Cinemafile

YOU HAD TO BE THERE is a hilarious, emotional, and revelatory documentary about the legendary 1972 Canadian production of Godspell that changed entertainment forever. The Toronto production of the musical about the life of Jesus starred a then-unknown cast of Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, et al, with Paul Shaffer serving as musical director – a...

You Con’t be Neutral on a Moving Train looks at the amazing life of the renowned historian, activist and author, Howard Zinn. Following his early days as a shipyard labor organizer and bombardier in World War II, Zinn became an academic rebel and leader of civil disobedience in a time of institutionalized racism and war. His influential writings shine light on and bring voice to factory workers, i...

In 1989, Julie Thayer, a wealthy mother from New York City, went to the Swiss Alps to have her ego destroyed. The man she chose for the job was U.G. Krishnamurti, a radical Indian anti-guru who refused followers, refused donations, and told everyone who came to him to go away. Julie stayed — and filmed everything. The Natural State is built from that archive, hundreds of hours unseen for decades,...

Sara Flores, a visionary practitioner of kené—the design system of the Shipibo People—spent a lifetime with little recognition before finding herself, in her seventies, suddenly embraced by the global contemporary art world. As gallery invitations, a Dior collaboration, and international travel transform her family's fortunes, Sara struggles to reconcile her simple lifeway with the excesses of the...

THE OLDEST PERSON IN THE WORLD is a decade-long odyssey chronicling the ever-changing record holders of the title of oldest person alive. As the title inevitably passes from one supercentenarian to the next, acclaimed filmmaker Sam Green traverses the globe to meet each new record holder, his personal fascination with what the title means becoming entangled with events and milestones in his own li...

BLACK ZOMBIE digs beneath the blood-soaked spectacle of modern horror to uncover the zombie’s buried and unsettling origins. Long before it became associated with flesh-eating ghouls, the zombie was a living metaphor for slavery: not a monster, but the ultimate victim of colonial power. A symbol of stolen agency was recast as an object of fear, while Black spiritual traditions were distorted, sens...

A gripping and emotional drama filmed and set in the West Bank of Palestine, THE TEACHER, the debut feature from Oscar-nominated director Farah Nabulsi. The film stars renowned Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri ( The Band's Visit ) — who Farah dubs "the Daniel Day-Lewis of the Arab world" — and the acclaimed British actress Imogen Poots ("Outer Range", The Father , Green Room ). Inspired by true event...

Sundance Award winning comedy, The Incomer is a modern folk fairy tale set on a remote Scottish island, where two siblings survive by hunting seabirds, retelling the stories of their ancestors, and defending the isle from dreaded Incomers'. Their world is upended with the arrival of an awkward council worker who has come to uproot them from their homeland on behalf of the government. Director Loui...

OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD: THE FIRST CORAL REEFERS is a feature documentary that journeys back to the 1970s and early 1980s to tell the origin story of Jimmy Buffett’s original Coral Reefer Band. Set against the creative backdrop of Key West, the film explores the musicians, friendships, touring years, and studio sessions that helped shape Buffett’s legendary sound. Through rare, never-before-seen archi...

Set in 1991 in upstate New York, Teenage Wasteland follows a group of teenage misfits, inspired by a renegade English teacher, who embark on a student film project and uncover a vast conspiracy that is poisoning the ground beneath their feet. Banding together to confront the indifferent adults, corrupt politicians and a violent criminal organization threatening their small town, they produce an in...

Orlando von Einsiedel's THE CYCLE OF LOVE begins in 1977, PK, with a 23-year-old street artist from a marginalized “untouchable” family in Delhi as he sets out on an extraordinary 6,000-mile journey across continents with little more than a handful of paintbrushes and a secondhand bicycle. Driven by an unwavering desire to reunite with Lotta, the Swedish woman who had captured his heart, he travel...

Wendy (Dakota Fanning) believes she's perfectly happy in her relationship, until her older boyfriend, Jack (Jake Johnson), who is divorced with children, insists they take a break to make sure she's truly okay giving up on the idea of marriage and babies. During this time, Wendy unexpectedly runs into her ex, Chuck (Cory Michael Smith), who reignites her carefree and spontaneous side, and suddenly...

Hanging by a Wire recounts the true story of a routine school commute that turned terrifying when a makeshift cable car's wire snapped, leaving eight passengers — including six schoolboys — suspended hundreds of feet above a ravine in the remote foothills of the Pakistani Himalayas . With the clock ticking before the remaining cable was expected to fail, an unlikely band of local rescuers raced ag...

