After India’s (Mia Wasikowska’s) father dies in an auto accident, her Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode), who she never knew existed, comes to live with her and her emotionally unstable mother Evelyn (Nicole Kidman). Soon after his arrival, she comes to suspect this mysterious, charming man has ulterior motives, but instead of feeling outrage or horror, this friendless girl becomes increasingly infatuated with him.
Former Mayor Ed Koch was the quintessential New Yorker. Ferocious, charismatic, and hilariously blunt, Koch, who died in February at the age of 88, ruled New York from 1978 to 1989—a down-and-dirty decade of grit, graffiti, near-bankruptcy and rampant crime. First-time filmmaker (and former Wall Street Journal reporter) Neil Barsky has crafted an intimate and revealing portrait of this intensely private man, his legacy as a political titan, and the town he helped transform. The tumult of his three terms included a fiercely competitive 1977 election; an infamous 1980 transit strike; the burgeoning AIDS epidemic; landmark housing renewal initiatives; and an irreparable municipal corruption scandal. Through candid interviews and rare archival footage, Koch thrillingly chronicles the personal and political toll of running the world’s most wondrous city in a time of upheaval and reinvention.
In the 1970′s, successful graphic designer and ladies man, Charles Swan III (Charlie Sheen), is dumped by his girlfriend, Ivana (Katheryn Winnick) and it throws his life into a tailspin. He doesn’t know whether he loves her or hates her or wants her back or never wants to see her again. Along with his best friend, Kirby (Jason Schwartzman) and his manager, Saul (Bill Murray), Charles starts to suffer from nightmares, fever dreams of past relationships and hits rock bottom as he tries to recover from the recent breakup and tries to turn his life around.
It’s a drug that promises an out-of-body experience with each hit. On the street they call it Soy Sauce, and users drift across time and dimensions. But some who come back are no longer human. Suddenly a silent otherworldly invasion is underway, and mankind needs a hero. What it gets instead is John and David, a pair of college dropouts who can barely hold down jobs. Can these two stop the oncoming horror in time to save humanity? No. No, they can’t.
Based on the novel by author David Wong, John Dies at the End was adapted and directed by horror auteur Don Coscarelli.
“Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man.”
Starting in 1964 with Seven Up, The UP Series has explored this Jesuit maxim. The original concept was to interview 14 children from diverse backgrounds from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Every seven years, renowned director Michael Apted, a researcher for Seven Up, has been back to talk to them, examining the progression of their lives.
From cab driver Tony to schoolmates Jackie, Lynn and Susan and the heart-breaking Neil, as they turn 56 more life-changing decisions and surprising developments are revealed.
An extraordinary look at the structure of life in the 20th century, The UP Series is, according to critic Roger Ebert, “an inspired, almost noble use of the film medium. Apted penetrates to the central mystery of life.”
Gary Hustwit’s trilogy of documentaries on design will serve as a springboard for discussions with local designers as we highlight their work and the philosophies behind it.
Helvetica features a panel afterwards of local graphic designers moderated by UMD professor Steve Bardolph.
Participants include:
Rick Kollath, Kollath Graphic Design
Tommy Kronquist, The Medium Control
Jesse Michels, Loll
David Moreira, Skat Radio
Cody Paulson, Swim Creative, Jambox
David Sadowski, Swim Creative
Deb Salzer, HTK Marketing
In 2005 a number of provocative, award-winning ads appeared that touted the Helvetica font; Gary Hustwit explores the subject protractedly with his feature-length essay film Helvetica. The documentary, produced in 2007 (and thus commemorating the typeface’s 50th anniversary), uses the omnipresent font as a lens through which it examines contemporary visual culture and how typeface is used, aesthetically, spatially, and culturally, to impart shape and character to urban environments. Hustwitthen segues into a discussion with a number of acclaimed designers about their work, their creative visions and processes, and the aesthetic reasoning behind various decisions regarding font. Hustwit interviews over 20 design experts in the film, including Michael C. Place, Paula Scher, Matthew Carter, and David Carson.
Gary Hustwit’s trilogy of documentaries on design will serve as a springboard for discussions with local designers as we highlight their work and the philosophies behind it.
Objectified features a talk afterwards with Greg Benson, CEO of Loll Designs.
Nearly everyone spends their life surrounded by the work of industrial designers, but very few people understand the process by which your furniture, cell phone, or alarm clock came to look and feel the way they do, and how the elements of design interact with our own ideas and assumptions about value and functionality. The design of everyday objects has more than a little to do with mass psychology and the way it intersects with commerce, even if most people never give the process a moment’s thought. Filmmaker Gary Hustwit takes viewers on a journey through the elusive world of industrial design and the interaction of people with the objects they’ve brought into their lives in the documentary Objectified, which features interviews with a number of major designers who discuss how products move from the drawing board to the marketplace, and the philosophy behind the look, feel, and function of the things in your home
Gary Hustwit’s trilogy of documentaries on design will serve as a springboard for discussions with local designers as we highlight their work and the philosophies behind it.
Urbanized will feature a talk afterwards with Mayor Don Ness and Director of City Planning Keith Hamre moderated by UMD Professor Jennifer Webb.
Documentary filmmaker Gary Hustwit completes his so-called “Design film trilogy” (which began with Helvetica and continued with Objectified) with this upbeat, visually inventive look at the way cities around the world are designed, and the efforts being made to make urban living more functional. As urban populations explode on every continent, the quest to ensure that everyone has a high quality of living becomes increasingly difficult. There are many contributors to the design of a city, and from the architect to the average citizen, everyone’s contributions play a part in shaping the metropolitan landscape. By traveling the globe and speaking with a wide variety of subjects ranging from city planners to politicians to artists and architects, Hustwit explores the innovations being made in such crucial areas as public transportation, safety, and even food supply.
Once-popular opera diva Jean Horton (Maggie Smith) creates a stir with her arrival at Beecham House, a home for retired performers. No one feels the uproar more than Reginald (Tom Courtenay), Jean’s ex-husband, who still stings from her long-ago infidelity. Most of the other Beecham residents are delighted, and try to convince Jean to join them in a performance of “Rigoletto.” Jean, however, knows that she is long past her prime and is reluctant to sully the memory of her once-lovely voice.
Nominated for Best Documentary!
How to Survive a Plague is the story of two coalitions-ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group)-whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. Despite having no scientific training, these self-made activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time. With unfettered access to a treasure trove of never-before-seen archival footage from the 1980s and ’90s, filmmaker David France puts the viewer smack in the middle of the controversial actions, the heated meetings, the heartbreaking failures, and the exultant breakthroughs of heroes in the making
Nominated for Best Foreign Film!
A ROYAL AFFAIR is the true story of an ordinary man who wins the queen’s heart and starts a revolution. Centering on the intriguing love triangle between the ever more insane Danish King Christian VII, the royal physician who is a man of enlightenment and idealism Struensee and the young but strong Queen Caroline Mathilda, A ROYAL AFFAIR is the gripping tale of brave idealists who risk everything in their pursuit of freedom for their people.
