (Walkabout; Don't Look Now), who famously made his directorial debut with the gender-bending enigma Performance featuring Mick Jagger in his first dramatic screen role, called upon another major British rock star --David Bowie --for his fourth feature, a kaleidoscopic and experimental sci-fi fable. Bowie plays Thomas Newton, a visitor from a drought-stricken planet who infiltrates American society and business while searching for a solution to his home planet's crisis. "A vast, ambitious, complex conception" -- Roger Ebert .

(1976) Color (139 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 10 11PM

Manda Bala

Director - Jason Kohn

Appeared at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
Winner of a Grand Jury Prize and a Cinematography Award at Sundance, Jason Kohn's disturbing and provocative free-form documentary looks at life in contemporary Brazil and finds a Darwinian struggle between the rich and poor, the powerful and the weak. From the wealthy of São Paolo, who commute by helicopter and have microchips implanted to prevent kidnappings, to the amphibious inhabitants of an overpopulated frog farm whose top croakers cannibalize the weak, Kohn's cameras capture unforgettable images of violence, madness and corruption.

(2007) Color (85 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 8 6:15AM | SUNDAY NOV 8 2PM

Live From Abbey Road - Season 2: Mary J. Blige, Dashboard Confessional & James Blunt

Director - AJ Jankel

This episode from the second season features Mary J. Blige, Dashboard Confessional, and James Blunt.

(2008) Color (51 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 6 11PM | SATURDAY NOV 7 4:15AM | SATURDAY NOV 7 11:30AM | MONDAY NOV 9 9:45AM

Metroland

Director - Philip Saville

Christian Bale and Emily Watson costar in an adaptation of an early Julian Barnes novel. In the late 1970s, Chris (Bale), a successful London commercial photographer, lives a bourgeois suburban existence with his wife (Watson) and daughter. A decade earlier, he and his best friend Toni (Lee Ross) were self-styled bohemians in Paris. Now, upon reuniting with Toni, Chris begins to fear he has sold out, prompting him to remember a time when everything seemed suffused with passion. Also featuring Elsa Zylberstein. Philip Saville directs.

(1997) Color (101 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 8 7:15PM | SATURDAY NOV 28 6:45PM

The Monastery: Mr. Vig & the Nun

Director - Pernille Rose Grønkjær

Appeared at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
Documentary filmmaker Pernille Rose Grønkjær tells the delightful story of a crumbling castle deep in the Danish marshlands and its owner, Jørgen Laursen Vig, an 82-year-old hermit who wants to give it to the Russian Orthodox Church to use as a monastery. In response, Sister Anbrosija, a headstrong control freak, arrives from Moscow to determine whether the dilapidated fortress has potential, and soon Mr. Vig and the nun are butting heads. Salon described this small gem as an "oddly graceful combination of fairy tale and romantic comedy."

(2006) Color (84 mins)

MONDAY NOV 9 at NOON | MONDAY NOV 9 5PM

Monster

Director - Patty Jenkins

Playing Aileen Wuornos, dubbed "America's first female serial killer," Oscar®-winner Charlize Theron embodies the woman who terrorized Florida and was eventually executed in 2002. Rather than portray her as a victim, Theron and filmmaker Patty Jenkins (making her feature directorial debut) probe Wuornos's psychology to understand why a woman murders seven strangers. Christina Ricci costars as Wuornos's lover, who later provided evidence against her. Theron gives "one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema" - Roger Ebert.

(2004) Color (109 mins)

THURSDAY NOV 5 9:15PM | FRIDAY NOV 6 4AM | WEDNESDAY NOV 18 8PM | SUNDAY NOV 29 1:45AM

The Mozart of Pickpockets

Director - Philippe Pollet-Villard

Philippe Pollet-Villard's winner of the 2008 Oscar® for best Live Action Short Film tells the tale of two hapless middle-aged partners in crime (Pollet-Villard and Richard Morgiève) who join forces with a natural criminal genius (Matteo Razzouki-Safardi).

(2006) Color (31 mins)

My Winnipeg

Director - Guy Maddin

Winnipeg native Guy Maddin presents a hallucinatory autobiography -- part myth, part fabulation, and a tiny part historic truth -- infused with the unique sensibility of one of the world's most original filmmakers. Maddin's Winnipeg is a city with an epidemic of sleepwalkers, where a law prohibits throwing away old signs, and the homeless dwell on rooftops. And as this is very much a personal reverie, Maddin includes bizarre recreated moments from his childhood, in which actress Ann Savage plays his mother. "A delirious fever dream" -- McLean's.

