Liev Schreiber

Frequent Daily Show correspondent Demetri Martin stars as Elliot Tiber, the man who greenlit the permit for the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969, in this comedy from acclaimed director Ang Lee. Longtime collaborator James Schamus adapts the book Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life by Tiber and Tom Monte, with Emile Hirsch, Liev Schreiber, and Eugene Levy co-starring in the Focus Features production. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Emmy award-winning filmmaker David Grubin explores the struggle of a tiny minority to integrate itself into the American mainstream while remaining true to their roots in this documentary that begins as 17th Century Jews arrive in New Amsterdam, and traces their journey as they contend with racism and suspicion in a fledgling republic. Ever since the first Jews arrived in America, their efforts to embrace the new culture while simultaneously maintaining tradition has often found them frequently branded as outsiders. When the first Jews landed on American shores in 1654, New Amsterdam governor Peter Stuyvesant attempted to reject them to no avail. Overruled by his superiors in the Netherlands - who claimed that Jews could contribute to the growth of the newly founded colony as well as anyone else - Stuyvesant relented, and a new era was underway. Over the course of the next few centuries, the Jews would play prominent roles in such important phases of United States history as the Civil War and westward expansion. From politics to entertainment, the Jews would continue to display their unique talent for innovation and adaptation in a wide variety of arenas. Yet despite the fact that the separation of church and state would open up a wide world of opportunities for them, the American Jew continued to endure anti-Semitism at the behest of such powerful figures as automotive magnate Henry Ford. Through it all, however, their spirits remained eternally hopeful, and forever unbroken. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

It marks an odd and intriguing footnote to the Second World War: liberation-linked discoveries aside, the world attained much of its knowledge about what happened in Auschwitz from two concentration camp prisoners, Alfred Wetzler and Rudolph Vrba, who escaped from that hellhole and determined to reveal the breadth and depth of the brutality they had witnessed to Allied nations and officials. After commandeering a miraculous escape from the said death penitentiary, Vrba and Wetzler prepared a 32-page document known as the Vrba-Wetzler Report and promptly delivered it to Allied officials - thereby saving the lives of countless potential victims. In the process, however, Hungarian ruler Miklós Horthy deliberately withheld this information from his countrymen for a lengthy period. To no one's surprise, this stirred up massive degrees of controversy and dissent. The documentary Secrets of the Dead: Escape from Auschwitz details this remarkable series of events via interviews, archival footage and commentary. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Inspired by a true story, director Edward Zwick's epic World War II drama Defiance tells the tale of three Jewish Eastern European brothers (Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, and Jamie Bell) who narrowly escape certain death at the hands of the Nazis, subsequently vowing to avenge the deaths of their loves ones by launching a desperate battle against the forces that seek to exterminate their entire race. The year is 1941, and the setting is Nazi-occupied Poland. The Final Solution is in full effect, and the Jews of Eastern Europe are being slaughtered wholesale. Tuvia (Craig), Zus (Schreiber), and Asael (Bell) have miraculously managed to escape into the dense surrounding forest. Having played in these woods since childhood, the brothers have a distinct advantage over their adversaries, and soon decide that simply surviving is not enough. In order to make a difference, they must take action, but in order to take action they will need support. As whispers of their bravery take wind, others like them appear determined to lay their lives on the line for the cause of freedom. Tuvia has become the de facto leader of the group, but he's still somewhat reluctant to take on such a heavy responsibility and his brother Zus expresses concern that his idealistic plan will ultimately bring about the group's downfall. With winter setting in, everyone works to create a functioning community that will help them endure the frigid months that lie ahead, and Asael reluctantly finds himself caught in the crossfire of his older siblings' rivalry. Is it possible to keep faith alive in a time when the world seems devoid of humanity and survival becomes a way of life? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The Kid Stays in the Picture director Brett Morgen turns his unique eye toward the infamous 1968 Democratic National Convention in this 2006 documentary. Using a star-studded voice cast along with a blend of archival footage and animation, Morgen tells the story of the eight demonstrators who were arrested and tried for conspiracy in the wake of the violent anti-war protests. Featuring the voices of Nick Nolte and Mark Ruffalo among others, Chicago 10 premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Produced in association with National Geographic, Sean Phillips' Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure utilizes state-of-the-art three dimensional photography in order to tell the tale of Dolly, a prehistoric sea creature who negotiates the waters at a time when a sea divides North America into two parts. The film alternates between these fictional recreations, and modern scientists exploring these areas in the present day. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Touched by the plight of an aspiring Iraqi filmmaker whose dreams of working in Hollywood seemed to fall with Baghdad, American filmmaker Liev Schreiber invites the ambitious wannabe director to intern on Everything Is Illuminated, to unexpected results. In 2004, just one year after the United States launched a devastating attack on Baghdad, MTV ran a story about a 25-year-old Iraqi film student named Muthana Mohmed, who remained determined not to let the strife that consumed his country consume his dreams as well. At the time, American actor Schreiber was preparing to make his directorial debut with the film Everything Is Illuminated. After seeing the documentary on television, Schreiber was consumed by guilt for having so many amazing opportunities in the film industry and determined to give Mohmed the chance of a lifetime by inviting him to join the production of Everything Is Illuminated in the Czech Republic. Common wisdom dictates that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions," however, and as Mohmed attempted to balance the complications of living away from home for the first time with the cultural issues that arise while working with an all-American film crew, the situation quickly began to deteriorate. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Based on Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez's novel of the same name, director Mike Newell's Love in the Time of Cholera details a passionate love triangle that unfolds in turn-of-the-century South America. Oscar-winning Pianist scribe Ronald Harwood adapts the story of two young lovers who bide their time for years while anxiously awaiting the day they can finally be together. Through marriages, affairs, careers, and deaths, the couple never loses hope that destiny will unite them in the end. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

