Michael Sherman

Happy Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY follows Craig Smith, a young man grappling with trauma and grief - embodied in the form of a red backpack. Despite his efforts to rid himself of his hurt, the backpack keeps reappearing in his life. But when an advertisement for Hertz Pawn Emporium, a shop that buys trauma, comes on his TV, he finds a possible solution to forget it all. As he navigates his memories and emotions, Craig's journey culminates in a surprising confrontation that leads to a mix of release and acceptance, revealing the complexities of healing and letting go.

A Photographic Memory

A filmmaker ventures into the archives of her photographer mother to construct a personal story of love, loss, and finding someone in the work they leave behind.

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome chronicles the meteoric rise of contemporary trendsetter A$AP Rocky, capturing the exuberance of youth and urgency of hip-hop in equal parts, before taking a detour into darkness. With amazing access, the film reveals Rocky’s experience with the inequities of the Swedish judicial system and the dangers of stardom and scapegoating through a series of twists and turns, ultimately paralleling the need for prison reform in our own backyard. Directed by The Architects, the film blends archival footage with contemporary interviews, animation, and electrifying live concert footage to tell the astonishing story of how one of rap’s biggest superstars became embroiled in an international incident, leading to an unexpected political awakening.

The Truffle Hunters

In the secret forests of Northern Italy, a dwindling group of joyful old men and their faithful dogs search for the world’s most expensive ingredient, the white Alba truffle. Their stories form a real-life fairy tale that celebrates human passion in a fragile land that seems forgotten in time.

The Fight

Inside the ACLU, five scrappy lawyers battle against the Trump administration’s historic assault on civil liberties - from separating families at the border, to rolling back transgender, reproductive, and voting rights.

Disclosure

An investigation of how Hollywood's fabled stories have deeply influenced how Americans feel about transgender people, and how transgender people have been taught to feel about themselves.

Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia

Chronicling the life of Lay'n Pipe, a 47 foot TopGun Cigarette speedboat, from its conception through the end of human civilization. It's not just a speedboat ride, it's a Miami adventure.

The Rainbow

While the world around it has changed dramatically, The Rainbow Bar and Grill has remianed as one of the last bastions of true Rock n' Roll on Hollywood's famed Sunset Strip. Legendary musicians recount their stories from the iconic venue.

Pigeon Kings

Pigeons do somersaults in mid-flight, and there is a tight-knit community of pigeon breeders and trainers in South Central L.A. devoted to this phenomenon as a competitive sport.

Her Smell

A self-destructive punk rocker struggles with sobriety while trying to recapture the creative inspiration that led her band to success.

Avenues

On his 25th birthday, following the death of his brother, Max and his best friend Peter wander the wintry streets of Manhattan, contemplating life, livelihood, and what it means to be adult.

Native Son

A young black man named Bigger Thomas takes a job working for a highly influential Chicago family, a decision that will change the course of his life forever.

Madeline's Madeline

Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women's lives.

Skate Kitchen

Camille's life as a lonely suburban teenager changes dramatically when she befriends a group of girl skateboarders. As she journeys deeper into this raw New York City subculture, she begins to understand the true meaning of friendship as well as her inner self.

Golden Exits

An intersectional narrative of two families in Brooklyn and the unraveling of unspoken unhappiness that occurs when a young foreign girl spending time abroad upsets the balance on both sides.

Person to Person

Follows a variety of New York characters as they navigate personal relationships and unexpected problems over the course of one day.

The Little Hours

Garfagnana, Italy, 1347. The handsome servant Masseto, fleeing from his vindictive master, takes shelter in a nunnery where three young nuns, Sister Alessandra, Sister Ginevra and Sister Fernanda, try unsuccessfully to find out what their purpose in life is, a conundrum that each of them faces in different ways.

Copwatch

The true story of We Copwatch, an organization whose mission is to film police activity as a non-violent form of protest and deterrent to police brutality. Around the country, a network of regular people take up cameras to bear witness to police actions and hold law enforcement to accountability.

OG: The Harry Jumonji Story

'OG' is a film about a legendary, Brazilian born, NYC skateboarder, Harry Jumonji. In the course of telling his story, through his triumphs and travails, Jumonji emerges in this portrait as an adolescent innocent, much like skateboarding itself. He is irrepressible, manically energetic and ultimately, pure. He has a transcendent presence, well beyond charm or charisma, of such unalloyed joy that nothing he does is unforgiveable. This is fortunate because, as a drug addict, unsurprisingly, he lies, cheats and steals. Harry is rendered as the poet, the sprite, the artist and the street saint he is.

31

Five carnival workers are kidnapped and held hostage in an abandoned, Hell-like compound where they are forced to participate in a violent game, the goal of which is to survive twelve hours against a gang of sadistic clowns.

Joshy

After his engagement ends badly, Josh decides to take advantage of his bachelor-party plans in Ojai, California, with the few friends still willing to join him. Focused on drugs and their own hangups, his self-absorbed friends refuse to confront the elephant in the room and ask Josh how he’s feeling. As welcome and unwelcome guests stop by, Josh will attempt to find some closure over this weekend with the guys.

One & Two

In an isolated farmhouse, located in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by a mysterious wooden wall, Zac and Eva, two siblings gifted with extraordinary abilities, endure every day the wrath of their strict father while witnessing how a cruel sickness lurks their beloved mother.

Milius

The life story of ‘Zen Anarchist’ filmmaker John Milius, one of the most influential storytellers of his generation.