First Run Features

Technological advancement, economic development, population increase - are they signs of a thriving society? Or too much of a good thing? Executive Produced by Martin Scorsese, this provocative documentary explores the concept of progress in our modern world, guiding us through the major "progress traps" facing our civilization in the arenas of technology, economics, consumption, and the environment. Featuring powerful arguments from such visionaries as Jane Goodall, Margaret Atwood and...

The Bible is both a religious and historical work, but how much is myth and how much is history? This masterful investigation into the origins of the Bible visits archaeological digs in Egypt, Jordan and Israel -- including Megiddo, the cradle of biblical archaeology. Rare archival footage, ancient maps, biblical illustrations and computer simulations are put into context by world-famous archaeologists and biblical scholars, including experts from the Louvre, the museums of Cairo and...

Female Misbehavior is a collection of five films that explore the outer limits of female sexuality and behavior. Each film features a woman who has challenged the status quo, provoking shock and outrage in some and gaining respect and admiration from others. "Annie" is an inside look (in more ways than one) at Annie Sprinkle, porn-star, performance artist and sexual diva. "Dr. Paglia" is a confrontation with Camille Paglia, the infamous author. "Bondage" centers on an S&M practitioner and her...

A Film by Didier Le Pecheur. One night a morgue employee named Ben meets, under the strangest of circumstances, Teresa who has overdosed on Ecstasy at a rave. From this sensational beginning, Teresa and Ben embark on an odyssey that takes them into the world of sadomasochism, wild techno-dance parties, and orgies as they each search for new sensations that will ease their chilling sense of despair. This provocative, disturbing film will challenge your sensibilities in much the same way as Eyes...

The movie that rocked the foundations of the early Indie film world, this provocative, thrilling classic is a fantasy of female rebellion set in America ten years after the Second American Revolution. When Adelaide Norris, the black radical founder of the Woman's Army, is mysteriously killed, a diverse coalition of women -- across all lines of race, class, and sexual preference -- emerges to blow the System apart. Newly restored in high definition on its 35th anniversary, "Born in Flames" is...

Based on the book by Dan Wakefield, the film combines stunning archival footage of New York with interviews of the icons of the day - Kerouac, Ginsberg, Baldwin, Mailer, Basie, etc. Offering modern day perspectives and reminiscences are writers, actors, and artists such as Joan Didion, Robert Redford, Nat Hentoff, Gay and Nan Talesse, John Gregory Dunne, William F. Buckley and Calvin Trillin - all part of the rich cultural and artistic scene of the time.

Reza and Leila, an attractive and affluent young couple deeply in love and recently married, discover that Leila is unable to conceive. Invoking tradition, Reza's mother convinces her daughter-in-law that Reza must, out of necessity, take a second wife to produce an heir. The heartbreak that follows is "in a word, devastating" (The New York Times). Called "the most interesting and accomplished filmmaker the United States has never heard of" by Godfrey Cheshire in The New York Press, Mehrjui...

Sacco and Vanzetti brings to life the story of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immigrant anarchists who were accused of a murder in 1920, and executed in Boston in 1927 after a notoriously prejudiced trial. The ordeal of Sacco and Vanzetti came to symbolize the bigotry and intolerance directed at immigrants and dissenters in America. Millions of people around the world protested on their behalf, and now, 80 years later, their story continues to have great resonance, as civil...

Journey into the world of Argentina's most famous musical artist in Mercedes Sosa: The Voice of Latin America. Over a career that spanned 50 years, Sosa sold millions of records, performed thousands of concerts all over the world, and left behind an incredible legacy as an artist who went beyond the borders of music to become one of the most influential -- and loved -- personalities of the 20th century. This intimate documentary reveals Sosa's early life and her rise to worldwide stardom, and...

President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives is confronting a problem greater than any other world leader has ever faced - the survival of his country and everyone in it. Nasheed, who brought democracy to the Maldives after decades of despotic rule, now faces an even greater challenge: as one of the most low-lying countries in the world, a rise of three feet in sea level would submerge the 1200 islands of the Maldives and make them uninhabitable. A classic David and Goliath tale, The Island...

This Swedish feature film chronicles the last days of the war in Budapest. The Soviet noose is tightening around the city, yet the unrelenting mass murder of Jews continues. Raoul Wallenberg, an attache to the Swedish Embassy, was sent at the initiative of Swedish Jewish businessmen on a rescue mission of Hungarian Jews. He distributed Swedish papers ("Wallenberg passports"), protected Jews in "Wallenberg houses," internationalized the ghetto to give the 33,000 Jews within it more protections,...

Twenty-two women -- most topless, all candid -- reveal how their breasts have shaped their lives, from puberty to sex to motherhood and beyond. Interspersed throughout are precious archival gems, including a racy 1920s cartoon, a 1950s beauty pageant and a 1970s bra commercial.