First Run Features

On a mission to sell his last remaining prize hog and reunite with old friends, an aging farmer abandons his foreclosed farm and journeys to Mexico. After smuggling in the hog, his estranged daughter shows up, forcing them to face their past and embark on an adventurous road trip together.

One of Mark Rappaport's later narratives (which won the Gold Hugo for Best First Feature at the Chicago International Film Festival in 1979), Impostors is an off-kilter comedy/mystery focused on two magicians trying to find Egyptian jewels, their promiscuous assistant, and a man who loves the assistant.

INVISIBLE SCARS is a feature documentary that explores hope, healing, and resilience through the eyes of one woman who was sexually abused by her father. Johnna is a mother, wife, student, and friend who appears strong and confident. She candidly reveals the life-long struggles she has faced from the events that have affected her since childhood. Johnna meets dedicated scholars and leading experts who discuss the topic of child sexual abuse. In addition, she comes face to face with other people who were also sexually abused. With the perspective of others, she comes to understand how her experiences have negatively impacted her life choices, self-image, and interpersonal relationships. Through this journey, Johnna is forced to face her past and learn to live in the present.

At the Limit is a documentary about extreme climbing. In this sports documentary, Pepe Danquart shows brothers Thomas and Alexander Huber climbing in Patagonia and on the granite rock "El Capitan" in Yosemite Valley (USA). A key part of the film is their attempt at a speed ascent of the 1,000-meter-high route "The Nose," in which the two athletes aim to break the then speed record of 2:48:30 hours, set by Hans Florine and Yuji Hirayama in September 2002.

A biographical portrait of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, twentieth century colossus: public intellectual, policy specialist, ambassador, and NY senator.

Joel, Dennis and Sonny are three poor, handsome brothers who support their parents by working as "macho" dancers in the lively gay club scene of Manila in this dramedy that was originally banned in the Philippines.

A film about modern Japanese architecture, its roots in the Japanese tradition and its impact on the Nordic building-tradition. Winding its way through visions of the future, traditions, nature, concrete, gardens and high-tech, KOCHUU tells us how contemporary Japanese architects strive to unite the ways of modern man with the old philosophies in astounding constructions. Interviews with, and works by, Japanese architects Tadad Ando, Kisho Kurokawa, Toyo Ito and Kazuo Shinohara and Scandinavian architects Sverre Fehn, Kristian Gullichsen and Juhani Pallasmaa.

This essential new documentary pays tribute to the legacy of the late, legendary casting director Marion Dougherty and shines a light on one of the most overlooked and least understood crafts in filmmaking.

Documentarian Ross McElwee originally set out to make a travelogue of sorts tracing General William T. Sherman's infamous scorched-earth march through the Confederacy in the latter stages of the Civil War. Instead, haunted by a recent breakup with a girlfriend, McElwee ends up documenting his progress -- or lack thereof -- in starting a new relationship. His journey then becomes one of self-reflection and self-discovery rather than a historical/sociological exploration.

Documentary film maker Ross McElwee returns to his family home in Charlotte NC. In filming his family, he captures a microcosm of Southern society.

When Nicole, a young copy-shop employee, is hired to translate an ancient Chinese manuscript, she soon finds that the document has strange powers that little by little begin to exert an eerie influence over her life.

These sexy and surreal shorts from innovative gay filmmakers feature party-loving plastic dolls, domineering moms, mad scientists, stuttering sidekicks and adorable break-dancing foreign exchange students! "Jeffrey's Hollywood Screen Trick," "Shame No More," "Pyongyang Robogirl, Soda Pop," "The Trey Billings Show" and the bonus film "Dirty Baby Does Fire Island" are among the funny, provocative, award-winning films in this collection.

Filmmaker Ross McElwee trails characters whose stories have been fodder for television news and takes their tales of loss and longing further than the requisite sound bite. In the process, he examines how the medium works and exposes its limitations.

A busload of women become stranded in an isolated part of the Canadian countryside. As they await rescue, they reflect on their lives through a mostly ad-libbed script.

For 40 years, the community-organizing group ACORN advocated for America’s poorest communities, while its detractors accused it of promoting the worst of liberal policies. Riding high on the momentum of Barack Obama’s presidential victory in 2008, ACORN was at its political zenith when a hidden-camera video sparked a national scandal and brought it crashing down. The story involves voter fraud, a fake prostitute, and the rise of Breitbart.com.

In a triumphant career that lasted forty years Erroll Garner pushed the playability of the piano to its limits, developed an international reputation, and made an indelible mark on the jazz world. And yet, his story has never been told. Until now. The film explores Erroll's childhood in Pittsburgh; his meteoric rise in popularity while playing on 52nd street, New York's famed jazz epicenter; the origins of his most famous album (Concert By The Sea) and his most famous composition (Misty); his singular, virtuosic piano style; and his dynamic personality, both on and off the stage.

A look into the complex and contradictory personality of Yossef Nachmani, the man largely responsible for the first Zionist settlements in the Galilee. As director of the Jewish National Fund office in the Galilee, Nachmani acquired as much land from Arabs as possible to establish Jewish settlements upon it. The film focuses on events in Tiberius, Nachmani's hometown, a mixed community where Arabs and Jews coexisted harmoniously. Nachmani left behind a fascinating series of diaries that shed new light upon events in the Galilee during those years. Through these diaries, the film examines the critical early years of Zionism and the beginning of the Jewish-Arab conflict from his unique perspective. This provocative historical documentary is sure to become a significant document in the ongoing debate about the basic foundation myth of Israel.

Since its inception, performance art provided a forum for those artists whose work challenges the dominant aesthetic and cultural status quo. In "Sphinxes Without Secrets", performers, curators and critics unravel the mysteries of performance art and ponder the world women confront today.

In a rapidly changing America where mass inequality and dwindling opportunity have devastated the black working class, three Detroit men must fight to build something lasting for themselves and future generations.

This sequel to "Before Stonewall" documents the history of gay and lesbian life from the riots at Stonewall in 1969 to the present. Narrated by Melissa Etheridge, the film explains the work, struggles, victories, and defeats the gay community has weathered to become a vibrant and integral part of North American society.