Current Torchlight Program Filmography

Current Torchlight Program Filmography

The following is a list of independent motion pictures that the Florida State University Torchlight students have had the opportunity to present, market, publicize, promote and otherwise theatrically distribute in a variety of markets throughout the United States and Canada.
 
 

THE COVE

Directed by Louie Psihoyos

“When the director, Louie Psihoyos, slipped into the little coastal town of Taiji, Japan, it was under cover of documenting the degradation of ocean reefs. Once there, however, he proceeded to mount one of the most audacious and perilous operations in the history of the conservation movement. The Cove is much more than just a record of that adventure. Like the director’s cover story, the movie is a Trojan horse: an exceptionally well-made documentary that unfolds like a spy thriller, complete with bugged hotel rooms, clandestine derring-do and mysterious men in gray flannel suits.”

The New York Times, "The Cove: From Flipper’s Trainer to Dolphin Defender," by Jeannette Catsoulis. Published July 31, 2009.

THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX

Directed by Uli Edel
Starring Moritz Bleibtreu, Martina Gedeck, Johanna Wokalek, Bruno Ganz

Germany in the 1970s: Murderous bomb attacks; the threat of terrorism and the fear of the enemy from the inside are rocking the very foundations of the still fragile German democracy.

The radicalized children of the Nazi generation, led by Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu), Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck) and Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) are fighting a violent war against what they perceive to be the new face of fascism: American imperialism supported by the German establishment, many of whom have a Nazi past. Their aim is to create a more human society, but by employing inhuman means they not only spread terror and bloodshed, they also lose their own humanity.

The man who understands them is also their hunter: the head of the German police force, Horst Herold (Bruno Ganz). And while he succeeds in his relentless pursuit of the young terrorists, he knows he’s only dealing with the tip of the iceberg.

VALENTINO: THE LAST EMPEROR

Directed by Matt Tyrnauer
Starring Valentino Garavani

Short, majestically coiffed, with hooded eyes, an orange-tinted visage and the peevish impatience of an absolute monarch: that is Valentino Garavani, the Italian couturier known simply as Valentino, as he appears in Matt Tyrnauer’s documentary portrait, Valentino: The Last Emperor.

In 1959, Valentino opened his own house of fashion in Rome, and he soon became one of the leading lights in European design, known for his trademark share of red and his clean, impeccable lines. With Giancarlo Giammetti, who has been Valentino’s business partner and significant other since 1960, the designer built an empire that remained one of the most prestigious in the fashion world, until Valentino announced his retirement in the fall of 2007.

Granted unprecedented access to Valentino’s home and office, the film offers an exclusive view of the level of his artistic visions and its impact on the dynamic world of haute couture fashion, as well as a privileged look at Valentino’s lavish lifestyle and relationship with Giametti. Shown in film festivals around the world to wide acclaim, Valentino: The Last Emperor is a feature film that has captured the hearts and imaginations of audiences.

JCVD

Directed by Mabrouk El Mechri
Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme
 
 When the life of Jean-Claude Van Damme collides with the reality of a hold-up in Brussels, Belgium, suddenly the huge movie star turns into an ordinary guy, filled with fears, contradictions and hopes. Van Damme is brought back to Brussels where cab drivers and video-store hounds still recognize him, but nothing else is going right. His agent is screwing him, a major court case has gone against him, he’s low on funds…and now, as he enters a bank to try to cash a check, he finds it’s been commandeered in a heist. The cops on the street figure Van Damme must have cracked and gone to the dark side, while the robbers are only too happy both to exploit his fame and taunt him for being unable to overcome their guns with his kickboxing. Even Van Damme’s mom believes he’s the perp, not the victim, of the hostage takeover.

How can he be up to the legend he has built? What can a film hero do when the gun pointed to his temple isn't charged with blanks? JCVD finds himself at the turning point of his "hero" life. It’s hard to resist: here’s a battered superstar who has occupied so many fantasies, but it turns out that his fantasies are just like ours.

SECOND SKIN

Directed by Juan Carlos Pineiro Escoriaza

Second Skin examines a disturbing new addiction that is afflicting an increasing number of people: online gaming. The film takes an intimate look at three sets of computer gamers whose lives have been transformed by the emerging genre of computer games called, “Massively Multiplayer Online Games,” or MMOs. World of Warcraft, Second Life and Everquest allow millions of users to interact simultaneously in virtual spaces.

Second Skin introduces viewers to couples who have fallen in love without meeting, disabled players whose lives have been given new purpose, men who have trouble distinguishing between the real and virtual worlds, Chinese gold-farming sweatshop workers, wealthy entrepreneurs and legendary guild leaders — all living within a world that doesn't quite exist.

The film also considers the question, why is a sense of identity so hard to come by that people have to create fake ones within a simulated world? In MMORPGs (massive multiplayer online role-playing games) the players can be whomever they want, from powerful warriors to amorous maidens. But what quickly becomes apparent is that no matter how content these gamers are in the online world, that happiness doesn’t necessarily translate or materialize in real life.

TOKYO!

Directed by Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon-Ho
 
An omnibus triptych that celebrates the world’s largest city, Tokyo! is an eccentric fantasy as dynamic as its three visionary directors: Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Leos Carax (Lovers n The Bridge), and Bong Joon-Ho (The Host).

Tokyo! (in Japanese with English subtitles) consists of three short films: Michel Gondry’s "Interior Design," Leos Carax’s "Merde' and Bong Joon-Ho’s 'Shaking Tokyo." All three pieces contain surreal elements that convey the endless tumult and impermanence of a metropolis that, unlike the other great cities of the world, is constantly changing in a steady swirl of humanity and neon. Addressing the timeless question of whether we shape cities or cities shape us, Tokyo! reveals the rich humanity at the heart of modern urban life.

KILLING KASZTNER

Directed by Gaylen Ross

On the night of March 3, 1957, an assassin waits in the darkness of a Tel Aviv street. At 11pm a car turns the corner. He draws his gun.

“My feet take me to the side of the car and my voice, measured and toneless, asks ‘Israel Kasztner?’ As if I’m delivering something. And he said ‘yes.’ Not surprised, not moved, as if he knew. I raise my hand with the gun, and shoot him straight in the face. And what happened? You won’t believe it…”

Dr. Israel (Reszo) Kasztner, a Jew who may have saved more lives than any other, was gunned down by another Jew who never set foot in Nazi Europe. For fifty years the assassin kept his silence about what happened, until now. After 50 years the assassin, Ze’ev Eckstein, breaks his silence, revealing step by step the event and passions that transformed a young man into an agent of politics and revenge. Part real time investigation, part historical journey, the filmmaker unearths the Kasztner story and its ramifications for the survivors, his family, and his country. It explores the very nature of history itself: who writes it, how it is remembered, and what is at stake for the present and future.

THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON)

Directed by Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath

According to a Lao prophecy, “A time will come when the universe will break, piece by piece, the world will change beyond what we know.” That time came for the small country of Laos with the clandestine involvement of the United States during the Vietnam War. By 1973, three million tons of bombs had been dropped on Laos in the fight to overcome the North Vietnamese, more than the total used during both world wars.

Filmed over the course of 23 years, The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) is an astonishing tale of perseverance. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary, this film illustrates one family’s struggle to survive their journey from war-torn Laos to the streets of New York. Eloquent yet devastating, renowned cinematographer Ellen Kuras’ directorial debut is a remarkable collaboration with co-director Thavisouk Phrasavath. The Betrayal reveals the hidden, human face of war’s collateral damage.

Phrasavath takes us through his youth, his escape from persecution and arrest in Laos, his family’s reunion and journey as immigrants to America, and the second war they had to fight on the streets of New York City. Drawing on the techniques of experimental film and the traditions of the Laotian culture, The Betrayal is a tale about a country, a family and a young man who discovers the power and resilience of the human spirit.

BATTLE IN SEATTLE

Directed by Stuart Townsend
Starring Woody Harrelson, Michelle Rodriguez, Charlize Theron, Ray Liotta and Channing Tatum

In 1999, five days rocked the world as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Seattle in protest of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Environmentalists, consumer advocates, labor unions, students, anarchists and pacifists all converged, bringing attention to how the WTO’s laws were affecting democracy around the world.

With his ensemble cast, writer and director Stuart Townsend intertwines different points of view from a cross section of society, from protestors and police to delegates and doctors, who intentionally or accidentally find themselves on the streets of Seattle in those last eventful days of the millennium. It is evident that Townsend has a firm grasp of what happened in Seattle, translating historical events into personal stories. Tempers flare, belligerence reigns, physical and emotional pain subsumes the screen. By merging the footage of the real historical events with his fictional narrative, Townsend ultimately illustrates in Battle in Seattle that even faced with incredible obstacles ordinary people can achieve monumental change.

THE ENGLISH SURGEON

Directed by Geoffrey Smith

The English Surgeon is an intimate portrait of brain surgeon Henry Marsh, a committed humanitarian trying to improve the horrid conditions of an Ukrainian hospital. Dr. Marsh’s amazing character and determination as a medical professional are paramount in the film; he himself builds the wood crates used to ship equipment to Ukraine, performs brain surgery on a patient who is awake for the operation, and struggles to tell those with no hope of survival the truth of their fate.

