The MGM musical escapes the soundstages of Hollywood and bursts on to the boisterous streets of New York, New York in this Oscar-winning landmark. Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin are the three sailors with just one day of shore leave to take a bite out of the Big Apple, catch all the sights from the Empire State Building to the Statue of Liberty and go looking for romance. A wonderful adaptation of the stage musical that has a vivacity and dynamism that never ages. Gene Kelly's athletic style and creative ambitions for the musical are visible in every frame of a film that he also co-directed with his future Singin’ in the Rain collaborator Stanley Donen.

What happens when a generation’s ultimate anti-authoritarians – punk rockers – become society’s ultimate authorities – dads? This funny, fast-paced and tender documentary explores just that conundrum. Interviewees include Ron Reyes (Black Flag), Tony Adolescent (The Adolescents), Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Fat Mike (NOFX), but the film’s anchor is Pennywise frontman Jim Lindberg – a man who once had a hit with the song ‘F*** Authority’, now to be found dyeing his goatee (‘Gotta keep the dream alive!’) and censoring his kids’ use of the expletive ‘turd-head’.  A ‘coming-of-middle-age’ story at heart, this is a lively, genuinely charming film.

Fishbone’s story has everything – humour, conflict, break-ups and breakdowns. This band’s revolutionary blend of punk, funk and soul defied racial categorisation and united the divided communities of America. While critically acclaimed by their peers from Ice T to Gwen Stefani and George Clinton, their hyper-energetic on-stage antics and boundless creativity sadly did not lead to commercial success. Narrated by Laurence Fishburne, this film tells the fascinating stories of brainwashing and kidnapping allegations that rocked the band’s twenty-five year career, and also how their optimism has kept them going despite the setbacks. What Variety is calling ‘an inspirational happy film about failure’.

Volcano marks a profoundly moving feature debut from acclaimed shorts filmmaker Rúnar Rúnarsson. There is an admirable emotional maturity in the way he handles cross-generational conflict and the notion that it is never entirely too late to seek redemption. Hannes has spent forty years as a school caretaker in Reykjavík. Adrift in aimless retirement, he sinks further into misanthropy, alienating a family who only come to visit out of loyalty to their long-suffering mother Anna. When Anna suddenly falls ill, Hannes looks after her, showing glimpses of the caring human being that has been unseen for decades. Told with an acute understanding of the way we sometimes hurt the ones we love the most.

Masterful Italian actor Toni Servillo is reunited with Andrea Molaioli (director of GFF favourite The Girl by the Lake) for this timely financial thriller charting the rise and fall of a food and drink company as its ambitious intentions are corrupted by greed and mismanagement. The true story of food giant Parmalat provides the inspiration for a film that illuminates so many of the financial woes crippling Italy and the eurozone. Amanzio Rastelli (Remo Girone) has built Leda from a small family deli into a major corporation. His Chief Financial Officer Ernesto Botta (Servillo) has dedicated his life to the company’s success which is why he is willing to bend the law and break all the rules when it is faced with ruin.

Brian Ladoon is the kind of wilderness man who seems tailor-made for a Werner Herzog film. In 1976, Ladoon began a lifelong mission to protect and preserve the beautiful Canadian Eskimo dog – qimmiq – which is the rarest registered breed of dog in the world. The dogs once numbered in their thousands but had been reduced to hundreds by the late 1970s. The Last Dogs of Winter tells Ladoon’s story and that of Caleb Ross, a young New Zealand actor who travelled to Churchill, Manitoba in search of adventure and stayed three years. An inspirational documentary with awe-inspiring footage of the landscapes, the dogs and the polar bears who share their territory.
This film will screen with beautiful animated short Amaqqut Nunaat (The Country of Wolves, 11 mins), winner of the prestigious Best Short Drama and Best Emerging Artist awards at the ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival 2011.

The right to die with dignity and determine the timing and manner of your own demise provokes heated arguments in Scotland. How to Die in Oregon is a powerful, compassionate and deeply moving contribution to the debate. In 1994, Oregon became the first American state to pass an assisted suicide law. Peter Richardson’s documentary begins with the terminally ill Roger taking the cocktail of drugs that will kill him. It follows a number of individuals considering a similar option, as well as Nancy Ziedzielski as she attempts to get a Death with Dignity law passed in Washington State. Told with acute sensitivity, this is a balanced, thought-provoking documentary on an issue that touches us all.

The latest documentary from Werner Herzog is one of his finest as he explores the human cost of crime and its consequences. Herzog brings a forensic thoroughness to the stories of a wide range of individuals touched by a triple homicide case in Conroe, Texas in 2000 that led to the convictions of teenagers Michael Perry and Jason Burkett. Herzog’s interest is much less in the grisly details of what happened and more in the legacy it left for the families of the victims, the convicted killers themselves and their loved ones. He presents his evidence and challenges the viewer to form their own opinion. That is the power and the profundity of this poignant, lyrical film.

Luke Fowler is a Glasgow-based artist and filmmaker. His work has been exhibited internationally, with solo shows at the Serpentine Gallery, London and in February 2012 at Inverleith House, Edinburgh. In 2008 he won the inaugural Derek Jarman Award for experimentation in film. In All Divided Selves Fowler returns to a subject he has tackled before (in What You See is Where You’re At , 2001), that of the life and work of Glasgow counter-culture psychiatrist R D Laing. Drawing on an impressive selection of archive material, Fowler builds up a layered collage, juxtaposing a multitude of viewpoints to create an unconventional portrait of a fascinating figure and a thought-provoking exploration of the very nature of documentation.

Across America an expanding number of cities are witnessing the appearance of an extraordinary subculture: real-life superheroes. Like most of our beloved fictional heroes, many live fairly run-of-the-mill lives, but when the sun sets they transform into their fantastical alter-egos, fighting crime and dispensing justice (some more adeptly than others). Superheroes follows the exploits of a handful of these self-appointed caped crusaders as they attempt to make a difference in their communities. For some, being a superhero is all about wearing the colourful costume and confronting crooks, while for others it’s as simple as making sure a homeless man has clean clothes to wear.