Cinemafile

As a young boy, H.N. Shantha Murthy ran away from home to escape the extreme poverty of his Indian village. He travelled the country in search of work, holding onto the belief that one day his life would change. It did, following a serendipitous encounter with a Texan couple. With a sponsored visa, he travelled to the US, but his American Dream was not to be fulfilled. Karla Murthy’s film weaves t...

Set in the small farming community of Three Oaks, Michigan — home to the nation’s largest Flag Day parade — Flag Day is a verité portrait of ritual, identity, and belonging in an era of deep political division. Somewhere between tradition and transformation lies this village, whose annual parade has become a pageant of American aspiration and memory. Over the course of Flag Day weekend, the film i...

In this wildly entertaining documentary Cabali & the Tiki Mug Obsession Director Joshua Dragotta explores the colorful subculture of Tiki enthusiasts who celebrate and collect ceramic drinking vessels known as Tiki mugs as well as the artists that create them. The film follows Doug “Fini” Finical – a man with a dream – as he assembles a team of craftsman and artists to build a Tiki bar dedicat...

This enthralling music documentary traces the turbulent, transcendent life of Gregg Allman — from a childhood ruptured by his father’s murder to the soulful emergence that reshaped American music. Through archival recordings, candid interviews, and electric performances, the film follows Gregg’s musical awakening amid the blues he worshipped, the creation of the Allman Brothers Band with his broth...

Set in the shadowy underworld of 1990s Saigon, Skin of Youth follows San, a transgender sex worker navigating desire, survival, and the fight for self-determination — all while a dangerous oligarch closes in on her relationship with her underground cage-fighter lover. It's a rare film: a queer love story rooted in Vietnamese history, told with uncompromising intimacy by one of Asian cinema's most...

Groundbreaking when it was made and still fiercely innovative today, BY HOOK OR BY CROOK chronicles three weeks in the life of a handsome, gender-bending, small town dreamer with a nagging messiah complex. Emotionally defeated after the death of his father, SHY heads to the big city to sink himself into a "life of crime." He is quickly distracted by VALENTINE, a deliriously expressive, wise-acre a...

On the Amazon rainforest island of Marajó, 13-year-old Tielle lives in an isolated riverside enclave with her family. She idolizes her older sister, who escaped the area with “a good man” (according to her mother) on one of the commercial river barges. But as she matures and learns the true price her sister paid to leave, she fears for the safety of her younger sister and resolves to challenge the...

Renowned Icelandic poet and author Andri Snær Magnason is chasing something elusive. As the glacial ice of his homeland melts, he constructs a cinematic time capsule to hold onto this moment and send it to the future, before everything he loves slips away. Using his own collected archives, his grandparents’ photographs, and films, as well as traditional songs and folktales, Andri interlaces his fa...

An Ivorian pastor and former journalist, Marie, opens her home in Tunisia to three generations of migrant women: Naney, Jolie, and Kenza. A mother desperate to obtain residency status in Tunisia, Naney seeks a better life for herself and her daughter. Jolie, in Tunisia on a student visa, feels burdened by her family’s expectations for her future. Kenza, an orphaned child and the only survivor of a...

Haunting and unforgettable, THIS ORDINARY THING tells the story of non-Jews who helped save Jewish people across Europe during The Holocaust. The film combines never-before-seen archival footage with the testimonies of over forty different people who, operating independently and at great risk to themselves and their families, saved thousands of Jewish strangers from almost certain death. THIS ORDI...

Charlie and Erin escape to the desert to navigate an unexpected and challenging new phase of their relationship. Magic Hour is a story of love, perception, regret and acceptance. Director, writer, co-lead actor Kate Aselton joins us for a conversation on the making of Magic Hour, the early days of indie filmmaking, working with her husband / collaborator Mark Duplass and the brilliant co-lead, Dav...

Amber and her four best friends flee Los Angeles for a girls’ trip in Joshua Tree, only to find themselves unwelcome in a desert town simmering with quiet hostility. As isolation sets in and encounters with aggressive locals grow more threatening, festering resentments within the group begin to surface. What begins as fun and reckless escape spirals into a violent struggle for control and survival...

Acclaimed director Adam Carter Rehmeier’s romantic crime thriller stars Samara Weaving (READY OR NOT, BORDERLINE) as Caroline Daniels, whose desire to leave her small Texas town brings her into the orbit of a charismatic con man (Kyle Gallner, DINNER IN AMERICA), and together they weave a path of crime and passion across the American Southeast. Also starring Kyra Sedgwick, the film features a wide...

