The Taqwacores

THE TAQWACORES

Website: http://www.rumanni.com/

“1 of the 10 Best Films from Sundance 2010″

- Time Out London

Synopsis:

Yusef, a first-generation Pakistani engineering student, moves off-campus with a group of Muslim punks in Buffalo, New York. His new “unorthodox” housemates soon introduce him to Taqwacore – a hardcore, Muslim punk rock scene that only exists on the West Coast.

As the seasons change, Taqwacore influences the house more and more. The living room becomes a mosque during the day, while it continues to host punk parties at night. Ultimately, Taqwacore influences Yusef too, as he begins to challenge his own faith and ideologies.

This amazing independent film deals with the complexities of being young and Muslim in modern-day America.

“Grade A: An absolute triumph of nonconformity.”

- College Movie Review

Sneak Peek:

Putty Hill

Playing Friday, October 22: 8:30pm

“In a way rarely seen, “Putty Hill” says all that can be said about a few days in the lives of its characters without seeming to say very much at all. It looks closely, burrows deep, considers the way in which lives have become pointless and death therefore less meaningful. It uses fairly radical filmmaking techniques to penetrate this truth, and employs them so casually that they seem quite natural.”

- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Synopsis:

A young man dies of a heroin overdose in an abandoned house in Baltimore. On the eve of his funeral, family and friends gather to commemorate his life. Their shared memories paint a portrait of a community hanging in the balance, skewed by poverty, city living, and a generational divide, united in their pursuit of a new American Dream.

Putty Hill is truly a unique film. From the Director:

“[The film] is an amalgam of traditional forms of documentary and narrative realism. But it is an approach to realism in opposition to the anthropological, lyrical, and romantic currents present in most of the genre.”

“Thesping is remarkable…Porterfield has managed to elicit engrossing performances that feel unforced and spontaneous.”

- Variety

Sneak Peek:

Daddy Longlegs

DADDY LONGLEGS

Website: http://www.sundanceselects.com/films/daddy-longlegs

“Daddy Longlegs may shock you, but it will also make you re-examine your ideas about parenthood, and what it means to be a father.”

- Newsweek

Synopsis:

Every year, Lenny gets to spend two weeks with his two young sons. He juggles his kids, work, and everything else within a midtown studio apartment in New York City. He ultimately faces the choice of being their father or their friend, with the idea that these two short weeks must last 6 months. A trip upstate, visitors from strange lands, a justifiably concerned mother, a girlfriend, “magic” blankets, and complete lawlessness seem to take over their lives.

This slice-of-life film is a swan song to excuses and irresponsibilities, to fatherhood and self-created experiences, and to what it’s like to be truly torn between being a child and being an adult.

Festivals: Cannes (Director’s Fortnight), Sundance

“A risky, heartbreaking exercise in empathy toward a person who may not deserve it.”

- A.O. Scott, New York Times

Sneak Peek:

Exit Through The Gift Shop

Exit Through The Gift Shop

Website: http://www.banksyfilm.com/

“An exhilarating hall-of-mirrors look at what happens when global art fame turns anonymous, artists become objects, fans turn into artists, and the whole what’s-sincere-and-what’s-a-sham spectacle is more fun than art was ever supposed to be.”

- Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

[From the Sundance Film Festival]

Billed as “the world’s first street art disaster movie”, the film contains exclusive footage of Banksy, Shephard Fairey, Invader and many of the world’s most infamous street artists at work.

In the late 1990s, a hybrid form of graffiti began appearing in cities around the world. Enlisting stickers, stencils, posters, and sculpture and spread by the burgeoning Internet, it would be labeled ‘street art’ and establish itself as the most significant counterculture movement of a generation. Filmmaker Terry Guetta set out to record this secretive world in all its thrilling detail. For more than eight years, he traveled with the pack, roaming the streets of America and Europe, the stealthy witness of the world’s most infamous vandals. But after meeting the British stencil artist known only as Banksy, things took a bizarre turn.

Banksy turns the tables on the only man who has ever filmed him, creating a remarkable documentary that is part personal journey and part an expose’ of the art world with its mind-altering mix of hot air and hype. In the end, Exit Through the Gift Shop is an amazing ride, a cautionary modern fairy tale… with bolt cutters.

