PHILADELPHIA INDEPENDENT
FILM FESTIVAL 5
FILM FESTIVAL 5
JUNE 20-24, 2012
Venue Screening Schedule
Powered by:
Empowerment group / Media Bureau Network /
PhilaActing.com
Franklin Institute / National Constitution
Center / Raven Lounge
1st Unitarian Sanctuary & Chapel /
Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts
All American Artists / Theatre Ariel / GPFO /
SB1 Federal Credit Union
Take Action News / Adobe / MBPS.cc / Corzo
Center UArts buyboards.com stopCAIDnow.org
/ Sharp / Adobe / Sb1 Federal CreditUnion
/ Sharp / Adobe / Sb1 Federal CreditUnion
N.O.E / Philadelphia Theatre Company /
Afro Tano Productions / Red Cup
Honey’s Sit 'n Eat / Philadelphia Distilling /
random tea room / 700 Club
Lazer Illusions / Abbaye / Ultimate Robot 88
/Cardinal Hollow Winery
Sheraton Society Hill / Center City Magazine /
WL Magazine
Shahora Music Studios / DJK2 Productions
:::::: MEDIA BUREAU NETWORK
ANNOUNCES ::::::
THE 5TH ANNUAL PHILADELPHIA INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL
June 20 through the 24th,
2012
FRANKLIN INSTITUTE
Wednesday, June 20th, 2012 - Opening night ($40 includes opening night event at the First Unitarian Church and all opening night screenings)
7:30pm-9:15pm - Bail Out (US) (Documentary) (Franklin Theatre) (East Coast Premier)
Dir. Sean Fahey
Fed up with corrupt bailout banks trying to foreclose on them, five Chicagoans drive to Vegas with stacks of cash to give themselves a long overdue bailout of their own.
A feature documentary that explores the causes and effects of America's financial crisis. We discover how politically powerful banks are systemically eliminating America's middle class through fraudulent home foreclosures. An enigma wrapped in Doc hybrid form, Bailout is a social documentary that explores American anger with the Wall Street elites who survive and thrive on government bailouts, fraud, & political corruption.
Nausea (13 min) (Experimental Short/Drama) (US) (Franklin Theatre) (World Premier)
Dir. Jeff Curran
A young woman takes a man from her class home with her one night and wakes up to find him lying dead next to her. As she attempts to find the cause and a solution, she begins to see that things are not in the least bit as they seem.
Thursday, June 21st 2012
7:30-9:15pm - Bringing King to China (85 min) (Documentary) (Franklin Theatre) (Philadelphia Premier)
Dir. Kevin McKieman and Haskell Wexler
Bringing King to China documents a cross-cultural dialogue about the current relevance of Dr. King's philosophy of peace and non-violence. The feature-length documentary conveys the lead character's "dream to build a bridge between the societies by talking about peaceful struggle and universal rights" (The New York Times). It chronicles her twelve-month struggle to interpret and adapt King's message for Chinese society, preserve the historical accuracy of the U.S. civil rights movement, clear bureaucratic hurdles before opening night and raise funds to pay the theater company. Powerful and intimate, the film takes American viewers backstage at the National Theatre of China, as Chinese actors rehearse with African-American gospel singers.
7:30-9:15pm - Tango MacBeth – (73 min) (Drama) (IMAX) (Festival Premier)
Dir. Nadine M. Patterson
Macbeth, deconstructed, Tango Macbeth is a visceral, fluid, energetic re-imagining of this classic tragedy for a 21st Century multicultural world. A play, within a documentary, within a film. Tango Macbeth follows the actors as they lose themselves within Shakespeare's world.
The form of the film is improvisational narrative observational documentary. There are points where the narrative flow is intentionally disrupted and audience expectations are smashed. The camera work, music, and casting all reflect the re-imaging of the text.
9:45-10:30 - Music Video Collection: (60 min) (IMAX)
Feathers: ManMan - (4min) (Local)
Dir. Daniel Hoffman
Through alternative animation techniques 'Feathers' uses the venue of a music video to illustrate the physicality, transiency, and cyclic nature of the city.
Children of the Lights: The White Panda - (3min) (Local)
Dir. Lonnie Davis
Live performance of The White Panda.
The Shabby Dress: Jeff Mellin - (5 min) (Local)
Dir. Jeff Mellin
Fantasy about the memories sewn into the fabric of a worse-for-the-wear cotillion gown. Features the aerial acrobatics of Xan Kaplan, choreographed to the song 'The Shabby Dress' performed by Jeff Mellin. For Chorus Vs. Solos: A Tribute to Charlie Chesterman, an album benefiting American singer-songwriter Charlie Chesterman, who is battling cancer.
Let it Fall - In Between Video Series: The Illz - (25 Min) (NY)
Dir. Kristopher Rey-Talley
Man loves girl, girl dies, man seeks revenge.
Magic: Sounds of Arrows - (4min) (Sweden)
Dir. Oskar Gullstrand
Ana and Lucas wakes up one day to find their parents missing. They soon understands that everyone is gone. Their sadness turns into excitement when they realize that they can now do whatever they want. They set out on an adventure into the unknown where they face a world they never thought existed.
Tripped Into You: Toy Soldiers - (4min) (Local)
Dir. Daniel Hoffman
In this hand-drawn music video for the band Toy Soldiers, Daniel Hoffman explores the relationship between a man, his home, and the new development that takes place there.
That Night - (5min)
"That Night" music and lyrics by Miriam Sielicka. A music video in memory of IRENA SENDLER.
Break Up - (4 min)
Dir. Paul Hinson
Music video for Elise Moureau's song "Break Up."
Farewell - (5 min)
William Pilgrim & The All Grows Up
Friday, June 22nd 2012
8:00pm-9:45pm - Things I Don’t Understand (Drama/Mystery) (IMAX) (Philadelphia Premier)
Dir. David Spaltro
The story follows Violet Kubelick, a brilliant young grad student studying near-death experiences and her recent withdrawn, closed-off behavior after a mysterious, failed suicide attempt. She and her two artist-roommates are forced by financial matters to finally confront their fears and step out of the protective bubble they've created for themselves in their Brooklyn loft while Violet herself forms a cathartic relationship with a young, terminally ill girl in a hospice she is interviewing for her thesis. A story of changing, relationships, love, life and what comes after we die.
10:10pm - 11:30pm Santiago (78 min) (Drama) (IMAX) (East Coast Premier)
Dir. Felix Martiz
Santiago is a drug dealer who agrees to let Miguel, a Mexican actor, follow and study him for his next role. With only Billy the cameraman at his side, the two set out to document a day in the life of Santiago. Through Billy's camera we see the story of a man struggling to survive as he juggles a world of prostitutes, territorial control, and drugs in the streets of Los Angeles. As the night comes closer to an end, all is not as it appears to be in a world of lies and blood shedding truths.
Saturday, June 23rd, 2012
5:15pm-7:00pm - True Bromance (96 min) (Comedy/Drama) (IMAX) (East Coast Premier)
Dir. Sabastian Doggart
A film about the absurd role our friends and family play when we fall in love. Starring Devin Ratray (Home Alone), Jim Norton (HBO), Adrian Grenier (Entourage), Carol Connors(Rocky), Frank Luntz (Fox News) & Condi Rice (Waterboard, baby, waterboard!)
7:20-9:05pm - Red Corvette (104 min) (Drama) (IMAX) (Philadelphia Premier)
Dir. Frank Lisi
Cindy Reese, a suburban high school senior, who is burdened with more than her fair share of teenage angst. Utterly friendless, she longs for the day when she can graduate and leave all her troubles behind. But it won't be easy as a rival of hers manages to make her fail for the year. Cindy is forced to enroll in Summer School, where she finds herself seated next to the extremely sultry Bella Fagone, the daughter of a mob boss. The two immediately bond whereupon Cindy soon finds her staid suburban life turned upside down. Watch as Bella introduces her new-found protege to the seedy and oftentimes dangerous world of her NYC night life, a world filled with illicit drug use and eventually cold-blooded murder.
9:10-10:50pm - Angels Around Me – (Drama) (IMAX) (World Premier)
Dir. Stephen “Stix” Josey
A film about choices. Everyone makes choices in life; some good, some bad. Angels provide a special few another chance. We all have protection around us that we can't see ... the Angels Around Me.
Sunday, June 24th, 2012
5:00-6:00pm - In the Footsteps of Willie Sutton (54 min) (Documentary) (IMAX)
Dir. Richard Gold
America's most famous bank robber of the twentieth century doesn't fancy prison accommodations. When he gets caught and confined, he escapes ... three times! In the Footsteps of Willie Sutton is a documentary film that follow this gentleman bandit's criminal career that spans over four decades.
6:05-7:05pm - Animation Festival: (60 min) (IMAX)
Landscape (11 min) (France) (North American premier)
Dir. Anabela Costa
Landscape, is what can be seen, and not in physical terms but as an outward expression of human perception: 'a landscape is a cultural image, a pictorial way of representing, structuring or symbolizing surroundings', so it will always be a personal take over an area of land, of human elements buildings or structures with a cultural and aesthetic dimension.
O-Bon (12 min) (Japan)
Dir. Robert F. Kauffmann
Haruko Yamagawa was a young professional working in Tokyo. Every midsummer, she would endure the painful reminder of the tragic loss of her family and her ancestral home during the O-Bon festival when everyone else would leave the city to visit with family. This year seemed as if it would pass like the others before it...But Yamagawa's family had other plans for her...
The Story of Cholera (4 min) (Israel)
Dir. Yoni Goodman
The Story of Cholera will save lives. Developed in response to the devastating cholera epidemic that began in Haiti in fall of 2010, the animation helps affected populations around the world better understand cholera and how to prevent it from spreading. It's an engaging, educational animation in which a young boy helps a health worker save his father and then guides his village in preventing cholera from spreading. By making the invisible cholera germs visible, this simple animated narrative brings to life the teaching points of cholera prevention.
Feathers (4 min) (Local)
Dir. Daniel Hoffman
Through alternative animation techniques 'Feathers' uses the venue of a music video to illustrate the physicality, transiency, and cyclic nature of the city.
Tripped Into You (4 min) (Local)
Dir. Daniel Hoffman
In this hand-drawn music video for the band Toy Soldiers, Daniel Hoffman explores the relationship between a man, his home, and the new development that takes place there.
The Game (6 min) (Poland)
Dir. Marcin Janiec
Somewhere between life and death a thrilling chess match takes place. The stake is high - a gateway to the world of living. And the sole referee of this exciting tournament is a figure no one wish to meet in their path.
NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER
Friday, June 22nd 2012
11:00-12:50pm - The Contradictions of Fair Hope (1hr 50min) (Documentary)
Dir. S. Epatha Merkerson
July 1865. Over 4 million slaves have been freed. Forced to roam the antebellum countryside, and ill prepared to cope with the realities of their new found freedom, the freed slaves formed 'benevolent societies' throughout the South to respond to the abject hunger, illness and the fear of a pauper's grave.
Set in rural Alabama, the film traces the development, struggles and gradual loss of tradition of one of the last remaining benevolent societies in America, known as 'The Fair Hope Benevolent Society,' and provides an unprecedented look at its complex and morally ambiguous world.
1:00-2:35pm - A.L.F. (95 min) (Drama/Documentary) (North American premier)
Dir. Jêróme Lescure
What happened, that 24th of December ? This is what officer Chartier wants ton find out. To understand, he will have to go back 48 hours earlier : Franck's Christmas eve. These characters are bound by a limitless empathy towards mistreated animals, and will have to show courage to complete a mission they have been preparing for months. During the questioning, Franck understands that one of his fellows betrayed him.
Wednesday, June 20th, 2012 - Opening night ($40 includes opening night event at the First Unitarian Church and all opening night screenings)
7:30pm-9:15pm - Bail Out (US) (Documentary) (Franklin Theatre) (East Coast Premier)
Dir. Sean Fahey
Fed up with corrupt bailout banks trying to foreclose on them, five Chicagoans drive to Vegas with stacks of cash to give themselves a long overdue bailout of their own.
A feature documentary that explores the causes and effects of America's financial crisis. We discover how politically powerful banks are systemically eliminating America's middle class through fraudulent home foreclosures. An enigma wrapped in Doc hybrid form, Bailout is a social documentary that explores American anger with the Wall Street elites who survive and thrive on government bailouts, fraud, & political corruption.