Emmy award-winning Filipino American film director Michele Josue (Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine) masterfully blends cinematic storytelling with intimate cultural exploration, FOOD ROOTS follows Billy Dec, two-time Emmy Award Winning TV Personality, Actor, Attorney and Entrepreneur, as he journeys through his mother’s native 7,641 islands in the Philippines in search of his last living elders, a...

Georgia O’Keeffe is widely revered as the “Mother of American Modernism” and the greatest woman artist of the 20th century. In the 1920s, O’Keeffe became famous for her paintings of flowers, bones, and the beauty of nature. She posed nude for shocking photographs by her lover, Alfred Stieglitz, but denied that her paintings depicted sexual imagery. In the 1970s, living in her beloved New Mexico, s...

Shakti is the narrative film debut of Nani Sahra Walker. A single mother, Durga, enrolls her young daughter, Lila, in a private painting class, in order to keep her out of trouble. However, when Lila’s behavior drastically changes and falls ill, she and Durga begin to confront their shared trauma. All this unfolds in the midst of social and political change – particularly surrounding women’s right...

In her provocative and gripping debut film, FORASTERA Director Lucia Aleñar Iglesias hones in on young woman, Cata, (Zoe Stein) has to deal with the trauma of the sudden death of her grandmother, which only she witnesses. Her grief shifts when she casually turns to play pretend, transforming into the deceased. What begins with a game of dress-up will blur the lines of reality and family roles. Tim...

Astronaut Eileen Collins was the first woman to pilot and command an American spacecraft. SPACEWOMAN beautifully captures Eileen’s journey, from her working-class beginnings in Elmira, NY, to breaking glass ceilings at NASA, commanding four space shuttle missions, and navigating the pressures on her family is awe inspiring. The doc includes archival materials and interviews that highlight both the...

The Midway Point is a heartfelt coming-of-age drama that explores identity, belonging, and emotional growth through the lens of a young man navigating life on the autism spectrum. Set in modern-day California. The film captures the struggles and beauty of adolescence, friendship, and first love – reminding us that sometimes, one connection can change everything. The film offers an authentic and se...

Ask E. Jean is the riveting story of E. Jean Carroll’s life, from her early days as Miss Cheerleader USA to her rise as a trailblazing journalist, author, and beloved advice columnist. Carroll broke barriers as the first female editor at Esquire , Playboy , and Outside , helping to redefine women’s roles in media with her sharp wit and fearless voice. In recent years, she reignited public discours...

On a remote island in the Chesapeake Bay, a deeply rooted Christian fishing community grapples with the quiet erosion of their land and their traditions. Their centuries-old way of life, sustained by faith and the rhythms of the bay, is now at a poignant crossroads—one that may force them from the only home they’ve ever known. BEEN HERE STAY HERE offers rare, unfiltered access to a place where cli...

AMERICAN SOLITAIRE explores the United States’ deep cultural connection to guns through the intimate story of a wounded veteran navigating the emotional aftermath of war. As he struggles to reintegrate into a society where firearms are revered and gun violence is pervasive, he embarks on a journey to heal himself and, by extension, challenge his country to allow for a broader vision of a soldier’s...

Director Don Hardy’s (Citizen Penn) intimate documentary portrait Linda Perry: Let It Die Here chronicles the life and career of the Grammy and Golden Globe nominated songwriter, producer, and 4 Non Blondes frontwoman. Iconic in the nineties for the era-defining hit “What’s Up”, Linda Perry has spent the past three decades reinventing herself as one of pop music’s most prolific behind the scenes h...

An Autumn Summer is a coming of age love story that tells the tale of Kevin (Mark McKenna) and Cody (Lukita Maxwell), a young couple spending the final month before college in a magical Michigan lake town, chasing an endless summer. Per Jared Isaac: “The story is real, the place is real, and it’s a feeling I’ve wanted to bottle up and take with me wherever I am. It’s pure and uncynical, unapologet...

Steve Schapiro: Being Everywhere is both an intimate final conversation with a man who was the quintessential “fly on the wall” and a dazzling reminder of the power of photography to bear witness, inspire change, and preserve legacy. Over the course of his career, Schapiro’s images appeared on the covers of Life, Look, Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated, People, and Par...