New This Week:

Amreeka
Amreeka chronicles the adventures of Muna, a single 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 a family of immigrants and first-generation teenagers caught between their heritage and the new world in which they now live and the bittersweet search for a place to call home.

The Burning Plain
Sylvia is a beautiful restaurant manager whose cool, professional demeanor masks the sexually charged storm within. When a stranger from Mexico confronts her with her mysterious past, Sylvia is launched into a journey through space and time that inextricably connects her to these disparate characters, all of whom are grappling with their own romantic destinies. Gina is a housewife trapped in a loveless marriage who finds solace and passion in an illicit affair. Mariana is a young woman coping with the death of her mother, who falls in love with a young man her father despises. Though separated by time and distance, these women find their lives linked by the forces of love and fate.

Departures
Daigo Kobayashi is a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and he finds himself without a job. He decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled 'Departures' thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency. He discovers that the job is actually for a 'Nokanshi' or 'encoffineer,' a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his work and begins to perfect the art, acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed. In Japanese.

The Hurt Locker
US Army Staff Sergeant Will James, Sergeant J.T. Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge comprise the Bravo Company's bomb disposal unit stationed in Baghdad. James is the tech team leader. When he arrives on the scene, Bravo Company has thirty-nine days left on its current deployment, and it will be a long thirty-nine days for Sanborn and Eldridge whose styles do not mesh with their new leader. James' thrill of the dismantlement seems to be the ultimate goal regardless of the safety of his fellow team members, others on the scene or himself. On the other hand, Sanborn is by the books: he knows his place and duty and trusts others in the army to carry out theirs as well as he. Eldridge is an insecure soldier who is constantly worried that an error or misjudgment on his part will lead to the death of an innocent civilian or a military colleague. While the three members face their own internal issues, they have to be aware of any person at the bomb sites, some of who may be bombers themselves.

In the Loop
The British Prime Minister and the U.S. President infer that they want to embark on a war in the Middle East. Simon Foster, the British Minister for International Development states, off the cuff in a radio interview, that 'war is unforeseeable.' He later tries to recant his statement to news reporters with another statement. Both remarks start a series of maneuverings on both sides by both the pro- and anti-war factions in both governments. U.S. Assistant Secretary for Diplomacy Karen Clarke and U.S. Lieutenant General George Miller lead the anti-war faction, against chief warmonger Linton Barwick. Each principle with their staff, some of whom do not agree with their political master, will do whatever he or she needs to achieve the desired end goal. This includes having fake meetings, having fake committees, spinning information, leaking information and documents, and doctoring documents. These maneuverings are most important in the lead up to the UN vote on the issue.

It Might Get Loud
Documents the day three generations of electric guitar players met to share their own stories on how they developed their own unique sound and playing style. Viewers will hear fresh music from each artist and witness intimate moments as they discuss what influences how they write and play.

Like Stars on Earth
Eight-year-old Ishaan can't seem to get anything right in class and gets into more trouble than his parents can handle. They pack him off to boarding school to 'be disciplined,' and his art teacher, Nikumbh, realizes that something is wrong and sets out to discover what it is. With time, patience, and care, Nikumbh helps Ishann find himself. In Hindi and English.

Moon
Astronaut Sam Bell is completing a three-year contract with Lunar Industries to mine Earth's primary source of energy on the dark side of the moon: Helium-3. His declining health is causing headaches and hallucinations that lead to a near-fatal accident, rendering him unconscious. After recuperating, an unexpected discovery leads him to doubt his sanity, his identity, and the integrity of the company. Believing he is alone on his mission, his sole purpose is getting back home on his own.

Out of Sight
A career bank robber busts out of jail with the help of his buddy and kidnaps a U.S. Marshal in the process. When the two cons head for Detroit to pull off their final big heist, the Marshal is put on their case but she finds she is attracted to one of them and has second thoughts about bringing them in.

Thunderheart
A young, part-Sioux FBI agent is sent to solve a murder on an Indian reservation. There he meets the irreverent local sheriff and the tribe's religious leader, who helps the agent begin to understand his lost heritage. Gradually, he comes to believe that the U.S. government has framed an innocent man, but finds that he and those around him are thrown into danger because of his suspicions.

The Way We Get By
This is a deeply moving film about life and how to live it. Beginning as a seemingly idiosyncratic story about troop greeters - a group of senior citizens who gather daily at a small airport to thank American soldiers departing and returning from Iraq, the film quickly turns into a moving, unsettling and compassionate story about aging, loneliness, war and mortality. http://www.thewaywegetbymovie.com/