(2007) Color and B&W (82 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 6 2:30AM | TUESDAY NOV 24 1:35AM

Noise (2007)

Director - Matthew Saville

Appeared at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
Innovative sound design and a refreshingly revealing perspective on police work and the psychological scars of violent crime distinguish this award-winning thriller, the feature-length directorial debut of Australia's Matthew Saville. The diverted career path of a young police constable (Brendan Cowell) suffering from tinnitus and blackouts collides with the investigation of a disturbing murder, which has filled a shocked suburban Melbourne town with guilt and suspicion. "Jaw-droppingly tense...a film of quiet exhilaration" - Empire.

(2007) Color (108 mins)

One Last Thing

Director - Alex Steyermark

With sensitivity and attention to character, director Alex Steyermark (PREY FOR ROCK & ROLL) and writer Barry Stringfellow present an unconventional bittersweet comedy about life, death, fame and teen hormones. Dylan (Michael Angarano), 16 and dying of cancer, startles a charitable organization by announcing his dream wish is for a weekend with supermodel Nikki Sinclair (Sunny Mabrey), a sour, self-destructive alcoholic in need of some good press. Cynthia Nixon costars. "Unusually well observed and directed" -- San Francisco Chronicle.

(2005) Color (96 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 13 9:15PM

Our City Dreams

Director - Chiara Clemente

New York City has long been the inspiration and home for artists from around the world. This intimate and "exquisitely crafted" Variety documentary by Chiara Clemente profiles five contemporary superstar woman artists --Marina Abramovic, Ghada Amer, Kiki Smith, Nancy Spero and Swoon --who left homes in Cairo, Germany, Yugoslavia, Florida and Paris to live and work in America's art capital. Here they found the freedom and inspiration to create work addressing concerns like sexual identity, gender, culture and spirituality.

(2007) Color (0 mins)

MONDAY NOV 23 6:30PM | TUESDAY NOV 24 6AM | TUESDAY NOV 24 12:45PM

Paper Covers Rock

Director - Joe Maggio

Writer-director Joe Maggio (Virgil Bliss) and actor Jeannine Kaspar create an insightful, insular portrait of a single mother who loses custody of her six-year-old child after depression prompts a suicide attempt. Released from psychiatric care, Sam (Kaspar) moves in with her rigid older sister Ed (Sayra Player). However this arrangement may not be the healthiest for either sibling. Subtle, well-observed and "quietly involving" (Variety), this is the first in a planned ten-film series inspired in part by Krystof Kieslowski's "Decalogue".

(2008) Color (91 mins)

THURSDAY NOV 19 8:20PM | FRIDAY NOV 20 8AM | FRIDAY NOV 20 2:15PM | SATURDAY NOV 28 8:25AM | SATURDAY NOV 28 1:45PM

Live From Abbey Road - Season 1: Paul Simon, Corinne Bailey Rae & Primal Scream

Director - AJ Jankel

This episode features Paul Simon, Corinne Bailey Rae and Primal Scream.

(2007) Color (53 mins)

MONDAY NOV 16 8PM | FRIDAY NOV 20 11PM | SATURDAY NOV 21 3:15AM | SATURDAY NOV 21 11:30AM | SUNDAY NOV 22 2PM

Pierrepoint

Director - Adrian Shergold

Timothy Spall (SECRETS AND LIES) stars in the true story of Albert Pierrepoint, a fairly mundane English grocery deliveryman with a most unusual, secret second profession: between 1933 and 1955 he performed 608 hangings, including overseeing the execution of many Nazi war criminals. Adrian Shergold's unsettling film focuses on Pierrepoint as a portrait of an efficient and dutiful workman, who prides himself in his speed and the humane aspect of each execution. Juliet Stevenson (TRULY MADLY DEEPLY) costars as Pierrepoint's prim wife.