“One of the best, most karmically satisfying comedies of the year, much to the chagrin of the people who are in it.”

- Boston Globe

Sneak Peek:

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo

BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO

Official Website: http://www.beetlequeen.com/

“a striking micromasterpiece…utterly, wonderfully unique”

- The Austin Chronicle

Synopsis:

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo explores the mystery of the development of Japan’s love affair with bugs. Sold live in vending machines and department stores, plastic replicas included as prizes in the equivalent of a McDonald’s Happy Meal, from the smallest backyard to the top of Mt. Fuji, insects inspire an enthusiasm in Japan seen nowhere else in this world. Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo discovers why Japan developed this rich and enriching social relationship with insects.

Using insects like an anthropologist’s toolkit, the film uncovers Japanese philosophies that will shift Westerner’s perspectives on nature, beauty, life, and even the seemingly mundane realities of their day-to-day routines. Tracing the connection all the way back to that country’s first emperor — who dubbed Japan “Isle of the Dragonflies” — the film shows how bugs have wormed their way into every aspect of Japanese culture.

“Beautifully filmed, seductively narrated… “

- V.A. Musetto, New York Post

Sneak Peek:

The Rest of the Line Up…

We Are Croissan’wich

A short film about advertising, friendship and breast pumps.

Director: Josh Lowman
Running Time: 10 min

Website: http://www.wearecroissanwich.com/

The Bag

A simple yet disturbing story of an elderly woman who has grown tired of living.

Director: Ray Nomoto Robison
Running Time: 25 min

Website: http://sites.google.com/site/thebagmovieproject/

Open Five

The story of Jake, a struggling musician and his sidekick, Kentucker, a maker of “poor” films and what happens when two girls (Lucy and Rose) venture down to Memphis for a long weekend.

Director: Kentucker Audley
Running Time: 72 min

Website: http://www.kentuckeraudley.com/

Nature Man: Episode Two

Join Gregory Fairweather for another adventure in education, hallucination, and the outdoors.

Director: Michael Surber
Running Time: 4 min

Billy Was a Deaf Kid

The classic “I hate your guts, no wait, I like you, my brother is deaf, let’s ride a couch down the street” love story.

Director: Burke & Rhett Lewis
Running Time: 89 min

A Day’s Work

On the outskirts of Prague, Anna shows up for a dubbing session of an American film. What follows is something unforeseen, and gives us a unique glimpse into the depths of Anna’s inner world.

Director: A Day’s Work
Running Time: 15 min

Sapsucker

One man’s determination to track down a rare woodpecker wreaking havoc on his house puts him on the warpath.

Director: Christopher Holmes
Running Time: 10 min

Small Town Heroes

A small town Mockumentary film crew head into the small college town of La Grande Oregon to uncover the truth behind super hero sightings in the area but what they find…will change their view of shopping…forever.

Director: Chuck Peters
Running Time: 10 min

One Monster Down

A classic tale of vengeance and justice. Shot and edited in 48 hours for the La Grande Summer Film Project.

Director: Luke Zwanziger
Running Time: 9 min

Once a Loser

A universal comedy that begs to answer the age old question, can a tiger truly change their stripes?

Director: Jared Richard
Running Time: 10 min

Pool Room

A reclusive young man lives out his days exploring the surrounding landscape and collecting discarded treasures, spending most of his time in isolation until he meets Bonnie.

Director: Ian Clark
Running Time: 57 min
Intended for Mature Audiences

Pants

A story about a guy chasing his pants in the desert – sometimes the pants chase him too.

Director: Luke Zwanziger
Running Time: 5 min

The Age of Stupid

The Age of Stupid stars Pete Postlethwaite as a man living in the devastated future world of 2055, looking at old footage and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?

Director: Fanny Armstrong
Running Time: 98 min

Lost Turtle

A short film about heartache.

Director: Dustin Guy Defa
Running Time: 10 min

Pianos by AGF

A computer animated, audio visual abstraction. Produced by designers at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, with the blessing of Berlin artist AGF.

Running Time: 3 min