SWITZERLAND, 2008, 7 MINDIRECTED BY CLAUDIUS GENTINETTA & FRANK BRAUN
Southeast Premiere
An old man with a case of the sneezes and a roll of duct tape has quite an adventure on a cable car.
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SWITZERLAND, 2008, 7 MIN
GERMANY, 2008, 6 MIN
A small town, a growing knot, and a girl's search for her identity are the subjects of this multiple award-winning, clever mix of animation styles that features music by Le Tigre.
GERMANY, 2009, 6.5 MIN
SCOTLAND, 2007, 1.5 MIN
UK, 2007, 4 MIN
Hiding out in Philadelphia, Arlen Faber (Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale) is the renowned yet reclusive author of a self-help book that molded a generation. Now, on the 20th anniversary of his still wildly popular Me and God, Arlen continues to be seen as the man with all the answers. However, this spiritual guru is content with his low profile and keeps his true identity hidden even from the mailman. That is, until he meets Elizabeth (Lauren Graham, TV's Gilmore Girls), a chiropractor/single mother raising her son, and Kris (Lou Taylor Pucci, Thumbsucker), a freshly-sober local bookstore owner, both searching for meaning and the answers only he, as the man who spoke to God, can produce. Trouble is . . . he can't. Newcomer writer/director John Hindman's clever romantic comedy fuses this eccentric group of characters in a unique and inspiring story of the things that make life complicated--heroes that let us down, life not giving us what we deserve, and fame not being all it's cracked up to be.
Fans of 1950s Sci-fi movies listen up! ALIEN TRESPASS, a lost masterpiece of the genre, rips the screen again! OK, it's really a brand new film, but a dead-on spoof with a galaxy full of laughs. It begins when a fiery object from outer space crashes into a mountaintop in the California desert, bringing the threat of disaster to Earth. Out of the flying saucer escapes a murderous creature--the Ghota, which is bent on destroying all life forms on the planet. A spaceman named Urp inhabits the body of astronomer Ted (Eric McCormack, TV's Will & Grace), and with the help of Tammy, a waitress from the town's diner, they set out to save mankind. The rubbery monster with colossal tentacles and a single, giant, red eye devours one local after another, even cranky cop Vernon (Robert Patrick, Terminator 2), leaving them as gooey puddles on the floor. Ride along in this high camp adventure and rest assured, "Ted wants you safe."
"I'm walkin' here," shouts Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) as he slams his fist on the hood of a taxi. This movie, the first X-rated film to win an Oscar (it actually won 3) shocked America with its brazen sexuality and in-your-face anarchy. Joe Buck (Jon Voight) and Ratso are an odd couple. Joe has come to New York City from Texas, hoping to make a few bucks with the ladies as a gigolo. Ratso is a cynical, conniving veteran of the streets of New York. He takes advantage of Joe but then, reluctantly, builds a friendship. They dream of a better future for themselves as they work to raise enough money to go to Florida, the land of their dreams. Dustin Hoffman forever erased the memory of his youthful role in The Graduate by taking on this gritty role. Jon Voight, then a newcomer, established himself as an actor with the chops to match Hoffman's nuance and bluster. "Everyone's Talkin," the movie's theme song performed by Harry Nilsson can be hummed by millions. The movie stands as a testimony to art and to time. It is a pleasure to reconnect this forbidden film with its orginal audience and to connect it to a new generation of film lovers. 
A determined woman on the run from her dangerous husband; a hired killer whose depression makes him dangerously conflicted and vulnerable; and a cop who inadvertently stumbles into something bigger than he expected. All of the classic elements of the thriller are here in the distinctive feature-film directorial debut of actor Michael Keaton (Beetle Juice), yet he has simultaneously created a highly original romantic fable. As the story begins, Kate (Kelly Macdonald, Trainspotting) is fleeing an abusive relationship to begin a new life in a new city. There she forms an unlikely friendship with Frank (Keaton), a suicidal hit man (unbeknownst to her), and these two lonely souls seem destined to redeem and remake each other. Enter a disheveled, alcoholic detective relentlessly pursuing a murder investigation into the mix, and a very unusual triangle unfolds. THE MERRY GENTLEMAN is a heady blend of suspense, gentle romance and quiet humor--a riveting and uniquely entertaining tale of forgiveness and redemption that blends a hopeful spirit with a surprisingly dark heart. 
On the full moon of the seventh lunar month, the gates of hell open
and the spirits of the dead are freed to roam among the living. - Chinese myth
Toronto teenagers Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, released 1982's genre-classic Metal on Metal, influencing a generation of thrash metal pioneers including Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, all of whom went on to sell millions of records. Anvil's career took a different path--straight to obscurity. Nearly 25 years and a dozen albums later, Lips and Reiner are in their 50s. They work dead-end jobs, struggling to keep the band alive amid impatient families, crippling mortgages, and creeping old age. Luckily, "quit" is not part of their vocabulary, so onward they rock! Uncomfortable and hilarious, ANVIL! captures the band gearing up for their 13th album, This Is Thirteen. It doesn't go well. A warm-up European tour fails spectacularly--Anvil misses trains, rarely plays in front of more than a dozen people, and makes no money from the gigs (one club owner tries to pay them in goulash). The completed album is rejected by labels large and small, driving Lips into telemarketing. Throughout this string of disasters, director Sacha Gervasi does more than position Anvil as a real life SPINAL TAP. Lips and Reiner are revealed as loyal, loving, and unfailingly dedicated to their friendship as well as their band. Like the wannabe filmmakers of American Movie, this pair believes the only life worth living is one where you stay true to youthful ambitions . . . year after year after year after year after year . . . As heart-warming as it is absurd, ANVIL! is simply one of the best rock movies ever made. Don't miss it.
In the summer of 1977, New York entrepreneur Larry Levenson decided to take "the lifestyle" out of the shadows with the opening of Plato's Retreat: a swingers club that operated very publicly in the basement of a prestigious building on the conservative Upper West Side, a place where ordinary couples came to dance, to swim, and to swap. It was the start of a revolution. This highly entertaining and sexually frank time-capsule of a movie chronicles the rise and fall of the legendary club by combining interviews with former patrons, employees, and family members with some remarkable archival materials. New York personalities like Al Goldstein, Helen Gurley Brown, Prof. Irwin Corey, Buck Henry, Ed Koch, Melvin Van Peebles, and Annie Sprinkle add to the commentary, and a surprising amount of footage and photos from inside the club shed a bright light on this clothing-optional Disneyland. For Levenson and others, Plato's was a utopia; but jealousy, drugs, the specter of AIDS, greed, the mob, and marital revenge all took their toll. AMERICAN SWING'S compelling portrait of sex and excess recounts a long-gone era that is hard to imagine today.