9 Star Hotel - This unflinching documentary follows Ahmed and Muhammad, two of the many Palestinians who illegally cross the border into the Israeli city of Modi’in looking for work. Together they share food, belongings and stories, and live under the constant threat of imprisonment from soldiers and police. With raw, handheld images, this disconcerting yet touching film documents friendship, nostalgia and the uncompromising urge to survive.

10th District Court - Go where no cameras have gone before as renowned photographer and filmmaker Raymond Depardon (winner of 3 Cesar Awards) presents a rare, inside look at the French legal system. Behind the closed doors of one Parisian court, the subtle details of human behavior along with issues of guilt, innocence, law enforcement and racial perceptions are examined in this critically acclaimed and unprecedented film.

Blame it On Fidel - Caught up in the political revolution sweeping France in the early 1970s, Fernando (Stefano Accorsi) and Marie (Julie Depardieu) reject the comforts of their bourgeois life and dedicate themselves full time to radical activism. This comes as a shock to their precocious nine year-old daughter, Anna (Nina Kervel), who struggles to understand her parents’ newfound ideals. Brilliantly told from Anna’s perspective, this critically-acclaimed film by Julie Gavras captures the coming-of-age moment when children realize the contradictions of adulthood and have to make their own choices.

Blessed By Fire - After learning of a former infantry mate’s attempted suicide, journalist Esteban returns to the Falkland Islands (or as they are known in Argentina, the Malvinas) to confront the horrors he experienced as an eighteen year-old soldier. This epic film, directed by Tristan Bauer, presents the harrowing story of a group of young men sent to fight an un-winnable war and left to bear its emotional scars.

The Bridge - Capturing the intensity of life in relation to death, director Eric Steel and his crew spent an entire year looking very carefully at the Golden Gate Bridge. Running cameras for almost every daylight minute, he documented nearly two dozen fatal moments as well as others where suicide was avoided and life preserved. The powerful imagery is accompanied by incredibly frank, deeply personal and often heart-wrenching interviews with families, friends, witnesses and several of the attempters themselves creating a brutally honest and commanding look into one of life’s gravest taboos.

Chop Shop - Alejandro, a tough and ambitious Latino street orphan on the verge of adolescence, lives and works in an auto-body repair shop in a sprawling junkyard on the outskirts of Queens, New York. In this chaotic world of adults, young Alejandro struggles to make a better life for himself and his 16-year-old sister, Isamar.

Comedy of Power - Isabelle Huppert gives a stellar performance in Claude Chabrol’s thriller inspired by the Elf Affair, a true story of high-level corporate corruption. Jeanne Charmant Killman (Huppert), a tenacious magistrate known as “the piranha,” pursues white collar criminals with their hands in public pockets. After locking up an embexxling CEO, she pushes the limits of her power even further and winds up caught in a dangerous game of threats and intimidation.

Count of Monte Cristo - Gérard Depardieu leads an all-star international cast in the epic adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic tale of love, intrigue and revenge. The Count of Monte Cristo tells the dramatic story of Edmond Dantès, a young French sailor who is falsely denounced as a traitor and unjustly imprisoned for eighteen years without a trial. After a daring escape, Dantès uncovers a hidden treasure on the island of Monte Cristo. Using these riches, he assumes a new identity and devises a plan to seek vengeance on all who betrayed him.

Divine Intervention - At the center of the Middle East conflict, hearts beat in tragic comedy and deadpan irony: a sexy young Palestinian woman defies Israeli soldiers and struts through a check-point as if it were the catwalk of a fashion show, Santa Claus is chased up the sun-drenched hills of Nazareth by a gang of knife-wielding school kids, Israeli police use a blindfolded prisoner to provide directions to tourists in Jerusalem and a female ninja descends from the sky, holding the map of ‘Palestine’ as her battle shield. These are but a few of the provocative images put forth in Elia Suleiman’s critically-acclaimed satire chronicling the absurdities of life and love on both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli border.

