Feature
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It's the hottest day of the century, and no one in Chong-Hee's apartment is in a good mood . In fact, the whole building is pretty much dealing with the heat in the best way possible. With air-conditioners turned high and refrigerators left open, frustration and anxiety hit when the building loses power. Within Chong-Hee's apartment, things take a drastic turn, however, as her husband, Song-Ku, violently beats her. Seeking refuge in the local women's club, Chong-Hee finds her neighbors are no longer going to idly stand by.
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An intellectual in every respect, Herbert Marcuse was born in Germany. Coming to America in 1966, Marcuse spent thirteen years as a professor at U.C. San Diego and became a prominent figure in the political community there. Featuring some rarely seen archival footage (such as an incident depicting Governor Ronald Reagan's pressures to retire Marcuse or the American League's attempt to expel him from the city) Paul Alexander Juutilainen's film trails a pathway to discovery as we see Marcuse's political views become the focus and often target of public scrutiny. --Mike Rabehl
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Gone, Gone, Forever Gone depicts a fascinating story of refined emotions within the heart of a country whose history has been a tumultuous ride for many generations. Director Ho Quang Minh and screenwriter Nguy Ngu tell a parable of the turbulent years between the 1940s to the 1980s through the eyes of a Buddhist convent and the three siblings whose lives have been divided and must now find reconciliation. The sister, a former imperial concubine turned Buddhist nun, witnesses the partition of Vietnam into north and south.
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Except for the period clothing of the late middle ages, this story could have been torn from the headlines coming out of Bosnia, or elsewhere in the Balkans in the past few years. It vividly shows the hatreds and cruelties between Muslims and Christians resulting from the long occupation of the area by the Turks, making it very clear why present-day attitudes exist there. A peasant farmer and his young wife and child, living in their mountain home, are attacked by a few local Turkish thugs, leaving the wife dead and their young daughter, Maria, unable to speak from shock.
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Sadie's not Georgia. Georgia is a folk-rock legend, with a pure, strong voice , "no ambition," and a contented family life on the outskirts of Seattle. Sadie is the dregs of the bottle Janis Joplin was drinking from, a raspy-throated, no-holds-barred singer whose art is all about revealing absolutely everything, with a voice that may not be able to stand up to the challenge. Through all Sadie's screw-ups, Georgia has been there. Not an easy role at either end. It tends to ennoble one half and embitter the other. Still, she takes Sadie in, of course.
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Confused about the politics of men versus women in the 90's? Help is on the way! This latest update of the battle of the sexes is focused on that time-honored staple of American male mythology, the weekly poker game. Perhaps it is the last male bastion in a society which has become unisex and sensitive (a la Alan Alda) to the political correctness imperative. Bill is the weekly host for the game, which is a late-night cut-throat affair.
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The Flying Camel is a delightful comedy following the touching, and often tenuous, friendship between three unlikely misfits. The problems between Israeli Jews and Arabs aren't so big as to keep Bauman, a Jewish professor, and Phares, an Arab garbage collector-slash-engineer, from working together on a joint project, each with their own agenda. Old Bauman lives alone in a junkyard shack, surrounded by a pitiful collection of garbage, junk, and a few architectural gems.
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A young Spaniard student, Rafael, is abruptly summoned home from his French boarding school and rudely thrust into the lethal chaos of the Spanish Civil War. Before he has even a chance to catch his breath, he finds himself in Pamplona, a lieutenant in Franco's fascist army, under the command of the chillingly bizarre Colonel Masagual (Jean-Louis Trintignant of Krysztof Kieslowski's Red). In "basic training," the young officer is pressed into a horrific service as a member of the Colonel's firing squad.
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Since the beginning of civilization, cities have always lured the rural poor to its environs with the seductive dream of a better life. More often than not, however, that dream is cruelly shattered. Nowhere is this type of tragedy more evident than in the Philippines, where countless young women are sent from poor villages into Manila to work as maids--or worse--for the well-to-do. Frightened and reluctant to leave home, young Elena is nevertheless forced by her father to become the housekeeper for a wealthy woman doctor and her husband, himself a refugee from the country.
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Three fresh-faced teens cruise aimlessly through the icy cold of a Canadian winter's night. They look innocent enough, but all is not well between Ted, Jim, and Lee Ann. Amidst their vitriolic, curse-filled exchanges, a palpable sense of sadness and self-loathing permeates the interior of the car. Bitterness from dashed young dreams and unfulfilled, immature fantasies hangs in the air like acrid smoke from a smoldering fire. While stopping briefly to buy beer, they are suddenly car-jacked by a gun-toting army vet with a seething anger of his own.