Best movies like Being Venice

A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.

A dancer who has just gotten engaged to her partner and choreographer and is about to embark on a major career is devastated to learn that she has contracted polio.

Soon to be a father, Mark feels the pressure of domestic responsibility closing in, so he is more than happy to accept when his old friend Kurt proposes a camping trip in the Oregon wilderness. During their time together, the men come to grips with the changes in their lives and the effect on their relationship.

A social event choreographed in the manner of a dance, illuminated by concepts drawn from Greek legend; one of filmmaker Maya Deren’s most intriguing works.

A ten year old girl named Angela leads her six year old sister, Ellie, through various regimens of 'purification' in an attempt to rid themselves of their evil, which she believes to be the cause of their mother's mental illness. Precocious, to say the least, Angela has visions of Lucifer coming to take her and her sister away, and one of her remedies for this is for them to remain within a circle of their dolls and toys until they see a vision of the virgin Mary come to them. But such thinking can only lead to an ending befitting of her own mental state.

At a remote lake house in the Adirondack Mountains, a couple entertains an out-of-town guest looking for inspiration in her filmmaking. The group quickly falls into a calculated game of desire, manipulation, and jealousy, unaware of how dangerously intertwined their lives will soon become.

An intimate portrait of a 9 year old sociopath as he discovers his taste for killing.

When Laura Harris's kidnapped son returns after eleven devastating years, what she thinks will be a dream come true turns out to be a family nightmare.

SITTING ON THE EDGE OF MARLENE is a darkly comedic feature film drama that centers on a mother-daughter con artist duo. An adaptation of the Billie Livingston novella titled The Trouble With Marlene, it is a bittersweet and emotional journey that deals with dysfunction, love and addiction and ends with an unusual deliverance for the compelling mother and daughter duo.

Diana Guzman begins to train as a boxer and achieves impressive success, blazing new trails for female boxers, all while keeping it a secret from her father.

Three actors in Hollywood live and love together. A director comes from New York to make a movie about actors and Hollywood.

A young woman trapped in an abusive relationship becomes an unwitting participant in an intervention staged by her two closest friends.

An undocumented Filipina immigrant lands a job as a careworker for a seemingly terminal old man, securing a better life for her and her daughter. But a dark discovery threatens to destroy everything she’s strived for and holds dear.

Kayla, an underprivileged Japanese American 16 year old, endangers her promising future as an aspiring artist when she becomes involved with a drug dealer.

Filmmaker Kimberly Reed returns home for her high school reunion, ready to reintroduce herself to the small town as a transgender woman and hoping for reconciliation with her long-estranged adopted brother Marc. Things are complicated by the shocking revelation that Marc may be the grandson of Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, forcing Kim and her family to explore questions of sexual orientation, identity, severe trauma and love.

While on a journey of discovery in exotic India, beautiful young Ruth Barron falls under the influence of a charismatic religious guru. Her desperate parents then hire PJ Waters, a macho cult de-programmer who confronts Ruth in a remote desert hideaway. But PJ quickly learns that he's met his match in the sexy, intelligent and iron-willed Ruth.

A former valedictorian quits her reporter job in New York and returns to the place she last felt happy: her childhood home in Connecticut. She gets work as a lifeguard and starts a dangerous relationship with a troubled teenager.

A Mexican-American master chef and father to three daughters has lost his taste for food but not for life.

Executive Producer Sean Penn presents "Witch Hunt," a gripping indictment of the American justice system told through the lens of one small town. Voters in Bakersfield, California elected a tough on crime district attorney into office for more than 25 years. During his tenure he convicted dozens of innocent working class moms and dads. They went to prison, some for decades, before being exonerated. He remains in office today. This story on a micro level mirrors what the US has experienced over the last eight years. When power is allowed to exist without oversight civil rights are in jeopardy.

For the first time in 15 years, all four siblings in a family show up to care for their dying mother, who is only given a couple of weeks to live. One comes from America with her two children. A divorced sister also comes with her child and sneaks off regularly to meet a mystery man who may be her ex-husband. The third & youngest daughter is an unmarried nurse aware of her ticking biological clock. The only son chases after his grumpy father who seems to not care a whit about his wife's circumstances. The four are also faced my their mother's dreams to accomplish a few things before she dies - to visit a beach she had visited in the past, to see her youngest married, and to visit Paris. She also wants to be embalmed and be honored with a 21 gun salute. Thus the whole group has to set off in the quest to fulfill their mother's wishes.

