Festival Films in Alphabetical Order
Acting like a Thief
(P. Kerim Friedman and Shashwati Talukdar, India, 2005; 23 min.)
A film about a Chhara tribal theater group in Ahmedabad, India. Starting with the arrest of playwright Dakxin Bajrange, the documentary reveals how the Budhan Theater has transformed the lives of adults and children within the community.
[Monday, 2:00 p.m., 2312 Whalen Center]
Afro Promo
(Jenni Olson and Karl Knapper, United States, 2006; 91 min.)
An irresistible program of trailers that traces the evolution of "black cinema" through the crucial period of 1946-1976. Filled with insights on race and social dynamics, this fascinating compendium of "coming attractions" explores an extensive range of stylistic approaches-"blaxploitation," comedy, music bio, plantation drama, and more.
[Tuesday, 7:00 p.m., 285 Park Hall]
Amen
(Constantin Costa-Gavras, France/Germany/Romania/United States, 2002; 132 min.)
Two systems: the Nazi machine versus the Vatican and Allied diplomacy. Two men struggling from the inside. On one side, Kurt Gerstein, a real-life chemist and SS officer, supplied the death camps with zyklon B while he tirelessly denounced the crimes and alerted the Allies, the Pope, the Germans, and their churches at his family's and his own risk. On the other, Ricardo Fontana, a young Jesuit, a fictitious character who represents all the priests who had the heart to struggle against savagery, often paying for their courage with their lives. (This film is presented as part of the Tournées Festival.)
[Sunday, 7:15 p.m., Fall Creek Theater]
American Blackout
(Ian Inaba, United States, 2006; 92 min.)
Chronicles the recurring patterns of disenfranchisement witnessed from 2000 to 2004 while following the story of Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who not only took an active role in investigating these election debacles but also found herself in the middle of one after publicly questioning the Bush administration about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
[Wednesday, 4:00 p.m., 285 Park Hall]
Anxious Animation
(Other Cinema, United States, 2006; 81 min.)
A compilation of six contemporary film artists who take us into surreal worlds of delirium and paranoia-and panic.
[Wednesday, 4:00 p.m., 140 Park Hall]
Arlit: Deuxieme Paris
(Idrissou Mora Kpai, Niger/France, 2004; 75 min.)
Arlit, once a boom town, is a case study in environmental racism set in a uranium mining town in the Sahara Desert of Niger. Here European corporations extract nuclear power and profits, leaving behind disease, contamination, and unemployment. Ironically, the primary activities of Arlit today is waiting-waiting to die of radiation-related sicknesses or to emigrate to find work in Europe itself. Company doctors blithely deny any connection between poor occupational safety and health conditions and their workers' illnesses; they blame 99 percent of the deaths on smoking and AIDS. (This film is presented as part of the Global HIV/AIDS Series.)
[Wednesday, 3:00 p.m., 115 Center for Natural Sciences]
As Ever
((Bev Sommer, United States; 5 min.)
A portrait in black and white of a place once known and now kept in memory, the searching and revisiting in As Ever stamps it as the visual equivalent of the devout, familiar phrase before the sign-off of a letter. (This film is presented as part of the FLEFF open call.)
Aspect VII: Chronicle of New Media Art Personas and Personalities *
(Microcinema, United States, 2006; 74 min.)
This volume of Aspect features artists working with issues of identity and personality, including Carianacarianne, Anthony Goicolea, Sachiko Yahashi, Lynn Hershman, Christian Jankowski, Erik Levine, Kristin Lucas, Jill Magid, Adrianne Wortzel, and the Yes Men. For some, a constructed identity is an opportunity to explore personal or cultural issues of gender, accountability, and culpability. Other artists make their own personality an integral part of their work and process. All the works in this issue examine the role of personal psychology in how we interact with others and our surroundings on an everyday basis.
[Thursday, 1:10 p.m., 138 Park Hall]
At Highest Risk
(Rebecca Rivas, United States, 2006; 45 min.)
Rebecca Rivas and a small crew lived in some of the most inaccessible regions of the southern Andes to study solutions to Peru's high maternal mortality. The solutions to South America's second highest maternal death rates are not easy when both the Andean traditions and international political pressure are so strong, yet a few select organizations and members of the Ministry of Health are trying to integrate the women's traditions with the public health system.
[Wednesday, 4:00 p.m., 57 Hill Center]
Between Two Fires: Torture and Displacement in Northern Uganda *
(Witness, United States/Uganda, 2006; 14 min.)
Part of a video advocacy campaign to address the issue of torture and other cruel and degrading punishment committed against the IDP communities of Northern Uganda. Through the personal stories of torture survivors, the video advocates for official acknowledgment of these abuses, redress for torture victims, as well as implementation of legislative measures to strengthen national mechanisms against the use of torture.
[Wednesday, 2:00 p.m., 2330 Whalen Center]
Black Gold
(Mark Francis and Nick Francis, United Kingdom/United States, 2006; 78 min.)
Multinational coffee companies now rule our shopping malls and supermarkets, and dominate the industry worth over $80 billion, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil. Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. The film follows the trail of Tadesse Meskela, a man on a mission to save his 74,000 struggling coffee farmers from bankruptcy.
[Friday, 7:15 p.m., Fall Creek Theater]
Blowing Up Paradise
(Ben Lewis, French Polynesia, 2005; 60 min.)
Uses color archival footage to chronicle France's explosion of various nuclear devices, in violation of the international test ban treaty, from the first test in 1966 to the last in 1995. Interviews with former and current French government officials, scientists, and nuclear advisers illuminate France's political agenda of the era, as well as its continuing denial of responsibility for the social devastation wrought and its refusal to pay any compensation to former test workers.
[Tuesday, 2:35 p.m., 53 Hill Center]
Bushman's Secret *
(Rehad Desai, South Africa, 2006; 65 min.)
When South African filmmaker Rehad Desai travels to the Kalahari to investigate global interest in ancient Bushmen knowledge, he meets Jan van der Westhuizen, a Khomani San traditional healer. Jan's struggle to live close to nature is hampered by centuries of colonial exploitation of the San Bushmen and of their land. The Khomani now live in a state of poverty that threatens to see the last of this community. One plant could make all the difference. Hoodia, a cactus used by Bushmen for centuries, has caught the attention of a giant pharmaceutical company. It now stands to decide the fate of the Khomani San.