Nausea (13 min) (Experimental Short/Drama) (US) (Franklin Theatre) (World Premier)
Dir. Jeff Curran
A young woman takes a man from her class home with her one night and wakes up to find him lying dead next to her. As she attempts to find the cause and a solution, she begins to see that things are not in the least bit as they seem.
Thursday, June 21st 2012
7:30-9:15pm - Bringing King to China (85 min) (Documentary) (Franklin Theatre) (Philadelphia Premier)
Dir. Kevin McKieman and Haskell Wexler
Bringing King to China documents a cross-cultural dialogue about the current relevance of Dr. King's philosophy of peace and non-violence. The feature-length documentary conveys the lead character's "dream to build a bridge between the societies by talking about peaceful struggle and universal rights" (The New York Times). It chronicles her twelve-month struggle to interpret and adapt King's message for Chinese society, preserve the historical accuracy of the U.S. civil rights movement, clear bureaucratic hurdles before opening night and raise funds to pay the theater company. Powerful and intimate, the film takes American viewers backstage at the National Theatre of China, as Chinese actors rehearse with African-American gospel singers.
7:30-9:15pm - Tango MacBeth – (73 min) (Drama) (IMAX) (Festival Premier)
Dir. Nadine M. Patterson
Macbeth, deconstructed, Tango Macbeth is a visceral, fluid, energetic re-imagining of this classic tragedy for a 21st Century multicultural world. A play, within a documentary, within a film. Tango Macbeth follows the actors as they lose themselves within Shakespeare's world.
The form of the film is improvisational narrative observational documentary. There are points where the narrative flow is intentionally disrupted and audience expectations are smashed. The camera work, music, and casting all reflect the re-imaging of the text.
9:45-10:30 - Music Video Collection: (60 min) (IMAX)
Feathers: ManMan - (4min) (Local)
Dir. Daniel Hoffman
Through alternative animation techniques 'Feathers' uses the venue of a music video to illustrate the physicality, transiency, and cyclic nature of the city.
Children of the Lights: The White Panda - (3min) (Local)
Dir. Lonnie Davis
Live performance of The White Panda.
The Shabby Dress: Jeff Mellin - (5 min) (Local)
Dir. Jeff Mellin
Fantasy about the memories sewn into the fabric of a worse-for-the-wear cotillion gown. Features the aerial acrobatics of Xan Kaplan, choreographed to the song 'The Shabby Dress' performed by Jeff Mellin. For Chorus Vs. Solos: A Tribute to Charlie Chesterman, an album benefiting American singer-songwriter Charlie Chesterman, who is battling cancer.
Let it Fall - In Between Video Series: The Illz - (25 Min) (NY)
Dir. Kristopher Rey-Talley
Man loves girl, girl dies, man seeks revenge.
Magic: Sounds of Arrows - (4min) (Sweden)
Dir. Oskar Gullstrand
Ana and Lucas wakes up one day to find their parents missing. They soon understands that everyone is gone. Their sadness turns into excitement when they realize that they can now do whatever they want. They set out on an adventure into the unknown where they face a world they never thought existed.
Tripped Into You: Toy Soldiers - (4min) (Local)
Dir. Daniel Hoffman
In this hand-drawn music video for the band Toy Soldiers, Daniel Hoffman explores the relationship between a man, his home, and the new development that takes place there.
That Night - (5min)
"That Night" music and lyrics by Miriam Sielicka. A music video in memory of IRENA SENDLER.
Break Up - (4 min)
Dir. Paul Hinson
Music video for Elise Moureau's song "Break Up."
Farewell - (5 min)
William Pilgrim & The All Grows Up
Friday, June 22nd 2012
8:00pm-9:45pm - Things I Don’t Understand (Drama/Mystery) (IMAX) (Philadelphia Premier)
Dir. David Spaltro
The story follows Violet Kubelick, a brilliant young grad student studying near-death experiences and her recent withdrawn, closed-off behavior after a mysterious, failed suicide attempt. She and her two artist-roommates are forced by financial matters to finally confront their fears and step out of the protective bubble they've created for themselves in their Brooklyn loft while Violet herself forms a cathartic relationship with a young, terminally ill girl in a hospice she is interviewing for her thesis. A story of changing, relationships, love, life and what comes after we die.
10:10pm - 11:30pm Santiago (78 min) (Drama) (IMAX) (East Coast Premier)
Dir. Felix Martiz
Santiago is a drug dealer who agrees to let Miguel, a Mexican actor, follow and study him for his next role. With only Billy the cameraman at his side, the two set out to document a day in the life of Santiago. Through Billy's camera we see the story of a man struggling to survive as he juggles a world of prostitutes, territorial control, and drugs in the streets of Los Angeles. As the night comes closer to an end, all is not as it appears to be in a world of lies and blood shedding truths.
Saturday, June 23rd, 2012
5:15pm-7:00pm - True Bromance (96 min) (Comedy/Drama) (IMAX) (East Coast Premier)
Dir. Sabastian Doggart
A film about the absurd role our friends and family play when we fall in love. Starring Devin Ratray (Home Alone), Jim Norton (HBO), Adrian Grenier (Entourage), Carol Connors(Rocky), Frank Luntz (Fox News) & Condi Rice (Waterboard, baby, waterboard!)
7:20-9:05pm - Red Corvette (104 min) (Drama) (IMAX) (Philadelphia Premier)
Dir. Frank Lisi
Cindy Reese, a suburban high school senior, who is burdened with more than her fair share of teenage angst. Utterly friendless, she longs for the day when she can graduate and leave all her troubles behind. But it won't be easy as a rival of hers manages to make her fail for the year. Cindy is forced to enroll in Summer School, where she finds herself seated next to the extremely sultry Bella Fagone, the daughter of a mob boss. The two immediately bond whereupon Cindy soon finds her staid suburban life turned upside down. Watch as Bella introduces her new-found protege to the seedy and oftentimes dangerous world of her NYC night life, a world filled with illicit drug use and eventually cold-blooded murder.
9:10-10:50pm - Angels Around Me – (Drama) (IMAX) (World Premier)
Dir. Stephen “Stix” Josey
A film about choices. Everyone makes choices in life; some good, some bad. Angels provide a special few another chance. We all have protection around us that we can't see ... the Angels Around Me.
Sunday, June 24th, 2012
5:00-6:00pm - In the Footsteps of Willie Sutton (54 min) (Documentary) (IMAX)
Dir. Richard Gold
America's most famous bank robber of the twentieth century doesn't fancy prison accommodations. When he gets caught and confined, he escapes ... three times! In the Footsteps of Willie Sutton is a documentary film that follow this gentleman bandit's criminal career that spans over four decades.
6:05-7:05pm - Animation Festival: (60 min) (IMAX)
Landscape (11 min) (France) (North American premier)
Dir. Anabela Costa
Landscape, is what can be seen, and not in physical terms but as an outward expression of human perception: 'a landscape is a cultural image, a pictorial way of representing, structuring or symbolizing surroundings', so it will always be a personal take over an area of land, of human elements buildings or structures with a cultural and aesthetic dimension.
O-Bon (12 min) (Japan)
Dir. Robert F. Kauffmann
Haruko Yamagawa was a young professional working in Tokyo. Every midsummer, she would endure the painful reminder of the tragic loss of her family and her ancestral home during the O-Bon festival when everyone else would leave the city to visit with family. This year seemed as if it would pass like the others before it...But Yamagawa's family had other plans for her...
The Story of Cholera (4 min) (Israel)
Dir. Yoni Goodman
The Story of Cholera will save lives. Developed in response to the devastating cholera epidemic that began in Haiti in fall of 2010, the animation helps affected populations around the world better understand cholera and how to prevent it from spreading. It's an engaging, educational animation in which a young boy helps a health worker save his father and then guides his village in preventing cholera from spreading. By making the invisible cholera germs visible, this simple animated narrative brings to life the teaching points of cholera prevention.
Feathers (4 min) (Local)
Dir. Daniel Hoffman
Through alternative animation techniques 'Feathers' uses the venue of a music video to illustrate the physicality, transiency, and cyclic nature of the city.
Tripped Into You (4 min) (Local)
Dir. Daniel Hoffman
In this hand-drawn music video for the band Toy Soldiers, Daniel Hoffman explores the relationship between a man, his home, and the new development that takes place there.
The Game (6 min) (Poland)
Dir. Marcin Janiec
Somewhere between life and death a thrilling chess match takes place. The stake is high - a gateway to the world of living. And the sole referee of this exciting tournament is a figure no one wish to meet in their path.
NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER
Friday, June 22nd 2012
11:00-12:50pm - The Contradictions of Fair Hope (1hr 50min) (Documentary)
Dir. S. Epatha Merkerson
July 1865. Over 4 million slaves have been freed. Forced to roam the antebellum countryside, and ill prepared to cope with the realities of their new found freedom, the freed slaves formed 'benevolent societies' throughout the South to respond to the abject hunger, illness and the fear of a pauper's grave.
Set in rural Alabama, the film traces the development, struggles and gradual loss of tradition of one of the last remaining benevolent societies in America, known as 'The Fair Hope Benevolent Society,' and provides an unprecedented look at its complex and morally ambiguous world.
1:00-2:35pm - A.L.F. (95 min) (Drama/Documentary) (North American premier)
Dir. Jêróme Lescure
What happened, that 24th of December ? This is what officer Chartier wants ton find out. To understand, he will have to go back 48 hours earlier : Franck's Christmas eve. These characters are bound by a limitless empathy towards mistreated animals, and will have to show courage to complete a mission they have been preparing for months. During the questioning, Franck understands that one of his fellows betrayed him.
2:50-3:45pm – The Songs They Sang - Musicians of the Holocaust
(55 min) (Documentary)
The Songs They Sang. The Songs They Sang is
the remarkable tale of music and performed by Jewish musicians held in ghettos
and concentration camps across Europe during the Holocaust. It explores the
stoicism of the Jewish people who created art and recorded important historical
perspectives in the face of the most horrific of persecutions. The film centres
on the work of lyricists Avrom Sutzkever and Shmerke Kaczerginski, who wrote
startling and poetic eyewitness accounts of Vilna., and risked his life in
order to protect and preserve Jewish writings and music before his untimely
death. The documentary also considers his legacy of song and the various people
preserving such music today.
Saturday, June 23rd, 2012
11:30am - 1:00 Bailout (85 min) (Documentary) (Film festival premier)
Dir. Sean Fahey
Fed up with corrupt bailout banks trying to foreclose on them, five Chicagoans drive to Vegas with stacks of cash to give themselves a long overdue bailout of their own.
A feature documentary that explores the causes and effects of America's financial crisis. We discover how politically powerful banks are systemically eliminating America's middle class through fraudulent home foreclosures. An enigma wrapped in Doc hybrid form, Bailout is a social documentary that explores American anger with the Wall Street elites who survive and thrive on government bailouts, fraud, & political corruption.
Organized Criminal (14 min) (Thriller) (US) (World premier)
Dir. George Santini
When an ambitious up and coming criminal (Bobby) decides to get even with a vicious drug dealer from his past (Dominick), he realizes that in order to do so, he has to level the playing field first.
Bobby’s task is to persuade Vincent that surrendering to his own greed without fear and without regard for his morals will lead them both to creating one of the most intelligent, most modern and most powerful criminal organizations the world has seen yet."
1:30-2:45pm - Colored Confederates: Myth or Matter of Fact? (42 min) (Documentary)
Dir. Ken Wyatt
Did blacks actively 'fight' for the Old South during America's Civil War; and if so, why? Experts, historians, and re-enactors hash out this 150-year-old debate.
Welcome Home (23 min) (Short Drama) (East Coast Premier)
Dir. Danny Donnelly
Saturday, June 23rd, 2012
11:30am - 1:00 Bailout (85 min) (Documentary) (Film festival premier)
Dir. Sean Fahey
Fed up with corrupt bailout banks trying to foreclose on them, five Chicagoans drive to Vegas with stacks of cash to give themselves a long overdue bailout of their own.
A feature documentary that explores the causes and effects of America's financial crisis. We discover how politically powerful banks are systemically eliminating America's middle class through fraudulent home foreclosures. An enigma wrapped in Doc hybrid form, Bailout is a social documentary that explores American anger with the Wall Street elites who survive and thrive on government bailouts, fraud, & political corruption.
