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FULL LINEUP OF FEATURES AND SHORTS
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Still from MENDING THE LINE. Dir. Joshua Caldwell.
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CONFESSION | Danya Hanson | World Premiere
In this disquieting story, a woman accuses three men of sexual assault. But is she an unreliable narrator? Is there something more sinister at work here? When her case is dismissed for lack of evidence, an up-and-coming attorney fights to uncover the truth, with an explosive ending guaranteed to stun.
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MAN | Tzvi Friedman | World Premiere
A subtle allegory about isolated, hidden people, mankind’s search for emotion and empathy in an increasingly cold, apathetic world, and perhaps a glimmer of hope that no matter how low we’ve sunk, there is always a chance at redemption. Exquisitely stylized cinematography, an atmospheric score, very little dialog, and an intensity that is visceral.
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MENDING THE LINE | Joshua Caldwell | World Premiere
A young wounded Marine receiving trauma care forms a bond with a man twice his age, who sees the mysteries of fly-fishing as holding the true healing power. While ostensibly a film about PTSD, Mending the Line is really a story about finding something to make living worthwhile.
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SIXTY MILES NORTH | Edward Crawford, Jack Mulcahy | Filmed in the Hudson Valley | World Premiere
When a bitter and frustrated actor loses the gig of a lifetime, he is forced to move back into his childhood home. He then has to choose between continuing to pursue his dream or working a job he doesn't want. He is empowered when he meets Wild Fall, an agoraphobic now living in his old bedroom.
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AMERIKATSI | Michael Goorjian | US Premiere
Michael Goorjian plays an Armenian ex-patriot who returns home after World War II, only to be incarcerated under Stalin’s regime. When he discovers a window high in his cell through which he can peer into an Armenian couple’s apartment, he comes to be saved by living vicariously, at times magically, through their complicated, spirited life.
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ROOST | Amy Redford | US Premiere
Amy Redford’s masterfully directed tale begins with a high school girl’s growing online connection with a charming older man. A cautious romance steadily unravels into a deepening mystery as Anna’s heart is caught with a stranger’s, and her family must reckon with secrets from the past that bring mother and daughter into perilous territory.
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REMEMBER THIS | Jeff Hutchens, Derek Goldman | East Coast Premiere
Alone on the screen, David Strathairn’s gripping 90-minute performance tells the moving story of Jan Karski, a Polish Holocaust witness and hero who, despite mental anguish and physical torture, endured to tell the story so that we will forever “remember this.”
THE LOST KING | Stephen Frears | East Coast Premiere
Sally Hawkins stars as a lonely introvert whose fascination with Richard III becomes a passionate quest to redeem his character and restore his rightful legacy. Co-starring Steve Coogan as her estranged husband, and sensitively directed by Stephen Frears, this historical treasure hunt is a brilliant character study in obsession and perseverance.
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CINE-SYMPHONY PLANET EARTH | Jed Parker | New York Premiere | Focus on Music
This emotional, yet uplifting film was created to sync with an existing symphony. Hence, the contemporary-classical score is a star, along with a Gaia character. The story, told without dialogue, tracks our planet’s history from creation to when humans came around and messed it up. Luckily, Gaia saves the day.
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EMPIRE OF LIGHT | Sam Mendes | New York Premiere
Empire of Light, directed by Oscar-winner Sam Mendes and starring Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward and Colin Firth, is a love story set in a seaside town on the south coast of England in the early 1980s, that revolves around an old cinema.
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FOLLOW HER | Sylvia Caminer | Filmed in the Hudson Valley | New York Premiere
Balanced between the worlds of kinky social media stardom and the real-life pressures on a struggling actress, this psychological thriller cleverly pulls us into the dangers versus rewards Jess faces to help an all-too-charming screenwriter find just the right ending for the female lead of his movie, leaving us to contemplate where fiction becomes real.
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JUNIPER | Matthew J. Saville | New York Premiere
Charlotte Rampling plays an ailing matriarch who unexpectedly returns to her family in New Zealand. Centered around her teenage grandson, who must care for her while grieving the recent loss of his mother, Juniper explores the unlikely connection between these two troubled souls who discover how much they need each other.
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LINOLEUM | Colin West | Filmed in the Hudson Valley | New York Premiere
Linoleum tells the tale of Cameron (Jim Gaffigan), the host of a failing children's science show, who experiences a series of strange, scientifically inexplicable events that lead him to question his day-to-day reality, as well as his life’s history, past and future, as both a father and a son.
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RAYMOND & RAY | Rodrigo Garcia | New York Premiere
Ewan McGregor and Ethan Hawke star as half-brothers who have been estranged from each other and their abusive father, whose last wish is they attend his funeral and dig his grave. At the gravesite gathering, they uncover a man they never knew, and discover opportunities for self-reflection and healing.
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STRAIGHTEN UP AND FLY RIGHT | Kristen Abate, Steven Tanenbaum | New York Premiere
Kristen Abate, who also directed, gives a brave raw performance as a young woman with Ankylosing Spondylitis, a rare inflammatory disease that has left her permanently bent over, a question-mark on the streets of New York, a maybe poet and sometimes dog walker who leads a powerful and spirited life.
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THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN | Martin McDonagh | New York Premiere
Two lifelong friends (Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson) find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship, with alarming consequences for both of them.
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Still from BROKER. Dir. Kore-Eda Hirokazu.
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BROKER | Kore-Eda Hirokazu
A two-man team of self-described “benevolent” brokers sells babies on the black market. When a young mother who has abandoned her infant has a change of heart, she joins them on a road trip in search of a buyer, forming a compassionate improvised family, each touched in a different way by the specter of abandonment.
