Karen Black
Birthday: 1939-07-01
Place of Birth: Park Ridge, Illinois, USA
Biography: Karen Blanche Black (née Ziegler; July 1, 1939 – August 8, 2013) was an American actress, screenwriter, singer, and songwriter. She rose to prominence for her work in various studio and independent films in the 1970s, frequently portraying eccentric and offbeat characters, and established herself as a figure of New Hollywood. Her career spanned over 50 years and includes nearly 200 credits in both independent and mainstream films. Black received numerous accolades throughout her career, including two Golden Globe Awards, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. A native of suburban Chicago, Black studied theater at Northwestern University before dropping out and relocating to New York City. She performed on Broadway in 1965 before making her major film debut in Francis Ford Coppola's You're a Big Boy Now (1966). Black relocated to California and was cast as an acid-tripping prostitute in Dennis Hopper's road film Easy Rider (1969). That led to a lead in the drama Five Easy Pieces (1970), in which she played a hopeless beautician, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. Black made her first major commercial picture with the disaster film Airport 1975 (1974), and her subsequent appearance as Myrtle Wilson in The Great Gatsby (1974) won her a second Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. Black starred as a glamorous country singer in Robert Altman's ensemble musical drama Nashville (1975), also writing and performing two songs for the soundtrack, which won a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack. Her portrayal of an aspiring actress in John Schlesinger's drama The Day of the Locust (also 1975) earned her a third Golden Globe nomination, this time for Best Actress. She subsequently took on four roles in Dan Curtis' anthology horror film Trilogy of Terror (1975), followed by Curtis's supernatural horror feature, Burnt Offerings (1976). The same year, she starred as a con artist in Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot. In 1982, Black starred as a trans woman in the Robert Altman-directed Broadway debut of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, a role she also reprised in Altman's subsequent film adaptation. She next starred in the comedy Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (1983), followed by Tobe Hooper's remake of Invaders from Mars (1986). For much of the late 1980s and 1990s, Black starred in a variety of arthouse, independent, and horror films, as well as writing her own screenplays. She had a leading role as a villainous mother in Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses (2003), which cemented her status as a cult horror icon. She continued to star in low-profile films throughout the early 2000s, as well as working as a playwright before her death from ampullary cancer in 2013.
Movies
Nashville
The intersecting stories of twenty-four characters—from country star to wannabe to reporter to waitr...
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Men
A single young woman moves to Los Angeles, gets a job as a chef and has casual affairs....
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Malaika
An African elephant wanders into the lives of four wide-eyed children and all pandemonium breaks loo...
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House of 1000 Corpses
Two teenage couples traveling across the backwoods of Texas searching for urban legends of serial ki...
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The Player
A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected - but ...
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I Woke Up Early the Day I Died
A mental patient escapes from the looney bin in drag, robs a bank, and goes on the lam!...
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Little Laura and Big John
Based on a true story, this action-packed, hard-hitting depiction of the infamous Ashley gang - who ...
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The Great Gatsby
Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner now living on Long Island, finds himself fascinated by the myste...
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The Day of the Locust
Hollywood, 1930s. Tod Hackett, a young painter who tries to make his way as an art director in the l...
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Born to Win
A smart-mouthed junkie and a former hairdresser spends his days looking for just "one more fix"....
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Out of the Dark
A deranged killer wearing a clown mask begins preying on a group of young women working at a phone-s...
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Dinosaur Valley Girls
Haunted by recurring dreams of Hea-Thor, a gorgeous cavegirl,and a menacing Allosaurus, action-movie...
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Family Plot
Spiritualist Blanche Tyler and her cab-driving boyfriend encounter a pair of serial kidnappers while...
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The Invisible Kid
A nerdy teenage scientist discovers a formula for invisibility, and uses it to take revenge on all t...
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Cut and Run
A reporter and her cameraman connect a surviving Jonestown leader and a TV exec's missing son to a d...
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Invaders from Mars
A boy tries to stop aliens that have taken over his town and are brainwashing its inhabitants....
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Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering
A bright young medical student must solve the frightening mystery that plagues the children of a sma...
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Gypsy 83
Two young misfits head for New York City to celebrate their idol and muse, Stevie Nicks, at The Nigh...
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Five Easy Pieces
Robert Dupea spends his days doing various odd jobs, drinking and womanizing until an encounter with...
