FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17

SHOWN AT 12:30PM
In their documentary “Chris & Don: A Love Story,” directors Tina Mascara and Guido Santi show us so many of the famous people that artist Don Bachardy and author Christopher Isherwood (“Cabaret”) knew in their more than three decades together that anyone coming to the film in the middle without any context might think it a “Forrest Gump” caliber ruse. However, there is no digital manipulation here, just incredible pictures of scores of moments from an incredible love shared by an unlikely couple.

“Primed as we are by a culture rich in both homophobia and dirty old men, we can be forgiven for anticipating a sordid cautionary tale. It’s a shock – a happy shock – when ‘Chris & Don’ recounts a love that approaches the transcendental.” -David Edelstein, New York Magazine

SHOWN AT 2:45PM
For more than thirty years, exit polls accurately predicted election results. Over the last ten years that reliability has disappeared. What’s going on? The last two presidential elections both came down to a relatively small number of votes, and in both elections the integrity of the voting process has been called into question. With the upcoming election looking to be similarly close, the time has come to ask the questions: What happened in 2000 and 2004? What, if anything, has changed since? And what can be done to ensure a fair and honest tabulation of votes in 2008? This film brings together behind-the-scenes perspectives from the U.S presidential election of 2004 – plus startling stories from key races in 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2006. The film sheds light on a decade of vote counts that don’t match votes cast – uncounted ballots, vote switching, under-votes, an many other examples of election totals that warrant serious investigation. This film unveils patterns of anomalies at every level of the electoral process. Controversial partnerships perpetuate a secretive environment, as relevant facts and figures remain hidden from view. As a result, most Americans have no real sense of the threat to fair elections. As seemingly unrelated pieces of the puzzle come together, a chilling picture emerges: of widespread, artfully crafted “glitches” that, in the final tallies, have the capacity to alter election results.

“This tersely sobering documentary…mounts its case with hardheaded numerical logic.”
-Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

SHOWN AT 5:00PM
Nejat initially disapproves of his widower father Ali’s choice of prostitute Yeter for a live-in girlfriend. But the young professor warms to her when he learns that most of her hard-earned money is sent home to Turkey for her daughter’s university studies. After Yeter’s accidental death, Nejat travels to Istanbul to search for Yeter’s daughter Ayten. Political activist Ayten has fled the Turkish police and is already in Germany. She is befriended by a young woman, Lotte, who invites rebellious Ayten to stay in her home, much to the displeasure of her conservative mother, Susanne. When Ayten is arrested and her asylum plea denied, she is deported and imprisoned in Turkey. Passionate Lotte abandons everything to help Ayten. A tragic event brings Susanne to Istanbul to help fulfill her daughter`s mission.

“Like a more personal, less pretentious version of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s ‘Babel’, this spiraling dissection of circumstance, choice and fate is more about thoroughness of vision than tricky storytelling.” -Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News

SHOWN AT 7:15PM
Nearly as insidious as the Hitler’s wholesale slaughter of Jews and others he thought inferior was his systematic pillaging of Europe’s art treasures and the attempted cultural annihilation of “sub-human” peoples. In the exhaustive documentary written and directed by Richard Berge, Nicole Newnham and Bonni Cohen, the trio goes far in chronicling this seldom explored prong of the Nazis’ assault, from Hitler’s formation of the party in the 1920’s right through to its rise to power in 1933 to its defeat at the end of World War II twelve years later. Art lovers will thrill to the heroic efforts of not only the staffs of the Louvre and the Hermitage, but the U.S. Army’s contingent of “Monuments Men,” commissioned to protect these treasures from a vindictive retreating German force. While the three do not fully make a case for the Reich’s hunger for art being a major impetus for its warmongering, they do depict the tragedy of this hidden war-within-a-war with the kind of passion that would even make the most cold-hearted collector of velvet Elvis paintings weep.

“There is a heart-rending feeling to this documentary, in part due to its sense of irretrievable loss.”
-Philip Marchand, The Toronto Star

SHOWN AT 9:30PM
In her feature debut, writer-director Shelli Ryan takes viewers on a suspenseful and deeply moving genre-straddling journey that delves into the imaginative mind of a frightened little boy coping with his parent’s devastating split. This powerful and thrilling story unfolds through the eyes of Jake, an only child caught between the two people he loves most. As Jake navigates his grief through the landscape of his parents’ escalating conflict, he finds himself haunted by noises in the night. He soon discovers an evil living inside his bedroom closet. Convinced no one will believe him, Jake must face the evil alone. What he uncovers in the process is a reality that will haunt him for the rest of his life. As Jake, gifted young actor Anthony DeMarco charms the audience with a remarkable combination of innocence and maturity, vulnerability and strength. DeMarco is joined by a superb cast with breakout performances by Sean Bridgers (HBO’s “Deadwood”) and Brooke Bloom (“CSI: Miami”).

Part of our Friday Night Frights series, which ends on Halloween Night with the Lovecraft tale, “Cthulhu.”

“…this suburban horror show that translates familial crisis into zombies living in a bedroom closet maintains a steady dramatic pulse supported by impressive craft.” -Robert Koehler, Variety