BEIJING TAXI is a feature-length documentary that vividly portrays the ancient capital of China undergoing a profound transformation. The intimate lives of three taxi drivers are seen through a humanistic lens as they navigate a quickly morphing city, confronting modern issues and changing values. The three protagonists radiate a warm sense of humanity despite the struggles that each faces in adapting to new realities of life in the modern city. With stunning imagery of Beijing and a contemporary score rich in atmosphere, BEIJING TAXI communicates a visceral sense of the common citizens’ persistent attempts to grasp the elusive. The 2008 Summer Olympic Games serve as the backdrop for BEIJING TAXI’s story, a coming out party for a rising nation and a metaphor for Chinese society and its struggles to reconcile enormous contradictions while adjusting to a new capitalist system that can seem foreign to some in the Communist-ruled and educated society. Candid and perceptive in its filming approach and highly cinematic and moody in style, BEIJING TAXI takes us on a lyrical journey through fragments of a society riding the bumpy roads to modernization. Though its destination unknown, the drivers continue to forge ahead.

Added shows Sep. 9 at 7:30 and 9:45 with Louis C.K. in person! Sep. 8 shows SOLD OUT! In this unique and dynamic live concert film, Louis C.K.’s exploration of life after 40 destroys politically correct images of modern life with thoughts we have all had but would rarely admit to. Louis C.K.: Hilarious, premiered at The Sundance Film Festival in January as the first stand-up concert film presented at Sundance. Directed by Louis, the film received rave reviews with Variety declaring, “Standup comedy cinema has a new star in LOUIS C.K.: HILARIOUS.” Filmed at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee on April 18, 2009 as part of his international theater tour, LOUIS C.K.: HILARIOUS confirms why Louis C.K. is the most respected comedic voice of his generation.

ODDSAC is a feature film collaboration between the band Animal Collective and filmmaker Danny Perez, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2010 and has screened to sold-out audiences in dozens of US cities. The film was co- conceived by and stars Animal Collective, whose 2009 album “Merriweather Post Pavilion” was named album of the year by SPIN, Entertainment Weekly, and Pitchfork, and topped critic’s end of year lists worldwide. ODDSAC is a dense and surreal layering of audio and visual elements that eschews conventional narrative to create a visceral viewing experience.

The Wilco concert doc — Tue 7/20 at 8:00pm! And spend a weekend with WILCO in the Berkshires! Come to the screening and you could win a pair of tickets to the Solid Sound Festival — a 3-day music and arts festival curated by the band. Solid Sound will take place this August 13-15, at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA.

“Ashes of American Flags finds [Wilco] in a self-assured and understated but lucid mood. Pat Sansone hints that [Jeff] Tweedy’s occasional feigned artistic confusion may be a bit of an act, while Tweedy chuckles at the intimidating spectacle of Cline and Kotche. Bassist and mainstay John Stirratt gets his due as the survivor and anchor he has been, while Mikael Jorgensen is nearly invisible everywhere except the songs. It’s a series of quick but effective personality sketches interwoven with shows in five cities cobbled together to make a career-spanning set list. While inevitably omitting a few great songs, the performances are largely flawless, the cinematography is crisp and the net effect is to remind even those who have strayed a bit that there remains a lot that’s very special about Wilco, and always will be.” – Paste Magazine

“Life is a progress, and not a station,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson. Life ebbs and flows with change. There are hurdles that must be scaled and personal character is built through adversity. People adapt their behavior to get through everything from war to displacement to growing up. These four films capture stories of people’s survival and their ways to cope with self-preservation.

Doxita is a traveling festival of documentary films that are under 40 minutes in length. The program, comprised of approximately 90 minutes of film, represents a wide variety of documentary – domestic and foreign, short and longer format, serious and funny. It is designed to profile the great content and artistic vision that non-fiction short films provide, but that people don’t often get a chance to see.

Steel Homes (UK, Eva Weber, 10 min.) Storage lockers provide a holding ground for memories of long-gone loved ones and dreams that still live. Striking cinematography and sound evoke the minds and personal spaces of average people.

Slaves (Sweden, Hannah Heilborn and David Aronowitsch, 15 min.) Colorful animation brings alive the tale of two Sudanese youth who were captured for slavery. The animation and documentary interview technique mask the children’s identity while also creating an engrossing story of survival.