Organized Criminal (14 min) (Thriller) (US) (World premier)
Dir. George Santini
When an ambitious up and coming criminal (Bobby) decides to get even with a vicious drug dealer from his past (Dominick), he realizes that in order to do so, he has to level the playing field first.
Bobby’s task is to persuade Vincent that surrendering to his own greed without fear and without regard for his morals will lead them both to creating one of the most intelligent, most modern and most powerful criminal organizations the world has seen yet."
1:30-2:45pm - Colored Confederates: Myth or Matter of Fact? (42 min) (Documentary)
Dir. Ken Wyatt
Did blacks actively 'fight' for the Old South during America's Civil War; and if so, why? Experts, historians, and re-enactors hash out this 150-year-old debate.
Welcome Home (23 min) (Short Drama) (East Coast Premier)
Dir. Danny Donnelly
Derrick Morrison is a young soldier returning
home after his tour of duty in Iraq. This is his story documented by his
younger brother Ryan Morrison.
2:50-5:05pm - The Revolutionary: The Story of Sidney Rittenberg
(92min) (Documentary)
Dir. Lucy Ostrander, Irv Drasnin and Don
Sellers(East Coast premier) (Video skype with filmmakers)
During China's Cultural Revolution, Sidney Rittenberg, an American citizen, became the most important foreigner in China since Marco Polo. Arriving as a GI interpreter at the end of World War II, he was an active participant in the Chinese communist revolution. An intimate of the Party's leadership, including Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, he gained prominence at the Broadcast Administration, one of the most important agencies of government. But in the convulsions of a giant country constantly reinventing itself, he twice ran afoul of the leadership, and served a total of 16 years in solitary confinement. This is the story of the biggest revolution of the 20th century, unknown to most Americans, told by an American who was there.
FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH
THE SANCTUARY
Wednesday, June 20th 2012
9:30-10:45pm - Zima (Germany) (Fiction) (Drama) (45 min) (Sanctuary)
Dir. Katarina Stankovic
Michael announces his plans to come home after a long mysterious absence. The people whom he had left behind decide to organize a small get-together for his return. Despite his promise, Michael stays away yet he remains strangely omnipresent, just like the fears that he may never return.
Sure Ain`t Nothing (Sicher ist nichts) (25 min) (Germany) (Drama) (Sanctuary)
Dir. Nathalie Shulten
'SURE AINT NOTHING' portraits in a sensitive way the story of the confident, Helen, who is in her late sixties starting to suffer from dementia. Through its network of visual and auditory narrative means, the film approaches Helen's perception of reality through her emotional world. From the initially humorous handling of forgetfulness, to the shocking loss of reality, the film presents in a poetic and empathetic way, the question of responsibility, dignity and love. Love for yourself and the people we are close to.
Thursday, June 21st 2012
7-8:30pm - The Hidden Hand: Alien Contact (80 min) (Political Documentary) (US)
Dir. James Carman
The EBE award-winning feature documentary, 'The Hidden Hand,' examines the phenomena surrounding UFOs, Extra Terrestrials, alien abduction, and the US secret military cover-up of supposed E.T. contact and back-engineering of alien technology. The film incorporates interviews with military insiders like astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, and Col. John Alexander. It also interviews UFO experts like hypnotherapist, David Jacobs, and those who claim to have had actual E.T. contact.
Narrative scenes are interspersed throughout the film to shape the concepts of the film from complimentary viewpoints, weaving a tapestry of fact and fiction into a new world view that may shocking and eye-opening for the viewer.
8:35-9:35pm – MERCS: Hijack (53 min) (Sci-Fi) (local)
Dir. James Panetta
After damaging his ship while engaging pirates he was only ordered to observe, Captain Brice Creed and Princess Varisa Nalabetric wait for the U.E.star ship the UESS Iowa to repair their ship the Artemis. When the Iowa is lured away, a small force of mercenaries on the planet below hit the Artemis with an electromagnetic pulse trapping the crew in the cargo bay except for Creed, and Varisa who were on the bridge. While Creed and Varisa fight to stop their ship from being hijacked by the mercenaries, Commander Denabreo and his wife take on the mercenaries on the planet.
9:45pm – Animation Festival (60 min)
Landscape (11 min) (France)
Dir. Anabela Costa
Landscape, is what can be seen, and not in physical terms but as an outward expression of human perception: 'a landscape is a cultural image, a pictorial way of representing, structuring or symbolizing surroundings', so it will always be a personal take over an area of land, of human elements buildings or structures with a cultural and aesthetic dimension.
O-Bon (12 min) (Japan)
Dir. Robert F. Kauffmann
Haruko Yamagawa was a young professional working in Tokyo. Every midsummer, she would endure the painful reminder of the tragic loss of her family and her ancestral home during the O-Bon festival when everyone else would leave the city to visit with family. This year seemed as if it would pass like the others before it...But Yamagawa's family had other plans for her...
The Story of Cholera (4 min) (Israel)
Dir. Yoni Goodman
The Story of Cholera will save lives. Developed in response to the devastating cholera epidemic that began in Haiti in fall of 2010, the animation helps affected populations around the world better understand cholera and how to prevent it from spreading. It's an engaging, educational animation in which a young boy helps a health worker save his father and then guides his village in preventing cholera from spreading. By making the invisible cholera germs visible, this simple animated narrative brings to life the teaching points of cholera prevention.
Feathers (4 min) (Local)
Dir. Daniel Hoffman
Through alternative animation techniques 'Feathers' uses the venue of a music video to illustrate the physicality, transiency, and cyclic nature of the city.
Tripped Into You (4 min) (Local)
Dir. Daniel Hoffman
In this hand-drawn music video for the band Toy Soldiers, Daniel Hoffman explores the relationship between a man, his home, and the new development that takes place there.
The Game (6 min) (Poland)
Dir. Marcin Janiec
Somewhere between life and death a thrilling chess match takes place. The stake is high - a gateway to the world of living. And the sole referee of this exciting tournament is a figure no one wish to meet in their path.
Friday, June 22nd 2012
5:00pm - Short Collection #1:
Coupe de Villain (15 min)
Deciding enough is enough, a troubled worker decides to pack up the guns and blow everybody away on the road.
Serum (36 min) (Short) (Sci-fi)
Dir. Chidi Ozeih
2067AD. In a world filled with fraud and corruption, a shadowy government organization called 'The Black Flag' secretly controls all facets of society. Their dominance is almost complete; except for one thorn in their side - a serial killer called 'The Red Scarlet'. In a downtown police precinct, two detectives try to piece together the puzzle woven by the red scarlet and her attempt to release the serum and expose the truth.
My Origin (42 min)
Dir. Mary Lelina and Ryan Calloway
Mary Lan, an adopted woman, finds her real heritage and the mysteries that are revealed.
6:00pm - The Descending (84min) (Thriller)
Dir. Kyle Thompson
Detective John Mazer (Steve Annan), is put through a series of life– changing and career– altering situations. Told through a series of interrogations, Mazer relives a harrowing tale of a hostage situation that ended in tragedy. Suspected drug dealer Brandon Lidge (Chris Harbur), creates a master plan to seek revenge on a criminal justice system that has wronged him. This no– holds barred psychological thriller rolls over its viewers with an intensity that will be hard to shake.
8:00pm – Benny the Bum (97 min) (Dramedy)
Dir. Paul and Dan Cantagallo
Benny, a fighter from Philadelphia, never had a problem taking his lumps inside the ring. But after a year in prison, he finds his personal life packing more wallop than he's ready for. As Benny struggles to free himself of his past mistakes, he meets an alluring newcomer to his native city. The unlikely pair find they have a lot in common. But their romance ends abruptly when Benny's creditors kidnap Stella for ransom.
*Musical Performance
10:15pm – 11:35Trailer Park Jesus (79 min) (Dramedy)
Dir. Sean Gerowin
Inspired by a true misadventure, Jessie, a college student in New Orleans, purchases a sheet of acid after an embarrassing break-up with his girlfriend. He figures a good time tripping on acid,with his friends back home in Saint Louis, would be an ideal path to mend his broken heart.
Old Highway 61 is Jessie's preferred route back home, but engine problems strands him at a trailer park in Cleveland, Mississippi. He thinks a cunning way to fix his situation is to use his acid to bargain his way back home.
With the help of the trailer park denizens, he forgets about his breakup and finds Trailer Park Jesus.
12:00am-1:20am – Towers (71 min) (Sci-Fi)
Dir. Jet Wintzer
When the human race can no longer feel happiness, peace or joy due to mutations caused by radiation from cell phones and towers, humanity becomes virtually extinct.
Sunday, June 24th, 2012
1:00pm – Inside the Perfect Circle: The Odyssey of Joel Thome (Documentary) (60 min)
Dir. Chris Pepino
This intriguing music documentary about world-traveled composer and conductor Joel Thome, "Inside The Perfect Circle" provides a close personal look at Thome's career and philosophy. He collaborated extensively with Frank Zappa arranging the eccentric rock icon's elaborate music for symphony orchestra and rock band. He was awarded a Grammy and was also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He composed the music for Pablo Picasso's play, "Catch Desire By The Tail", and he conducted operas and orchestras across the globe, furthering the plight of modern music. After suffering a debilitating stroke in 1998, Joel lost the use of his left arm and was forced to undergo years of recovery. Using music as a resource for healing, and with the aid of music therapy, he was able to resume composing and returned to the stage to perform his graphically notated mandala scores.
2:20pm – Erroll Garner, No One Can Hear You Read (Music Documentary) (55min)
Dir. Atticus Brady
'Erroll Garner - No One Can Hear You Read' is a music documentary chronicling the life and career of this jazz Piano giant.
3:30pm – Short Collection #11:
Ausreichend (31 min) (Germany)
Dir. Isabel Prahl
Average is the story of a young teacher who wants to be a good and well liked teacher. But his ideals are challenged at every turn.
Twist and Blood (35 min) (Short Drama) (Poland)
A young boy is ridiculed by his peers for being overweight. His parents want to slim him down at any cost, but he has found a way to relieve the pressures of his family and friends.
4:40pm - #whilewewatch (40 min) (Documentary)
Dir. Kevin Breslin
# whilewewatch is a gripping look at the media revolution that emerged from Zuccotti Park in New York City to the world. It is the story of how many people came together in the sun and rain, day and night, broke and loaded with energy and hope to get their story out to the world. #OWS [Occupy Wall Street] has galvanized the world.
#whilewewatch is the real inside story of great people who have no fear. They don't back down from police, big business or city government. When regular media paid no attention to this movement they decided to tell the world their story.
#whilewewatch is the real experience of what democracy looks like. We hear it from their voices, pain, energy and honesty.
Closing Ceremonies
THE CHAPEL
Thursday, June 21st 2012 (Tentative Schedule)
6:00pm - Take Us Home (70 min) (Documentary)
Dir. Aileen LeBlanc
It's a four hour flight into their future. Until recently Fekadu and his family have been practicing Christians - though they are of Jewish heritage. Will they qualify for a new life in Israel? They have been waiting in Gondar, Ethiopia for ten years. Fekadu learns that he may go only if he leaves his adopted son, Worku behind.
7:20pm – Heaven’s Mirror (70 min)
"Heaven’s Mirror" is filmmaker Joshua Dylan Mellars’ mystically wild and lushly romantic fado journey: after the death of his grandmother the filmmaker travels from the ironwork balconies and narrow cobbled streets of Lisbon’s Alfama to the cool bungalow porches of former Portuguese Goa, from the salt sprayed clapboard of New England’s former whaling ports to the dusty bullrings of Central California in search of the meaning of saudade, the essence of fado. Like Proust, fado music tries to recover lost times, ephemeral feelings, time moved on, laments of what could have been if only… In "Heaven’s Mirror," Mellars travels a geographical odyssey and an inner quest, mixing love with desire, memory with longing. Mimicking the Portuguese discovery voyages of old, the filmmaker also sails an inner sea to learn from those who have lived and sung life in fado--for somewhere, somehow, sometime, we all must travel fado’s terrain.
