Steven Weber

The first user-generated documentary ever made in Norway. A multi character film about how we relate to each other. Norway's first documentary made entirely by its populace. More than 900 submissions have come together to form one deeply human and poetic film about how we relate to each other. When given the task to be honest on camera, people opened themselves in surprising ways.

A blind man has an operation to regain his sight at the urging of his girlfriend and must deal with the changes to his life. First Sight is true to the title from start to finish. Virgil Adamson skating in the dark appears first to Amy Benic in her car headlights driving lost searching for her retreat spa motel. Virgil's first visual memory links him coincidentally to his last. This is a true love drama with the character of Phil Webster providing laughs counseling visual therapy. All demonstrate emotional vulnerability, teaching the audience that learning love matters in art, architecture, education, parenting, massage and trees. —Larry Auburn Originally planning on becoming an artist, Amy Benic is a partner in a New York City architectural firm alongside her ex-husband, Duncan Allanbrook. On a much needed vacation alone at the Bear Mountain Inn, a resort upstate, Amy meets Virgil Adamson, one of the masseurs at the resort. It isn't until after their first session, where she ended up being emotionally touched to an extreme by the experience, that she discovers that Virgil is blind, he having been so since he was an infant. He has largely been able to live independently in the familiarity of his routine within town, also with the help of his older sister, teacher Jennie Adamson, who willingly sacrificed a life of her own to be his protector in the absence of parents. Their father, the only surviving parent, abandoned them when they were younger. Also making a connection with Amy, Virgil trades his role as her masseur to become her friend and lover. Amy discovers that Dr. Charles Aaron in New York City has come up with a revolutionary procedure possibly to restore Virgil's vision, she who is able eventually to convince Virgil to move to New York City with her to undergo the procedure funded by Dr. Aaron's institute. Amy in Virgil's life already does not sit well with Jennie, who fears she will be a short term phase in Amy not understanding the intricacies of dealing with someone blind on a day-in and day-out basis. But the surgery will nonetheless alter Amy and Virgil's relationship. If it fails, Virgil will go through that emotional roller coaster he could not withstand as a child with failed procedure after procedure forced upon him by his father. And if it succeeds, Virgil will enter a world within which he has no knowledge, the safeguards he and Jennie have implemented which may be the cause of another emotional upheaval. —Huggo A driven Manhattan architect, Amy, relaxes at a resort and falls for the masseur, Virgil, blind since age 3 and assisted by his spinster sister. He helps Amy hear and sense the world, giving her new spirit and a burst of creativity. Over the sister's objections, Amy takes Virgil to New York for new, radical surgery. He regains his sight. He's disoriented and must learn to process these new images. Finding his place in a seeing world strains his relation with Amy; his absent father wants to connect with him now that he can see; then, retinal disease threatens to undo the surgery. Can love survive, will he find his new place and his old tranquillity, can Amy accommodate limits? —<jhailey@hotmail.com> Amy is an architect who works for perfection. She takes a vacation at a small town health spa where she meets Virgil, a blind masseur. She falls in love with him for the senses he loves that she takes for granted. They listen to the rain, they make love, and then she does research on restoring sight he hasn't had since he was one year old. He joins her in New York and undergoes the treatment only to find that seeing doesn't mean comprehending what one sees. The difficult road to understanding the visual world tests their relationship. The strain is taken to the limits when Virgil begins to lose his sight once again. —Lordship <lordship@juno.com>

Evan and Ritchie see their friendship go sour after one wins a slots jackpot with two quarters bummed from the other. Two cousins and friends, Richie and Evan, go to Atlantic City to gamble. Richie loses all he has at slot machines and asks Evan for two more coins for a last attempt. That last attempt brings a $400,000 jackpot for Richie. No wonder Evan turns greedy and jealous. —Anonymous SOUR GRAPES is what you get when lots of money ignites a runaway chain of events including deceit, destruction and dissolution all because two cousins can't figure out how to share 50 cents. Richie, a sneaker sole designer, and his cousin Evan, a brain surgeon, are spending this weekend with their girlfriends in Atlantic City. Having exhausted their gambling funds, Richie drops his last quarter into a slot machine. Evan advises him that he needs two more quarters to really make it big and proceeds to give him the extra coins. Richie pulls the lever. Moments later, three grapes across, Richie is scooping up a $436,000 jackpot. Does Evan get two-thirds of the payoff for two-thirds of the investment? Not in Richi's eyes. How about half? No dice. —Eric <Cartman@rockies.sp> Richie, a sneaker sole designer, and his cousin Evan, a brain surgeon, are spending this weekend with their girlfriends in Atlantic City. When one of them ends up with a $436,000 jackpot, sour grapes is what results. Even though Richie uses two quarters from Evan to win the progressive jackpot, he sees no connection with that and sharing the jackpot. This ignites a hilarious, runaway chain of events including deceit, destruction and dissolution in the family as everyone seems to side strongly with one side or the other. —David Tait <davidsf@usa.net>

