Bo Harwood

An intimate portrait of the superb actress Gena Rowlands, icon of independent cinema. Together with her husband, legendary director John Cassavetes (1929-89), she lived an unusual life beyond the dream factory, a life in which reality and fiction were so perfectly intertwined that it made possible films that still today seem incredibly real.

One of the great mavericks of cinema, John Cassavetes has earned a reputation as the godfather of American independent movies. The actor-turned-filmmaker invented a realist style of unadorned narrative films heavily influenced by documentaries. This in-depth analysis of Cassavetes' life and work features interviews with key collaborators and ensemble regulars, and explores the making of classics like "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie," "Opening Night" and "A Woman Under the Influence."

Crazy Los Angeles. Work is an hour away, down a crammed six-lane freeway. It is always sunny, but the sun looks like a sickly blemish on the smog. Everyone's out to look beautiful and make money. And a kid named Rick fits right in. The Gaspé coast. Work is five minutes away on a tractor seat. When the sun shines, the ocean is set ablaze, and the scent of pine fills the crisp country air. People here just try to make ends meet, but they know how to laugh from the gut and to show each other they care. This is were Rick's father James grew up, but Rick has never been here. When Rick learns that he has inherited the ancestral farm, and that his father wants him to go to Gaspé to bury the uncle who left Rick this legacy, an extraordinary odyssey begins. Father and son start out as different from each other as Gaspé and Los Angeles, but in the process, Rick discovers manhood and James discovers fatherhood.

Two closely-bound, emotionally wounded siblings reunite after years apart.

Virginia is proud that she belongs to a clique. The best students at a private school. But before her 18th birthday, a gruesome set of murders take place and her friends are the ones who are falling prey. Could it be her? She suffers from blackouts due to a freak accident one year earlier. We soon learn the truth behind her accident and what is going on.

Set in the well-off confines of a British Columbia boarding school, this affectionate film follows the trials and tribulations of a group of students as they cope with sex, death, rebellion and loneliness.

Actress Myrtle Gordon is a functioning alcoholic who is a few days from the opening night of her latest play, concerning a woman distraught about aging. One night a car kills one of Myrtle's fans who is chasing her limousine in an attempt to get the star's attention. Myrtle internalizes the accident and goes on a spiritual quest, but fails to finds the answers she is after. As opening night inches closer and closer, fragile Myrtle must find a way to make the show go on.

Cosmo Vittelli, the proprietor of a sleazy, low-rent Hollywood cabaret, has a real affection for the women who strip in his peepshows and the staff who keep up his dingy establishment. He also has a major gambling problem that has gotten him in trouble before. When Cosmo loses big-time at an underground casino run by mobster Mort, he isn't able to pay up. Mort then offers Cosmo the chance to pay back his debt by knocking off a pesky, Mafia-protected bookie.

Mabel Longhetti, desperate and lonely, is married to a Los Angeles municipal construction worker, Nick. Increasingly unstable, especially in the company of others, she craves happiness, but her extremely volatile behavior convinces Nick that she poses a danger to their family and decides to commit her to an institution for six months. Alone with a trio of kids to raise on his own, he awaits her return, which holds more than a few surprises.