Indie Cinema

HUMP! is a festival of short erotic films curated by sex-advice columnist Dan Savage. The films shown at HUMP! are always surprising — they can be hardcore, soft-core, comedic, serious, animated, musical — but all HUMP! films are made by real people, for real people. HUMP! filmmakers and stars put their ultimate turn-ons and craziest fantasies up on the screen for all … +

Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse headline this musical comedy about a Hollywood star who returns to the Broadway theater when no producer wants him for a movie. Egos clash between the movie star, his lithe ballerina co-star, and their effete director–and the show bombs in out-of-town tryouts. But the initial failure convinces the stars to work together, re-creating the Musical to entertain … +

Lucky is a young woman who embarks on an Oz-style adventure into the dreamworld of CAPRICE, her favorite fashion magazine. Director Joanna Hogg’s graduation film, starring a then-unknown 26-year-old Tilda Swinton stretches away from the minimalism that would define her later career. A Technicolor surreal dream paying homage to the legendary Powell & Pressburger’s RED SHOES and cheekily crossing paths with the … +

The brilliance of a young Isabelle Huppert lends quiet intensity to this piercing period elegy. Budapest, 1936: Szilvia (Lili Monori), a wealthy heiress to an enormous family fortune, befriends Irén (Huppert), a young shopgirl of modest means. Unable to give birth, Szilvia offers Irén money in exchange for conceiving a child with her husband (Jan Nowicki) on her behalf—a transaction that blurs … +

What do the most ravishingly beautiful actress of the 1930s and 40s and the inventor whose concepts were the basis of Cellphone and Bluetooth technology have in common? They are both Hedy Lamarr, the glamour icon whose ravishing visage was the inspiration for Snow White and Cat Woman, and a technological trailblazer who perfected a secure radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes … +

Deserving comparison with the work of Pedro Costa, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Souleymane Cissé, This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection marks the introduction of a major filmmaker and the final powerhouse performance of a remarkable actress. The late Mary Twala Mhlongo, recognizable from Beyoncé’s blockbuster musical Black Is King, gives a heartbreaking career-capping performance as Mantoa, an 80-year-old woman who has … +

After toiling for years in bit-parts, aspiring actress Nina Wu (Ke-Xi Wu, who also co-wrote the script based on her own personal experiences) finally gets her big break with a leading role in a spy thriller set in the 1960s. The part, which calls for nudity and explicit sex scenes, is made all the more challenging thanks to the director’s unending belittlements. … +

“[Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci] are on magnificent form in a drama about love and mortality that is all the more powerful for its restraint.” —Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian Sam (Colin Firth) and Tusker (Stanley Tucci), partners of twenty years, are travelling across England in their old campervan visiting friends, family and places from their past. Following a life-changing diagnosis, their time … +

“Young lovers move over – Sukowa and Chevallier bring to life an unforgettable lesbian couple. A Cause for celebration.” —Lisa Nesselson, Screen International “Quietly groundbreaking. Entirely unique and uniquely vital.” —Mark Keizer, Variety France, 2020, 95 min, Dir. Filippo Meneghetti, Not Rated, French with English subtitles, Magnolia Pictures Viewing Window: 72 hours (once viewing is started) Price: $12 Two retired women, Nina … +

“Combines stunning cinematography, evocative sound design and hints of magical realism to create a visionary work of devastating power.” —Anjana Janardhan, Sight & Sound Mexico/Spain, 2020, 94 min, Dir. Fernanda Valadez, Not Rated, Spanish with English subtitles, Kino Lorber Viewing Window: 5 days Price: $12 Middle-aged Magdalena (Mercedes Hernandez) has lost contact with her son after he took off with a friend … +

With unfettered access to the Zappa family trust and all archival footage, Zappa explores the private life behind the mammoth musical career that never shied away from the political turbulence of its time. Alex Winter’s assembly features appearances by Frank’s widow Gail Zappa and several of Frank’s musical collaborators including Mike Keneally, Ian Underwood, Steve Vai, Pamela Des Barres, Bunk Gardner, David … +

“[Director Itay] Tal’s style has a simultaneous simplicity and density that has an affinity with the works of Lucrecia Martel and Michael Haneke. Rarely does a debut feature showcase a talent so fully formed. This is a remarkably potent film.” —Glenn Kenny, The New York Times Anat (Naama Preis, winner of the Jerusalem Film Festival award for Best Actress) has never been … +

“A movie like none other I have seen before…a film in which the inner chambers of the soul are laid bare.” – Roger Ebert “One of the great hallucinatory experiences in cinema, a visually intoxicating horror trip. A perfect introduction for those eager to travel down more rarely explored routes of international film.” – Nathaniel Thompson, Mondo Digital Fifteen years after Alejandro … +

Cinekid, The Netherland’s premiere film festival for children, presents a program of the very best of Dutch animation – featuring diverse stories, hilarious romps, inventive animation, and more! With trusty scissors in hand, Mr. Paper makes choice cuts to craft his ideal world. Blooming with artful animation and wistful storytelling, Emily was spotlighted as the Netherlands’ entry for Oscar consideration. Then three … +

Can a fabled stone offer another path for Matilde’s life on her Mexican rancho? And the choices we make at mealtime sometimes have a very big impact, especially for a seemingly picky eater with a lot more on his mind in the drama from Spain, Fish. The universal language of wizards bridges cultures from the UK to Cuba in the imaginative doc … +

CGAC pays tribute to exploitation auteur Doris Wishman with a screening of a new digital preservation of her sci-fi classic, Nude on the Moon, a 1961 romp about a tropical society of topless aliens on the moon, filmed in Homestead’s Coral Castle. Ms. Wishman moved to Coral Gables in the mid 1980’s, worked at The Pink Pussycat Boutique on Main Highway in … +

SHADOWS isn’t America’s first indie feature film, but it may be its first mature one — the first to put everything on the line for its uncompromising modern approach to style and subject matter. As he follows the lives of three black Manhattanite siblings (with a breakout performance by Lelia Goldoni), Cassavetes gives each actor room to shape their character like a … +

A near-palpable sense of uncanny dread looms over the story of Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy), a young doctor who gradually discovers that the inhabitants of his sleepy California town are being replaced with mysteriously inhuman replicates. Adapted from a serialized novel, Don Siegel’s film would spawn several Hollywood remakes over the decades — a testament to its enduring legacy as an influential … +

The first feature-length film from the acclaimed studio TRIGGER, creators of the hit series Kill la Kill and Little Witch Academia, and director Hiroyuki Imaishi (Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill), Promare uses a bold cel-shaded visual style to tell a blistering action-adventure story, and is the spiritual successor to many of director Imaishi’s former works. Thirty years have passed since the appearance … +

Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC’s Sherlock, Doctor Strange) plays the title role of Shakespeare’s great tragedy. Now seen by over 900,000 people worldwide, the original broadcast returns to cinemas to mark National Theatre Live’s 10th birthday. As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father’s death but paralyzed by the task ahead, Hamlet (Benedict Cumberbatch) rages … +

“At once a devastating, curiously uplifting inhuman drama and a superbly crafted genre exercise, Let The Right One In can stand toe-to-toe with Spirit Of The Beehive, Pan’s Labyrinth or Orphee. See it.” – Kim Newman, Empire Magazine A lonely 12-year old boy, Oskar, befriends a mysterious 12-year-old girl, Eli, after she moves in next door. Pale and serious, Eli’s arrival coincides … +