TEN THOUSAND SAINTS

Starring Ethan Hawke, Asa Butterfield, Emily Mortimer, Julianne Nicholson, Haille Steinfeld, Emile Hirsch
Directors Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman
Screenwriters Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini
Based on the novel by Eleanor Henderson
An Archer Gray and Maven Pictures in Association with Tashtego Films

Jude—named after a Beatles song by his hippie parents—spends his high school days in small-town Vermont getting high with his best friend, Teddy. Beneath Jude’s mind-numbing activities lurks a desire to reconnect with his estranged father, Les, who abandoned the family when Jude was nine. Desperate to keep her son out of trouble, Jude’s mother sends him to live with Les in New York City. In the roiling and raw East Village, Jude struggles to establish an identity within the cultural upheaval downtown and forms an unlikely surrogate family with Teddy’s straight-edge brother and a troubled, rich uptown girl. (Sundance)



A BIRD OF THE AIR

Starring Rachel Nichols and Jackson Hurst
Director Margaret Whitton
Screenwriter Roger Towne
Based on the novel by Joe Coomer
Produced by Steven Tabakin and Margaret Whitton
Executive Producer Warren Spector

In this romantic comedy, directed by Margaret Whitton and adapted from Joe Coomer’s romantic novel The Loop, a mysterious parrot brings Fiona (Rachel Nichols) into the nighttime world of Lyman (Jackson Hurst). Together the pair set off on a journey to solve a mystery from the past that leads them toward a future neither imagined.



THE EXONERATED

Directed by Bob Balaban
Starring: Brian Dennehy, Danny Glover, Delroy Lindo,
Aidan Quinn, Susan Sarandon and David Brown, Jr.
Written by: Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen
Produced by Greg Schultz and Steven Tabakin
Court TV/@radical.media

THE EXONERATED depicts the injustices brought to bear against six people who were wrongly convicted of crimes, and spent years on death row, until they were finally proven innocent. Through their tragic stories, often told with humor and hope, we witness the triumph of the human spirit over bitterness and anger. As the flaws in the justice system are exposed, THE EXONERATED calls into question the use of the death penalty in the United States. (CINE Golden Eagle Awar, ABA Silver Gavel Award)



TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES

Written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith
Directed by Marc Levin

Anna Deavere Smith's powerful one-woman/multi-voiced theater piece about the 1991 Rodney King beating, the violent aftermath of the 1992 verdict, and the lasting impact of the L.A. riots on America's conscience. Award-winning director Marc Levin weaves Smith's virtuoso stage performance with news footage and recent interviews to create an unflinching portrait of rage, sorrow, loss, and battered hope. Anna Deavere Smith transforms herself into scores of individuals -- using only their words and duplicating their speech patterns, mannerisms, dress, and attitudes -- in a mosaic set in the violent aftermath of the 1992 Rodney King trial and verdict. (Sundance)



BECKETT ON FILM
19 Plays. 19 Directors

The first-ever cinematic adaptations of all 19 of Samuel Beckett's plays. Jeremy Irons hosted a Beckett showcase for PBS featuring new film adaptations of seven short works performed and directed by leading names of stage and screen, including David Mamet, Harold Pinter, Anthony Minghella, Kristin Scott Thomas, Alan Rickman, and John Gielgud. And to mark the 50th anniversary of the world premiere of Beckett's best-known work, "Waiting for Godot," STAGE ON SCREEN presented a new film version directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Thirteen/WNET, Blue Angel Films, RTE, Channel 4, and Bord Scannán na hÉireann/The Irish Film Board. (New York Film Festival. Peabody Award)



DARK YELLOW

Directed by Glen Luchford
Screenplay by Julia Jordan
Starring John Hawkes and Melora Walters
Produced by Tatiana Kelly and Steven Tabakin
Tashtego Films/Light as a Feather/Passenger

Two lonely people spend an intense night together in a trailer home in Minnesota. It starts as a game and a flirtation, but by the break of dawn their ideas about truth and power are turned upside down in this modern film noir directed by fashion photographer Glen Luchford. (Winner of the Jackson Hole Film Festival Cowboy Award.)

FAR EAST

Directed by Daniel Sullivan
Written by A.R. Gurney
Starring: Lisa Emery, Michael Hayden, Bill Smitrovich
PBS/Stage on Screen

Lieutenant Watts (Hayden) arrives at an American Naval base in Yokosuka Japan in the wake of the Korean War and gets seriously involved with a beautiful Japanese girl. His Commanding Officer Captain Anderson (Smitrovich) is a grounded flier who is mourning the death of his son. The Captain’s young, independent-minded wife Julia (Emery) places herself between Sparky’s romance with the Japanese girl and the WASP value system he is trying to escape. With clever echoes of Madam Butterfly and From Here to Eternity, Gurney’s play poignantly examines America’s re-discovery of itself during the Cold War.