United States
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Let me give you the recipe for one very strange -- and potentially volatile -- cocktail. Take a group of black high school students from Brooklyn's notorious Bed-Stuy section. Drop them on an Israeli kibbutz for ten weeks. Mix vigorously. Serve. It's easy to wonder: why Israel and not, say, Africa? The answer seems fairly simple to the person behind this rather novel idea -- the students' teacher, Stewart Bialer, himself a Jew. Why not? Things get off to a rocky start. Misconceptions abound on all sides. The Bed-Stuy kids expect the kibbutz to be made up of mud huts with straw floors.
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Fans of horror films will love The Bitch is Back, Tjebbo Penning's satirical homage to the genre. Using all the clich?s and style elements we have come to expect of these films, the filmmaker pokes reverent fun at films of the genre. --Matthew Aquino
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Ted Crittenden's kinetic Banzai Boys is a high-energy action film which uses a variety of innovative filmmaking techniques including live action, miniatures, and photo animation. --Matthew Aquino
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Jonathan O'Beirne's hilarious faux documentary Bananas in Bedlam follows once-famous children's book characters whose careers have fallen by the wayside. --Matthew Aquino
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4 Tokens II, a short dance film by Mart Dominicus, beautifully conveys the themes of our series through the art and magnificence of dance.
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"To be or not to be" takes on a new and dizzy meaning in this delightful tale of existential angst and mistaken identity. Sam Bennet may be a two-bit Shakespearean actor, but he at least respects the Bard's words; more than can be said for the hack who is truly masquerading as the doomed Prince of Denmark. Distraught over his non-existent thespian career, Sam trashes his apartment in order to start anew. In a failed attempt to symbolically bury his past by sinking his grandfather clock in San Francisco Bay, Sam is conked on the head and loses his memory.
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Another delightful gem from Canada. In Tokyo, dreamy young fast-food worker No Ogawa is fired when the manager catches him splattering the customers' burgers all over the floor while practicing his cowboy fantasy quick-draw with his spatula. Freed at last to fulfill what he believes to be his ultimate destiny--becoming a cowboy--No sets out for the wide open spaces of the Canadian west where boyhood penpal Kate now lives. Arriving unannounced, No unintentionally sets in motion numerous events that turn the conservative little town upside down.
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Fasten your seat belts! This wildly rich interpretation of the classic Odysseus journey would most likely restore Homer's sight and have Joseph Campbell jumping for joy. Set in the teeming underworld of Grunge sub-culture Seattle, TWG follows the heroic voyage of small-time drug dealer Toast as he struggles to make his way back home to rescue his lover Penelope, a stripper who has been abducted by a murderous band of hired killers.
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German film is not noted for its comedies but they exist! An excellent new example is Talk of the Town about life in the nineties among the thirtysomethings. Monika (Katja Riemann) is a no holds barred morning talk show host who dispenses advice to callers on their mostly sexual dilemmas and dysfunctions during the morning rush hour. She has troubles of her own however, including falling ratings, an anxious demanding boss, and, like the shoemaker's child without shoes, she has no significant other and no current prospects. Her mother wants grandchildren.
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You don't like the color of today's sunset? We can fix that! You don't like the shape of your nose? We can fix that! How about the way your mind works? We can fix that too! Come one! Come all! Come into the world of Synthetic Pleasures! "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Today, however, it seems that the "beholder" is no longer just observing the beauty of the world. Today, society modifies its world into its own idea of beauty.