Art of Suicide 
Paintings, poems, plays and movies—it’s just another day at White Hall Studios, an eclectic commune for young artists and bohemians alike. Painter Joel Mallon and his eager band of friends are out to put themselves and their studio on the map. But just how long can an artist get rejected, overlooked and written off before his “big break” arrives? Joel’s break finally comes when a free-spirited muse enters his life and gives him the ultimate inspiration. But how far are you willing to go to promote yourself?
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Master filmmaker Sidney Lumet directs this absorbing suspense thriller about a family facing the worst enemy of all – itself. Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Andy, an overextended broker who lures his younger brother, Hank (Ethan Hawke) into a larcenous scheme: The pair will rob a suburban mom-and-pop jewelry store that appears to be the quintessential easy target. The problem is, the storeowners are Andy and Hank’s actual mom and pop and, when the seemingly perfect crime goes awry, the damage lands right at their doorstep. Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei plays Hoffman’s trophy wife, who is having a clandestine affair with Hawke. The stellar cast also includes Albert Finney as the family patriarch who pursues justice at all costs, completely unaware that the culprits he’s hunting are his own sons. A classy, classic heist-gone-wrong drama in the tradition of The Killing and Lumet’s own The Anderson Tapes, Before The Devil Know You’re Dead is smart enough to know that we often have the most to fear from those who are near and dear.
Blood Car
In the near future, gas prices reach an all-time high, nearing almost $40 a gallon. Archie Andrews, an environmentalist and vegan schoolteacher, is determined to find an alternate fuel source. While experimenting with various wheat-grass concoctions, he accidentally stumbles upon a solution. Blood. Human blood. Archie soon becomes the only person driving a car and attracts the attention of a sex slut named Denise. Unable to turn down her advances, Archie becomes attached to her—and the only way to keep her is to keep the car running.
Crimes of the Heart
Tess Harper—working again with director Bruce Beresford (Tender Mercies)—scored an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Chick Boyle, the very proper, very nosy cousin (and neighbor) of three eccentric sisters, Lenny McGrath (Diane Keaton), “Babe” McGrath (Sissy Spacek) and Meg McGrath (Jessica Lange) in Crimes of the Heart. It’s easy to see why, because Harper has so completely nailed a certain type of Southern woman that she seems to inhabit the character. Every nuance is there: the ability to deliver a well-aimed insult while appearing as nice as pie, the sense of being better than everyone else, a barely-disguised penchant for gossip, and her busybody nature. That she manages to stand out in this perfectly cast, perfectly written, perfectly crafted, perfectly scored ensemble piece is a testament to her artistry. That she does this without upstaging the other performers is a testament to her wisdom as an actress. Beresford’s film of Beth Hanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about three sisters drawn together when one of them, Babe, shoots her husband, is an amazing creation overall. The material is at once steeped in the “dark secret” school of the Southern Gothic, while simultaneously satirizing its own genre by focusing on the absurdities—of which there are many—of the form. The dark secrets here are always tinged with the ridiculous, but the amazing thing is that this is never at the expense of the humanity of the characters—all of whom seem realistic in their combination of resilience and fragility. Simply put, this is a wonderful film—funny, moving, involving, and one of the few pictures about life in the South that rings true from beginning to end.
The Garage
Two best friends plan to leave the small town in which they grew up. Eighteen-year-old Matt, who has just graduated from high school, works at his dad’s garage, while 21-year-old Schultz, who works for his dad in construction, is a strong-minded high-school dropout. For Matt, leaving town is about getting out of the garage and pursuing his passion. For Schultz, it’s simply a matter of survival to get away from his abusive father. When a devastating incident occurs, Matt will have to find his true direction in life.
Ghost Town
This unique “eastern” Western is North Carolina native Dean Teaster’s tribute to his father, Robert Doyle Teaster, and the Ghost Town In The Sky theme park. The park was a source of childhood happiness for Dean’s family and many others since its opening in 1961 in nearby Maggie Valley. Combining factual information about his great-great-grandfather Harold and the best elements of the staged gunfights at Ghost Town In The Sky, the story paints a picture of the beautiful mountain region settled by the Celtic people, whose rich traditions and true grit allowed them to survive and thrive during the rugged 1800s. With a slight romantic edge, the film is filled with messages about love, hate, family, forgiveness, redemption and sacrifice. Filmed in North Carolina.
