United States
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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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Erik Jambor's Gamalost tells the story of a professor and his wife who invite his graduate assistant and her husband over for dinner. Things soon turn ugly when the invited couple is served news even more unsettling than the Norwegian cheese that is the film's title. --Matthew Aquino
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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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David Munro, creator of the Cinequest favorite Bullethead, has returned with a surreal film about the desolate emotional landscape that trauma can create. First Love, Second Planet is the dysfunctional fantasy of Crystal, who seeks love on the barren, scorched landscape of Venus, named for the goddess of sensual love. --Matthew Aquino
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Daniel Mellitz' La Femme Pickle (winner of The San Jose Visual Arts Film and Video Festival Award) is a mock-documentary about the ups and downs of a student film shoot. In the wake of Living in Oblivion, this film casts a refreshing and witty light on the process of shooting a low-budget film. --Hayet Ennabli
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En Gard? Monsieur, by Didier Fontan, is a swashbuckling comedy where a fender-bender escalates into a duel to the death. --Matthew Aquino
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Michael Clancy's Emily's Last Date chronicles Emily's last ditch effort to find a vaguely human male with whom to have a relationship. --Matthew Aquino
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If you've grown bored with Gen-X filmmakers imitating the violent hipness and Seventies supercoolness of Quentin Tarantino, then you'll appreciate the oddball territory staked out by The Delicate Art of the Rifle. The tenuous plot of this satiric thriller serves as an effective coat rack upon which the filmmakers artfully hang their paranoid conspiracy theories about history and genealogy, economics, real and virtual violence, education, the dangers of philosophy, and much more.
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Stephen Brown's The Curious is a macabre tale in which a composer's world is thrown off-balance by his sinister neighbor, optician David Suchet (Hercule Poirot). --Matthew Aquino
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Ram Prasad Devinevi's Colors of the Sun is the story of a five-year-old boy who gets separated from his grandmother in a busy street market in Madras, India. Thanks to some very eccentric and original characters, he finds his way back home safely. --Hayet Ennabli