Michael Caplan

Down to their last dollar and fresh out of legitimate ideas, art gallery owner Candy and her gay business partner Jon hatch a scheme.

From the late-night club crawl to the buff-bunny gyms, from the threat of anti-gay violence to the place where condemnation, compromises and closets are a thing of the past, the film exposes the sexual, spiritual and political yearnings at the heart of gay America.

Algren will spotlight the hard-knock life and authentic creative legacy of one of the most underrated writers of the twentieth century, Nelson Algren. Algren's brutally honest portrayal of the American underclass and his hard-nosed lifestyle became his pathway to compassion. Through interviews with Algren contemporaries, experts, and "literary soulmates," as well as through the photography of Algren's friends, Art Shay and Stephen Deutch, the film will tell his story. It will celebrate his tremendous contribution to and influence on American letters, and push Algren, champion of the marginalized, out from the margins.

Why is it that societies need magicians to lie to them? It's a question magician and philosopher Eugene Burger addresses as the world-renowned 'Guru of Magic.' In 'A Magical Vision,' Eugene and a circle of other thoughtful magicians reveal why, from past to present, mystery is essential.