HOW TO COME ALIVE WITH NORMAN MAILER

HOW TO COME ALIVE WITH NORMAN MAILER

How to Come Alive With Norman Mailer explores the rollercoaster life of Norman Mailer, America’s most controversial and bestselling author of the 20th Century. Propelled by his tremendous ego and contrarian spirit, Mailer’s ceaseless visibility in the public eye...
STARRING JERRY AS HIMSELF  (U.S.A.)

STARRING JERRY AS HIMSELF (U.S.A.)

A family documents how their immigrant father Jerry, a recently retired Florida man, was recruited by the Chinese police to be an undercover agent, only to discover a darker truth. Genre:  Documentary Running Time: 75 min Country:  U.S. Language:  English Premiere: ...
BONNIE (U.S.)

BONNIE (U.S.)

Legendary casting director Bonnie Timmermann finally goes under the spotlight with an exclusive documentary featuring never-seen audition footage of all of today’s biggest stars and a refreshing take on what a casting director is, and more generally what is the...
I CAN’T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE: The Jimmy McHugh Story

I CAN’T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE: The Jimmy McHugh Story

An aspiring singer is tasked with promoting the music catalogue of his great-grandfather, the famous songwriter Jimmy McHugh, recorded by everyone from Sinatra to Lady Gaga. While licensing these songs for movies, commercials, TV and Broadway shows, the singer...
RADICAL WOLFE (U.S.) – Documentary

RADICAL WOLFE (U.S.) – Documentary

RADICAL WOLFE is an official adaptation of the 2015 Vanity Fair article “How Tom Wolfe Became … Tom Wolfe” by Michael Lewis, best-selling author of MONEYBALL and THE BIG SHORT and a long time personal friend of Wolfe. From a beat reporter at the Washington Post, to an...
PLAYING THROUGH  (USA)

PLAYING THROUGH (USA)

Playing Through is a feature-length fictional film honoring the life and legacy of Ann Gregory, a pioneering female athlete and civil rights advocate.   Late in her career, Ann Gregory finds the courage to be the first woman of color to enter the USGA Women’s...
LOVE, CHARLIE: THE RISE & FALL OF CHEF CHARLIE TROTTER

LOVE, CHARLIE: THE RISE & FALL OF CHEF CHARLIE TROTTER

Special Guest:  Rebecca Halpern, Director & Writer   In the 2000s, chef Charlie Trotter was the toast of Chicago, his eponymous restaurant one of the world’s top fine-dining destinations.  A gastronomic revolutionary and a culinary bad-boy, Trotter...
DREAM GIRL: THE MAKING OF MARILYN MONROE  – France/USA

DREAM GIRL: THE MAKING OF MARILYN MONROE – France/USA

. How did Marilyn Monroe become one of the greatest sex symbols of all time? What drove a prudish little Californian girl, who was not especially pretty nor exceptionally talented, to become this incredibly striking platinum blonde superstar? How did she become the...
BOULEVARD! A HOLLYWOOD STORY (Filmmaker guests)

BOULEVARD! A HOLLYWOOD STORY (Filmmaker guests)

When Gloria Swanson, the iconic star of Sunset Boulevard, saw an opportunity to parlay her silent film glory into a new phase of her career, she began to envision a musical stage adaptation of her most famous film. Enter, Dickson Hughes and Richard Stapley, two...
CONFETTI – China/USA

CONFETTI – China/USA

* * *   N O T E   D A T E   C H A N G E   * * *  How far would a mother go to reverse her child’s fate?  Based on writer/director Ann Hu’s story, that’s the question facing Lan, who travels with her 9-year-old severely dyslexic daughter from their small town in China...
OUT OF EXILE  (USA)

OUT OF EXILE (USA)

Many people know the photos of Fred Stein but few know his name. His street scenes of Paris in the 1930s and New York in the 1940s and his portraits of famous personalities are well-known. This film seeks out this forgotten photographer. Who was this man who fled the...
THE AUTOMAT  (U.S.)

THE AUTOMAT (U.S.)

    WEST COAST PREMIERE THE AUTOMAT is about the phenomena of Horn & Hardart, America’s original & most beloved restaurant chain in NYC & Philadelphia showing  archival footage of old Philadelphia and NYC, Featuring an original new song written...
PAUL NEWMAN, BEHIND BLUE EYES!  (France) + 2 shorts

PAUL NEWMAN, BEHIND BLUE EYES! (France) + 2 shorts

His beauty, masculinity and intelligence, and of course the color of his eyes, have followed Paul Newman throughout his life. Annoyed by the incessant references to his apparent sex appeal, the actor did everything he could to change the perception of him as a...
IRMI  (USA)

IRMI (USA)

Irmi Selver had a long and fascinating life, one touched by love and tragedy, challenges and resilience. This documentary portrait, based on her memoirs and co-directed by her daughter Veronica Selver and Susan Fanshel, traces Irmi’s personal story across the...
SUBLET   – U.S. / Israel

SUBLET – U.S. / Israel

Note this film will be sent on SUNDAY because of Rosh Hashanah. A New York Times travel writer comes to Tel Aviv after suffering a tragedy.  The energy of the city & his relationship with a younger man brings him back to life. Director/Writer: Eytan Fox –...
PETER FALK VS COLUMBO  (France)

PETER FALK VS COLUMBO (France)

WEST COAST PREMIERE For many, he is above all the fluffy and at the same time ingenious investigator who transfers the powerful to their luxury villas in a crumpled trench coat. But Peter Falk not only embodied Inspector Columbo, but also worked as an actor with...
THE PICTURE OF HIS LIFE  (Israel, U.S., Canada)

THE PICTURE OF HIS LIFE (Israel, U.S., Canada)

Environmentalist, explorer, “soldier of Mother Nature” and one of the greatest underwater photographers of all time, Amos Nachoum’s work has been featured in  National Geographic, Time and The New York Times, among other media. His unique approach has put him...
AMIA – ARCHIVAL SCREENING NIGHT

AMIA – ARCHIVAL SCREENING NIGHT

On SA, June 13 Desert Film Society members will receive a link to view this film orig scheduled for May 2.   A video introduction will feature Melissa Dollman and Devin Orgeron.     The Association of Moving Image Archivists presents videos from archives and...
RECORDER: THE MARION STOKES PROJECT (U.S.A.)