Golden Blade III: Return of the Monkey’s Uncle
This sequel to Golden Blade II (which can be found on the Internet) opens with Sister Wang returning to the Evil Wang Fortress with her brother’s head. The head, of course, is still alive because it was chopped off with the Golden Blade in the last movie and everyone knows that the Golden Blade restores life rather than ending it. Paying homage to the “classic” Kung Fu flick, when cheap video games and bad movie effects were still awesome and fun, Golden Blade III features a magic sword, ridiculous eyebrows, the classic market fight scene and out-of-sync voice dubbing. What more could you ask for?
Greetings from the Shore
Still reeling from the death of her father, a young woman spends one last summer at the Jersey Shore before heading off to college. But when her plans fall apart, she stumbles into a mysterious world of Russian sailors, high-stakes gambling and unexpected love.
Her Best Move
High school is crazy enough, but for 15-year-old soccer star Sara Davis, it’s about to get even crazier. On the field she dances through opponents to make impossible shots on goal—skills honed by her father, Gil, a pro soccer coach. Encouraged by her best friend, Tutti, to jump-start her life outside soccer, Sara makes up for lost time and discovers there’s more to life than just sports. As Gil pushes Sara to make the Development Team, her hopes of performing in the dance recital and exploring a relationship are shoved aside. With scouts watching every shot, Sara faces the challenge of discovering who she is before making the best move of her life.
How much do you love me?
Set in Paris, François (Bernard Campan), a lonely man with health problems who makes a living as a clerk, wins the lottery. Deciding to take advantage of this windfall, he goes to a bar in Pigalle and offers 100,000 euros per month to the prostitute Daniela (Monica Bellucci) to live with him until the money runs out. Daniela agrees without hesitation and François idolizes her, even if the relationship isn’t good for his heart. When Daniela’s boyfriend/partner/pimp Charly (Gerard Depardieu) enters the picture, what begins as a melancholy trip into a lonely man’s imagination turns into a black comedy. Daniela decides to come back to her man, the mobster Charly, then misses François and ends up returning to him. But once a whore, always a whore.
Intervention
North Carolina premiere Twenty-eight days is the recommended treatment period for a group of addicts who check into Vista Clara, one of the many fashionable rehab clinics springing up like geysers in the New Mexico desert. This film offers a fly-on-the-wall bittersweet glimpse of what goes on behind closed doors when an eclectic group of people from all walks of life find themselves under one roof for 28 days with one thing in common. Intervention is an improvised drama—in which cast members are given only a scene description—compelling each to fully develop his own character and improvise dialogue accordingly.
The List
Renny Jacobson, a young Charlotte lawyer, learns that his father has suddenly died. Returning home to Charleston, he’s shocked to learn that his father has bequeathed his significant estate to charity, leaving Renny only an interest in an obscure entity—The Covenant List of South Carolina, Ltd. Along with a beautiful young woman named Jo Johnston, Renny is caught in a web of intrigue, deception, greed and spiritual warfare that reaches from the steamy coasts of South Carolina to the secret bank vaults of Switzerland.