(2005) Color (90 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 17 1:35AM

The Planet

Director - Michael Stenberg
Director - Linus Torell
Director - Johan Soderberg

Filmmakers Michael Stenberg, Linus Torell and Johan Soderberg spent two years and visited more than 25 countries to produce this investigation into the precarious state of our home planet. Extraordinary visuals and commentary from leading environmental experts, scientists, and psychologists - including Jared Diamond and George Monbiot - capture in images and eyewitness testimony indelible accounts proving how recent human actions have resulted in alarming global change. The most extensive documentary project ever produced in Scandinavia.

(2006) Color (82 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 1 11AM

Spectacle: The Police

Director - Dave Russell

Fresh off the concert trail together, Elvis and The Police team up for an action-packed hour that includes individual interviews with Sting, Andy and Stewart, as well as a raucous group session. It all provides a rare glimpse into the combustible chemistry that made The Police the biggest band in the world in the 1980s. In addition to the illuminating talk, there's plenty of amazing music: Sting illustrates the original incarnation of "Roxanne", the song which put The Police on the map; Sting and Elvis harmonize together on an Elvis gem; Andy and Elvis team up for a bit of jazz; and, for the finale, Elvis and his band, The Imposters, join forces with The Police for an unprecedented "mash-up" of a Costello classic and a Police essential, as well as a surprising cover of a time-tested hard rock anthem.

(2008) Color (60 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 8 9PM | SUNDAY NOV 29 7PM

Premonition

Director - Norio Tsuruta

Moments before his young daughter is killed in an auto accident, a professor (Hiroshi Mikami) stumbles across her obituary in a strange newspaper. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the professor begins experiencing unsettling premonitions, while his now-ex wife (Noriko Sakai) researches other occurrences involving the "newspaper of death."

(2004) Color (95 mins)

MONDAY NOV 2 at MIDNIGHT | TUESDAY NOV 10 1AM

Punishment Park

Director - Peter Watkins

Seldom seen during the Nixon administration when it was made, this now prescient faux-documentary from maverick filmmaker Peter Watkins (THE WAR GAME) presents a troubling portrait of a future America where dissenters and political troublemakers are tried by secret tribunals. Given a choice between a lengthy prison term or three days in "Punishment Park," the condemned choose the latter as Watkins's camera crew follows their ordeal. "Might be the most radioactive portrait of American divisiveness and oppression ever made" — Village Voice.

(1971) Color (87 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 22 12:15AM | SUNDAY NOV 22 4:25AM

Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands

Director - Nicolas Winding Refn

Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn returns to the gritty crime-infested streets of contemporary Copenhagen with this follow-up to his 1996 thriller PUSHER. Here the focus is on a supporting character in the earlier film, Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen) a dim yet tragically sympathetic skinhead. When Tonny is released from prison, he learns that he is the father of a baby boy. He also fosters hope of repairing his relationship with his tough gang-leader father. "A very smart, engrossing ... intelligent piece of film-making" - Guardian.

(2004) Color (100 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 29 at MIDNIGHT

Live From Abbey Road - Season 2: Rascal Flatts, Kate Nash & Herbie Hancock

Director - AJ Jankel

This episode from the second season features Rascal Flatts, Kate Nash, and Herbie Hancock.

(2008) Color (51 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 13 11PM | SATURDAY NOV 14 4:05AM | SATURDAY NOV 14 11:30AM

Requiem for Billy the Kid

Director - Anne Feinsilber

With allusions to Rimbaud and Verlaine, filmmaker Anne Feinsilber presents an original French take on an enduring tale of the American West. For decades theories have posited that Billy the Kid's grave does not contain the body of the notorious outlaw. Mixing Western history, vintage photos, accounts of a sheriff's recent efforts to exhume the body of Billy's mother and film clips from The Left Handed Gun and Pat Garret and Billy the Kid, Feinsilber's film reexamines the legend after more than 125 years of mythmaking.

(2007) Color (90 mins)

MONDAY NOV 2 7:30PM

Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Food, Death ...& Insects

Director - John Edginton

Celebrated for his wry, darkly comic, twisted rock songs, British singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock is profiled in this Sundance Channel original documentary, directed by John Edginton. Hitchcock and the band Venus 3 — featuring REM veterans Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and Bill Rieflin — are observed recording an album of new material at Hitchcock's London house. Later, Hitchcock is seen performing live in Hoboken, New Jersey, and Seattle. With appearances by musicians Morris Windsor, Nick Lowe, John Paul Jones and Gillian Welch.

