Season Ten – 2015

A Picture of You

A Picture of You

Show times and dates: Friday 7/10 8:30pm, Saturday 7/18 2:30pm
Director: J.P. Chan
Country: USA/China
Film Made: 2013
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 83
A Picture of You is a refreshing, genre-busting slice of familial melodrama. Kyle and Jen are brother and sister, but they don’t really talk anymore. When their mother dies, they are forced to spend the weekend together at their mother’s house to pack up her things and put them in storage. Whi... Read More
Amu

Amu

Show times and dates: Wednesday 7/15 8:45pm
Director: Shonali Bose
Country: India
Film Made: 2005
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 102
Encore Presentation Recent UCLA graduate, Kaju (Konkona Sen Sharma), embarks upon a journey to India to discover her roots and the country she left behind at the age of three. Encountering unexpected resistance from family members, she is nevertheless undeterred in her quest to discover her own h... Read More
Brahmin Bulls

Brahmin Bulls

Show times and dates: Sunday 7/12 2:00pm, Wednesday 7/15 8:45pm
Director: Mahesh Pailoor
Country: USA/India
Film Made: 2013
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 96
Sid moved to LA to be an architect long ago, and never made a worthy effort to stay connected with his father, Ashok. When Ashok suddenly comes to visit, it seems likely that they may be able to mend their relationship--that is,until Sid finds out why his father really came to Los Angeles. Fille... Read More
Chotoder Chobi

Chotoder Chobi

Show times and dates: Saturday 7/11 8:45pm, Friday 7/17 6:30pm
Director: Kaushik Ganguly
Country: India
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 118
Khoka is one of many little people who makes his living in the circus. When his friend and fellow performer, Shibu, falls and is seriously injured, Khoka is appalled by the apathy of the show management. Quitting in disgust, he travels to Shibu’s home to lend a hand. While there, a relationship wi... Read More
City Lights

City Lights

Show times and dates: Sunday 7/12 4:30pm, Friday 7/17 8:30pm
Director: Hansal Mehta
Country: India
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 126
After amassing a load of insurmountable debt, Deepak flees his rural village with his wife and young daughter. Like the thousands who arrive daily to Mumbai, they are filled with hope that they will find a better life waiting for them. However, this simple, honest family is woefully unprepared for t... Read More
Crow’s Egg

Crow’s Egg

Show times and dates: Saturday 7/11 2pm, Saturday 7/18 4:15pm
Director: M. Manikandan
Country: India
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 99
Just outside the slums of Chennai, a new pizza shop opens. Two impoverished boys, Big Crow’s Egg and Little Crow’s Egg,decide that what they want most in the world is to try a bite of pizza. Getting their hands on the pizza proves to be a more difficult challenge than the boys ever expected. On ... Read More
Dearest

Dearest

Show times and dates: Friday 7/10 9:15pm, Saturday 7/18 6:45pm
Director: Peter Ho-sun Chan
Country: China
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 128
Dearest is based on the true story of Peng Peng a young boy, abducted from his divorced parents. Peng Peng leaves home one day to play with his friends on the streets of Beijing and never comes home. When his parents realize he is missing, they begin a desperate search that takes them all over China... Read More
Dukhtar

Dukhtar

Show times and dates: Thursday 7/16 6:30pm
Director: Afia Nathaniel
Country: Pakistan
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 93
Centerpiece Presentation $15 Pakistan’s official entry to the 87th Academy Awards, Dukhtar (meaning “daughter” in Urdu) is a visually stunning thriller highlighting the peril in which women and girls in tribal societies live their everyday lives. In a mountain village in Pakistan, former ch... Read More
Fandry

Fandry

Show times and dates: Friday 7/10 8:00pm, Saturday 7/18 2:00pm
Director: Nagraj Manjule
Country: India
Film Made: 2013
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 101
Growing up as an untouchable does not stop Jabya (Somnath Awghade) from longing for a better a life. While his parents struggle to provide a dowry for his sister, Jabya is more concerned with buying his own jeans and T-shirt. His quest for the finer things becomes complicated as he tries to also win... Read More
Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere

Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere

Show times and dates: Sunday 7/12 2:30pm, Thursday 7/16 6:30pm
Director: Diep Hoang Nguyen
Country: Vietnam
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 99
In this entrancing and surprisingly explicit drama, Huyen, a college student in Hanoi, discovers she is unexpectedly pregnant. Huyen and her no-account boyfriend struggle with her decision to have an abortion and struggle further to secure the funds for the procedure. Between Huyen's ambivalence an... Read More
Futureless Things

