Jami Gertz

America was alive with the promise of great change in 1912 when Abdu'l-Bahá, the son of the Bahá'í Prophet Bahá'u'lláh, traveled to nine states and one Canadian province. He came with a message of universal peace, the unity of East and West, racial harmony, gender equality, and a visionary view of America's future, captivating all strata of American society. What was it like to meet him? What implications does his journey and the talks he gave have for us today? Luminous Journey celebrates the centenary of his visit and, using contemporary high-definition production techniques and engaging documentary storytelling, offers a reflection upon a journey destined to change the consciousness of a nation and the world.

A 13-year-old boy uses his upcoming bar mitzvah to reconcile the strained relationship between his father and grandfather. In toney Brentwood, Benjamin Fiedler prepares for his bar mitzvah; trouble is, he understands neither its meaning nor the Hebrew, and his parents (particularly his successful-agent father) are planning the most lavish party possible. Benjamin wants his dad to give him some space, so he gets an idea: to invite his grandfather, who left the family years ago and for whom Benjamin's dad has an intense dislike, to come two weeks early. Thanks in part to grandpa - and to the immediate family's love - Benjamin may have a shot at figuring out what it means to be a man. —<jhailey@hotmail.com> After slick Zachary Stein's lavish bar mitzvah (a Titanic themed event) was a spectacular hit, even by Brentwood socialite standards. His dad Ari's rival as Hollywood agent, Adam Fiedler, is determined that his boy Benjamin's bar mitzvah must outclass it. Ben is insecure and hopes to divert dad's attention by sneakily inviting his hedonistic paternal granddad, Irwin. Irwin abandoned still bitter Ari and his mother, granny Rose, but she welcomes Irwin back. Soon the Irwins bond with Ben and rather paternally prepares him for the rite of passage, ultimately inspiring a different approach as well as a more confident attitude. —KGF Vissers