8:40pm – The Last Ride on the Midwest Pacific (90 min) (Drama)
Dir. Daniel Killman
The night before NAN and POPS move to a retirement community in the rural Midwest, their scattered family reunites. Repressed tensions are provoked revealing unmentionable family secrets. Tensions run high on this emotional night resulting in the discovery of a few skeletons in the closet and unbeknownst plans for the future that change this diasporic family forever.
10:10pm – The Harvest (83 min) (Documentary)
Dir. Gabriel DeLoach
What does it mean to take a wild animal’s life? For a child with a life-threatening medical condition, whose greatest wish is to be a hunter, the answer is both powerful and personal. The Harvest, a documentary film by Gabriel DeLoach, joins three such children and the organization that supports them as they make this dream come true. A journey to the point where life and death meet, The Harvest offers a provocative yet respectful look at extraordinary individuals who lose their innocence and become hunters.
Friday, June 22nd 2012
2:00pm – Monday Morning (108 min) (Political drama)
Dir. Nat Christian
Thomas Bach, a right wing radio talk show host and a darling of the Tea Party Movement, is deciding to run for the US Senate. When he loses his memory following an attack, he ends up on the streets of L.A. among the homeless. When Thomas recovers and is touted as a hero of survival, he must choose between career and conscience.
3:45pm – Turn the Mics On (40 min) (Music Documentary)
Dir. Matt Ritvo
Follow six jazz musicians as they rehearse, perform and record an album of original material. One part Buena Vista Social Club, two parts We Jam Econo, with Driving Miss Daisy in reverse mixed in. Set in Los Angeles, 2008. No Wynton Marsalis; no slow pan across black and white photos.
4:25pm – If You Cry (Celui qui pleure a perdu) (75 min) (France)
Dir. Marion Lefeuvre
Sarah want to see Anais again, but Anais is dead...
5:50pm - Hola, Flamenco (27 min) (Music Documentary)
Dir. Avatar St. Louis
Hola, Flamenco is an independent documentary dedicated to Spain's UNESCO-recognized national art. Featuring some of the world's most charismatic performers alongside renowned cultural experts, the film progresses through the cities and towns of Andalusia, taking footage of Flamenco wherever it emerges. With each new destination, an aspect of the genre's unique character is revealed through dance, music and interviews: its multicultural origins, the debate between purists and 'fusionistas,' as well as the improbable contributions of Spain's coal miners. What is pure? What is historical? What is correct, and in the end, does it even matter?
7:00pm – The Shift (26 min)
Dir. Jim Haigney
Are they witches? Aliens? Angels? Kate and Karen are two mysterious women, possessing otherworldly powers, who intervene and tamper with the lives of random strangers. They give these strangers the shift, a nudge towards the next stage of evolution. Sometimes the shift is subtle and graceful, and other times it is a forceful reckoning.
And then the two women vanish as quickly as they appeared.Despite their great power, Kate and Karen hide some dark secrets of their own.
The Dissent (35 min) (French/Italian/Mexico/USA) (World Premier)
Dir. Helmut Dosantos
An old father, still a tyrant despite his age. Edward, the son, devoured by his Oedipus complex. And Karla, the young woman betrothed to Edward, who dreams about her future husband's attempt to break free from the yoke of his father and assert his own will. However....
10:00pm - Last Look (85min)
Dir. Hernando Bansuelo
This film is about a mother forcing her children to relive the mistakes of her past. Inspired by the work of David Lynch and Michael Haneke, LAST LOOK is a domestic horror film that blurs the line between fantasy and reality, the theater and real life. Following a family tragedy, young Susan returns to her dysfunctional home. Soon, she is drawn into a dangerous drama that's being played out by her faded actress mother and her obsessive film-maker brother. And only one will survive the night...
Saturday, June 23rd, 2012
1:00pm – Oxygen for the Ears: Living Jazz (94 min) (Music Documentary) (DC)
Dir. Stefan Immler
'Oxygen for the Ears: Living Jazz' is a story of the trials and triumphs of jazz in America. Every jazz tune has a starting point - a simple note - from which the music starts its journey and rises. 'Oxygen for the Ears' portrays Washington D.C. as such a departure point for its documentary story, 'Living Jazz'.
2:40pm – Sleeping Dogs (Schlafende Hunde) (85 min) (Germany)
Dir. Michael O’Connor
Jim is haunted by visions of his own violent death and is convinced he doesn't have long to live. He sets out on a journey to find his son Tom and reconcile with him.
At first Tom rejects his father but then they grow closer and it seems that everything might turn out well. But past events re-emerge in the form of an old friend with an ax to grind, and Jim's visions become more and more menacing.
When Tom disappears Jim is certain everything is playing out exactly as he foresaw. He sets out to rescue Tom. This time his search leads him to a showdown with his past.
5:20pm – Short Collection #4:
Crashing by Design (11 min)
Dir. Kevin Corcoran
Alex is an ordinary girl who keeps bees. Much to the chagrin of her worried boyfriend Leo, she decides to join a roller derby team. With the encouragement of Coach (Kath “Koach” Phoeler) and an uneasy mentorship from a tough skater Ashley, Alex navigates the rough world of roller derby. Now if she can only avoid the wrath of 'Dame Thrower.' Can this timid “bee girl” overcome her fears and transform into roller girl “HoneyBea Stingz?”
It’s a Girl Thing: MKA, Tween Queens and the Commodification of Girlhood (59 min)
Dir. by Shannon Silva
Since the birth of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in 1987, the girls' tween market has evolved from almost non-existent into a $43 billion-dollar-a-year money making machine.
Framed by the structure of a faux interactive website, It's A Girl Thing speaks with consumer critics, tween brand marketers, girls, moms, and educators to explore the seemingly benign cultural universe of pastel-colored, hyper-commercialized girl culture (and the tween queen phenomenon) to reveal the complex and contradictory messages directed at today's young girls.
Historical research, playful reenactments and found footage allow the film to look closely, and critically, at the tween market's evolution and the role of Disney and Nickelodeon's tween queens (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Miranda Cosgrove, Selena Gomez, and more) in the market's explosion.
7:00pm - The Duck Hunter (Il Cacciatore Di Anatre) (90 min) (Italian Drama)
Dir. Egidio Veronesi
The year is 1942. In the countryside of Modena, in northern Italy, the story of four friends are intertwined, each of them with their own dream to realize. The story is set at time of second world war and the tragic events of this period will end by sweeping away everyone and everything. Only one of them will realize his dream.
9:00pm - Maybe Tomorrow (93 min) (Drama)
Dir. Michael Wolfe
After fifteen years of silence, three friends are finally forced to examine the manner in which a long-forgotten crime and cover-up has affected the course of their lives.
Facing a lengthy prison sentence, RUSS MAHLER, a career criminal armed with a destructive secret, blackmails the only man that can get him off the hook, Manhattan District Attorney GRAHAM SEIFERT, whose Chief of Staff EVAN MIDLAND is called upon to facilitate a resolution.
With his hands tied, Graham has Russ acquitted and upon Evan's insistence, invites him out to his Hampton beach house for the weekend where the three of them will finally attempt to bury a memory that still haunts them.
In one night, they will confront the sins of their pasts, face the flawed men they are in the present and determine what they must do to secure a future where hopefully, a better version of themselves will be waiting.
Graham will choose between career ambitions and ideals long forgotten. Evan will decide once and for all whether to put his job or his family first. And Russ will search for a way to piece his life back together and reclaim the self he had abandoned years ago when that one night changed the lives of these three very different men. A night that drove them apart…but a night that would forever bind them.
11:00pm - Short Collection #5: (56 min)
Pride (22 min) (Short) (Drama)
Dir. Marc Saltarelli
On the morning of his annual gay pride party, Stephen's exhausted sister (Pauley Perrette) leaves their homophobic, Alzheimer's-suffering father (James Karen) on Stephen's (Perry Ojeda) doorstep. Father and son have been estranged since Stephen was a teen and was kicked out of the house. Throughout the day, Stephen's friends & guests (Susan Blakely, 'Sugar' Kiper, among others) take turns looking in on and sharing stories with the ailing senior, providing a rather unique crash course in all things gay. As seeds of Stephen and his father's turbulent relationship come to light so does hope that the two can move past their fears, accept and forgive one another.
Neighbors (20 min) (Drama) (Local)
Dir. Rachel Goldberg
NEIGHBORS tells the story of Maggie Jerritt, a quirky shut-in who is unable to leave her home even to visit her dying mother. But when Lamay, a transgendered woman in an abusive relationship, moves into the apartment next door, the two begin a strange friendship that allows them both to break free.
Sunday, June 24th, 2012
1:00pm – In the Names of their Mothers (60 min) (UK) (USA) (Documentary)
Dir. Mary Skinner
Polish heroine Irena Sendler at 95 tells how a group of young Polish Catholic women outfoxed the Nazis to save thousands of Jewish children from certain death in the Warsaw ghetto. For decades their stories were suppressed by Communist authorities in Poland. Now Sendler reveals the truth about a daring conspiracy of women in Nazi-occupied Warsaw.
2:15-3:10pm – Short Collection #12: (59 min)
House Devil, Street Angel (30 min)
Dir. Fivel Rothberg
In this autobiographical documentary, Fivel Rothberg looks at his relationships with his son and father in order to address the root causes of abusive relationships and mental illness in his life and open up possibilities for change. At first, the filmmaker tries to pin the blame for his behavior and depression on a cycle of abuse, but he comes to realize through the making of the film that reality is far more complicated. An intensely personal experience, House Devil, Street Angel asks viewers to question notions of abuse, fatherhood and masculinity as multiple generations of fathers and sons pursue their own directions.
2:50pm - The Couch (10 min)
Dir. Rubens Marinelli Neto
10-year-old boy doesn't understand why the people don't talk to him during his mother's funeral. Suddenly he notices a strange character among the guests changing his perception about death.
3:10pm – My Rifle, My Baby, and Me (15 min)
Dir. Lola Kirke
While on a mission to kill an invisible cowboy, best friends Paula and Baby learn just how fragile the fantastical world they have created together really is.
THE PARISH
Friday, June 22nd 2012
7:00pm - Ordinary Wilderness (97 min)
Dir. Tim Hall
Fred, a twenty-something slacker, finds himself at a place where nothing has gone as planned. Forced out of his mother’s home, he finds himself relegated to the guest bedroom of his successful, older brother.
Over the blistering summer in North Carolina, he finds his only friend in Donnie, a surprisingly ambitious buffoon, who stands as his own biggest obstacle.Still clinging to aspirations of a career as a fiction writer, Fred finds his progress halted amid a new relationship with Mary, an impulsive, young woman.
All who pass through Fred’s life - from an old man with a fleeting mind to a young child ripe with innocence - stand as a reflection upon his own state of compromise and tolerance of a life he never wanted. Through his journey, he comes to the realization of the man he’s supposed to be and all that he must endure along the way.
8:50pm – Uncle Hymie’s Funeral (90 min) (Comedy)
Dir. Stanley D. Jacobs
At his own funeral, a man is denied entrance into heaven until he reconciles the commandments that he broke while he was living. His nephew is appointed his 'angel on earth' to help him through the process.
10:30pm - Short Collection #2:
Beatles at Their Best (20 min)
Dir. Shaun Phillips
“We were at our best when we were playing in the dance halls of Liverpool and Hamburg. The world never saw that.” - John Lennon
Using video clips and photographs found on the Internet, many only recently available, 'The Beatles at their Best' is a fresh look at the story behind the making of the most successful musical group in history. It's the true story, you've probably never heard, about the band you thought you knew everything about.
Record Paradise: The Musical Life of Joe Lee (53 min) (Music Documentary)
Dir. Michael Streissguth
Record Paradise rolls with Joe Lee, black sheep of a blue-blood Maryland family, owner of one of the nation's most successful record stores, and an irreverent musical impresario. Leading an unruly parade of musicians, collectors, and disc jockeys, Joe has sold records to generations of music fans and produced, booked and managed some of Washington D.C.'s most beloved blues and rock acts, including the tragically zany Root Boy Slim. Opinionated, brash, and unabashedly entertaining, Joe Lee is a movie unto himself. Record Paradise is the next best thing.
From Michael Streissguth, the writer and co-producer of the award-winning Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, Record Paradise features the music of Ray Charles, Root Boy Slim, The Nighthawks, and The Lost Boys.
