Dear Dumb Diary

Studying music at a remote island academy, poor Mayumi (Aki Hoshino) and her classmates fall victim once more to erotic tortures at the hands of their corrupting instructors. Just in time, Kekko Kamen (Misaki Mori) takes center stage with a red mask on her head, nunchakus in her hands, and a song in her heart!

Set to music by Bikini Kill (an all-girl band from Washington), Girl Power is a raucous vision of what it means to be a radical girl in the 90s. Benning relates her personal rebellion against school, family, and female stereotypes as a story of personal freedom, telling how she used to model like Matt Dillon and skip school to have adventures alone. Informed by the underground “riot grrrl” movement, this tape transforms the image politics of female youth, rejecting traditional passivity and polite compliance in favor of radical independence and a self-determined sexual identity.

When eccentric candy man Willy Wonka promises a lifetime supply of sweets and a tour of his chocolate factory to five lucky kids, penniless Charlie Bucket seeks the golden ticket that will make him a winner.

Oliver Twist the modern filmed version of Charles Dickens bestseller, a Roman Polanski adaptation. The classic Dickens tale, where an orphan meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master.

A unique, engaging film that combines documentary footage with narrative cinema to tell the story of four generations of a Latvian family. Sixteen year-old student Jānis has been given an interesting homework assignment – to draw his family tree and explain it. The story of his family begins with his great-great-grandfather who burned down the manors of German landowners during the 1905 revolution. My Family Tree takes us on a journey to various countries and political regimes, showing Jānis’ ancestors to be people of diverse fates and life stories. A rich Latvian trader, a red rifleman loyal to Lenin, a carpenter with the KGB and war refugees in Sweden are only a few branches on his family tree, and the boy has heard something unusual and unforgettable about each and every one of these people.

In the fourth film in the series, in 1910's Russia, a few acts of clumsiness puts Indy at odds with his father who is greatly displeased with Indy. Indy runs away into the Russian countryside and wakes in the morning on a haystack. He encounters colorful Gypsies, fierce Imperial Cossack troops, and an odd, cantankerous old man named Leo Tolstoy, who is in full agreement that "hell" is other people. Later, in Greece, Indy meets Nikos Kazantzakis, the writer who would some day write Zorba the Greek.

In the fifth film in the series, in 1910, the Jones family attends a meeting of the Theosophy movement in Benares, India. There young Indy befriends a young boy named Jiddu Krishnamurti who is presented by the society to be the next world teacher and possible messiah. Traveling on to China, mother Jones takes Miss Seymour and Indy on a sightseeing trip while father meets with Chinese translator Yen Fu. Indy becomes ill during a rain storm and the travelers seek shelter with a poor Chinese family. Despite the misgivings of his mother, a local doctor is allowed to treat the boy with acupuncture.

Elaine Shepherd’s classic BBC documentary, introduced and narrated by John Peel. Completely wonderful, a 50 minute joy: reviews, articles, blog posts, etc. relating to The Artist Formerly Known As Captain Beefheart.

An unexpected love story set in WW1 France between a young Australian baker who has deserted the front line, and a grieving French woman, who puts her own life at risk by sheltering him from the authorities.