Jacob Burns

"Tense and well-played cautionary tale." (All Movie Guide)

What opens with a dream explodes into a nightmare: the ultimate Cold War horror scenario played out with dreadful hyperrealism in stark black and white. When US fighter jets are mistakenly dispatched to bomb Moscow, the American president (Henry Fonda) opens up communications with outraged Soviets to prevent all-out nuclear war. An anxious and somber companion piece to Kubrick’s darkly comic Dr. Strangelove (which was released the same year).

"A culture-clash dramedy whose background in Middle-East conflict is leavened with vibrant energy, balanced politics and droll humor by first-time feature director Cherien Dabis." (Variety)

Amreeka chronicles the adventures of Muna, a single Palestinian mother who leaves the West Bank with Fadi, her teenage son, with dreams of an exciting future in the promised land of small town Illinois. In America, as her son navigates high school hallways the way he used to move through military checkpoints, the indomitable Muna scrambles together a new life cooking up falafel burgers as well as hamburgers at the local White Castle. Told with heartfelt humor by writer-director Cherien Dabis in her feature film debut, Amreeka is a universal journey into the lives of immigrant families and first-generation teenagers caught between a new world and the bittersweet search for a place to call home.

The incredibly haunting story of Carmen, a Bolivian mother who lives with the reality that the only way to make enough money to provide for her disabled daughter is to leave her behind and come to the US to work. A tightly made, dramatic documentary that exposes the horrors of our present immigration system. The film, which has a terrific soundtrack, has won many festival awards, including Best Documentary at the NY Latino Film Festival.

Q&A: Director Nicholas Bruckman and Carola Bracco, Executive Director of Neighbors Link, Mt. Kisco, NY, followed by a dessert reception upstairs in the Jane Peck Gallery.

Timothy Hutton plays Daniel, a man whose parents—a pair of passionate Jewish American communists— were convicted and sent to the electric chair for allegedly supplying the Soviet Union with government secrets. Daniel explores the extent of his parents' guilt while trying to help his mentally ill sister. This thoughtful story, based on the novel by E. L. Doctorow, is beautifully underscored by the songs of Paul Robeson.