Fresh styles and new schools of cinematic expression have the power to wake us from any cliched drama-stupor as they defiantly re-define tomorrow’s mainstream. In all their diversity Andrea Arnold, Sean Baker, Julie Bertuccelli, Lizzie Borden, Charles Burnett, Terence Davies, Cheryl Dunye, Rolf de Heer, Ira Sachs, Patrick Wang, and many, many others share the work of waking us up.
Directed by Alexandre Rockwell • Drama • With Alexandre Bull, Kim Flowers • 1983 • 108 minutes
Beautifully photographed by regular Wes Anderson collaborator Robert Yeoman (in his first DP credit), this earthy debut from indie veteran Alexandre Rockwell follows a makeshift family of eccentrics on...
Directed by Andrew Buljalski • Drama • With Kate Dollenmayer, Christian Rudder, Mark Herlehy • 2002 • 83 minutes
Marnie is 23, and drifts through "Funny Ha Ha," Andrew Bujalski's critically acclaimed debut feature, in search of romance and employment. The film's conversations sound improvised an...
Directed by Sean Baker • Drama • With Dree Hemingway, Besedka Johnson • 2012 • 103 minutes
Starlet explores the unlikely friendship between 21 year-old aspiring actress Jane (Dree Hemingway) and elderly widow Sadie (Besedka Johnson) after their worlds collide in California’s San Fernando Valley....
Directed by Sophia Takal • Documentary • With Kate Lyn Sheil, Sophia Takal, Lawrence Michael Levine, Louis Cancelmi, Alex Ross Perry and Robert Malone • 2011 • 72 minutes
Genevieve, a New York intellectual, moves to the country with her self-involved journalist boyfriend, Sebastian, while he wor...
Directed by Dimitri de Clercq • Drama • With Delfine Bafort, Svetozar Cvetkovic, Arend Pinoy, Omar Sarnane, Laurence Tremolet • 2018 • 120 minutes
This award-winning, critically lauded thriller begins in a desolate stretch of the Sahara, where a mysterious car accident leaves a young woman lost ...
Directed by Patrick Letterii • Drama • With Ricardo Dávila, Blake DeLong, Emma Duncan, Emma Lahti, Ronald Peet, David Rysdahl & Jasmin Walker • 2021 • 79 minutes
The Land of Owls follows a pair of Brooklyn couples working through their relationship issues at an upstate retreat. In the isolation ...
Directed by Heather de Michele • Drama • With Laura Heisler, Anna Fitzwater, Raoul Bhaneja, Bryan Dechart, Annie Potts • 2017 • 85 minutes
Jo (Laura Heisler) is having a bad year. She has major writer's block, a rather dire caffeine addiction and is deeply mourning the untimely death of her bea...
Directed by Amber Sealy • Drama • With Gemma Brockis, Jennifer LaFleur, Kent Osborne, David Sullivan • 2018 • 75 minutes
Grieving her mother’s death and her own failing marriage, Lexi boards a plane from London to Los Angeles in search of the estranged father who abandoned her when she was three...
Directed by Julian Kim, Peter S. Lee • Drama • With Hynaghwa Lim, Charles Ryu, Yun Jeong, Yeena Sung • 2020 • 98 minutes
When a new landlord comes around, Mr. and Mrs. Choi find their dry cleaning business, Happy Cleaners in Flushing, Queens, in jeopardy of closing after 17 years. While they mak...
The acclaimed new work from filmmaker Patrick Wang (In the Family), featuring a remarkable performance from actress Tyne Daly, is the story of The Bread Factory, a community arts center in the small town of Checkford, told in two films. In part one, after 40 years of running The Bread Factory, Do...
Directed by Nina Paley • Animation • 2008 • 82 minutes
Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by email. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully ...
