Ilusyon (2005)

One Night Stand Murder

Alyssa wakes up in a home that's not hers and discovers a dead body. With no memory of how she got there, and no idea of who he is, Alyssa tries to piece together what exactly happened the night before.

Love Me

Across a language barrier, a Turkish groom-to-be on an engagement party in Kyev meets a Ukrainian that represents the 'other woman' for a marriage there.

The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean

Written, directed, and self-financed by Juleen Compton, The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean is the story of a clairvoyant teenage girl, Norma Jean (Sharon Henesy), taken advantage of by a boy band, fashioned after The Beatles, determined to exploit the young woman's powers as part of a hoax revival.

Stranded

Compton's first feature was the autobiographical Stranded, which she wrote, directed, starred in, self-financed and distributed. Released in 1965, the film shares the cinematic experimentation and stylish, youth-centric rebellion of the French New Wave made even more radical by its progressive portrayals of female independence and sexuality, beatnik culture, and discussions of homosexuality. Stranded follows Raina, a young American woman (played by Compton), traveling through Greece with her American lover (Gary Collins), and her French, gay, best friend (Gian Pietro Calasso). Raina partakes in several love affairs rejecting marriage offers for no other reason than she likes her life the way it is. Made just prior to the arrival of second wave feminism, Compton, as writer-director, never judges her on-screen alter-ego the way similar female characters were frequently punished in other films during this era by stigmatizing female sexuality.

Change of Fortune

A lawyer defends a wealthy woman accused of murder. She claims it was self-defense. The lawyer is not sure.

A Love Song for Bobby Long

A headstrong young woman returns to New Orleans after the death of her estranged mother.

Pendular

The trajectory of a romantic couple of contemporary artists reveals how the limits, contradictions and obsessions of a romantic relationship are reflected in each of their artistic endeavors.

The Piano

When an arranged marriage brings Ada and her spirited daughter to the wilderness of nineteenth-century New Zealand, she finds herself locked in a battle of wills with both her controlling husband and a rugged frontiersman to whom she develops a forbidden attraction.

American Splendor

An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.

An Angel at My Table

Based on the autobiographical work of New Zealand writer Janet Frame, this production depicts the author at various stage of her life. Afflicted with mental and emotional issues, Frame grows up in an impoverished family and experiences numerous tragedies while still in her youth, including the deaths of two of her siblings. Portrayed as an adult by Kerry Fox, Frame finds acclaim for her writing while still in a mental institution, and her success helps her move on with her life.

Michael

Tabloid reporters are sent by their editor to investigate after the paper recieves a letter from a woman claiming an angel is living with her.

Alas Dose

After a drug lord is apprehended by the police, a syndicate does everything in its power to get him out of jail, since he has money that should be divided among the members, so a general's grandson is kidnapped to facilitate his release.

Zero Motivation

Filmmaker Talya Lavie steps into the spotlight with a dark comedy about everyday life for a unit of young female Israeli soldiers. The human resources office at a remote desert base serves as the setting for this cast of characters, who bide their time pushing paper, battling for the top score in Minesweeper, and counting down the minutes until they can return to civilian life. Amidst their boredom and clashing personalities, issues of commitment—from friendship to love and country—are handled with humor and sharp-edged wit.

Lost in Translation

Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.

Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself

The strange comedy film of two close brothers; one, Wilbur, who wants to kill himself, and the other, Harbour, who tries to prevent this. When their father dies leaving them his bookstore they meet a woman who makes their lives a bit better yet with a bit more trouble as well.

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Saving Face

A Chinese-American lesbian and her traditionalist mother are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations.

Loving Annabelle

Annabelle is the wise-beyond-her-years newcomer to an exclusive Catholic girls school. Having been expelled from her first two schools she's bound to stir some trouble. Sparks fly though when sexual chemistry appears between her and the Head of her dorm and English teacher, Simone Bradley. Annabelle pursues her relentlessly and until the end the older woman manages to avoid the law.

Girlfight

Diana Guzman begins to train as a boxer and achieves impressive success, blazing new trails for female boxers, all while keeping it a secret from her father.

Strike!

