Van Diemen’s Land (Jonathan auf der Heide, 2009)

“A grey, horribly-beautiful vision of Hell.” – Simon Foster, SBS.

Now called Tasmania, Van Diemen’s Land was originally a feared and dreaded penal settlement, a final stop at the edge of the world for those convicts unwanted by the British Empire. In 1822, eight convicts escaped the brutal Macquarie Harbour penal station and were forced into the brutal Tasmanian wilderness when their plan went awry. With little food and equipment, these Irish, English, and Scottish fugitives battled harsh conditions and aching hunger in a merciless and unforgiving land – a land where God wields an axe. Director Jonathan auf der Heide and actor Oscar Redding create a grimly poetic retelling of Alexander Pearce’s infamous escape from Macquarie Harbour and the unthinkable acts he committed during his 113 days at large.

Special Features:

• Audio commentary with director and co-writer Jonathan auf der Heide, co-writer and lead actor Oscar Redding, and cinematographer Ellery Ryan
• A Journey Up River: Making Van Diemen’s Land
• Three additional featurettes: The Battle of the Beards, Subtleties of the Slate, and From Bailbo to Van Diemen’s Land
• Hell’s Gates, Jonathan auf der Heide’s 2008 short film
• Two Devils, Jonathan auf der Heide and Gregory Erdstein’s 2014 short film
• Theatrical teaser and trailer
• Original storyboards
• A 24 page booklet featuring production photos and a new essay by film scholar Roderick Heath

Deluxe Edition – Package Includes:

• Van Diemen’s Land on Blu-ray or Standard DVD featuring over 2½ hours of bonus material
• DRM-free Digital Download of the film on 1080p, 720p and mobile/tablet formats
• 27″ x 40″ Movie Poster

Barfly (Barbet Schroeder, 1987)

“He said he was going to cut off his finger if I didn’t make his film.” – producer Menahem Golan.

“Terrific.  Completely original from beginning to end.” – Roger Ebert, SISKEL & EBERT.

American poet and novelist extraordinaire Charles Bukowski drew upon his own life to script this story that tickles and jabs the social underbelly of booze, bars and brave madness.  Downtrodden writer Henry (Mickey Rourke) and distressed goddess Wanda (Faye Dunaway) may be wedded to their bar stools, but they like each other’s company and that says a lot, but when a young publisher smitten with Henry’s outsider mystique appears, Henry must choose between life as a literary lion or a freewheeling alley cat.  Barbet Schroeder directs this “classic one-of-a-kind comedy” (Vincent Canby, The New York Times), offering a giddy, whisky-soaked vision of life on the skids and the proud individuals who refuse society’s demands.

Special Features:

• Audio commentary with director Barbet Schroeder
• A new interview with Schroeder, producer Tom Luddy, and former Cannon Films co-owner Yoram Globus
• “I Drink, I Gamble, I Write …”, a featurette on writer Charles Bukowski and the making of Barfly
• The Charles Bukowski Tapes, Schroeder’s 240-minute assembly of interviews with Bukowski
• Bukowski, Taylor Hackford’s 60-minute documentary for PBS
• Theatrical trailer
• 32-page booklet featuring Barbet Schroeder’s article “Bukowski: The Legend and the Misunderstandings” written for Playboy magazine, Roger Ebert’s 1987 account of visiting Barfly‘s set, and Charles Bukowski’s “letter from a fan” in support of the film

Golden Horn Edition – Package Includes:

• Barfly on Blu-ray or Standard DVD booklet featuring over 6 hours of bonus material!
• DRM-free Digital Download of the film on 1080p, 720p, and mobile/tablet formats
• 27″ x 40″ reversible poster
• Charles Bukowski’s novel Hollywood, inspired by the making of Barfly

Bugsy Malone (Alan Parker, 1976)

“Bugsy Malone is the last great musical.” – John Burgess, THE GUARDIAN.

It’s 1929.  A vicious mob war is tearing the city apart.  One man is caught in the middle.  And no one has hit puberty yet.