[Tuesday, 9:25 a.m., 59 Hill Center]
Buyer Be Fair: The Promise of Product Certification *
(John de Graaf, United States, 2006; 57 min.)
Takes viewers to Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the United States, and Canada to explore how conscious consumers and businesses can use the market to promote social justice and environmental sustainability through product labeling, with a focus on fair trade coffee and Forest Stewardship Council certified wood. The film is balanced, as it reaches beyond the choir to present the promise of product certification to a wide audience.
[Thursday, 4:00 p.m., 115 Center for Natural Sciences]
Can't Do It in Europe
(Charlotta Copcutt, Anna Weitz, and Anna Klara Åhrén, Bolivia, 2005; 46 min.)
The film portrays the new phenomenon of "reality tourism," whereby bored American or European travelers seek out real-life experiences as exciting tourist "adventures." It follows a group of such international tourists as they visit the mines in Potosi-the poorest city in the poorest nation in Latin America-where Bolivian miners work by hand, just as they did centuries ago, to extract silver from the earth.
[Wednesday, 3:00 p.m., 2312 Whalen Center]
Cartonero
(Ernesto Livon-Grosman, Argentina, 2006; 61 min.)
Follows the paper recycling process in Buenos Aires from the trash pickers who collect paper informally through middlemen in warehouses, to executives in large corporate mills. The process exploded into a multimillion dollar industry after Argentina's latest economic collapse. The documentary is both a record of an economic and social crisis and an invitation to audiences to rethink the value of trash.
[Saturday, 4:25 p.m., Cinemapolis Theater]
The Corner Shop
(Lauren Steiner, United States, 2006; 22 min.)
A short, independent documentary film made in Cleveland, Ohio, about the community of the beauty shop. Through interviews, the film explores the relationships and bonds that are formed in beauty salons and how these unlikely spaces have served as community centers in many women's lives. Beauty professionals and clients share funny and touching stories of lifelong friendships and sharing.
[Monday, 7:00 p.m., 277 Park Hall]
Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul
(Fatih Akin, Turkey/Germany, 2005; 90 min.)
Alexander Hacke (of the German avant-garde band Einstürzende Neubauten) first came into contact with the city and its music while producing the score for the movie Head-On. A collector of musical styles and an experimenter with sound, Hacke roams the streets of Istanbul with his mobile recording studio and "magic mike" to assemble an inspired portrait of Turkish music.
[Saturday, 9:35 p.m., Cinemapolis Theater]
Days of Glory (Indigènes)
(Rachid Bouchareb, France/Morocco/Algeria/Belgium, 2006; 120 min.)
These young North Africans had never stepped foot on French soil but because France was at war, Saïd, Abdelkader, Messaoud, and Yassir enlisted in the French army in 1943, along with 130,000 other "indigenous soldiers," to liberate the "fatherland" from the Nazi enemy. These heroes that history forgot won battles in Italy, Provence, and the Vosges before finding themselves alone to defend an Alsatian village against a German battalion.
[Friday, 7:15 p.m., Fall Creek Theater; Saturday, 2:15 p.m., and Sunday, 7:15 p.m., Cinemapolis Theater]
Dinka Diaries *
(Filmon Mebrahtu, United States, 2005; 56 min.)
Tells the story of some of America's most recent arrivals-Sudanese refugees who would have never dreamt a few years ago that they'd be living in America. Over the course of 10 months, the film follows the lives of three Sudanese refugees who resettle in the Philadelphia area and adjust to the new American culture and way of life.
[Thursday, 6:50 p.m., 201 Friends Hall]
Dirty Laundry
(Richard Fung, Canada, 1996; 31 min.)
Explores the hidden and lost histories of Asian-Canadian culture, while investigating issues of sexual and social behaviors misinterpreted by the dominant culture. "How can you be Chinese and not speak Chinese?" the train steward asks Roger. "How can men hold hands and not be gay?" is a question asked from the modern viewpoint of Roger's double pictures. These two enigmas slowly emerge to nag us throughout Dirty Laundry.
[Tuesday, 2:35 p.m., 103 Textor Hall]
Disappearances
(Jay Craven, United States, 2006; 118 min.)
Based on the award-winning novel by Howard Frank Mosher. Legendary actor/songwriter Kris Kristofferson stars as schemer and dreamer Quebec Bill Bonhomme in a spellbinding tale of high-stakes whiskey-smuggling, a family's mysterious past, and a young boy's rite of passage.
[Saturday, 7:15 p.m., and Sunday, 9:35 p.m., Fall Creek Theater]
The Disappearing of Tuvalu: Trouble in Paradise *
(Christopher Horner and Gilliane Le Gallic, France/United States, 2004; 50 min.)
A detailed overview of contemporary life in the tiny South Pacific country of Tuvalu, this film documents the earth's first sovereign nation faced with total destruction due to the effects of global warming. Observation, narration, and interviews with Tuvalu citizens from various walks of life flesh out a full portrait of a unique community confronting a dubious future on the front lines of a global environmental assault.
[Thursday, 2:35 p.m., 279 Park Hall]
Does Anyone Die of AIDS Anymore?
(Louise Hogarth, United States, 2002; 26 min.)
Despite the much-hyped advances in treatment that, for some patients, have transformed HIV from a death sentence to a chronic illness, tens of thousands of people are still dying of AIDS in the United States. And tens of thousands more will die, even in this rich and medically advanced nation, because of ignorance and denial, resulting in a "third wave" of HIV infection. This discomfiting film reiterates: "Our hospice beds are still full. Somebody's got to speak up and say 'this is not over!'" (This film is presented as part of the Global HIV/AIDs Series.)