Saturday, June 23rd, 2012
4:30pm - Short Collection #6: (65 min)
Tomorrow (20 min) (Narrative) (Local/New Orleans)
Dir. Alan Velasquez and Amy Leonard
Tomorrow is about Elisha, a career-driven government officer, and her boyfriend Chris, a painter. Elisha works long hours and is often called away for travel. However, she's been hiding a big secret from Chris - she's actually a spy and assassin, and often undertakes very dangerous missions. When Chris decides to propose to her, Elisha realizes she can no longer hide her secret from him.
Dolls For Strangers (13 min) (Drama) (Local)
Dir. Ken Cohen
After his sister's mysterious leg paralysis, Tony searches for an explanation by making voodoo dolls for people, hoping to see similar results.
Who is Wright (25 min) (documentary) (Local)
Dir. Mike Mo
Step into the daily struggle of a young beat and rap artist from South Philadelphia who fights to keep his dream alive in spite of certain family dilemmas.
Wolf Call (12 min)
Dir. Rob Underhill
It is 1956. Previous year, 14-year old Emmett Till from Chicago had gone missing in Money, Mississippi. Later, the boy's mutilated body was found in a river. William Bradford Huie of Look magazine sits down with the two men acquitted for the boy's murder, Roy Bryant Jr. and J.W. Milam, to discuss the trial. Not a word had been uttered outside a courtroom by them or their kin, until now...
WOLF CALL, the true-story crafted from public record, transports us back to this historic drama that became a lightning rod for moral outrage pivotal in inspiring a whole generation to commit to social change in the 1950s. 'His death was a spark that ignited the Civil Rights Movement in America,' Ed Bradley, Emmy Award-winning journalist.
6:00pm - Voyage to Amasia (85 min) (Documentary)
Dir. Randy Bell and Eric Hachikian
'Voyage To Amasia' is a feature documentary inspired by Eric Hachikian's piano trio of the same name. Amasya, Turkey is the city from which Eric's grandmother fled during the Armenian Genocide. The filmmakers made a real voyage to Amasia, tracing a path through the past, telling Eric's family's story and the story of the current people of Turkey and Armenia.
8:15pm – Wunder Punkt (Short) (Germany)
Dir. Richard Brzozowski
Ben is in his early four ties. He is collecting money for huckster Mike. He is betting all the money he earns on horse races. The only constant is the alcoholic Pia, who appears frequently in his life but also disappears just as quickly. When Ben meets young and attractive Lena, he decides to change his life and to start all over. He plans a hazardous coup to get the needed seed money.
9:15pm – Short Collection #7: (69 min)
1:30 AM (43 min) (India)
Dir. Sourav De
Nishi, a girl in her late teens, the protagonist of the film '1:30 am', portrays an intense human turmoil, being torn inside by her split personality. Her make-belief world is happy and normal, darkness and void hitting her in swings.
The inconceivable mysteries of her alter existence, guides her through the state of caged delusion, relieving her from pain. Torn within, Nishi commits heinous crimes, yet, lives on to believe she doesn't. Her entity is ensured by her second self.
Her own split personality controls Nishi as a silent killer hiding behind a mask of composure and mindless chatter. As we move through some phases of Nishi's life, the invisible power becomes overwhelming, leaving us at a mysterious crossroad of Nishi's existence and non-existence.
Meet My Ex (14 min)
Dir. Chuck Gloman
A retired professor decides to sell his oceanfront mansion because it reminds him too much of his bride who died over forty years ago. The Appraiser learns that the professor's dead wife still has issues with him and confides only in her. Should she trust the professor or side with his departed spouse who seeks revenge?
10:15pm - Short Collection #8: (69 min)
The Heart Needs No Reason (Bawra Mann) (24 min) (Drama) (India)
Dir. Mitu Kumar
An aspiring intellectual writer is thrust with the task of writing a pulp fiction erotic novel to begin his career. As he writes, we see the world he is writing about. How his out of the box thinking (personified by his fictional character) clashes with his conventional thinking and how he fights his personal demons as he progresses with his novel, all leading to the unexpected twist at the end.
Goose Family (30 min) (Narrative Drama)
Dir. Seung Yeob Lee
The film 'Goose Family' is a blend of fake-documentary and drama. It's about a Korean family who live separately in Seoul, Korea and New York, U.S.A just for the sake of the children's education. The father, JINSOO, works in Korea to support the family while the mother, SHINAE, takes care of two sons living in the States. They both struggle for financial, emotional and cultural reasons and they gradually fall apart.
Day In, Day Out: Selling Food in Bangkok (15 min) (Documentary)
Dir. by Pilapa Esara
'Khun Tip' migrated to Bangkok to better her economic prospects. She cooks and sells food on the main walkway of her slum community, feeding residents who often live without indoor plumbing or kitchen facilities.
11:30pm - Short Collection #9: (55 min)
Heartless (18 min)
Dir. Jason Johnson
A man wakes up in the woods and has to find his way home.
Bump (7 min) (Short Story)
Dir. Marc Dickerson
Feeling dejected and unnoticed, a young woman takes it upon herself to get the attention she feels she deserves by creating an illusion of a life that is not hers.
One More Day in Hong Kong (32 min) (Drama) (Local)
Dir. Brian Cavallaro
A young man on a layover and a young woman studying abroad find themselves without their passports in Hong Kong. They decide to team up to try and replace their passports so they can leave a city they'd rather not be in. Once they discover the U.S. consulate is closed for Labor day they're forced to spend one more day in Hong Kong where they fall in love with each other and the city.
12:30am – I Am A Ghost (90 min) (Horror/Sci Fi)
Dir. H.P. Mendoza
Emily, a troubled spirit, haunts her own house every day, wondering why she can't leave. With the help of Sylvia, a clairvoyant hired to rid the house of spirits, Emily is forced into a 'patient/therapist' relationship, uncovering disturbing mysteries about her past that may help her move on to 'the next place'.
THE RAVEN LOUNGE
Friday, June 22nd 2012
6:00pm – Returning Home (37 min) (Local)
Dir. Jason Honeycutt
Michael wakes up in the middle of nowhere with no idea how he got there, all he knows is that he has to get home to his family. He has no other choice but to walk the endless road ahead where he is pushed to his limits. Michael meets others along the way who are also lost but he has to decide if they will bring him closer to home or push him further away. The more he is tested, the more he remembers how he got there – and why he desperately needs to find a way back home to his family.
Miracles on Honey Bee Hill (23 min) (Short Comedy/Musical)
Dir. Bob Pondillo
A young female pines for true love, but when she finds her 'special someone' her zealously religious church family becomes enraged over it, and attempts to drive her from the congregation. It literally takes a visit from God for the pious group to accept and understand the power of compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, and love.
7:00pm – Cybornetics (118 min)
Dir. Dwayne Buckle
Cybornetics is a new independent original science fiction feature film about a group of scientists, working for the United Sates government, who transform a man into a cyborg.
9:00pm - Short Collection #3: (62 min)
Pie Heaven - (20 min) (Drama)
Dir. Aviv Rubinstein
Two best friends, Ben and Emily enter into a competition over who can truly please a woman better. But this is no ordinary game for Ben...
Things We Keep - (20 min) (Drama)
Dir. David Cooper Moore
A family copes with the loss of their mother in the things they kept after her death. This documentary uses the powerful but often arbitrary nature of family documents to explore how trauma changes the lives of children as they start their own families. The film looks obliquely at death, finding both humor and muted sadness twenty years later as a brother and sister move on with their lives.
Suddenly, Zinat - (21 min) (Iran)
Dir. Navid Azad
With the specter of an oppresive government always present, we watch a family struggle with religion, drugs, and doing right from wrong.
Saturday, June 23rd, 2012
6:00-7:50pm – Momo: The Sam Giancana Story (102 min) (Documentary)
Dir. Dimitri Logothetis
This documentary on Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana exposes his complicity in the Kennedy Assassination, the death of Marilyn Monroe, and the CIA's attempted assassination of Castro, as well as a wealth of murders and intrigue, through never before seen interviews with Giancana's daughters and family members, who also offer a glimpse into the personal life of this dangerous, complex, and influential crime figure.
8:00-9:20pm – Sleeping With The Fishes (Drama/Comedy) (Local)
Dir. Peter Defeo and Todd Wolfe
Philadelphia Mob's new recruit, Armand Alfonso, finds himself at odds with his new colleagues' drug operations and his new love interest just so happens to be the Don's wife.
9:45pm – The Horror of Barnes Folly (89 min) (Comedy Horror)
Dir. Jonathan Rach
When a misunderstood MONSTER stumbles into the small backwoods hillbilly town of BARNES FOLLY, it is up to DEPUTY JOHNSON (Gorbos), an inept, newly transplanted cop from the big city, to ease the terrified town and bring the Monster to justice. He forms a mismatch posse, including his slightly psychic girlfriend (Bell), the town's only doctor (Muhammed), an odd woodsman (Gubbins), and Jeff, the hillbilliest of all hillbillies (Rodrick), to catch the horrible, horrific, horrifying Monster.
PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS (PAFA)
Friday, June 23rd, 2012
1:00pm – Mixed Tape @ The 5 Spot (Documentary) (25 min) (Local)
A short documentary of a very special time in Philadelphia music history. The Black Lilly weekly music sessions at the legendary Five Spot.
1:15pm – If I Make It, I Win (14 min) (Local)
Dir. Roberto Ferri
Three stories are connected by a timeless narration in 'If I make it, I win'. Roberto Ferri, a young filmmaker experiments with the ideas of 'failure' and the 'unfinished' as he shares his own experience during the process of telling the juxtaposing stories of a famous fictional boxer and one of the most important artists of the 1900's.
2:15pm - The Pact (80 min) (Drama)
Dir. Matt Toronto
Their love lives in shambles, two brothers make a pact: No women for a year! The pact holds them under an almost magical spell as they take turns trying, but failing to break it.
3:40-4:40 Animation Festival (60 min)
Landscape (11 min) (France)
Dir. Anabela Costa
Landscape, is what can be seen, and not in physical terms but as an outward expression of human perception: 'a landscape is a cultural image, a pictorial way of representing, structuring or symbolizing surroundings', so it will always be a personal take over an area of land, of human elements buildings or structures with a cultural and aesthetic dimension.
O-Bon (12 min) (Japan)
Dir. Robert F. Kauffmann
Haruko Yamagawa was a young professional working in Tokyo. Every midsummer, she would endure the painful reminder of the tragic loss of her family and her ancestral home during the O-Bon festival when everyone else would leave the city to visit with family. This year seemed as if it would pass like the others before it...But Yamagawa's family had other plans for her...
The Story of Cholera (4 min) (Israel)
Dir. Yoni Goodman
The Story of Cholera will save lives. Developed in response to the devastating cholera epidemic that began in Haiti in fall of 2010, the animation helps affected populations around the world better understand cholera and how to prevent it from spreading. It's an engaging, educational animation in which a young boy helps a health worker save his father and then guides his village in preventing cholera from spreading. By making the invisible cholera germs visible, this simple animated narrative brings to life the teaching points of cholera prevention.
Feathers (4 min) (Local)
Dir. Daniel Hoffman
Through alternative animation techniques 'Feathers' uses the venue of a music video to illustrate the physicality, transiency, and cyclic nature of the city.
Tripped Into You (4 min) (Local)
Dir. Daniel Hoffman
In this hand-drawn music video for the band Toy Soldiers, Daniel Hoffman explores the relationship between a man, his home, and the new development that takes place there.
The Game (6 min) (Poland) (Animation)
Dir. Marcin Janiec
Somewhere between life and death a thrilling chess match takes place. The stake is high - a gateway to the world of living. And the sole referee of this exciting tournament is a figure no one wish to meet in their path.
Sunday, June 24th, 2012
12:00pm – Kyoto Sanjyo Mystery (25 min) (Japan)
Dir. Hiroshi Toda
A French antique dealer named Guillaume visits Japan to sell one of his paintings to an antique collector.
The collector who lives in Kyoto, the old capital of Japan, collects all different types of antique objects from all over the world.
The collector offers Guillaume big money. The price is far beyond what Guillaume expects. Guillaume, however, turn down his offer when he finds a mask in his collection. He tries to trade his painting with the mask instead of just selling for money. He rejects his offer for some reason. Guillaume cannot give up the mask and decide to do something.