The First Kid to Learn English From Mexico (USA, Peter Jordan, 20 min.) 9-year-old Pedro Lopez wishes he never left Mexico. Lush camera and music create this almost-surreal, yet honest and charming portrait of this struggling boy.

12 Notes Down (Denmark, Andreas Koefed, 30 min.) Jorgis is the star of his boys choir, until the onset of puberty affects what he loves most: his ability to sing. This beautifully tender portrait

In addition, six Doxita mini-documentaries are also screening as part of our “Short Attention Span Cinema” series, with shorts playing before our regular features through late August:

Loop Loop (Canada, Patrick Bergeron, 5 min) The view from a train, transformed. Winner, Innovation Award, Sheffield Doc/Fest; official selection: SXSW, True/False Film Festivals.

Close to Home (USA, Theo Rigby, 6 min) A father’s quest to find his son’s killers. National finalist, Student Academy Awards.

The Herd (Ireland, Ken Wardrop, 4 min) A brief portrait of a deer who thinks it’s a cow, from the director of His & Hers. Documentary Grand Jury Prize, Seattle Film Festival.

Trash-Out (USA, Maria Fortiz-Morse, 5 min) Cleaning out a foreclosed home. Official selection: Silverdocs, True/False.

Sell It to the Hedge Funds (USA, Haven Pell, 4 min) The hustle of cold calling. Official selection, Florida Film Festival.

Home (USA, Matt Faust, 6 min) An evocative memorial to the filmmaker’s Katrina-flooded home. Winner, Best Short documentary Tribeca.

Two weeks before the election of Barack Obama, filmmaker Jeff Deutchman asked his friends around the world to record their experiences of 11/4/08, a day that had become “historic” before it had even taken place. He collected footage from a combination of passionate amateurs and acclaimed independent filmmakers, including Henry Joost (CATFISH), Margaret Brown (THE ORDER OF MYTHS), Joe Swanberg (ALEXANDER THE LAST) and Benh Zeitlin (GLORY AT SEA). In this vérité documentary, we see the results of that project: in St. Louis and Austin, idealistic volunteers think they can turn their states blue; in Chicago, voter lines are made even longer when Obama shows up to cast his own vote; in Alaska, children seem to be as invested in the election results as their parents; in Paris, an organization discusses whether there could ever be a black President of France; in Dubai, Berlin, Geneva and New Dehli, expatriates express their emotion from a distance; and in Harlem, a felon casts doubt on whether any of this will actually affect his life. As we approach the final announcement of Obama’s victory at 11pm EST, what emerges is a portrait of how people choose to live through “history”: the celebration of a new future remaining entangled with the universally visible tensions of the past.

Special sneak preview Monday, May 3 at 8:00pm, with Academy-Award winning director Alex Gibney in person.

Gibney will present and discuss his new documentary CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY, and, for a post-show Q&A, will be joined by three memorable characters who were entangled in the corruption scandals that sent lobbyist Jack Abramoff to jail: former Ohio congressman Bob Ney, his chief of staff Neil Volz and former business associate Adam Kidan.

The Sundance Film Festival wrote: “This portrait of Washington super lobbyist Jack Abramoff – from his early years as a gung-ho member of the GOP political machine to his final reckoning as a disgraced, imprisoned pariah – confirms the adage that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. A tale of international intrigue with Indian casinos, Russian spies, Chinese sweatshops, and a mob-style killing in Miami, this is the story of the way money corrupts our political process.”

CASINO JACK continues Gibney’s extraordinary directorial track record that includes Academy Award winner TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE and Academy nominee ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM. This month Gibney has a whopping three films playing at Tribeca: THE UNTITLED ELIOT SPITZER FILM; MY TRIP TO AL-QAEDA; and FREAKONOMICS.

Thu Apr 15 at 9:30pm

With Mountain Goats videos! Plus, select audience members will win limited edition Mountain Goats DVDs and posters signed by John Darnielle!

In this essential concert film by Rian Johnson (Brick, The Brothers Bloom), John Darnielle and his beloved band the Mountain Goats perform songs on piano and guitar at Pomona College. Shot in the same building where Darnielle performed Bach minuets as an eight-year-old piano student, THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME takes the songs from the album of the same name and restores them to their raw original states: skin, blood, and bone. Co-presented by Other Music.

Monday, April 5 at 8:00  / Click here for tickets!

