We are delighted to be a part of the Cinetopia International Film Festival for the second year. Created for the people of southeastern Michigan, the Cinetopia International Film Festival features the best feature-length dramas, comedies, and documentaries from the world’s best film festivals (e.g. Sundance, Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Berlin, SXSW, Tribeca, etc.). The festival features special pre- and post-film events, including presentations, discussion panels, and Q&A sessions with directors, writers, and stars.

Our line-up this year includes a wide variety of films, including a bunch of Michigan premieres, fascinating documentaries like Tab Hunter Confidential and Fresh Dressed, comedies like Beside Still Waters and Macaroni and Cheese, neo-noir, horror, and several excellent foreign films.

Info on tickets and passes is here. We’re also looking for volunteers…you’ll get a free ticket for each shift you take, plus other perks. Sign up here.

Cinetopia films (alpha order):

54 (The Director’s Cut) – Get tickets here
Directed by Mark Christopher | USA, 106 min., Drama/History
Michigan PREMIERE! This newly-reconstructed version of writer/director Mark Christopher’s 1998 cult classic, which debuted 25 minutes of new footage at the Berlin International Film Festival, features an all-new story with an all-star cast, including Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek, Mike Myers, and Sela Ward. —Drew Waller
Sunday, June 7 at 8:15 p.m.

Beside Still Waters – Get tickets here
Directed by Chris Lowell | USA, 76 min., Drama/Comedy
When Daniel (Ryan Eggold, star of TV’s The Blacklist) invites his oldest friends to spend one last weekend at his parents’ lake house, secrets are confessed, romances are rekindled, and a particularly epic game of Whiskey Slaps is played.
Saturday, June 6 at 3:00 p.m.

Best of Enemies – Get tickets here
Directed by Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon | USA, 87 min., Documentary
Michigan PREMIERE! This documentary about the landmark Gore Vidal vs. William F. Buckley Jr. debates of 1968 shows how they changed reporting for generations to come. Narration by Kelsey Grammer and John Lithgow. —Brian Hunter
Saturday, June 6 at 7:45 p.m.

Black Coal, Thin Ice – Get tickets here
Directed by Yi’nan Diao | China, 106 min., Crime/Mystery.
Mandarin with English subtitles.
After a botched arrest in a grisly serial murder case, disgraced police detective Zhang Zili is suspended. Five years later, another set of eerily similar murders takes place, and Zhang decides to investigate, following the trail to an alluring, yet dangerous woman. —Barbara Twist
Sunday, June 7 at 12:45 p.m.

Court – Get tickets here
Directed by Chaitanya Tamhane | India, 116 min., Drama.
Marathi, Hindi, Guajarati and English with English subtitles.
Michigan PREMIERE! Chaitanya Tamhane’s naturalistic first film challenges India’s established caste, class and judicial systems. This multi-award winner blends outstanding performances with beautiful cinematography, and will leave you captivated from beginning to end. —BH
Friday, June 5 at 7:00 p.m.

Crescendo! The Power of Music – Get tickets here
Directed by Jamie Bernstein | USA, 85 min., Documentary
Since its inception in 1976, El Sistema, Venezuela’s phenomenal youth orchestra program, has brought social transformation to several million disadvantaged children in that country. El Sistema is now a rapidly expanding global movement, changing countless young lives worldwide. How will El Sistema work here in the USA? —BH
Sunday, June 7 at 12:30 p.m.

Domestic Life (La Vie Domestique) – Get tickets here
Directed by Isabelle Czajka | France, 93 min., Drama/Comedy
French with English subtitles
Monopolized by petty, everyday tasks, like errands and getting the kids from school, Juliette struggles to make an important appointment in Paris to help launch her career. As the day unfolds, she can feel the noose of domestic obligations and household chores slowly tightening around her neck.
Sunday, June 7 at 3:30 p.m.

Fresh Dressed – Get tickets here
Directed by Sacha Jenkins | USA, 90 min., Documentary
Michigan PREMIERE! Drawing from a rich mix of archival materials and interviews with rappers, designers, and other industry insiders, Fresh Dressed is a fun-to-watch chronicle of the hustle that brought hip-hop’s urban fashion to catwalks and shopping malls.
Sunday, June 7 at 8:30 p.m.

Imperial Dreams – Get tickets here
Directed by Malik Vitthal | USA, 87 min., Drama
MICHIGAN PREMIERE! An aspiring and gifted 21-year-old writer, freshly returned from prison to his Watts neighborhood, dreams of better days for himself and his 4-year-old son in this hopeful depiction of inner-city life.
-> Malik Vitthal, the film’s writer and director, will join in a discussion of the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award winning film.
Sunday, June 7 at 3:15 p.m.