(2007) Color (53 mins)

Room Of Death (Melody's Smile)

Director - Alfred Lot

Favorably tagged by critics as Europe's SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, writer-director Alfred Lot's unsettling crime thriller adapts a Franck Thilliez novel to tell the story of an intrepid single mother/detective (Melanie Laurent) investigating the grisly murder/kidnapping of a blind child. Compounding matters is a hit-and-run accident, a two million euro cache and a second kidnapping of a diabetic girl. Lot's striking feature directorial debut is a taut and creepy exercise in forensic horror that's not for the faint of heart or politically correct.

(2007) Color (118 mins)

THURSDAY NOV 19 10PM

Spectacle: Rufus Wainwright

Director - Dave Russell

Few new artists have made the powerful impression Rufus Wainwright has since bursting onto the music scene in the late '90s. With a singular voice, formidable songwriting skills and undeniably flamboyant stage presence - all of which are on generous display in this program - Rufus holds nothing back, demonstrating his musical chops at the piano and discussing freely his passion for music, his complicated family dynamics and his status as an icon of the gay community. His mother, the Canadian folk legend Kate McGarrigle, even turns up to join in on an unexpected performance, and Elvis covers a song by Rufus's father, Loudon Wainwright lll.

(2008) Color (60 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 15 9PM | SUNDAY NOV 29 8PM

The Saddest Music In The World

Director - Guy Maddin

Canadian auteur Guy Maddin, whose camp and uncanny evocations of early sound cinema have made him one of the truly visionary film artists of his generation, presents a Depression-era musical melodrama set in cosmopolitan Winnipeg. Isabella Rossellini plays Lady Helen Port-Huntly, a legless beer tycoon who sponsors a contest to find the saddest music in the world in hopes that spreading a little musical weltschmertz will revive sales. Based on an original screenplay by novelist Kazuo Ishiguro. "Beguiling and hallucinatory" -- New York Times.

(2003) Color and B&W (100 mins)

Savage Grace

Director - Tom Kalin

Appeared at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival
Julianne Moore gives an "acute, captivating, and shattering" (New York Sun) performance as Barbara Baekeland, a former model whose marriage to the heir to the Bakelite plastic fortune catapulted her into international society. Barbara, known for her tart tongue and shocking behavior, and her troubled son Tony (Eddie Redmayne), came to personify decadent wealth when their story made lurid headlines in 1972. Filmmaker Tom Kalin (SWOON) and writer Howard Rodman present the engrossing saga of the Baekelands' glittering rise and gruesome fall.

(2007) Color (97 mins)

MONDAY NOV 9 3:45AM | SATURDAY NOV 14 10PM | SUNDAY NOV 15 4:15AM | THURSDAY NOV 26 12:15AM

Iconoclasts - Season 3: Sean Penn + Jon Krakauer

Director - Joe Berlinger

The third season's opening episode unites actor Sean Penn and best-selling author Jon Krakauer (Into Thin Air; Under the Banner of Heaven). Penn recently adapted and directed a film starring Emile Hirsch based on Krakauer's Into the Wild, the true story of a young man who disappeared in the Alaskan wilderness.

(2007) Color (60 mins)

SATURDAY NOV 28 9PM | SUNDAY NOV 29 1PM

Seeing Other People

Director - Wally Wolodarsky

On the verge of her wedding, Alice (Julianne Nicholson) wonders if she is ready for a lifetime of faithful monogamy. Hoping that overcoming her sexual inexperience will resolve any pre-nuptial jitters, Alice proposes to Ed (Jay Mohr), her fiancee, that they "see other people" before their union. Alas, a little fooling around doesn't exactly work the wonders intended. A talented cast - including singer Liz Phair in a small role - highlights this relationship comedy from writer-director Wallace Wolodarsky and co-writer Maya Forbes.

(2004) Color (90 mins)

WEDNESDAY NOV 11 1:30AM

Shameless - 405

In this episode, jealousy motivates Monica (Annabelle Apsion) to urge Debbie (Rebecca Ryan) to find a boyfriend.

(2007) Color (48 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 13 8PM

Shameless - 406

In this episode, Frank helps out on Shane Maguire's ice cream truck, which is actually a cover for dealing drugs.

(2007) Color (47 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 20 7PM

Shameless - 407

In this episode, local explosions and missing Semtex spark suspicions that the Chatsworth housing development may be a terrorist target.