Driven by the need to help others, Henry has spent over 15 years commuting from his home in England to Ukraine in an attempt to improve upon the primitive brain surgery practices that have been employed in the country, with seemingly little if any monetary compensation. Director Geoffrey Smith illustrates the emotionally grim journey of Dr. Marsh, his colleagues, and his patients in this deeply moving documentary of the trials and triumphs of a truly remarkable man.

IN A DREAM

Directed by Jeremiah Zagar

In A Dream is an exploration of the life and work of Jeremiah Zagar’s father, the remarkable mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar, who has covered over 50,000 square feet of Philadelphia with tiles and mirrors.

Isaiah Zagar’s obsessive mosaic work lends his son both a colorful subject for his camera and a ready-made metaphor for their tumultuous family narrative: the fracturing of relationships and the effort to assemble the pieces into new forms. Isaiah speaks frankly about his troubled past and rocky relationship with his long-suffering, deeply patient wife, Julia. Jeremiah’s brother Ezekiel’s struggle with addiction, and Isaiah’s lack of fidelity shatter the family’s bohemian bonhomie.

Winner of the Emerging Visions Award at the South by Southwest Film Festival, this documentary is a fascinating portrait of love and betrayal, family bonds, and the intimacy of dysfunction as it exposes secrets of his entire family.
 

THE END OF AMERICA

Directed by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg
 
From the award-winning filmmakers of The Devil Came on Horseback and The Trials of Darryl Hunt comes The End of America, based on The New York Times best seller by the same name. In a stunning indictment of sweeping policy changes during the Bush years, author Naomi Wolf (The Beauty Myth) makes a chilling case that American democracy is under threat.

The End of America, an unsettling documentary polemic about the erosion of civil liberties in the wake of 9/11, brings up matters many of us would rather not contemplate in the middle of a financial crisis and in the dawn of a new administration. Federal laws enacted during the last administration that threaten our constitutional rights, it reminds us, remain in effect.

Investigating parallels between our current situation and the rise of dictators and fascism in once-free societies, Wolf uncovers a number of deeply unsettling similarities – from the use of paramilitary groups and secret prisons to the targeted suspension of the rule of law. With this galvanizing call to arms based on her recent book, she urges regular citizens to take back our legacy of freedom and justice.

PARAISO TRAVEL

Directed by Simon Brand
Starring Aldemar Correa, John Leguizamo, and Angelica Blandon
Adapted from Jorge Franco’s acclaimed novel of the same title, Paraiso Travel debuted at the 2009 Jacksonville Film Festival winning the Audience Award for narrative feature. It is the story of a young seductive woman named Reina, living in Medellin, Columbia, who becomes infatuated with finding fortune in New York City. A young man named Marlon desperately falls in love with this rebellious teen. Entangled in her web of fantasies, Marlon has no other choice but to blindly follow her imposing lead.

Driven by their will to reach their dreamland, the two embark on the brutal exodus of Latin-American immigrants who cross illegally through Mexico. This adventure is narrated by Marlon on his voyage to find his love, his heroine, his Reina. The couple were separated upon their arrival in New York and Marlon, fueled only by the power of love, has been through hell and back trying to find her. The tangled issue of illegal immigration gives Paraiso Travel its drive, but thoughtful storytelling and committed performances give the movie its heart.

AUDIENCE OF ONE

Directed by Michael Jacobs

Ten years ago a pastor from the Voice of Pentecost Church in San Francisco received a prophetic whisper — a directive from God to make movies for the Lord. Using donations from his congregation, he slowly transformed his church into a fully functioning movie studio, and the production company Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks was born. After experimenting on several small projects, Pastor Richard Gazowsky announced he and his WYSIWYG crew were going to make a film entitled, Gravity: The Shadow of Joseph, a $50 million biblical science fiction movie that would redefine the Hollywood epic.

Audience Of One is a documentary that chronicles the making of Gravity. This vérité style film goes inside a Pentecostal church, where the charismatic Gazowsky leads his loyal cast and crew on an incredible journey that tests the limits of faith. From preproduction at their church, to shooting principal photography in Italy, to leasing an enormous studio on an island in the San Francisco Bay, Audience Of One keeps pace with an embattled church production looking to God in order to keep their dream alive. Full of humor, what transpires is a story of obsession, faith and delusion.

BALLAST

Directed by Lance Hammer
Starring Michael J. Smith Sr., JimMyron Ross and Tarra Riggs

In the cold, winter light of a rural Mississippi delta township, a man’s suicide radically transforms three characters’ lives and throws off-balance what has long been a static arrangement among them. Marlee is a single mother struggling to scratch a living for herself and her 12-year-old son, James, who has begun to stumble under the pressures of drugs and violence. She grabs the opportunity to seek safe harbor in a new home, though the property is shared by Lawrence, a man with whom Marlee has feuded bitterly since James’ birth. With circumstances thrusting them into intimate proximity, a subtle interdependence and common purpose emerge for Marlee and Lawrence as they navigate grief, test new waters, and tentatively move forward.

WHAT WE DO IS SECRET

Directed by Rodger Grossman
Starring Shane West, Bijou Phillips

What We Do Is Secret is a biopic that chronicles the rise of The Germs and their charismatic leader Darby Crash, whose image – the contorted, screaming face and death grip on the microphone – has become an icon of the U.S. punk movement and a pervasive influence on bands since. Darby’s cultivated punk image inspired the band’s mesmerized followers to riot, which ultimately got The Germs banned from playing every venue in the greater Los Angeles area.

The Germs become a big fish in the small pond of L.A. punk, but when hard drugs enter into the picture, Darby begins alienating those closest to him. In the making of this Rodger Grossman film, the cast becomes a living mimesis of how Darby Crash completely transformed the L.A. punk scene, by sacrificing everyone he loved, his career, and ultimately his life.

ADOPT A SAILOR

Directed by Charles Evered
Starring Bebe Neuwirth, Peter Coyote, and Ethan Peck

Adopt a Sailor tells the story of a sophisticated New York couple who have signed up to “adopt a sailor,” during Fleet Week, only to have completely forgotten they’ve done so by the time he shows up at their doorstep. His presence not only throws their schedules off kilter, but brings a shift to their very outlook of the world outside their apartment. The simple dinner that follows evolves into something deeper: an evaluation of the lives of three people.

Charles Evered’s directorial debut explores the relationship between a dissatisfied couple and the exterior world revealed by a stranger that becomes a part of their surrogate family. Evered based the film on the dichotomy of his own life as a sailor and a writer: “Adopt a Sailor was born out of my own experience, living as I was, at the intersection of two distinct worlds: the world I inhabited part time as a sailor, and the world I inhabit everyday as a writer.” The result is a dinner of obligation that builds into a feast of revelation.

EYEBORGS

Directed by Richard Clabaugh
Starring Megan Blake and Adrian Paul

Are government surveillance cameras, intended to keep us safe, actually killing people? Is it a plot by the government to suppress the opposition, or have our terrorist enemies secretly gained control of our security system and are now using it against us?

Following another major terrorist attack the U.S. initiates an intense government surveillance program in which every camera in the country is linked into a single, all-seeing network called the ODIN system (Optical Defense Intelligence Network). The system includes millions of mobile, robotic surveillance cameras known as "Eyeborgs" which watch everyone for suspicious behavior, all in the name of security, law enforcement and keeping America safe.

An agent for the Department of Homeland Security grows suspicious of the system after a series of odd murders in which the physical evidence doesn't match up to what the video records show. Now he must work outside the system to find out who is really controlling the Eyeborgs. With the help of a broadcast journalist and a purple-haired punk rocker who turns out to be the President's nephew, he must stop a plot to assassinate the President during the final debate of the election.

THE DEAL

Directed by Steven Schachter
Starring William H. Macy, Meg Ryan and LL Cool J

His career in an uncontrollable downward spiral, a hapless Hollywood producer cons a major studio into financing a $100 million action film following the adventures of the 19th-century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, only to find his swindle taking a sudden turn for the worse when his star is kidnapped and the production is shut down. Now left with few other options for resuscitating his flat-lining career, the producer aligns himself with a well-connected Hollywood studio executive in a clandestine attempt to finance another, wholly different film by utilizing the blocked studio funds.

William H. Macy and Meg Ryan star in The Wool Cap director Steven Schachter’s comic look at the twisted side of Hollywood politics. The Deal first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and screened at other regional film festivals such as Sarasota. This tongue-in-cheek romp revels in sending up Hollywood stereotypes – zealous star, histrionic director, slippery suits – and even the notion that it’s possible to make a meaningful movie.
 

JUST BURIED

Directed by Chaz Thorne
Starring Rose Byrne, Jay Baruchel, and Graham Greene 

The young heir to a family funeral home discovers that death can be quite a tricky business in first-time feature filmmaker Chaz Thorne’s blackly comic tale of fate and formaldehyde. Oliver (Jay Baruchel) has just been called home to attend the funeral of his father. Having not seen his recently deceased dad for some years now, Oliver is somewhat taken aback to learn that he has been chosen as the one to inherit the family funeral home. Oliver learns from the handyman Henry that the home is on the verge of bankruptcy. That night, he takes a drunken drive with the bewitching embalmer Roberta and collides with a hiker. Roberta cleverly disguises the fatality as an accident, providing Oliver with his first paying customer and launching the duo onto a merciless killing spree that evolves from accidental to intentional.