In June 1969, a family that includes a five-year-old girl called Jo seeks shelter in a storm cellar as a powerful tornado strikes. The storm is so strong that the locks on the cellar door fail, and Jo's father is caught up in the storm and killed. Jo and her mother emerge from the cellar the next morning to find a devastated landscape. Their home is utterly destroyed. 27 years later, Jo (Helen Hunt), who is now a meteorologist leading a team of storm chasers. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite track the tornado activity across the nation. GOES satellites are a collaborative program between NASA and NOAA that provide data and imagery on atmospheric conditions and solar activity. Jo manages her own equipment to track tornadoes on the ground, however she is running out of grant money. Her crew includes Dusty (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Rabbit (Alan Ruck), Joey (Joey Slotnick) and others. Jo is reunited with her estranged husband, Bill Harding (Bill Paxton), who is a former weather researcher and storm chaser who has since become a weather reporter. He is planning to marry sex therapist Melissa Reeves (Jami Gertz) and arrives at Jo's field station for her signature for the final divorce papers. Jo is excited about the weather, with NSSL predicting the biggest series of storms lined up one after the other. Bill realizes that Jo has not signed one page of the papers. Jo shows Bill the realized "Dorothy", a device containing hundreds of small weather sensors that he conceptualized. Dorothy could revolutionize tornado research and potentially provide an earlier storm-warning system, but the device must be deployed dangerously close to a tornado to work. Dorothy is designed to take measurements from inside a tornado funnel and provide insights into how a tornado works. Jo's team rushes off to chase a developing storm with her failing to sign the papers, forcing Bill and Melissa to follow. The team encounters Dr. Jonas Miller (Cary Elwes), a smug and sponsored meteorologist and storm chaser. Miller is a rival storm chaser and former colleague with corporate funding, has stolen his idea for his own Dorothy-like device, Dot3, with plans to deploy it first and claim credit for its design. Enraged, Bill agrees to accompany Jo and the team for one day to launch Dorothy. Tensions rise between Jo and Bill when they have several dangerous encounters with tornadoes as the team tries unsuccessfully to deploy the new device. As the team pursues a developing tornado, Bill drives Jo's truck into a ditch, attempting to get in front of the damage path. However, the tornado strengthens into an F2, and after destroying a barn, it corners the truck in front of a bridge. Jo and Bill shelter under the bridge as the tornado destroys the vehicle and one of the four Dorothy prototypes. They continue chasing in Bill's truck, with Melissa in the back. They find a second tornado and head off on a back-road when it shifts its track. They soon find themselves driving through heavy rain and before long the same storm drops satellite tornadoes onto a lake. The team follows the F2 now with a group of waterspouts on Kaw Lake, and one of them develops another vortex, which spins the truck around before disappearing. Jo and Bill are elated by the thrill, but Melissa becomes traumatized in the process. They have lunch with Jo's aunt Meg (Lois Smith) at Wakita, Oklahoma. Dusty, a member of Jo's team, tells stories about Bill's crazy past career as a storm chaser to Melissa, but Bill claims that he had killed his old personality. The chasers take off to chase yet another storm. As they track the storm, they learn the tornado is on the ground, but they have trouble finding it. Approaching a hill, they run into a hailstorm, and Jo drives ahead of the chasers to intercept the oncoming tornado. Jo and Bill intercept an F3 with unpredictable movements, and it soon knocks over power-lines that crush Dorothy II. With the truck damaged, Bill forces them to retreat, but Jo undergoes an emotional breakdown over the failure, and unloads about her motivations and her father's death. Bill admits his feelings for Jo, unaware that Melissa is overhearing them through the CB radio. The team overnights in Fairview to repair their vehicles, while Jo signs the papers. A nocturnal F4 wedge tornado unexpectedly appears, and it forces the team and others into a garage pit near a drive-in theater for protection. The tornado destroys the garage and two team vehicles as the result of tossed debris and injures several people before proceeding toward Wakita. Melissa, frightened by the dangers of storm chasing and recognizing the unresolved feelings between Jo and Bill, leaves. The tornado moves on and hits Wakita, devastating the community and injuring Meg. Bill and Jo rescue Meg from her collapsing house. The National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) forecasts that a potentially record-breaking tornado will form the next day. Inspired by Aunt Meg's wind-vane sculptures, Bill and Jo add aluminum "wings" to the last two Dorothy prototype sensors, making them more aerodynamic. True to the forecast, a mile-wide F5 tornado forms the next day, and the team pursues it. Bill and Jo attempt to place Dorothy III in its path; however, the device is knocked over and destroyed by an airborne tree. Meanwhile, Jonas attempts to deploy Dot3, ignoring Bill and Jo's warnings that the tornado is changing direction and headed straight at them. The tornado sweeps Jonas's truck away, killing him and his driver. With the last remaining Dorothy affixed to the truck bed, Bill and Jo drive directly at the tornado, then jump out, sacrificing Bill's truck to ensure that Dorothy IV can release its probes into the wedge. The gamble is successful, as Dorothy IV's probes provide immediate scientific data, but without their truck, Jo and Bill are forced to run as the tornado shifts toward them. Inside a nearby pump-house, they strap themselves to deep pipes. As the building rips away, the F5's core passes over them. After the tornado dissipates, the team celebrate their success and Jo and Bill reconcile.

