Strange Fruit (2004)
Genre :
Runtime : 1H 55M
Director : Kyle Schickner
Synopsis
New York attorney William Boyals has escaped the Louisiana bayou of his childhood, but he must return to investigate the death of a childhood friend who, like Boyals himself, was both black and gay.
Reggie, a wealthy young man about town, is eager for excitement, so he takes to visiting the rougher sections of the city in search of thrills. He meets and falls for a cabaret singer, but she turns out to be the inamorata of the local gang boss. The gangster sends his men after Reggie, but eventually it comes down to a duel between the two men themselves.
The orphan Dora is courted by two different gold miners.
A poor girl, a rich stud, a university student and a model -- nothing in common, except the desire to experience true intimacy. Their stories unfold and overlap as each becomes victim to their own sexual dependencies, self-perceptions and illusions. Thematically structured around issues of femininity, masculinity, virginity, rape and sexuality, each teen struggles to make sense of their own identity, reaching for ideals that represent everything they feel they are supposed to be, but are not.
ELEANOR'S CATCH is a delightful short, directed by and starring Cleo Madison. A successful actress, Madison was one of many women who directed films at Universal, particularly in the mid 1910s. In this two-reeler, she stars as a young city girl dragged into a life of crime by a ne’er-do-well suitor. A terrific surprise ending gives Eleanor and Cleo an early claim to promoting women’s equality in the workforce.
Filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev follows two Czech Holocaust survivors, Jan Weiner and Arnost Lustig, as they revisit Terezin, a labor camp where Arnost was interned for five years and Jan's mother was murdered.
A woman is stuck with an unfaithful husband until he is killed robbing a bank.
In this latter day Cain and Abel story, a jealous brother strikes down his sibling just as a young burglar is about to enter the house. The jealous brother summons police, who then charge the intruder with murder.
A young Frenchman of Arab descent, Djamel, becomes convinced that his long-lost father is a rich factory owner in Grenoble. When the man coldly rejects him, Djamel plots a revenge that will implicate the man's closeted gay son.
Daniel is approaching forty. Laura is almost sixteen. From what they say about him he must be a poet or a comic-strip illustrator, or both. He has just overcome a long addiction and, once back home, is trying to recongnize his life based on a strategy which consists basically in DOING EXACTLY WHAT A "NORMAL" PERSON DOES. Everything that happens to Daniel is, more or less, foreseeable because that's what it's all about: he should look after his personal grooming, take care of the small things, immerse himself in the real world... and so on until he has completed the ten small achievements in his manual, a set of COMMANDMENTS devised by an insipid public health system psychiatrist. And, in the midst of all this, an unexpected happening: Laura arrives in the city searching for her brother Andres, Daniel's neighbor. But the brother is not home and she decides to wait for him, while organizing around Daniel what could be his "perfect world".
It's evening, and she is standing happily at a work table in her kitchen, perhaps making a cake, while the radio finishes a song for young lovers. Then, the 7 o'clock news begins with a report on an arrest in Israel. As she proceeds through a couple of kitchen accidents - dropping a bowl, pulling a smoking pan from the oven, and waving the smoke out the window of her fourth-floor flat - she realizes that the newscaster is informing listeners of her cooking disasters.
Circa 1940 in Trinidad, still a British Colony, lives Ganesh Ramseyor, of East Indian origin, along with his wife, Leela. He longs to reach out to people, especially to Hindus, in order to promote the Hindu Faith, and be known as a writer. He does get considerable success, so much so that he becomes famous as a miracle worker, having cured a man of sharing intimacy with his bicycle; prevented a man from believing that he can fly; and convincing a young woman to end her fast. His fame spreads all over the island and thousands throng to seek his blessings, which he does dole out quite benevolently, without charging any fees from the poor and the needy. He then decides to spread his wings by challenging the local politician Pandit Narayan Chandrashekhar alias Cyrus T., and takes over The Hindu Organization, thence opening his way to a seat in the prestigious Member of the Legislative Assembly
Three men go out on the ocean in a row boat. There, they see dancing fairies. Then manage to catch one and take her aboard the boat--taking her back to the castle with them. Then, one of the men asks the fairy to marry him and they do so--though something strange occurs right after the ceremony.
The Yosemite Valley Railroad, which runs through the breathtaking scenery and stunning vistas of Yosemite National Park, is on the brink of failure. The grandson of a Chinese railroad laborer embarks on a romantic, but ultimately doomed, quest to save this railroad from being sold for scrap. His love of trains finds him working as a railroad-man, instead of at his father's profitable business. He manages to locate a wealthy eccentric investor to help him acquire the railroad, but its financial inviability makes this a quixotic reprieve, at best. The film also portrays the anti-Asian racism present in America at the conclusion of World War II.
A wealthy, callous moneylender finds a terrifying way to learn about money's limitations.
A young inventor is kidnapped to force him to tell the secret of his invention, but he foils his captors thanks to a pen with invisible ink.
Joey and Sissel are two misfits spending most of their time together talking or having sex. Gradually and slowly their relationships are becoming boring for them.
The movie examines the lives of the not-so-fortunate dregs of society through airy but uneven absurdist comedy. The unfortunates of the title are mentally challenged people, some of whom could be termed insane - or merely inane.
A wagon train heading west across the great desert runs out of water, and is attacked by Indians. One man -- their last hope -- is sent out to find water.
Family tensions in the Kentucky hills are inflamed by an outsider's dishonest scheme to exploit the area for its coal.
Melodrama about a rich father who gains custody of his child while the mother goes off in tears. Of course, the child is miserable even though he has everything in the world but after a weekend trip at his poor mother's house, the child realizes that money isn't everything and he has to convince the father that his money is evil.