Author: Josh Hornbeck

Josh is the founder of Cinema Cocktail, and he is a writer and director, podcaster and critic, and communications and marketing professional living and working in the greater Seattle area.

Pop Aye (2017) | May 26

On a chance encounter, a disenchanted architect bumps into his long-lost elephant on the streets of Bangkok. Excited, he takes his elephant on a journey across Thailand in search of the farm where they grew up together. – JustWatch.com

Director: Kirsten Tan

Cast: Thaneth Warakulnukroh, Penpak Sirikul, Bong

Country: Thailand

Distributor: Kino Lorber

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hour, 44 minutes

Platform: Prime Video, Hulu

Special Events: Filmmaker Conversations

Where to Watch

Filmmaker Conversations

The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (2013) | May 25

Returning home from a business trip to discover his wife missing, a man delves deeper and deeper into a surreal kaleidoscope of half-baked leads, seduction, deceit, and murder. Does anyone in the building know something? – IMDb.com

Director: Hélène Cattet , Bruno Forzani

Cast: Klaus Tange, Jean-Michel Vovk, Anna D’Annunzio, Hans de Munter, Birgit Yew, Ursula Bedena, Elsebeth Steentoft, Sylvia Camarda

Country: Belgium

Distributor: Strand Releasing

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hour, 42 minutes

Platform: Shudder

Special Programming: Midnight Movies

Where to Watch

Yomeddine (2018) | May 25

A Coptic leper and his orphaned apprentice leave the confines of the leper colony for the first time and embark on a journey across Egypt to search for what is left of their families. – JustWatch.com

Director: Abu Bakr Shawky

Cast: Rady Gamal, Shahira Fahmy, Ahmed Abdelhafiz, Osama Abdallah, Shehab Ibrahim, Mohamed Abd El Azim, Yasser El-Ayouti

Country: Egypt

Distributor: Strand Releasing

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hour, 37 minutes

Platform: Video-on-Demand

Special Events: Filmmaker Conversations

Where to Watch

Filmmaker Conversations

Out 1: Parts 3 & 4 (1971) | May 25

Once thought an impossible-to-see legend of cinephilia, Jacques Rivette’s multi-part epic has been revived, restored, and is available for your delirious immersion. It was originally conceived for French television by the director and Cahiers du cinéma editor and critic, but never properly shown. In its astoundingly adventurous, freeform creation—taking improvisation beyond dialog and performance into storytelling itself—the opus represents what might be considered the last great gesture of the French New Wave. – MUBI

Director: Jacques Rivette

Cast: Michèle Moretti, Hermine Karagheuz, Karen Puig, Pierre Baillot, Marcel Bozonnet, Jean-Pierre Léaud

Country: France

Distributor: Carlotta Films

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 3 hours, 34 minutes

Platform: MUBI, Kanopy

Special Programming: Long-Form Cinema, Classic Cinema

Where to Watch

An Easy Girl (2019) | May 25

Naima is 16 and lives in Cannes. She has given herself the summer to choose what she wants to do with her life. Then her cousin Sofia, with her alluring lifestyle, arrives to spend the holidays with her. – IMDb.com

Director: Rebecca Zlotowski

Cast: Mina Farid, Zahia Dehar, Benoît Magimel, Nuno Lopes, Clotilde Courau, Lakdhar Dridi, Loubna Abidar, Henri-Noël Tabary

Country: France

Distributor: Netflix

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hour, 32 minutes

Platform: Netflix

Where to Watch

Daughter of Mine (2018) | May 25

A daughter torn between two mothers, one who raised her with love and her biological mother, who instinctively claims her back. – JustWatch.com

Director: Laura Bispuri

Cast: Valeria Golino, Alba Rohrwacher, Sara Casu, Udo Kier

Country: Italy

Distributor: Strand Releasing

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Platform: Prime Video, Kanopy

Where to Watch

Ganja & Hess (1973) | May 24

Flirting with the conventions of blaxploitation and horror, Bill Gunn’s revolutionary independent film Ganja & Hess is a highly stylized and utterly original treatise on sex, religion, and African American identity. Duane Jones stars as anthropologist Hess Green, who is stabbed with an ancient ceremonial dagger by his unstable assistant, bestowing upon him the blessing of immortality… and the curse of an unquenchable thirst for blood. When the assistant’s beautiful and outspoken wife Ganja comes searching for her missing husband, she and Hess form an unexpected partnership. Together, they explore just how much power blood holds. – Kino Lorber

Director: Bill Gunn

Cast: Marlene Clark, Duane Jones, Bill Gunn, Sam Waymon, Leonard Jackson. Candece Tarpley, Richard Harrow

Country: United States

Distributor: Kino Lorber

Rating: R

Runtime: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Platform: Shudder, Kanopy

Special Programming: Midnight Movies, Classic Cinema

Where to Watch

My Twentieth Century (1989) | May 24

Two twin sisters, who grew up separately, Dóra, a pseudo-aristocrat, and Lili, an anarchist bomber, are reunited through Z, a mysterious traveller of the luxurious Orient-Express. – IMDb.com

Director: Ildikó Enyedi

Cast: Dorota Segda, Paulus Manker, Péter Andorai, Gábor Máté, Eszter Kovács, Oleg Yankovskiy, Sándor Czvetkó

Country: Hungary

Distributor: Kino Lorber

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hour, 42 minutes

Platform: Kanopy

Special Programming: Classic Cinema

Where to Watch

Raining in the Mountain (1979) | May 24

An esquire and a General eyes a priceless handwritten scroll by Tripitaka, held in a Temple library. The Abbot of the Temple selects his successor. – JustWatch.com

Director: King Hu

Cast: Hsu Feng, Sun Yueh, Tung Lam, Tien Feng, Paul Chun, Shih Chun, Ng Ming-Choi

Country: Hong Kong

Distributor: Film Movement

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 2 hours

Platform: The Criterion Channel

Special Programming: Classic Cinema

Where to Watch

Out 1: Parts 1 & 2 (1971) | May 24

Once thought an impossible-to-see legend of cinephilia, Jacques Rivette’s multi-part epic has been revived, restored, and is available for your delirious immersion. It was originally conceived for French television by the director and Cahiers du cinéma editor and critic, but never properly shown. In its astoundingly adventurous, freeform creation—taking improvisation beyond dialog and performance into storytelling itself—the opus represents what might be considered the last great gesture of the French New Wave. – MUBI

Director: Jacques Rivette

Cast: Michèle Moretti, Hermine Karagheuz, Karen Puig, Pierre Baillot, Marcel Bozonnet, Jean-Pierre Léaud

Country: France

Distributor: Carlotta Films

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 3 hours, 19 minutes

Platform: MUBI, Kanopy

Special Programming: Long-Form Cinema, Classic Cinema

Where to Watch