Futureless Things

Show times and dates: Tuesday 7/14 7:00pm, Thursday 7/16 8:45pm
Director: Kyung-mook Kim
Country: South Korea
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 107
The saga of convenience store clerks may seem to be a familiar trope. As Kevin Smith’s 90s classic, Clerks, deftly demonstrated, there are few places better than a convenience store to encounter a glittering variety of people from all walks of life.  Futureless Things is a hilarious, episodic... Read More
Haraamkhor

Haraamkhor

Show times and dates: Monday July 13 at 7:30pm, & Saturday July 18 at 12pm
Director: Shlok Sharma
Country: India
Film Made: 2015
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 93
New venue & time! Regent Square: Monday July 13 at 7:30pm, & Saturday July 18 at 12pm Haraamkhor (The Wretched) is an innocent, illicit and emotionally driven story, set in the virginal desert territory juxtaposed against the lifeline of India's dream development. 15 yr old Sandhya is i... Read More
How to Win at Checkers (Every Time)

How to Win at Checkers (Every Time)

Show times and dates: Sunday 7/12 6:30pm, Saturday 7/18 5:00pm
Director: Josh Kim
Country: Thailand
Film Made: 2015
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 80
Orphaned and supporting his younger brother in 1990’s Bangkok Ek, must submit his name to the mandatory draft lottery that will decide if he gets to stay with his brother Oat or be shipped off to the military. Oat, struggles with the possibility of losing his only brother and family breadwinner.... Read More
Killa (The Fort)

Killa (The Fort)

Show times and dates: Tuesday 7/14 6:30pm, Saturday 7/18 2:00pm
Director: Avinash Arun
Country: India
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 110
11-year-old Chinmay is forced to move from the city to a rural coastal town where his widowed mother has been transferred for her job. He struggles to fit in with his new classmates while coping with the recent death of his father. Meanwhile, his mother fights to succeed at work. Seemingly detached ... Read More
Live From UB

Live From UB

Show times and dates: Sunday 7/12 5:00pm, Saturday 7/18 7;00pm
Director: Lauren Knapp
Country: USA/Mongolia
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 85
Mongolia’s switch to democracy happened fairly recently—the democratic revolution which led to the change arose in the late 1980s and early 1990s. One of the major catalysts driving the desire for a democratic government in Mongolia was, surprisingly, rock music. Live From UB, which was helmed b... Read More
Man From Reno

Man From Reno

Show times and dates: Saturday 7/11 8:45pm, Sunday 7/19 2:00pm
Director: Dave Boyle
Country: USA/Japan
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 110
In this atmospheric mystery, Aki Akahori, a Japanese mystery writer, travels to foggy, enigmatic San Francisco to escape the pressure of marketing her latest book. Aki meets a furtive Japanese man named Akira Suzuki at her hotel, and they begin a romantic affair--until Akira suddenly disappears. In ... Read More
Margarita With a Straw

Margarita With a Straw

Show times and dates: Sunday 7/12 2pm, Wednesday 7/15 6:30pm
Director: Shonali Bose
Country: India
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 100
Laila (Kalki Koechlin) is a passionate and intelligent Indian student who also happens to have cerebral palsy. Her condition, however, does not define her. She writes music in a band with her friends and has given no reason for anyone to pity her condition. Tired of her life in India, she gets accep... Read More
Melbourne

Melbourne

Show times and dates: Sunday 7/12 4:30pm, Sunday 7/19 12:00pm
Director: Nima Javidi
Country: Iran
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 91
Unfolding in real-time and almost entirely within a Tehran apartment, Melbourne is the story of Amir and Sara, a normal middle-class couple, planning a big move to Australia. While packing for the move, a sudden, unexpected tragedy entirely derails all of Amir and Sara’s plans as the couple strug... Read More
Miss India America

Miss India America

Show times and dates: Sunday 7/19 5pm
Director: Ravi Kapoor
Country: USA/India
Film Made: 2015
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 95
Closing Night Film- $15 Lily Prasad is a bright girl with the drive to be the best at anything she attempts. She isn't used to coming in second in anything, so when her boyfriend suddenly breaks up with her, it throws Lily's detailed plans for their future wildly off course. Even worse, her boyf... Read More
Nuoc 2030

Nuoc 2030

Show times and dates: Sunday 7/12 8:30pm, Sunday 7/19 4:30pm
Director: Nghiem-Minh Nguyen-Vo
Country: Vietnam
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 98
Nuoc 2030 is a sophisticated dystopian mystery with a premise that may be grounded more in science than fiction. In the year 2030, extreme climate change has brought South Vietnam below sea level. Citizens now survive on boats and stilt houses and work on floating farms. When her husband is found d... Read More
Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost

Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost

Show times and dates: Tuesday 7/14 9:00pm, Saturday 7/18 9:15pm
Director: Anup Singh
Country: India
Film Made: 2013
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 109
All Umber Singh hopes for during his wife's latest pregnancy is a son. Instead he is gifted with a fourth daughter. Rather than being joyful about the arrival of a healthy, beautiful child, Umber can barely stand the disappointment. While holding his newborn daughter in his arms, he makes a fate... Read More
Red Amnesia