[Thursday, 9:25 a.m., 2105 Whalen Center]
Dragones, Destino de Fuego
(Eduardo Schuldt, with screenplay by Giovanna Pollarolo, Peru, 2006; 80 min)
Dragones, Destino de Fuego is a fantastic tale about an awkward young dragon prince who was raised as a condor and must learn to grow into the role of a hero. A gem from Peru’s budding animation industry, this beautiful story chronicles a dragon’s journey to uncover his family’s past. Returning home, he discovers his village is destroyed. Along the way, he discovers the secret to making his world a better place is to respect all living creatures-- no matter how different they might be.This is the latest feature animation from the pioneering Peruvian production house of Alpamayo.Fun for the entire family .
[Saturday, March 31, Cinemapolis, 2:15 p.m.]
Dramatically Repeating Lawrence of Arabia
(Les LeVeque, United States, 2004; 15 min.)
A re-edit of David Lean's 217-minute orientalist "classic" Lawrence of Arabia into a 15-minute hallucination of repeating masculinized poses, costumes, and dramatic gestures. An algorithmic structure condenses and frame-by-frame remixes the original film into a cycling of divergence, convergence, and momentary mirrorings. LeVeque's remix transforms a Hollywood representation of heroic colonialist history into an affect of melancholy.
[Tuesday, 7:00 p.m., 285 Park Hall]
Echoes of Forgotten Places: Urban Exploration, Industrial Archaeology, and the Aesthetics of Decay *
(Robert Fantinatto, United States, 2005; 63 min.)
On the fringes of every city lie the relics of our industrial past. Swept aside to make way for condos and shopping malls or left to decay in silence, these huge structures stand as a testament to the accomplishments of the industrial age. Echoes of Forgotten Places is a unique journey into locations rarely seen by the public.
[Tuesday, 4:00 p.m., 140 Park Hall]
Elgar's Enigma
(Annie Goldson and Peter Wells, New Zealand, 2006; 53 min.)
This documentary follows the theory that the English composer, Edward Elgar, was moved to write his Cello Concerto in E minor by the WWI death of a young New Zealand soldier, the son of Elgar's first great love, Helen Weaver. The concerto is one in the classical repertoire and is known as a powerful war requiem, grieving for a world changed forever by the Great War.
[Tuesday, 2:00 p.m., Longview]
Epilogue
(Tran T. Kim-Trang, United States, 2005; 14 min.)
An experiment short that completes The Blindness Series consisting of eight experimental videos investigating metaphorical and physical blindness. The series creates a nonlinear structure wherein the filmmaker examines six topics related to blindness: cosmetic surgery, sexuality, surveillance, hysterical blindness, word blindness, and actual blindness.
[Tuesday, 7:00, p.m., 285 Park Hall]
Escape Velocity
(Scott Ligon, United States, 2006; 28 min.)
Digital painter Scott Ligon's first animated short film, which explores the connection between ADD and creativity using his own life in self-deprecating, humorous examples. He attempts to form a stream of consciousness, multilayered narrative that emulates the day to day ADD experience.
[Wednesday, 11:00 a.m., 202 Center for Health Sciences]
Fateless
(Lajos Koltai, Hungary, 2005; 140 min.)
Based on the 2002 Nobel Prize-winning novel by Imre Kertesz, Fateless chronicles the attempts of 14-year-old Gyuri Koves to reconcile the unimaginable horror of having been incarcerated in German concentration camps. On his return to Budapest, Gyuri finds those around him treat him with indifference. His friends and neighbors encourage him to put the past behind him, while an intellectual sympathetic to the personal and political terror of his past repeatedly refers to the camps as "the lowest circle of Hell." Gyuri finds neither comfort nor meaning in these clichés. Increasingly troubled by the meaninglessness of his experiences, he gives human motives to the inhumanity of his captors, which helps maintain his tenuous hold on the world.
[Saturday, 4:35 p.m., and Sunday, 4:35 p.m., Cinemapolis Theater]
Fighting Chance
(Richard Fung, Canada, 1991; 30 min.)
A continuation of Richard Fung's previous documentary Orientations, which told of the personal challenges and struggles of Asian-Canadian gays and lesbians to express their sexual identities. Individuals and couples candidly discuss the various hurdles and challenges that AIDS has presented. Those affected must confront families, friends, the community, and most important, their inner selves.
[Tuesday, 1:10 p.m., 325 Smiddy Hall]
The Fittest Survive
(Oliver Ressler, Austria, 2006; 23 min.)
The video is based on filming the five-day course "Surviving Hostile Regions" done in January 2006 in Wales, Great Britain, by the AKE Group. The course instructors are British ex-special force soldiers. The participants are businessmen (who are preparing for business in Iraq and other dangerous regions), government officials, and mainstream journalists who, with their dishonest discourse of democracy and human rights, help to legitimize and secure the ideology of market-economics expansion.
[Wednesday, 11:00 a.m., 117 Center for Natural Sciences]
Five Factories
(Dario Azzellini and Oliver Ressler, Austria/Venezuela, 2006; 81 min.)
In their second film regarding political and social change in Venezuela, the filmmakers focus on the industrial sector, documenting forms of political participation. At the Alcasa aluminum plant in Ciudad Guayana, a textile factory in San Cristóbal, a tomato-processing plant in Altagracia de Orituco, a cocoa factory in Cumaná and a paper factory in Morón, the many layers of common ground are revealed.
[Wednesday, 4:00 p.m., 332 Park Hall]
Flow
(Scott Nyerges, United States, 2005; 4:26 min.)
Hand painted 16mm and 35mm filmstrips collude with video to render a meditation on the creeks and rivers of Austin, Texas, in paint and pixels. Flow has exhibited at the Tribeca Film Festival, the International Film Festival in Rotterdam, and CinemaTexas. (This film is presented as part of the FLEFF open call.)
Foel Drigarn
(Heather Phillipson, United Kingdom, 2006; 20 min. loop)
The ascent of a hill in Wales constructs a landscape filled with tension between visual and aural, near and distant, and past and present, using the body of the filmmaker as a carrier for elements at once reconciled and irreconcilable in the natural world. (This film is presented as part of the FLEFF open call.)
Fores
(Paul Ritt, Netherlands, 2005; 5 min.)
This close-up look at textures in the forest explores rhythmic patterns and the relationship between sound and movement through vivid, colorful images. Ritt, a mixed-media artist, has shown videos and computer animations at various international venues, including the Darklight Digital Film Festival, Filmfest Venio, and the KunstFilmBiennale Koln. (This film is presented as part of the FLEFF open call.)
The Forest for the Trees
(Bernadine Mellis, United States, 2005; 57 min.)
The film portrays the amazing story of the fight to clear Earth First activist Judi Bari's name after her car was bombed and she was arrested as a terrorist. It provides an intimate look at an unlikely team of young activists and old civil rights workers who come together to battle the U.S. government.
[Tuesday, 10:50 a.m., 325 Smiddy Hall]
Frankensteer
(Marrin Canell and Ted Remerowski, Canada, 2006; 45 min.)
A disturbing yet compelling documentary that reveals how the ordinary cow is being transformed into an antibiotic dependent, hormone-laced potential carrier of toxic bacteria, all in the name of cheaper food.
[Thursday, 9:25 a.m., 59 Hill Center]
The Gender Chip Project *
(Helen de Michiel, United States; 54 min.)
What is it like to be a young woman training in college for a career in the high stakes professions of science, math, engineering, and technology? For every new generation it takes key movements along the way to make a grand leap forward into professional adulthood. When gender collides with our cultural assumptions about who can flourish in these fields, how are young women changing the real and practical terms of engagement?
[Wednesday, 1:00 p.m., 281 Park Hall]
God Sleeps in Rwanda
(Kimberlee Acquaro and Stacy Sherman, United States, 2005; 28 min.)
A powerful documentary about five women whose lives have been irrevocably altered by the Rwandan genocide. With the country left nearly 70 percent female in the wake of the massacres, God Sleeps in Rwanda is a lucid portrait of the much larger change affected by women in the East African country.
[Friday, 3:00 p.m., 2312 Whalen Center]
Habana, Havana
(Alberto Arvelo Mendoza, Venezuela, 2004; 80 min.)
Venezuelan director Alberto Arvelo Mendoza subtly captures the lives of two Cubans in a fictional film with a strong documentary style. Raúl Eguren gives a commanding performance as the mature gentleman from the Cuban countryside who journeys to Havana on a quest to buy elegant shoes for his young daughter, while the other main character, a woman, goes through her daily routine, walking in the city. Havana reveals itself as a big city in which everything good and bad is possible.
[Friday, 9:35 p.m., Fall Creek Theater; Saturday, 7:15 p.m., Cinemapolis Theater]
Hazel & David
(Nomi Talisman, United States, 2005; 4:45 min.)
Found footage artist Nomi Talisman recontextualizes educational and academic films in her innovative, condensed works that comment upon the nature of film genre. The source for this amusing piece is David & Hazel, a 1963 marriage counseling drama from the National Film Board of Canada. The film was created as an invitational project for the Academic Film Archive. (This film is presented as part of the FLEFF open call.)
His People
(Edward Sloman, United States, 1925; 93 min.)
The two sons of a poor Jewish pushcart peddler on New York's Lower East Side are both causing their father grief. One, a selfish, ambitious student, wants to become a lawyer, and in doing so tries to hide his background from his friends. The other brother gets a job to help pay his brother's college education, and to his father's horror, becomes a prizefighter and plans to marry an Irish girl. (This film is presented with live music.)
[Sunday, 2:15 p.m. and 7:15 p.m., Cinemapolis Theater]
Hot Wax: Real Stories from a Free South Africa *
(Andrea Spitz, South Africa, 2004; 49 min.)
Ivy is a big, bubbly black woman who managed to run her own beauty salon surreptitiously during the dark days of apartheid. She lives in Alexandra, a restless and poor township, while her white, mostly elderly, clients live in the tree-lined suburbs of Johannesburg. While she masks her clients' imperfections, she also peels away layers of difference separating the races. While her white clients maintain their economic privileges and know little about Ivy's private world, since apartheid's end, Ivy owns her own shop and now meets her clients on an equal footing.
[Monday, 7:00 p.m., 277 Park Hall]
In Debt We Trust
(Danny Schecter, United States, 2006; 52 min.)
An Emmy-winning former ABC News and CNN producer's new hard-hitting documentary investigates why so many Americans are being strangled by debt. It is a journalistic confrontation with what former Reagan adviser Kevin Phillips calls financialization-the "powerful emergence of a debt-and-credit industrial complex."
[Tuesday, 1:10 p.m., 108 Smiddy Hall; Thursday, 10:50 a.m., 201 Center for Health Sciences]
Inside Out *
(Zohreh Shayesteh, Iran, 2006; 39 min.)
Maria is a middle-aged single woman with three children. Saman is a newly married young man. Arash is an 18-year-old high school dropout. All three are transsexuals living in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The film includes revealing interviews with a Muslim cleric who explains that the majority of Iran's religious leaders consider transsexuality to be a human rights issue and therefore support gender reassignment surgery.
[Friday, 1:00 p.m., 202 Center for Health Sciences]
Interstate (Part 1)
(Cortlund and Halperin, United States, 2006; 10 min.)
Interstate is a series of short video experiments designed around original footage shot at a traveling circus encampment alongside a busy Texas highway. Part one is a nighttime surveillance of elephants and zebras. The Austin-based Cortlund and Halperin have been collaborating on single and multichannel films and videos since 1996. (This film is presented as part of the FLEFF open call.)
Iraq in Fragments
(James Longley, United States/Iraq, 2006; 94 min.)
An opus in three parts, Iraq in Fragments offers a series of intimate, passionately-felt portraits: A fatherless 11-year-old is apprenticed to the domineering owner of a Baghdad garage; Sadr followers in two Shiite cities rally for regional elections while enforcing Islamic law at the point of a gun; a family of Kurdish farmers welcomes the U.S. presence, which has allowed them a measure of freedom previously denied. American director James Longley spent more than two years filming in Iraq to create this stunningly photographed, poetically rendered documentary of the war-torn country as seen through the eyes of Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. Winner of best director, best cinematography, and best editing awards in the 2006 Sundance Film Festival documentary competition, the film was also awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.
[Sunday, 4:35 p.m. and 7:25 p.m., Fall Creek Theater]
Islands
(Richard Fung, Canada, 2002; 9 min.)
Fung deconstructs the 1956 John Huston film Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, a story of the unrequited love of a shipwrecked American marine (Robert Mitchum) for an Irish nun (Deborah Kerr), to comment on the Caribbean's relationship to the cinematic image. Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison is set in 1944 in the Pacific but was shot in 1956 in Tobago using Trinidadian Chinese extras to portray Japanese soldiers. The artist's Uncle Clive was one such extra, and Fung searches the film for traces of his presence.
[Monday, 2:00 p.m., Longview]
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
(Stanley Nelson, United States, 2006; 86 min.)
Veteran filmmaker Stanley Nelson traces the stunning rise and fall of Peoples Temple and its charismatic founder, Jim Jones. Featuring never-before-seen footage, this documentary delivers a startling new look at the Peoples Temple, headed by preacher Jim Jones who, in 1978, led more than 900 members to Guyana, where he orchestrated a mass suicide via tainted punch.
[Sunday, 4:35 p.m., Fall Creek Theater]
July '64 *
(Carvin Elson, United States, 2006; 54 min.)
The night of Friday, July 24, 1964, started off normally enough in Rochester, New York, stiflingly hot and humid. But by the next morning no one would look at race relations in the North the same again. July '64 takes a penetrating look at the underlying causes of the riots or urban insurrections that swept through black communities like wildfire that summer and in years since.
[Tuesday, 9:25 a.m., 325 Smiddy Hall]
Kern No. 2
(Grant Wiedenfeld, United States, 2006; 3 min.)
This experimental short imagines the sight patterns of birds, bees, squirrels, and a grove of trees. Wiedenfeld is a filmmaker based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (This film is presented as part of the FLEFF open call.)
The Land Belongs to Those Who Work It *
(Chiapas Media Project/Promedios, Mexico, 2005; 15 min.)
The video discusses the situation in the town of Bolon Aja'aw, located near the famous Agua Azul River system. The federal government sold the land in Bolon Aja'aw to a private company to create an ecotourism center without the permission of the community members. The video documents a meeting between Zapatista authorities and Mexican government functionaries, and offers a critical look at the practical implications of so-called ecotourism.
[Friday, 11:00 a.m.., 108 Smiddy Hall]
Land, Rain, and Fire: Report from Oaxaca *
(Tami Gold and Gerardo Renique, United States/Mexico, 2006; 30 min.)
What began as a teachers' strike on May 22, 2006, for better wages and more resources for students has erupted into a massive movement for profound social change in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Land, Rain, and Fire chronicles the police attack on June 14, when more than 50,000 teachers were camped out with their children. Public anger transformed the strike into an unprecedented democratic insurgency. Hundreds of unions, indigenous and women's organizations, neighborhood groups, students, and professional associations came together and created the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca, a massive campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience has brought the state government to a standstill.
[Friday, noon, 220 Park Hall]
The Language of Wine
(Robert Coover, France, 2005; 52 min.)
The film offers an intimate and provocative glimpse into the daily world of winemaking in the great French winemaking region of Burgundy. It presents interviews with some of the world's leading winemakers as well as with small-scale vintners who work family plots in the evenings while holding day jobs, offering a view of how modern life is shaped both by contemporary pressures and a long and complex history.
[Tuesday, 10:50 a.m., 201 Center for Natural Sciences; Thursday, 1:10 p.m., 108 Smiddy Hall]
La Petite Jerusalem
(Karin Albou, France, 2004; 96 min.)
Sarcelles, a low-income housing neighborhood near Paris, is known among the high number of Jewish immigrants who live there as "La Petite Jerusalem." The film focuses on 18-year-old student Laura as she tries to reconcile all the conflicting influences and feelings to which study and experience have introduced her. This balanced debut feature from writer-director Karin Albou raises questions of religious interpretation, freedom, sexuality, and family relationships. (This film is presented as part of the Tournées Festival.)
Les Temps Qui Changent (Changing Times)
(André Téchiné, France, 2004; 90 min.)
Antoine arrives in Tangiers from Europe to supervise the building of an audiovisual center. The secret aim of his journey is to link up with Cécile, whom he has continued to love with a silent passion for more than 30 years. Set in Tangiers, Morocco, in the '50s, the film tackles large topics: temporary pleasure versus enduring commitment, the status of women in Morocco, bisexuality, and the economic gap between wealthy European nations and the third world. (This film is presented as part of the Tournées Festival.)
[Saturday, 2:15 p.m., Fall Creek Theater]
Liberia: A Fragile Peace *
(Steven Ross, United States, 2006; 60 min.)
A perfect follow-up to Liberia: An Uncivil War, picking up the Liberian saga in October 2003, with the departure of the despotic Charles Taylor, the arrival of interim President Gyude Bryant, and the deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force. More than a historical record, however, this film is an ideal case study in how difficult it is to rebuild a society once it has lapsed into anarchy, a condition afflicting more and more nations around the world.
[Thursday, 1:10 p.m., 210 Friends Hall]
L'Intrus (The Intruder)
(Claire Denis, France, 2004; 130 min.)
Louis Trebor, a man nearing 70, lives alone with dogs in the forest near the French-Swiss border. He has heart problems, seeks a transplant, and then goes in search of a son sired years before in Tahiti. The Intruder is a mysterious and enthralling story about fresh starts and the possibility of escape, a tale of both inner and outer travels. Like all of Claire Denis's films, it explores the literal and metaphorical borders, where natives and intruders intersect, searching for signs of home within and beyond the barriers of countries, cultures, and families. (This film is presented as part of the Tournées Festival.)
[Friday, 7:15 p.m., Fall Creek Theater]
Lions and Tigers and Bears
(Rebecca Meyers, United States, 2006; 12 min.)
Towering skyscrapers and urban architecture reveal traces of the wild: stone lions guard homes and museums; jaguars lend power and speed to business. Meanwhile, squirrels cross power lines and cats, dogs, and fish look out at the wilderness in watchful silence. Lions and Tigers and Bears premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival. (This film is presented as part of the FLEFF open call.)
Lula's Brazil *
(Gonzalo Arijon, Brazil, 2005; 62 min.)
When Luiz Inácio da Silva, a former metalworker known as Lula, won the Brazilian presidency in 2002 on a campaign promising agrarian reform and an end to hunger, popular hopes for social change galvanized the nation. The film examines the achievements as well as the failures of his presidency compared to his campaign promises, revealing how his ambitious plans have been frustrated by a clash with national and international economic interests.
[Tuesday, 10:50 a.m., 205 Friends Hall]
Mahasweta Devi: Witness, Advocate, Writer
(Shashwati Talukdar, India, 2001; 27 min.)
The lifetime of Mahasweta Devi has spanned the British period, Independence, and 50 years of post-colonial turmoil. Her writing has given Indian literature a new life and inspired two generations of writers, journalists, and filmmakers. A celebrated writer and tireless activist for the last two decades, she has battled on behalf of the "de-notified" tribes of India-nomadic and tribal groups who were branded "natural criminals" by the British colonial state and who face discrimination to this day.
[Tuesday, 10:50 a.m., 313 Williams Hall]
Man with a Movie Camera
(Dziga Vertov, Soviet Union, 1929; 80 min.)
Vertov's feature film presents urban life in the Soviet Union, from dawn to dusk. Soviet citizens are shown at work and at play, and interacting with the machinery of modern life. To the extent that it can be said to have "characters," they are the cameraman of the title and the modern Russia he discovers and presents in the film. (This film is presented with live music.)
[Monday, April 2, 8:00 p.m., Park Hall Auditorium]
Maquilopolis *
(Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre, United States, 2006; 68 min.)
Carmen works the graveyard shift in one of Tijuana's maquiladoras, the multinationally owned factories that came to Mexico for its cheap labor. Carmen and her colleague Lourdes reach beyond the daily struggle for survival to organize for change: Carmen takes a major television manufacturer to task for violating her labor rights. Lourdes pressures the government to clean up a toxic waste dump left behind by a departing factory.
[Monday, 3:00 p.m., 207 Friends Hall]
Marked/Marquette
(Tom Comerford, United States, 2005; 23 min.)
A series of four landscape films of Chicago sites connected to the 17th century French Jesuit missionary, Jacques Marquette. Each employing a different visual, audio, and stylistic tactic, the films examine monuments to Marquette and their relationship to their surroundings. Bereft of context, the monuments and their represented events become enigmatic and strange, unfolding the "present" through the complex handling of filmic time. (This film is presented as part of the FLEFF open call.)
Mohawk Girls
(Tracey Deer, Canada, 2005; 63 min.)
Filmmaker Tracey Deer intimately captures the lives of three exuberant and insightful Mohawk teenagers as they face their future. To move away from the reserve means you risk losing your credibility, or worse, your rights as a Mohawk. But to stay is to give up the possibilities offered by the "outside world." With insight, humor, and compassion, Deer takes us inside the lives of these three teenagers as they tackle the same issues of identity, culture, and family she faced a decade earlier.
[Thursday, 2:35 p.m., 103 Textor Hall]
My Mother's Place
(Richard Fung, Canada, 1990; 50 min.)
An experimental documentary focusing on the artist's mother, who at 80 still has vivid memories of a history lost or quickly disappearing. She conveys these with a storytelling style and a frankness that is distinctly West Indian. A tape about memory, oral history, and autobiography, My Mother's Place interweaves interviews, personal narrative, home movies, and vérité footage of the Caribbean to explore the formation of race, class, and gender under colonialism.
[Monday, 2:00 p.m., Longview]
The Namesake
(Mira Nair, India/United States, 2007; 122 min.)
The story of the Ganguli family whose move from Calcutta to New York evokes a lifelong balancing act to meld to a new world without forgetting the old. Though parents Ashoke and Ashima long for the family and culture that enveloped them in India, they take great pride in the opportunities their sacrifices have afforded their children. Paradoxically, their son Gogol is torn between finding his own identity without losing his heritage. Even Gogol's name represents the family's journey into the unknown.
[Saturday, 7:15 p.m., Fall Creek Theater]
One Week
(Carl Seaton, Phil James, and Kenny Young, United States, 2001; 97 min.)
Set in Chicago, this compelling tale of love, heartbreak, and hope centers around Varon Thomas, who will be marrying the woman of his dreams. In addition to the marriage, he's up for a big promotion, and his best friend is finally moving out. But with his wedding one week away, a secret from his past threatens to ruin his life forever. The film has won numerous awards, including the best film award at the fourth annual Acapulco Black Film Festival in 2000. (This film is presented as part of the Global HIV/AIDs Series.)
[Tuesday, 12:30 p.m., 208 Friends Hall]
Outlawed: Extraordinary Rendition, Torture, and Disappearances in the "War on Terror" *
(Witness, India/United Kingdom/United States/Switzerland, 2006; 27 min.)
This film tells the stories of Khaled El-Masri and Binyam Mohamed, two men who have survived extraordinary rendition, secret detention, and torture by the U.S. government working with various other governments worldwide.
[Friday, 2:00 p.m., 2330 Whalen Center]
Out of Balance: ExxonMobil's Impact on Climate Change
(Tom Jackson, United States, 2006; 65 min.)
Shows the influence that the largest company in the world has on governments, the media, and citizens, and what can be done about global warming. Out of Balance does not just critique ExxonMobil, it also offers challenging, large-scale ideas for the global social changes that must take place if there's any chance of having a livable planet for future generations.
[Thursday, 1:10 p.m., 163 Center for Natural Sciences]
Pacific Solution
(Annie Goldson and James Frankham, New Zealand, 2005; 50 min.)
This documentary looks at the daily lives of a number of Afghan boys from the MV Tampa, now living in Mangere, Auckland. Shot in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Nauru, and New Zealand, it traces the circumstances that led to their arrival in New Zealand and the reunion process they have been undergoing as their family members are resettled in New Zealand. Through the prism of their experience, the film examines the refugee crisis that is facing the world.
[Friday, noon, 108 Smiddy Hall]
Passing Over and Through
(Brooke White, United States, 2005; 5 min.)