1:30pm – Parachute Ball (20 min) (UK)
Dir. Peter Boothby
Set during World War II, on a secluded farm in Kent, two elderly and eccentric women are unexpectedly called to duty one night when they discover an unconscious German pilot, hanging from his parachute in their tree.
1:50pm – Stigma (80 min) (Documentary) (India)
Dir. Jeff P. Johns
'STIGMA' follows young filmmakers Jeff Johns and Ryan Lougridge as the travel the globe in search of answers as to why more hasn't been done to completely eradicate leprosy for good. Through India, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, they talk to WHO doctors, aid workers, meet those affected in colonies and try to understand why more isn't being done to whip out the World's oldest and most misunderstood disease.
Armed with only two backpacks, their passports and $1,200, follow the filmmakers on a journey around the world to find themselves and those stigmatized by this horrible disease.
3:20pm – Conducting Change (29 min) (Juilliard) (Music Documentary)
Dir. Denise Blostein and Nathan Ehrlich
Though the number of women that have careers conducting symphony orchestras has increased over the past few decades, it is still rare and considered somewhat unconventional for a woman to be the leader of an orchestra. Conducting Change examines questions surround this issue: Is it due to the slow pace of change in a male-dominated field? Is there a persistent undercurrent of gender bias? Or is there a shortage of role models to encourage women to pursue conducting?
Through the experiences of Sarah Kidd, one young woman about to launch her career, Conducting Change looks at how the role and image of what a conductor is has been changing in America, and examines the reasons why it may be difficult for women to break through.
3:55pm - Short Collection #10:
Sea Pavilion (10 min) (South Africa) (Silent/Drama)
Dir. Todd Somodevilla
An innocent picnic turns surreal when curiosity leads to the uncovering of secrets hidden in the decrepit yet beautiful ruins of a seaside pavilion. Filmed in eerie and picturesque Macassar, South Africa, where the dunes have half-buried a once vibrant recreation park, a young couple learn that some dark corners should not be revealed in the light of day.
Written in Ink (11 min) (Poland)
Dir. Martin Rath
Written in Ink is a documentary about hope. The compelling story of a man trying to regain contact with his sister after 14 years of silence. But can one change what has already been written in ink?
Beautifully shot on 35mm the film has been praised for its ability to extract with sensitivity the most hidden recesses of the human soul and for its distinctive documentary language. Without the use of interviews and voice-over the film closely follows its protagonist's endeavor and becomes an allegory for the trials of human existence.
THE PHILADELPHIA INDEPENDENT EYE EVENT
Free screenings at the Piazza on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday! Come on out.
Thursday, June 21st 2012:
7:00pm - Find the Way (le Monde doit m’arriver) – (85 min) (France) (Drama) (Feature)
Dir. Jonathan Taieb
Ludo, an almost-30-year-old wistful artist, finds his life turned upside down after a potentially serious health problem, a break-up and after meeting Raphael, a child doomed by an incurable disease.
Friday, June 22nd 2012:
7:00pm - Diary of a Decade - (90 min) (Feature) (Music Documentary) (US)
Dir. Jason Orr
This film is the story of a cultural legend as told by the innovators of an important, and in some cases overlooked, era in Black culture. Spanning the late 1980′s through to the early 2000′s, this story goes deep into the fabric of soul music, it’s definitions, it’s pioneers, it’s offspring, it’s movements, the challenges with the “mainstream” industry as well as the evolution of the FunkJazz Kafé Arts & Music Festival, a music and artistic renaissance movement born out of Atlanta’s diverse musical and cultural arts heritage. The film covers the decade when Atlanta’s underground music scene became established on the world stage and a new generation of soul singers and musicians emerged. FunkJazz Kafé: Diary Of A Decade (The Story Of A Movement) also explores the question of how we got to live soul bands being non-existing in the commercial music landscape of the 21st century when there once was a plethora of soul and R&B bands since the creation of recorded music.
Saturday, June 23rd, 2012:
7:00pm - Big Guns – (87 min) (Comedy) (US) (LA/Local)
Dir. Chris McDonnell
When the world's worst cop is fired he becomes the world's worst private detective. For reasons unknown he finds himself the target of every criminal in town. He must overcome his incompetence and several character defects to solve the case and save his life.
During China's Cultural Revolution, Sidney Rittenberg, an American citizen, became the most important foreigner in China since Marco Polo. Arriving as a GI interpreter at the end of World War II, he was an active participant in the Chinese communist revolution. An intimate of the Party's leadership, including Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, he gained prominence at the Broadcast Administration, one of the most important agencies of government. But in the convulsions of a giant country constantly reinventing itself, he twice ran afoul of the leadership, and served a total of 16 years in solitary confinement. This is the story of the biggest revolution of the 20th century, unknown to most Americans, told by an American who was there.
FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH
THE SANCTUARY
Wednesday, June 20th 2012
9:30-10:45pm - Zima (Germany) (Fiction) (Drama) (45 min) (Sanctuary)
Dir. Katarina Stankovic
Michael announces his plans to come home after a long mysterious absence. The people whom he had left behind decide to organize a small get-together for his return. Despite his promise, Michael stays away yet he remains strangely omnipresent, just like the fears that he may never return.
Sure Ain`t Nothing (Sicher ist nichts) (25 min) (Germany) (Drama) (Sanctuary)
Dir. Nathalie Shulten
'SURE AINT NOTHING' portraits in a sensitive way the story of the confident, Helen, who is in her late sixties starting to suffer from dementia. Through its network of visual and auditory narrative means, the film approaches Helen's perception of reality through her emotional world. From the initially humorous handling of forgetfulness, to the shocking loss of reality, the film presents in a poetic and empathetic way, the question of responsibility, dignity and love. Love for yourself and the people we are close to.
Thursday, June 21st 2012
7-8:30pm - The Hidden Hand: Alien Contact (80 min) (Political Documentary) (US)
Dir. James Carman
The EBE award-winning feature documentary, 'The Hidden Hand,' examines the phenomena surrounding UFOs, Extra Terrestrials, alien abduction, and the US secret military cover-up of supposed E.T. contact and back-engineering of alien technology. The film incorporates interviews with military insiders like astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, and Col. John Alexander. It also interviews UFO experts like hypnotherapist, David Jacobs, and those who claim to have had actual E.T. contact.
Narrative scenes are interspersed throughout the film to shape the concepts of the film from complimentary viewpoints, weaving a tapestry of fact and fiction into a new world view that may shocking and eye-opening for the viewer.
8:35-9:35pm – MERCS: Hijack (53 min) (Sci-Fi) (local)
Dir. James Panetta
After damaging his ship while engaging pirates he was only ordered to observe, Captain Brice Creed and Princess Varisa Nalabetric wait for the U.E.star ship the UESS Iowa to repair their ship the Artemis. When the Iowa is lured away, a small force of mercenaries on the planet below hit the Artemis with an electromagnetic pulse trapping the crew in the cargo bay except for Creed, and Varisa who were on the bridge. While Creed and Varisa fight to stop their ship from being hijacked by the mercenaries, Commander Denabreo and his wife take on the mercenaries on the planet.
9:45pm – Animation Festival (60 min)
Landscape (11 min) (France)
Dir. Anabela Costa
Landscape, is what can be seen, and not in physical terms but as an outward expression of human perception: 'a landscape is a cultural image, a pictorial way of representing, structuring or symbolizing surroundings', so it will always be a personal take over an area of land, of human elements buildings or structures with a cultural and aesthetic dimension.
O-Bon (12 min) (Japan)
Dir. Robert F. Kauffmann
Haruko Yamagawa was a young professional working in Tokyo. Every midsummer, she would endure the painful reminder of the tragic loss of her family and her ancestral home during the O-Bon festival when everyone else would leave the city to visit with family. This year seemed as if it would pass like the others before it...But Yamagawa's family had other plans for her...
The Story of Cholera (4 min) (Israel)
Dir. Yoni Goodman
The Story of Cholera will save lives. Developed in response to the devastating cholera epidemic that began in Haiti in fall of 2010, the animation helps affected populations around the world better understand cholera and how to prevent it from spreading. It's an engaging, educational animation in which a young boy helps a health worker save his father and then guides his village in preventing cholera from spreading. By making the invisible cholera germs visible, this simple animated narrative brings to life the teaching points of cholera prevention.
Feathers (4 min) (Local)
Dir. Daniel Hoffman
Through alternative animation techniques 'Feathers' uses the venue of a music video to illustrate the physicality, transiency, and cyclic nature of the city.
Tripped Into You (4 min) (Local)
Dir. Daniel Hoffman
In this hand-drawn music video for the band Toy Soldiers, Daniel Hoffman explores the relationship between a man, his home, and the new development that takes place there.
The Game (6 min) (Poland)
Dir. Marcin Janiec
Somewhere between life and death a thrilling chess match takes place. The stake is high - a gateway to the world of living. And the sole referee of this exciting tournament is a figure no one wish to meet in their path.
Friday, June 22nd 2012
5:00pm - Short Collection #1:
Coupe de Villain (15 min)
Deciding enough is enough, a troubled worker decides to pack up the guns and blow everybody away on the road.
Serum (36 min) (Short) (Sci-fi)
Dir. Chidi Ozeih
2067AD. In a world filled with fraud and corruption, a shadowy government organization called 'The Black Flag' secretly controls all facets of society. Their dominance is almost complete; except for one thorn in their side - a serial killer called 'The Red Scarlet'. In a downtown police precinct, two detectives try to piece together the puzzle woven by the red scarlet and her attempt to release the serum and expose the truth.
My Origin (42 min)
Dir. Mary Lelina and Ryan Calloway
Mary Lan, an adopted woman, finds her real heritage and the mysteries that are revealed.
6:00pm - The Descending (84min) (Thriller)
Dir. Kyle Thompson
Detective John Mazer (Steve Annan), is put through a series of life– changing and career– altering situations. Told through a series of interrogations, Mazer relives a harrowing tale of a hostage situation that ended in tragedy. Suspected drug dealer Brandon Lidge (Chris Harbur), creates a master plan to seek revenge on a criminal justice system that has wronged him. This no– holds barred psychological thriller rolls over its viewers with an intensity that will be hard to shake.
8:00pm – Benny the Bum (97 min) (Dramedy)
Dir. Paul and Dan Cantagallo
Benny, a fighter from Philadelphia, never had a problem taking his lumps inside the ring. But after a year in prison, he finds his personal life packing more wallop than he's ready for. As Benny struggles to free himself of his past mistakes, he meets an alluring newcomer to his native city. The unlikely pair find they have a lot in common. But their romance ends abruptly when Benny's creditors kidnap Stella for ransom.
*Musical Performance
10:15pm – 11:35Trailer Park Jesus (79 min) (Dramedy)
Dir. Sean Gerowin
Inspired by a true misadventure, Jessie, a college student in New Orleans, purchases a sheet of acid after an embarrassing break-up with his girlfriend. He figures a good time tripping on acid,with his friends back home in Saint Louis, would be an ideal path to mend his broken heart.
Old Highway 61 is Jessie's preferred route back home, but engine problems strands him at a trailer park in Cleveland, Mississippi. He thinks a cunning way to fix his situation is to use his acid to bargain his way back home.
With the help of the trailer park denizens, he forgets about his breakup and finds Trailer Park Jesus.
12:00am-1:20am – Towers (71 min) (Sci-Fi)
Dir. Jet Wintzer
When the human race can no longer feel happiness, peace or joy due to mutations caused by radiation from cell phones and towers, humanity becomes virtually extinct.
Sunday, June 24th, 2012
1:00pm – Inside the Perfect Circle: The Odyssey of Joel Thome (Documentary) (60 min)
Dir. Chris Pepino
This intriguing music documentary about world-traveled composer and conductor Joel Thome, "Inside The Perfect Circle" provides a close personal look at Thome's career and philosophy. He collaborated extensively with Frank Zappa arranging the eccentric rock icon's elaborate music for symphony orchestra and rock band. He was awarded a Grammy and was also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He composed the music for Pablo Picasso's play, "Catch Desire By The Tail", and he conducted operas and orchestras across the globe, furthering the plight of modern music. After suffering a debilitating stroke in 1998, Joel lost the use of his left arm and was forced to undergo years of recovery. Using music as a resource for healing, and with the aid of music therapy, he was able to resume composing and returned to the stage to perform his graphically notated mandala scores.