Loggerheads
Tess Harper gives a beautifully modulated performance as Elizabeth Austin, the adoptive mother of Mark Austin (Kip Pardue), in North Carolina filmmaker Tim Kirkman’s beautiful, richly layered Loggerheads. Of all the characters in this multi-location, multi-character, even multi-time-period film, Harper’s is perhaps the most complex and difficult—and the one with the most personal growth over the course of the film. She has lost her son due to the unbending moral stance of her husband, the Rev. Robert Austin (Chris Sarandon), over Mark’s gayness. The problem for Elizabeth is that she is very much a part of the same world as her husband—shocked by the idea of homosexuality to the degree that she stops dead in her tracks in her welcome to new neighbors when evidence suggests they’re a gay couple. Similarly, she’s disturbed by her freethinking neighbor’s (Ann Pierce) decision to display the brazenly nude statue of David in her front yard (couldn’t it at least be moved to the back yard?). Yet, Elizabeth grieves over the loss of Mark, and is less stiff-backed than the Reverend in other regards (she sneaks cigarettes at the kitchen door, carefully keeping the smoke outside). She also has to come to terms with her own feelings and beliefs—regardless of her husband—over the course of the movie. It’s a subtle, completely organic performance that helps to anchor the film. Loggerheads is such a richly detailed film—encompassing this story, Mark’s own story, and the search for Mark by his birth mother (Bonnie Hunt)—that no mere recounting of its plot in this space will do it justice. Kirkman and his cast and crew perfectly capture the dichotomy of North Carolina (Kirkman himself called the state a character in the film) as a combination of liberal acceptance and conservative intolerance. Even more, Kirkman does something rarely explored in gay-themed films—he presents gayness as being about much more than whom one sleeps with. A truly extraordinary work.
Murder Party
It’s Halloween in Brooklyn. A random windblown invitation leads a lonesome stranger into the hands of a deranged collective intent on murdering him for the sake of their art. What follows is a gonzo night of mishap, mayhem and hilarity. Sometimes tender, sometimes terrifying, it’s a bloodbath that’s totally bananas.
Orphans
Five years after their parents’ death, estranged sisters Rosie and Sonia each struggle to make it on their own. When Rosie gets fired from her low-level gallery job in Chelsea, she agrees to visit her sister, Sonia, who is throwing herself a birthday party. Sonia lives alone at the isolated farmhouse where the girls spent summers and holidays. But when the anticipated party is not what Rosie expects, Sonia’s true agenda is revealed. As Sonia slugs vodka and Rosie eats pills, their journey becomes dark and dangerous. Ultimately, Sonia’s desperate need to have her sister stay with her forces Rosie to choose between family loyalty and self-preservation.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Based on the classic novel of the same name by Oscar Wilde, this contemporary update of the classic work remains loyal to the original story: A young man made vain by the attentions of others makes a deal with the devil to stay young forever. But his portrait reveals his true corrupt nature.
Randy and the Mob
A Southern comedy about Randy, a regular good ol’ boy who just wants to do what’s right in life, but always seems to end up on the wrong side of the law. His latest scheme to keep his business afloat goes awry when a loan from some low-rent Italian mobsters is way overdue. To keep one step ahead of the mob and a restless local police officer with a grudge, Randy will need the help of his baton-teaching wife, his estranged gay twin brother, and Tino Armani, an Italian-American Napoleon Dynamite for the over-30 set. Will Randy get out of this latest mess before his life implodes or, even worse, he loses the coveted Businessman of the Year award?
Simple Things
After the death of his wife, Dr. Evan Gibbs and his 10-year-old son, Nate, leave Chicago to spend the summer setting up a clinic in the North Carolina mountains. Clashing with the ways of the small community, Evan is forced to deal with his recent loss while reconnecting with his son and learning a different pace of life.
Slipdream
Based on the classic fable of Jack and the Beanstalk, Slipdream follows a streetwise drug dealer caught in a struggle between self-discovery and self-destruction. When Jack trades his father’s gold watch for a pair of mysterious seeds, he unleashes psychic forces that lead him to Maya, a beautiful but tormented violinist under the sadistic care of a pill-pushing psychiatrist. In his attempts to rescue her, Jack chases ever-elusive highs as he flees the descending monsters of his mind.
Southern Gothic
A drama/horror set in the South, Southern Gothic chronicles a man who must atone for a tragic mistake by saving a little girl from a band of ruthless, undead killers. This genre-blurring film defies convention by blending art house and slaughterhouse.