Get splurged with this offbeat slapstick gangster musical that features ruthless mobsters, gin hall singers and hard-nosed cops .. played exclusively by a cast of children.  Showcasing the talents of a pre-Chachi Scott Baio and a 13 year-old Jodie Foster (fresh off playing a child prostitute for Martin Scorsese in Taxi Driver), Sir Alan Parker’s Bugsy Malone is the most elaborate game cops and robbers ever attempted.  Baio is Bugsy Malone, a small-time boxing promoter who gets mixed up with some pint-sized gangs competing to take over the “sarsaparilla racket” with a cache of “splurge guns” – Tommy Guns that shoot gobs of custard and take their victim out of commission.  Goofing on cliches of prohibition-era gangster pics, the film plays off the absurdity of miniature mobsters talking up dancers at speakeasies and chasing each other in Model T pedal cars, all while supported by Broadway-style song and dance numbers written (and sometimes performed) by Paul Williams.  This gangster epic will appeal to kids and adults alike, and the only thing criminal is how cute these crooks are as they wage their pocket-sized mob war.

Special Features:

• Audio commentary with writer-director Sir Alan Parker
• Optional “Sing-A-Long” version
• “From Sketch to Screen” – rough shot sketches synched to the film’s soundtrack
• After They Were Famous: Bugsy Malone, a 2003 retrospective on the film made from British television
• Trailers
• Photo Gallery
• Production Art Gallery including sketched and full painted concept art
• 32-page booklet featuring an essay by Sir Alan Parker on the making of the film and a new essay by film scholar Kier-La Janisse

Splurge Edition – Package Includes:

• Bugsy Malone on Blu-ray or Standard DVD featuring over 3 hours of bonus material!
• DRM-free Digital Download of the film in 1080p, 720p, and mobile/tablet formats
• Instant download of the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Paul Williams
• 27″ x 40″ reversible poster
• Parker’s graphic novel adaptation of Bugsy Malone, illustrated by Graham Thompson

Mind Game (Masaaki Yuasa, 2004)

“The Citizen Kane of animation” – Bill Plympton

Based on Robin Nishi’s underground manga, Masaaki Yuasa’s Mind Game is a singularly daring first feature that fully embraces the creative freedom of animation.  This surrealistic adventure follows aspiring comic book artist Nishi from death and back again, then into the belly of a whale where he learns to pursue his dreams and take charge of his life while in the company of his childhood crush, her no-nonsense sister, and an elderly man trapped inside for more than 30 years.  Mind Game, another vibrant and imaginative work of Japan’s celebrated Studio 4°C, blends flat animation, CGI, and digitally-painted live action into a roughly hewn, artistically exaggerated, cult masterpiece.  Technically surreal and aesthetically defying, Mind Game is a brave and inspiring work of art unlike anything in Japanese anime and global animation.

Special Features:

• Audio commentary with director Masaaki Yuasa
• Footage from the Mind Game completion reception
• Pre-screening discussions at the Mind Game premiere
• Cast and crew interviews
• Koji Morimoto’s Noiseman Sound Insect, a 15-minute anime produced by Studio 4°C and featuring the designs and animation of Masaaki Yuasa
• Cat Soup, Tatsuo Sato’s experimental 33-minute anime written and produced by Masaaki Yuasa
• Masaaki Yuasa’s crowd-funded short, Kick-Heart
• Trailer
• A 16-page booklet featuring an interview with Yuasa and an essay by Japanese film scholar Mark Shilling

Kami-sama Edition – Package Includes:

• Mind Game on Blu-ray or Standard DVD featuring over 4 hours of bonus material!
• DRM-free Digital Download of the film in 1080p, 720p, and mobile/tablet formats
• Instant Download of Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Seiichi Yamamoto and including Fayray’s closing song “Saisho de Saigo no Koi”
• Storyboards and concept art by Masaaki Yuasa
• Complete Mind Game manga by Robin Nishi
• Illustrated Postcards

The American Astronaut (Cory McAbee, 2001)

“Imagine a Laurel & Hardy skit directed by Salvador Dali.” – ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“More original than almost anything you’ve seen this millennium.” – SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

“Now that’s entertainment!” – FILM THREAT

“Surprising and hilarious! May be the most wonderfully strange film experience you have this year.” – ELLE MAGAZINE

Space travel has become a dirty way of life dominated by derelicts, grease monkeys and hard-boiled interplanetary traders such as Samuel Curtis.  Written, directed and starring Cory McAbee of the legendary cult band The Billy Nayer Show, this sci-fi musical-western uses flinty black-and-white photography, Lo-Fi sets and the spirit of the final frontier.  We follow Curtis on his Homeric journey to provide the all-female planet of Venus with a suitable male, while pursued by the enigmatic killer, Professor Hess.  The film features music by The Billy Nayer Show and some of the most original rock ‘n’ roll scenes ever committed to film.