Following the divorce of their parents, Micheal (Jason Patric) and Sam Emerson (Corey Haim), along with their mother Lucy (Dianne Wiest), move to Santa Carla, California to live with their mother's father, a peculiar old man (Barnard Hughes). Known as the murder capital of the world, Santa Carla boasts a local boardwalk where a number of young people hang out. Most notable is a group of young men and their leader named David (Kiefer Sutherland). When the Emersons go out to the boardwalk for the first time, Lucy finds a video store run by a genial man named Max (Edward Herrmann (as Ed Herrmann)). They have a pleasant conversation, and Lucy is soon hired by him. Sam finds a comic shop near the boardwalk, overseen by the Frog Brothers, Edgar (Corey Feldman) and Alan (Jamison Newlander). The two give Sam a comic about vampires, which Sam reluctantly takes. Meanwhile, Michael becomes enthralled by the mysterious and beautiful Star (Jami Gertz), who happens to be the girlfriend of David. David and his gang take Michael to their hideout, which is the remnants of an old hotel that collapsed during an earthquake. While there, Michael inadvertently drinks David's blood, thinking it is wine. Michael starts to develop some side effects - including sensitivity to sounds, a lack of reflection, and even flying. At one point, Michael almost attacks Sam but is stopped by the family dog named Nanook. When Sam notices Michael's faded reflection in a mirror and him being able to fly, he realizes his brother's a vampire, and in a panic calls their Mom, who is having dinner with Max. Michael manages to calm Sam down, to the point that when their Mom arrives, Sam claims a comic book freaked him out. Needless to say, Lucy is upset at having her evening ruined. After these events, Michael returns to David's hideout, where he confronts Star. She admits that the bottle he drank from did contain David's blood, and his suspicions are true. The next day, Sam accompanies his Mom to Max's place to drop off some wine. However, they are both terrified when Max's dog Thorn attempts to attack Lucy! Feeling the attack seemed similar to something in the comic he was given, Sam tells the Frog Brothers. In regards to Michael, the brothers claim Sam has to stake Michael to kill him, but Sam refuses, confident that his brother is only a half-vampire, and that he can be saved if the head vampire is killed. After the way Thorn acted and not having seen Max in the daylight, Sam is convinced that Max is the head vampire. Lucy invites Max over to dinner a few days later. Michael leaves when Max arrives, but not before per Max's request, he invites him in. Sam has brought the Frog Brothers over for the dinner, and they attempt to expose him. However none of their plans work, and they conclude that Max is not the head vampire. Finally, Michael decides to take Star, along with a little half-vampire boy named Laddie Thompson (Chance Michael Corbitt), from David's clutches and brings Sam and the Frog Brothers with him to kill David and his gang while Michael grabs Star and Laddie. The inexperienced Frog Brothers manage to kill one vampire before waking the bunch and fleeing into the daylight. David smiles as the group escapes saying "Tonight." Sam, Michael, and the Frog Brothers prepare for the night ahead. They prepare a bathtub full of garlic. They fill squirt guns with holy water. They prepare wooden stakes. Night falls and David and the remainder of his crowd come to Sam and Michael's house to seek vengeance. Sam and Michael take out one of the vampires by electricity and the Frog Brothers are saved by Sam & Michael's dog when the dog knocks a vampire into the bathtub with garlic. Finally, David and Michael face off. Michael kills David by pushing him onto some antlers. The only problem is that Michael doesn't go back to being human, meaning David is not the head vampire. Just then Lucy comes home with Max from a date. Unseen by Max, Michael and Star hide in the shadows as Max approaches the deceased David. Max appears to be upset by the death. It's then that it is revealed that Max is the head vampire and that David and his gang were Max's "children" of sorts. Max wanted David to make Michael and Sam part of the "family" so that Lucy would agree to be with Max knowing what he is. Max wanted Lucy because his boys were in need of a mother. Even though his boys are dead he still wants Lucy. Max takes hold of Sam, telling Lucy that Sam will die if she doesn't come to him. Just then Lucy's father busts into the house in his car equipped with wooden stakes. Max is killed and the day is saved. As Lucy makes sure her boys are okay, the grandfather goes to the kitchen, pops open a root beer, and says "There's one thing about living in Santa Carla...I never could stomach - all the damn vampires."

Failed stock market whiz kid Jack Casey gets a job on a bike at San Francisco's Quicksilver Speed Delivery, where he befriends entrepreneur Hector Rodriguez and attractive fellow bicycler Terri, then finds an enemy in drug dealer Gypsy. Jack Casey used to be a hot-shot stock market whiz kid. After a disastrous professional decision, his life in the fast lane is over. He loses his nerve and joins a speed delivery firm which relies on bicycles to avoid traffic jams of San Francisco, is attracted to a fellow bicycler, Terri, and befriends Hector, a budding entrepreneur. Can Jack regain his nerve and his self-respect, and rebuild his life on a more sound basis? —Reid Gagle

A wannabe blues-guitar virtuoso finds an old blues player and hopes he can teach him a long-lost song by legendary musician, Robert Johnson. Eugene is an extraordinary talent in classic guitar, but he dreams of being a famous blues guitarist, so he investigates to find a storied lost song. He asks legendary blues musician Willie Brown to help him, but Willie demands to be sprung from the old-people's prison first and to really learn the blues on the way to its origin: the Mississippi Delta. Eugene doesn't know yet about Willie's deal with the devil, which he now wishes to revoke. —Tom Zoerner <Tom.Zoerner@informatik.uni-erlangen.de> Eugene Martone, the "Lightning Boy", is a lover of blues. He studies guitar at Julliard, but he is looking for the 30th unknown song of Roberto Johnson. One day, he meets Willie Brown, the "Blind Dog," in an old-folks' home and is convinced that he possess the lost song. Eugene helps Willie to escape the asylum and goes with him to Mississippi. They can just afford a bus ticket from New York to halfway to Mississippi, so they must hitchhike the rest of the way, and doing so they meet Frances, a girl who left home and wishes to be a dancer in Los Angeles. The trio passes through many strange adventures and situations together, and the climax is the guitar duel between Eugene and Jack Butler. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil