In 1912, the notorious and violent prisoner Robert Franklin Stroud is transferred to the Leavenworth Prison convicted for murdering a man. When a guard cancels the visit of his mother, Elizabeth Stroud, due to a violation of the internal rules, he stabs and kills the guard and goes to trial three times. He is sentenced to be executed by the gallows, but his mother appeals to President Woodrow Wilson who commutes his sentence to life imprisonment. However, the warden, Harvey Shoemaker, decides to keep Stroud in solitary for the rest of his life. One day, Stroud finds a sparrow that has fallen from the nest in the yard and he raises the bird until it is strong enough to fly. Stroud finds a motivation for his life raising and caring for birds and becomes an expert in birds. He marries Stella Johnson and together they run a business, providing medicine developed by Stroud. But a few years after, Stroud is transferred to Alcatraz and has to leave his birds behind. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The story of acerbic 1960s comic Lenny Bruce, whose groundbreaking, no-holds-barred style and social commentary was often deemed by the Establisment as too obscene for the public.
A documentary interspersed with acted scenes, this portrait of John DeLorean covers the brilliant but tragically flawed automaker's rise to stardom and shocking down fall.
Inspired by a true story LIKE THE WIND narrates 15 years of Armida Miserere's life, a woman who with determination and grit, but also personal suffering, was one of the first woman to become governor of prison. Armida Miserere, after suffering the loss of her loved one, found herself on the front line in the fight against crime, governing the most dangerous jail in Italy, while struggling to find the truth and to get justice. The film is conceived as long flashback that highlights the most important moments of her life in the attempt to unveil her mystery. Written by Anonymous
A troubled Native American veteran forms an extraordinary friendship with his maverick French psychoanalyst as they try to find a cure to his suffering.
A massive six-hour biopic of Napoleon, tracing his career from his schooldays (where a snowball fight is staged like a military campaign), his flight from Corsica, through the French Revolution (where a real storm is intercut with a political storm) and the Terror, culminating in his triumphant invasion of Italy in 1797 (the film stops there because it was intended to be part one of six, but director Abel Gance never raised the money to make the other five). The film's legendary reputation is due to the astonishing range of techniques that Gance uses to tell his story, culminating in the final twenty-minute triptych sequence, which alternates widescreen panoramas with complex multiple- image montages projected simultaneously on three screens. Written by Michael Brooke michael@everyman.demon.co.uk
Forty-three year old Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby - Jean-Do to his friends - awakens not knowing where he is. He is in a Berck-sur-Mer hospital, where he has been for the past several weeks in a coma after suffering a massive stroke. Although his cognitive facilities are in tact, he quickly learns that he has what is called locked-in syndrome which has resulted in him being almost completely paralyzed, including not being able to speak. One of his few functioning muscles is his left eye. His physical situation and hospitalization uncomfortably bring together the many people in his life, including: Céline Desmoulins, his ex-lover and mother of his children; Inès, his current lover; and his aged father who he calls Papinou. Among his compassionate recuperative team are his physical therapist Marie, and his speech therapist Henriette. Henriette eventually teaches him to communicate using a system where he spells out words: she reads out the letters of the alphabet in ... Written by Huggo
In June 1953, two years after he was re-elected as Prime Minister Winston Churchill collapses following a dinner party at Downing Street. Diagnosed by his doctor Lord Moran as having a stroke there are fears that he may not survive and he is taken to his country home Chartwell. Publicly he is said to be suffering from exhaustion and the newspaper owners consent to printing the deception. As his children arrive to watch over him they feud over son Randolph's drinking and daughter Sarah's less than illustrious film career whilst Winston's wife Clemmie reflects on the loss of another daughter who died in infancy. The Cabinet is informed of events as Moran brings in plain-spoken Yorkshire nurse Millie Appleyard to look after the great man. With her help and his wife's devotion Churchill survives to address the Conservative party conference later in the year, before retiring as premier two years later, the country as a whole being unaware all along of Churchill's secret. Written by don @ minifie-1
Feature-length documentary about the greatest diver of all time. Four-time Olympic champion Greg Louganis has faced more than his share of challenges. In 2011, he is far from the public eye and struggling to pay his mortgage. Now, the openly gay, HIV+ world-class athlete returns to diving to mentor the USA Olympic hopefuls. This may be his best chance to regain the notoriety -- and financial stability -- he enjoyed at the height of his career. Written by Anonymous
A famous horror writer finds inspiration for her next book after she and her husband take in a young couple.