As they scramble to stay out of jail and keep the funeral home in business, the body count rises. With his business and love life blossoming, Oliver gains confidence -- until he finds he has dug a grave for himself too deep to escape.

FULL GROWN MEN

Directed by David Munro
Starring Matt McGrath, Judah Friedlander, Alan Cumming, Amy Sedaris and Deborah Harry

Set in a stylized yet familiar landscape of Americana, this whimsical cautionary tale follows Alby Cutrera (Matt McGrath), a 35-year-old husband and father who longs to return to the days of his carefree boyhood, when his only occupation was playing with his action figures. Desperate to escape the confines of adulthood and return to his halcyon days, Alby tracks down his childhood whipping boy Elias (Judah Friedlander), and persuades him to take a road trip to Diggityland – their favorite childhood theme park.

As the dynamic duo motors along Florida’s tatty Orange Blossom Highway, they encounter a cast of tragicomic creatures, including an AWOL ex-theme park employee turned commando hitchhiker (Alan Cumming), an oversexed bartending clown-in-training (Amy Sedaris), and a trailer-dwelling delusional mermaid (Deborah Harry). Calamity and mayhem ensue, as Alby and Elias’ sentimental trip down memory lane becomes an unsolicited lesson in the perils of living in the past.

BRIGHT STAR

Directed by Jane Campion
Starring Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw

London, 1818: a secret love affair begins between 23-year-old English poet John Keats and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne, an outspoken student of fashion. The unlikely pair is first at odds: he thinking her a stylish minx, she unimpressed by literature in general. It is not until the illness of Keats’ younger brother that they are drawn together. Keats, touched by Fanny’s compassion, agrees to teach her poetry.

By the time Fanny’s alarmed mother and Keats’ best friend Brown realize their attachment, the relationship has an unstoppable momentum. Intensely and helplessly absorbed in each other, the young lovers are swept into powerful new sensations. Together they ride a wave of romantic obsession that deepens as their troubles mount. Only Keats’ illness proves insurmountable.

Roger Ebert from the Chicago Sun Times says of the film: “What Campion does is seek visual beauty to match Keat’s verbal beauty. There is a shot here of Fanny in a meadow of blue flowers that is so enthralling it beggars description.” Ms. Campion, with her restless camera movements and off-center close ups, films history in the present tense, and her wild vitality makes this movie romantic in every possible sense of the word.

TAKING WOODSTOCK

Directed by Ang Lee
Starring Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Liev Schreiber, Imelda Staunton, Eugene Levy and Paul Dano

Director Ang Lee, best known for Brokeback Mountain, his 2006 Oscar-winning film, has left behind cowboys and brought in hippies for his new film, Taking Woodstock. The year is 1969. Change is brewing in America, and the energy in Greenwich Village is palpable. Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) has returned to his hometown of Catskills, NY, to help his parents rescue what is left of their financially meager motel, El Monaco. The young interior designer’s attention is captured by news of a high-profile concert that has recently lost its permit from the nearby town of Wallkill.

Emboldened by the burgeoning gay rights movement helping him come to terms with his homosexual identity, Tiber phones producer Michael Lang (Jonathan Groff) at Woodstock Ventures and offers boarding to the harried concert crew at the family motel. The Woodstock Ventures staff begins arriving in droves, and half a million concertgoers make their way to Max Yasgur’s (Eugene Levy) adjacent farm in White Lake, NJ, to witness the counterculture celebration that would ultimately make history as one of the greatest events in the annals of rock and roll.

Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage through a standout score of ‘60s musical icons, colorful acid trips, and nude hippies to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.

FROST/NIXON: THE COMPLETE INTERVIEWS

The legendary interview between British TV host David Frost and former president Richard Nixon in 1977 was a groundbreaking moment in American politics. Assembled from over 28 hours of footage, this candid conversation, comparable to a verbal boxing match, ended with the weary, impeached leader ultimately accepting guilt for the Watergate scandal.

Broadcast in four 90-minute programs, the interviews were seen as an enormous risk both for Mr. Frost, who was gambling with his money and future, and for the presidentially-pardoned Nixon, who was seeking absolution, but risked further public humiliation. Even more intriguing is the fact that Nixon agreed to appear on camera with no pre-interview preparation or screening of questions, which resulted in perhaps the most compelling and honest interview ever recorded with a president.

The famed tête-à-tête became the basis for the play FROST/NIXON and is also the subject of a major motion picture directed by Ron Howard. Frost/Nixon: The Complete Interviews is a riveting historical time capsule recording an epic moment in American television and politics.

JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK

 Directed by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg

In 1965, on the Tonight Show, Johnny Carson predicted Joan Rivers would be “a star”— and a star she became. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work was nominated for Best Documentary by the National Board of Review and was featured at the Sundance, Tribeca, HotDocs, and Seattle International film festivals. The documentary delves into the tumultuous times of Joan’s past, what made her the starlet she is, and follows her into the daily life of a woman who certainly is a ‘piece of work’.

Joan Rivers knows comedy; she’s the hilarious stand-up comedian who’s not afraid of what people think. With the right balance of truth and risqué attributes, Joan even reveals an entire file system containing her infinite jokes! There are countless layers to this brilliant, witty, and charming woman that people have been unaware of—until now.

The audience gets to witness her tenacious work ethic first-hand and will find it both admirable and tireless since she’ll take any job. Even with her enormous work load she still finds time to be charitable and care deeply for her family. Ladies and gentlemen, you get it all in her documentary. She’s brutally honest with the public, considering herself no exception. All joking aside, it’s extremely refreshing to see who Joan Rivers really is.

LOOKING FOR ERIC

Directed by Ken Loach

Looking for Eric, an Official Selection of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, centers around Eric Bishop who is stuck in a roundabout within his life. He’s got unappreciative stepsons, an unfulfilling job, and the regret of abandoning the love of his life. His regret becomes an affliction which plagues him to answer the age old question—fight or flight?

 Eric decides to fight. The story is set in Manchester, England, and appeals to a palette of interests. It has soccer, a complicated love story, and a wide array of comedic elements. How will Eric cope with his issues? With a little help from his idol, Manchester United legend Eric Cantona, and a bus full of friends Eric proves that it is never too late to find yourself.

Best Supporting Actor in the 2009 British Independent Film Awards went to John Henshaw for his work in this Cannes Film Festival Favorite. From legendary director Ken Loach, known for  Riff Raff and The Wind That Shakes the Barley, comes a new dark comedy that masterfully mixes the sentimentality of human emotions and succeeds in winning every heart in the audience.

PAPER MAN

Directed by Kieran Mulroney and Michele Mulroney

Imaginary friends exist to a child until they realize it’s time to grow up. Ryan Reynolds, known for his roles in Van Wilder, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Adventureland, stars as “Captain Excellent” who is Richard’s (Jeff Daniels) imaginary friend and spends his time trying to guide Richard down the right path. Richard feels his wife, “the doctor” (Lisa Kudrow) is cold and emotionally detached. He wanted to have a child, yet those wishes were never realized. Slowly he begins to regard “his solitude as something sacred.”

Richard never listens, even when Captain Excellent warns him against hiring a lonely teenage girl named Abby (Emma Stone) to babysit. Abby also has an imaginary friend named Christopher (Kieran Culkin). Richard has no children, but he is still a child himself and therefore needs his own babysitter.

Despite the oddities of the situation, Richard and Abby become great friends and their friendship changes them both. They begin to discover that friendship is about reaching another person outside of yourself and taking joy in it. At one time Richard and Abby only wanted to be alone with their imaginary friends, but they come to realize that it is time to grow up and let go of them. By the end of the film the audience knows both characters will be forever changed by the beauties of their relationship.

THESPIANS

Directed by Warren Skeels

This feature-length documentary motion picture, “a festival darling”, tracks four Florida high school troupes; Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, Alexander Dreyfoos School of the Arts, Stanton College Prep, and Dr. Phillips High School, prepare for the largest high school theatre competition in the world. From memorizing lines to getting into the head of their characters these young actors and actresses are able to dazzle a crowd.

Through their performances, these remarkable teenagers learn life lessons such as disappointment, success, strategy, and the satisfied feeling one gets when they give one hundred-and-ten percent. Warren Skeels makes Thespians an impressive and outstanding directorial debut as he tracts the lives of these artists through the mirror of the camera lens.

Immerse yourself in this journey and watch how these young actors put in countless hours of preparation and turn coal into diamonds for a spectacular show and a behind the scenes look at what happens before the curtain comes up.

Fangoria® FrightFest™

 You know that feeling when your hairs are standing on end, you are paralyzed, and asking yourself what could be hiding in the dark?

It’s one of the eight FANGORIA® FRIGHTFEST’s™ films: The Tomb, The Haunting, Fragile, Hunger, Dark House, Pig Hunt, Grimm Love, and Road Kill. Each film grazes on a sub-genre of horror making sure that each audience members horror interests are satisfied.

 The students of The Torchlight Program worked on this online campaign, promoting the trailers virally through Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube. Users viewed and rated the eight horror trailers. The film with the highest average rating won a limited theatrical release. Participants in the rating were entered into a giveaway contest to win a trip to Las Vegas on Halloween 2010 and a three year subscription to Fangoria® Magazine.

