The Savant

The vinyl record renaissance over the past decade has brought new fans to a classic format and transformed our idea of a record collector: younger, both male and female, multicultural. This same revival has made buying music more expensive, benefited established bands over independent artists and muddled the question of whether vinyl actually sounds better than other formats. Vinyl Nation digs into the crates of the record resurgence in search of truths set in deep wax: Has the return of vinyl made music fandom more inclusive or divided? What does vinyl say about our past here in the present? How has the second life of vinyl changed how we hear music and how we listen to each other?

Avery, a teenager with a tendency towards perfectionism, enlists her friend Larson to help her prepare for her first time with her long-distance boyfriend.

After the pharmacy in her small town is robbed, a girl who still lives at home with her parents takes matters into her own hands to solve the crime, while at the same time trying to get over her ex-boyfriend and become more of an adult.

When hot shot, Wall Street dealmaker Jai thinks of putting some pleasure into his 48 hour business trip to Mumbai, Sahil, his young, music-producer friend, drops everything, including his reckless boyfriend Alex, to help him execute the perfect getaway. Hiking the hills and canyons of Maharashtra, amidst half-attempted conversations and sudden silences, business calls and old jokes, the friends discover there is more than just time-zones keeping them apart. Things take another turn when Alex shows up with a new male-companion at his side, throwing up old conflicts and bringing unanswered questions to the fore.

Kidnapped by a mysterious figure, three women find themselves trapped in an abandoned hospital. Held against their will for months, the prisoners are faced with life-transforming decisions and must struggle for their lives.

A disgraced police man is sent to work security at a local high school and ends up training an autistic boy with talents for mixed martial arts.

Uprooted after her father’s death during the pandemic, an Iraqi-American woman attempts to grieve at the site of the oldest Iraqi Church in North America. What starts in profound isolation, becomes communal as Iraqi women, ordinary and extraordinary, come to her in spirit and ancestry with their personal stories of love and resilience.

Past and future collide when former child stars Honey and Clover are thrust back into the spotlight together, threatening to reveal their darkest secrets.

Ever since the onset of her dementia, reality, dream and nightmare have become intertwined for Rose, making her something like a maverick time traveler. Her filmmaker daughter Rea Tajiri is also her caregiver. In this fond portrait, she visualizes Rose’s spiritual, philosophical and sometimes surprisingly specific stories in the order they come: a non-linear sequence illustrated by her own footage shot over many years, accompanied by snatches of conversations and images from the family archive. Rose’s eventful journey through time is rich with memories and sensitively accompanied by a fitting soundtrack.