In the 1960s, a group of friends at an all girls school learn that their school is going to be combined with a nearby all boys school. They concoct a plan to save their school while dealing with everyday problems along the way.

Hide and Seek

Four fragile young people flee London to start an unconventional utopia, creating a world of fantasy that overwhelms them.

This Place

Living in the liminal space between worlds, two young women find themselves falling in love for the first time, while also being forced to unexpectedly confront their families, each complicated by legacies of love and loss.

Unpregnant

A 17-year old Missouri teen discovers she has gotten pregnant, a development that threatens to end her dreams of matriculating at an Ivy League college, and the career that could follow.

Morvern Callar

After her boyfriend commits suicide, a young woman attempts to use the unpublished manuscript of a novel and a sum of money he left behind to reinvent her life.

Go Fish

Max is a trendy, pretty, young lesbian, who is having trouble finding love. A friend sets her up with Ely, whom Max likes, but Ely is frumpy, homely, and older. Nor do they have much in common. Can Max learn to look past the packaging?

Body

A nurse's aid, Cathy lives alone. Too alone. When her sister, with whom she's had a falling-out, calls her for her birthday and invites her to the beach, Cathy is exhilarated. But the day gradually slips away from her.

The Devil's Arithmetic

An American-born Jewish adolescent, Hannah Stern, is uninterested in the culture, faith and customs of her relatives. However, she begins to revaluate her heritage when she has a supernatural experience that transports her back to a Nazi death camp in 1941. There she meets a young girl named Rivkah, a fellow captive in the camp. As Rivkah and Hannah struggle to survive in the face of daily atrocities, they form an unbreakable bond.

Firaaq

Firaaq is an Urdu word that means both separation and quest. The film is a work of fiction, based on a thousand stories. The story is set over a 24-hour period, one month after a campaign that took place in Gujarat, India, in 2002. It traces the emotional journey of ordinary people- some who were victims, some perpetrators and some who choose to watch silently.

The Boys Next Door

Roy and Bo leave their small town the weekend after graduation for a short road trip to LA. Soon, they find themselves lashing out and leaving a trail of bodies behind them. The violence escalates throughout.

Aus Haut und Knochen

The story follows Lara, a 16 years old girl, and her long and exhausting battle against anorexia. But can you heal someone who doesn't believe they're sick?

Mark, Mary + Some Other People

Mark and Mary's meet-cute happens at a neighborhood drug store, where she is busy buying a pregnancy test, and he has to make an effort to remind her they met in college. After asking her out, he accompanies her as she takes the test, and upon it showing negative, she agrees to a date. One year later, they have fallen deeply, passionately, head over heels in love, and their whirlwind romance leads to marriage. So when Mary suddenly requests they open their relationship to “ethical non-monogamy”, Mark is taken by surprise, but agrees to try it. And that's where this story really begins.

Worst Case, We Get Married

Aïcha is a troubled teenage girl who cannot forgive her mother for kicking out the stepfather she adored. Aïcha longs for him to come back and take her away. When she meets Baz, a man twice her age, it’s love at first sight for her; the real kind, the one that hurts. Baz wants to help this lost little girl, but she wants much more from him, and is ready to do anything to get it.

Kessler's Lab

Kessler's lab was created to run drug trials to determine what went wrong with a once popular mood stabilizing drug. Dr. Martin Kessler cloned his own daughter, who died from the drug. Once with ten test subjects, he and Dr Josephine Vanderhill are now left with only a few dying, sick clones, and one healthy placebo, Jenny. Daniel Powell runs the day to day operations and tends to the clones, administering the very drug that is killing them. When Dr. Kessler unexpectedly dies, instead of shutting down the facility, Dr Vanderhill wants to intensify the testing. She targets Jenny, and convinces Daniel to administer the pills in highly concentrated doses, sure to be fatal. Now conflicted, Daniel is determined to stop her and save the clones.

Moothon

A child from Lakshadweep sets off to Mumbai in pursuit of Akbar, an elder brother who left the island due to his sexual orientation.

The Five Devils

8-year-old Vicky has a mysterious gift: she can recreate any scent she comes across, even that of her beloved mother Joanne. When her estranged aunt Julia suddenly returns to town, the invocation of her fragrance plunges the young girl back in time to unravel a past replete with family secrets.

