Alan Arkin

Few people realize it today, but famed actor Alan Arkin wrote two science fiction short stories in the 1950s, beginning with "Whiskaboom" in 1955 and "People Soup" in 1958. This volume collects both classic tales!

Bubber, a lemming, and his family are getting ready. It is the morning of the great march west and the leap into the sea. Bubber is excited- until his friend Crow starts asking questions. Bubber struggles with the decision to participate in what appears to be an insane death walk, only to be told constantly by family and friends that this is just the way things are. In this allegory about conformity, Bubber is faced with following his...

In 1943 a young British officer, Norman Lewis, entered a war-torn Naples with the American Fifth Army. Lewis began writing down everything that happened to him during his one-year stay, observing the complex social cauldron of a city that contrived unbelievable methods of survival on a daily basis. These notes turned into his masterpiece, a memoir titled NAPLES ‘44. Francesco Patierno's new documentary imagines Lewis returning many years later to...

Vince Rizzo is a lifelong resident of the tiny, tradition-steeped Bronx enclave of City Island. A family man who makes his living as a corrections officer, Vince longs to become an actor. Vince would rather let his wife believe his weekly poker games are a cover for an affair than admit he is secretly taking acting classes in Manhattan. When Vince is asked to reveal his biggest secret in class, he inadvertently sets off a chaotic chain of events that...

Times are tough at the real estate firm of Premiere Properties. Shelley "the machine" Levene (Lemmon) and Dave Moss (Harris) are veteran salesmen, but only Ricky Roma (Pacino) is on a hot streak. The new Glengarry sales leads could turn everything around, but the front office is holding them back until these "losers" prove themselves. Then someone decides to take matters into his own hands, stealing the Glengarry leads and leaving everyone wondering...

The Emperor's New Clothes: con-artists who fool a vain and ruthless Emperor into believing that they can create the most exquisite of clothes that are invisible to those who are foolish or unworthy ; The Nightingal: The Emperor of Cathay lives in a porcelain palace with his courtiers and riches, but completely cut off from any real people. When he hears about a magical bird called the Nightingale and it's exquisite song, he demands an audience with...

As one of the last "natural" beings born into a genetically engineered world, Vincent Freeman has none of the 'pre-ordered' DNA that will guarantee him success. Desperate to realize his dream of exploring space, Vincent assumes the identity of a genetically superior athlete. Avoiding detection using the athlete's genetic markers, Vincent becomes a rising star at Gattaca Aerospace, attracting the attention of a beautiful co-worker. When a flight director...

The policy of "extraordinary rendition" began under the Clinton administration and accelerated after September 11, 2001. The policy allows for the handing over of suspected terrorists to countries that use torture as an interrogation tool. Anwar El-Ibrahimi is an Egyptian-born man who disappears on a flight from Africa to Washington, DC. He is sent to a North African country where torture is practiced and the CIA gives approval. Anwar's pregnant American-born...

In Gattaca, only the strong succeed and the strong are genetically pre-selected at birth. When one man dares to defy the system, he gets caught in a web of lies, corruption, and murder. In the future when one's genetic code can be altered, read, and judged, Vincent, an "In-valid", takes over the personality of one of the genetic elite in order to become a space navigator.

The story of a group of fliers in the Mediterranean during World War II.