The thriller Dark House, directed by Darin Scott, won with the highest ratings and played theatrically on July 30th, 2010 in Dallas, TX; New York, NY; and San Francisco, CA. Dark House follows the tragic murder of seven children. Years later, an unknowing business man, Walston (Jeffrey Combs), fills the house with revolutionary haunted attractions. A group of college kids who work the attraction will never be the same after they discover the holograms come alive after hours.

SAINT JOHN OF LAS VEGAS

 Directed by Hue Rhodes

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Well, not necessarily all of the time. Golden Globe nominee Steve Buscemi stars as John, a compulsive gambler, who has had enough of rolling the dice in his life.

John decides to leave Las Vegas and live a normal life in Albuquerque at an auto insurance company. Things seem to be going well at his new job until he is sent on an investigation of a dubious car accident outside of Vegas. Together with Virgil (Romany Malco), John sets out on his road trip. Twice nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and MTV’s Best Breakthrough Performance for his role in The 40 Year Old Virgin as well as his skilled acting in Blades of Glory and The Love Guru, Romany Malco brings his acting expertise to the screen in Saint John of Las Vegas.

John is leery to be so close to what tempts him, but with the promise of a promotion in the midst, he can’t resist even though he strikes up a romance with his outlandish co-worker Jill (Sarah Silverman) before he leaves. The sassy, quick witted actress and comedian takes the stage and adds an interesting take to this dark comedy. While on his road trip to Vegas, John goes on a journey and learns that your problems won’t diminish if you run from them.

Collapse

Directed by Chris Smith

The documentary Collapse, an Official Selection of the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, follows Michael Ruppert, a former LAPD narcotics investigator turned independent reporter. Rupert was able to anticipate the current financial crisis in his self-published newsletter, From the Wilderness, and his findings are explored in this sensational documentary.

His obsession to solve the puzzle and piece together our population, economics, and energy issues resulted in alarming evidence for the impending disappearance of the global oil supply. Collapse forces the audience to consider what will happen if substitutes like ethanol and clean coal prove to be nothing more than pipe dreams.

From director Chris Smith, also known for The Yes Men and American Movie, comes insight into a man accused of being a conspiracy theorist and a lunatic— but is he crazy or a genius? Shot in the basement of an abandoned meatpacking plant in downtown Los Angeles over the course of two days, Collapse may be described as an ‘intellectual horror movie’. The audience realizes, as the film progresses, that we might all be responsible for what may be the largest preventable holocaust in our history.

Scar 3D

Directed by Jed Weintrob

Using cutting edge RealD technology, Scar 3D made history by being the first stereoscopic 3D feature length film available for Video-On-Demand. Directed by Jed Weintrob, whose movie On_Line won Best Feature at Cinequest San Jose Film Festival, Scar 3D takes the audience into the horrifying past and present of Joan Burrows (Angela Bettis). 

Returning to her hometown in Ovid, Colorado for her niece’s graduation, Joan has to confront her sixteen-year-old trauma of being kidnapped with her best friend, who was tormented and tortured to death in the basement of a morgue. During her return to Ovid, her niece’s friends start to disappear, leaving behind only gory clues, striking fear in Joan that her best friend’s killer has come back. 

Angela Bettis received a Silver Raven award for her acting at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film and is known for her role in Girl, Interrupted. In Scar 3D, Bettis brings to life a story that will either have the audience sitting on the edge of their seats or running for the door in fear. 

The Freebie

Directed by Katie Aselton

From director and actress Katie Aselton, known for her involvement in Cyrus and The Puffy Chair, comes The Freebie, a 2010 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection. The students of The Torchlight Program promoted the film’s weekend screening in Los Angeles at the Nuart Theatre, which included a Q & A with Aselton and her male lead, Dax Shepard. Known for his roles in Without a Paddle and Employee of the Month, Shepard brings the audience a moving performance to be remembered.

The Freebie focuses on a young couple, Annie and Darren, who decide to give each other a night off from their exclusive relationship -- no questions asked. It isn’t that they don’t love spending time together or find each other attractive, but still, they haven’t made love in months. Hoping their plan will reinstate some spark back into their marriage they decide to have a one-night experiment in infidelity.

The Freebie takes contemporary sexual ideals and spins them in order to paint an incontrovertible picture of the way dangerous thoughts can turn into destructive actions if given the right traction. 

Attack on Darfur

Directed by Uwe Boll

Attack on Darfur, winner of Best International Film at the 2010 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, skillfully puts the audience face to face with the reality of the humanitarian crisis taking place in the Darfur region of Sudan. The film focuses on a group of American journalists and African Union peacekeepers as they travel to a small village to interview villagers and document their tortured daily lives. Determined to make a difference, the Western journalists do their best to prevent a massacre. 

Kristanna Loken, known for her role in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and winner of the New York International Film & Video Festival for Best Supporting Actress in Lime Salted Love, plays the part of Malin. Loken’s character is both gentle and comforting to the women villagers as they relive the horrors they’ve had to experience. Including Billy Zane, winner of the Blockbuster Entertainment Award for his role in Titanic, and Edward Furlong, well known for his role in Terminator 2: Judgement Day and American History X, the superb cast of Attack on Darfur is just as powerful as the message it sends to the audience. 

Fragile

Directed by Jaume Balagueró

Winner of the Barcelona Film Award for Best Cinematography and Audience Award at the Gérardmer Film Festival, Fragile is a chilling story centered on Mercy Falls Children’s Hospital. As one of the eight horror films of the FANGORIA® FRIGHTFEST™ collection, Fragile thrills the audience with a hair-raising plot and acclaimed acting. 

Elena Anaya was nominated for Best Actress for her role in Fragile at the Barcelona Film Awards and won the Directors’ Week Award for Best Actress at Fantasporto. Along with Calista Flockhart, winner of a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series for her role in Ally McBeal, these actresses make up some of the renowned cast. 

Amy (Calista Flockhart) is hired as a replacement nurse when Susan quits due to unexplained occurrences during her graveyard shift. Amy comes to learn that the bumps in the night weren’t from the aging building, but from the ghost of a young girl. Nominated for Best Director at the Barcelona Film Awards, Jaume Balagueró expertly leads the audience through the story as it follows Amy while she desperately tries to keep the children safe from a swarm of random and cruel attacks. 

The Tomb

Directed by Michael Staininger

From the twisted mind of Edgar Allen Poe and the writer and producer of The Crow comes The Tomb, a film about eternal life and the lengths someone will go to obtain it. The plot focuses on writer and scholar Jonathan Merrick (Wes Bentley) as he falls prey to a beautiful woman named Ligeia who is fighting a life-threatening illness. 

Ligeia is hell-bent on defeating death, and tricks Jonathan into helping her steal souls. Wes Bentley, winner of Most Promising Actor for his role in American Beauty from the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, plays the role of a man slowly driven to his breaking point by Ligeia’s long-lasting presence. The Tomb includes the acting skills of Eric Roberts, known for his involvement in The Dark Knight and a nominee for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Michael Madsen, winner of the Jury Award for Best Actor in a Feature at the Mount Shasta International Film Festival and known for his roles in Kill Bill and Reservoir Dogs, also stars in this eerie illustration of immortality. 

Road Kill

Directed by Dean Francis

Winner of the Special Jury Award at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, Road Kill is a supernatural thriller staring a group of teenagers who are haunted through the Australian outback by an unmanned road train. Hoping to have a carefree fun camping trip, the foursome sets out, but on the highway they come across a massive truck that rams them off the road and totals their vehicle. They hijack the seemingly unmanned truck while trying to make it out of the outback, only to discover they might not be as alone as they thought.

Xavier Samuel, known for his role in Twilight: Eclipse, and Sophie Lowe, nominated for Best Lead Actress from the Australian Film Institute for her role in Beautiful Kate, play the  frightened, stranded youth. Samuel and Lowe enact their roles so impressively the audience can’t help but feel like they are also trapped in this horrifying situation.

Pig Hunt

Directed by James Isaac

James Isaac won the Jury award for Best Director from the Chicago Horror Film Festival for Pig Hunt. This dark and comic horror film is not only fresh, but shocking, and unforgettable. The movie follows John and a group of friends from San Francisco who take a trip to his uncle’s ranch to hunt wild pigs, but this typical guys weekend takes a horrifying turn the farther they trek into the forest. The legend of The Ripper, a three-thousand-pound black boar out for blood, leads John and his friends through fields and muddy landscape where they encounter vengeful rednecks, the bloodthirsty Tibbs Brothers, and a cult known for worshiping The Ripper. 

Pig Hunt showcases both new and established actors who take this astonishing plot to a new level. Jason Foster, known for his role in Rent, as well as Nick Tagas, known for American Yearbook are two of the many talented actors who make up the cast. By the time Pig Hunt fades to black on the big screen, not only are the characters scathed, but so are the audience members. 

Hunger 

Directed by Steven Hentges

How far would you go to survive? How willing are you to lose your humanity? These questions and their answers are explored in Steven Hentges’ film Hunger. Five strangers wake up and find themselves trapped in a dungeon underground. They become the subjects of a ruthless experiment where they are starved to the point of no return and must make a choice to let their humanity fade away to satisfy their hunger and survive. 