(2007) Color (44 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 20 8PM

Shameless - 408

In the feature-length season finale, Paddy Maguire (Sean Gilder) gets spooked when three of his ex-cellmates die very suspiciously.

(2007) Color (77 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 27 6:30PM

Shameless - 501

In the fifth season's opener, Frank receives some stunning news during an emergency visit to the hospital.

(2008) Color (49 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 27 8PM

The Short Life of Jose Antonio Gutierrez

Director - Heidi Specogna

Appeared at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival
José Antonio Gutiérrez was born in Guatemala and lost both his parents during his country's long, bloody civil war — a war that was covertly funded by the United States government. But it was as the first American military casualty of the Iraq War in 2003 that Gutiérrez is remembered. Documentary filmmaker Heidi Specogna traces Gutiérrez's short, eventful life and reveals a troubling story of illegal immigration, foster homes, and how the American military entices Latinos to enlist by promising them a fast track to citizenship.

(2005) Color (89 mins)

MONDAY NOV 16 at NOON | MONDAY NOV 16 4:30PM

Sleeping Betty

Director - Guido Thys

Claude Coutier's antic absurdist animated short presents the story of a narcoleptic young woman from Montreal and the surreal attempts to wake her.

(2007) Color (9 mins)

THURSDAY NOV 12 6:20PM | MONDAY NOV 16 6PM | SATURDAY NOV 28 6:55AM

The Squid And The Whale

Director - Noah Baumbach

Appeared at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival
Critical acclaim, as well as top directing and screenwriting awards at the Sundance Film Festival, came to Noah Baumbach for this acutely observed, semi-autobiographical tale about a Brooklyn family in the midst of a divorce. Sixteen-year-old Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and his younger brother (Owen Kline) find it impossible not to take sides when their parents (Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney) -- writers who duel with words -- undergo a messy split. A wise, witty and honest consideration of familial disappointment and forgiveness that never flinches.

(2005) Color (81 mins)

THURSDAY NOV 12 6:35PM | THURSDAY NOV 26 10PM

Starting Out in the Evening

Director - Andrew Wagner

Appeared at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
Frank Langella plays Leonard Schiller, a New York novelist whose work has fallen into obscurity, in Andrew Wagner's well-received drama. Schiller has been diligently toiling on his fifth book for a decade when his life is changed unexpectedly by the appearance of Heather Wolfe (Lauren Ambrose), an ambitious graduate student interested in his work. Wagner's intelligent adaptation of Brian Morton's novel features vivid, self-aware characters and was praised by Salon as "both intimate and immediate." Costarring Lili Taylor and Adrian Lester

(2007) Color (110 mins)

SATURDAY NOV 7 10PM | SUNDAY NOV 8 4:15AM | FRIDAY NOV 13 12:30AM | WEDNESDAY NOV 18 12:45AM

Strange Culture

Director - Lynn Hershman-Leeson

Appeared at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
What does it take to fall under suspicion as a terrorist in contemporary America? Experimental filmmaker and artist Lynn Hershman Leeson (CONCEIVING ADA) tells the disturbing Kafkaesque story of Steve Kurtz, a conceptual artist/college professor who was suspected of bioterrorism after FBI agents found harmless microbes in his house. Breaking from documentary convention, Hershman Leeson uses comic strips and actors (Tilda Swinton, Thomas Jay Ryan and Peter Coyote) to tell the tale. "A scary testament to the power of fear" -- Seattle Times.

(2007) Color (75 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 3 9PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 4 4AM | SUNDAY NOV 8 11AM

Suddenly Last Winter

Director - Gustav Hofer
Director - Luca Ragazzi

Offering an alternative look at an issue that has dominated recent culture wars in America, Italian filmmakers Gustav Hofer and Luca Ragazzi explore attitudes and reactions about gay marriage in their home country. When Italy's center-left government attempted to pass legislation allowing civil partnership between cohabiting couples, Hofer and Ragazzi discovered more national resistance and hatred than they had expected. Witty, genial and revealing, SUDDENLY LAST WINTER features astounding footage of memorably inane on-the-street interviews.

