Matt Craven

As she seeks balance under the lockdown conditions, the process of defining the new normal develops through the surrounding space and her body.

Five strangers get trapped in an elevator high above Philadelphia, one of them is the devil. Will they survive?

Five strangers get trapped in an elevator high above Philadelphia, one of them is the devil. Will they survive?

The true story of Jasmine Plummer who, at the age of eleven, became the first female to play in Pop Warner football tournament in its 56-year history.

When Kale is sentenced to house arrest, he watches his neighbors and comes to suspect one of them is a serial killer. Is it just his imagination or could this cost him his life?

A man is trying to escape through the forest from a pursuing knight. Just as the knight catches him and hits him with the sword the man disappears. Soon after that the man is discovered barely alive in the middle of the desert, only able to tell a single word - Castlegard. He dies shortly after being transferred to the hospital. One of the physicians discovers a pendant around his neck with the ITC Corp. label. The X-ray photos show many internal organs, veins and bones are out of alignment for an unknown reason. Soon after that an ITC Corp. employee shows up and identifies the dead man as Vincent Taub. He picks up his body and the company decides to cover up the incident. Archaeologist Prof. Edward Johnston (Billy Connolly) and his students Kate Erickson (Frances O'Connor), Josh Stern (Ethan Embry), François Dontelle (Rossif Sutherland), and André Marek (Gerard Butler) have been sponsored by the ITC Corp. to excavate the ruins of the village of Castlegard in France near La Roque Castle; the village was burned in 1357 during the Hundred Years War as part of a massive battle. The hanging of Lady Claire (Anna Friel), the sister of Arnaud de Cervole, inspired the French to victory. Prof. Johnston's son, Chris (Paul Walker) is more infatuated with Kate than digging, until Marek shows him a sarcophagus of a French knight with a lopped ear, in an unusual position, holding hands with his lady beside for eternity. Prof. Johnston suspects ITC confabulation, and flies to their headquarters in New Mexico. But a few days later without word, the team finds a 600-year-old parchment plea for help, and one dropped bifocal lens from the professor. Chris calls ITC for his father; they promise to explain all in New Mexico. ITC president Robert Doniger (David Thewlis) and vice-president Steven Kramer (Matt Craven) explain a teleportation device transports via wormhole to Castlegard in 1357 - time travel. Prof. Johnston needs rescuing from the past. Chris, Kate, and André talk François into going as their only competent French speaker. Three marines provide security, but the chief has a secret mission to kill someone. They don appropriate clothing and special markers that will return them to the present when pressed, but only last six hours. When a marker lights with time remaining, a small energy pulse shows on present-day display. The group land smack into danger, first a rushing river, then pursuing English riders, warned by French fugitive, Lady Claire (Anna Friel). The two marines are killed. One, dying, presses his marker home, but the forbidden grenade he carried damages the time machine. Claire reunites with her brother Arnaud (Lambert Wilson) temporarily, but English forces take the others to Lord Oliver de Vannes (Michael Sheen). He insists their interpreter translate "I am a spy" from French, kills François, and throws them in an attic where the professor is already held. Kate, the lightest weight and best climber, sneaks out the roof, and frees the others to fight their way free, so all regret the necessity to kill. Sir William DeKere (Marton Csokas) reveals his identity as former ITC employee William Decker, body ravaged by repeated time travel. Doniger hid the fact that the machine damaged DNA and internal organs. Decker takes their markers and kills the last chief marine Frank Gordon. One marker is enough to take them all back, but they have to stay alive, and gather in an area with thirty square feet around free of obstacles. André again rescues Claire, foiling history, they fall in love, as do Chris and Kate. Kate leads Chris, then Arnaud's troops to the monastery secret underground tunnel at La Roque Castle, allowing the battle to turn in favor of the French as in the original history. Lord Oliver captures Claire but is killed by Arnaut, and André is attacked by DeKere who cuts his ear off. Realizing he is the knight buried in the sarcophagus empowers him to kill deKere and send the others off to a clear field for travel home. In the present, Josh and Kramer repair the machine despite Doniger's eagerness to write off the loss of lives for greater scientific good. Doniger runs into the transmit area while the others return, but in France without a marker, is cut down by a charging knight. Later, back at Castlegard, the three archaeologists read the sarcophagus inscription from André and Claire, detailing three children, Christophe, Katherine, François, and a full joyous life together.