2:20pm – Erroll Garner, No One Can Hear You Read (Music Documentary) (55min)
Dir. Atticus Brady
'Erroll Garner - No One Can Hear You Read' is a music documentary chronicling the life and career of this jazz Piano giant.
3:30pm – Short Collection #11:
Ausreichend (31 min) (Germany)
Dir. Isabel Prahl
Average is the story of a young teacher who wants to be a good and well liked teacher. But his ideals are challenged at every turn.
Twist and Blood (35 min) (Short Drama) (Poland)
A young boy is ridiculed by his peers for being overweight. His parents want to slim him down at any cost, but he has found a way to relieve the pressures of his family and friends.
4:40pm - #whilewewatch (40 min) (Documentary)
Dir. Kevin Breslin
# whilewewatch is a gripping look at the media revolution that emerged from Zuccotti Park in New York City to the world. It is the story of how many people came together in the sun and rain, day and night, broke and loaded with energy and hope to get their story out to the world. #OWS [Occupy Wall Street] has galvanized the world.
#whilewewatch is the real inside story of great people who have no fear. They don't back down from police, big business or city government. When regular media paid no attention to this movement they decided to tell the world their story.
#whilewewatch is the real experience of what democracy looks like. We hear it from their voices, pain, energy and honesty.
Closing Ceremonies
THE CHAPEL
Thursday, June 21st 2012 (Tentative Schedule)
6:00pm - Take Us Home (70 min) (Documentary)
Dir. Aileen LeBlanc
It's a four hour flight into their future. Until recently Fekadu and his family have been practicing Christians - though they are of Jewish heritage. Will they qualify for a new life in Israel? They have been waiting in Gondar, Ethiopia for ten years. Fekadu learns that he may go only if he leaves his adopted son, Worku behind.
7:20pm – Heaven’s Mirror (70 min)
"Heaven’s Mirror" is filmmaker Joshua Dylan Mellars’ mystically wild and lushly romantic fado journey: after the death of his grandmother the filmmaker travels from the ironwork balconies and narrow cobbled streets of Lisbon’s Alfama to the cool bungalow porches of former Portuguese Goa, from the salt sprayed clapboard of New England’s former whaling ports to the dusty bullrings of Central California in search of the meaning of saudade, the essence of fado. Like Proust, fado music tries to recover lost times, ephemeral feelings, time moved on, laments of what could have been if only… In "Heaven’s Mirror," Mellars travels a geographical odyssey and an inner quest, mixing love with desire, memory with longing. Mimicking the Portuguese discovery voyages of old, the filmmaker also sails an inner sea to learn from those who have lived and sung life in fado--for somewhere, somehow, sometime, we all must travel fado’s terrain.
8:40pm – The Last Ride on the Midwest Pacific (90 min) (Drama)
Dir. Daniel Killman
The night before NAN and POPS move to a retirement community in the rural Midwest, their scattered family reunites. Repressed tensions are provoked revealing unmentionable family secrets. Tensions run high on this emotional night resulting in the discovery of a few skeletons in the closet and unbeknownst plans for the future that change this diasporic family forever.
10:10pm – The Harvest (83 min) (Documentary)
Dir. Gabriel DeLoach
What does it mean to take a wild animal’s life? For a child with a life-threatening medical condition, whose greatest wish is to be a hunter, the answer is both powerful and personal. The Harvest, a documentary film by Gabriel DeLoach, joins three such children and the organization that supports them as they make this dream come true. A journey to the point where life and death meet, The Harvest offers a provocative yet respectful look at extraordinary individuals who lose their innocence and become hunters.
Friday, June 22nd 2012
2:00pm – Monday Morning (108 min) (Political drama)
Dir. Nat Christian
Thomas Bach, a right wing radio talk show host and a darling of the Tea Party Movement, is deciding to run for the US Senate. When he loses his memory following an attack, he ends up on the streets of L.A. among the homeless. When Thomas recovers and is touted as a hero of survival, he must choose between career and conscience.
3:45pm – Turn the Mics On (40 min) (Music Documentary)
Dir. Matt Ritvo
Follow six jazz musicians as they rehearse, perform and record an album of original material. One part Buena Vista Social Club, two parts We Jam Econo, with Driving Miss Daisy in reverse mixed in. Set in Los Angeles, 2008. No Wynton Marsalis; no slow pan across black and white photos.
4:25pm – If You Cry (Celui qui pleure a perdu) (75 min) (France)
Dir. Marion Lefeuvre
Sarah want to see Anais again, but Anais is dead...
5:50pm - Hola, Flamenco (27 min) (Music Documentary)
Dir. Avatar St. Louis
Hola, Flamenco is an independent documentary dedicated to Spain's UNESCO-recognized national art. Featuring some of the world's most charismatic performers alongside renowned cultural experts, the film progresses through the cities and towns of Andalusia, taking footage of Flamenco wherever it emerges. With each new destination, an aspect of the genre's unique character is revealed through dance, music and interviews: its multicultural origins, the debate between purists and 'fusionistas,' as well as the improbable contributions of Spain's coal miners. What is pure? What is historical? What is correct, and in the end, does it even matter?
7:00pm – The Shift (26 min)
Dir. Jim Haigney
Are they witches? Aliens? Angels? Kate and Karen are two mysterious women, possessing otherworldly powers, who intervene and tamper with the lives of random strangers. They give these strangers the shift, a nudge towards the next stage of evolution. Sometimes the shift is subtle and graceful, and other times it is a forceful reckoning.
And then the two women vanish as quickly as they appeared.Despite their great power, Kate and Karen hide some dark secrets of their own.
The Dissent (35 min) (French/Italian/Mexico/USA) (World Premier)
Dir. Helmut Dosantos
An old father, still a tyrant despite his age. Edward, the son, devoured by his Oedipus complex. And Karla, the young woman betrothed to Edward, who dreams about her future husband's attempt to break free from the yoke of his father and assert his own will. However....
10:00pm - Last Look (85min)
Dir. Hernando Bansuelo
This film is about a mother forcing her children to relive the mistakes of her past. Inspired by the work of David Lynch and Michael Haneke, LAST LOOK is a domestic horror film that blurs the line between fantasy and reality, the theater and real life. Following a family tragedy, young Susan returns to her dysfunctional home. Soon, she is drawn into a dangerous drama that's being played out by her faded actress mother and her obsessive film-maker brother. And only one will survive the night...
Saturday, June 23rd, 2012
1:00pm – Oxygen for the Ears: Living Jazz (94 min) (Music Documentary) (DC)
Dir. Stefan Immler
'Oxygen for the Ears: Living Jazz' is a story of the trials and triumphs of jazz in America. Every jazz tune has a starting point - a simple note - from which the music starts its journey and rises. 'Oxygen for the Ears' portrays Washington D.C. as such a departure point for its documentary story, 'Living Jazz'.
2:40pm – Sleeping Dogs (Schlafende Hunde) (85 min) (Germany)
Dir. Michael O’Connor
Jim is haunted by visions of his own violent death and is convinced he doesn't have long to live. He sets out on a journey to find his son Tom and reconcile with him.
At first Tom rejects his father but then they grow closer and it seems that everything might turn out well. But past events re-emerge in the form of an old friend with an ax to grind, and Jim's visions become more and more menacing.
When Tom disappears Jim is certain everything is playing out exactly as he foresaw. He sets out to rescue Tom. This time his search leads him to a showdown with his past.
5:20pm – Short Collection #4:
Crashing by Design (11 min)
Dir. Kevin Corcoran
Alex is an ordinary girl who keeps bees. Much to the chagrin of her worried boyfriend Leo, she decides to join a roller derby team. With the encouragement of Coach (Kath “Koach” Phoeler) and an uneasy mentorship from a tough skater Ashley, Alex navigates the rough world of roller derby. Now if she can only avoid the wrath of 'Dame Thrower.' Can this timid “bee girl” overcome her fears and transform into roller girl “HoneyBea Stingz?”
It’s a Girl Thing: MKA, Tween Queens and the Commodification of Girlhood (59 min)
Dir. by Shannon Silva
Since the birth of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in 1987, the girls' tween market has evolved from almost non-existent into a $43 billion-dollar-a-year money making machine.
Framed by the structure of a faux interactive website, It's A Girl Thing speaks with consumer critics, tween brand marketers, girls, moms, and educators to explore the seemingly benign cultural universe of pastel-colored, hyper-commercialized girl culture (and the tween queen phenomenon) to reveal the complex and contradictory messages directed at today's young girls.
Historical research, playful reenactments and found footage allow the film to look closely, and critically, at the tween market's evolution and the role of Disney and Nickelodeon's tween queens (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Miranda Cosgrove, Selena Gomez, and more) in the market's explosion.
7:00pm - The Duck Hunter (Il Cacciatore Di Anatre) (90 min) (Italian Drama)
Dir. Egidio Veronesi
The year is 1942. In the countryside of Modena, in northern Italy, the story of four friends are intertwined, each of them with their own dream to realize. The story is set at time of second world war and the tragic events of this period will end by sweeping away everyone and everything. Only one of them will realize his dream.
9:00pm - Maybe Tomorrow (93 min) (Drama)
Dir. Michael Wolfe
After fifteen years of silence, three friends are finally forced to examine the manner in which a long-forgotten crime and cover-up has affected the course of their lives.
Facing a lengthy prison sentence, RUSS MAHLER, a career criminal armed with a destructive secret, blackmails the only man that can get him off the hook, Manhattan District Attorney GRAHAM SEIFERT, whose Chief of Staff EVAN MIDLAND is called upon to facilitate a resolution.
With his hands tied, Graham has Russ acquitted and upon Evan's insistence, invites him out to his Hampton beach house for the weekend where the three of them will finally attempt to bury a memory that still haunts them.
In one night, they will confront the sins of their pasts, face the flawed men they are in the present and determine what they must do to secure a future where hopefully, a better version of themselves will be waiting.
Graham will choose between career ambitions and ideals long forgotten. Evan will decide once and for all whether to put his job or his family first. And Russ will search for a way to piece his life back together and reclaim the self he had abandoned years ago when that one night changed the lives of these three very different men. A night that drove them apart…but a night that would forever bind them.
11:00pm - Short Collection #5: (56 min)
Pride (22 min) (Short) (Drama)
Dir. Marc Saltarelli
On the morning of his annual gay pride party, Stephen's exhausted sister (Pauley Perrette) leaves their homophobic, Alzheimer's-suffering father (James Karen) on Stephen's (Perry Ojeda) doorstep. Father and son have been estranged since Stephen was a teen and was kicked out of the house. Throughout the day, Stephen's friends & guests (Susan Blakely, 'Sugar' Kiper, among others) take turns looking in on and sharing stories with the ailing senior, providing a rather unique crash course in all things gay. As seeds of Stephen and his father's turbulent relationship come to light so does hope that the two can move past their fears, accept and forgive one another.
Neighbors (20 min) (Drama) (Local)
Dir. Rachel Goldberg
NEIGHBORS tells the story of Maggie Jerritt, a quirky shut-in who is unable to leave her home even to visit her dying mother. But when Lamay, a transgendered woman in an abusive relationship, moves into the apartment next door, the two begin a strange friendship that allows them both to break free.
Sunday, June 24th, 2012
1:00pm – In the Names of their Mothers (60 min) (UK) (USA) (Documentary)
Dir. Mary Skinner
Polish heroine Irena Sendler at 95 tells how a group of young Polish Catholic women outfoxed the Nazis to save thousands of Jewish children from certain death in the Warsaw ghetto. For decades their stories were suppressed by Communist authorities in Poland. Now Sendler reveals the truth about a daring conspiracy of women in Nazi-occupied Warsaw.
2:15-3:10pm – Short Collection #12: (59 min)
House Devil, Street Angel (30 min)
Dir. Fivel Rothberg
In this autobiographical documentary, Fivel Rothberg looks at his relationships with his son and father in order to address the root causes of abusive relationships and mental illness in his life and open up possibilities for change. At first, the filmmaker tries to pin the blame for his behavior and depression on a cycle of abuse, but he comes to realize through the making of the film that reality is far more complicated. An intensely personal experience, House Devil, Street Angel asks viewers to question notions of abuse, fatherhood and masculinity as multiple generations of fathers and sons pursue their own directions.
