John Sayles – MRQE

Untama giru

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

A magical realist story of the legendary Okinawan hero Untamagiru participating in efforts to form an independent Okinawa before the island was returned to Japan in 1972.

Algren

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Algren will spotlight the hard-knock life and authentic creative legacy of one of the most underrated writers of the twentieth century, Nelson Algren. Algren’s brutally honest portrayal of the American underclass and his hard-nosed lifestyle became his pathway to compassion. Through interviews with Algren contemporaries, experts, and “literary soulmates,” as well as through the photography of Algren’s friends, Art Shay and Stephen Deutch, the film will tell his story. It will celebrate his tremendous contribution to and influence on American letters, and push Algren, champion of the marginalized, out from the margins.

The Normals

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000

With a debt collector hot on his trail, Harvard graduate Billy Schine enrolls in a clinical drug trial to make a quick buck. Carted out of New York City in a shuttle full of oddball characters, Billy and the rest of the guinea pigs, affectionately referred to as “Normals,” camp out at hidden research facility. When not popping pills, being tagged, drained of blood, prodded, poked and color-coded, they are telling horror stories of previous tests or generally getting on each other’s nerves. As the test drags on, just being there starts to take its toll, and tensions build until the dam finally bursts. Billy realizes that there is no such thing as “normal.”

Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

A chronicle of the long career of American filmmaker Roger Corman, the most tenacious and ingenious low-budget producer and director in the US film industry, a pioneer of independent filmmaking and discoverer of new talent.

Gridlock’d

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

After a friend overdoses, Spoon and Stretch decide to kick their drug habits and attempt to enroll in a government detox program. Their efforts are hampered by seemingly endless red tape, as they are shuffled from one office to another while being chased by drug dealers and the police.

My Life’s in Turnaround

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Two Manhattan slackers want to make a movie about their lives. One drives a cab, the other tends bar; neither has a clue how to make a movie. Things look up when real-life actors Phoebe Cates and Martha Plimpton agree to star in the project.

Straight Talk

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Honest and straightforward small-town Shirlee Kenyon chucks her boyfriend and heads for Chicago. Accidentally having to host a radio problem phone-in show, it is clear she is a natural and is hired on the spot. But the station insists she call herself Doctor, and as her popularity grows a local reporter starts digging for the truth. Problem is, the more he is around her the more he fancies her.

Hard Choices

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

A teenaged boy goes for a ride with his brother and the brother’s friends, who proceed to rob a store and murder the clerk. They are caught and, despite the young boy’s protestations, he is convicted of murder and sent to prison. A female social worker assigned to the boy’s case not only believes him, but begins to fall in love with him, and determines to either help him prove his innocence or escape.

Lianna

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Lianna’s life is a succession of domestic errands and boring faculty parties, however her heaviest cross to bear is dealing with her waning marriage to Dick. In order to find intellectual stimulus, Lianna takes a college extension child-psychology course taught by Ruth. When Lianna catches Dick having an affair with a young coed, she finds comfort and eventually true love in the arms of Ruth. However, this comes with a price as everything in her life is turned upside down.