Allison Anders

The son of a junkie aristocrat and a schizophrenic showgirl becomes a master of reinvention on a 50+ year journey through rock and roll, TV, and movies.

8.8/10

Hal Ashby's obsessive genius led to an unprecedented string of Oscar®-winning classics, including Harold and Maude, Shampoo and Being There. But as contemporaries Coppola, Scorsese and Spielberg rose to blockbuster stardom in the 1980s, Ashby's uncompromising nature played out as a cautionary tale of art versus commerce.

6.9/10
9%

Set in the aftermath of Jax Teller’s death, Ezekiel "EZ" Reyes is fresh out of prison and a prospect in the Mayans M.C. charter on the Cali/Mexi border. Now, EZ must carve out his new identity in a town where he was once the golden boy with the American Dream in his grasp.

7.5/10
8.6%

Follows the serendipitous meeting of two young girls on the Venice Boardwalk, who, though worlds apart in lifestyle, embark on unexpected and lifelong friendship. CC is an aspiring singer trying to make it in Los Angeles. Hillary is the daughter of a prominent civil rights lawyer who struggles to find her own destiny. Their friendship—even with its ups and downs—sustains them for decades.

5.4/10
5%

A young H.G. Wells time travels to modern day New York City in pursuit of the charismatic—yet secretly psychopathic—Dr. John Stevenson, better known as "Jack the Ripper," following the doctor's brazen escape from the Victorian London authorities.

6.7/10
6.7%

A short, Filmstruck-produced documentary on the life of director Shirley Clarke.

Follows the lyrical journey of an imaginative teenage girl who runs away from home with an older punk rock drifter, but not even unicorns can save her now.

6.2/10
8.9%

“Ring of Fire” recounts June’s meteoric rise to fame with The Carter Family, considered the First Family of country music, before breaking out on her own to perform, when she would become a legend in her own right. Taking a personal look at June’s first two marriages, life with her daughters and touching relationship with her son, the movie showcases her infamous courtship with Cash and June’s heroic role in saving his life during his battles with substance abuse, as well as how her unwavering faith in God, confidence and talent has taught lessons to generations.

5.9/10

A young musician recovers from the loss of his girlfriend with the help of his female filmmaker friend, and even forms a friendship with the rival who stole her.

7.4/10

This documentary explores the hidden history of the American Exploitation Film. The movie digs deep into this often overlooked category of U.S. cinema and unearths the shameless and occasionally shocking origins of this popular entertainment.

7.1/10
8.6%

When Ben McCauley daringly introduces himself anonymously via email to his secret crush, he mistakenly sends a message to single mother Charley Anderson. Ben begins dating Chloe, but she never quite lives up to the e-mail relationship and anonymous friendship he develops with her co-worker Charley.

6.2/10

Boyd Rice may well be the only person alive who's been on a first name basis with both Charles Manson and Marilyn Manson. His career has spanned more than three decades, during which time he has remained at the epicenter of underground culture and controversy.

7.6/10

Allison Anders talks about her love for the work of film director Douglas Sirk

Shane Black ("Lethal Weapon"), John Carpenter ("Halloween"), Frank Darabont ("The Shawshank Redemption"), William Goldman ("The Princess Bride"), Paul Schrader ("Taxi Driver"), and dozens of other Hollywood screenwriters share hilarious anecdotes and penetrating insights in "Tales from the Script," the most comprehensive documentary ever made about screenwriting. By analyzing their triumphs and recalling their failures, the participants explain how successful writers develop the skills necessary for toughing out careers in one of the world's most competitive industries. They also reveal the untold stories behind some of the greatest screenplays ever written, describing their adventures with luminaries including Harrison Ford, Stanley Kubrick, Joel Silver, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg. The film was produced in tandem with the upcoming HarperCollins book of the same name.

7.1/10
7.5%

The stars and director of 'Written on the Wind' and 'The Tarnished Angels' talk about director Douglas Sirk's techniques. Archival interviews originally appeared in the documentary "Douglas Sirk: Uber Stars" (Eckhart Schmidt, 1980)

Kirby Dick's provocative documentary investigates the secretive and inconsistent process by which the Motion Picture Association of America rates films, revealing the organization's underhanded efforts to control culture. Dick questions whether certain studios get preferential treatment and exposes the discrepancies in how the MPAA views sex and violence.

7.5/10
8.4%

A look at the mystique of road movies, combining interviews, film clips, music, photography, literature and a narrative storyline featuring Paul Rudd and Tom McCarthy.

6.7/10

Short documentary about the making of the 1987 film.

A young music journalist's dark memories are awakened when he goes to interview a female rock singer, and both are forced to confront troubling secrets from their pasts.

6.8/10
10%

A look at the lives of several struggling L.A. musicians. Gwen, a singer-songwriter, is on a quest for the big-time. Working as an assistant to a film production designer, Gwen tries to steal her boss' boyfriend, a veteran rock producer. The producer, meanwhile, is trying to orchestrate a comeback for an '80s band.

6.1/10
6.7%

A film director (Adam Rifkin) decides to chart the course of a young actor (Tony Markes) as he tries to make it in Hollywood...

4.9/10

An aspiring singer, Denise Waverly/Edna Buxton, sacrifices her own singing career to write hit songs that launch the careers of other singers. The film follows her life from her first break, through the pain of rejection from the recording industry and a bad marriage, to her final triumph in realizing her dream to record her own hit album.

6.7/10
7.5%

It's Ted the Bellhop's first night on the job...and the hotel's very unusual guests are about to place him in some outrageous predicaments. It seems that this evening's room service is serving up one unbelievable happening after another.

6.8/10
1.3%

Interviews with women directors working in Hollywood and Europe today, exploring the opportunities and obstacles that face them. Program made to accompany a Channel 4 season of films directed and produced by women.

Martin Scorsese describes his initial and growing obsession with films from the 1940s and 50s as the art form developed and grew with clips from classics and cult classics.

8.5/10
10%

Mousie and Sad Girl are childhood best friends in a contemporary Los Angeles poor Hispanic neighborhood. But when Sad Girl becomes pregnant by Mousie's boyfriend, a drug dealer named Ernesto, the two become bitter enemies. While their dispute escalates towards violence, the violence of the world around them soon also impacts their lives.

6.5/10

In the boring desert of New Mexico, a single mother raises her two teenage daughters, Shade and Trudi, whose deepest desire is to leave the dead calm town. Shade is the type to escape in her extravagant fantasies while Trudi is so rebelious it could drive her away.

6.6/10
8.1%

Before carving out a niche as one of the most distinct voices in nineties American cinema, Allison Anders made her debut, alongside codirectors and fellow UCLA film school students Kurt Voss and Dean Lent, with 1987’s Border Radio. A low-key, semi-improvised postpunk diary that took four years to complete, Border Radio features legendary rocker Chris D., of the Flesh Eaters, as a singer/songwriter who has stolen loot from a club and gone missing, leaving his wife (Luanna Anders), a no-nonsense rock journalist, to track him down with the help of his friends (John Doe of the band X; Chris Shearer). With its sprawling Southern Californian and Mexican landscapes, captured in evocative 16mm black and white, Border Radio is a singular, DIY memento of the indie film explosion in America.

5.4/10