Also included are McAbee’s hour-long, genre-defying space western Stingray Sam, his 52-minute fantasy Crazy & Thief, and his award-winning short films Reno, The Ketchup and Mustard Man, The Man on the Moon, and Billy Nayer, collected together here for the first time and providing a comprehensive review of one of America’s most audacious independent filmmakers.

Special Features:

• Live audio commentary with writer, director, and star Cory McAbee
• Gallery of production stills, storyboards, graphic designs, and sidewalk drawings
• Ceres walk test footage
• Trailers
• Stingray Sam, McAbee’s 2009 musical-comedy, sci-fi-western serial recounting Stingray Sam and the Quasar Kid’s mission to save a kidnapped girl, with behind the scenes extra footage
• Crazy & Thief, McAbee’s 2012 fantasy about a seven year-old girl who takes her two year-old brother on a voyage through a world of homemade mythologies
• Reno, a 2007 short starring McAbee as a singing cowboy bragging about his travels through Nevada
• The Ketchup and Mustard Man, a stream of consciousness-narrated musical
• The Man on the Moon, McAbee’s short film about a dejected husband exiled on the moon, shot on a Fisher Price Pixel Camera
• Billy Nayer, an animated short film direct by and starring McAbee as a singing bar patron
• 24-page booklet of photos, production stills and promotional materials, plus a new interview with Cory McAbee

“Hertz Donut” Edition – Package Includes:

• The American Astronaut on Blu-ray or Standard DVD
• DRM-free digital download of The American Astronaut and other films by McAbee on 1080p, 720p, and mobile/tablet formats
• Instant Download of the Original Motion Picture Soundtracks by The Billy Nayer Show for The American Astronaut and Stingray Sam
• 27″ x 40″ posters for The American Astronaut and Stingray Sam
• Stingray Sam Film Program
• The American Astronaut and Stingray Sam T-shirts
• The American Astronaut and Stingray Sam stickers

Milocrorze: A Love Story (Yoshimasa Ishibashi, 2011)

“Almost impossible to define – it has samurai fights, oddball fantasies and retro musical dance scenes.” – Mark Adams, SCREEN DAILY.

From visionary artist Yoshimasa Ishibashi comes Milocrorze: A Love Story, an epic collection of tales on obsessive love and the lengths men will go to for it.  Three distinct tales of love gone wrong are offered, each featuring rising Japanese star Takayuki Yamada, moving between the candy-colored world of an innocent, lovelorn man-child to the uproarious realm of Japanese television and an overbearing relationship coach dispensing dubious advice to the cyberpunk-infused world of a vengeful samurai on a quest to reunite with his lost love.  Amid its elaborate musical numbers and jaw-dropping slow-motion sword battle, Milocrorze provides a sincere vision of romantic love through a slightly warped lens, making this 2011 Fantastic Fest multiple award winner “one of the most uniquely structured and entertaining anthology pictures to come out in quite some time” (Adam Charles, FILM SCHOOL REJECTS).

Special Features:

• Interview with filmmaker Yoshimasa Ishibashi
• Interview with star Takayuki Yamada
• Making of featurette
• Theatrical trailer
• 24-page booklet of photos, production stills, and promotional materials, plus an interview with filmmaker Yoshimasa Ishibashi

Verandola Gorgonzola Edition – Package Includes:

• Milocrorze: A Love Story on Blu-ray or Standard DVD
• DRM-free Digital Download of the film in 1080p, 720p, and mobile/tablet formats
• 27″ x 40″ one sheet poster designed by Mondo Artist Matt Taylor