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Up Tight!

Conceived by director Jules Dassin as a remake of 1935's The Informer transposed to the depressed and tension-filled neighborhoods of 1968 Cleveland, Up Tight! is literally white-hot, incorporating into the dramatic action clips of fire, sparks of machinery, and the molten steel of the mill where Tank Williams (Julian Mayfield) worked for 20 years before being replaced by a machine. Like a crowd of Black Power supporters shouts at one point, he's become "obsolete."

Tank associates with a pocket of Cleveland revolutionaries led by his old friend Johnny Wells (Max Julien), with whom he plans to rob a munitions factory. Wrecked by drink, however, he forces Johnny to go it alone. When Johnny becomes a fugitive and is involved in a shootout with police, Tank, suddenly prosperous for the first time in years, becomes the number-one suspect in his betrayal.

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This Is England
Between the music, clothes, accents, fierce attitudes, and specific socio-political context, This Is England transports viewers into a time and place of the not-so-distant past often shrouded in contempt and misunderstanding. Without being overly political, writer/director Shane Meadows approaches such issues as the loss of friendships and “coming-of-age.” He takes us into the streets of working-class England during the ’80s in order to delve into the personal life of 12-year old protagonist, Shaun, and a myriad of slightly older, punker skinheads whose lives are altered by the state of their beloved country and the domineering opinions of their “brothers.”
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Im Through with White Girls

The title of I’m Through with White Girls seems evident enough: so there’s this guy, and there are all these white girls, and he decides to stop dating them. Wrong.

I’m Through with White Girls
is more than your average hipster film, chronicling one black man’s quest for true love in a racial context. As winner of the 2007 Best Film Award at the American Black Film Festival, The Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature Film at the Hollywood Black Film Festival, and the Bahamas International Film Festival New Visions Award for an Emerging Artist, all presented to director Jennifer Sharp, I’m Through with White Girls merges the humor of a comedy and the depth of a documentary.

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White Lies, Black Sheep

James Spooner’s White Lies, Black Sheep (shown at BAM during the Afro-punk festival) tells the story of a black party promoter who has found his niche in the white indie rock scene. Effortlessly cool, AJ hops from club to club in his tight hipster jeans, handing out fliers and flirting with girls. His race is a virtual non-issue with his friends, something that AJ all-too readily embraces. However, as the movie progresses, it becomes clear that AJ, along with his friends, has willfully pushed aside his “blackness” for the sake of comfort and convenience. Through a series of interviews and candid shots, Spooner invites the audience along AJ’s journey of self-realization, and in doing so effectively engenders us to AJ. Spooner’s filmmaking shines in its subtlety, and in the gentle attention he pays to detail and to his characters. One such character is AJ’s father, a tough English African who affectionately forces The Autobiography of Malcolm X on AJ, in order to better connect him with his roots. Their scene together is touching, particularly when Spooner is invited from behind his camera to join them in prayer.

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Full Grown Men
Two old friends with distinctly different personalities, trying to reconnect on a cross-state road trip, along the way encountering bizarre characters that help the pair discover deeper truths about themselves. Didn't that star Paul Giamatti?

Yes, but Full Grown Men differs from Sideways in a few key areas. For one, this film's traveling twosome entertain no pretensions of being grown-ups. Instead of stopping off at a series of upscale wineries, Alby (Matt McGrath, The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy) and Elias (Judah Friedlander, "30 Rock") have set their sights on Diggetyland, a Central Florida kiddie mecca. Along the way, Alby is determined to prove to his wife and son that he's matured by tracking down a taker for his battered suitcase full of Action Jackson figurines.

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How Do I Look?

Many things have changed in the Harlem ball culture since Jennie Livingston's Paris is Burning first documented it in 1990. The mainstreaming of fringe practices, and the toll AIDS has taken on many of the community's pioneers, have all had, whether for better or worse, an irreversible effect. How Do I Look, the new film directed by Wolfgang Busch, has its task cut out for it. The film has to not only introduce and capture the excesses and inscrutably close-knit family ties of the balls and various "houses" who give them their breath of life, but also chronicle the various run-ins and growing pains the community has had to deal with since its early days.

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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

It seems like Indy has done it all, from retrieving the Arc of the Covenant, to saving an Indian village, and even saving his own father. So when it came time for a fourth movie, what was left for him to do? Not much – which is just what this highly-anticipated film is worth.

Set in the 1950's, Indiana Jones' (Harrison Ford) newest adventure begins in a Southwest desert where he narrowly escapes from Soviet agents and also a nuclear testing site. Indy returns to the college he teaches at, only to find he has been fired due to his recent activities. On his way out of town, Indy meets Mutt (Shia LaBeouf). Mutt propositions Indy to help him on a mission to find his mother and, in the process, potentially make one of the most spectacular archaeological finds in history -- the Crystal Skull of Akator.

As Indy and Mutt set out for the Peru, they soon realize they are not alone in their search. Soviet agents are also hot on the trail of the Crystal Skull. Chief among them is Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), whose elite military unit is searching the every corner of the earth for the skull, which they believe can help the Soviets dominate the world.

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Stranded: Ive come from a plane that crashed in the mountains
An emotive Spanish documentary that questions human nature, consciousness, and the will to live, Stranded (shown at BAM) was brewing in the mind of Uruguayan/French director Gonzalo Arijón for 35 years. It took this long for him to appropriately delve into the effects of the catastrophic and life-altering plane crash on the young men who were forced to perform otherwise unimaginable acts in order to survive.

On October 12, 1972, a small plane took off from Uruguay for Chile with 40 passengers and 5 crewmembers. Many of the passengers were members of the Old Christians rugby team, well-to-do college students flying for the first time, while others were family members and friends. When traveling over the Andes Mountains through the border of Argentina and Chile, heavy snowstorms racked the plane, destroying the jovial mood inside. As the pilot flew blindly, the plane hit the jagged peak of a mountain and crashed into a snow-filled valley. Some passengers died on impact or shortly after (such as survivor Nando’s mother, and nine days later his sister), while others lived (or at least initially), surrounded by the bodies of friends or relatives.

Many of the survivors talk about not knowing why they were spared while others died, and they openly wonder who decides such fates and why this had to happen. One man remarks that it seemed like a test from God or nature to see what would happen to a group of privileged, healthy and athletic men if they were forced to combat the elements at their most severe without any of the luxuries they had become accustomed to in society. Search parties were unsuccessful due to the harsh weather and the fact that the white plane was like “a worm in the snow” and therefore undetectable. For 72 days until rescue, the men (and one woman who eventually died) formed a separate society inside and outside of the mutilated plane, sharing every source of food, material, and clothing they could find or create, and living together as one “organism” whose survival depended upon the overall cooperation of the group.
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