Tom McDonough

Toots

The '40s and '50s were a classic period in New York City nightlife, when the saloonkeeper was king and regular folks could drink with celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Jackie Gleason. In this documentary, Kristi Jacobson profiles her grandfather, the king of kings: Toots Shor of the eponymous restaurant and saloon, which was once the place to be seen in Manhattan. Edward R. Murrow called Toots Shor the owner of America’s greatest saloon. He became the unlikely den-mother to the heroes of America's golden age. Politicians and gangsters, sports heroes and movie stars - Sinatra, Gleason, DiMaggio, Ruth, Costello, Eisenhower, Nixon, Warren - for 30 years, they all found their way to Toots' eponymous saloon on New York's West 51st Street.

Best Man: 'Best Boy' and All of Us Twenty Years Later

Mentally retarded Philly Wohl, in his late sixties, lives in a group home in Queens, New York. He takes classes, maintains relationships, is beloved by friends and family, travels to Los Angeles for a visit with his cousin Ira, and prepares for a rite of passage: his Bar Mitzvah. His older sister Fran is a consistent, wise, and loving presence in his life.

Enormous Changes at the Last Minute

This film is made up of three segments that share no plot but have a general thematic relationship. In the first segment, Virginia and her three children are left by her shiftless husband and she is courted by an old beau who is now divorced. In the second, a divorced woman reacts to some unexpected revelations from her aged father. In the third, a childless, middle-aged social worker is swept into an affair with a young cab driver and finds herself pregnant.

Niki de Saint Phalle

François de Menil and Monique Alexandre's short portrait of artist Niki de Saint Phalle, shot in 16mm, 1982.

The Day After Trinity

This essential, Academy Award–nominated documentary offers an urgent warning from history about the dangers of nuclear warfare via the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the enigmatic physicist and all-around Renaissance man who led the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb that America unleashed on Japan in the final days of World War II. Through extensive interviews and archival footage, THE DAY AFTER TRINITY traces Oppenheimer’s evolution, from architect of one of the most consequential endeavors of the twentieth century to an outspoken opponent of nuclear proliferation who came to deeply regret his role in ushering in the perils of the atomic age.

Best Boy

In this documentary, the director follows the day-to-day activities of his retarded, middle-aged cousin Philly, over a three-year period.

Gospel Road: A Story of Jesus

Johnny Cash appears in and narrates this retelling of the story of Jesus' Life, Death and Resurrection.

12-12-42

"The modern American dream shown by interviews with an aspiring actress, whose comments are interspersed with complementary excerpts from politicians' speeches." - BFI