Social Realism
see all genres ›Gritty looks at life as most folks live it. Not neatly plotted but often hand-to-mouth, coping with the vagaries of survival in harsh societal or natural environments.
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Genres / Drama / Realism / Social Realism
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Wendy and Lucy
Named to over sixty "Best of 2008" lists (and even many "Best of the Decade" lists), WENDY AND LUCY solidified filmmaker Kelly Reichardt's reputation for films that are (according to the New York Times) "a touchstone of the new realism in American cinema." Drifting upwards to Alaska like a 21st...Watch Movie
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In the City of Sylvia
A young artist searches the winding streets of Strasbourg for an old love in Jose Luis Guerin's acclaimed and exceedingly beautiful IN THE CITY OF SYLVIA. During a languid summer, a young man spends his afternoons sketching in an outdoor café. He is looking for a woman he met...Watch Movie
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Elles
Director Malgorzata Szumowska's ELLES paints an unromantic picture of upper-crust domesticity. ELLES stars the fearless Juliette Binoche (CHOCOLAT) as Anne, a well-off Parisian journalist investigating the lives of two student prostitutes (Joanna Kulig and AnaпїЅs Demoustier) for a magazine...Watch Movie
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Scherezade
Adapting the story-within-a-story framework of ARABIAN NIGHTS to modern times, SHEHERAZADE TELL ME A STORY is a brilliantly honest unveiling of the position of women in Egyptian society today. Hugely controversial in its native Egypt for its risky portrait of female sexual desire and repression,...Watch Movie
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Mandragora
Sixteen year old Marek (Mirek Caslavka) leaves his dreary small-town life for the beautiful but treacherous streets of Prague, a city where everything can be had for a price. Directed by leading Czech filmmaker Wiktor Grodecki, MANDRAGORA is based on true stories with a mostly non-professional...Watch Movie
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Four in the Morning
It is a moment before dawn and the river traffic on the Thames begins to ease its way through the fog. The River police find the body of a young girl left dry by the ebb tide. Her body is brought ashore and her possessions examined. Who is she? And what drove her to take her...Watch Movie
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Putty Hill
A beautifully realized portrait of a close-knit community on the outskirts of Baltimore, PUTTY HILL is the second feature from celebrated young filmmaker Matt Porterfield. At a neighborhood karaoke bar, friends and family gather to remember a young man who passed away. Knowing little about his...Watch Movie
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Neighboring Sounds
One of the most acclaimed films of the year, NEIGHBORING SOUNDS is the thrilling debut from filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho. On a quiet block in the coastal city of Recife, ruled by an aging patriarch and his sons, a recent spate of petty crime has rattled the nerves of the...Watch Movie
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Accattone
The first of Pier Paolo Pasolini's highly acclaimed films and the winner of numerous film festival prizes, ACCATTONE uses a talented cast to present a vivid picture of the Roman slums. Based on one of the filmmaker/poet's novels, this story of a pimp, his friends, his enemies and his girls is...Watch Movie
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Little Brown Boy
For his follow-up to MY JOSEPHINE, Barry Jenkins turned to an issue closer to his Florida home in the early 2000s: the spate of young black boys being tried as adults for the gunshot deaths of other kids. But this is no crime drama. There is no trial in this short film and the...Watch Movie
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Where the Green Ants Dream
Werner Herzog's films have taken him from the jungles of Peru to the peaks of Himalayas to the sole human outpost in Antarctica in a quest to find landscapes to inspire him and the dreamers who embrace those lands. WHERE THE GREEN ANTS DREAM is the Australian outback,...Watch Movie
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As Tears Go By
Though as gritty as any 80s Hong Kong gangster picture, AS TEARS GO BY is a watershed film heralding one of the most auspicious directorial debuts in international cinema. Wong Kar-Wai's visually stunning, tough and romantic 1988 first feature deftly smuggles the director's now celebrated genius...Watch Movie
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Children of Invention
One of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film," writer-director Tze Chun makes "a fine feature film debut" (New York Times) with one of the most-awarded and best-reviewed films of the year. CHILDREN OF INVENTION, winner of 16 festival awards, is by turns...Watch Movie
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Paulista
In this steamy Brazilian drama, SпїЅo Paulo is a hotbed for intrigue amongst the young, restless and alive. A freespirited actress who leaves her devoted provincial boyfriend behind to make it in the big city, Marina (Sylvia Laurenco) dives into the big city's nightlife-driven energy. She finds...Watch Movie
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Days of Gray
It is a world without language. A world where one is raised to respect the rules. No things are owned except the essentials. All must wear masks when venturing from home. All adult males must protect society from outsiders who do not follow the rules. Faith is dead. Hope is dead. Joy is dead....Watch Movie
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All the Light in the Sky
Jane Adams stars as an actress living in Malibu who faces harsh realities of the industry as her age exempts her from more and more acting opportunities. Amidst this career and life crisis enters the actress's niece, played by Sophia Takal, who arrives for a weekend stay and...Watch Movie
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The Gospel According to Saint Matthew
The birth, life, teachings and death on the cross of Jesus Christ presented almost as a cinéma-vérité documentary. Pasolini's second feature seemed a strange choice for such a revolutionary director, but it is an attempt to take Christ out of the opulent church and present him...Watch Movie
