Directed by Rati Oneli • Documentary • 2017 • 100 minutes
Chiatura is a city in Western Georgia. There was a time when it supplied 50% of the world's manganese, and at its peak the mine employed up to 10,000 workers. Today, with drastically reduced manganese production, dangerous working conditions and little prospect for any improvement, it is well on its way to becoming a ghost town. The city was founded by Georgian poets and aristocrats in the 19th century, but was turned into a center of industry by the Soviet regime. For the Soviets, it was the embodiment of a bright, utopian future: Theaters, universities, concert halls, stadiums and parks were built, along with the first and largest public aerial cable car transportation system in the world. Chiatura was a human and technological experiment on a grand scale that ultimately failed. A prizewinner in Madrid, Minsk, Sarajevo, San Francisco and Tbilisi, CITY OF THE SUN features stunning vistas—still beautiful in their state of melancholy neglect—and puts a human face on a city devastated by an industrial and economic system that sated its needs and moved on.
Directed by Soichi Umezawa • Drama • With Ena Fujita, Yuyu Makihara, Momoka Sugimoto • 2017 • 81 minutes
From Japanese special effects master Soichi Umezawa comes a singular horror experience in a wildly hilarious marriage of The Blob and The Evil Dead. After studying in Tokyo, Kaori returns to ...
Directed by Tsai Ming-liang • Drama • With Lee Kang-sheng • 1992 • 106 minutes
Tsai Ming-liang emerged on the world cinema scene in 1992 with his groundbreaking first feature, Rebels of the Neon God. His debut already includes a handful of elements familiar to fans of subsequent work: a deceptiv...
Directed by Jonathan Olshefski • Documentary • 2017 • 105 minutes
Filmed with vérité intimacy for nearly a decade, Quest is the moving portrait of the Rainey family living in North Philadelphia.
Beginning at the dawn of the Obama presidency, Christopher “Quest” Rainey and his wife Christine’a ...