(2007) Color (79 mins)

MONDAY NOV 9 1:30PM | MONDAY NOV 9 6:30PM

Ten More Good Years

Director - Michael Jacoby

During the 1960s, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community openly fought for their civil rights. Now, as that generation grows older, many are confronting discrimination from the government, social services and their communities. Documentarian Michael Jacoby looks at being gay and gray in America with revealing profiles of out, proud and active senior citizens, including photographer and filmmaker James Bidgood, performance artist Harry Bartron, Stonewall uprising witness Miss Major and lesbian activist Ivy Bottini.

(2007) Color (80 mins)

MONDAY NOV 23 10:15AM | MONDAY NOV 23 3PM

The Thing About My Folks

Director - Raymond De Felitta

Paul Reiser (Mad About You) wrote and costars with Peter Falk, Olympia Dukakis and Elizabeth Perkins in this touching family comedy directed by Raymond De Felitta. Ben (Reiser) receives an unexpected visit from his elderly father, Sam (Falk), who arrives bearing a note revealing that Muriel (Dukakis), Sam's wife of 47 years, has walked out on him. To divert his grief, Ben invites his crotchety father on a journey to look at prospective real estate, a diversion that soon becomes an extended road trip in a vintage 1940 Ford coupe.

(2005) Color (98 mins)

THURSDAY NOV 5 at MIDNIGHT | THURSDAY NOV 5 at MIDNIGHT | WEDNESDAY NOV 11 at MIDNIGHT | WEDNESDAY NOV 11 at MIDNIGHT

Together

Director - Lukas Moodysson

Appeared at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival
Deftly melding satirical wit and a generous understanding of human nature, Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson (SHOW ME LOVE) presents a sly, good-natured flashback to a mid-'70s Stockholm commune. Overseen by idealistic Goran (Gustaf Hammarsten), the Tillsammans commune promotes free love and a home-grown veggie diet, while censuring bourgeois influences like TV and Pippi Longstocking. However, it's difficult to keep the real world - and real emotions - at bay when Goran's sister and two kids seek refuge. "Beautifully made ... resonant" - Salon.

(2000) Color (106 mins)

MONDAY NOV 9 11PM | TUESDAY NOV 10 4:25AM | MONDAY NOV 23 4:15AM

Spectacle: Tony Bennett

Director - Dave Russell

Now in his ninth decade, the irrepressible Tony Bennett is not only the steward of the Great American Songbook, but one of the last living connections to it. In this seductive and utterly charming hour, Tony and Elvis discuss with warmth and affection many of the great songs and the colourful people responsible for them. Accompanied by (in TB's estimation) "the finest jazz pianist today", Bill Charlap, Tony sings (beautifully) several classics, and pulls a very special surprise guest from the audience for a spontaneous and irresistible duet.

(2008) Color (60 mins)

SUNDAY NOV 1 9PM | SUNDAY NOV 29 6PM

U-CARMEN eKHAYELITSHA

Director - Mark Dornford-May

Winner of the top award at the Berlin Film Festival, director Mark Dornford-May's audacious and passionate adaptation of Georges Bizet's popular 1875 opera CARMEN moves it to a present-day shantytown near Cape Town, South Africa, and a world of speedboats, cellphones and condoms. Pauline Malefane, who gives a smoldering and electrifying performance in the title role, also assisted in translating the libretto into the click language Xhosa. Full of light, life and color, this is a CARMEN that the New York Times said "dazzles in the memory."

(2005) Color (127 mins)

Eco Documentaries - Season 2: The Unforeseen

Director - Laura Dunn

Appeared at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
Narrowing her focus to one spot on the planet - Austin, Texas, and a local community reservoir - documentary filmmaker Laura Dunn presents an engrossing and resonant story about the environmental consequences of real estate development and sprawl. In a "gripping narrative of political resistance" (Film Comment), THE UNFORESEEN delivers an engrossing account of one community's struggle to preserve a portion of the vanishing American landscape. This unusually poetic and lyrical documentary won a Truer than Fiction Independent Spirit Award.

(2007) Color (93 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 10 9PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 11 4AM | SUNDAY NOV 15 11AM | SUNDAY NOV 15 6PM | MONDAY NOV 16 4:30AM

Volver

Director - Pedro Almodovar

Best Actress Oscar® nominee Penelope Cruz stars in a playful and wise melodrama about female endurance from Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar. Earthy Raimunda (Cruz) and her eccentric extended family - which includes a sister (Lola Duenas) and their mother's ghost (Carmen Maura) - are no strangers to profound misfortune. Yet whatever the fates bring down - and quite often it's torrential - Almodovar's women struggle to survive with humor, spirited courage and elan. "Full of surprises and reversals ... the work of a master" - New York Times.

