Laura Newman

“Shotgun Stories”, a tale of feuding brothers, is the first feature by Jeff Nichols. Nichols himself is one of three brothers but unlike the forsaken sons in the film, carelessly named Son, Kid and Boy, Nichols’ entire family pitched in to make the “Shotgun Stories”. His mother was craft service and his parents put up much of the cast and crew in their home. His brother wrote the film’s music while his father was a driver on set and a funder.

The thrill of meeting Marjane Satrapi reminded me of being 6 years old at Disney Land when I met the living, breathing Cinderella. Except Cinderella was an actress with a blond wig and Marjane is the real woman behind her autobiographical graphic novel, turned movie, “Persepolis”. The distinctive mole on her nose and her dark sultry eyes rose off the page and appeared in front of me, smoking and speaking with a French accent.

Many 15-year-old boys growing up in America play air guitar to screaming fans in the privacy of their own bedroom. Jennifer Venditti’s gives us a front row seat to that private rock and roll dreamland in her documentary “Billy the Kid”.

Protagonist is the latest documentary by the very talented Jessica Yu. Her short film "Breathing Lessons” was the winner of the 1997 Oscar and was followed by the wonderfully creative “In the Realms of the Unreal” about the mysterious artist Henry Darger. She is a master of exploring the odd and extreme in the everyday world around us.

“WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY?” is a docu-comedy, gift-wrapped just in time for the holidays by producer Morgan Spurlock and director Rob VanAlkemade. It features Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping on a month long crusade across America to save Christmas from consumerism.