One of the five strangers, Jordan, is played by actress Lori Heuring, winner of Best of the Fest at Breckenridge Festival of Film and known for Wicked Little Things and Anger Management. Heuring brings her confidence and crisp energy to the screen along with the rest of the cast. Director Steven Hentges, winner of a Jury Award for his work on Talk to You Later at the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival, makes this haunting exploration of humanity a dark treat for audiences everywhere. 

Grimm Love

Directed by Martin Weisz

Based on the true story of a man in Germany who ate another man who willingly sacrificed himself, Grimm Love takes its audience into a world where lifestyles are questioned and emotions run wild. Winner of the Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Silver and Gold at Cinénygma- Luxembourg International Film Festival and the Sweden Fantastic Film Festival, Grimm Love follows a graduate student named Katie Armstrong (Keri Russell) who researches a cannibal killer for her thesis.

Keri Russell, Golden Globe winner and known for her role in August Rush, plays the role of Katie. Russell’s character is matched with cannibal Oliver Hartwin (Thomas Kretschmann). Nominated for Best Actor at the European Film Awards and winner of Best Actor for his role in Grimm Love at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival, Kretschmann brings his artistry to the screen in this challenging role. The audience watches as Katie becomes obsessed with Oliver and slowly finds herself falling into a similar lifestyle.

The Haunting 

Directed by Elio Ouiroga

The Haunting follows Francesca (Ana Torrent), a pediatrician who has dedicated herself to her family. After the birth of her child, she begins to experience a severe case of postpartum depression and her husband Pedro (Francisco Boira) believes moving to a new home away from their city life would help heal Francesca. However, she only falls deeper into her despair and comes close to losing her mind when shadows and figures start to creep from the corners of the house to torment her. 

Ana Torrent, nominated for a Barcelona Film Award for Best Actress and known for her role in The Other Boleyn Girl, challenges herself and masterfully takes on the role of a woman on the brink of madness. Director Eli Ourioga, nominated for a Golden Raven for Fotos at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film, is able to expertly bring Francesca and Pedro’s house of horrors to life for the audience. 

Dark House

Directed by Darin Scott

The thriller Dark House, directed by Darin Scott, won the Fangoria FrightFest competition with the highest ratings and played theatrically on July 30^th, 2010 in Dallas, TX; New York, NY; and San Francisco, CA. Dark House explores the tragic murder of seven children. Years later, an unknowing businessman, Walston (Jeffrey Combs), fills the house with revolutionary haunted attractions. A group of college kids who work the attraction will never be the same after they discover the holograms come alive after hours. 

The impressive staff consists of Diane Salinger, known for her role in Batman Returns; Matt Cohen, known for Boogey Man 2 and Chain Letter; Shelly Cole, known for Gilmore Girls and Art School Confidential. The actors descend upon the Darrode house and it slowly becomes the site of a new massacre that rivals the one that took place there in the past.  

White Irish Drinkers

Directed by John Gray

White Irish Drinkers, an Official Selection of the 2010 Toronto and Torino Film Festivals, transports the audience to 1975 Brooklyn and into the lives of two brothers involved in a string of petty crimes. Taking home the Audience Award at the 2010 Woodstock Film Festival and claiming a place as a finalist for the 2010 Gotham Festival Genius Award, this coming of age tale explores and challenges family values unlike any other movie.

Nick Thurston, known for his role in Reviving Ophelia, plays eighteen-year-old Brian Leary, who doesn’t want to be a criminal, but is torn by his loyalty to his blue-collar roots. As he tries to forge a way for himself, he opens up to his talents and reconsiders his dreams. Among the adept cast sits Geoffrey Wigdor, nominated for a Young Artist Award for his role in Sleepers and Stephen Lang, an actor of esteemed recognition. Lang’s accomplishments include a Tony-nominated performance for his Broadway role in The Speed of Darkness, and also his role in Avatar for which he won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated Best Villain at the MTV Movie Awards.

Director John Gray, winner of a Primetime Emmy for The Hunley, masterfully teases the audience into a quiet reflection where they empathize with the situations presented in the film. The captivating and cohesive exploration of freedom and fate creates a wonderfully set scene for dynamic character development.

White Wedding

Directed by Jann Turner

It’s a race against time for Elvis (Kenneth Nkosi) as he makes his way from Johannesburg to Cape Town for his own wedding. Winner of the Audience Award at the Mill Valley Film Festival and an Official Selection of the Palm Springs International Film Festival, White Wedding is a heart-warming South African cinematic piece that takes the audience on a road trip they’ll never forget.

Shot in South Africa’s enchantingly beautiful landscape, White Wedding’s audience enjoys a talented and colorful cast. Kenneth Nkosi is known for his role in District 9 and Tsotsi, winner of the 2006 Academy Award for best Foreign Language Film of the Year. Elvis’ best man Tumi, played by Rapulana Seiphemo, won Best Actor at the Durban International Film Festival and the Ouagadougou Panafrican Film and Television Festival for his role in Gangsters Paradise: Jerusalema. He is also known for his role in Tsotsi and Tarzan and the Lost City. Last but not least, Jodie Whittaker, who plays stranded traveler Rose, was nominated for Most Promising Newcomer at the British Independent Film Awards and recipient of a Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical for her role in Venus.

When everything that could go wrong does, it seems like all hope is lost for Elvis. After picking up Rose along the way the unexpected and hilarious trio fight back against the obstacles that threaten their happiness.

Fubar: Balls to the Wall

Directed by Michael Dowse

Recently presented at the SXSW Film Conference and Festival, Fubar II: Balls to the Wall follows in the prequel’s footsteps and is truly a hit mockumentary. The film was nominated for Genie Awards in Best Achievement in Art Direction / Production Design, Best Achievement in Music, and Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role.

The film follows Terry Cahill (David Lawrence) and Dean Murdoch (Paul Spence) as they transition from their partying lifestyles into the workforce as Oil Pipeliners in Fort McMurray. It all starts with Dean’s party to celebrate his five testicular cancer free years where he sets fire to their house and leaves them both homeless. When Terry and Dean learn about the sweet cash they could earn working in oil, its time to “give’r”.

Michael Dowse, winner of the Audience Award and Best Feature Award at the Gen Art Film Festival and Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival for It’s All Gone Pete Tong and director of the comedy Take Me Home Tonight makes sure this comedy is always stirring up some laughs.

How to Live Forever

Directed by Mark S. Wexler

Mark Wexler is known for producing films that explore complex relationships not only with candor, but also with wit. His skill as a documentary filmmaker has won him an Audience Award for Best Documentary at Slamdance Film Festival for Me and My Matchmaker. In How to Live Forever the audience is taken on one man’s search to find the secret to eternal life.

Prompted by his mother’s death, Wexler began to take into account his own mortality and the result became an eye-opening and hilarious documentary. From roaming the floor of a funeral directors convention in Las Vegas to getting advice from 94-year-old fitness legend Jack Lalanne, Wexler’s pilgrimage for life extension became an examination of the things that truly give life meaning — identity, love, and family.

The film introduces the audience to a bright and animated cast including Buster Martin, a marathon-running, chain-smoking, beer-drinking 101-year-old employee of Pimlico Plumbers along with Suzanne Somers, Phyllis Diller, and many others. Sherwin B. Nuland, surgeon and author of How We Die, even goes head-to-head with Aubrey de Grey, biogerontologist and author of Ending Aging, in a debate focused on the necessity of death. How to Live Forever proves to be a treat for anyone who will find themselves aging one day.

STRANGE FRAME: LOVE & SAX

Directed By GB Hajim

Starring Claudia Black, Tara Strong, Ron Glass, Cree Summer, Tim Curry, Alan Tudyk, MichaelDorn, Claudia Christian, George Takei

It is the 29th Century. Humanity has spread across the solar system and reinvented itself to mesh with its new environment. Space piracy abounds in the asteroid belt and yet a totalitarian regime holds a tight grip in the Joves. Mars is a playground of mutations that harken back to a time of elves and faeries. The Saturians seem to be all about ecstacy while further out the mining claves just try to survive. Love &Sax is the first film of the Strange Frame quadrilogy, a labor of love between musician Shelley Doty and director GB Hajim. The sci-fi musical utilizes a unique cutout animation style and has provided high school students in Hawaii a creative outlet not easily replicated elsewhere. Florida State University’sTorchlight Program organized an audience participation screening hosted by Jeff “The Dude” Dowd at the Student Life Center.

VIVA RIVA!

Directed by DjoTunda Wa Munga

Starring Patsha Bay, Manie Malone, Hoji Fortuna

He who has the gold makes the rules. In VivaRiva!, the gold is fuel. Riva is a small time operator who has just returned to his hometown of Kinshasa, Congo with a major score: a fortune in hijacked petrol. With wads of cash and a hedonistic streak, Riva is soon entranced by the beautiful femme fatale Nora, the kept woman of a local gangster. Riva tends to get on the bad side of some very bad people. And his Angolan crime lord ex-boss is not far behind, relentlessly, ruthlessly seeking the return of a certain stolen shipment of gasoline. Director Djo Tunda Wa Munga has created something Shakespearean and noirish here that is a gutpunch addition to the gangster genre. His Kinshasa is a seductively vibrant, lawless, gas-starved sprawl of shantytowns, gated villas, bordellos and nightclubs. And his characters are trying to escape, by any means necessary. VivaRiva! won in six categories at the African Movie Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and also took home the inaugural Best African Movie trophy at the MTV Movie Awards.