Ben Sanderson (Cage) is a Hollywood agent who has lost everything because of his alcoholism. He loses his job, his family, and decides to commit suicide by alcohol consumption in Las Vegas. After arriving, he meets Sera (Shue), a prostitute, and a deep friendship and understanding develops between them. The movie begins with Ben 'first' shopping for beer, then, in a restaurant. He borrows some money from his colleague Peter (Richard Lewis), and then proceeds directly to a bar and starts drinking. He attempts to pick up a pretty girl (Valeria Golino) and fails. After leaving the bar he visits a prostitute, and succeeds only in getting his wedding ring stolen. He is fired from his job for alcohol related issues and is given a large severance package. When his boss asks him what he is going to do next, Ben responds "I thought I'd move out to Las Vegas". He goes home and starts emptying his house by stuffing bedding in garbage bags, and creating a bonfire in his backyard on which he burns photographs, clothes, passport and other possessions. He then leaves for Las Vegas. As he drives his BMW drunkenly down the Las Vegas Strip, he almost hits a woman in the crosswalk (who turns out to be Sera) who chastises him. Ben checks himself into a sleazy motel called The Whole Year Inn. However, as he looks at this the wording changes to "The Hole You're In". Sera (Elisabeth Shue) is a Las Vegas prostitute who works for a pimp, Yuri Butso (Julian Sands), a Latvian immigrant. Yuri and Sera "share a volatile relationship where Yuri is the dominator and Sera is the masochist."[2] Polish mobsters are after Yuri for an unknown matter; therefore, Yuri breaks his relationship with Sera in fear that the Poles may hurt her. It frees Sera to continue to build her relationship with Ben. On his second day in Las Vegas, Ben finds Sera, on the same street where he met her, introduces himself and offers her $500 to go to his room for an hour. Sera agrees to go to his room, but she gets confused when Ben does not want to have sex with her. Instead, they just talk, and in the process they create an odd relationship with each other. Their relationship, however, is ultimately doomed; Sera has to promise Ben that she will never ask him to stop drinking, and Ben is not allowed to criticize Sera's occupation. At first the two are generally stable. Ben states that he is "totally at ease with this (Sera's prostitution)." However, after spending some time together, they both become more and more frustrated with the other's behavior. Over time, Sera attempts to get Ben to eat healthily but Ben refuses to even notice these actions as he stumbles for more alcohol. Finally, Sera becomes so fed up with Ben's alcoholism that she begs him to see a doctor. Ben, furious but far too intoxicated to express his feelings, goes out and brings another prostitute (played by Mariska Hargitay) back to Sera's house. Sera returns home to find them together and throws Ben out. Shortly afterwards, she is raped and beaten by three teenagers, and the injuries she sustains make her occupation publicly obvious. After being evicted, Sera receives a telephone call from Ben, who is on his deathbed. She goes to visit Ben and they have sex. They fall asleep, and when Ben wakes up, he looks across at Sera, who is lying on top of him, and dies while holding her as she sleeps.

Nice guy junior exec Peter doesn't play dirty but unfortunately, some of his colleagues do. In comes Kris, his new temp, who is bright and efficient and saves him. She's willing to play dirty for Peter. A cookie company takeover has employees scrambling to make a case for continued employment. An executive's administrative assistant takes paternity leave, and he gets a temp who is too good to be true, doing tasks at a fast pace and doing quite a bit of creative work for the project. The executive starts noticing that all the obstacles to his climb up the corporate ladder are disappearing, including the death of some of his rivals. When his regular admin returns to work, his temp, who has made it clear that she wishes to stay with him, begins her own accelerated climb up the ladder, and he begins wondering if she was responsible for the removal of the obstacles. —Ed Sutton <esutton@mindspring.com>