Red Amnesia

Show times and dates: Saturday 7/11 6:30pm, Friday 7/17 9:00pm
Director: Xiaoshuai Wang
Country: China
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 105
In this taut thriller, dense with political subtext, Deng, an elderly widow living alone suddenly begins receiving mysterious calls from someone who never speaks a word, only breathes heavily and then hangs up. Tormented by this mysterious caller, and largely dismissed by her children as an overwro... Read More
Short Film Presentation

Short Film Presentation

Show times and dates: Monday 7/13 7:30pm
Director: Various
Country: Various
Film Made: 2015
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 120
Terrific short films from all over the world: 1-0 | 1 min | Saman Hosseinpuor A boy is distracted from his haircut by an engrossing soccer match. Custody | 5 min | Mansi Jain A woman is confronted by her lover’s wife. The conversation does not turn out quite the way she expected. Ele... Read More
Tangerines

Tangerines

Show times and dates: Saturday 7/11 4:30pm, Thursday 7/16 8:45pm
Director: Zaza Urushadze
Country: Georgia/Estonia
Film Made: 2013
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 87
An Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, Tangerines is a tour de force of tension and masterful performances. During the War in Abkhazia, most of the Estonian farmers have fled. However two local farmers, Ivo and Margus remain to tend to the harvest. Their work is brought to an abrup... Read More
The Grandfather of Dogs

The Grandfather of Dogs

Show times and dates: Sunday 7/19 2:00pm
Director: Li Ke
Country: China
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 82
Lao Zhang, a lonely, and somewhat alienated middle-aged man, decides one day after being laid off from his job to start taking in and caring for stray animals. This decision is not immediately welcome in his family, who is already struggling to make ends meet. As the number of animals increase, ... Read More
The History of Love

The History of Love

Show times and dates: Saturday 7/11 5pm
Director: Peng Yu
Country: China
Film Made: 2013
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 95
Zhuang Mengchen is a successful young artist, managed by his business-smart girlfriend. When his grandmother passes away, he travels back to his hometown to pay his respects. However, when he gets there he discovers that his grandmother’s death is somehow connected to an ancient Chinese tomb. P... Read More
The Last Reel

The Last Reel

Show times and dates: Monday 7/13 7:00pm, Saturday 7/18 8:30pm
Director: Sotho Kulikar
Country: Cambodia
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 106
College student Sophoun flees her conservative parents when they try to force her into an unsuitable arranged marriage. She finds refuge in a dilapidated old movie theater where she discovers the remnants of an unfinished film from the pre-Khmer days of Cambodia’s Golden Age of cinema starring non... Read More
The Nightingale

The Nightingale

Show times and dates: Saturday 7/11 6:30pm, Wednesday 7/15 6:30pm
Director: Philippe Muyl
Country: China
Film Made: 2013
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 100
A family-friendly film with substance, The Nightingale is homage to director Muyl’s  “Le Papillon,” The Nightingale, however subverts the tropes of the family and gender dynamics of the original. Ren Xing is a young girl raised in the city. When she is forced to go on a trip to the countrysid... Read More
Theeb

Theeb

Show times and dates: 7:00pm Friday July 10
Director: Naji Abu Nowar
Country: U.A.E./Jordan/Qatar
Film Made: 2014
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 100
Opening Night Film- $20 Theeb (Jacir Eid Al-Hwietat) and his older brother, Hussein are members of a Bedouin tribe in the Arabian desert. It is 1916 and the world around them is in drastic upheaval. Yet, for the Bedouins, life largely remains unchanged. That is until they encounter a British soldie... Read More
Transit

Transit

Show times and dates: Saturday 7/11 2pm, Friday 7/17 6:30pm
Director: Hannah Espia
Country: Israel/ Philippines
Film Made: 2013
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 93
A wrenching portrait of the effects of immigration policy, Transit is both a unique and universal story. A new law in Israel has just been passed allowing children of foreign workers to be deported. In a slice of the Promised Land in Tel Aviv, single father Moises (Ping Medina) now has to keep his s... Read More
Upaj: Improvise

Upaj: Improvise

Show times and dates: Saturday 7/11 2:30pm, Wednesday 7/15 7:00pm
Director: Hoku Uchiyama
Country: USA/India
Film Made: 2013
Film Screened: 2015
Runtime: 59
Upaj: Improvise is a rousing documentary on the universality of dance. Jason Samuels Smith is a young and respected tap dancer influenced by performers such as Gregory Hines. As a young man, he meets Pandit Chitresh Das who specializes in kathak classical dance. Both styles use the feet to create pe... Read More