For over a century, The Michigan Wolverines and the Ohio State Buckeyes have been doing battle on the college gridiron. This documentary traces the rich history of this storied rivalry, underlining the importance it plays to both schools, and profiles some the games' legendary figures including Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

A couple with a broken relationship learns some valuable lessons about love, life, and sacrifice in this romantic drama based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It's 1925, and Dr. Walter Fane (Edward Norton) is a physician and bacteriologist who has become smitten with Kitty (Naomi Watts), the beautiful daughter of a wealthy and socially prominent family. Walter proposes marriage to Kitty and she accepts; however, while he clearly loves her, Kitty is more interested in her reputation than Walter's feelings, as she's recently turned 25, an age by which most of her peers have already wed. Kitty and Walter move to Shanghai, where he sets up a practice and she takes a lover, the British Vice Consul Charles Townsend (Liev Schreiber). When Walter learns of his wife's infidelity, he becomes furious, and impulsively volunteers to travel to China to work in a village stricken with a major cholera epidemic. While Walter's actions are meant to punish Kitty rather than reflect his own benevolence, the daily trials of living in a community in crisis have a striking impact on the couple, giving them a new and deeper perspective on their relationship. The Painted Veil is the third screen adaptation of Maugham's best-selling novel of the same name; a 1934 version starred Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall, while Eleanor Parker and Bill Travers played the leads in a 1957 remake titled The Seventh Sin. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A young boy grows up among a makeshift family of oddballs and dreamers in this adaptation of Ruben Santiago-Hudson's acclaimed one-man show. Ruben Junior (Marcus Carl Franklin) is a young boy who was born in the late '40s into a family that started crumbling not long after he was born. Ruben Junior's parents were from Lackawanna, a city in Upstate New York, and were living in a rooming house run by Nanny Crosby (S. Epatha Merkerson), whose place was a hub for the local African-American community. When Ruben Junior's parents split up, he and his mother return to Lackawanna and Nanny's rooming house; with mother overworked physically and in sad shape emotionally, Nanny takes Ruben Junior under her wing, and offers him the sort of nurturing she gives all her boarders. Nanny's house is full of people struggling for a fresh start in life, ranging from former convicts to recovering drug addicts, and she opens both her doors and her heart to them as they strive to make themselves better people. Ruben Junior finds a loving home amidst the colorful eccentrics in Nanny's circle of friends, but as America changes over the course of the 1950s and '60s, so does the neighborhood where Nanny and her tenants live -- and not for the better. Produced for the premium cable network HBO, Lackawanna Blues features a stellar supporting cast, including Delroy Lindo, Louis Gossett Jr., Rosie Perez, Jimmy Smits, Jeffrey Wright, Mos Def, and Ernie Hudson. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide