Here's a rundown of what's coming to US theaters this month:
Opening: May 1
Venue: Quad Cinema/New York City
Film: A Wink and a Smile
Dir./Prod.: Deirdre Allen Thomas; Prod.: Jack Thomas
Distributor: First Run Features
Web: http://firstrunfeatures.com/winkandasmile_synopsis.html
An intoxicating mix of private thoughts and public behavior, A Wink and a Smile exposes more than the human body by putting gender, power, sexuality and social identity under the glittery spotlight, as it follows the lives of ten "ordinary" women who do something extraordinary--learn the art of burlesque dancing and striptease. Through their adventures, we see how a homemaker, a reporter, a doctor, an opera singer, a taxidermist and a college student join the American cultural revival of burlesque, as it moves from fringe fascination to mainstream obsession, engaging a world where performance art and showgirl spectacle, music, theater and sensuality crash into over-the-top glamour--a world where many want to go, but very few dare.
Opening: May 1
Film: Naked Ambition
Dir.: Michael Grecco
Distributor: Lantern Lane Entertainment
Web: http://www.nakedambition.com/
From the trailblazing naughtiness of Bettie Page to the pole-dancing craze of modern housewives, the continual mainstreaming of adult entertainment is undeniable. Now comes Naked Ambition, An R-Rated Look At An X-Rated Industry, from renowned celebrity photographer Michael Grecco, which offers an unabashed peek under the silken covers of one of the few remaining concealed idiosyncrasies of pop culture: the multi-billion dollar porn industry.
Opening: May 8
Venue: IFC Center/New York City
Film: Objectifed
Dir.: Gary Hustwit
http://www.objectifiedfilm.com/
Objectified is a feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. It's a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It's about the designers who re-examine,
re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It's about personal expression, identity, consumerism and sustainability.
Through vérité footage and in-depth conversations, the film documents the creative processes of some of the world's most influential product designers, and looks at how the things they make impact our lives. What can we learn about who we are, and who we want to be, from the objects with which we surround ourselves?
Opening: May 8
Film: Outrage
Dir.: Kirby Dick; Prod.: Amy Ziering
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Website: http://www.outragethemovie.com/
A searing indictment of the hypocrisy of closeted politicians who actively campaign against the LGBT community, Outrage boldly reveals the hidden lives of some of our nation's most powerful policymakers, detailing the harm they've inflicted on millions of Americans, and the media's complicity in keeping their secrets.
Opening: May 8
Film: Brothers at War
Dir.: Jake Rademacher
Distributor: Goldwyn Films
http://www.brothersatwarmovie.com/
Brothers at War is an intimate portrait of an American family during a turbulent time. Jake
Rademacher sets out to understand the experience, sacrifice and motivation of his two brothers serving in Iraq. The film follows Jake's exploits as he risks everything-including his life-to tell his brothers' story. Often humorous, but sometimes downright lethal, Brothers at War is a remarkable journey
where Jake embeds with four combat units in Iraq. Unprecedented access to US and Iraqi combat units take him behind the camouflage curtain with secret reconnaissance troops on the Syrian border, into sniper "Hide Sites" in the Sunni Triangle, through raging machine gun battles with the Iraqi Army. Ultimately, the film follows his brothers home where separations and life-threatening work
ripple through their parents, siblings, wives and children. Brothers at War provides a rare look at the bonds and service of our soldiers on the frontlines and the profound effects their service has on the loved ones they leave behind.
Opening: May 13
Venue: Anthology Film Archives/New York City
Film: Revue
Dir.: Sergei Loznitsa
Distributor: Icarus Films
Website: http://icarusfilms.com/new2008/revu.html
As he did with his critically-acclaimed Blockade, a documentary re-creation of the WWII siege of Leningrad, filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa has once again scoured the Russian film archives for Revue, selecting excerpts from newsreels, propaganda films, TV shows and feature films that present an evocative portrait of Soviet life during the 1950s and 1960s.
With scenes taken from the length and breadth of the Soviet Motherland, Revue illustrates
industry and agriculture (dam construction, steel plants, Stakhanovite labor competitions, farmland seeded by hand and plowed with horse), political life (local elections, abundant Lenin iconography, speeches by Khrushchev, the threat of capitalist spies), popular culture (a village choir, a dance troupe,
a travelling cinema, poetry readings for workers, a propagandistic stage play), and technology (space exploration, astronaut Yuri Gargarin, new industrial development).
Opening: May 15
Film: Kassim the Dream
Dir.: Kief Davidson
Distributor: IFC Films
http://www.kassimthedream.com/
This is the story of world champion boxer Kassim "The Dream" Ouma--born in Uganda, kidnapped by the rebel army and trained to be a child soldier at the age of 6. When the rebels took over the government, Kassim became an army soldier who was forced to commit many horrific atrocities, making him both a victim and perpetrator. He soon discovered the army's boxing team and realized the sport was his ticket to freedom. After 12 years of warfare, Kassim defected from Africa and arrived in the United States. Homeless and culture-shocked, he quickly rose through the boxing ranks and became World Junior Middleweight Champion.
