2019 Film Festival
Films and Events
Bathtubs Over Broadway
In this exuberant and heartfelt documentary, comedy writer Steve Young delves into the strange and little-known history of industrial musicals: original, Broadway-style extravaganzas that turned humble products like insurance and toilets into the stuff of magic.
Read More
Becoming Astrid
This lively biopic offers a gorgeous piece of heritage filmmaking as it chronicles a character-forming period in the young life of a Swedish writer born Astrid Ericsson. She would go on to worldwide fame as Astrid Lindgren, the creator of beloved children’s literature character Pippi Longstocking.
Read More
Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable
Bethany Hamilton lost her left arm to a shark when she was 13 years old. That attack didn’t stop her from becoming a champion surfer, a wife and mother, and a role model to millions. This is the inspiring, impressive story of an unstoppable spirit.
Read More
The Biggest Little Farm
Idealistic city dwellers John and Molly Chester bought a farm on arid land an hour north of Los Angeles. Their eight-year struggle to turn Apricot Lane Farms into a biodiverse Eden is chronicled in this astonishing and uplifting epic.
Read More
Carlos Almaraz Playing With Fire
This stunning documentary explores the brief, rich, and contradictory life of the artist Carlos Almaraz: a Chicano activist, sexual outlaw, and visionary painter of some of the most unforgettable images of southern California.
Read More
Carmen & Lola
Stunning bride-to-be Carmen and ambitious street artist Lola find themselves in the throes of a secret love, risking safety, status and their own futures within their highly conservative Gypsy community.
Read More
Champions
A hilarious and heartfelt spin on the classic underdog tale — with central roles performed by intellectually disabled actors — writer/director Javier Fesser’s film is not only Spain’s newest box office smash, but a rollicking and unforgettable reminder that none of us is truly “normal.”
Read More
Cold War
It’s been five years since the Academy Award®-winning Ida, but Pawel Pawlikowski’s achingly beautiful portrait of l’amour fou proves well worth the wait. Unfolding against the backdrop of the Cold War years in Poland, Berlin, Yugoslavia and Paris, the film renders believable a complicated and disruptive love in impossible times.
Read More
Dead Pigs
A mysterious wave of livestock deaths is the groundwork for this award-winning ensemble drama, which combines compassionate explorations of vastly different yet inextricably connected characters with a biting commentary on consumerism and the drive toward modernization in present day Shanghai.
Read More
The Etruscan Smile
In need of medical attention, a crusty, macho Scotsman (the great Brian Cox) leaves his beloved Hebridean island home to stay with his estranged son in high-tech San Francisco. There he forms a life-changing bond with his newborn grandson.
Read More
Ghost Fleet
The next time you order a filet of exotic fish in a restaurant, spare a thought for the thousands of men enslaved on Indonesian fishing vessels that overfish international waters. One indomitable woman and her small team work to free these slaves and bring them home.
Read More
The Grizzlies
The young people of a remote Arctic town with one of the highest teen suicide rates in the world rediscover their confidence, identity and community through the age-old sport of lacrosse.
Read More
The Guilty
In the year’s most heart-pounding 85 minutes in cinema, a sidelined Danish police officer desperately attempts to thwart an alleged kidnapping, and worse, all from the confines of his frustratingly limited emergency call center desk in this ingenious, nail-biting thriller.
Read More
Hotel Mumbai
Anthony Maras’s gripping retelling of the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai that culminated in the siege of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel features a cross section of workers and guests scrambling to survive.
Read More
Kaye Ballard - the Show Goes On!
This charming documentary showcases the career of musical-comedy sensation Kaye Ballard, whose ability to sing and tell jokes was ubiquitous in the late 20th century. Delightful moments are captured in rare archival footage and interviews with Ann-Margret, Michael Feinstein and Ballard herself.
Read More
Light in the Water
The West Hollywood Aquatics Club was the first openly gay swim and water polo club. Formed in 1982, it went on to shatter both world records and homophobic stereotypes. This empowering chronicle is a deep, fresh dive into four decades of LGBTQ history.
Read More
The Public
Librarians Stuart Goodson (Emilio Estevez) and Myra (Jena Malone) see their regular winter day shaken up when homeless patrons decide to take shelter in their library for the night. What starts as a peaceful sit-in quickly escalates into a face-off with the police and the media. Following the screening Mr. Estevez will answer audience questions. A ticketed reception will follow the screening at the Palm Springs Public Library catered by LuLu California Bistro and sponsored by Momentous, Vaso Bello Celebrations, and Diageo. Attendees will be able to speak with Mr. Estevez and other guests about the film.
In conversation with Writer/Director/Actor Emilio Estevez
Read More