(2006) Color (121 mins)

FRIDAY NOV 6 9PM | SATURDAY NOV 7 12:30PM | TUESDAY NOV 24 5:50PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 25 4:20AM | WEDNESDAY NOV 25 12:35PM

Waiting For Hockney

Director - Julie Checkoway

In her documentary debut, Julie Checkoway presents an unforgettable profile of an American original: Billy Pappas, a Baltimore artist who spent nearly a decade painstakingly creating a single pencil drawing. He hopes this single work will redefine realism and serve to establish his artistic career. Now Pappas longs to show it to painter David Hockney and gain his blessing. This "involving, touching, revealing, human, and utterly wonderful film" (The Independent) subtly raises pertinent questions about class, ambition and definitions of art.

(2008) Color (78 mins)

MONDAY NOV 23 9PM | TUESDAY NOV 24 3AM | TUESDAY NOV 24 7:30AM

Water Lilies

Director - Celine Sciamma

With her debut feature, French filmmaker Céline Sciamma presents an affecting and sophisticated portrait of adolescence. Marie (Pauline Acquart), Anne (Louise Blachère) and Floriane (Adèle Haenel) are part of a synchronized swimming team. Floriane is the star, the team captain and a boy magnet. Entranced with her beauty and charisma is Marie, a shy, reedy and awkward teen who pals with gawky Anne, who in turn pines for resident hunk François (Warren Jacquin), Flo's beau. "A remarkably realistic rendering of teen culture" - Salon.

(2007) Color (85 mins)

THURSDAY NOV 5 3:45AM | MONDAY NOV 16 10:35PM | TUESDAY NOV 17 3:15AM

Eco Documentaries - Season 2: Wetlands Preserved

Director - Dean Budnick

From 1989 to 2001, Wetlands Preserve in Tribeca was one of New York's most celebrated rock clubs, where it famously fused cutting-edge music with environmental activism. It's now credited with giving birth to the modern jam-band scene and launching the careers of Dave Matthews, Blues Traveler and Phish. Relix Magazine editor and filmmaker Dean Budnick chronicles the environmentally friendly club's legend with rare vintage concert footage and accounts from the club's former owners, rock critics, musicians and club regulars.

(2007) Color (93 mins)

SATURDAY NOV 21 at MIDNIGHT | SATURDAY NOV 21 8:15AM

White Night Wedding

Director - Baltasar Kormakur

Iceland's Baltasar Kormakur (THE SEA) invites you to the north-coast island wedding of Jón (Hilmir Snær Guðnason), a middle-aged professor, and his former student Thora (Laufey Eliasdottir). Alas, not everyone thinks the impending nuptials are a good idea -- including Jón, who is still struggling with the recent death of his manic-depressive first wife. Comic antics and bittersweet truths await all who attend, along with much drinking, emotional fireworks and an unforgettable outdoor feast under the midnight sun. Adapted from Anton Chekov's "Ivanov".

(2008) Color (98 mins)

WEDNESDAY NOV 25 10:30PM

Who Needs Sleep?

Director - Haskell Wexler

Appeared at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival
Behind its glamorous reputation, the American movie business often functions under near-sweatshop-like conditions. Fifteen- to 18-hour days are not unusual and such grinding labor practices take a toll on employees' health and their families. Oscar-winning filmmaker, cinematographer and social activist Haskell Wexler joins co-director Lisa Leeman in observing films in production, and interviewing luminaries such as Paul Newman, Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Annette Bening, Billy Crystal, Sam Mendes and John Sayles, to make a case for reform.

(2005) Color (78 mins)

MONDAY NOV 2 11:35AM | MONDAY NOV 2 2:45PM

A Woman Under the Influence

Director - John Cassavetes

Gena Rowlands gives "One of the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time" (Premiere) in John Cassavetes's sympathetic portrait of a rootless, insecure housewife. Mabel Longhetti (Rowlands) desperately wants to please her gregarious husband (Peter Falk) and kids. But behind her smile and little-girl mannerisms, despair and manic behavior are beginning to surface. Oscar nominations for Best Actress (Rowlands) and Best Director (Cassavetes). "Perhaps the greatest [film by] ... the most important of the American independent filmmakers" - Roger Ebert.

