Independent Cinema

'The Color of Pomegranates' by Sergei Parajanov, is a masterwork by a director of genius who was blacklisted and then served 5 years in a Soviet Gulag in 1973. His films ran contrary to Soviet standards. Parajanov's innovations stand today as a hallmark of vision and experimentation. A maverick ahead of his time, Parajanov's minimalism created visual poetry that was and still is unique to the craft of cinema.

Keep expectations low and you might find some entertainment.

"Heaven Knows What" is not an easy film, but it's important, making us uncomfortable in its unrelenting "in your face" examination addiction's darkness.

In 'Seymour, An Introduction' Ethan Hawke shows his chops as a first time documentary filmmaker using a surprising subject in a unique and intuitive process. The film is excellent for what and how it reveals a real and human portrait of friend and mentor of Hawke, former concert pianist, teacher, and composer, the incomparable Seymour Bernstein.

A better-than-average thriller starring Susan Sarandon and Ellen Burstyn.

I highly recommended "Found." for those with strong stomachs.

Biker, Vietnam vet, Christian, father, friend, neighbor. Ron "Stray Dog" Hall is all of these and much more in Debra Granik's riveting "slice-of-life" documentary about a working class American.

Joshua Openheimer's "The Look of Silence" explores the nearly forgotten Indonesian genocide.

How does one break through the emptiness of a life and relationship that has lost meaning? How long must one have to experience the void before there is movement and growth? Sometimes change can happen in the "twinkling of an eye" when one least expects it. It is then that "sapience," wisdom opens the doors of one's heart to receive renewal and forward movement. Such is the experience of Alexandre and Aliénor in 'La Sapienza.'

What's not to find joyous about a roundtable interview with award winning actor Kevin Kline and celebrated playwright Israel Horovitz who discussed their collaboration on Horovitz's directorial debut of his brilliant film 'My Old Lady?' Not only did we learn interesting bits about the making of the film, we had the opportunity to watch these close knit friends (Horovitz refers to Kline as his cousin) in rare form. When one "cousin" leaves off commenting, the other "cousin" seamlessly picks up the anticipated rejoinder. They were loads of fun, but they were also deep folks, very deep. If you blinked, you missed it.