Saturday Matinee: Natural City

“Natural City” (2003) is a dystopian science fiction film from South Korean director Min Byeong-cheon. The plot focuses on two cops, R and Noma, who (not unlike Blade Runners) must hunt down renegade cyborgs. The rogue cyborgs are designed for roles ranging from military commandos to companion “dolls” and have a limited 3 year lifespan, though black market technology enables the transfer of a cyborg’s mind into the brain of a human host. This breakthrough compels R into finding Cyon, an orphaned prostitute who could potentially host the mind of Ria, a doll he’s fallen deeply in love with and who has only a few days left before expiration. Eventually, R must make a difficult decision testing his split personal and professional loyalties.

Watch the full film here.

Saturday Matinee: The Brotherhood of the Bell

The Brotherhood of the Bell is a 1970 made-for-television movie produced by Cinema Center 100 Productions and starring Glenn Ford. The director Paul Wendkos was nominated in 1971 by the Directors Guild of America for outstanding directorial achievement in television.

The film relates how a successful Economics professor, Dr. Andrew Patterson, discovers that an elite fraternity he had joined 22 years before in college is really a callous banking and business cabal that obtains wealth and power for its members through nefarious practices.

Saturday Matinee: Kim Dotcom – Caught in the Web

The larger-than-life story of Kim Dotcom, the “most wanted man online”, is extraordinary enough, but the battle between Dotcom and the US Government and entertainment industry, being fought in New Zealand, is one that goes to the heart of ownership, privacy and piracy in the digital age. Three years in the making, this independent film chronicles a spectacular moment in global online history, dubbed the ‘largest copyright case’ ever and the truth about what happened.

Watch the full film here.

Saturday Matinee: Land of the Blind

“Land of the Blind” (2006) is a British-American political satire directed by Robert Edwards and starring Ralph Fiennes, Donald Sutherland, Tom Hollander and Lara Flynn Boyle. The story is set in an unnamed place and time where an idealistic soldier named Joe strikes up an illicit friendship with a political prisoner who involves him in a coup d’etat. But in the post-revolutionary world, Joe and his former friend have a bitter feud which escalates until Joe’s co-conspirators conclude they must erase him from history.