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The Outfit
A two-bit criminal takes on the Mafia to avenge his brother's death. Earl Macklin is a small time cr...
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Airport 1975
When an in-flight collision incapacitates the pilots of an airplane bound for Los Angeles, stewardes...
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One Long Night
Richard Macedo, is a young Mexican-American businessman from Orange County whose life is changed ove...
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Burnt Offerings
A couple and their twelve-year-old son move into a giant house for the summer where things aren’t qu...
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Evil Spirits
A dark comedy thriller that manages to skillfully blend humor and mystery into one incredible film f...
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Plan 10 from Outer Space
A woman accidentally discovers the Plaque of Kolob which leads her to discover an insidous alien plo...
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Killer Fish
Jewel thieves attempt to recover treasure from piranha infested waters. Mistrust and betrayals happe...
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Rubin & Ed
Reclusive Rubin Farr teams up with vocal but unsuccessful multi-level salesman Ed Tuttle on a quest ...
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Auntie Lee's Meat Pies
A devil-worshiping woman sends out her four beautiful nieces to lure men back to her place so they c...
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Haunting Fear
A woman is plagued by dreams of being buried alive while her adulterous husband, steeped in gambling...
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Night Angel
A legendary she-demon, in the updated guise of a beautiful model, infiltrates the offices of a succe...
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You're a Big Boy Now
Naive library clerk Bernard Chanticleer moves out of his parents’ home and into a chaotic city full ...
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Children of the Night
In the quiet little town of Allburg, friends Lucy and Cindy are on the verge of going away to colleg...
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Invisible Dad
Doug Baily's father is weird, but a strange machine in the garage now makes him invisible too. It's ...
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Soulkeeper
Two thieves compete with a madman in their search for an ancient relic which can create an army of e...
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Trilogy of Terror
A horror anthology containing three stories: a female college professor is aggressively pursued by o...
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New York Crossing
A family reunion is disrupted by possibly the real Santa Claus collapsing in Penn Station - minor mi...
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Firecracker
A tale of murder in small-town Kansas. When Jimmy is lured away from his abusive family by a traveli...
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Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
The chronicle of the mind-blowing journey that was Hollywood during the seventies; the true and grip...
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Homer and Eddie
A mentally disabled man gets help from a sociopath when he tries to reunite with his dying father, w...
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Hard Contract
A cold hearted American hit man goes to Europe for "one last score". His encounter with a beautiful ...
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Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
On the 20th anniversary of his death, the members of a James Dean fanclub gather at a five-and-dime ...
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It's Alive III: Island of the Alive
The mutant babies have been placed by court order on a deserted island. Appalled by the cynicism and...
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Stuck!
Beautiful young Daisy feels stuck working as a shopgirl by day and caring for her ailing mother by n...
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Some Guy Who Kills People
A former mental patient's repressed anger reaches the boiling point, leading him to embark on a miss...
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A Gunfight
Will Tenneray and Abe Cross are two aging, famous gunfighters, both in need of money. Tenneray comes...
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Suffering Man's Charity
John Vandermark (Cumming) has taken in a struggling writer, Sebastian St. Germain (Boreanaz), who ov...
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Mirror Mirror
Shy teenager Megan moves to a new town with her widowed mother and quickly becomes the most unpopula...
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Wanderlust
A look at the mystique of road movies, combining interviews, film clips, music, photography, literat...
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Separate Ways
A wife unhappy in her marriage begins an affair with an art student, unaware that her husband, a rac...
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Cisco Pike
A down on his luck former drug dealer is forced by a corrupt LAPD policeman to sell 100 kilos of con...
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The Pyx
A detective investigating the death of a heroin-addicted prostitute uncovers evidence pointing to th...
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Drive, He Said
Hector is a star basketball player for the College basketball team he plays for, the Leopards. His g...
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Savage Dawn
A vicious biker gang takes over a small town in Arizona. A Vietnam War vet passing through town and ...
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Conceiving Ada
Emmy Coer, a computer genius, devises a method of communicating with the past by tapping into undyin...
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Red Dirt
At only twenty, Griffith is struggling with the responsibilities of caring for his unwell aunt, grie...
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Eternal Evil
A dissatisfied Montreal director of TV commercials is taught to astrally project himself by a myster...