After a ten year absence, acclaimed filmmaker Molly Dineen is back with a new feature documentary: Being Blacker; an intimate portrait of Jamaican-born reggae producer, businessman, father, son and prominent community figure, Blacker Dread. 40 years after featuring in Dineen’s first film, Blacker and his family, friends and community in South London face the combined challenges of rapid social change, gentrification, inequality, poverty, crime and racism as they seek to secure their futures. Made with intimacy and warmth, the film takes us deep into Blacker’s world as he buries his mother, closes his business and faces prison for the first time. Being Blacker offers a rarely-heard perspective on life in Britain today.

Alex is the definition of loser. He has no, nor has he ever had, friends. His life has no direction and he has a stupid haircut. While attending the Venice Beach Art School, he meets Lizzy, Patrick and Gnome, who become his friends. When Alex figures out he should make a movie, he decides to do an "alternative political documentary in black and white" about Gnomes struggle to free Hawaii. He hires some brain dead film students and meets the girl of his dreams and he's all ready to make his movie. Until the first scheduled shooting date when Gnome, who has the budget, turns up missing.

Palestinian director Bassam Jarbawi's debut feature film tackles the physical and emotional toll of one man's return home after 15 years in an Israeli jail.

Max is a trendy, pretty, young lesbian, who is having trouble finding love. A friend sets her up with Ely, whom Max likes, but Ely is frumpy, homely, and older. Nor do they have much in common. Can Max learn to look past the packaging?

Naive young Karen wants to help her struggling amateur filmmaker boyfriend Christopher raise enough money so he can divorce his wife. Meanwhile, jolly psycho-prankster Otto stalks the building where Christopher is shooting a low-grade adult movie in order to keep himself afloat.

Three attractive sisters have one year to avenge their mother's murder and collect her inheritance.

Venturing from Venice Beach to Watts, Varda looks at the murals of LA as backdrop to and mirror of the city’s many cultures. She casts a curious eye on graffiti and photorealism, roller disco & gang violence, evangelical Christians, Hare Krishnas, artists, angels and ordinary Angelenos.

Sara, a cold college professor, and her husband, an ecstatic painter, spend a summer away from the city, straining their rocky relationship.

A TV documentary crew arrive on a remote island in the Philippines to film a survival special. Their back-to-the-wild adventure proves to be more terrifying than they ever could have imagined

Twenty-something Brooklynites Allie and Harper are directionless, privileged, and just a tiny bit damaged. All they want is to get to the beach, where a drug-fueled afternoon with cute boys awaits them. Alas, the journey becomes needlessly complicated, as the girls’ bike ride from Williamsburg to Fort Tilden Beach is littered with a barrage of unfriendly circumstances and the realization that their life skills are more limited than they should be.

When aspiring filmmaker David is mandated by a judge to attend a social program at the Jewish Community Center, he is sure of one thing: he doesn't belong there. But when he's assigned to visit the Brooklyn Bridge with the vivacious Sarah, sparks fly and his convictions are tested. Their budding relationship must weather Sarah's romantic past, David's judgmental mother, and their own pre-conceptions of what love is supposed to look like.

In this modern-day vision of Mother Mary's pilgrimage, a woman crosses the American Southwest playfully deconstructing the woman’s role in a world of roles.

’Distance’ is an award-winning, independent feature film exploring the distance between men and women through the intertwined stories of two couples. Made by the filmmaker while he was still in his 20s, ‘Distance’ features Oscar-nominee James Woods in his first leading role.

After the Waller family move into a new house, they find an unknown supernatural presence haunts the backyard swimming pool.

Six animated shorts eschew traditional animation by featuring supernatural elements and darker themes, such as alien snatchings, life among mannequins and a spiritual rebirth. Among the films are "Ape," which features a couple fighting over a cooked monkey every night; "The Story of the Cat and the Moon," which is a tale of unrequited love; and "Gentle Spirit," which is based on a Fyodor Dostoyevsky story.