A University of Texas professor of philosophy and capital punishment abolitionist, David Gale, is on Death Row convicted of the rape and murder of his best friend, Constance Harraway, who was the leader of the local branch of Death Watch, an organization campaigning against the death penalty. Days before his execution, skeptical journalist Bitsey Bloom is sent by the weekly news magazine where she works to conduct David Gale's final interview. She is accompanied by intern reporter, Zack Stemmons. Gale's lawyer is Braxton Belyeu, an ageing eccentric with a long ponytail. We learn that Gale asked specifically for Bloom, and will talk only to her. They are to have two hours on each of three consecutive days, after which Gale will be executed at 6 o'clock in the evening of the fourth day. Belyeu and Stemmons leave the prison and Gale starts to tell Bloom his story, which we see in a series of flashbacks. Gale's marriage was in difficulties, and relations with his wife Sharon strained, but he was devoted to his small son Jamie. We see Gale lecturing on philosophy to a large class of students. Then a couple of minutes before the end of the lecture period a beautiful female student named Berlin arrives noisily and Gale pauses while she takes her seat. As the students leave after dismissal, Berlin apologizes for being late and tells Gale she'll do "anything" for a better term mark. He tells her quietly but firmly that the way to get a better mark is to study. However, not long after that Gale finds himself one evening at a party with faculty and students, and Berlin catches him alone in a luxurious bathroom. Locking the door, she tells him she isn't his student any more (since she's been expelled from school), and that she wants sex with him anyway. Gale gives in to temptation but soon finds himself accused of rape. His world falls apart: he loses his university post; his wife leaves him, taking their son, selling their house and moving to Spain; even the national leader of Death Watch (by phone) wants local organizer Constance Harraway to have no more to do with him. We see Gale sitting distraught on the step of the path to his house front door, clutching his little boy's favorite soft toy to him, as his wife and son are driven away in a taxi; we see him in a conversation with a university dean who explains there is no way he can give Gale a job because of his reputation; and we see him in an interview attempting to get a job in business and hopelessly lost when asked to give three reasons why they should hire him. Gale, now jobless and homeless, turns heavily to drink; we see him in a bar, then staggering along a crowded sidewalk at night shouting about Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle to passers-by; and at last he winds up on the porch of his only remaining friend in the world, Constance Harraway. He now learns, as a result of an emergency when she has to go to hospital, that she is dying of leukemia. He has to sleep off his drunken stupor on a seat in the hospital corridor. After she is home again, Constance is talking to David one evening about her one regret in life, that she didn't have more sex. He offers and, having assured her it isn't out of pity, she accepts. He leaves in the morning but she is subsequently found dead --- naked, handcuffed behind her back, with her mouth taped over with gaffer tape, and suffocated by a plastic bag that is over her head and taped round the neck. An autopsy reveals that she had swallowed the handcuff key. David Gale's semen is also found inside her. A tripod --- on which no fingerprints were found --- is present, though no camera or videotape is found. Bloom and Stemmons visit Harraway's former house, which has been turned into a sort of museum with a "tour" of the crime scene by the current tenant Nico, a plump young woman with a goth appearance. After the prison visit one afternoon, Bloom and Stemmons collect half a million dollars in cash in a shiny brief case. The money is the "fee" paid by their magazine to Gale for the exclusive interview. They then return to their motel to find her door blocked open with a roll of gaffer tape, and a videotape cassette suspended by a string from the ceiling of her room, labelled with her name. They borrow a video player from the motel manager and are profoundly shocked to find that the tape has the last few minutes of Constance Harraway's life, of her naked, cuffed and suffocating on her kitchen floor. From time to time while driving between the motel and the prison, Bloom and Stemmons have noticed a lean figure of a man in a stetson hat, apparently following or watching them. They discover who this man is: Dusty Wright, a secretive loner but a follower and admirer of Constance Harraway. Bloom delivers the attaché case full of cash to the lawyer Belyeu's office, and spies Wright entering just as she is leaving. Assuming that Gale is telling the truth when protesting his innocence of the rape and murder, there is speculation as to who did the murder and apparently framed him. Candidates include some mysterious group trying to discredit the abolitionist cause. However, after the third and last interview with David Gale at the prison, at the end of which he takes his leave saying he'll be dead by the end of the next day, Bloom and Stemmons return to the "museum" with handcuffs and gaffer tape, and Bloom re-enacts the death scene using the handcuffs, the tape, and a plastic bag. She tells Stemmons to wait three minutes before freeing her, but he and Nico can't bear to watch her struggle and he has to tear the bag open, afraid Bloom is actually suffocating herself. The outcome of the experiment, given what they know about her dedication to her cause and the fact she had only a short time to live anyway, is their conclusion that there was no murder: Constance Harraway committed suicide, deliberately intending to make it look like murder of her by Gale, because of his ruined reputation after the affair with the girl Berlin. She had willingly made love to Gale in the hours before killing herself, setting him up for the additional charge of rape. They then realize that, having been given the brief tape, there must exist a full recording of the suicide, and that Harraway's purpose was almost certainly to have Gale exculpated at the last possible moment by production of the recording that must prove she committed suicide unaided. However, whoever was supposed to produce the tape has not done so. They realize that this must be Dusty Wright, and that he has an agenda of his own. Jealous of Gale's relationship with Harraway, he has not produced the full tape recording because if saving Gale at the last minute would make news as a momentous case against the death penalty, allowing Gale to die before revealing that he was innocent would make the case even more strongly. At the last minute, they go to Wright's home and Bloom searches frantically for the full tape, while Stemmons keeps watch for any sign of Wright. She finds the tape, having to play it through and watch it to see that it is what she needs. After Hallaway dies, Dusty Wright appears in front of the camera, showing that he helped the woman in her plot against Gale. There is then a frantic journey to the prison, to try to get there and have the tape seen before Gale is executed. The car breaks down some distance away and the final scenes are of Bloom frantically running along the street trying to reach the prison before the deadline. We see the ritual leading to the execution being followed. There are calls from the state Governor's office giving final go-ahead. Outside the prison, we see a large group of demonstrators from Death Watch, part of a large crowd including police officers. Bloom reaches the crowd and makes her way through the throng only to hear an announcement from a prison official that Gale had died some minutes earlier. Back at her desk at work, Bitsy Bloom receives a Fedex package containing the favorite soft toy of Gale's young son Jamie, left behind with the father when the son went abroad. Inside it is a video cassette with an additional segment at the end revealing that Gale was in the kitchen when Hallaway committed suicide. In this way Gale wanted to relieve the journalist from the guilt of not saving him. Meanwhile Dusty Wright, very smartly dressed now, travels to Europe and delivers the silver attaché case full of cash as well as a postcard proving his innocence in his earlier alleged rape to the new residence of Sharon Gale. He rings the apartment doorbell and disappears, leaving the case anonymously at front of the door.