In Her Place – Get tickets here
Directed by Albert Shin | Korea, 115 min., Drama.
Korean with English subtitles.
Set in the South Korean countryside, a secret adoption brings together a pregnant young woman, her mother, and an affluent woman from Seoul, who desperately wants a baby. The three women attempt to settle into a routine while awaiting childbirth, even as the teen’s behavior becomes increasingly odd. —BT
Saturday, June 6 at 2:15 p.m.

The Look of Silence – Get tickets here
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer | Indonesia, 99 min., Documentary
Indonesian with English subtitles.
Michigan PREMIERE! A companion piece to the Oscar-nominated documentary The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence is a chilling examination of mass-murder and the nature of violence through the eyes of a family torn apart by the horrific events of the 1965 Indonesian Genocide. —BH
Saturday, June 6 at 7:30 p.m.

Macaroni and Cheese (Les Coquillettes) – Get tickets here
Directed by Sophie Letourneur | France, 75 min., Comedy/Drama
French with English subtitles.
This glamourous romp follows three young women who would rather look for love at a film festival than watch films. Sophie stalks an up-and-coming actor; Camille imagines romance with every man she meets; and Carole is just looking for casual sex. —BT
Saturday, June 6 at 12:00 p.m.

Miss and the Doctors (Tirez la langue, mademoiselle) – Get tickets here
Directed by Axelle Ropert | France, 102 min., Comedy/Drama
French with English subtitles.
Boris and Dimitri are bachelor brothers who live together and share a medical practice. When a young diabetic girl calls them late at night, the brothers find her alone, no parents in sight. The next morning, Boris follows up with her single mother, Judith. Soon, both brothers are in love with Judith, but who will she choose? —BT
Saturday, June 6 at 5:00 p.m.

Slow West – Get tickets here
Directed by John Maclean | USA, 84 min., Action/Thriller/Western
Slow West tells the story of sixteen-year-old Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) as he travels from Scotland to Colorado in pursuit of his lost love. Quickly confronted by the dangers of the American frontier, he teams up with a mysterious traveler named Silas (Michael Fassbender), who agrees to protect him—for a price.
Sunday, June 7 at 6:00 p.m.

The Snow White Murder Case – Get tickets here
Directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura | Japan, 126 min., Thriller/Drama
Japanese with English subtitles.
Michigan PREMIERE! The discovery of a young Tokyo office worker’s body leads to an investigation that unravels on social media more quickly than in the field. Suspicion turns toward her co-worker after a casual remark online, and the trial by media begins. —BT
Saturday, June 6 at 12:15 p.m.

The Strongest Man – Get tickets here
Directed by Kenny Riches | USA, 99 min., Comedy
Michigan PREMIERE! This delightfully original gem about a stolen solid gold BMX bike and a Cuban man named Beef who believes he is “The Strongest Man in the World” is as warm and playful as it is profound, serving up its philosophical psychology to a punk rock soundtrack.
Sunday, June 7 at 6:15 p.m.

Tab Hunter Confidential – Get tickets here
Directed by Jeffrey Schwarz | USA, 90 min., Documentary/GLBTIQ
MICHIGAN PREMIERE! Rare archival footage of ‘50s Hollywood heartthrob Tab Hunter is woven together with accounts by Clint Eastwood, George Takei, Debbie Reynolds, and John Waters. The result in an important, inspiring documentary for the moment.
->Producer Jon Glover will take part in a post-screening Q&A.
Saturday, June 6 at 9:45 p.m.

The Tribe (Plemya) – Get tickets here
Directed by Miroslav Slaboshpitsky | Ukraine, 132 min., Drama/Crime
Michigan PREMIERE! A silent film with a difference, this unprecedented tour de force was a must-see at last year’s Cannes Film Festival . Why? Because its entire cast is hearing impaired, and the “dialogue” is strictly sign language—without subtitles. Set at a spartan boarding school for hearing impaired coeds, The Tribe overcomes what may seem like impossible obstacles to deliver a high-school movie you won’t forget.
Saturday, June 6 at 10:00 p.m.

Uncle John – Get tickets here
Directed by Steven Piet | USA, 113 min., Crime/Drama/Mystery
Michigan PREMIERE! A mysterious disappearance stuns a tight-knit community. John (John Ashton), an unthreatening carpenter, knows more than he lets on about the circumstances surrounding the disappearance. Murder mystery meets romance with the introduction of John’s nephew, Ben, a mild-mannered designer with a crush on his new boss. —BT
Saturday, June 6 at 4:45 p.m.

We Are Still Here – Encore presentation – Get tickets here
Directed by Ted Geoghegan | USA, 84 min., Horror
From the producers of The House Of The Devil and Cheap Thrills, We Are Still Here is a tense, frightening, and thoroughly haunting ghost story with amazing effects and creatures. An altogether new take on the haunted house genre that deftly mixes human drama and comedy, We Are Still Here is a couple’s terrifying journey through darkness and loss set against the freezing New England winter.
Friday, June 5 at 10:30 PM