After the Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2001 only 20 people were pulled from the rubble alive. 20 people. Port Authority Police Sergeant John McLoughlin and Officer Will Jimeno were numbers 18 and 19. World Trade Center is their story, told through the eyes of Jimeno, McLoughlin and their families. There’s no political agenda or finger-pointing. World Trade Center is very simply a tale of hope, courage and survival on one of America’s darkest days.

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More than 300 years ago, 3 witches were sentenced to die in Salem, Massachusetts and a boy was turned into a cat (a black cat, naturally). Now it’s Halloween, and the witches (who fly on [I kid you not] vacuum cleaners) are back. This time, they’ve got their eyes on immortal life and have turned their wrath on trick-or-treaters and it’s up to the 300-year-old cat to save the day. Written by Steve Derby {sderby@sdeco.com}

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The siblings Noah and Emma travel with their mother Jo from Seattle to the family cottage in Whidbey Island to spend a couple of days while their workaholic father David Wilder is working. They find a box of toys from the future in the water and bring it home, and Emma finds a stuffed rabbit called Mimzy, and stones and a weird object, but they hide their findings from their parents. Mimzy talks telepathically to Emma and the siblings develop special abilities, increasing their intelligences to the level of genius. Their father becomes very proud when Noah presents a magnificent design in the fair of science and technology, and his teacher Larry White and his mystic wife Naomi Schwartz become interested in the boy when he draws a mandala. When Noah accidentally assembles the objects and activates a powerful generator creating a blackout in the state, the FBI arrests the family trying to disclose the mystery. But Emma unravels the importance to send Mimzy back to the future. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

French vs. American social customs and behaviors are observed in a story about an American visiting her Frenchman-wed sister in Paris.

Has-been director Harry Dawes gets a new lease on his career when independently wealthy Kirk Edwards hires him to write and direct a film. They go to Madrid to find Maria Vargas, a dancer who will star in the film. Millionaire Alberto Bravano takes Maria from Kirk. Count Vincenzo Torlato-Favrini takes Maria from Alberto. Written by Ed Stephan {stephan@cc.wwu.edu}

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I walked out of “House of Sand and Fog” with two distinct thoughts pinging around in my brain. One, the acting in “House of Sand and Fog” was some of the best of the year. And two, I was thinking in amazement about the way director/screenwriter Vadim Perelman was able to make me alternately despise and cheer for each of the central characters in a balanced fashion over the entire course of the movie. Normally you get to pick one bad guy and wish evil thoughts on him or her over the course of the film. That’s not so easy with “House of Sand and Fog.” The characters were so well developed and human, with all the foibles that implies, it was difficult to find a hero or a villain and label them with that designation for longer than a scene or two.

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While Skrat the Saber Toothed Squirrel is still ineffectually trying to regain his precious acorn, the misfit trio of Manny the Mammoth, Sid the Sloth and Diego the Sabretooth Tiger have settled down in an isolated valley with numerous other animals. However, the trio discover that the ice wall surrounding the valley is barely holding back a massive body of water behind it and it’s melting state threatens to break and flood the valley. With their one chance of survival being a boat at the other end of the valley, the trio follow the desperate exodus there. Along the way, they meet Ellie, a female mammoth who is convinced she’s a opossum like her brothers. While the strange group continues the trek, they must learn to get along even as Manny struggles to find some connection to this strange female who may be the only other one of his kind. Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)

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A conflict develops between a troubled Vietnam veteran and the sister he lives with when she becomes involved romantically with the army buddy who reminds him of the tragic battle they both survived. Written by Keith Loh {loh@sfu.ca}

A newspaper photographer, Jean, researches the lurid and sensational axe murder of two women in 1873 as an editorial tie-in with a brutal modern double murder. She discovers a cache of papers that appear to give an account of the murders by an eyewitness. The plot weaves between the narrative of the eyewitness and Jean’s private struggle with jealousies and suspicions as her marriage teeters. Written by Anonymous

Hilary Duff stars in this great film about a teen age girl who is very upset about her brother’s death in a car crash. Terri (Hilary Duff) has a love of singing and making up her own songs. Her brother (before his death) secretly submits a DVD of her singing to a musical contest down in L.A. Her father doesn’t want her to go, but secretly her mom lets her go and everything goes fine, except she has stage fright. She gets through her stage fright with the help of her new friend Jay. At the end of the contest everyone at the musical school have to perform something. And if they win, they win a scholarship along with it. Her dad finds out, comes down to L.A. and makes her go home! Will he let her stay? and will she win the contest? Viewers are on the edges of their seats to find out what happens… Written by Emily Moore

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