“A terrific comic performer… Ms. Plumb is hilarious. Comparing her to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton might sound like a stretch, but it’s not.” – Ken Johnson, New York Times

Shannon Plumb, whose series THE PARK is currently showing in IFC Center’s “Short Attention Span Cinema” program, presents a sampling of her films from the last 9 years and discusses her work on Monday, April 5 at 8:00.

Shannon Plumb was born in Schenectady, New York, and lives and works in Brooklyn. Shehas been making films since 2000 and is represented in New York by Sara Meltzer Gallery and has had solo exhibitions and been featured in group shows at galleries, museums and institutions throughout the US and Europe. Her films have been shown at film festivals around the world, including Locarno, Berlin, London, the New York Video Festival and others, and have been showcased at the Anthology Film Archives.

One of several of her film cycles that recall the heyday of silent serials, Shannon Plumb’s  THE PARK is currently in its theatrical premiere at IFC Center, screening before the theater’s regular features through May 13. A series of short films set in Madison Square Park, THE PARK captures the comedy and drama of New Yorkers whose cramped dwellings and busy schedules make their private lives spill over into public spaces–in this case, Madison Square Park, shown over the course of a year. From the inescapable cell phone calls of others to the plight of the urban dog and its walker, from a groundskeeper battling both nature and technology to a hapless production assistant of a nearby movie set, Plumb’s characters (all played, in her signature style, by the filmmaker herself) are instantly recognizable. Working from footage originally shot on location in Madison Square Park on Super 8 and green-screening in her own silent-film and vaudeville-inspired performances, Plumb offers a playful yet piercing mirror onto ourselves, our actions, and our city. THE PARK first premiered as the inaugural installation of the 2009 season of Mad. Sq. Art, the Madison Square Park Conservancy’s gallery without walls.

Thu Apr 8 at 7:30pm

We’re proud to welcome legendary director Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct, Starship Troopers, RoboCop) in person April 8 to present Monty Python’s LIFE OF BRIAN as part of our ongoing “Movie Night” series. Verhoeven — the subject of our popular recent midnight series “Base Instincts: Verhoeven in the U.S.A.” — will talk about LIFE OF BRIAN, his career, and Jesus in a special Q&A session after the film.

In 1985, Verhoeven became the only non-theologian admitted into Los Angeles’s Jesus Seminar, a group of 77 eminent scholars in theology, philosophy, linguistics, and biblical history. Verhoeven is the author of the new book Jesus of Nazareth (Seven Stories Press), exploring his lifelong fascination with the facts and fictions surrounding the life of Jesus. Copies of Jesus of Nazareth will be available for purchase at our concession stand; there will be a book signing with Verhoeven following the screening.

About LIFE OF BRIAN:

“Terry Jones’s Sunday-school travesty follows the career of the unintentionally messianic Brian of Nazareth. It’s a hearty burlesque in which the three wise men signal their presence with a discreet belch and lisping Pontius Pilate (Michael Palin) can’t stop babbling about his “fwiend” Biggus Dickus.

“Graham Chapman is appropriately nonplussed in the Gene Wilder-ish role of Brian while, tricked out in fake beards, the rest of the gang (John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle) pop up as centurions, prophets, terrorists from the People’s Front of Judea, and wiseass members of the rabble.” – J. Hoberman, Village Voice

About Paul Verhoeven:

“[Verhoeven] has become something like our Fritz Lang — Hollywood’s comic-book artist deluxe, the suavely brutal purveyor of hardcore pulp.” – J. Hoberman, Village Voice

“Verhoeven may be the bravest and most assured satirist in Hollywood, insofar as he succeeds in making big genre movies no one knows whether to take seriously or not.” – Michael Atkinson

About “Movie Night”:

In our “Movie Night” series, we turn over a theater to special guests and let them call the shots. Audiences can discover what some of their favorite authors, musicians, artists, and filmmakers would pick if it were Movie Night at their house. Participants appear in person to acknowledge the brilliance of a timeless classic, spotlight an unsung gem, or defend a guilty pleasure. Past guests include filmmaker David Gordon Green, Slovenian theorist and philosopher Slavoj Zizek, singer-songwriter-actor Will Oldham, director and Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam, French auteur Gaspar Noe, author Jonathan Lethem, performer and director John Cameron Mitchell, iconoclastic filmmaker David Lynch, actress and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini, provocative director James Toback, and comedian and “Saturday Night Live” cast member Fred Armisen and Canadian cineaste Guy Maddin.