FilmRise

The highly-anticipated and critically-acclaimed documentary "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison Of Belief" is a look inside the controversial religion from Academy Award -winner Alex Gibney. The film profiles eight former members of the Church of Scientology, exploring the psychological impact of blind faith, how the church attracts new followers and keeps hold of its A-list celebrity devotees. Following the Peabody Award-winning documentary "Mea Maxima Culpa," his investigation into the...

The highly-anticipated and critically-acclaimed documentary "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison Of Belief" is a look inside the controversial religion from Academy Award -winner Alex Gibney. The film profiles eight former members of the Church of Scientology, exploring the psychological impact of blind faith, how the church attracts new followers and keeps hold of its A-list celebrity devotees. Following the Peabody Award-winning documentary "Mea Maxima Culpa," his investigation into the...

Mango Yellow (Amarelo Manga) -- Guaranteed to shock even jaded viewers, Claudio Assis' debut feature is seeped in bold, sun-drenched colors. It is a provocative tale of low-rent losers set in the coastal town of Recife, Brazil. Assis' characters seemingly stem from some Carnival hell - a macho butcher and his born-again wife, a forlorn barmaid, a sinister sadist and the gay manager of a flophouse called the Hotel Texas. A cleverly interconnected script propels the action in this highly...

Angel on the Right (Farishtay Kitfi Rost) - Hamro, an unrepentant prodigal son straight out of a Russian jail, returns to his hometown to help his mother die with dignity. But his debts are many and long overdue, the townspeople are tough as nails, and he gets more than he expected from the quiet village. In this dark comedy, his third feature, writer-director Djamshed Usmonov casts the town's population as its own persuasive self and his own mother and brother as the fractured yet formidable...

Buffalo Boy - Set in the lowlands of southern Vietnam, this powerful coming of age tale is a richly textured and stunningly visual reflection of the rhythms of daily life and culture determined by water. The flooded landscape serves to tell the story of the relationship between a father and son, the cycles of life, and the inescapable flow of all things. When young Kim, out of necessity, joins the nomadic life of the buffalo herders he is exposed to a complex, brutal way of existence. He must...

Fuse (Gori Vatra) -- This brilliantly controlled debut feature opens with a jolt symbolic of the dangers buried beneath the surface of a small rustic village in Bosnia. Two years after the civil war has officially ended, Serbs and Muslims are trying to live and work together. A dryly humorous tone contrasted with a shrewd sense of reality, even in the tragic legacy of post-war Bosnia, balances this beautifully wrought political satire. Times are tough indeed, and everyone has to make his or...

Stolen Life - A young girl is taken to live with her aunt and grandmother in Beijing. As an adolescent, Yanni is withdrawn and reclusive, believing that she has been abandoned by her parents, and that she has no control over either her life or her fate. The fact that her "family" doesn't have much hope for her future only compounds her depression. Surprising everyone in her hostile household, Yanni is accepted to college. As she prepares to begin her new life, an encounter with a delivery boy...

Kept and Dreamless (Las Mantenidas Sin Sueos) -- During Argentina's economic crisis of the '90s, nine year-old Eugenia and her mother, Florencia, live a seemingly colorful life surrounded by eclectic neighbors and an offbeat collection of family. But for Eugenia, who must deal with her mother's dysfunctional and drug-addled lifestyle, life is anything but pleasant in this darkly inspiring story of expectation, acceptance and nontraditional family, led by standout performances from director...

The Fish Fall in Love (Mahiha Ashegh Mishavand) -- Atieh's singular passion is food, and her small but popular restaurant on the sleepy Caspian coast is her pride and joy. But when Aziz, her former fiance, appears after a twenty-year absence, the women believe he has intentions of closing the restaurant, so Atieh prepares his favorite dishes, one after the other, in a desperate effort to convince him otherwise. Loosely based on the Persian fable of Shahrazad and the Thousand Myths (A Thousand...

Ticket to Jerusalem - Writer/director Rashid Masharawi's inspired hybrid of documentary and fiction begins in a refugee camp near Ramallah. Jabir runs a mobile cinema from his old truck throughout the West Bank while his wife works to bring emergency medical care to Palestinians. Both navigate endless checkpoints and other obstacles by looking for creative solutions. When Jabir is invited by a spirited schoolteacher to make an open-air screening in the old city of Jerusalem, he becomes...

Whisky - An inspired and beautifully assured tragic-comedy about Jacobo, a sixty-year-old owner of a small, outdated sock factory, is illuminated with deadpan, repetitive, and monotonous detail. When his successful younger brother is expected for a visit, Jacobo asks Marta, his humble, loyal assistant, to pose as his wife. The brother, lively, inquisitive, and open, spontaneously suggests a seaside trip during which the three characters begin to reveal themselves in situations where farce,...

"Sherrybaby" follows Sherry Swanson, (Maggie Gyllenhaal, "Stranger Than Fiction", "The Dark Knight") who has just been released from prison after three years. Dressed in her inappropriate uniform of a halter top and oh-so-high platform heels, she goes to her brother's house to visit her five year-old daughter, Lexie (Ryan Simpkins). Sherry is determined to be a mother to her child, but without a home, job, or any other form of stability, she becomes frustrated and envious of her brother and...