L.A. Confidential is a 1997 American neo-noir crime film directed, produced, and co-written by Curtis Hanson. The screenplay by Hanson and Brian Helgeland is based on James Ellroy's 1990 novel of the same name, the third book in his L.A. Quartet series. The film tells the story of a group of LAPD officers in 1953, and the intersection of police corruption and Hollywood celebrity. The title refers to the 1950s scandal magazine Confidential, portrayed in the film as Hush-Hush.
Exotica is a 1994 Canadian film written and directed by Atom Egoyan, and starring Bruce Greenwood, Mia Kirshner, Don McKellar, Arsinée Khanjian, and Elias Koteas. Set primarily in the fictional Exotica strip club in Toronto, the film concerns a father grieving over the loss of a child and obsessed with a young stripper. It was inspired by Egoyan's curiosity about the role strip clubs play in sex-obsessed societies. Exotica was filmed in Toronto in 1993.
Noah Baumbach is an American film director and screenwriter. He is known for making comedies set in New York City and his works are inspired by writer-directors such as Woody Allen and Whit Stillman. His frequent collaborators include Wes Anderson, Adam Driver, and his wife, Greta Gerwig.
An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add information which otherwise would not be disclosed to audience members.
Close-Up is a 1990 Iranian docufiction written, directed and edited by Abbas Kiarostami. The film tells the story of the real-life trial of a man who impersonated film-maker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, conning a family into believing they would star in his new film. It features the people involved, acting as themselves. A film about human identity, it helped to increase recognition of Kiarostami internationally.
The Cove is a 2009 American documentary film directed by Louie Psihoyos that analyzes and questions dolphin hunting practices in Japan. It was awarded the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2010. The film is a call to action to halt mass dolphin kills and captures, change Japanese fishing practices, and inform and educate the public about captivity and the increasing hazard of mercury poisoning from consuming dolphin meat.
Truth or Consequences, N.M. is a 1997 American neo-noir film directed by Kiefer Sutherland starring Sutherland, Vincent Gallo, Mykelti Williamson, Kevin Pollak, Max Perlich, Rod Steiger and Kim Dickens among others.
Allison Anders is an American independent film director whose films include Gas Food Lodging, Mi Vida Loca and Grace of My Heart. Anders has collaborated with fellow UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television graduate Kurt Voss and has also worked as a television director. Anders' films have been shown at the Cannes International Film Festival and at the Sundance Film Festival. She has been awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant as well as a Peabody Award.
Sara Miller Driver is an American independent filmmaker and actress from Westfield, New Jersey. A participant in the independent film scene that flourished in lower Manhattan from the late 1970s through the 1990s, she gained initial recognition as producer of two early films by Jim Jarmusch, Permanent Vacation (1980) and Stranger Than Paradise (1984). Driver has directed two feature films, Sleepwalk (1986) and When Pigs Fly (1993), as well as a notable short film, You Are Not I (1981), and a documentary, Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat (2017), on the young artist's pre-fame life in the burgeoning downtown New York arts scene before the city's massive changes through the 1980s. She served on the juries of various film festivals throughout the 2000s.
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is a 2007 Romanian art film written and directed by Cristian Mungiu and starring Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, and Vlad Ivanov. The film is set in Communist Romania in the final years of the Nicolae Ceaușescu era. It tells the story of two students, roommates in a university dormitory, who try to procure an illegal abortion. Inspired by an anecdote from the period and the general social historic context, it depicts the loyalty of the two friends and the struggles they face.
The Hurt Locker is a 2008 American war thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal. It stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Christian Camargo, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, and Guy Pearce. The film follows an Iraq War Explosive Ordnance Disposal team who are targeted by insurgents and shows their psychological reactions to the stress of combat. Boal drew on his experience during embedded access to write the screenplay.
Christina Jean "Chris" Innis is an American film editor and filmmaker. She was awarded the 2010 Academy Award, BAFTA, and ACE awards for "Best Film Editing" on the film The Hurt Locker shared with co-editor, Bob Murawski. She is an elected member of the American Cinema Editors (ACE) and has served as an associate director on the board.
Satyajit Ray was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and composer. Ray is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential film directors in world cinema. He is celebrated for works including The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959), The Music Room (1958), The Big City (1963) and Charulata (1964) and the Goopy–Bagha trilogy.
Team Picture is a 2007 mumblecore drama film written and directed by filmmaker Kentucker Audley. The film is a character study of a young man and his relationship with an ambitious girlfriend, his dealings with the familial and societal pressures to go to college, and his considerations of a future as a musician.
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,660 attending in 2016. The festival takes place every January in Park City, Utah; Salt Lake City, Utah; and at the Sundance Resort, and acts as a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films, both feature films and short films, and a group of out-of-competition sections, including NEXT, New Frontier, Spotlight, Midnight, Sundance Kids, From the Collection, Premieres, and Documentary Premieres. Many films premiering at Sundance have gone on to be nominated and win Oscars such as Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Cookies & Cream is a 2008 American independent drama film written and directed by Princeton Holt, as his first feature length narrative film.
ACEFEST is a film festival first held in 2007 in New York City. The festival focuses purely on showcasing domestic films "in an effort to strengthen and promote pride in American independent cinema".
Detention is a 2011 American slasher black comedy film directed by Joseph Kahn, and co-written with Mark Palermo. The film premiered in March 2011 at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Detention stars Josh Hutcherson, Shanley Caswell, Spencer Locke, and Dane Cook.
Meissa Hampton is an American independent film actress, writer, director and activist. She has published a book of poetry is a contributing writer for the Guardian, and received a Ford Scholarship. She is currently a Resident Artist at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her film projects have screened internationally in festivals and on television. She has received 12 Best Actress awards from domestic and international independent film festivals. She formed One Pair of Shoes Productions to direct and produce A Social Cure, a feature-length documentary about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. In 2015 she authored a petition the Screen Actors Guild to address the gender inequities that were fueling sexual harassment and assault in the Entertainment industry. She founded the Actors Alliance for Gender Equity in Media and the website $#!% People say to actresses which provides an anonymous forum for performers to share their stories of harassment and assault in the industry. She has been cited and interviewed about her activism by The Guardian and The Independent. In 2017, after Harvey Weinstein was indicted for sexual assault and rape, she wrote an article for the Guardian.
2050 is a 2018 American independent science fiction drama film directed by Princeton Holt and starring Dean Cain, Stormi Maya, and Stefanie Bloom. It premiered on November 16, 2018 at the Williamsburg Independent Film Festival and was released theatrically on March 1, 2019. It was distributed by ANERKE.