BRIDE FLIGHT

Directed by Ben Sombogaart

Starring Karina Smulders, Anna Drijver, Elise Schaap, Waldemar Torenstra, Rutger Hauer

A forbidden love, an impossible choice, a secret pact. Eager to escape the damp and suffocating atmosphere of post-war Holland, Dutch beauties Marjorie, Ada, and Esther meet each other on the immigration flight to New Zealand, en route to join their future husbands, who are already settled there. During the flight, the three young women befriend Frank, a young man who is also immigrating to seek a prosperous life in New Zealand. In their early years in this new country, the lives of Marjorie, Esther, Ada, and Frank become entangled in brief relationships of love, lust, and family before losing touch. It is only when the women reunite again fifty years later at Frank’s funeral that they discover how much their lives had become intertwined through their different relationships with Frank. Inspired by the true story of the Last Great Air Race from London to Christchurch in October 1953, the KLM aircraft that won the race carried 40 Dutch immigrants to New Zealand. Most of them were young women on their way to join their fiancés already settled in their new country, and the international press gave the KLM flight the pet name “Bride Flight.” Bride Flight received the Golden Film Award at the Dutch Film Awards.

MIDNIGHT MOVIE

Directed by Jack Messitt

Starring Rebekah Brandes, Daniel Bonjour, Greg Cirulnick, Mandell Maughan

At a rundown theatre in a sleepy suburban town, a group of friends get together for a midnight screening of an early 1970s cult slasher film. What they do not know is that the director/star of the film has something more in store for them than just a movie. While he is thought to have perished five years earlier in a psych ward massacre, the detective and doctor who witnessed the aftermath of the bloodbath suspect that the director was not a victim, but the perpetrator of the killings and still on the loose. What none of them understand is that he has enshrined his soul into the film itself. As the film starts, the kids heckle the old black-and-white scenes, but are jolted when the movie’s gruesome killer butchers one of their friends on screen with an oversized corkscrew. They realize that it is not the prank that they had hoped it was as they soon become the stars of the very movie they are watching on the screen. Caught between the world of reality and the screen’s flickering shadows, these unsuspecting viewers fight to stay alive in the locked theatre. What Fangoria Magazine called “perfect fear fare,” Midnight Movie was augmented with enhanced effects and extended scenes for The Killer Cut DVD.

WILD HORSE, WILD RIDE

Directed by Alex Dawson and Greg Gricus

Every year, thousands of wild horses are rounded up and removed from public lands by the U.S. Government. All will need permanent homes. None have ever been touched by a human hand. WildHorse, Wild Ride tells the story of the Extreme Mustang Makeover Challenge, an annual contest that dares 100 people to each tame a completely wild mustang in order to get it adopted into a better life beyond federal corrals. Alex Dawson and Greg Gricus’ debut feature documentary chronicles a handful of unforgettable characters from their first uneasy meeting with their horses and over three months as they attempt to transform from scared strangers to the closest of companions. All will converge in Fort Worth, Texas, to compete against each other and offer the horses up for adoption at an auction in which the trainers, if they wish to keep their horses, must bid against the public. From the rolling hills of New Hampshire to the Navajo Nation to the heart of Cowboy Country, the film traverses across theUnited States to tell stories, both heartwarming and heartbreaking, of the profound bonds that can develop between people and animals. Wild Horse, Wild Ride was named a 2011 official selection to Hot Docs in Toronto, a top ten audience favorite, and won the Documentary Feature Audience Award at the 2011 Dallas Film Festival.

JIG

Directed by Sue Bourne

The story of the 40th Irish Dancing World Championships. Two years in the making, Jig represents the first time the controlling body of competitive Irish dance has ever allowed an outsider to film this fiercely competitive world. Sue Bourne discovers wonderfully diverse characters of all ages from the United States, Holland, England, Ireland, Scotland and Russia, performing in what is a hot bed of dedication, hard work, obsession, and passion. When it comes to the final competition, the rivalry between the contestants escalates as the film reaches its nail-biting climax. Jig was named a 2011 official selection to Hot Docs in Toronto.  And its promotion broke a Guinness World Record for the longest Riverdance line, with 652 participants.

DISLECKSIA: THE MOVIE

Directed by Harvey Hubbell V

  In this lighthearted and informative documentary, Dislecksia: The Movie, featuring Billy BobThornton, Joe Pantoliano and Stephen J. Cannell, director Harvey Hubbell V addresses the fact that about one American in seven has some degree of dyslexia. It's a condition that makes it hard to learn to read the same way other people do. With some special techniques, taught or self-invented, most dyslexics can learn to function normally. Hubbell, who is himself dyslexic — with assistance from dyslexic writer Jeremy Brecher and several dyslexic crew members – will present the latest scientific knowledge about dyslexia and the experiences of dyslexics. Viewers will come to know dyslexics — and those who teach them and study them — not just as statistics or talking heads but as people. And they'll know a lot about dyslexia: its causes, its effects, and what can be done about it. Dislecksia: The Movie is currently in post-production with a predicted 2012 release. Florida State University’s Torchlight Program organized an audience participation screening and a Q&A with director Harvey Hubbell V and producer Eric Gardner in attendance. 

DISCOVER THE GIFT PROJECT - THE MOVIE, THE BOOK, THE MOVEMENT

Created by Demian Lichtenstein and Shajen Joy Aziz

Discover the Gift celebrates the basic but vital reality that there are gifts in every person, and in all circumstances, they are simply awaiting discovery. Framed by the personal narrative of once-estranged siblings Demian Lichtenstein and Shajen Joy Aziz, they describe their own journeys toward joy, power, fulfillment, freedom, and unconditional love. Discover the Gift offers powerful lessons from authors, educators, activists, artists, and icons including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Jack Canfield, Janet Attwood, Terry Tillman, David “Avocado” Wolfe, Michael Bernard Beckwith, Mark Victor Hansen, and Niurka. Its goal is to help people find the power to transform our world.

PROGRAMMING THE NATION?

Directed by Jeff Warrick

Media, politics, and pop culture. Programming the Nation? takes an encompassing look at the history of subliminal messaging in America. According to many authorities, since the late 1950s subliminal content has been tested and delivered through all forms of mass media, including Hollywood filmmakers Alfred Hitchcock and William Friedkin. Even our modern military has been accused of these practices in the "War on Terror" against soldiers and civilians both abroad and at home. The film categorically explores the alleged usage of subliminals in advertising, music, film, television, anti-theft devices, political propaganda, military psychological operations, and advanced weapons development. Director Jeff Warrick makes it his personal mission to determine if these manipulative tactics have succeeded, or if subliminal messaging belongs in the category of what many consider urban legend.

TRESPASS

Directed by Joel Schumacher

Starring Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Ben Mendelsohn, Dash Mihok and Cam Gigandet

What would you do if your house was overrun by murderous intruders - give them what they want or fight back? In this riveting thriller, husband Kyle (Nicolas Cage) and wife Sarah (Nicole Kidman) are brutally attacked by a gang of thugs headed by Ben Mendelsohn. They are after Kyle’s money and will not be swayed by any negotiations. In an artfully crafted web of deception, betrayal and violence, Kyle’s mousey exterior turns into defiance: he is not letting his family die. Director Joel Schumacher does a stellar job of bringing back the thrill and horror that many suspense movies have lost.

THE LIE

Directed by Joshua Leonard

Starring Joshua Leonard and Jess Weixler

When they first met, Lonnie and Clover were young idealists, but an unplanned baby forced them to flip the script. Lonnie put his music on hold and got a cruddy job. And now Clover is abandoning her activism for an "opportunity" in the corporate world. Drowning in disappointments, Lonnie decides he needs some time off work to reexamine his life. He calls in sick, but his abusive boss demands he show up or get fired. Lonnie panics and tells a shocking lie to justify his absence – and once the lie is out, there's no going back. Now, it's only a matter of time before the grenade he's thrown on his life explodes and Lonnie is suddenly pushed to figure out who he is, what he wants, and just maybe, what it means to be a father. Based on the short story by T.C. Boyle, The Lie is nothing short of heartwarming.

ABOUT FIFTY

Directed by Thomas Johnston

Starring Martin Grey, Drew Pillsbury and Wendie Malick

It is never too late to start over. That is the underlying theme of this great coming-of-age movie about men in their fifties. We meet two long-time golf buddies going through mid life crises for two very different reasons. Adam, going through a trial separation from his wife and Jon, secretly harboring a cancerous tumor, go on a weekend getaway and attain some unexpected results. Adam and Jon play off each other’s sarcasm and make this a comedy with genuine feeling. There is indeed hope and happiness over the hill.

FILMS OF FURY

Directed by Ric Meyers

Based on the book Films of Fury, also written by Ric Meyers, Films of Fury, the movie, is narrated by an animated character comically obsessed with Kung Fu movies.This vivid, action-packed documentary feature reveals the legend, the lore and the loony of the most ridiculously exhilarating films ever made.