RECORDER: THE MARION STOKES PROJECT (U.S.A.)

RECORDER: THE MARION STOKES PROJECT   Coachella Valley Premiere For over 30 years, Marion Stokes obsessively and privately recorded American television news twenty-four hours a day. A civil rights-era Communist radical who became fabulously wealthy and reclusive later...
BE NATURAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ALICE GUY-BLACHE   (USA)

BE NATURAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ALICE GUY-BLACHE (USA)

Guest – Dr. Drake Stutesman* Narrated by Jodie Foster, Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché is a documentary about the first female filmmaker, exploring the heights of fame and financial success she achieved before she was shut out from the very...
POINT DEFIANCE  (USA) Filmmaker Guests

POINT DEFIANCE (USA) Filmmaker Guests

Filmmaker Guests:  Justin Foia, Director/Writer and Timothy Foia, Writer “A bachelor’s beautiful, isolated home becomes a hostile prison when his troubled brother returns from military duty in Afghanistan, forcing them to unearth their violent past before another dark...
EVERY ACT OF LIFE  (USA)

EVERY ACT OF LIFE (USA)

PLEASE NOTE:  The starting time for this film ONLY is 9:30 AM.  Doors will unlock at 9:00.   Few if any living playwrights have been as successful for as long as Terrence McNally. Nearing his ninth decade his body of work includes:  Master Class, Kiss of the...
SLIPAWAY   (USA)   GUESTS

SLIPAWAY (USA) GUESTS

  COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE Filmmaker Guests:  Julia Butler, Writer/Director Elaine Partnow, Lead Actress  SLIPAWAY is a touching and thought-provoking film, shot on a vintage sailboat in the middle of the ocean.   A spiritual journey of compassion, redemption and...
THE SAMUEL PROJECT   (USA)  GUESTS

THE SAMUEL PROJECT (USA) GUESTS

Guests: Ryan Ochoa, Marc Fusco and Steve Weinberger   Eli, an outcast teen, played by Ochoa, who dreams of becoming an artist, connects with his isolated grandfather Samuel, a dry cleaner portrayed by Linden,  for the first time.  Eli uncovers his...
HUMOR ME   (USA)

HUMOR ME (USA)

COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE   A heartfelt father-son comedy about a struggling playwright who is forced to move in with his joke-telling dad in a New Jersey retirement community and learns, as his father often says, “life’s going to happen, whether you...
BIG SONIA   (USA)

BIG SONIA (USA)

For years, Sonia Warshawski (91) has been an inspirational public speaker at schools and prisons, where her stories of surviving the Holocaust as a teenager have inspired countless people. When Sonia is served an eviction notice for her iconic tailor shop, she’s...
MIDNIGHT RETURN: STORY OF BILLY HAYES & TURKEY – with guests

MIDNIGHT RETURN: STORY OF BILLY HAYES & TURKEY – with guests

  Join us for an EXCLUSIVE Q&A screening of Midnight Return: The Story of Billy Hayes and Turkey at Camelot Theaters! After his ingenious escape from a Turkish prison in 1975, Billy Hayes arrived home to a hero’s welcome, instant celebrity and within a week...
HAROLD AND LILLIAN: A HOLLYWOOD LOVE STORY   (USA)

HAROLD AND LILLIAN: A HOLLYWOOD LOVE STORY (USA)

 “Movie fans know the work of Harold and Lillian Michelson, even if they don’t recognize the names.  Working largely uncredited in the Hollywood system, storyboard artist Harold and film researcher Lillian left an indelible mark on classics by Alfred Hitchcock, Steven...
DOLORES   (Germany) showing with JOE’S VIOLIN   (USA)

DOLORES (Germany) showing with JOE’S VIOLIN (USA)

  DOLORES California Premiere Georg Letterer is an introvert modeler, who builds detail-obsessed prototypes. He receives an order from famous Hollywood actress Dolores Moor to make a model of her extravagant villa. This is the opportunity for Georg to escape from...
THE FRONTIER   (USA)

THE FRONTIER (USA)

THE FRONTIER WEST COAST PREMIERE Laine, (Jocelin Donahue), a young woman on the run from the law, turns up at The Frontier, a dust-caked motel on the outskirts of Phoenix. With deep bruises on her neck and blood on her hands she’s looking for a place to clean up and...
MORGENTHAU  (USA)

MORGENTHAU (USA)

WEST COAST PREMIERE Good Fortune: Three Men, Three Generations, One Fight MORGENTHAU tells the story of one American family whose careers reveal new perspectives on the social and political shifts in the twentieth century. From fighting for international action...
HIGH STRUNG – Special DFS Fundraiser Screening – GUESTS

HIGH STRUNG – Special DFS Fundraiser Screening – GUESTS

Tickets ($8 students, $15 adults) available now at Camelot’s Box Office or on-line at http://highstrung.eventbrite.com MEET THE FILMMAKERS! One Time Screening in the Coachella Valley Director/Writer – MICHAEL DAMIAN Writer/Producer – JANEEN DAMIAN...