The Round Up

A faithful retelling of the 1942 "Vel' d'Hiv Roundup" and the events surrounding it.

Eduart

Based on true events, a young man raised in a cruel and oppressive family environment, leaves Albania with the dream of becoming a rock star and living a better life. His reckless character and his youth passions lead him to commit a murder in Athens. Chased by everyone, even by his own self, he is imprisoned under the harshest conditions. With the help of a German doctor, he learns to feel sympathy for others and guilt for his crime. His deep remorse will lead him from darkness to light.

Kabisera

Andres is a well-liked, respected, and middle-aged fisherman who rents out commercial spaces to people in the town market. Ge seems to have everything a man could ever need: a loving family, a home, sustenance, and good friends he can trust. One day, he discovers several bricks of shabu floating in the sea. With his discovery, everything begins to change.

Mr. and Mrs. Iyer

A bus is setting out to Calcutta from a village in West Bengal. Meenakshi Iyer, who is from a strict orthodox Hindu background, is leaving to Chennai for her husband, with her young child, after the vacation with her parents. By chance, she gets a co-passenger who is also to Chennai, Rajah, a photographer, introduced by one of the friends of her father. During the journey they build a good relationship. But a Hindu-Muslim communal riot sets out in the meantime, in some areas they had to travel. Then she comes to face the fact that Rajah is not a Hindu but a Muslim whose real name is Jehangir. Even though she curses herself at that time while some Hindu fanatics evade their bus she saves him introducing as Mr. Iyer. But they have to reach their destination while the other passengers know Rajah as no one else but Mr. Iyer.

Deeply

On Ironbound Island, native Fiona McKay arrives from Europe with her teenage daughter Clair, hoping that the peace of the island will help the girl get over the death of her boyfriend. The girl finds comfort in the company of a visiting American girl and more so in the stories of Celia, a crazy old local who weaves enchanting tales which cleverly combine her own experiences on the island with mystifying legends.

Bastard Out of Carolina

A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.

Perfect Strangers

When Melanie goes home from the pub with a handsome stranger, she’s captivated by his charm and attentiveness. He sails her away to his ‘castle’- a rundown shack on a deserted island. But when seduction becomes deception and passion becomes possession, Melanie realizes that she has been kidnapped. Torn between fear and desire, Melanie must escape – but her ardent admirer has other plans.

The Puzzle

Maria's family give her a puzzle for her 50th birthday, and she loves it. Not only does the patient housewife have fun solving the puzzle, she's also really good at them. Overflowing with enthusiasm for her new-found passion, she goes back to the shop where they bought the gift for another puzzle. There her eye is caught by a notice on the message board: Partner for puzzle tournament wanted. Maria musters her courage and, despite her family's misgivings, answers the announcement.

The Hitch-Hiker

Roy and Gilbert's fishing trip takes a terrifying turn when the hitchhiker they pick up turns out to be a sociopath on the run from the law. He's killed before, and he lets the two know that as soon as they're no longer useful, he'll kill again. The two friends plot an escape, but the hitchhiker's peculiar physical affliction, an eye that never closes even when he sleeps, makes it impossible for them to tell when they can make a break for it.

Bluebeard

Anne reads her younger sister, Marie-Catherine, the story of Bluebeard. In 17th-century France, another set of sisters — also named Anne and Marie-Catherine — are left impoverished by their father's death. Marie-Catherine dreams of marrying into money, and soon falls for wealthy divorcé Bluebeard. Grateful for the chance at a life of comfort, Marie-Catherine marries Bluebeard — in spite of rumors that he has made a hobby of murdering his wives.

The Silent Storm

An enigmatic outsider living on a remote Scottish island finds herself caught between her minister husband and the delinquent who is sent to live with them.

Cold Copy

A young broadcast journalism student is trying to win the approval of her influential mentor who pushes her to reconsider the meaning of truth if it means success.