Films of Fury traces the genre from its ancient Peking Opera origins to its superhero-powered future, from Enter the Dragon to Kung Fu Panda,with all its greatest stars, including Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, James Bond and Jet Li, and scenes from over 200 of the greatest martial art movies ever made.

THE MAN ON THE TRAIN

Directed by Mary McGuckian

Starring Donald Sutherland and Larry Mullen Jr.

 In this visually dark and poignant drama, a mysterious criminal rolls into a small town with plans to overturn a bank. He unexpectedly meets a retired poetry professor who is drawn to the stranger and invites him to stay in his mansion. When they start to get to know one another things take an unanticipated turn. Captivating to say the least, The Man on the Train is a visually and poetically stunning masterpiece and a fabulous rendition of the French original.

GOOD FOR NOTHING

Directed by Mike Wallis

Starring Cohen Holloway, Inge Rademeyer and Jon Pheloung

 Good for Nothing is not your typical romance. This unique western is about an outlaw who kidnaps an Englishwoman after he wipes out her protectors right before her eyes. While keeping a band of men who are after him at bay, his plans fall short with his captive.  An unsuspecting love story, director Mike Wallis makes hisd ebut with this luscious film and shows that you can have a refreshing new twist on old westerns.

PUNCTURE

Directed by Adam Kassen and Mark Kassen

Starring Chris Evans and Mark Kassen

 Mike Weiss and Paul Danziger are lawyers. Good lawyers, in fact, but there is a conundrum: Mike Weiss is a major drug addict. However it almost seems to make him an even better lawyer, and he and Paul have a thriving though modest law firm. When they are approached by an inventor whose safety syringes are being denied by hospitals because they are under a strict hold by a major industry needle maker, they surprisingly take on the case. Even though Mike and Paul start getting buried by the strongholds in the hospital group purchasing organizations, they continue to fight the good fight. When the case starts to tear them apart and Mike’s drug addiction finally starts to catch up with him, they are left at a harrowing crossroads. Puncture is based on a true story and illustrated in such a gripping light that the story is quite staggeringly engaging. 

My Reincarnation

Directed by Jennifer Fox

Over the course of 20 years, documentarian Jennifer Fox chronicles a not so typical father-son story. My Reincarnation is an epic documentary about the high Tibetan Buddhist Master, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, and his western-born son, Yeshi. Namkhai Norbu thrives as a Buddhist teacher in the West who wants his son to follow in his footsteps, especially since Yeshi is recognized as a reincarnation of a famous spiritual master. However, Yeshi is enticed by the modern world and does not want to be a part of his father’s tradition. Can the father convince his son to carry on their threatened spiritual legacy? Never before has a high Tibetan Master allowed such complete access to his private life and it is doubtful that another ever will. With her signature intimate entry to both family and icons including the Dalai Lama, Fox expertly distills a decades-long drama into a universal story about love, transformation, and destiny.

Finding Joe

Directed by Patrick Solomon

Finding Joe is an exploration of famed Mythologist Joseph Campbell’s studies and their continuing impact on our culture. Through interviews with visionaries from a variety of fields interwoven with enactments of classic tales by a motley group of kids, the film navigates the stages of what Campbell dubbed The Hero’s Journey: the challenges, the fears, the dragons, the battles, and the return home as a changed person. Rooted in deeply personal accounts and timeless stories, Finding Joe shows how Campbell’s work is relevant and essential in today’s world and how it provides a narrative for how to live a fully realized life – or as Campbell would simply state, how to “follow your bliss”.

Snow On Tha Bluff

Directed by Damon Russell

Snow On Tha Bluff is a reality/drama film featuring real Atlanta bad boy and crack dealer Curtis Snow. This film is like nothing seen before when Snow steals a video camera from some college kids and begins to make a movie about his life. Snow lives in a neighborhood that runs rampant with crime and drugs and Snow is no exception to the fun. While trying to provide for his baby-momma and his son, Snow rips off a rival drug dealer and his life starts to spiral out of control.

How To Grow A Band

Produced by Michael Bohlmann and Mark Meatto

In How To Grow A Band, 26 year-old Chris Thile is at a crossroads. His wife has left him, and his platinum-selling band, Nickel Creek, has gone on indefinite hiatus. But Thile, a perfectionist prodigy who has defied expectations since he picked up the mandolin at age five, has a plan. In this stimulating documentary, the audience gets to see into the lives of some of the most talented musicians who can play a 45 minute, four-movement bluegrass-esque elegy and look good doing it. Chris Thile and the newly dubbed band The Punch Brothers take risks and create a whole new genre of music all while playing with their hearts on their sleeves. How To Grow A Band explores the tensions between individual talents and group identity, art and commerce, innocence and wisdom.

In The Family

Directed by Patrick Wang

In The Family, nominated for a 2012 Best First Feature Spirit Award, is about Chip Hines, a precocious six year old, who has only known life with his two dads, Cody and Joey. And a good life it is in the small town of Martin, Tennessee. But when Cody dies suddenly in a car accident, Joey and Chip struggle to find their footing again. Just as they begin to, Cody's will reveals that he named his sister as Chip's guardian. The years of Joey's acceptance into the family unravel as Chip is taken away from him. In his now solitary home life, Joey searches for a solution. The law is not on his side, but friends are. Armed with their comfort and inspired by memories of Cody, Joey finds a path to peace with the family and closer to his son.

The Assault

Directed by Julien Leclercq

The Assault is an action-packed thriller that accounts the French counter-terrorist offensive where the lives of 227 passengers aboard Air France flight 8969 on Christmas Eve in 1994 were all at risk. Recordings captured during the traumatic event allowed for a dramatic and accurate recreation. The Assault also humanizes the French swat team, GIGN, as they promise their families they will return and shows the terrifying 48 hours that the captives had to endure. The screenplay is based on the book by Roland Martins about the hijacking, which was televised in real time to an audience of 21 million TV viewers. The Assault depicts the gripping suspense of the flight from Algiers to Paris and Jihadists who have a panicked, ill-conceived plan.

The Big Fix

Directed by Joshua Tickell, Rebecca Harrell Tickell

 As part of the Tallahassee Film Festival, The Torchlight Program presented The Big Fix at the AMC 20 on March 22^nd2012. Director Joshua Tickell has a Masters in Film from Florida State University's College of Motion Picture Arts and his film won Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011. The Big Fixis an environmental documentary that explores the root causes of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. It shows the devastation the spill caused and is still causing, and uncovers a vast network of corruption connected with the disaster. The film features Peter Fonda and is executive produced by both Fonda and Tim Robbins.

 Following the showing, Torchlight Program Executive Director Paul Cohen moderated the Q&A with the Tickells to a sold out crowd. They answered questions about the oil spill, what can be done about it and how Rebecca Tickell was directly physically affected by the toxins from the spill.

The FSU Student Veteran Film Festival

HELL AND BACK AGAIN

Honoring Student Veterans and Director Danfung Dennis, Sergeant Nathan Harris and wife Ashley in the documentary Hell and Back Again

 Special Film Screening at Ruby Diamond Concert Hall November 11^th 2011

This one of a kind event was sponsored on Veterans Day by the Collegiate Veterans Association, the College of Motion Picture Arts, the Interfraternity Council and Group Interactive Networks, and included students, alumni, faculty, staff, donors and community members to educate, raise awareness and gather support for the Florida State‘s Veteran initiatives. http://www.fsuvetfilmfest.com/

The College of Motion Picture Arts Torchlight Program Director Paul Cohen invited special guests Director Danfung Dennis, Producer Karol Martesko, Sergeant Nathan Harris and wife Ashley to Florida State University for a special Veterans Day press conference and screening of their documentary Hell and Back Again, followed by a Q&A.They were also invited onto the field to be honored during the FSU vs Miami game.   

What is it like to lead men in the heart of a war? What is it like to come home after the chaos? Perhaps we never would have known without photojournalist and filmmaker Danfung Dennis’s daring trek into Afghanistan to capture the true life of a leader; Dennis put himself on the front line with just a video camera and a slim bulletproof vest to showcase the skills and vigor of Sergeant Nathan Harris.However the story continues when Harris is sent home just weeks before his mission ends, with a bullet in his hip.

Hell and Back Again seamlessly transitions from stunning war reportage to an intimate, visceral portrait of one man’s personal struggle at home in North Carolina, where Harris confronts the physical and emotional difficulties of re-adjusting to civilian life with the love and support of his wife, Ashley. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and the Cinematography Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Hell and Back Again takes you into a world that only valiant war veterans have experienced. 

Torchlight Film Series Cinema 30-A Presents Fuel

Directed by Joshua Tickell

Winner of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and recipient of 11 standing ovations as well as Best Screenwriting and Most Compelling Documentary at the 2008 Sedona Film Festival, Fuel is a documentary that leaves the audience inspired and empowered to work towards making a difference. The Torchlight Program’s director, Paul Cohen, brought a special screening of this awe-inspiring documentary to the beach communities of 30-A. Director and narrator, Josh Tickell, as well as producer, Rebecca Harrell, were present for a Q & A after the screening that proved to be not only enlightening, but an announcement to the upcoming sequel, Spill.

Fuel brings the audience come face-to-face with the reality that we are facing the decline of the primary energy supply that runs our economy. The film strives to promote the awareness of alternative energy sources that will allow us to regain our independence from foreign countries and enlighten the audience that these changes can be made today!

