French

Deploying a subtle form of cinéma-vérité, Belgian artist Sven Augustijnen sets out on a road-movie journey in pursuit of the individuals who have successfully controlled the historical narrative about the Belgian government’s role in the 1961 execution of the Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. Traveling from lavish chateaux to cemeteries, from dusty legal archives to roadside scenes of violence, Augustijnen emerges as a sort of Belgian Errol Morris, with a gift for unpacking arcane legalese and an eye for eccentric details.

Narrative Short. LE PETIT NUAGE is first in the feature-length anthology of 7 SHORT FILMS ABOUT LOVE. Each short will be filmed in a different country and share the central theme of love. While working lighting the set of THE ARTIST, Renée George was inspired by the warmth and charm of that story and her own passion for directing was re-ignited. Renee created a cinematic response with her own black and white silent film, an homage to the beauty of early cinema.

Fast paced, stylish and alluring, David Ondricek’s new film (Czechoslovakia’s entry to the 2012 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film) is a brilliant dissection of the abuses the Czech people received during the Communist era. With handsome, dark-toned cinematography, the film opens in the style of a 1950’s noir, following a couple of crooks stealing a cache of jewels. When the police show up, Captain Hakl (Ivan Trojan) believes that there’s more to the heist than meets the eye.

Just days before his Bar Mitzvah on a train to visit his boring Uncle Shmuel,13 year-old Nono receives a secret message. Son of the world’s greatest police inspector, Nono must take on the assignment to solve the mysteries of his own past. Nono heads off on a caper to the French Riviera with a notorious criminal. Nono’s mission is to cross-examine everything he knows...and doesn’t. Adapted from David Grossman’s novel, The ZigZag Kid zigs and zags between coming of age quest and droll secret agent parody.

This beautifully animated fable was inspired by the true story of a giraffe gifted from the Pasha of Egypt to the King of France. From under a baobab tree, a village elder narrates this children’s tale: Maki, a Sudanese boy escapes an evil slave trader and befriends an orphaned baby giraffe. On a series of epic adventures from Sudan through Alexandria, Marseille, and the snow-capped Alps, the young boy and giraffe journey to France.

In this funny and moving first-film from director Abdel Messeeh, a professed secularist ventures to Cairo for witnesses to the famous 1968 sighting of the Virgin Mary in Zeitoun. He’s hampered by the Coptic community’s reluctance to talk - not to mention his absent producer’s unwillingness to commit more funds. His traditionalist mother has expressly forbidden Abdel to film her relatives inUpper Egypt, he ignores her wishes.

From famed French animator Jean-François Laguionie comes a highly original feature set in the many worlds of an artist’s oeuvre. Inside an unfinished painting, figures establish a caste system based on how realized their images are as they humorously debate the artist’s intentions. Banished but determined to restore harmony to the capricious painted world, Claire, her beloved Ramo, and friend Lola journey to the edge of the frame. The trio stumbles into the Painter’s studio only to discover more vivid tableaus... but what has become of the painter?

*Director Emilio Maillé Attending*
Multiple Visions (The Crazy Machine) documents the work of one of the keenest eyes in film history, Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa, who’s responsible for many of the lasting images from Mexico’s golden age of cinema. From 1932 through 1983, Figueroa worked for such greats as John Ford, Howard Hawks and Luis Buñuel. While many cinematographers of today appear to praise the master, Multiple Visions works best when it lets Figueroa’s films play for long stretches uninterrupted, allowing the work to speak for itself.

US PREMIERE
Born This Way is a beautiful, harrowing portrait of two brave individuals who are willing to risk their lives to be themselves in the intensely homophobic country of Cameroon. Cedric and Gertrude try to blend in seamlessly in nation that believes homosexuality and witchcraft to be synonymous.

Swiss cellist and pediatrician Beat Richner has performed as the light-hearted musician “Beatocello” for over 40 years, but recently he’s combined his two professions to save lives in impoverished Cambodia.