Perhaps the most discussed and anticipated avaian-based disaster film since the The Birds, BIRDEMIC is equal parts epochal tale and cinematic warning shot. It tells the story of a couple unexpectedly and unforgettably caught in the eye of a feather-based storm; an apocalyptic attack winging down from the skies in a twisted morass of feathers, talons and blood-soaked claws.

The man caught holding the gun that fired the shot across the diegetic bow of cineastes everywhere? Look no further than writer-director-dream factory foreman James Ngyuen. One of cinema’s most persistent dreamers, Nguyen (legally trademarked as “The Master of the Romantic Thriller”™) funded his masterwork with personal funds accrued from his day job as a Silicon Valley software salesman. No less than five years in the making, BIRDEMIC stands as a testament to Nguyen’s dark, enduring vision.

“If this is a joke, it’s the JFK assassination of jokes.” – Vice

“It might end up being the greatest film of all time!” – Videogum

AMERICAN JIHADIST is a look at militant Islam through the eyes of an African- American who fought and almost died for it. This is the story of Isa Abdullah Ali, aka Clevin Raphael Holt, an African-American Muslim from the ghettos of Washington, DC, labeled a “known terrorist” by the U.S. Defense Department though he’s never been charged with any crime. Ali fought for six years in Lebanon and Bosnia and was shot multiple times for, as he puts it, “the pleasure of God by taking a stand to help the ill treated and oppressed.” What makes a person willing to pick up a gun for their religion? Are the underlying causes purely religious? Or might religious militancy be a means of addressing chronic social, economic and political issues? And what do the answers mean for the wider Islamic World? These questions underlie AMERICAN JIHADIST.

An international A-list cast—Yves Montand, Gina Lollobrigida, Marcello Mastroianni, Melina Mercouri, Pierre Brasseur— heads up this mix of romantic melodrama and Fifties art film, about a seaside Italian village wracked by tensions and jealousies. Aging top dog Don Cesare (Brasseur) is losing his grip on things, and his servant, Marietta (Lollobrigida), longs to strike out on her own with engineer Enrico (Mastroianni). Directed with great style by Jules Dassin (Rififi, Night and the City).

Sunday, Mar. 14 at 6:45 pm - click here to purchase tickets

Part of “Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2010.” Star Virginie Ledoyen in person.

A taut, revealing thriller about the French Resistance, whose leaders and foot soldiers were often foreigners—Poles, Jews, Armenians, Spaniards, Italians—who had to fear French collaborators as well as the Germans. Armenian poet Missak Manouchian (a stand-out performance by Simon Abkarian) and his French wife Mélinée (Virginie Ledoyen) lead a ragtag assortment of volunteers in an assassination plot against the German occupiers and their French allies.

Thursday, Mar. 18 at 9:30pm – click here to purchase tickets

Director Christophe Honoré and star Chiara Mastroianni in person.

Recently liberated from her job and husband, Lena (Chiara Mastroianni, terrific) heads home to Brittany for the holidays, hoping to escape all she’s gone through in Paris. But from practically the moment she’s back, she’s confronted with unwanted advice, character analysis that borders on assassination, and other unexpected surprises. Director Christophe Honoré offers a wonderfully sprawling portrait of a family that veers from painful to funny to painfully funny.

Thursday, Mar. 18 at 7:00pm – click here to purchase tickets

A filmmaker better known for his brilliant rendering of fantasy, Michel Gondry ventures into family history in this quietly affecting portrait of his aunt, schoolteacher Suzette Gondry, and her eccentric, problematic son, Jean-Yves. A veteran of rural schools across the Cevennes region, the matriarch of the extended Gondry family carries a sadness behind her confident demeanor about her relationship with the directionless Jean-Yves, now approaching middle age.

Wednesday, Mar. 17 at 9:30pm - click here to purchase tickets

Part of “Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2010.” Director Xabi Molia and star Julie Gayet in person.

When a woman (Julie Gayet) struggling to make ends meet and get back custody of her son is evicted, she joins her perpetually unemployed neighbor (Denis Podalydès) in a makeshift camp in the forest. In his disarming and poignant debut feature, director Xabi Molia examines the pressures of modern society as seen through the eyes of two memorable misfits doing their best to start over against the odds.

Wednesday, Mar. 17 at 8:00pm - click here to purchase tickets

Director Michel Hazanavicus and star Jean Dujardin in person.

A delightful, madcap comedy that follows suave Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath (Jean Dujardin)—better known as OSS 117—as he travels across Brazil with a charming Mossad agent on the trail of a hidden high-ranking Nazi. Reviving France’s top spy, director Michel Hazanavicius lovingly conjures up an earlier era with Sixties-flavored set design and candy-colored cinematography. And the cartoonishly handsome Dujardin brings just the right touch of irony.

Director Alain Guiraudie in person.

When a gay, middle-aged tractor salesman (Ludovic Berthillot) helps to rescue a 16-yearold girl (The Secret of the Grain’s remarkable Hafsia Herzi) from bullies, she falls head over heels for her unlikely savior. And he decides to try batting for the other team. Soon, they’re on the run from parents and locals alike in this delightfully offbeat comedy from Alain Guiraudie (That Old Dream That Moves, New York Film Festival 2001).

Tuesday, Mar. 16  at 9:30pm - click here to purchase tickets

Part of “Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2010.” Director Laurent Perreau in person.

Claire, a tomboyish teenager who has been feeling the stirrings of first love, and her grandfather Maurice, a former Resistance fighter, share a house but soon discover much else in common as well. Laurent Perreau’s very impressive debut feature offers a fresh take on the classic “coming of age” tale, and as the grandfather, Michel Piccoli gives one of his finest performances in years, conveying vulnerability behind a gruff exterior.

Tuesday, Mar. 16 at 7:00pm - click here to purchase tickets