Must See

THE LAST LAUGH dares to ask: "Are we allowed to joke about the Holocaust?" This outrageously funny and thought-provoking film puts the question to legends and critical thinkers including Mel Brooks, Sarah Silverman, Gilbert Gottfried, and many others (including survivors), offering fresh insights into the Holocaust and what else-9/11, AIDS, racism-is or isn't off-limits in a society that prizes freedom of speech. After screening at over 100 festivals (including Tribeca, HotDocs, Traverse City, BFI London, Rome, IDFA), and Certified Fresh at 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, THE LAST LAUGH was released theatrically in March 2017 and broadcast in April 2017 (Independent Lens/PBS) where it was runner-up for that season's Audience Award.

Comedy veterans and co-creators Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza capitalize on their insider status and invite over 100 of their closest friends--who happen to be some of the biggest names in entertainment, from George Carlin, Whoopi Goldberg and Drew Carey to Gilbert Gottfried, Bob Saget, Paul Reiser and Sarah Silverman--to reminisce, analyze, deconstruct and deliver their own versions of the world's dirtiest joke, an old burlesque too extreme to be performed in public, called "The Aristocrats."

A first-of-its-kind comedy about five writers who are challenged to each write fifteen minutes of a movie, after having read only the previous five pages of the script.

At the Harry DeJour Playhouse in New York in the mid-2000s, John Waters emerges from a confessional onto a stage littered with trash. He tells stories. After a few about his childhood and early influences, he roughly follows the chronology of his career as a film director, relating anecdotes about the making of each film and letting those stories lead him to riffs on other topics. Gay references and wry observations about people's foibles and limits are constants. Waters' looks, too, are the butt of his jokes.

After his movie and television career has run dry, Bruce Madsen (Adam Carolla) is forced to go back on the road playing one dingy comedy club after another, spending endless nights in budget hotel rooms and always flying coach. Amidst trying to revitalize his career, rekindle his love life and put his daughter through college, Bruce knows one thing for sure - he must get off the road. ROAD HARD is the story of that journey.

Winner of the Audience Award at the Slamdance Film Festival, this realistic comedy tells the story of Henry Phillips, a hapless modern day troubadour who grinds his way through the heartland, living out of his car and singing his twisted satirical songs to anyone who will listen. After a booking mishap involving a Christian fund raiser, he decides he's hit rock bottom. Seeking to shake things up, he moves to L.A. where his luck changes overnight. Thanks less to his inept manager than to a wild case of mistaken identity, he falls backwards into a string of packed gigs, a record deal and even the promise of love. But he who lives by the whimsy of show business dies by it, and reality hits him like a fist in the face: an innocent miscommunication over a bagel brands him a neo-Nazi in the world of tabloid journalism. Luckily, somewhere between rock bottom and nowhere lies the perfect terrain for his dark and hilarious songs.

A very lively woman with a very deadly cancer visits a national park with the intention of ending her life there-- but her suicide plans are continually thwarted, not least of all by her family, which finds itself unamused with her death wish.

This is the story of a marketing man and his shrink. A suicide attempt and a softball game; A PHD-toting stripper and a deranged Desert Storm vet; A giant sparerib costume and the world's largest peenis; John Woo-style violence and Steel Magnolia-esque pathos. This is the story of Martin & Orloff.

A documentary about the design of cities, which looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world's foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers.

Documentary that follows the struggle for control of Dr. Albert C. Barnes' 25 billion dollar collection of modern and post-impressionist art.

Tongue-in-cheek look at 20-something singles clubbing and partying in L.A.; it's organized into 15 chapters from overview and preparation to partying and the morning after. Voice-over narration, charts and graphs, and visits to a research laboratory punctuate the story of a single night when groups of friends go out, drink alcohol, take drugs, dance and talk, and look for someone to go home with. Dangers, minor and major, await those who don't plan well or behave foolishly, and the rewards, even for those who plan well, are few. But the species' survival may depend on these rituals.

G.J. Echternkamp tells the story of his relationship with his parents: his mother Cindy (Russo) and his stepfather Frank (Platt), who used to be a member of OXO, a 1980s band that scored a one-hit wonder with "Whirly Girl." Cindy was the ultimate groupie who married Frank thinking life would be all glamour and award shows, but reality turned out differently.

In the gig poster community, creating artwork is more than just a career - it is a way of life. These artists are at the forefront of an expansion of the gig poster genre. In a community with strong roots, dating back to the 1960s, this expansion is controversial - refreshing to some, sacrilegious to others.

Exploring the pre-fame years of the celebrated American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and how New York City, its people, and its tectonically shifting arts culture of the late 1970s and '80s shaped his vision.

While working on a documentary on his old neighborhood, a young film school graduate shifts the focus of his production onto the disappearance of a local resident and the strange characters who are conducting the search to find him.

Troublemaking duo Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, posing as their industrious alter-egos, expose the people profiting from Hurricane Katrina, the faces behind the environmental disaster in Bhopal, and other shocking events.

Hapless satirical songwriter Henry Phillips is lured to LA by renowned TV producer Jay Warren, who wants to make a show about the life of a struggling performer. When Jay sees Henry bomb at a local club, he is convinced that this story must be told. With the support of his longtime musician friend Jillian, and his well-meaning but sub-par manager Ellen Pinsky, Henry endures the ups and downs of LA living, and even secures what appears to be the Hollywood dream. But as a major TV network gets involved, he must decide whether his legacy will be to make jokes, or become the butt of them.

After struggling for years as an artist in New York City, Jake is calling it quits and returning home to Ohio. On his last day in the city, he persuades his three oldest friends to help him retrace their greatest adventure together: a walk down the entire length of Manhattan. But their attempt to reclaim the glory of their early 20s doesn't go quite as planned. Over the course of the day, buried conflicts emerge as Jake becomes embroiled with his ex-girlfriend and his friends dip into their own crises of manhood.