Filled with exceptionally educational interviews from a palette of influential people, Fuel’s credibility and appeal is not only logical, but also emotional. The audience comes to learn that Joshua Tickell, the director and narrator, has a very personal relationship to the oil industry. It has fueled his eleven-year pilgrimage around the world to the find the solution to America’s addiction. From commerce, to military forces, to natural disasters, this film charts the past and future of the one element that drives our world.

Torchlight Film Series Cinema 30-A Presents:

A Conversation about Cinema with Actress Lori Singer

The Torchlight Program at The Florida State University’s Film School continues to bring contemporary cinema to the beach communities of 30-A. This past October, The Torchlight Program’s Director, Paul Cohen, invited beloved actress, dancer, and cellist Lori Singer to the beach for a special Q & A and a screening of selected clips from her works. Lori Singer is an alluring actress full of rare and raw talent. At the Independent Spirit Awards she was nominated Best Female Lead for her role in Trouble in Mind. Ms. Singer has captivated us with her roles in renowned films such as Short Cuts, Footloose, The Falcon and the Snowman, and F.T.W. In all her award winning movies, each film offers distinctively different story lines:

Short Cuts, nominated for an Academy Award, takes the audience into the everyday lives of a number of Los Angeles residents who slowly connect in a masterful collection of short stories. Even though the film contains over twenty actors with substantial roles, it never suffers from an overload of characters and backstories with the sheer amount of cast. Rather, it showcases the skill of each actor and actress, including Lori Singer. 

Footloose follows a city boy as he travels to a small town where dancing and rock music are taboo. Nominated for two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe, and a Grammy, Footloose is a classic tale of rebellion, which entertains the audience with a charming compilation of dance and touching performances by a memorable cast. Ariel Moore (Lori Singer) is the daughter of a minister who is responsible for keeping the town free of dance. Ren McCormack (Kevin Bacon), her co-star, tries to reignite the spirit of the townspeople through dancing and music.

The focus of The Falcon and the Snowman is on the true story of Christopher Boyce, a military contractor, and his drug-pusher friend from childhood who become spies for the Soviet Union. Lori Singer expertly plays the character of Lana. The film follows Christopher and his friend as they realize the massive consequences are not only restricted to them, but to their families. The movie was directed by John Schlesinger, winner of an Academy Award for Best Director for Midnight Cowboy.

F.T.W. centers around the life of Frank T. Wells (Mickey Rourke). Wells has just been released from prison after being convicted of manslaughter. As the film progresses, he meets a bank robber on the run named Scarlett (Lori Singer) and his life is never the same.

In all her roles, Lori Singer has adopted a wide range and expertly executed each character. The Torchlight Series presentation of selected clips from her works truly illustrates her artistic background and future. During the Q & A, moderated by Paul Cohen, Singer discussed her career and the talented members of the filmmaking community that she has had the opportunity to collaborate with thus far. The audience was able to gain insight from an experienced and well-established actress as she reflects on cinema and how she believes filmmaking has evolved from the time she began her career through her most recent film work.

Seven Days of Opening Nights

Geoffrey Gilmore and a Film You Haven’t Seen

Each February, Florida State University spotlights the best in music, theatre, dance, visual art, film, and literature in a steadfast dedication to the arts. Seven Days of Opening Nights has been a hit with the faculty, student body, and community of Tallahassee since its establishment in 1999.

As the Chief Creative Officer of Tribeca Enterprises and former longtime director of the Sundance Film Festival, Geoffrey Gilmore has earned a name as an industry leader and one of the most knowledgeable authorities on independent film. For the past four years he has handpicked a film from the festival circuit to bring to Tallahassee before its release to the general public.

Gilmore’s track record for bringing highly acclaimed and honored movies to Tallahassee has been impeccable. He has presented The Visitor, which merited Richard Jenkins with a nomination for an Academy Award for his performance in the leading role; 500 Days of Summer, a romantic comedy hit in 2009 that was nominated for two Golden Globes; and Blue Valentine, a film that earned Michelle Williams a 2010 nomination for an Academy Award.

Seven Days of Opening Nights 2012

Being Flynn

Directed by Paul Weitz

 This season on February 20th Geoffrey Gilmore brought a gripping movie titled Being Flynn from Sundance 2012 to Tallahassee’s annual Seven Days of Opening Nights for another sold out cinema evening. He also surprised the audience with the film’s director Paul Weitz and producer Andrew Miano. Adapted from Nick Flynn’s 2004 memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, Being Flynn, starring Robert De Niro, Julianne Moore and Paul Dano, is about an estranged father (De Niro) and son (Dano) who the universe has suddenly pushed together again. Between drugs, alcohol, a homeless shelter and literature the two must figure out how to deal with their past as well as their present in a tense and melancholy situation.

Following the showing, Torchlight Program Executive Director Paul Cohen joined Geoffrey Gilmore in a Q&A with the director and producer where discussions of the making of the movie, how the film business is transforming, evolved to a rich contemporary conversation of independent cinema.

Seven Days of Opening Nights 2011

Win Win

Directed by Thomas McCarthy

Gilmore brought 2011 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection Win Win to the silver screen at FSU’s Student Life Center and proved to be a powerful and moving film for the audience. Following depressed and anxious attorney Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) who moonlights as a high school wrestling coach, Win Win shows the viewer that sometimes blood isn’t thicker than water when Flaherty finds himself and his family taking in a star athlete from a troubled home.

After the screening Gilmore and The Torchlight Program’s Director, Paul Cohen, joined in a Q & A where they discussed the current and emerging distribution strategies in the film industry. Gilmore and Cohen’s knowledge of both art and commerce took the direction of the conversation from the future of the film industry into a more contemporary discussion of what strides are currently being employed to further innovate the industry.

Seven Days of Opening Nights 2010

Blue Valentine

Directed by Derek Cianfrance

Blue Valentine stormed the independent cinema world as an Official Selection of the Cannes, Toronto, and Sundance Film Festivals. Nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, this cinematic masterpiece is, without a doubt, unlike any other. Focusing on the raw acting talent of both Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling, director Derek Cianfrance takes his audience into a world where the story’s raw and realistic plot line manages to not only break the viewer’s heart, but piece it back together simultaneously.

Centered around a young married couple, Blue Valentine illustrates Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy’s (Michelle Williams) love in such a way that it reflects the characters' streams of consciousness. The viewer crosscuts through and lands straight into important events that lead up to the decisions the characters make in the final scene. The two are consumed by the harsh realities of life and desperately fight to keep their family together. Coming from dysfunctional, broken homes, neither Dean nor Cindy ever knew what it was like to live peaceful, harmonious lives.

This emotionally fascinating film of a marriage on the rocks is expertly executed by director Derek Cianfrance, who won a Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Filmmaker for his work with Blue Valentine. With two of the strongest actors by his side, no one can deny that Cianfrance creates an unusually powerful film. Ryan Gosling was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in Half Nelson and Michelle Williams was nominated for Academy Awards for her roles in Blue Valentine and Brokeback Mountain. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams have an unquestionable chemistry together.

Seven Days of Opening Nights 2009

500 DAYS OF SUMMER

Directed by Marc Webb
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel

Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel star in director Marc Webb’s wry, nonlinear romantic comedy about a man who falls head over heels for a woman who doesn’t believe in love. The film’s many virtues include an unusual storytelling concept, a sharp sense for music, an amorous view of Los Angeles and on-the-money performances.

This postmodern love story begins when Tom, a hapless greeting card copywriter and hopeless romantic, becomes blindsided after his girlfriend Summer dumps him. He shifts back and forth through various periods of their 500 days together to try to figure out where things went awry.

First-time feature director Marc Webb uses his background in music video to beautifully present the action and crisply move the story along, adding subtle touches, such as seasonal color palettes, to help guide viewers through the twisted chronology. Webb’s use of music, principally pop tunes, is anything but an afterthought, as the carefully chosen songs enhance the atmosphere of scenes and chart the romance’s line graph. It bristles with energy, emotional and intellectual, as it flits about the dizzying highs and weeping, karaoke-bellowing lows of a passionate entanglement.

Seven Days of Opening Nights 2008

THE VISITOR

Directed by Thomas McCarthy
Starring Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman and Danai Jekesai Gurira

The curious thing about The Visitor is that even as it goes more or less where you think it will, it still manages to surprise you along the way.

Richard Jenkins was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in The Visitor as Walter Vale, the man who discovers a pair of illegal aliens, victims of a real-estate scam, living in his New York apartment. After the mix-up is resolved, Vale invites the couple, a young, Syrian musician named Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and his Senegalese girlfriend (Danai Gurira), to stay with him. An unlikely friendship develops between the retiring, quiet Vale and the vibrant Tarek, and the former begins to loosen up and respond to Tarek's drumming lessons as if something in him waiting to be liberated has finally been unleashed. All goes well until Tarek is hauled in by immigration authorities and threatened with deportation. His mother, Mouna (Hiam Abbass), turns up and stays with Vale, sparking a renewed if subdued interest in courtship; however, the wheels of injustice in immigration crush all manner of hopes in post-9/11 America. Writer and director Thomas McCarthy has created a wonderfully measured story about change and renewal and put it all on the shoulders of Jenkins, a largely unheralded but masterful performer whose time for renown has surely come.