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DEAD FOR A DOLLAR | Walter Hill
A famed bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) runs into his sworn enemy, a professional gambler and outlaw (Willem Dafoe) that he had sent to prison years before, while on a mission to find and return the wife of a successful businessman who is being held hostage in Mexico (Rachel Brosnahan).
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GOD'S CREATURES | Saela Davis, Anna Rose Holmer
Set in a hardscrabble Irish fishing village, and anchored by the intense performances of Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves) and Paul Mescal (Normal People), God’s Creatures traverses the dangerous and intimate territory of family ties that run so deep as to threaten the ordinary boundaries of right and wrong.
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HANNAH HA HA | Jordan Tetewsky, Josh Pikovsky
Meet Hannah, one of the most likable protagonists in recent memory. A kind-hearted person living a content life with her aging father in small town Massachusetts, Hannah Lee Thompson, who plays the titular Hannah, breathes life into this deeply human character as she wrestles against the influences of the world.
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MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH MARRIAGE | Signe Baumane
This animated film is the personal story of Zelma, taught from an early age she must conform to societal expectations in order to find love. In Baumane's enchanting, signature style of hand-drawn animation over papier-mâché backgrounds, we follow Zelma on this semi-autobiographical and educational journey towards self acceptance.
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MY POLICEMAN | Michael Grandage
Harry Styles (Dunkirk) and Emma Corrin (The Crown) bring both heat and heart-breaking restraint to this story of a tragic love triangle, set in 1950s England, with David Dawson (The Last Kingdom) at the tipping point of all the unrequited desire and impossible temptations – impossible because, at the time, homosexuality itself was a criminal offense.
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STAY AWAKE | Jamie Sisley | Filmed in the Hudson Valley
Two brothers side track their futures to help their drug-addicted single mother, who must choose between losing her sons or going to rehab. Superbly acted and based on the filmmaker’s adolescence, Stay Awake is a personal exploration of the roller coaster families ride while trying to help their loved ones battle opioid addiction.
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TRIANGLE OF SADNESS | Ruben Östlund
Models Carl and Yaya are invited for a luxury cruise with a rogues' gallery of super-rich passengers. At first, all appears Instagrammable, but the cruise ends catastrophically and the group find themselves marooned on a desert island.
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Still from LOUIS ARMSTRONG’S BLACK & BLUES. Dir. Sacha Jenkins.
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IMMEDIATE FAMILY | Denny Tedesco | World Premiere | Focus on Music
This new documentary from Denny Tedesco (The Wrecking Crew) chronicles the rise and tenure of four legendary studio musicians as they tore through the singer-songwriter scene of the 1970s.
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MY SO-CALLED HIGH SCHOOL RANK | Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg | World Premiere
Through the lens of a high-school musical inspired by its own students' experiences, and with a remarkable intimacy, My So-Called High School Rank explores the overwhelming anxiety so many high school students face in their pressured journey through the college admissions process and, ultimately the resilience and triumph of these students, in art and in life.
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THE PICTURE TAKER | Phil Bertelsen | World Premiere
Photographer Ernest Withers was a renowned chronicler of the African American experience during Jim Crow, and became an icon of the Civil Rights Movement. But he was also, secretly, an FBI informant. The Picture Taker keenly explores this disturbing contradiction that straddles the borderline between art and the emotion-laden politics of race.
*A special Ernest Withers photo gallery opening will be held Saturday, Sept. 3 at the Aaron Rezny Gallery in Kingston, NY.
THE BALLAD OF CLEM SNIDE | John Burkett | World Premiere | Focus on Music
Documenting the tour and promotion of Clem’s Snide’s album Forever Just Beyond, the film chronicles the pursuit of an artistic life; and all the trials, the tribulations, the ups and downs, the luck and serendipity, the disappointments and frustrations that come along with it. Released in March 2020, the record’s unveiling occurred at the precise moment of the first COVID-19 outbreak across the country. Forever Just Beyond was produced by Scott Avett of The Avett Brothers, who is featured in the film.
*A special musical performance by Clem Snide with Scott Avett of The Avett Brothers will follow the screening at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY on Thursday, September 29th.
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THE GOOD SOLDIER | Silvina Landsmann | North American Premiere
This film provides a candid look into Breaking the Silence, an organization run by former Israeli soldiers who speak out about their witnessed abuses of Palestinians, sometimes at their own hand, raising questions about Israel's dynamic mainstream and the challenges of confronting it.
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AFGHAN DREAMERS | David Greenwald | US Premiere
This film presents the heart-wrenching testimony to the strength of will of the Afghan Girls Robotics team who narrate their own story, starting in 2017 when Afghan girls could still dream of careers in science and technology – a dream that is thwarted when the Taliban returns to power.
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HUNTING IN PACKS | Chloe Sosa-Sims | US Premiere
Delving into the high-stakes and absurd institutions of western politics, this film follows politicians Michelle Rempel Garner (Canada), Jess Philips (UK), and Pramila Jayapal (USA) through elections, leadership campaigns and their efforts to enact bold new policies.
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MAMA IRENE, HEALER OF THE ANDES | Elisabeth Möhlmann, Bettina Ehrhardt | US Premiere
In a film that is both a story about women’s empowerment and a testament to living harmoniously with Mother Earth, 84-year-old Peruvian shaman and healer Mama Irene compassionately treats both the emotional and physical wounds of the women and children who come to her for guidance.
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THE FIRE THAT TOOK HER | Patricia Gillespie | US Premiere
This film tells the true story of Judy Malinowski’s terrifying encounter with domestic violence -- she was set aflame by her boyfriend -- and with grace and sober optimism, navigates to a startling, unprecedented event: a woman testifying at the landmark trial of her own murder.
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