Investigates issues surrounding displacement, place, and surveillance, and looks at Iraq from above and below, where natural and political landscapes are altered forever. How do people interact with the natural world, home, and place in a time of war? How does our relationship to natural landscape change as result of turmoil and technology? We are all inundated with footage from Iraq-but rarely have sufficient time to fully comprehend the implications of war. This piece recontextualizes the daily news footage from the war in Iraq to provide an alternative view of the landscape and the people.
[featured short, Cinemapolis Theater]
Prospecting
(Brooke White, United States, 2006; 12 min.)
Observes delta landscapes from the perspective of a prospector surveying land for future exploitation-such as agriculture and oil-using various means. The piece studies five agricultural river deltas around the globe: the Red River and Mekong deltas, Vietnam; the Tana delta, Kenya; the Orinoco delta, Venezuela; and the Mississippi delta, United States.
[featured short, Cinemapolis Theater]
Radio Nonmdaa: The Word of the Water *
(Chiapas Media Project/Promedios, Mexico, 2005; 15 min.)
On December 20, 2004, Radio Ñonmdaa came on air, becoming the first radio station to broadcast in the indigenous Amuzgo language. The film tracks the history of the station that, since opening, has received constant harassment from the Mexican military, which has threatened to shut it down.
[Friday, 11:00 a.m., 108 Smiddy Hall]
Resistance[s]: Experimental Films from the Middle East and North Africa *
(Various Artists, Dubai/Canada/France/Iraq/Lebanon/Morocco/Palestine, 2006; 107 min.)
Includes eight films and videos from Middle Eastern and North African artists: Zoulikha Bouabdellah, Taysir Batniji, Mounir Fatmi, Lamya Gargash, Usama Alshaibi, Jayce Salloum, Frédérique Devaux, and Waël Noureddine. It's a panorama of contemporary experimental creativity from this region of the world. Using images to lead the narrative, each artist succeeds in raising fundamental questions relating to humanity, politics, and aesthetics.
[Monday, 11:00 a.m., 281 Park Hall]
Rock Bottom *
(Jay Corcoran, United States, 2006; 65 min.)
Follows the journeys of seven gay men struggling with meth addiction and recovery against a backdrop of an emerging second wave of HIV infection. From grappling with the drug's effects on their physical and mental health to wrestling with their darkest sexual desires, Rock Bottom delivers a chilling portrait of a community in crisis. With an unflinching eye the film captures their stories over a two-year period, from sex clubs to hospitals to family gatherings.
[Wednesday, 3:00 p.m., 208 Center for Health Sciences]
Saved by Deportation: An Unknown Odyssey of Polish Jews
(Slawomir Grunberg and Robert Podgursky, United States, 2006; 75 min.)
In 1940, a year before the Nazis started deporting Jews to death camps, Joseph Stalin ordered the deportation of approximately 200,000 Polish Jews from Russian-occupied Eastern Poland to forced labor settlements in the Soviet interior. As cruel as Stalin's deportations were, ultimately they largely saved Jewish lives, for the deportees constituted the overwhelming majority of Polish Jews who escaped the Nazi holocaust. Saved by Deportation not only tells this story, but it re-traces the path Asher and Shyfra Scharf traveled more than 60 years ago from Poland to Siberia to the former Soviet states of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in central Asia.
[Saturday, 2:15 p.m., Cinemapolis Theater]
Sea in the Blood
(Richard Fung, Canada, 2000; 26 min.)
A personal documentary about living with illness, tracing the relationship of the artist to thalassemia in his sister, Nan, and AIDS in his partner, Tim. The narrative of love and loss is set against a background of colonialism in the Caribbean and the reverberations of migration and political change.
[Friday, 1:00 p.m., 325 Smiddy Hall]
Semihemisphere
(Miwa Matreyek, United States, 2005-6; shorts)
A collection of experimental animated shorts that are guaranteed to surprise, disturb, and delight you. Titles to be screened include Grater City, Digitopia, Machine, Factory, Kitchen, Circus, 1.666, and Emergency Kit.
[featured shorts, Cinemapolis Theater]
The Sexorcist: Revirginize
(Diane Nerwen, United States, 2005; 13 min.)
A psycho-sexual horror thriller starring Britney Spears as a teenager tormented by sexual anxiety and Ellen Burstyn as her frightened, desperate mother. This funny but chilling account of possession, teen angst, and moral panic interweaves images and sounds from such films as The Exorcist, Crossroads, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, exposing and satirizing the ideological agenda behind abstinence-based sex education.
[Tuesday, 7:00 p.m., 285 Park Hall]
A Short Story about Water
(Jagdish Kulkarni, India, 2005; 28 min.)
Rare footage from University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) illustrates the relationship of the water cycle and earth/nature and concepts such as seasons, rains, snowfall, global warming, climate change, and the rise in water level. The film provides information on various sources of water, availability of water on earth, availability of drinking water on earth, the ways in which water gets polluted, and most importantly, the concept of rainwater harvesting.
[Monday, 9:00 a.m., 102 Textor Hall]
Shouting Silent
(Renee Rosen and Xoliswa Sithole, South Africa, 2002; 50 min.)
Award-winning film Shouting Silent explores the South African HIV/AIDS epidemic through the eyes of Xoliswa Sithole, an adult orphan who lost her mother to HIV/AIDS in 1996. Sithole lyrically interweaves unsettling stories with highly stylized imagery to help convey her own painful memories and document the grim statistics that powerfully demonstrate how entire generations of young people are growing up without their parents. (This film is presented as part of the Global HIV/AIDS Series.)
[Thursday, 1:10 p.m., 208 Friends Hall]
SourceCode: Season Three *
(Free Speech TV, United States, 2006; 30 min. episodes)
Free Speech TV's original video magazine, SourceCode enters its third season, partnering with alternative news and progressive content organizations to premiere stories that mainstream television won't show, including episodes on climate change, eco-dissent, first nations rights, environmental costs of war, civil rights, and immigration.
SourceCode: Civil Rights from Ruin [Monday, 11:00 a.m., 212 Center for Health Sciences]
SourceCode: First Nations Rights [Friday, 11:00 a.m., 117 Center for Natural Sciences]
SourceCode: Eco-Dissent Is Not Terrorism [Thursday, 9:25 a.m., 325 Smiddy Hall]
SourceCode: Immigration Emergency [Wednesday, 1:00 p.m., 202 Center for Health Sciences]
SourceCode: Environmental Cost of War [Thursday, 10:50 a.m., 325 Smiddy Hall]
Straight 8
(Ayisha Abraham, India, 2005; 17 min.)