The History of the Pink Trunk

In 1945, in the train station of Bogota, Colombia, a dead girl is found in a trunk. The case is assigned to Detective Mariano Corzo, he has to deal with an inquisitive journalist Hipólito Mosquera while trying to solve the mysterious case. Nobody knows who the girl is, or who put her in the trunk. The things turn bad when Mosquera publish the news in the local newspaper. With the help of a bartender Martina Quijano, Corzo will find an answer for the question: Who killed the girl and why?

The Romantics

Alliances are tested when seven college pals reunite to watch two of their own say “I do” at a seaside wedding. But the maid of honor and the groom share a passionate history, and the bride isn’t the only one who’s wondering if it’s all in the past.

Frida

A biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work.

The Virgin Suicides

A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents.

Enough!

Set amidst the civil war of Algeria in the 1990s, Enough! is the story of two women. Emel is a Westerner whose husband, a journalist, is missing - perhaps kidnapped or even killed for articles he's written.

Me and You and Everyone We Know

Single dad Richard meets Christine, a starving artist who moonlights as a cabbie. They awkwardly attempt to start a romance, but Richard’s divorce has left him emotionally damaged. Meanwhile, Richard’s sons—one a teenager, the other 6-years-old—take part in clumsy experiments with the opposite sex.

The Cave of the Yellow Dog

The little nomad girl, Nansal, finds a baby dog in the Mongolian veld, who becomes her best friend - against all rejections of her parents. A story about a Mongolian family of nomads - their traditional way of life and the rising call of the City.

Take My Eyes

One winter night, Pilar runs away from home. With her, she takes only a few belongings and her son, Juan. Antonio soon sets out to look for her. He says Pilar is his sunshine, and what's more, "She gave him her eyes"...

Miranda's Letter

Miranda's Letter takes as a starting point the 'missing women' in Shakespeare, in this instance, The Tempest, and imagines what Miranda's mother would have wanted to say to her daughter. Commissioned as part of Shakespeare Lives 2016.

Faustine and the Beautiful Summer

Faustine suffers the wounds of first love. During a summer when she is staying with her grandmother, she comes to know the nearby neighbors. Two brothers live in the large house. One is divorced and one has recently remarried, both of them live there with their teenaged and adult children. Though the boys of the household are drawn to Faustine, she grows ever more smitten with the divorced older man...

Fiction.

When a sheltered young woman becomes enamored with a struggling writer, she goes to great lengths to become involved in his creative process.

Gentlemen Prefer Nature Girls

Anne and Tom, a married nudist couple, work in a real estate office. When the agency's owner discovers that Tom is a nudist, he fires him. Unfortunately, Tom was just ready to close a big real-estate deal with Al Jenkins. Tom goes to his favorite nudist camp to take his mind off his problems and discovers that Al Jenkins is also a member of the nudist camp. Together they come up with a plan to get Tom's wife and their boss to get to the nudist camp so they can close the deal.

The Prince and the Nature Girl

The leader of a small kingdom falls in love with a beautiful American girl, only to be shocked when he finds out that she's a nudist.

Passion Fever

This and The Hot Month of August, both made in Greece, were acquired by DORIS WISHMAN for release in the United States. However, she somehow or other lost the dialogue sheets needed for dubbing the films into English. With the original dialogue a mystery, and not understanding Greek in the first place, the Grand Dame of Sexploitation simply re-invented the entire plot blissfully dubbing it away without any clue as to what was really being said, and then adding some steamy sex scenes with her own anonymous adulterers to liven things up.

They Are All Dead

Just by watching Lupe stuck at home in her robe and slippers, no one would will guess that in the 80's she was a rock star. Gone are the times of concerts, fame and success. Agoraphobia does not let her leave home. She depends entirely on Paquita, his mother, a superstitious Mexican, with a huge heart, which not only takes care of his daughter but also her teenage grandson. The problem is that Paquita is running out of time and she doesn't want to leave without getting her daughter back.

Radius

Liam wakes from a car crash with no memory of who he is. As he makes his way into town to look for help, he finds only dead bodies, all with strange pale eyes. Liam's first assessment is that a virus is present in the air, but he soon discovers the horrible truth: anyone who comes within a 50-foot radius of him dies instantly.

Slipaway

When a homeless young musician moves into a sailboat with a feisty elderly widow, the two must overcome their differences and haunting pasts to unlock each other's dreams.