American Chai

"Living the Dream" is a docudrama about two friends who after being bullied as children become corrupt when growing up because they have been conditioned to believe that they need to achieve materialistic success to be 'accepted' and liked by others, in a society where the end justifies the means.

Set in Baroque France, a scheming widow and her lover make a bet regarding the corruption of a recently married woman. The lover, Valmont, bets that he can seduce her, even though she is an honorable woman. If he wins, he can have his lover to do as he will. However, in the process of seducing the married woman, Valmont falls in love.

Jerry and his two pals, Russ and Syd, are just looking for some easy money to help them break out of their nowhere lives in their nowhere town. Despite a bungled jewelry store heist which exposes their incompetence as criminals, a fateful event (and an old black-and-white film) convinces them that they can pull off an armored-truck robbery. While they are busy plotting their caper, their dysfunctional families spin out of control, all around them.

After ten years, Sheldon returns from New York City to Paris, Georgia. His mother Evelyn, a laundress who is stubborn, ornery, opinionated, mean-spirited, insulting, and inflexible, has sent a ten-year-old boy who says he's Sheldon's son up to see Sheldon. Sheldon comes home to straighten things out. Old arguments flare up - between mother and son and between brothers. Sheldon wants no part of fatherhood or family. Then, someone else from New York shows up at Evelyn's door, bringing a new set of challenges. Will this family ever stop airing its dirty laundry? And what of Sheldon: where is his pride? Can he, in the words of James Baldwin, go where his blood beats and live the life he has?

Z-grade horror flick "The Hideous Sun Demon" re-dubbed and re-edited into a monster-movie spoof about a suntan lotion that works from the inside out (it also has a certain side effect).

The social anxiety of a morbidly shy Ecuadorian dishwasher working in a Queens diner provides the psychological engine that powers this blend of drama and magical realism.

A production company begins casting for its next feature, and an up-and-coming actress named Rose tries to manipulate her filmmaker boyfriend, Alex, into giving her a screen test. Alex's wife, Emma, knows about the affair and is considering divorce, while Rose's girlfriend secretly spies on her and attempts to sabotage the relationship. The four storylines in the film were each shot in one take and are shown simultaneously, each taking up a quarter of the screen.

A neurotic, young psychology student, with low self-esteem, has a chance encounter with a free-spirited, extremely gregarious woman who works at the Paris Health Club in New York City, and who suggests that they immediately get married to see how it will work out. Both of the student's parents are analysts, and they provide the happy couple with a gift certificate for a year of marriage counseling as a wedding present.

Photography student Stanley Cuba's (Mike Birbiglia) life has striking parallels to that of iconic director Stanley Kubrick -- except that our Stanley is neither famous nor exceptionally talented. But an upcoming photo contest may give Stanley his "Shining" moment. Filled with clever references to Kubrick's oeuvre, this first feature from writer-director Per Anderson screened at festivals in Santa Barbara, Calif., and Milan.

Beautiful, sophisticated women are all over Oscar Grubman. He is sensitive and compassionate, speaks French fluently, is passionate about Voltaire, and thinks the feature that tells the most about a woman is her hands. On the train home from Chauncey Academy for the Thanksgiving weekend, Oscar confides in his best friend that he has plans for this vacation--he will win the heart of his true love. But there is one major problem--Oscar's true love is his stepmother Eve.

Carnelle Scott is a restless Mississippi girl looking for a life change. She decides to enter a beauty pageant, which her cousin had won years before. Despite a lack of support from those close to her Carnelle remains determined. She enlists the help of a seamstress to outfit her for the competition, while rebuffing the advances of predatory men, as she aims to bring home the crown.

Through an Internet service, a Montreal professor arranges for himself a Mexican bride. But both husband and wife, even with their good intentions, are in for a bumpy ride toward marital harmony.

The Dukes,a Doo Wop group, were on top of the world at 17, now are struggling for survival in 2008. Their manager is desperately trying to get them work but is met with failure at every turn. Finally pushed to the extreme , they pull a heist only a fool would attempt, which leaves them even more desperate. When all seems lost, they find themselves.

Two brothers leave their home in Mexico in search of the 'American Dream', only to realize it was in front of them all the time. Angel is tired of living in his small Mexican town and has no interest in following in his father's footsteps. Instead he resolves to run away, across to cross the border and find his American dream. His older brother, Carlos, has plans of his own and they don't involve leaving home. When Angel tells his older brother of his grand scheme Carlos knows he won't be able to stop him, so he decides to tag along in order to watch over his headstrong little brother. Double-crossed by a smuggler, they find themselves alone in the desert. What follows is a strange and hilarious adventure filled with crazy characters and eye-opening truths until they finally realize the dream they were chasing was back home where they started.

Amaryllis Campos is a young, classically trained Puerto Rican ballerina, who dreams of leaving her impoverished home in Puerto Rico to pursue fame and fortune as a dancer. Amaryllis heads for New York City, where she is forced to work in a seedy strip club to make ends meet. Setting audiences afire with her erotic moves, Amaryllis quickly becomes the strip club's hottest attraction, but must finally decide between true love and realizing her dream of becoming a star.

Friends, family, and lovers struggle to find love, forgiveness, and meaning in an almost war-torn world riddled with comedy and pathos.

Traces over three generations an immigrant family's trials, tribulations, tragedies, and triumphs. Maria and Jose, the first generation, come to Los Angeles, meet, marry, face deportation all in the 1930s. They establish their family in East L.A., and their children Chucho, Paco, Memo, Irene, Toni, and Jimmy deal with youth culture and the L.A. police in the '50s. As the second generation become adults in the '60s, the focus shifts to Jimmy, his marriage to Isabel (a Salvadorian refugee), their son, and Jimmy's journey to becoming a responsible parent.

Having lived his entire life under the watchful eye of his overbearing mother, Albert must fend for himself when an unidentified automobile suddenly kills her. Free for the first time, Albert quickly responds to the bait dangling in front of him, putting his aggressors against one another in a race for his trust. Using his skills that make him a gifted fisherman, Albert turns the tables on his seemingly doomed fate, capturing the heart of the woman most eager to deceive him, and fooling the man most intent on destroying him.

The story of Scotty Pelk, a socially inept video store clerk who gets fired from his job and becomes a sensation as an online film critic.

A Taiwanese-American man is happily settled in New York with his American boyfriend. He plans a marriage of convenience to a Chinese woman in order to keep his parents off his back and to get the woman a green card. Chaos follows when his parents arrive in New York for the wedding.