This feature documentary debut from Peter Navarro explores China’s elevation into the World Trade Organization and the resulting flood of questionable exports into U.S. markets, seemingly with the full support of the presidency and Congress thanks to a just-signed free trade agreement.  

A domestic thriller from director & co-writer Andrey Zvyagintsev about a housewife (Nadezhda Markina) who hatches a plan to protect her inheritance when unexpected incidents threaten to unravel the steadfast woman’s means of security.  

This year marks my fourth sojourn to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and I have been able to add a few extra days to my usual long weekend mad dash through an impossibly overbooked itinerary that leaves me feeling like a camera-toting tourist snapping pictures of all the officially sanctioned hotspots.  

 The Toronto International Film Festival is about the movies, the premieres and the galas, the red carpet photo opportunities and the first looks at the prestige films that will dominate the conversation for the next few months or more. But I want jump off the beaten path, to seek out other moments, the ones in between the squats in darkened theaters, the ones where I find other funhouse reflections.   

For the first time ever, in the historic Over-the-Rhine district, Indie rockers and indie filmmakers are coming together for one festival. The School for Creative and Performing Arts (108 W. Central Parkway) will be the home of the MidPoint Film Festival (MPFF), which is the official film component of the MidPoint Music Festival (MPMF).  

Depression-era bootlegging draws the attention of director John Hillcoat and musician/screenwriter Nick Cave, who last worked together of The Proposition.  

Jake Schreier’s feature debut, scripted by comic writer-actor Christopher D. Ford jumps a step into the future where Frank (Frank Langella), an aging jewel thief, is forced to accept a robot caretaker (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard) from his son (James Marsden), but before long Frank and the robot are planning a heist together.  

At the very least, audiences should thank their lucky stars that this latest supernatural thriller from Danish director Ole Bornedal contains no paranormal “found footage,” which makes this tale about a young girl (Natasha Calis) who picks up an heirloom at a yard sale somehow linked to devious spirits an old school fright fest.  

Best friends forever is a clichéd phrase that gets bandied about between people closely linked for a time, through a particular patch of life, but few of these relationships truly last. Only a precious few bond on the deepest levels and fewer still cross the gender divide.   

Trash Dance captures the development of contemporary dance choreographer Alison Orr’s experimental performance piece featuring a crew of sanitation workers.