Afghanistan is not the kind of place one would expect to witness happiness, especially in the eyes of children who cannot truly comprehend concepts like war and hatred. All they see are their homes…
2003
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Afghanistan is not the kind of place one would expect to witness happiness, especially in the eyes of children who cannot truly comprehend concepts like war and hatred. All they see are their homes demolished daily, their families torn from them, and their own bodies ravaged by pain, fatigue, and hunger. Twenty-one clown doctors from around the world embark on a mission to carry cheerfulness and perhaps distraction to children injured in a country devastated by war.
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World Premiere - Can a "20-year-old movie about a failed relationship" be someone's guide through life? It can if you're Max, a college student obsessed with Woody Allen's Annie Hall to the point of sabotaging his own dates if necessary. Sharing his time between a radio show to which nobody listens and hanging out with his romance-challenged colleagues, Max seems bound for bachelorhood. That is, until he meets beautiful Julie, who is nothing less than his favorite film in the flesh. Will he be able to reach out to her, or will he be trapped forever by his own neurosis?
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Black, gay, and a former Communist. Three strikes and you're out in 1950's America. Yet still Bayard Rustin, arguably the most underrated voice in the American civil rights movement, overcame the odds to become one of history's most influential figures. During the Montgomery bus boycott, Rustin met Martin Luther King and became a staunch advocate of Gandhi's non-violent protest philosophy. Rustin was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, and fired for his unwillingness to deny his beliefs.
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US Premiere - A joint product of Canada and Yugoslavia, with a screenplay by acclaimed novelist Svetislav Basara, Dragan Marinkovic's Boomerang manages to combine fast-paced action with literate dialogue, dark comedy with political allegory, and chaos with peace. For a group of likeable lowlifes in post-war Serbia, Boomerang isn't just the name of their favorite cafe; it's a way of life. A teenage girl falls in love with a mobster in a movie theatre. He wants to marry her, unaware that his partners are chasing her and their stolen drugs.
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San Jose director Sung H. Kim artfully uses Bay Area locations to take us into the lives of three Asian/Pacific-American childhood friends at a time when they are each struggling with their separate identities and what, if anything, they wish to achieve with their lives. Blue is an Asian-American twenty-something coasting along in life: a bike messenger in San Francisco by day and working the counter at a cafe at night. His roommates and best friends are Michael, a Silicon Valley type yuppie, and Bounce, a professional student who is happy just to be stoned 24 hours a day.
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World Premiere - Following in the inspiring tradition of Norma Rae and Erin Brockovich, Sonia Valentâ??n's Bitter Sweat gives viewers a vivid look at simple people fighting against overwhelming odds for better working conditions. Set in a Puerto Rican fish-cleaning factory, the film focuses on a group of female workers struggling to hold onto their jobs as massive layoffs and heated protests swirl around them. The volatile atmosphere culminates when their boss is found murdered one morning-quickly turning the story into a clever "whodunit" that Agatha Christie would drool over.
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World Premiere - Maija Di Giorgio was a comedian on the verge of big time success. Then one night in front of executives from HBO, she inexplicably cracked, shouting obscenities at the audience and walking off stage. Thus, her career as a stand-up was finished. So, Maija sets out on a two-year quest to find out what went wrong and to try to resurrect her dreams of making people laugh.
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World Premiere - Bret Packard is an American hero. He's rich, famous, and the best baseball player in the world. But Bret is bored. With nothing left in baseball to conquer, Bret has decided to play a new game in which only he will come out the winner. Bret's best friend on the team is Tod, who fears a young pitcher, Ricky, is being groomed to replace him. Bret offers Tod a deal-if Tod hits more batters than Ricky, Bret will insure that Ricky is traded.
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World Premiere - What does a filmmaker from L.A. do when she's invited to her mother's tenth year memorial service in Athens, Greece? With this question in mind, director Angeliki Giannakopoulos sets out, camera in hand, on a heartfelt, intensely moving quest to discover the history of her family and her homeland of Athens, where her mother's memorial ceremony was to take place.
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In 25 Kids and One Dad, Huang Hong's directorial debut is a warm, touching comedy reminiscent of Zhang Yimou's latest films (Not One Less, Happy Times). It gives the viewer a sharp look at working-class conditions of rural China without sacrificing the delicate balance of comedy.