Directed by Celia Rowlson-Hall • Drama • With Kentucker Audley, Matt Lauria, Andrew Pastides, Michelle Perks, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Peter Vack • 2015 • 80 minutes
In this modern-day vision of Mother Mary’s pilgrimage, a woman crosses the scorched landscape of the American Southwest. Reinvented an...
Directed by David Riker • Drama • With Anthony Rivera, Joseph Rigano, Miguel Maldonado • 1998 • 88 minutes
LA CIUDAD, the feature film debut of writer/director David Riker, is a dramatically photographed collection of stories of love, hope, and loss, and an affecting portrait of disenfranchised ...
Directed by Cris Eska • Drama • With Keston John, Tishuan Scott, Ashton Sanders • 2016 • 92 minutes
1864: as war ravages the nation, on the outskirts of the civil War, it is business as usual for slave-owners and traders. The Retrieval follows Will (Ashton Sanders), a fatherless thirteen-year-ol...
Directed by Charles Burnett • Drama • With Everett Silas, Jessie Holmes, Gaye Shannon-Burnett, Ronnie Bell • 1983 • 86 minutes
In 1983, after many long months of shooting, Charles Burnett sent his rough-cut of My Brother’s Wedding to his producers. Ignoring his request to finish the editing of t...
Directed by Billy Woodberry • Drama • With Nate Hardman, Kaycee Moore • 1983 • 80 minutes
Searching for steady work, Charlie (Nate Hardman) views his chronic unemployment as a kind of spiritual trial. But selling a few catfish can’t sustain a family of five while his wife, Andais (Kaycee Moore)...
Directed by Aaron Katz • Drama • With Joe Swanberg, Cris Lankenau, Erin Fisher • 2007 • 78 minutes
Jamie is lost. She’s come to New York to visit her friend Samantha, but Samantha is nowhere to be found, and now Jamie is alone in the city. Charlie just quit his job, and isn’t sure where he’s goi...
Directed by Aaron Katz • Drama • With Cole Pensinger, Anna Kavan, Brendan McFadden • 2006 • 66 minutes
Apathetic seventeen-year-old Gus hangs around doing nothing with his buddy Bill most of the time. Gus likes to tell half-true stories about all the girls he’s slept with and all the drugs he’s ...
Directed by Alexandre Rockwell • Drama • With Steve Buscemi, Seymour Cassel, Jennifer Beals • 1992 • 96 minutes
Aldolpho (Steve Buscemi) is an aspiring writer-director who can't even claim to be scraping by. No one will touch his flagrantly anti-commercial epic-length script, his acting gigs off...
Directed by Alexandre Rockwell • Drama • With Lana Rockwell, Nico Rockwell, Rene Cuante • 2014 • 64 minutes
Determined to set their pet goldfish free, Lana and Nico embark on a magical urban odyssey from their Los Angeles home to the ocean. Their adventure, seen through the eyes of the brother/s...
Directed by Ben Rivers & Ben Russell • Drama • With Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe • 2014 • 98 minutes
A SPELL follows an unnamed character through three seemingly disparate moments in his life. With little explanation, we join him in the midst of a 15-person collective on a small Estonian island; in i...
Directed by Marc Meyers • Drama • With Matt McGorry, Amy Hargreaves, Mark Blum • 2015 • 108 minutes
Travis, a struggling young musician, crosses paths with Ellen, an older, married yoga instructor who is in the process of adopting a child. Travis and Ellen begin an affair that slowly deepens int...
Directed by Anja Marquardt • Drama • With Brooke Bloom, Marc Menchaca • 2014 • 90 minutes
Fiercely independent, Ronah works as a sexual surrogate in New York City, teaching her clients the very thing they fear most – to be intimate. Her life unravels when she starts working with a volatile new c...
Directed by Mark Webber • Drama • With Mark Webber, Cheri Honkala, Madeline Brewer • 2017 • 91 minutes
Based on a real family, Flesh and Blood blurs the line between narrative and documentary, with characters played by their real-life counterparts. Writer and director Mark Webber (Green Room, Th...