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The Roller Blade Seven
In a futuristic society, a sword-wielding roller skater fights evil ninjas, punk roller skaters and ...
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Maria My Love
.Ana (Judy Marte) is a young woman trying to reimagine her life after her mother’s death during the ...
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Mommy's Little Monster
.A mentally disturbed man is prematurely released from an asylum and struggles to live a normal life...
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America Brown
A coming-of-age drama that centers on a young quarterback from West Texas, a priest in New York, and...
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Mascara
Mascara is the story of three very different women who rediscover the value of their friendship at a...
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Crimetime
The star of a TV crime reenactment show becomes caught up in the mind of the killer he is playing....
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No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos
The artistry, triumph and lifelong friendship of the great cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos...
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Irene in Time
A film about the complex relationships between fathers and daughters, and the potential lifelong con...
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Dogtown
Philip Van Horn, who left his small town a long time ago to become a Hollywood actor and hasn't had ...
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Portnoy's Complaint
During a session with his psychoanalyst, Alexander Portnoy rants about everything that is bothering ...
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Bound and Gagged: A Love Story
Leslie's husband Steve is a brute and she wants out, at least she thinks she does. Her lover Elizabe...
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The Grass Is Singing
In Southern Rhodesia in the 1940s, city-dweller Mary marries farmer Dick Turner and is plucked from ...
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In Praise of Older Women
Andras Vayda grows up in a turbulent, war-torn Hungary, where he procures local girls for the occupy...
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Crime and Passion
Financier persuades his mistress to marry a rich industrialist for his money, then discovers that he...
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Law and Disorder
In crime ridden New York of the seventies two cops has had enough. They decide to take justice into ...
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Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?
Zee is walking up and down Manhattan streets, talking to herself and to the husband who has just lef...
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Easy Rider
Wyatt and Billy, two Harley-riding hippies, complete a drug deal in Southern California and decide t...
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Light Speed
A space freighter that has gone adrift suddenly catapults into an alternate universe....
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Martin's Day
Threatened with recapture after a prison escape, Martin Stechert grabs a 12-year-old as hostage. He ...
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Mythos Hollywood - Das Geheimnis des Erfolgs
Ekchart Schmidt examines the machinery behind the dream factory; the Hollywood myth is unmasked. How...
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Ooga Booga
Revenge is served on a spear when dirty cops brutally murder Devin, an innocent African-American med...
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Charades
Barry is a down-and-out-guy who takes a job at the shipping department of Technoworks, a high-tech Y...
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Overexposed
When co-workers of a beautiful soap star start disappearing and others wind up dead with no clues or...
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Blood Money
A Los Angeles police officer and a female FBI agent team-up to foil a counterfeiting gang in operati...
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Quiet Fire
Loner Jessie Palmer must piece together information from a growing body count, including the murder ...
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Club Fed
A powerful gangster is murdered. However, All of his holdings were in his girlfriend's name. So she ...
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The Squeeze
A retired safe cracker is recruited by a young conman to return to the "business" for a million doll...
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Nothing Special
A young and successful insurance underwriter must allow her mentally unstable mother to move in with...
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She Loves Me Not
A reclusive novelist struggles to find romance and meaning in his life despite disastrous and comedi...
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Judgement
A juvenile court judge goes out of her way to try to aid a young man whom she believes has innocentl...
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Hostage
The leader of a South African Nation is imprisoned. His followers, led by Zabo, hijack a plane with ...
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Rhinoceros
A boozing young man in love with his co-worker finds that everyone around him, even his pompous and ...
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The Prime Time
A bored young girl looking for excitement gets involved with nude modeling, drugs and a rock band....
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The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black: Teather Penumbra
Kembra Pfahler and The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black perform live at CBGB's on Friday the 13th. I...
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Dr. Rage
After enrolling in an experimental study on Rage Impulse Disorder at the Straun Foundation, Michael ...
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Caged Fear
After a jewelry theft Tommy Lane can hardly free. His girlfriend Kristen has less luck and is arrest...
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Miss Right
After falling for Juliette, the woman of his dreams, a womanizing journalist in Rome must dump his n...
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Return of the Roller Blade Seven
This film follows the further adventures of the lone samurai Hawk, as he continues his battle to def...
