Eleven directors from 11 countries each contribute an 11-minute short reflecting on the events of 11 September 2001. A village teacher in Iran tries to explain to her young students what’s happened. City kids in Burkina Faso think they’ve spotted Osama bin Laden. A deaf Frenchwoman in Manhattan writes a Dear John letter to a man who has left that morning for work at the World Trade Center. A Chilean remembers Allende. Events recall other deaths. A mother endures more than her son’s death. And so on. The tone varies, as do the locales. Most stories are about others coming to terms with the events of the day, but at least one confronts the viewer with tragedy and death.
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Tag Archives: english
The Nature of Existence (2010) Roger Nygard, A-Ha, Nancy Ellen Abrams, Rob Adonis, Documentary
Filmmaker Roger Nygard roams the globe to the source of each of the world’s philosophies, religions, and belief systems. He interviews spiritual leaders, scholars, scientists, artists, pizza chefs, and others who have influenced, inspired, or freaked out humanity.
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Are These Our Children (1931) Wesley Ruggles, Howard Estabrook, Eric Linden, Beryl Mercer, Billy Butts, Drama
A good kid with no record commits a robbery, kills an old man and winds up on death row. The authorities try to figure out why he went bad.
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Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) Alex Gibney, John Beard, Tim Belden, Barbara Boxer, Documentary
Enron dives from the seventh largest US company to bankruptcy in less than a year in this tale told chronologically. The emphasis is on human drama, from suicide to 20,000 people sacked: the personalities of Ken Lay (with Falwellesque rectitude), Jeff Skilling (he of big ideas), Lou Pai (gone with $250 M), and Andy Fastow (the dark prince) dominate. Along the way, we watch Enron game California’s deregulated electricity market, get a free pass from Arthur Andersen (which okays the dubious mark-to-market accounting), use greed to manipulate banks and brokerages (Merrill Lynch fires the analyst who questions Enron’s rise), and hear from both Presidents Bush what great guys these are.
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The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday (1976) Don Taylor, Lee Marvin, Oliver Reed, Robert Culp, Comedy, Western
Sam Longwood, a frontiersman who has seen better days, spies the gold-mine partner, Jack Colby, who ran off with all the gold from a mine they were prospecting fifteen years earlier. He tells his other partners from that time, Joe Knox and Billy, and they confront Colby demanding not only the thousand dollars he took but an addition fifty-nine thousand for their trouble. After being thwarted in this attempt, they, and a would-be whore named Thursday, hatch a plan to kidnap Colby’s wife, Nancy Sue, who is coincidently Sam’s old flame, but find that Nancy Sue is not the sweet girl that Sam remembers.
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Within Our Gates (1920) Oscar Micheaux, Evelyn Preer, Flo Clements, James D. Ruffin, Drama, Romance
Southern negro Sylvia Landry visits her cousin Alma in the north, where there is less racial prejudice than in her home town of Piney Woods in the deep south, and is anxiously awaiting her fiancé, Conrad. But Alma has designs on Conrad and tricks Sylvia into a compromising situation when he arrives, and he abandons her. Disheartened, she returns to Piney Woods to help a reverend running a school for young negroes. Sylvia learns that the reverend hasn’t the heart to turn away poor students, and unless he can raise $5,000 to supplement the $1.49 per child per year that the state supplies, the school will be closed. She goes up north again to try to raise the money and has little success, but meets kindly negro, Dr. V. Vivian, who helps her regain her stolen purse. When she saves a child from being hit by an auto, she herself is slightly injured. But the owner of the car is philanthropist Mrs. Elena Warwick, who is sympathetic to her quest and promises to donate the $5,000 to the school…
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Rupa u dusi / Hole in the Soul (1994) Dusan Makavejev, Rambo Amadeus, Melodie Annis, Dennis Jakob, Documentary, Biography, Comedy
A self-portrait documentary of Dusan Makavejev who travels to former Yugoslavia, and charts the changes of the society which parallels to his own life.
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The Lonely Sex (1959) Richard Hilliard, Leon Benedict, Mary Gonzalez, Karl Light, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Maniac kidnaps a young girl and holds her prisoner in a shack in the woods.
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Gruppo di famiglia in un interno / Conversation Piece (1974) Luchino Visconti, Burt Lancaster, Helmut Berger, Silvana Mangano, Drama, Romance
Retired professor of American origin lives solitary life in luxurious palazzo in Rome He is confronted by vulgar Italian marchesa and her companions: her lover, her daughter and daughter’s boyfriend and forced to rent to them an apartment on upper floor of his palazzo. From this point his quiet routine is turned into chaos by his tenants’ machinations, and everybody’s life is taking unexpected but inevitable turn.
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Frontier Gambler (1956) Sam Newfield, John Bromfield, Coleen Gray, Kent Taylor, Western
A marshal investigating the death of a woman who owned a gambling house finds that he’s developing an attraction to the image of the dead woman, and then she shows up very much alive.
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Home (2005) Matt Zoller Seitz, Jason Liebrecht, Nicol Zanzarella, Erin Stacey Visslailli, Drama, Comedy
On a hot summer night in Brooklyn, singles and couples converge in a brownstone apartment to flirt, fight, hook uo and break up. A dreamy comedy-drama about sex, love and freedom, “Home” packs a lot of stories into just two floors.
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Bizarre (2015) Étienne Faure, Pierre Prieur, Adrian James, Raquel Nave, Drama, Musical, Romance
Maurice is a French teenager who escaped France and begins working at a hype club in Brooklyn called BIZARRE. He quickly becomes a sort of ‘mascot’ of this incredible club.The owner and the artists that perform there love him, but Maurice can’t love…because of the past…and his secrets.
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East Side, West Side (1949) Mervyn LeRoy, Barbara Stanwyck, James Mason, Van Heflin, Drama, Romance
Brandon and Jessie Bourne have been married to each other for many years. A few years ago, Brandon had an extra-martial affair with Isabel Lorrison. Now she has returned to New York intending to start over with the relationship once again. Meanwhile, Jessie is attracted to Mark Dwyer, just arrived from a secret mission in Italy.
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Flight to Fury (1964) Monte Hellman, Dewey Martin, Fay Spain, Jack Nicholson, Adventure
This adventure is set in the Philippines and chronicles the exploits of two men who survive a plane crash in the jungle. One of the men is an avaricious killer who has come to the islands to search for a fortune in diamonds. The other is an international adventurer. Now they must somehow overcome their vast personal differences and desires to survive in the steamy wilderness.
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Here Is My Heart (1934) Frank Tuttle, Bing Crosby, Kitty Carlisle, Roland Young, Musical, Comedy
A rich and famous singer disguises himself as a waiter in order to be near the woman he loves, a European princess.
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