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Haunting Douglas

  • 2003
  • 1 Hr 15 Mins
  • Documentary

Life was never going to be sweet for dancing boy Douglas Wright. Unwilling to learn the collective side-step of the rugby-mad small town New Zealand of his birth, he subsumed his gift, first as a champion gymnast then as a prodigious consumer of drugs before devoting himself to the punishing regime that would make him a world renowned dancer and choreographer. Of the multiple hauntings in Leanne Pooley's film, the most fascinating is Wright's cruel possession of his own body. His life story is written on his astonishing musculature as, under the force of his imagination, it performs wonderful, self-destructive dances. Wright slams into the floor and his fellow dancers, hangs upside down and maintains a constant violent grace ironically reminiscent of the great All Black his father wanted him to be. Off stage he rages too: great loves, wars with the critics and eloquent loathing of the country that provides the raw material for his work. But even as his body brought him acclaim with Paul Taylor's Dance Company in New York in the 1980s, Wright was so ferociously tangoing his way up and down gay Manhattan that he couldn't help but catch the disease he knew but decided not to care about. Now Wright's life and art collide. He writhes and leaps through increasingly haunting works. And the film maker has some ghost work of her own to do: she departs from the lush cinematographic approach of the rest of the film and with DV camera probes the sick and injured ex-dancer as he bullies younger bodies to realise his latest (will it be his last?) dance. Pooley and Wright make their own fascinating dance around the insights, hatreds and loves that may or may not sustain a body and an artist in the face of death. "Anger is not just mine, anger is like petrol if somebody gets angry someone nearby will catch fire. It's about exploring the way energy can be transformed through art. I'm lucky, I've been given more than my share of anger so I've got a lot of it to transform." Douglas Wright

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  • 2005 - New Zealand Screen Award - Best Documentary - Nominated
  • 2005 - New Zealand Screen Award - Best Director - Documentary - Winner
  • 2005 - New Zealand Screen Award - Best Documentary Editing - Winner

The Jacksons: An American Dream

2 hrs 0 mins

The Jacksons are your average working-class family in Gary, Indiana; but when their father discovers the kids have an extraordinary musical talent they form a band. Winning talent show after talent show they soon hit it big when Motown calls. From there they become the now famous Jackson 5. But along the way their success brings trouble and turmoil

The Jacksons: An American Dream
  • 1992
  • Documentary, Drama, Music

Child of Rage

1 hr 34 mins

Rob and Jill Tyler adopt 2 children named Catherine and Eric. Eric is sweet, quiet and shy and Catherine is nice at times but has these terrible violent outbursts for no apparent reason. Catherine sticks the dog Casey with needles until the dog bleeds. She smashes Eric's head on the basement floor, causing him to go to the emergency room and tries to stab her new adoptive father with a knife while he's sleeping. Jill and Rob try to find a doctor and they eventually find Dr. Rosemary Myers. She examines Catherine and find out that she was abused by her biological father and wants Catherine to overcome this rage. Dr. Myers, Jill, and Rob preform holding therapy for Catherine and at first it doesn't seem to work, but Catherine seems to become more at ease as the therapy progresses.

  • 1992
  • Documentary, Drama, Horror, Suspense

Popcorn Porn: Watching 'Zack and Miri Make a Porno'

1 hr 14 mins

This film follows the making of Kevin Smith's latest film, Zack and Miri Make A Porno.

  • 2009
  • Documentary, Comedy

Sarah's Oil

1 hr 43 mins

Sarah's Oil is inspired by the remarkable true story of Sarah Rector, an African American girl born in Oklahoma Indian Territory in the early 1900s, who believes there is oil beneath the barren land she's allotted and whose faith is proven right. As greedy oil sharks close in, Sarah turns to her family, friends, and some Texas wildcatters to maintain control of her oil-rich land, eventually becoming among the nation's first female African American millionaires-at eleven years old.

Sarah's Oil
  • 2025
  • Documentary, Drama

The Wizard of the Kremlin

2 hrs 17 mins

n the chaos of post-Soviet Russia, rising KGB officer Vladimir Putin (Jude Law) joins forces with master manipulator Vadim Baranov (Paul Dano) to reshape life behind the Iron Curtain, using violence and deception to change the world forever. Putin and Baranov’s reign of chaos begins with lies and corruption, and quickly escalates to assassinations, tyranny, and eventually all-out war.

The Wizard of the Kremlin

Bridge of Spies

2 hrs 22 mins

In 1957, lawyer James B. Donovan is recruited from his prestigious law firm to defend accused Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. It's an unenviable task in many respects. Donovan hasn't practiced criminal law since he was a prosecutor at the Nuremburg trials after World War II. Also, the strong anti-Communist mood at the time makes him a target from who think Abel should just be executed. Abel is convicted but Donovan convinces the judge to sentence him to prison, rather than execute him, as they may at some point in the future want to swap him for an American spy the Soviets might have in custody. Just such a scenario comes into play when in 1960 U-2 spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is shot down over Soviet territory and taken prisoner. Donovan is again recruited to act as the intermediary and negotiate swapping Able for the American requiring him to travel to East Berlin crossing the newly built Berlin Wall.

Bridge of Spies
  • 81
  • 2015
  • Drama, Documentary, Suspense, Action & Adventure
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