1. Who was General Tso and why are we eating his chicken?
The Search for General Tso
This film traces the origins of Chinese American food through what is arguably America’s most popular takeout meal–
General Tso’s Chicken. Using this Americanized dish as a lens onto a larger story of immigration, adaptation, and
innovation, the film takes a lighthearted journey, grounded in cultural and culinary history, through restaurants, Chinatowns,
and the American imagination. The film’s lively soundtrack and shadow-puppet animations contribute both whimsy and
momentum, as viewers find they’re on a search to answer a deeper question: how did America’s Chinese food become
so… American?
2. A parable of guilt, redemption, and identity crisis for a small town caught in the glare of the national spotlight.
Happy Valley
The town of State College, the home of Penn State University, has long been known as Happy Valley, and its iconic figure
for more than 40 years was Joe Paterno, the head coach of the school’s storied football team. But then, in November 2011,
everything came crashing down when Assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky was charged with 40 counts of child sex abuse.
Filmed during the year after Sandusky’s arrest, Happy Valley deconstructs the story we think we know to uncover a much
more complicated and tragic tale. Key players in the scandal share their stories.
3. Painfully but permanently connected.
Liv & Ingmar
This feature documentary is an account of the 42- year and 12- film long relationship of Liv Ullman and Ingmar Bergman.
Told entirely from Liv’s point of view, this rollercoaster journey of extreme highs and lows is constructed as a collage of
images and sounds from the timeless Ullman-Bergman films. With behind the scenes footage, still photographs, passages
from Liv’s book Changing and Ingmar’s love letters to her, the film is a homage to two of the greatest film artists of our time.
4. Starring magnificent horses, this is cinematography at its most beautiful.
Of Horses and Men
In a remote valley in Iceland, Of Horses and Men tells the tale of the human streak in the horse, and the horse streak in the
human. Love and death become interlaced with immense consequences. The fortunes of the people in the country are
revealed through the horses’ perceptions.
5. Bellissimo!
The Great Beauty
Journalist Jep Gambardella has charmed and seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades. Since the
legendary success of his one and only novel, he has been a permanent fixture in the city's literary and social circles. When
his sixty-fifth birthday coincides with a shock from the past, Jep finds himself unexpectedly taking stock of his life, turning his
cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the extravagant nightclubs, parties, and cafés to find Rome
in all its glory: a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.
6. With Barbara Hershey as the unstable mother.
Sister
Billy Presser left his home in Long Island at 17 to pursue an acting career in Hollywood. He has never looked back. His wife
Melissa desperately wants to start a family, but is starting to realize that Billy is too immature and selfish to move forward.
The scars from Billy’s own childhood and the dynamics of his dysfunctional family have left him paralyzed in a state of
adolescence. He’s jolted out of complacency when his father is killed in a car accident and he is forced to take custody of his
eleven-year-old adopted sister, Niki, whom he barely knows. To complicate matters further, Niki is on a cocktail of anti-depressants
and Ritalin and has been thrown out of several schools due to her violent behavior.
7. “The personal is political.”
She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry
This film resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women's movement
from 1966 to 1972. Director Mary Dore takes us from the founding of NOW, with ladies in hats and gloves, to the emergence
of more radical factions of women's liberation; from intellectuals like Kate Millett to the street theatrics of WITCH ("Women's
International Conspiracy from Hell!"). Artfully combining dramatizations, performance, and archival imagery, the film recounts
the stories of women who fought for their own equality, and in the process created a world-wide revolution.
8. Boys and men taking responsibility for their actions…and for each other.
Hellion
Thirteen-year-old Jacob is spiraling out of control. The motocross-obsessed teenager’s delinquent behavior pushes his
family to the brink of collapse. All hell breaks loose when Jacob enlists his younger brother, Wes, as a partner in crime. Still
reeling from his wife’s death, Jacob’s dad, Hollis (Aaron Paul), has all but abandoned his sons. When Child Protective
Services removes Wes to live with his Aunt Pam (Juliette Lewis), Hollis and Jacob are forced to face their culpability as they
strive to bring Wes home. Hellion is set in southeastern Texas where the flames and lights of refineries frame the skyline and
create a haunting backdrop for this fractured family of motherless men.
9. “Fashions fade, style is eternal”
Yves Saint Laurent
In January 1958, 21-year-old Yves Saint Laurent was unexpectedly called upon to oversee the legendary Paris fashion
house established by recently deceased Christian Dior. All eyes turned to this very young assistant as he presented his first
collection for Dior and instantly ascended to the heights of haute couture's elite class. During Saint Laurent's breathtaking
and groundbreaking show, he met with another fate by being introduced to Pierre Bergé, patron of the arts, future love of his
life and lifelong business partner.
10. Famed director and playwright Alejandro Jodorosky’s first film in 23 years.
Dance of Reality
Young Alejandro lives with his Jewish-Ukrainian parents Jaime and Sara in Tocopilla, Chile. Alejandro’s father is a
communist and die-hard follower of Joseph Stalin, and he raises his son with great severity. Jaime plans to assassinate the
right-wing president of Chile, and he becomes the president’s groom.
11. The Lunchbox
Discovering a new sense of self and finding an anchor to hold on to through
a series of lunchbox notes to a stranger
This story, set in the city of Mumbai, evolved from a wrongly delivered lunchbox to the story of
how hope can sometimes come from quarters we least expect.