When an escape pod detaches from a compromised colony spaceship, the sole four survivors, stranded in deep space, must determine what has happened and if someone among them is infected by a mysterious organism. (Part of 1979 “Alien” 40th anniversary shorts collection.)

Vancouver-based filmmaker and TV news veteran Fred Peabody explores the life and legacy of the maverick American journalist I.F. Stone, whose long one-man crusade against government deception lives on in the work of such contemporary filmmakers and journalists as Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald, David Corn, and Matt Taibbi.

The fall of 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof, the film Pauline Kael (The New Yorker) called “the most powerful movie musical ever made.” Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, FIDDLER’S JOURNEY TO THE BIG SCREEN captures the humor and drama of director Norman Jewison’s quest to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia and re-envision the beloved stage hit as a wide-screen epic. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Daniel Raim puts us in the director’s chair and in Jewison’s heart and mind, drawing on behind-the-scenes footage and never-before-seen stills as well as original interviews with Jewison, Topol (Tevye), composer John Williams, production designer Robert F. Boyle, film critic Kenneth Turan, lyricist Sheldon Harnick, and actresses Rosalind Harris, Michele Marsh, and Neva Small (Tevye’s daughters). The film explores how the experience of making Fiddler deepened Jewison as an artist and revived his soul.

His love of film began as an escape from a rocky childhood. From underdog to Hollywood legend, Sylvester Stallone tells his story in this documentary.

The Serengeti’s fight over life and death is between predator and prey. The omnipresence of grazing animals means abundant kills for prides of golden-maned lions. Solitary leopards haunt the acacia trees lining the Seronera River, while numerous cheetahs scour the southeastern plains. Almost nowhere else in Africa can all of the continent s jackal species be found in the same place. The immensity of this animal drama is equaled by the liberating vastness of open space so characteristic of the Serengeti Plains, which extend out from sun-baked savannas to shimmering golden horizons that seem to lie at the end of the earth.

Raised in the Tennessee mountains, Wayne White started his career as a cartoonist in NYC. He quickly found success as one of the creators of the Pee-wee’s Playhouse TV show which soon led to more work designing some of the most arresting and iconic images in pop culture. Recently his word paintings featuring pithy and and often sarcastic text statements finely crafted onto vintage landscape paintings have made him a darling of the fine art world. The movie chronicles the vaulted highs and crushing lows of an artist struggling to find peace and balance between his professional work and his personal art. This is especially complicated for a man who struggles with the virtues he most often mocks in his art…Vanity, ego and fame.

An intimate documentary delving into Rian Johnson’s process as he comes in as a director new to the Star Wars universe. A fan since childhood, he sets out to make the most powerful Star Wars movie he can. Navigating the mammoth production, the scale of which he’s never directed before, we meet his cast and crew, see their individual challenges in bringing the film together, say goodbye to Carrie Fisher, and explore the significance of Rian’s more surprising decisions. The documentary gives you a view of what it really was like to make The Last Jedi. As the team strive to do their best, what shines through is their passion and how memorable an experience it is for Rian as director.

Follows the fantasies of Darby, a shopgirl at “Bobbins & Notions,” a fabric store in a nameless town that is both ordinary and bizarre. The customers she encounters in the shop spark colorful daydreams as Darby looks for independence and maybe finds love with delivery man, Nick.

Unraveling the truth behind the deaths of 4 U.S. Special Forces soldiers in Africa leads to evidence of a cover-up at the highest levels of the Army.

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Documentary about British artist Andrew Logan as he attempts to put on the 2009 edition of his Alternative Miss World. The film also presents a history of the contest (which has run eccentrically since 1972) which was set up firstly as an excuse to have a good party, but has grown into a celebration of alternative lifestyles and sexualities. The documentary mixes archive footage, animated inserts, with talking head interviews and a fly-on-the-wall look at the organisation of the 2009 event

In a universe where cool kids are nerds, the orchestra is world class and being Asian American is the norm, seniors at Lowell High School compete for the top prize: admission to the college of their dreams.