A talking parrot named Paulie recounts his travels to look for his original owner to a Russian janitor who helps him to the end of his journey. Paulie, an intelligent parrot who actually talks, relates the story of his struggle to a Russian immigrant who works as a janitor at the research institute where he is housed and neglected. His story begins many years earlier when he is given as a gift to a little girl named Marie who stutters. Eventually, he teaches her to speak correctly but is taken away by her father because he believes she can't distinguish fantasy from reality because she believes he can talk. He goes through a series of adventures with a pawn shop owner, an aging widow, a Mexican American troubadour, and a would-be thief before being taken to the institute. —<lodger13@iwl.net> A male bird tells the story of his big and long adventure as he tries to find and reunite with his owner. With the the help of a poor male worker, he does his best to discover and remember what it is really like to be a bird in a world where everyone is completely different. —RECB3

Trapped in a school in which a gang of criminals has seized control, a young troublemaker fights a cat and mouse battle from inside. Oz, a rebellious teenager who just got expelled from his preppy school, returns for one final prank. But, as he goes to the basement to set things up, he stumbles upon a security consultant/former school employee who just took the entire school hostage for millions in ransom. Oz must rely on his youth and love for pranks to outwit the devious criminal mastermind. —Steve Richer <sricher@sympatico.ca>

A single mother becomes embroiled in a dangerous game when she is chosen to serve on the jury in the trial of a powerful mobster.

Reminiscing about his dead son, a Vietnam War veteran attempts to uncover his past while suffering from a severe case of dissociation. To do so, he must decipher reality and life from his own dreams, delusions, and perceptions of death. Jacob Singer is trying to make sense of his fractured life and memories. Plagued by hallucinations, flashbacks, and conspiracies, he struggles down a path to enlightenment from these manic strains. With nothing but support from friends and loved ones will he be able to push through the haze of his PTSD. New York postal worker Jacob Singer is trying to keep his frayed life from unraveling. His days are increasingly being invaded by flashbacks to his first marriage, his now-dead son, and his tour of duty in Vietnam. Although his new wife tries to help Jacob keep his grip on sanity, the line between reality and delusion is steadily growing more and more uncertain. —Jean-Marc Rocher <rocher@fiberbit.net> On 06 Oct 1971, in Vietnam, the American soldier Jacob Singer is wounded by a bayonet during an attack to his platoon. He wakes up in a New York subway while going home late at night after working overtime in the post office. He is divorced from Sarah, lives with his colleague and lover Jezebel in a small Brooklyn apartment and misses his young son Gabe, who died in an accident for which Jacob feels responsible. During the next days, Jacob is chased by demons and finds the army conspiracy against him, while having strange visions during different moments of his life. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In 1955 Florida, a Korean vet has a breakdown and is incarcerated in a "maximum security" mental health prison, where patients are abused. An American war hero attempts suicide and ends up in Chattahoochee State Mental Hospital. But he realizes that the doctors in the hospital are humiliating patients, and staff are murdering them. —Harun Mehmedinovic <Pkojovic@concentric.net> Emmet Foley, a decorated but troubled Korean War vet suffering from PTSS and impotence, has a breakdown and goes on a shooting spree in his neighborhood, subliminally hoping to commit "suicide by cop." Failing that, he shoots himself in the chest but survives to be sentenced to a "maximum security" mental health facility in 1955 Florida. While recovering, he begins to feel a sense of rage over the mistreatment and open abuse of his fellow inmates, whose needs are ignored in an atmosphere of neglect and filth. With the help of another inmate and his faithful sister, he begins a campaign against the entrenched bureaucracy to improve conditions for his fellow patients. —duke1029