Debauched King Henry II installs his longtime court facilitator Thomas Becket as the Archbishop of Canterbury, assuming that his old friend will be a compliant and loyal lackey in the King's ongoing battles with the church. But Becket unexpectedly finds his true calling on the ecclesiastical side, and aligns himself against the king's selfish wishes, causing a rift and an eventual showdown not only between the two men, but also the institutions they represent. Written by Jwelch5742
When a teenager reveals that she is gay to her devout Mormon parents, they decide to send her to a conversion therapy home in Utah.
On the verge of achieving his dream career, Tomás allows his older brother Martin Farina an inside look at his life as a professional football player. Martin, never able to fulfill his own dream of playing football, steps into the world of Tomás and his teammates through the lens of his camera. However, the rest of the club has their own opinions, some viewing Martin as an intruder, as he exposes their most vulnerable moments, and their concerns for the future after the game has ended. Fulboy offers an uncensored, confessional look at how the athletes behind the most popular sport in the world behave during their time off the field. At the same time, Fulboy reflexively interrogates Farina's aesthetic choices and point-of-view, as well as the viewer's gaze at the male form.
Henry VIII of England discards one wife Katharine of Aragon, who has failed to produce a male heir, in favor of a young and beautiful woman, Anne Boleyn, whose one-thousand-day reign as Queen of England ends with the loss of her head on the block. Henry weds Ann and soon she gives him a child. The girl, Elizabeth, is a bitter disappointment to Henry, who desperately wants an heir. Anne promises Henry a son "next time," but Henry is doubtful. Shortly thereafter, rumors begin that the King's eye has already wandered. One Jane Seymour is at court for a moment. The Queen has her sent away, but, if Anne will bring Jane back to court, the King promises to sign the Act of Succession to insure that Elizabeth will be Queen. Written by alfiehitchie
Hollywood collides with a group of veterans who are tired of the typical PTSD and valor-portrayed movies and decide to make an original dark humor zombie apocalypse film all on their own.
Through the glitter and the grunge, from The Monkees to Coldplay, Rodney Bingenheimer--a.k.a. Rodney on the ROQ--has reigned over the Los Angeles music scene for over two decades. A constantly evolving fixture as rock fan, journalist, promoter, club owner and radio DJ on KROQ, Bingenheimer has helped advance every adventurous rock mutation--California pop, glam, punk, goth, new wave, alternative--since he first hit the Sunset Strip during its psychedelic 1960s heyday. Written by Sujit R. Varma
An intimate but explosive portrait of the man behind the greatest fraud in sporting history. Lance Armstrong enriched himself by cheating his fans, his sport, and the truth. But the former friends whose lives and careers he destroyed would prove to be his nemesis. Written by Anonymous
In 1965, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara resigns from his Cuban government posts to secretly make his latest attempt to spread the revolution in Bolivia. After arriving in La Paz, Bolivia late in 1966, by 1967, Che with several Cuban volunteers, have raised a small guerrilla army to take on the militarist Bolivian movement. However, Che must face grim realities about his few troops and supplies, his failing health, and a local population who largely does not share the idealistic aspirations of a foreign troublemaker. As the US supported Bolivian army prepares to defeat him, Che and his beleaguered force struggle against the increasingly hopeless odds. Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
Through the eyes of two 12-year-old boys, the sexual revolution arrives in a conservative and religious small town in Northern Finland.
A documentary on the life and career of one of the most influential film directors of all time, Steven Spielberg.
We live at a moment in time when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, now more than a century old, continues to be of overwhelming international political and societal importance. From its inception, that conflict has also, of course, had powerful and deeply troubling consequences for Israelis and Palestinians themselves. The story at its most basic level is one that involves two peoples struggling for national recognition and expression in a small but richly significant piece of land. The tragedy of this history, as both the Israeli novelist, Amos Oz, and the Palestinian scholar, Sari Nusseibeh, have each pointed out, stems from a conflict between the rights of two peoples with equal and legitimate aspirations to nationhood and self-expression in a single small territory to which they can both lay claim. Written by Anonymous
THE HAMMER is a sports drama depicting the struggles and successes Matt Hamill faced on the way to becoming a champion. Raised among those with the ability to hear, Matt later finds himself no less an outsider amidst the Deaf Community. Through sheer determination, he uses his perceived disability as an asset, and becomes both the first deaf wrestler to win a National Collegiate Championship and an inspirational force to the hearing and deaf alike. Written by Anonymous
In the lead up to the 1956 Olympic games, a group of missionaries are tasked with helping the fledgling Australian basketball team compete in their first ever Olympics, and in doing so, unite a nation still coming to grips after the war.
