It’s not necessary for me to say that we are living in difficult times – times that tax our ability to adjust to a life heretofore unknown to us. Like many of you, watching movies has been a way to escape from this dreadful reality into another world – one devoid of the challenges we are currently facing.

“One of Us,” is a no holds barred documentary feature illuminating the intricate, almost police state of the Hasidic Jews living in Brooklyn. Originally released in 2017, the film was produced and directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, former members of that biotic community, and illuminates the severe consequences to anyone wishing to leave the safety of that non-secular “state.”

Italian director Giuseppe Capotondi’s directing career kicked off at age 23. He cut his teeth on music videos and over 250 TV commercials, subsequently winning international awards. The Burnt Orange Heresy, his second feature, is a fascinating Hitchcockian mystery which has more twists and turns than a salted pretzel.

Under the deft, delicate hand of Swedish director Levan Akin, who is of Georgian decent, And Then We Danced is a tender love story that combines the long-standing tradition of exciting Georgian folk dancing, which just about every child learns growing up...

Nena Anderson is in constant motion. She has to be. She has a garden and confesses “I like to cook out of it.” There are also two dogs, three chickens, teen-agers, a husband and five on-going, musical projects. Six, if you count her collaboration on Alex Woodard’s, For the Sender.

Well, it’s been a week. And once again I find myself sitting on the park bench in Vevey, Switzerland next to the statue of Charlie Chaplin, with whom I share the panorama of shimmering Lake Geneva and the pristine snowcapped Alps in the distance.

Its 2020, so it should be perfectly clear to you there is simply no better way to start the decade than with a new project from Sue Palmer. She continues to mine her four decade, freakishly large catalog of music in order to provide us with Gems: Volume 2.

To cineastes, Chaplin is more than the man who created the iconic Little Tramp, but one of the greatest filmmakers of all-time. Legendary film critic and father of American auteurism, Andrew Sarris, places Chaplin in his pantheon of the 14 most influential American film directors in his still ground breaking book, "The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968."

Tanel Toom directed the brilliant “Truth And Justice,” Estonia’s entry for the Best International Feature Film Oscar. Shot for under three million dollars, Rein Kotov’s cinematography gave a mega-million dollar look to the film.

Throughout 2020, Chaplin’s World, the only museum dedicated to Charlie Chaplin, will celebrate the music of Charlie Chaplin, giving visitors a chance to experience a range of tributes to Chaplin the artist, composer, and musician.