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The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver
A houswife, tired of her everyday routine, makes changes in her hair, her wardrobe and her makeup, a...
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Where the Ladies Go
A small-town bar, open only from 9AM to 3PM and owned by Buck (Earl Holliman), is the setting where ...
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Bad Manners
Four teens on the run from an orphanage spring a fellow orphan recently adopted by a rich family, th...
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Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula
This is a short film based on the 1979 film of the same name. The film is stylized with the actors w...
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The Legendary Life of Ernest Hemingway
Larger-than-life American author Ernest Hemingway is the subject of this biopic that chronicles the ...
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Hollywood Dreams
The tale of a young girl fresh off the bus from Iowa, who falls in love with a sexy and promising yo...
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Zapped Again!
A new kid moves into school, making enemies with the affluent societies and joining the beleaguered ...
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Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
GOING CLEAR intimately profiles eight former members of the Church of Scientology, shining a light o...
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Wamego: Ultimatum
Third entry in the documentary series about true independent filmmaking from Steve Balderson, based ...
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Contamination
A Russian billionaire is brutally killed on the outskirts of Moscow. Vasily, a simple school teacher...
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Wild in Blue
A story about a madman with a movie camera. He's a narcissist, nihilist, sexual sadist and killer of...
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Twisted Justice
In the Los Angeles of the future, police are forbidden to carry weapons and must use stun guns inste...
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Curse of the Forty-Niner
A group of friends discover gold deep inside an old mine. But by taking the gold and think they've h...
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Fallen Arches
Transplanted from New York, Duke and his brother Frankie Romano live in a rundown LA apartment with ...
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Dixie Lanes
Small town America, 1945. The boys are coming home, as is Clarence Laidlaw who served overseas in li...
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Power
Loosely based on the life of Jimmy Hoffa, this traces the rise of Tommy Vanda (Joe Don Baker) from a...
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Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop
14 year police veteran, Evelyn Carter looks to make it to retirement while experiencing the highs an...
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Letters from the Big Man
Sarah Smith, an artist and government hydrologist, sets out on a post-fire stream survey in a remote...
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Bottomless Pit
Iconic 70’s film star Karen Black passed away in August 2013. In February of that year, Karyn Rachtm...
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Angel Blue
Dennis is a handsome, successful and well-liked civic leader who lives in his hometown with his love...
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OowieWanna
While doing laundry, a misfit 7-year-old girl tumbles into an alluring other-world, where she must d...
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BBStory: An American Film Renaissance
This 2009 documentary features directors Bob Rafelson, Peter Bogdanovich, and Henry Jaglom, actor-di...
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Paris
Paris follows rookie detective Jason Bartok on his disturbing journey through the shadowy underworld...
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Cries of Silence
In the wake of Hurricane Camille, the infamous '60's storm that crippled the Gulf Coast, a mysteriou...
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Capricorn One
In order to protect the reputation of the American space program, a team of NASA administrators turn...
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The Double 0 Kid
Teenage Lance dreams of being a secret agent when he's suddenly in the middle of an hacker intrigue,...
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Chanel Solitaire
The life and loves of Coco Chanel who rose from the bottom with no family or financial support and b...
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The Last Word
When politicians try to force out a renter in a corrupt real-estate deal, the man decides to take ma...
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Plotting 'Family Plot'
Documentary about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's "Family Plot"....
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The Children
Rose Sellars is a middle-aged woman who falls in love with a widower. However, his children believe ...
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Mr. Horn
Western saga based on the legend of frontier folk hero Tom Horn, including his role in the trackdown...
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The Independent
A notorious B-movie director tries for a comeback by seeking out the film rights to the life story o...
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Final Judgement
A priest is suspected in the brutal murder of a young stripper. To prove his innocence, he descends ...
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Stir
A woman searches for clues that led to the murder of her scientist husband whom was experimenting wi...
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Starstruck
A psychotic serial killer turns his "hobby" into movie productions, that show his victims' fates....
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Flight of the Spruce Goose
A Pittsburgh miner kidnaps a model and drives her to Hollywood to see Howard Hughes' plane, the Spru...
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Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage
Documentary about the making and history of the film "Easy Rider."...
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Repo Chick
As a repo chick, wealthy bad-girl Pixxi and her entourage get mixed up in a devious kidnapping plot ...