(1974) Color (147 mins)

Wondrous Oblivion

Director - Paul Morrison

It's 1960, and in East London David Wiseman (Sam Smith), the 11-year-old son of a Jewish tailor, is obsessed with cricket. Alas, David's skill doesn't equal his passion. When a Jamaican family moves in next door, the neighbors are concerned; meanwhile, David notices the cricket net in the garden. Soon he is not only receiving lessons from the patriarch (Delroy Lindo) but also befriending his cute daughter (Leonie Elliott). The San Francisco Chronicle praised Paul Morrison's story about difference and tolerance as "a gentle fable, full of wit and charm."

(2003) Color (106 mins)

The World According To Monsanto

Director - Marie-Monique Robin

French journalist and filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin examines the dark and troubling influence of American chemical and biotech giant Monsanto. Her incendiary film documents a corporate legacy of greed, death, poverty and illness --from the creation (and subsequent cover-up) of Agent Orange and the spread of PCBs to Bovine Growth Hormone and patents on genetically modified seeds. In parallel with her charges, Robin also charts Monsanto's political influence and its unsettling relationship with the Food and Drug Administration.

(2008) Color (109 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 24 9PM | WEDNESDAY NOV 25 2:15AM | WEDNESDAY NOV 25 7:25AM | SUNDAY NOV 29 11AM

Worlds Apart

Director - Niels Arden Oplev

Denmark's entry for the 2008 Oscars was filmmaker Niels Arden Oplev's notably nuanced story of a teenage Jehovah's Witness (Rosalinde Spanning) who falls in love with an unbeliever. When church elders learn of 17-year-old Sara's romance and insist that she recount intimate details, they force her to choose between Teis (Pilou Asbaek) and isolation from her family and community. Based on a true story, WORLDS APART's evenhanded, documentary-like approach to fundamentalist belief and structures allows for rare viewer empathy and understanding.

(2008) Color (116 mins)

WEDNESDAY NOV 18 10:30PM | THURSDAY NOV 19 5:05AM | THURSDAY NOV 19 12:45PM

You're Gonna Miss Me

Director - Keven McAlester

In the mid-1960s, Roky Erickson was frontman for the cult rock band 13th Floor Elevators. He was renowned for his distinctive voice - often cited as an influence on Janis Joplin - and as a pioneer of "psychedelic rock." However, within a few years, schizophrenia, a drug arrest, time in an asylum for the criminally insane and electric shock treatments had changed his life. Documentary filmmaker Keven McAlester follows Erickson's long journey in a moving story of pain, healing, family co-dependency, survival and new beginnings.

(2005) Color (92 mins)

SATURDAY NOV 14 at MIDNIGHT | SATURDAY NOV 14 8:25AM

Young Yakuza

Director - Jean-Pierre Limosin

Granted unprecedented access to Japan's secretive underworld, French documentary filmmaker Jean-Pierre Limosin observes the apprenticeship of Naoki, a troubled 20-year-old delinquent, as he begins a 12-month trial with Tokyo's Kumagai clan. Naoki's mother hopes the experience will build character and discipline. Limosin follows Naoki, who is assigned duties like preparing the crime boss's tea and manning a nightclub security detail, until Naoki's irresponsible behavior eventually threatens the future of Limosin's film.

(2007) Color (99 mins)

MONDAY NOV 16 10:30AM | MONDAY NOV 16 3PM

The Youngest Candidate

Director - Jason Pollock

While few are aware of it, in many parts of the country public office is open to Americans not old enough to drink or rent a car. Jason Pollock, a former assistant to filmmaker Michael Moore, presents an inspiring feature-length documentary following the stories of four idealistic young people age 18 to 20 who are running for mayor, city council or school board in cities ranging from Hartford to Memphis. Even as some question the candidates' emotional readiness, Pollock's film leaves no doubt regarding their passion, commitment and courage.

(2008) Color (90 mins)

TUESDAY NOV 3 at MIDNIGHT | TUESDAY NOV 3 at MIDNIGHT | TUESDAY NOV 3 at MIDNIGHT