Iranian Cinema

A profoundly intimate window into the lives of young teen girls in the heart of America. Filmed over the course of ten years, filmmaker Tara Veneruso follows a group of thirty girls in urban Kansas City and the rural town of St. Joseph, Missouri. The film draws on in-depth interviews with the girls themselves, psychologists and other experts from across the country to provide immense insight into the lives of these young women as they face pressures including drugs, sexual abuse, and violence in an often unforgiving culture that forces girls to grow up far too soon.

In Japan, three adults fall in love with Rinko, a high school girl in the video game Love Plus. This virtual romance leads them for a whole weekend to the old seaside town of Atami, where they cross paths with two teenagers who have come to spend their first weekend together in the same hotel. But Kentaro has also been seduced by Rinko. At first jealous, Kyoko ends up being interested in this virtual rival who seems to have contaminated the hearts of all the men in the country.

There were once great adventurers whose lives were spent on and around the mighty Kansas River. They were rulers of their own domain, passers of great knowledge, and mighty outdoorsmen fighting to care for themselves and their community.

Shored Up is the story of our coasts where life on the edge of a rising sea has placed our towns and cities on the front lines of climate change. Following frustrated scientists, confused politicians and level-headed surfers, Shored Up follows the conflicts that are erupting from New Jersey to North Carolina as the ocean rises and we challenge nature to an unwinnable duel.

El Sistema, Venezuela's phenomenal youth orchestra program, now a global movement, brings social transformation to disadvantaged children. Our film is an in-depth, verite-based look at three kids as they participate in a pair of Sistema-inspired programs in the US. In Stanford Thompson's Play On, Philly! program, Raven is a violin natural whose rambunctious spirit gets her in trouble. We also meet quiet, quirky Zebadiah, whose viola brings him out of his loneliness. Meanwhile, in Harlem, Anne Fitzgibbon's Harmony Program nurtures troubled Mohammed, their trombone star, whose African-born father is far more concerned with his son's failing grades. Heartbreak and joy come in big doses as we watch our three young people discovering themselves through the mysterious power of music.