Kassim, now age 29, seems to have obtained the American Dream with his jovial nature, fame and hip-hop lifestyle. As Kassim trains for his next world title fight against Jermain Taylor in Little Rock Arkansas keeping his demons out of the ring becomes increasingly difficult. His desires to reunite with family in Uganda intensify when Kassim's only hope for a safe return is a military pardon from the president and government responsible for his abduction.
Director Kief Davidson received unprecedented access to Kassim Ouma during a pivotal time in the boxer's career. Filmed in cinema vérité style, the documentary blends current events with brutal revelations of a stolen childhood. The parallels reveal a complex and haunted fighter surviving against incredible odds.
Opening: May 19
Venues: GoggleWorks Theatre/Reading, PA; Allen Theatre/Annville, PA; Whitaker Center/Harrisburg, PA
Film: Rough Cut
Dir.: Todd Klick
http://www.toddklick.com/roughcut/documentary.php
Would you kill to make a movie? The scary thing is, two independent filmmakers did.
In January 2003 a woman was found beaten, strangled and stabbed in her Pennsylvania home. Eight
months earlier, an independent horror film was shot on the nearby Appalachian Trail.
Rough Cut is a feature length documentary that explores the twisted true tale of two first-time filmmakers who had a dream of making a horror movie and the bizarre events that followed.
Opening: May 20
Venue: Film Forum/New York City
Film: Burma VJ
Oscilloscope Laboratories
Dir.: Anders Østergaard; Prod.: Lise Lense-Møller
http://burmavjcom.title.dk/burma-vj/
Armed with small handy cams, undercover video journalists in Burma keep up the flow of news from
their closed country. Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, acclaimed director Anders Østergaard brings us close to the video journalists who deliver the footage. Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens of Burma live the essence of journalism as they insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country. The Burma VJs stop at nothing to make their reportages from the streets of Rangoon.
Their material is smuggled out of the country and broadcast back into Burma via satellite and offered as
free usage for international media. The whole world has witnessed single event clips made by the VJs, but for the very first time, their individual images have been carefully put together and at once, they tell a much bigger story. "Joshua," age 27, is one of the young video journalists, who works undercover to counter the propaganda of the military regime. Foreign TV crews are suddenly banned from the country, so it's left to Joshua and his crew to keep the revolution alive on TV screens all over.
With Joshua as the psychological lens, the Burmese condition is made tangible to a global
audience so we can understand it, feel it and smell it. The film offers a unique insight into high-risk journalism and dissidence in a police state, while at the same time providing a thorough documentation of the historical and dramatic days of September 2007, when the Buddhist monks started marching.
Opening: May 22
Film: The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story
Dirs.: Gregory V. Sherman, Jeffrey C. Sherman
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
When asked how long it takes to write a song, the Sherman Brothers would often say, "It takes your entire life . . . plus the time required to jot it down." And what unexpected lives surface in this intriguing story of the sibling songwriting team behind such classic scores as Mary Poppins (1964) and The Jungle Book (1967) and the most translated song on earth, "It's a Small World," told against a backdrop of some of the most popular works of our time. As staff songwriters for Walt Disney and popular hit makers of their own, the Shermans' credits read like a virtual history of the American family musical: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), The Aristocats (1970), Charlotte's Web (1973), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and many more.
The brothers' personal relationship, however, is far from child's play. The two became so estranged that their own sons grew up without knowing each other, despite living only a few blocks apart. How the brothers could collaborate so extensively on Oscar-winning soundtracks, most of which defined wholesome family entertainment, and yet have a relationship so volatile they could never bring their own families together, is at the heart of this remarkable dissection of creativity, genius and family dynamics. It's made, after all, by the sons themselves, first cousins Gregory and Jeffrey Sherman, who upon
meeting for the first time as young adults were moved to do some collaborating of their own.
Opening: May 22
Film: Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight
Dir.: Wendy Keys
Distributor: Arthouse Films
http://www.arthousefilmsonline.com/2009/03/milton-glaser-to-inform-deligh.html
For many, Milton Glaser is the personification of American graphic design. Best known for co-founding New York Magazine and the enduring I ♥ NY campaign, the full breadth of Glaser's remarkable artistic output is revealed in Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight. From newspapers and magazine designs, to interior spaces, logos and brand identities, to his celebrated prints, drawings, posters and paintings, the documentary offers audiences a much richer appreciation for one of the great modern renaissance men.
Artfully directed by first-time filmmaker Wendy Keys, the film glances into everyday moments of Glaser's personal life and capture his immense warmth, humanity and the boundless depth of his intelligence and creativity.
Opening May 27
Film: Pressure Cooker
Dirs.: Mark Becker, Jennifer Grausman
Distributors: BEV Pictures/Participant Media
http://www.participantmedia.com/films/coming_soon/pressure_cooker.php
Pressure Cooker profiles the lives of three high school seniors from Northeast Philadelphia,
each with unique hardships but with the shared goal of winning scholarships to the country's best culinary schools. Their unlikely hero is the irreverent culinary arts teacher, Mrs. Stephenson, whose teaching style is hilariously blunt. Mrs. Stephenson is both a surrogate mother and a culinary boot-camp
instructor, as she pushes her kids to achieve beyond what anyone else expects from them.