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The Circus
USA, 1928, 72 min.
A rarely seen masterpiece featuring two of the greatest comic sequences ever filmed. The lovable Tramp finds work as a circus janitor, only to be drafted in to replace the wayward headliners. With a score composed by Chaplin at age 79, this is one of the must-see events of the festival.... more
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Elsa & Fred
Spain, 2005, 107 min.
Two mainstays of Spanish language cinema, China Zorrilla and Manuel Alexandre, play aging widowers who rekindle their passions for love with a visit to the Trevi Fountain in Rome, a landmark from Fellini's La Dolce Vita, in this touching romantic comedy.... more
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Expiration Date
USA, 2006, 95 min.
This beguiling comedy revolves around the impending fate of Charles Silvercloud III, a stoic young man whose father and grandfather were both killed in bizarre accidents on their 25th birthdays. As Charlie's own ill-fated birthday approaches, he prepares to meet his maker. But things take an unexpec... more
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Favela Rising
USA, 2005, 79 min.
This lively musical documentary charts the transformational effects of AfroReggae music in one favela shantytown in Rio de Janeiro, offering a portrait of the power of music to remake a troubled community into a place of celebration and hope.... more
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La Maison de Nina
France, 2005, 113 min.
Writer-director Richard Dembo (who died during the production) offers a moving tribute to Nina’s “house of hope,” one of many orphanages established outside Paris at the end World War II. The residents are largely secular French Jews, but later concentration camp refugees begin to arrive from Poland... more
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Mad Hot Ballroom
USA, 2005, 111 min.
Follow New York City's 5th graders as they learn to rumba, tango, foxtrot and swing dance. Emphasizing that special age between childhood and adolescence, and the cultural diversity of NYC, this documentary grips us with tension, triumph and heartbreak as the kids compete in a citywide competition.... more
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The March of the Penguins
France, 2005, 85 min.
Capturing the magnificent environment of a penguin's life, this has all the classic elements of an epic: insurmountable odds, conquering heroes, loving couples, and radiant beauty. Enduring the Antarctic winter for 13 months, with never-before shot underwater footage, Luc Jacquet triumphantly convey... more
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Masai - The Rain Warriors
France, 2005, 94 min.
This epic tale, at the crossroads of documentary and fiction, is shot in the savannah with real Masai warriors. Filled with beautiful photography and bewitching music, it offers a charming universal fable about an ancestral culture doomed to disappear.... more
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Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
United Kingdom, 2005, 109 min.
Winner - Audience Awards, Best Narrative Feature
This sweet, beguiling story about the unlikely friendship between an elderly widow (Joan Plowright) and a dashing young writer (Rupert Friend), who meet quite by chance in contemporary London and come to share an enchanting and unexpectedly ... more
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Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea - Revisited
USA, 2005, 72 min.
Squatters, nudists, retirees, and barflies all speak their piece about the resort/mistake/ecological nightmare that is the man-made lake in the Southern California desert that they call home.... more
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Season of the Horse
China, 2005, 106 min.
Mongolia's traditional ways of life are under fire thanks to a combination of economics, shortsighted thinking from Chinese bureaucrats and global warming. Ning Cai's beautifully shot and powerfully affecting debut uses the simple story of one nomadic herder's troubles to demonstrate the problems an... more
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Sophie Scholl - the Final Days
Germany, 2005, 118 min.
Winner of the German audience award for best film of 2005, Marc Rothemund's beautifully acted drama tells the true story of Sophie Scholl, the young student who became the most famous martyr of the anti-Nazi White Rose resistance movement in 1943 Munich. Julia Jentsch's brilliant lead performance an... more
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The World’s Fastest Indian
New Zealand, 2005, 128 min.
Sir Anthony Hopkins is wonderful in Roger Donaldson's affectionate and immensely entertaining biopic of 72-year-old Burt Munro, the crazy Kiwi who, in 1971, traveled to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to try and set a motorcycle speed record. Hopkins' nuanced performance adds immeasurably to the f... more
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