Maryam Keshavarz is an unwaveringly determined and passionate Iranian-American filmmaker. She has to be, because she’s created a film that defies expectations of her culture and has instantly created controversy. Every step of the film’s development has been fraught with complications, but Keshavarz and her team have persevered. Keshavarz’s film, Circumstance, takes place in modern-day Tehran, Iran, where a puritanical Islamic theocracy remains in power. The film boldly tackles this system by depicting a story of two young women discovering themselves and an underground rebellion...

    Do you know why vibrators were originally invented?  Surprisingly, they weren’t supposed to be sex toys but rather a medical treatment to cure the ladies' various ailments!  A new trailer has dropped for “Hysteria,” a movie just buzzing about this history.  The film will star Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy, as well as Jonathan Pryce, Rupert Everett, and Felicity Jones.  The story takes place in 1880s Victorian England.  It tells the origin story of the vibrator, and how it was invented to relieve women of...

Review by Michelle Kehm With a budget of zilch, the twin-powered team behind The Polish Brothers (Northfork, Twin Falls Idaho) wrote, directed, shot and starred in this exquisitely intimate and beautifully scored film that pays homage to the French New Wave and Claude Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman. Piratic Mark Polish plays Yves, an American photographer who runs into his ex, Sofia, a model-turned-journalist played by the achingly beautiful Stana Katic, while in Paris. The scene where the two bump into each other sets the premise for...

The massive network of the Indian railways are called home by many of the eleven million child runaways of the country. Up to 200 children can be found arriving at a large train station each day looking for a way to survive. They live off of the public resources, like toilets and running water, and eat leftover food left or donated by travelers. The children become a part of an underground economy by begging, selling, pick-pocketing, cleaning, shoe shining, performing for travelers, and collecting empty...

  Calling all New Englanders: From the Back of the Room, a documentary chronicling female involvement in the diy punk community, is going on tour through your home state! ABOUT THE FLIM: “Many people have the impression that the Riot Grrrl movement in the mid-90s was the end-all, be-all of female involvement in DIY punk. This is definitely not the case! Plenty of amazing ladies prior to this era paved the way for it, and plenty of amazing ladies continue to help keep DIY together today. This documentary...

After 12 feature length films, Pixar is introducing its first female lead in Brave. Though the protagonist, Merida, is a Scottish princess, she does not wait around in towers to be saved. In fact, she appears to have a will of her own, defies her parents, takes matters into her own hands, does physical fighting, and is generally ‘brave,’ as the title suggests.  She even does archery and fights off bears—pretty badass. Watch the official trailer: [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYg0VgPy6Uk 425x344] It’s also their first to be co-directed by a woman,...