The Five Obstructions - Lars von Trier enters the world of experimental documentary filmmaking by challenging his idol Jorgen Leth to remake his 1967 masterpiece, The Perfect Human, five times, each time with a different ‘obstruction’. Leth rises to the challenge, from filming in Cuba to the red light district of Bombay to Brussels, as von Trier hurtles one obstruction after the other at him. An innovative director, von Trier is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective. This documentary will be discussed and studied by filmmakers, fans and critics for years to come.

Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts - Academy Award nominated director Scott Hicks (”Shine”) was allowedunprecedented access to renowned American composer Philip Glass. Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts is an intimate film study of one of today’s greatest living artists. From the creative process and family life to influential spiritual teachers and long time artistic collaborators, this documentary is a remarkable mosaic of an artist and his work. This 2008 feature documentary was shortlisted for an Academy Award.

The Godard Duo - Jean-Luc Godard was a founding member of the French New Wave and one of the most influential directors of the 20th century. Two of his most overtly political films from the 60s, La Chinoise and Le Gai Savoir, examine the relationship between art and revolution, language and power. La Chinoise focuses on a group of students and engages with the ideas coming out of the student activist groups in pre 1968 France. Le Gai Savoir was rejected by French national television and subsequently banned by the French government for its subversive content.

In July - Coming Soon!

The Junky’s Christmas - Narrated by William S. Burroughs and presented in claymation and live-action, The Junky’s Christmas depicts a story written by the author in 1952. Danny the car wiper, a desperate character who has just been released from jail on the upper west side of Manhattan, searches for a fix on a cold Christmas day. His story ends in a revelation that even Danny could never have thought possible.

La Dolce Vita - Frederico Fellini’s award-winning masterpiece starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg is restored and remastered. Considered by many to be Fellini’s masterpiece, it signals the split between his earlier neo-realist films and his later art films. This two-disc special edition includes interviews with Fellini, Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, and noted critic and film historian Richard Schickel.

Lagerfeld Confidential - For the first time Karl Lagerfeld, the innovative designer who has ruled the House of Chanel for more than two decades, agreed to trust a director to create an artwork based on his life. After three years of crisscrossing the globe filming the outspoken icon, Rodolphe Marconi unveils the inner workings of the influential and enigmatic star.

Les Paul - Chasing Sound! - Guitar wizard, inventor and architect of rock ‘n’ roll, the legendary Les Paul tells his own rags-to-riches story in this feature-length documentary. A pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which “made the sound of rock and roll possible,” his many recording innovations include overdubbing, delay effects such as “sound on sound” and tape delay, phasing effects and multi-track recording. This documentary explores the achievements of a famed artist and inventor who combined creativity with technology. An American Master’s production.

Lipstick & Dynamite - Talk about strong female role models! Lipstick & Dynamite shines a spotlight on the forgotten first ladies of the wrestling ring including Gladys ‘Kill ‘Em’ Gillem, Ida May Martinez, Penny Banner, The Fabulous Moolah and The Great Mae Young. Each woman fondly and nostalgically reflects on her own remarkable life, reconciling her wild, flamboyant youth with the reality of getting older. Lipstick & Dynamite documents early women pioneers who fought inside and outside the ring for respect, recognition and equality in a traditional male sport.

Messiah - Critically acclaimed photographer and filmmaker William Klein interprets Handel’s Messiah in a mesmerizing film brimming with visions of the sacred and the profane. Klein’s montage of horrific news images and industrial detritus contrasts with scenes of soaring beauty, all accompanying a complete performance of the oratorio. With his ironic counterpoints, Klein achieves a new revelation of Handel’s themes of faith, doubt and rapture that will challenge viewers’ traditional associations with this musical masterpiece.

Muriel - Delphine Seyrig gives an award-winning performance in this hauntingly brilliant masterpiece by Alain Resnais (Last Year at Marienbad). A widow’s life becomes all the more complicated when she is reunited with a former lover. Meanwhile, her troubled stepson struggles to come to terms with the atrocities he witnessed as a soldier during the Algerian War.