Tender Mercies
Bruce Beresford’s Tender Mercies is the film that brought Tess Harper to the big screen—and garnered her a Golden Globe nomination as the widowed Rosa Lee, who falls in love with alcoholic, country-singing legend Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall). Harper immediately reveals the kind of innate, understated intelligence that has marked her entire career. Her portrayal of Rosa Lee is a wondrous thing to behold in its subtle shadings—and, bear in mind, she’s holding her own against Robert Duvall. It’s also a performance that perfectly suits the tone of the film itself, which keeps everything magnificently real by playing just below the surface. The genius of the film lies in two things: constantly heading in the direction of melodrama, only to veer away from it at the last minute, all the while suggesting the emotions of its main characters rather than stating them. The characters are themselves not particularly articulate. They’ve all been battered about by life to a degree that they distrust making direct statements about their feelings. This is precisely the manner in which Harper portrays Rosa Lee—her emotions lie beneath the surface and are conveyed in small touches and expressions. It might be overstating the case to say that with Tender Mercies a star was born, but it’s certainly true that something even better took place—an actress was born. It’s a quietly intense performance in a film of unusual intelligence and humanity that more than justifies its reputation as one of the finest films of the 1980s.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The remarkable true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, a successful and charismatic editor-in-chief of French Elle magazine, who believes he is living his life to its absolute fullest when a sudden stroke leaves him in a life-altered state. Although his mind and imagination are perfectly intact, he is totally paralyzed other than his left eyelid. A painstaking, exhausting method of communication is developed between Bauby and his nurses, which he uses to begin writing his memoirs. As the challenges of Bauby’s fate leave him with little hope for the future, he begins to discover how his life’s passions, his rich memories and his newfound imagination can help him achieve a life without boundaries.
The Savages
The last thing the two Savage siblings ever wanted to do was look back on their undeniably dysfunctional family legacy. Wendy is a self-medicating, struggling East Village playwright, aka a temp, who spends her days applying for grants and stealing office supplies, all while dating her very married neighbor. Jon is an obsessive-compulsive college professor in Buffalo, writing obscure books on even more obscure subjects, who still can’t commit to his girlfriend after four years even though her cooking brings him tears of joy. Then, out of the blue, comes the call that changes everything—the call that informs them that the father they have long feared and avoided, Lenny Savage, has lost his marbles. And there is no one to help him but his kids. Now, as they put the middle of their already arrested lives on hold, Wendy and Jon are forced to live together under one roof for the first time since childhood, soon rediscovering the eccentricities that drove each other crazy. Faced with complete upheaval and the ultimate sibling rivalry battle over how to handle their father’s final days, they are forced to face the past and finally start to realize what adulthood, family and, most surprisingly, each other are really about.
Under the Same Moon
Under the Same Moon tells the parallel stories of 9-year old Carlitos and his mother, Rosario. In the hopes of providing a better life for her son, Rosario works illegally in the United States while her mother cares for Carlitos back in Mexico. Unexpected circumstances drive both Rosario and Carlitos to embark on their own journeys in a desperate attempt to reunite. Along the way, mother and son face challenges and obstacles, but never lose hope that they will one day be together again. Riggen’s film is not only a heartwarming family story, but she also offers subtle commentary on the much-debated issue of illegal immigration.
Uranya
In a small Greek village, five teenagers are eager to discover love—and the whole world – and the summer of 1969 marks a turning point in their lives. Uranya is a very beautiful woman who lives just outside the village in a house by the sea. The kids swear a joint oath: to save enough money so they can visit Uranya and be initiated in the mysteries of love. When faced with a great dilemma of whether to buy their first black-and-white television set so they can watch the landing on the moon or remain true to their oath and pay Uranya a visit, the boys fall out, and Achilles finds himself alone. Will they finally break the oath they took for Uranya’s sake or will the prospect of watching the moon landing be too tempting?
Wholetrain
Wholetrain is a gritty urban drama that pulsates with the sights and sounds of the graffiti underworld. It tells the riveting story of the KSB crew, four graffiti writers who are fighting for fame and respect at any price.
Year of the Fish
North Carolina premiere An animated independent feature film written and directed by David Kaplan, shot entirely on location in New York City’s Chinatown. A modern-day adaptation of Cinderella based on an old Chinese version of the story, it was shot on inexpensive live-action video that was used as a guide for digital painting in post-production.