On stage Nina Simone was known for her utterly free, uninhibited musical expression, which enthralled audiences and attracted life-long fans. But amid the violent, haunting, and senseless day-to-day of the civil rights era in 1960s America, Simone struggled to reconcile her artistic identity and ambition with her devotion to a movement. Culled from hours of autobiographical tapes, this new film unveils the unmitigated ego of a brilliant artist and the absurdities of her time. At the height of her fame Simone walked away from her family, country, career and fans, to move to Liberia and give up performing. The story of her life leading up to that event poses the question, 'how does royalty stomp around in the mud and still walk with grace?'
An orphan, whose father has been killed by dark power, attempts to bring justice back to the town.
What is known as the Thorpe affair, centered on the at the time clandestine homosexual affair between Liberal MP and later Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe and stable boy Norman Scott, that affair when sodomy was still illegal in Britain, is the main feature of the story presented. The story culminates in 1979 with Jeremy put on trial for conspiracy and incitement to murder, the attempt on Norman's life all in an effort to rid him from Jeremy's life in his aspiration to become British Prime Minister at whatever cost, part of that cost being to remain in the closet despite having men on the side throughout his adult life. The imbalance between Jeremy and Norman both during their relationship and in their adversarial battle after the end of that relationship is also shown, older, ambitious Jeremy, from a proper English background, part of the establishment, and younger Norman, from the disadvantaged class, he who also suffered from clinical psychological issues, having nothing to lose... Written by Huggo
From 1949 to 1979, thirty years in the life of captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the famous researcher, scientist, inventor, filmmaker whose greatest achievement is to have made the general public more curious - and accordingly closer - to the sea. A genius, a leader of men and a charismatic opinion maker, Cousteau was not without defects, his being unfaithful to ever-supportive wife Simone for example or else his vainglory..., but let him who is without sin cast the first stone. The spectator leaves Cousteau in mid-1979 at the worst time of his life: his favorite son, Philippe, has just died in the crash of a plane he was piloting. The dashing conqueror of the sea has suddenly become a broken old man, tempted to discouragement but his eldest son Jean-Michel is by his side to help him overcome his grief and go on with his mission... Written by Guy Bellinger
Django Reinhardt was one of the most brilliant pioneers of European jazz and the father of Gypsy Swing. "Django" grippingly portrays one chapter in the musician's eventful life and is a poignant tale of survival. Constant danger, flight and the atrocities committed against his family could not make him stop playing. Written by Berlinale
A feature length, theatrical documentary on the life of Paul Gascoigne, one of the greatest English footballers that ever lived: delving deep into his psyche, vulnerabilities, fears and triumphs.
In 1970s Belfast, Terri Hooley is an idealistic rocker who finds himself caught in the middle of Northern Ireland's bitter Troubles. Seeing a parallel in the chaos with Jamaica, Hooley opens a record shop, Good Vibrations, to help bring reggae music to his city to help encourage some harmony. However, Hooley soon discovers a new music genre, punk rock, and is inspired by its youthful vitality to become an important record producer and promoter of the local scene. In doing so, Hooley would struggle both with the industry's realities and his chaotic personal life that threaten to consume him. However, he would also be instrumental in creating an alternative Irish community that would bridge his land's religious and social rivalries with an art no one expected. Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
The final movie in Oliver Stone's Vietnam trilogy follows the true story of a Vietnamese village girl who survives a life of suffering and hardship during and after the Vietnam war. As a freedom fighter, a hustler, young mother, a sometime prostitute, and the wife of a US. marine, the girl's relationships with men suggests an analogy of Vietnam as Woman and the U.S. as Man. Written by Keith Loh loh@sfu.ca
The last eighteen years in the life of Jesse James, showing his home life in Missouri, his experiences with Quantrill's raiders, his career of banditry with his brother Frank and the Younger brothers, and his attempt to lead a peaceful life after the disastrous attempt to rob the bank at Northfield, Minn. Written by Anonymous