The first in a series of short experimental digital films, Straight 8 is an attempt to revisit a collection of home movies that dates back to the 1940s, in and around Bangalore.
[Tuesday, 7:00 p.m., 285 Park Hall]
The Subject Is Sex *
(Stephen Parr, United States, 2004; 100 min.)
An extraordinary personal romp through the seamy side of sex in cinema. Drawn from Stephen Parr's extensive 16mm film archives, this polymorphous program promises a pulsating panorama of perverse pleasures that includes home movies, hillbilly porn, cartoon smut, commercials, trailers, educationals, hygiene films, burlesque bits, peep show loops, and oozing oodles more!
[Tuesday, 7:00 p.m., 285 Park Hall]
Suncookers
(Catherine Scott, United States/Kenya, 2006; 18 min.)
Follows Margaret Owino as she trains people to use solar cookers in Nyakach, Kenya, and at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Northern Kenya. Small cardboard solar cookers are clean, smoke-free, and better for the environment. Deforestation for cooking has contributed to soil loss through erosion.
[Monday, 11:00 a.m., 117 Center for Natural Sciences]
Tailenders
(Adele Home, United States, 2006; 73 min.)
Filmed in the Solomon Islands, Mexico, India, and the United States, the film examines a missionary organization's use of ultra-low-tech audio devices to evangelize indigenous communities facing crises caused by global economic forces. It explores the connections between missionary activity and global capitalism.
[Tuesday, 6:50 p.m., 201 Friends Hall]
This and This
(Vincent Grenier, United States, 2006; 10 min.)
Digital immediacy splendor where images of nature cannot be merely innocent. Ideas about the natural and the mechanical are being toyed with, in varying degrees of wetness, scale, compressed states, and expectations.
[Monday, 4:00 p.m., Park Hall Auditorium]
Tocar y Luchar (To Play and to Fight)
(Alberto Arvelo Mendoza, Venezuela, 2006; 70 min.)
This film presents the captivating story of the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra System, an incredible network of hundreds of orchestras formed within most of Venezuela's towns and villages. Once a modest program designed to expose rural children to the wonders of music, the system has become one of the most important and beautiful social phenomena in modern history.
[Sunday, 4:35 p.m. and 9:35 p.m., Cinemapolis Theater]
To Live Is Better Than to Die
(Weijun Chen, China, 2003; 90 min.)
A heartbreaking story from Wenlou, a small village in central China, where 60 percent of the villagers are infected with HIV because they made a little extra money selling their blood in the early 90s. The director, Chen Weijun, spent months in the village with farmer Ma Shengyi and his family. Ma Shengyi, his wife, and two of their three children are infected. (This film is presented as part of the Global HIV/AIDs Series.)
[Wednesday, 4:20 p.m., 115 Center for Natural Sciences]
Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela *
(Thomas Allen Harris, South Africa, 2006; 73 min.)
As part of the first wave of black South African exiles, Harris's stepfather, B. Pule Leinaeng, and his 11 comrades left their home in Bloemfontein in 1960. They told the world about the brutality of the apartheid system and raised support for the fledgling African National Congress and its leader, Nelson Mandela.
[Tuesday, 1:10 p.m., 210 Friends Hall]
Uncomfortable: The Art of Christopher Cozier
(Richard Fung, Canada, 2005; 48 min.)
Journey through the work and ideas of Christopher Cozier, a leading contemporary artist in the Caribbean. The tape presents Cozier's witty and incisive drawings, installations, and videos in the context of post-independence Trinidad with its oil-rich economy, complicated ethnic politics, and vibrant cultural forms. It illuminates the relationship between the local and the global.
[Monday, 3:00 p.m., 2312 Whalen Center]
Venezuela from Below
(Dario Azzellini and Oliver Ressler, Austria/Venezuela, 2004; 67 min.)
In Venezuela, a profound social transformation identified as the Bolivarian process has been under way since Hugo Chávez's governmental takeover in 1998. It concerns a broad process of self-organization, from which has developed a progressive constitution, a labor law, new educational possibilities, and a number of further reforms for the impoverished majority of the population of what is potentially a wealthy state. In the film Venezuela from Below, the true actors in the social process, the grassroots, are able to speak.
[Thursday, 10:50 a.m., 205 Friends Hall]
Warning!
(Bree Yenalavitch, United States, 2006; 1:05 min.)
Warning is a public service announcement that interrupts regularly scheduled programming. Be alert. Watching this has been known to cause nausea, vomiting, upset stomach, loss of hearing, and in extreme cases, possible discomfort. It is to the viewer's advantage to be careful.
[featured short, Cinemapolis Theater]
Wild Side
(Sébastien Lifshitz, United Kingdom, 2004; 93 min.)
Stéphanie (whose birth name is Pierre) is a transsexual prostitute who plies her trade in Parisian discos, parks, and hotel rooms. She lives with Jamel, a 30-year-old North African who also turns tricks. One night, Stéphanie meets Mikhail, an illegal Russian immigrant. He soon falls in love with her, and she decides to live with both partners. Stéphanie, Mikhail, and Jamel are faced with an uncertain future: they live on the margins of a society that is uncomfortable with people like them. (This film is presented as part of the Tournées Festival.)
[Saturday, 9:35 p.m., Fall Creek Theater]
Witness/Amazon Watch Compilation *
(Witness/Amazon Watch, England/United States/Amazon Basin, 2006; 42 min.)
Witness partner Amazon Watch works with indigenous and environmental organizations in the Amazon River basin to defend the environment and advance indigenous peoples' rights in the face of large-scale industrial development, including oil and gas pipelines, power lines, roads, and other mega-projects. This collection of videos examines globalization, multinationals, and the increasing focus on mega-projects to address the area's economic problems, which has led to environmental and cultural devastation in the region.
[Thursday, 4:00 p.m., 140 Park Hall]
* FLEFF Library Series