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Double Duty
Funny, action-packed coming of age story portrays *Lesseos *as an ex-marine trying to adjust to civi...
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Legend of The Roller Blade Seven
In a post-apocalyptic world where rollerblading is the chief means of travel, the evil Pharoah sends...
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Teknolust
Anxious to use artificial life to improve the world, Rosetta Stone, a bio-geneticist creates a Recip...
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Best of Tromadance Film Festival: Volume 1
Tromadance is the first film festival wholeheartedly devoted to filmmakers and fans. Unlike other f...
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Paradise Cove
Film noir involving Indian casinos, ex-cons seeking redemption, FBI agents and ruthless family of ga...
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Tuesday Never Comes
An Irish mercenary will stop at nothing to get the money owed to him for a job from an Italian-Ameri...
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A Single Woman
A Single Woman is a distinct, lively portrait of Jeannette Rankin (the first American woman elected ...
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A Light in the Darkness
Joseph just broke up with his girlfriend and is not taking it very well. He thinks she is plotting a...
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Dead Girls Don't Tango
Police inspector must stop a serial killer who dances tango with his victims before strangling them....
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Fatal Encounter
A woman finds out that her biological father, a professional race car driver, was murdered twenty ye...
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Deadly Dolls: Deepest Cuts
Drawing from a deep, red well of evil toy terror comes DEADLY DOLLS: DEEPEST CUTS, the second instal...
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Harold Buttleman: Daredevil Stuntman
Harold Buttleman, small town tuxedo salesman, thinks he's the next great daredevil stuntman. He's no...
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Henry Jaglom Finds 'A Safe Place'
Henry Jaglom discusses the influence of such filmmakers as Fellini and Cassavetes on his work, and t...
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Read You Like a Book
A magical book transforms all who come into contact with it. Meet Dante, a bookstore manager with a ...
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Because He's My Friend
An American military man moves his family to Australia to undergo training in submarine warfare, pro...
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The Wacky Adventures of Dr. Boris and Nurse Shirley
A plastic surgeon and his nurse administer an aesthetic clinic that attracts several young women. Bu...
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The Trust
William Rice is perhaps the wealthiest man in Texas. With no heirs, Rice plans to leave his estate i...
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Fertile La Toyah Video Magazine #2: The Kinky Issue!
Prostrate probing interviews! Live action murder! Naked people! Tired death-rockers! And more! Much ...
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Watercolors
Carter, a troubled teen stays with a friend of his dads and starts flirting with her son Danny. Afte...
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The Last Horror Film
A New York taxi driver stalks a beautiful actress attending the Cannes Film Festival, which coincide...
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WAMEGO: Making Movies Anywhere
From the majestic prairie fires of Kansas, through the neon glow of a carnival, to a year-in-the-lif...
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Ralph S. Mouse
Ralph the mouse lives at the Mountain View Inn and loves his motorcycle. When the inn becomes overri...
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Whitepaddy
During changing times a White family find themsleves falling in-love with their Black next door neig...
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Who Is Henry Jaglom?
Hailed by some as a cinematic genius, a feminist voice and a true maverick of American cinema, dismi...
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Dark Blood
Filmed in 1993 but never completed due to River Phoenix's death, Dark Blood tells the story of Boy, ...
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Altman on His Own Terms
A look at the life and career of acclaimed independent filmmaker Robert Altman...on his own words. T...
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Jack Nicholson: The Joker Is Wild
The life and times of famous Jack Nicholson include his 30-years relationship with Anjelica Houston ...
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Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
Anchored by intimate, one-on-one interviews with the man himself, Nicholas Wrathall’s new documentar...
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My Suicidal Sweetheart
A suicidal comedy about two young lovers who get married and escape from a mental institution in sea...
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Every Minute Is Goodbye
A butler is accused of murdering a hair-dresser in a small country town. The local Sheriff abuses hi...
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Karen Black: Actress at Work
In an intimate and revealing hour, we follow the brilliant Karen Black from Malibu to London to Yuca...
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Airports
Edited together from all four Airport movies by Academy Award nominated screenwriter Josh Olson (A H...
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Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
A documentary about the rise and fall of the Cannon Film Group, the legendary independent film compa...
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The Blue Tooth Virgin
Two writers must face a dilemma that is common to anyone who has ever had an artistic friend: what h...
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