Nathalie - Upon discovering that her husband is having an affair, Catherine (Fanny Ardant), a typical Parisian bourgeois wife, hires a prostitute named Marléne (Emmanuelle Béart) to seduce her husband under the alias “Nathalie” and report back to her. A strange bond develops between the two women and soon Catherine enters an eye-opening world completely different from her own that changes her forever. This film offers thought-provoking insight into female psychology and sexuality.

The Official Story - Winner of an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film, The Official Story is a compelling portrait of the life of a history professor and her awakening to the evils perpetrated by her country’s government. An Argentinian teacher, Alicia (Norma Aleandro) begins to suspect that her adopted daughter may have been the child of a murdered political prisoner. When she attempts to uncover the truth, she discovers levels of political corruption so abhorrent that the illusions of her life are irrevocably shattered.

Our Brand is Crisis - For decades, U.S. strategists-for-hire have been quietly molding the opinions of voters and the messages of candidates in elections around the world. They have worked for presidential candidates on every continent. Without the noise of tanks or troops, these Americans have been spreading our brand of democracy from the Middle East to the middle of the South American jungle. Our Brand Is Crisis is an astounding look at one of their campaigns and its earth-shattering aftermath. With flabbergasting access to think sessions, media training and the making of smear campaigns, we watch how the consultants’ marketing strategies shape the relationship between a leader and his people.

The Soldier’s Tale - Penned by Stravinsky in 1918 in response to the Russian Revolution, this timeless composition is the powerful tale of a soldier who sells his soul to the devil. Rendered as an animated film from renowned illustrator R.O. Blachman, this award-winning modern adaptation will delight classical music neophytes as well as Stravinsky aficionados. Narrated by Andre Gregory, this visionary work was produced in collaboration with PBS’s Great Performances series.

Syrian Bride - Mona’s wedding day may be the saddest of her life. Once she crosses the border between Israel, where she lives with her family in a Druze enclave, and Syria, where her new husband is waiting, she will never be allowed to visit her family in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Syrian Bride is a poignant portrait of family life and gender relations in a region divided by political and military borders where all relationships are defined by ethnic identity.

The Tree of Wooden Clogs - Italian director Ermanno Olmi’s film is about a little boy who breaks the precious pair of clogs that he needs for his long trek to school. A late example of Italian neorealism, Olmi used local farmers and peasants rather than actors in this tale of social injustice. The recipient of the 1979 Palme d’Or, many consider Tree of Wooden Clogs to be Olmi’s most important film and one of the great classics of international cinema.

U Carmen - Carmen, perhaps the world’s best-loved opera, is recreated in a naturalistic world of South African pool halls, bars, courtyards and barracks. Rarely has opera been made more modern, relevant or vibrant than in this stunning interpretation featuring Dimpho Di Kopane (DDK), the internationally acclaimed South African theater company.

Violette - A true story, 18 year old Violette Nozière (brilliantly played here by Isabelle Huppert, 12-time César Award nominee for Best Actress) was condemned to death for patricide and attempted matricide in the 1930s, ostensibly to gain access to her parents’ meager assets in order to support her good-for-nothing lover. During the trial she alludes to incest committed by her father and accuses her mother of tacit consent. She also claimed that her real father, a wealthy and powerful man, refuses to acknowledge her because she was born out of wedlock. Violette offers a chilling portrait of French society and sexual morals in the early 20th century.

Water Lilies - In this provocative and perceptive portrait of teenage angst and nascent sexuality, a love triangle develops between three girls one summer in Paris. Marie, Anne and Floriane, all 15 years old, cross paths in the corridors at the local swimming pool, and love and desire make a sudden and dramatic appearance. The awkward Anne, the bad girl Floriane and the gawky Marie play an intense game of emotional chess as they wrestle with love, friendship and their desire for one another.