“Dumbstruck” follows five professional ventriloquists at all levels of ability and fame over the course of the most unusual year in ventriloquism history: Dylan, a shy 13-year-old whose dream of being a professional conflicts with his dad’s preference for football; Kim, a former Miss Ohio beauty queen, who yearns to ‘make it’ on the cruise ship circuit; Dan, a successful cruise ship performer who struggles to maintain a family life, although he is on the seas much of the year; Terry, who, after a 22 year struggle to “make it” in Corsicana, Texas, finds himself on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” with a chance to win $1 million; and Wilma — all six-foot-five of her — who brings her dummies to Walmart and ‘entertains’ in senior homes. Along the way, Terry Fator emerges from obscurity to sign a 100 million dollar Las Vegas deal to become the most successful ventriloquist in history. With its heart firmly planted on its polyester sleeve, Dumbstruck takes the American dream sideways and never loses its way. (Source)
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Destroyed in a dramatic and highly-publicized implosion, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex has become a widespread symbol of failure amongst architects, politicians and policy makers. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth explores the social, economic and legislative issues that led to the decline of conventional public housing in America, and the city centers in which they were located, while tracing the personal and poignant narratives of several of the project’s residents. In the post-War years, the American city changed in ways that made it unrecognizable from a generation earlier, privileging some and leaving others in its wake. The next time the city changes, remember Pruitt-Igoe. (
“We all get dressed for Bill,” says Vogue editrix Anna Wintour. The “Bill” in question is 80+ New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham. For decades, this Schwinn-riding cultural anthropologist has been obsessively and inventively chronicling fashion trends and high society charity soirees for the Times Style section in his columns “On the Street” and “Evening Hours.” Documenting uptown fixtures (Wintour, Tom Wolfe, Brooke Astor, David Rockefeller–who all appear in the film out of their love for Bill), downtown eccentrics and everyone in between, Cunningham’s enormous body of work is more reliable than any catwalk as an expression of time, place and individual flair. In turn, Bill Cunningham New York is a delicate, funny and often poignant portrait of a dedicated artist whose only wealth is his own humanity and unassuming grace. (
Director Jon Chu’s 3D fan cut is an exclusive, one-week limited release with 40 minutes of new Bieber footage! As he began the editing process several months ago, and upon realizing the significant amount of great footage he had obtained, Chu began to develop with the studio an idea for a second, and more fan centric, edition of the movie. While promoting the film’s initial release, he spent dozens of hours on Twitter and Facebook engaging with fans to learn more about what they were most anxious to see. Some scenes contained in the new cut include: more of JustinÂs friends and hometown life, new songs and performances, and special footage shot at fan premieres across the country. (
TRANSCENDENT MAN chronicles the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil, an inventor and futurist that presents his bold vision of the Singularity, a point in the near future when technology will be changing so rapidly, that we will have to enhance ourselves with artificial intelligence to keep up. Ray predicts this will be the dawning of a new civilization in which we will no longer be dependent on our physical bodies, we will be trillions of times more intelligent and there will be no clear distinction between human and machine, real reality and virtual reality. Human aging and illness will be reversed; world hunger and poverty will be solved and we will ultimately cure death. (
Directed by Academy Award(R) winner Gerardine Wurzburg (Educating Peter), WRETCHES & JABBERERS follows two men with autism, Tracy Thresher and Larry Bissonnette, who embark on a global quest to change attitudes about disability and intelligence. Determined to put a new face on autism, the men travel to Sri Lanka, Japan and Finland, where at each stop they challenge public attitudes about autism and issue a hopeful message to reconsider competency. A poignant narrative of personal struggle that rings with intelligence, humor, hope and courage, WRETCHES & JABBERERS is about the life-sustaining power of relationships – the personal connections that people make through communication. WRETCHES & JABBERERS features the song, “The Reasons Why,” by composer J. Ralph (The Cove, Man on Wire), which recently qualified for nomination consideration in the Original Song category for the 83rd Academy Awards(R). The documentary’s soundtrack features original songs written and produced by J. Ralph and collaborations with Antony, Devendra Banhart, Paul Brady, Bonnie Bramlett, Vashti Bunyan, Martin Carthy, Judy Collins, Lila Downs, Vincent Gallo, David Garza, Ben Harper, Scarlett Johannson, Nic Jones, Norah Jones, Leah Siegel, Carly Simon, Stephen Stills, Ben Taylor and Bob Weir. The WRETCHES & JABBERERS album was released on January 11, 2011, and a share of the profits will be donated to the Autism Society and the Wretches & Jabberers Fund of the Institute on Communication and Inclusion at Syracuse University. (
Gorgeously filmed along the back roads of rural Mexico, CIRCO follows the Ponce family’s hardscrabble circus as it struggles to stay together despite mounting debt, dwindling audiences, and a simmering family conflict. Tino, the ringmaster, is driven by his dream to lead his parents’ circus to success and corrals the energy of his whole family, including his four young children, towards this singular goal. But his wife Ivonne is determined to make a change. Feeling exploited by her in-laws, she longs to return to her kids a childhood lost to laboring in the circus. Through this intricately woven story of a marriage in trouble and of a century-old family tradition that hangs in the balance, CIRCO opens the viewer to the luminous world of a traveling circus while examining the universal themes of family bonds, filial responsibility, and the weight of cultural inheritance. (
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never is the inspiring true story and rare inside look at the rise of Justin from street performer in the small town of Stratford, Ontario to internet phenomenon to global super star culminating with a dream sold out show at the famed Madison Square Garden in 3-D. (
VIDAL SASSOON THE MOVIE is a true rags-to-riches tale, tracing Sassoon’s path from a London orphanage to international success and celebrity. Producer Michael Gordon, founder of hair care company Bumble and bumble, first set out to document Vidal’s life in a richly visual book about icons in the world of hairdressing. What started as an 80th birthday tribute to Sassoon became a movie when Gordon brought on director Craig Teper. While chronicling the fashion, style and social revolutions of the 1960s, VIDAL SASSOON THE MOVIE shows how Sassoon revolutionized the world of hair with his pioneering, geometric, Bauhaus-inspired styles and “wash and wear” philosophy, literally changing the way women look and cut their hair today. (