Saturn
Director: Eric Esau
Country: USA; Running Time: 100 minutes
Saturn is a character-based science fiction film about a family in a picturesque seaside town whose lives are upended when a strange planet appears in the sky on a collision course with Earth. The planet’s appearance brings back a life that James thought he had left years ago when he settled down with his wife and young son. But, with the outside world in chaos and his perfect family slowly falling apart, James must decide between running from his destiny or sacrificing everything he loves. We slowly learn that James is more than meets the eye. He has a secret he’s never shared with anyone… a secret that is humanity’s only hope. Taking inspiration from classic and modern sci-fi, Saturn asks a simple question: how far would you go to save those you love?
Tapawingo
Director: Dylan K. Narang
Country: USA; Running Time: 109 min
An oddball becomes the bodyguard for a misfit teenager and finds himself in the crosshairs of the town’s family of bullies.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
A New Kind of Wilderness
Director: Silje Evensmo Jacobsen
Country: Norway; Running Time: 84 minutes
The Payne family seeks a wild and free existence on a small farm in the Norwegian forest. They practice homeschooling and strive for a closely-knit family dynamic in harmony with nature. However, when tragedy unexpectedly strikes the family, it upends their idyllic world and forces them to forge a new path into modern society.
Saturn
Every Little Thing
Director: Sally Aitken
Country: Australia; Running Time: 93 minutes
Author and wildlife rehabber Terry Masear wants to save every injured hummingbird in Los Angeles, but the path to survival is fraught with uncertainty and drama. This intimate and profound story reveals her diminutive patients both visually, through breathtaking, beautifully detailed photography, and emotionally: throughout director Sally Aitken’s moving documentary, we become invested in Terry’s hummingbird patients – Cactus, Jimmy, Wasabi, Alexa, and Mikhail – celebrating their small victories and lamenting their tiny tragedies. Through the eyes of America’s busiest bird rehabilitator, each bird becomes memorable, mighty, and heroic. The compassion and empathy that Masear shows her birds serve as a lesson to us all — a reminder that we might find grace in the smallest of acts and the tiniest of creatures.
Linda Perry: Let It Die Here
Director: Don Hardy
Country: USA; Running Time: 93 minutes
Linda Perry is among the most outspoken and recognizable artists of the past 30 years. The hat, tattoos, and massive hit single “What’s Up” with her band 4 Non-Blondes made her an icon. But in the decades since that song topped the charts, Linda has reinvented herself as a songwriter and producer, penning hit-after-hit for artists like Dolly Parton, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion, Pink, and others. While Linda’s career and craft story is extraordinary, this film is about much more. Let It Die Here is an intimate look at a vulnerable and courageous woman who navigates life-altering personal circumstances amidst gnawing career decisions. Linda‘s past and present collide as she struggles to answer the big questions she can no longer avoid: Who am I? Am I loved? What’s my purpose? What will I leave behind?
Maya and the Wave
Director: Stephanie Johnes
Country: USA; Running Time: 95 minutes
Pursuing her dreams against all odds, world champion Brazilian big-wave surfer Maya Gabeira challenges the status quo in a very patriarchal sport. She is forced to battle chauvinism as well as the waves themselves to succeed beyond anyone’s expectations in the male-dominated world of surfing.
Porcelain War
Directors: Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev
Countries: Australia/USA/Ukraine; Running Time: 87 minutes
Porcelain War is a stunning tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, embodying the passion and fight that only artists can put back into the world when it’s crumbling around them. With extraordinary footage from a war-torn country filmed by ordinary civilians, Porcelain War is a story much bigger than Ukraine; it’s a story about all of us.
