Vik Muniz is an internationally-acclaimed artist best known for his playful recreations of famous masterpieces using quotidian materials–the peanut butter and jelly Mona Lisa, for example. But coming from a lower class background in Brazil, Muniz is now developing an interest in breaking out of art world gags and doing something more global, more socially significant.

Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes introduced his film Buried thusly: “I am sorry that Ryan Reynolds cannot be here today, because he is much taller and better looking than I am, but I have this accent, which perhaps to you is sexy. This is a film about a man in a coffin. That’s it. And yet you are still here. I don’t know why.”

Rooftop alum Sam Green and Dave Cerf’s philosophical film essay Utopia in Four Movements swirls brilliantly and casually through cultural history and detritus, through fantasy and forgotten fact. The film hits NYC in October.

Traveling to one of the most isolated countries in the world, making fun of one of the most deadly regimes in history, takes courage and passion, but it should also be terrifying.

Gasland opens on September 15th at the IFC Center in New York City.
Learn more about Gasland screenings in your area.

When a natural gas mining company offered Josh Fox and his upstate New York neighbors $100,000 each for the right to drill for gas on their land, Fox thought he’d better examine what was going on [...]

My first day at Sundance
went pretty smoothly, especially considering that I had to wake up at 4 AM to
catch my plane and that they had to make an emergency landing when someone fell
seriously ill over the Midwest. I didn’t get into Park City until 2 PM, yet
still managed to catch four films and get back [...]