From the producers of Bridget Jones’s Diary and Love Actually comes the heartfelt new romantic comedy FINDING EMILY. Sensitive musician Owen (Spike Fearn) meets the woman of his dreams during a late shift at the Manchester City University Student Union. They flirt, they drink, they dance, then suddenly, she’s whisked off into the night by her friends, heading out to the next party. Thinking quickl...

LEARNING TO FLY follows former competitive runner turned photographer Aisha McAdams as she embarks on a journey to document the triumphs and struggles of some of the biggest names in ultra running, such as Jim Walmsley, Eszter Csillag and Vincent Bouillard, as they compete at the Western States Endurance Run in the Mountains of Eastern California and the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) in the Fre...

Set against the backdrop of suburban New Jersey golf courses, MOOCH is about Shane, played by Jeff Ryan, at nearly thirty and still the oldest caddy at his local golf club, he has mastered the art of getting by without ever quite growing up. When a botched theft of four hundred dollars unexpectedly lands him a job digging up dirt for a charismatic New Jersey nightclub owner, he finds himself navig...

From Oscar®-nominated and Emmy® Award-winning filmmaker Poh Si Teng, AMERICAN DOCTOR follows three American physicians— Palestinian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian—united by a single oath to save lives. American Doctor is a vérité documentary following three prominent physicians-Palestinian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian-friends who couldn't be more different but are bound by the shared oath to save lives. Dr....

Vilnius, 2022. High-flying executive Marija (Zygimante Elena Jakstaite) chooses the worst possible moment to inform her husband Vytas (Vee-tus) (Marius Repsys) she wants a divorce: just one day before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Suddenly the couple must navigate the process of separation as it collides with a refugee and mid-life crisis. A struggling film director, Vytas is put into a tight spot...

In the immersive documentary Never Stop Chasing , legendary storm chaser Reed Timmer pursues a life hunting the world’s most violent weather. Haunted by the tragic death of his mentor, Tim Samaras, in the historic 2013 El Reno tornado, and the sudden loss of his best friend and long-time chase partner, Joel Taylor, Reed’s life on the edge takes a severe emotional toll. Driven by an unshakeable com...

In 1982, six rural communities across the United States were notified that all of the nation’s nuclear waste might be buried beneath them forever. Faced with a mandate to isolate the waste for 10,000 years, the Department of Energy mapped, analyzed, and assembled its assessments, while the unsuspecting stewards of sacrificial territory found themselves fighting for their homes, health, history and...

The audacious coming-of-age story that expertly balances pitch-black humor with a sense of creeping menace, Our Hero, Balthazar is an engrossing modern fable about the influence of social media, isolation, and glorified violence on modern adolescence. Showcasing “the superb acting” (Deadline) of Jaeden Martell ( St. Vincent, It ) and “transformative” (Deadline) Asa Butterfield (“Sex Education,” En...

Will Poulter and Noah Centineo give pitch perfect performances in Adam Meeks's Sundance hit, Union County. Playing brothers Cody and Jack Parsons, each navigating a court-mandated drug rehabilitation program in a pocket of rural Ohio hit hard by the opioid epidemic. Provided with hope for the first time since their struggles began and with the support of a tireless counselor (Annette Deao), the br...

WINTER HYMNS takes shape in a single hospital room on a gray winter day, Dr. Linda Vobernik (Colleen Madden) meets a series of patients and families confronting the end of life. Among them are a farmer who refuses to accept his failing body, an English teacher clinging to her students’ futures, and a young electrical line worker whose cancer has stolen his own. As the day unfolds, the room itself...

Erica and Matt Hinton's are the filmmaking team behind this endlessly fascinating documentary Awake, My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp. It is the first feature documentary to explore the history, music, and traditions of Sacred Harp singing, the oldest distinctively American form of music. This haunting music has survived over 200 years tucked away from sight in the rural deep South and occurs...

A PARADISE LOST is the enchanting, yet harrowing tale of the yellow finch of Palila v. Hawaii, a landmark case where nature took humanity to court to stave off extinction. The film unfolds through the POV of the animated Palila called Anuenue who stood as the client in 1979 court trials. The legal battle leveraged the Endangered Species Act to protect mamane forests where 2,500 Palila competed wit...