Set Fire to the Stars

At New York's High School of Performing Arts, students from all walks of life get the chance to hone their skills as singers, actors, dancers, and more. Over four years, these young men and women will see if they truly have the dedication and talent to achieve success, while still juggling regular schoolwork, feelings of self-doubt, and budding romances.

It's autumn in New York. Sam has broken up with his girlfriend and his father has recently died. World-weary and sloppy drunk, he finds temporary solace in the arms of Anna, a mysterious vampire who draws him away from his friends and into a web of addiction and madness.

A mute female dancer who wows audiences in club competitions but can't get Broadway jobs because of her handicap, develops a "voice" when a young scientist invents a device that allows her to make music via her dance movements.

Renowned filmmaker John Wilson travels to Africa to direct a new movie, but constantly leaves to hunt elephants and other game, to the dismay of his cast and crew. He eventually becomes obsessed with hunting down and killing one specific elephant.

A novelist's wife and son see him changed by an apparent encounter with aliens in the mountains.

A nursing student forced to quit school for family reasons winds up taking a job as a doorman in an elite apartment building in New York City, where he sparks to one of his residents.

Spanning twenty-four hours, HEIGHTS follows five New Yorkers challenged to choose their destiny before the sun comes up the next day.

After New York City firefighter Terry Lynch is unable to receive any compensation for an injury incurred during the off-duty rescue of a young girl, he grows suicidal. Furious, his brother Jimmy attempts to have Mayor Tyler intervene, but the corrupt politician instead denounces Terry as a drunk. Determined to get justice, Jimmy begins a graffiti campaign of embarrassing slogans mocking the mayor, which soon captivates the city.

The story of boxer Rocky Graziano's rise from juvenile delinquent to world champ.

In 1818, high-spirited young Fanny Brawne finds herself increasingly intrigued by the handsome but aloof poet John Keats, who lives next door to her family friends the Dilkes. After reading a book of his poetry, she finds herself even more drawn to the taciturn Keats. Although he agrees to teach her about poetry, Keats cannot act on his reciprocated feelings for Fanny, since as a struggling poet he has no money to support a wife.

About the young life and loves of artist Salvador Dalí, filmmaker Luis Buñuel and writer Federico García Lorca.

Married couple Fugui and Jiazhen endure tumultuous events in mid-20th century mainland China as their personal fortunes move from wealthy landownership to peasantry.

Young Terwilliger, an orphan boy in New York City, "adopts" Old Archer, the caretaker of Gramercy Park, after the man is arrested for beating Terwiliger for picking a flower for his dead mother. As Terwilliger grows up, he falls in love with Helen Raymond, a pretty neighborhood girl, but finds a rival for her in Harvey Livermore. When World War I breaks out both boys enlist in the army and are sent to the front lines. Complications ensue.

The heartbreaking but hopeful tale of Danny Kenny and Peggy Nash, two sweethearts who meet and struggle through their impoverished lives in New York City. When Peggy, hoping for something better in life for both of them, breaks off her engagement to Danny, he sets out to be a championship boxer, while she becomes a dancer paired with a sleazy partner. Will tragedy reunite the former lovers?

In Brooklyn circa 1900, the Nolans manage to enjoy life on pennies despite great poverty and Papa's alcoholism. We come to know these people well through big and little troubles: Aunt Sissy's scandalous succession of "husbands"; the removal of the one tree visible from their tenement; and young Francie's desire to transfer to a better school...if irresponsible Papa can get his act together.

Told through the voice of former KGB agent Viktor Petrovich, whose life becomes inextricably linked with Ronald Reagan's when Reagan first caught the Soviets’ attention as an actor in Hollywood, Reagan overcomes the odds to become the 40th president of the United States.

An aspiring Jewish actor moves out of his parents' Brooklyn apartment to seek his fortune in the bohemian life of Greenwich Village in 1953.

A drunken Scottish poet who has not written a word in years feels compelled to regain control of his life and work after meeting a beautiful young woman.

A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York. But a special girl from his past and a fat gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.

A film essay contrasting the modern metropolis with its "golden age" from 1830-1930, with the participation of some of New York's leading political and cultural figures. Made at a time when the city was experiencing unprecedented real estate development on the one hand and unforeseen displacement of population and deterioration on the other. Empire City is the story of two New Yorks. The film explores the precarious coexistence of the service-based midtown Manhattan corporate headquarters with the peripheral New York of undereducated minorities living in increasing alienation.