1997
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In 1932, at the height of the Depression, over 250,000 teenagers were on the road. Some left home seeking adventure. Most, though, were told--or believed--they had to leave. It was a time of great national suffering to which the young were not immune. The life of the rails: migrant work, begging at back doors and panhandling was too much to cope with for some. They returned home in hopes they would find open arms. Others found in the rails and the open road a freedom like no other. --John Porter
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Joshua Porter's The Ride features a conflict between an affluent white man and an Afro-Caribbean woman on a New York subway which yields a deceptive outcome. --Matthew Aquino
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Rendez-Vous is the flipside of the first film in our series, giving the male perspective on blind dates from hell, and you may be surprised to find that the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence. --Matthew Aquino
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Unnamed and innocent, the seven-year-old girl in Rolf de Heer's The Quiet Room represents the fear and naivet=E9 in all of us. The world seems to be falling in on this little one's life, as she watches the slow, almost agonizing, disintegration of her parents' marriage. In almost protest of their fading love, she has refused to speak to them and has withdrawn inside herself. When her parents speak to her, she does not answer, but we are privy to her innermost thoughts via the deeply personal voice over with which we are given the family's story.
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Alex Munoz was brought up in East San Jose and knows what he is talking about in Por Vida when he portrays the life of an innocent Latino youth who tries to find his roots in the persona of his missing father in Mexico. On the way, he finds love and comfort in the arms of a gold-hearted prostitute. --Hayet Ennabli
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The American Dream. We all live it. We all learn it. But very few truly have the ability to achieve it. That's one way of looking at it at least. Tony, Anton and Bob have a different viewpoint, as they enter into the big-time world of the Professional Bowlers Tour to compete against the greatest in the world and achieve their claim to immortality. But how does one survive a four month, 8,000 mile "coast-to-coast marathon" of cheap motels, cockroach-ridden diners, bad-hair days and the backstreet bowling alleys of Middle America? Persistence.
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Francine Mc Dougall's two-minute short Pig shows that big comedy can come in small packages when two people meet on the road. --Matthew Aquino
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When he was in the sixth grade, Steven Bognar discovered the ultimate history report: his father's experiences in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Personal Belongings is the culmination of his research, an hour-long examination of the Hungarian Revolution's effect not only on his father but on his mother and the rest of their family. Bela Bognar teaches social work and gerontology at an Ohio college, where he also unofficially heads the Hungarian Studies program.
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When reality is too hard to face, imagination seems to be one of the primary ways in which children escape. In Paul McCall, a comedy by Benjamin Hershleder, to evade the harshness and dangers of real life, Paul escapes into an eccentric, imaginary world where he always prevails. --Hayet Ennabli
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If the love of your life has dumped you like a wet bag of garbage and you need to smile... Or, if you're that young new actress/wanna-be who hungers for stardom, but can't even get arrested... Or, if you're that obsessive gambler whose dream weekend in Vegas just came up craps... Or maybe you're the local vampire just out cruising for a different kind of cocktail... Huh? Well, if you're any of these things and you're looking for a good old-fashioned, all-night party, with crazy characters oozing out of every crack in the wall, there's only one place to go. And that, my friend, is Sam's.