2:50pm - The Couch (10 min)
Dir. Rubens Marinelli Neto
10-year-old boy doesn't understand why the people don't talk to him during his mother's funeral. Suddenly he notices a strange character among the guests changing his perception about death.
3:10pm – My Rifle, My Baby, and Me (15 min)
Dir. Lola Kirke
While on a mission to kill an invisible cowboy, best friends Paula and Baby learn just how fragile the fantastical world they have created together really is.
THE PARISH
Friday, June 22nd 2012
7:00pm - Ordinary Wilderness (97 min)
Dir. Tim Hall
Fred, a twenty-something slacker, finds himself at a place where nothing has gone as planned. Forced out of his mother’s home, he finds himself relegated to the guest bedroom of his successful, older brother.
Over the blistering summer in North Carolina, he finds his only friend in Donnie, a surprisingly ambitious buffoon, who stands as his own biggest obstacle.Still clinging to aspirations of a career as a fiction writer, Fred finds his progress halted amid a new relationship with Mary, an impulsive, young woman.
All who pass through Fred’s life - from an old man with a fleeting mind to a young child ripe with innocence - stand as a reflection upon his own state of compromise and tolerance of a life he never wanted. Through his journey, he comes to the realization of the man he’s supposed to be and all that he must endure along the way.
8:50pm – Uncle Hymie’s Funeral (90 min) (Comedy)
Dir. Stanley D. Jacobs
At his own funeral, a man is denied entrance into heaven until he reconciles the commandments that he broke while he was living. His nephew is appointed his 'angel on earth' to help him through the process.
10:30pm - Short Collection #2:
Beatles at Their Best (20 min)
Dir. Shaun Phillips
“We were at our best when we were playing in the dance halls of Liverpool and Hamburg. The world never saw that.” - John Lennon
Using video clips and photographs found on the Internet, many only recently available, 'The Beatles at their Best' is a fresh look at the story behind the making of the most successful musical group in history. It's the true story, you've probably never heard, about the band you thought you knew everything about.
Record Paradise: The Musical Life of Joe Lee (53 min) (Music Documentary)
Dir. Michael Streissguth
Record Paradise rolls with Joe Lee, black sheep of a blue-blood Maryland family, owner of one of the nation's most successful record stores, and an irreverent musical impresario. Leading an unruly parade of musicians, collectors, and disc jockeys, Joe has sold records to generations of music fans and produced, booked and managed some of Washington D.C.'s most beloved blues and rock acts, including the tragically zany Root Boy Slim. Opinionated, brash, and unabashedly entertaining, Joe Lee is a movie unto himself. Record Paradise is the next best thing.
From Michael Streissguth, the writer and co-producer of the award-winning Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, Record Paradise features the music of Ray Charles, Root Boy Slim, The Nighthawks, and The Lost Boys.
Saturday, June 23rd, 2012
4:30pm - Short Collection #6: (65 min)
Tomorrow (20 min) (Narrative) (Local/New Orleans)
Dir. Alan Velasquez and Amy Leonard
Tomorrow is about Elisha, a career-driven government officer, and her boyfriend Chris, a painter. Elisha works long hours and is often called away for travel. However, she's been hiding a big secret from Chris - she's actually a spy and assassin, and often undertakes very dangerous missions. When Chris decides to propose to her, Elisha realizes she can no longer hide her secret from him.
Dolls For Strangers (13 min) (Drama) (Local)
Dir. Ken Cohen
After his sister's mysterious leg paralysis, Tony searches for an explanation by making voodoo dolls for people, hoping to see similar results.
Who is Wright (25 min) (documentary) (Local)
Dir. Mike Mo
Step into the daily struggle of a young beat and rap artist from South Philadelphia who fights to keep his dream alive in spite of certain family dilemmas.
Wolf Call (12 min)
Dir. Rob Underhill
It is 1956. Previous year, 14-year old Emmett Till from Chicago had gone missing in Money, Mississippi. Later, the boy's mutilated body was found in a river. William Bradford Huie of Look magazine sits down with the two men acquitted for the boy's murder, Roy Bryant Jr. and J.W. Milam, to discuss the trial. Not a word had been uttered outside a courtroom by them or their kin, until now...
WOLF CALL, the true-story crafted from public record, transports us back to this historic drama that became a lightning rod for moral outrage pivotal in inspiring a whole generation to commit to social change in the 1950s. 'His death was a spark that ignited the Civil Rights Movement in America,' Ed Bradley, Emmy Award-winning journalist.
6:00pm - Voyage to Amasia (85 min) (Documentary)
Dir. Randy Bell and Eric Hachikian
'Voyage To Amasia' is a feature documentary inspired by Eric Hachikian's piano trio of the same name. Amasya, Turkey is the city from which Eric's grandmother fled during the Armenian Genocide. The filmmakers made a real voyage to Amasia, tracing a path through the past, telling Eric's family's story and the story of the current people of Turkey and Armenia.
8:15pm – Wunder Punkt (Short) (Germany)
Dir. Richard Brzozowski
Ben is in his early four ties. He is collecting money for huckster Mike. He is betting all the money he earns on horse races. The only constant is the alcoholic Pia, who appears frequently in his life but also disappears just as quickly. When Ben meets young and attractive Lena, he decides to change his life and to start all over. He plans a hazardous coup to get the needed seed money.
9:15pm – Short Collection #7: (69 min)
1:30 AM (43 min) (India)
Dir. Sourav De
Nishi, a girl in her late teens, the protagonist of the film '1:30 am', portrays an intense human turmoil, being torn inside by her split personality. Her make-belief world is happy and normal, darkness and void hitting her in swings.
The inconceivable mysteries of her alter existence, guides her through the state of caged delusion, relieving her from pain. Torn within, Nishi commits heinous crimes, yet, lives on to believe she doesn't. Her entity is ensured by her second self.
Her own split personality controls Nishi as a silent killer hiding behind a mask of composure and mindless chatter. As we move through some phases of Nishi's life, the invisible power becomes overwhelming, leaving us at a mysterious crossroad of Nishi's existence and non-existence.
Meet My Ex (14 min)
Dir. Chuck Gloman
A retired professor decides to sell his oceanfront mansion because it reminds him too much of his bride who died over forty years ago. The Appraiser learns that the professor's dead wife still has issues with him and confides only in her. Should she trust the professor or side with his departed spouse who seeks revenge?
10:15pm - Short Collection #8: (69 min)
The Heart Needs No Reason (Bawra Mann) (24 min) (Drama) (India)
Dir. Mitu Kumar
An aspiring intellectual writer is thrust with the task of writing a pulp fiction erotic novel to begin his career. As he writes, we see the world he is writing about. How his out of the box thinking (personified by his fictional character) clashes with his conventional thinking and how he fights his personal demons as he progresses with his novel, all leading to the unexpected twist at the end.
Goose Family (30 min) (Narrative Drama)
Dir. Seung Yeob Lee
The film 'Goose Family' is a blend of fake-documentary and drama. It's about a Korean family who live separately in Seoul, Korea and New York, U.S.A just for the sake of the children's education. The father, JINSOO, works in Korea to support the family while the mother, SHINAE, takes care of two sons living in the States. They both struggle for financial, emotional and cultural reasons and they gradually fall apart.
Day In, Day Out: Selling Food in Bangkok (15 min) (Documentary)
Dir. by Pilapa Esara
'Khun Tip' migrated to Bangkok to better her economic prospects. She cooks and sells food on the main walkway of her slum community, feeding residents who often live without indoor plumbing or kitchen facilities.
11:30pm - Short Collection #9: (55 min)
Heartless (18 min)
Dir. Jason Johnson
A man wakes up in the woods and has to find his way home.
Bump (7 min) (Short Story)
Dir. Marc Dickerson
Feeling dejected and unnoticed, a young woman takes it upon herself to get the attention she feels she deserves by creating an illusion of a life that is not hers.
One More Day in Hong Kong (32 min) (Drama) (Local)
Dir. Brian Cavallaro
A young man on a layover and a young woman studying abroad find themselves without their passports in Hong Kong. They decide to team up to try and replace their passports so they can leave a city they'd rather not be in. Once they discover the U.S. consulate is closed for Labor day they're forced to spend one more day in Hong Kong where they fall in love with each other and the city.
12:30am – I Am A Ghost (90 min) (Horror/Sci Fi)
Dir. H.P. Mendoza
Emily, a troubled spirit, haunts her own house every day, wondering why she can't leave. With the help of Sylvia, a clairvoyant hired to rid the house of spirits, Emily is forced into a 'patient/therapist' relationship, uncovering disturbing mysteries about her past that may help her move on to 'the next place'.
THE RAVEN LOUNGE
Friday, June 22nd 2012
6:00pm – Returning Home (37 min) (Local)
Dir. Jason Honeycutt
Michael wakes up in the middle of nowhere with no idea how he got there, all he knows is that he has to get home to his family. He has no other choice but to walk the endless road ahead where he is pushed to his limits. Michael meets others along the way who are also lost but he has to decide if they will bring him closer to home or push him further away. The more he is tested, the more he remembers how he got there – and why he desperately needs to find a way back home to his family.
Miracles on Honey Bee Hill (23 min) (Short Comedy/Musical)
Dir. Bob Pondillo
A young female pines for true love, but when she finds her 'special someone' her zealously religious church family becomes enraged over it, and attempts to drive her from the congregation. It literally takes a visit from God for the pious group to accept and understand the power of compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, and love.
7:00pm – Cybornetics (118 min)
Dir. Dwayne Buckle
Cybornetics is a new independent original science fiction feature film about a group of scientists, working for the United Sates government, who transform a man into a cyborg.
9:00pm - Short Collection #3: (62 min)
Pie Heaven - (20 min) (Drama)
Dir. Aviv Rubinstein
Two best friends, Ben and Emily enter into a competition over who can truly please a woman better. But this is no ordinary game for Ben...
Things We Keep - (20 min) (Drama)
Dir. David Cooper Moore
A family copes with the loss of their mother in the things they kept after her death. This documentary uses the powerful but often arbitrary nature of family documents to explore how trauma changes the lives of children as they start their own families. The film looks obliquely at death, finding both humor and muted sadness twenty years later as a brother and sister move on with their lives.
Suddenly, Zinat - (21 min) (Iran)
Dir. Navid Azad
With the specter of an oppresive government always present, we watch a family struggle with religion, drugs, and doing right from wrong.
Saturday, June 23rd, 2012
6:00-7:50pm – Momo: The Sam Giancana Story (102 min) (Documentary)
Dir. Dimitri Logothetis
This documentary on Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana exposes his complicity in the Kennedy Assassination, the death of Marilyn Monroe, and the CIA's attempted assassination of Castro, as well as a wealth of murders and intrigue, through never before seen interviews with Giancana's daughters and family members, who also offer a glimpse into the personal life of this dangerous, complex, and influential crime figure.
8:00-9:20pm – Sleeping With The Fishes (Drama/Comedy) (Local)
Dir. Peter Defeo and Todd Wolfe
Philadelphia Mob's new recruit, Armand Alfonso, finds himself at odds with his new colleagues' drug operations and his new love interest just so happens to be the Don's wife.
9:45pm – The Horror of Barnes Folly (89 min) (Comedy Horror)
Dir. Jonathan Rach
When a misunderstood MONSTER stumbles into the small backwoods hillbilly town of BARNES FOLLY, it is up to DEPUTY JOHNSON (Gorbos), an inept, newly transplanted cop from the big city, to ease the terrified town and bring the Monster to justice. He forms a mismatch posse, including his slightly psychic girlfriend (Bell), the town's only doctor (Muhammed), an odd woodsman (Gubbins), and Jeff, the hillbilliest of all hillbillies (Rodrick), to catch the horrible, horrific, horrifying Monster.
PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS (PAFA)
Friday, June 23rd, 2012
1:00pm – Mixed Tape @ The 5 Spot (Documentary) (25 min) (Local)
A short documentary of a very special time in Philadelphia music history. The Black Lilly weekly music sessions at the legendary Five Spot.
1:15pm – If I Make It, I Win (14 min) (Local)
Dir. Roberto Ferri
Three stories are connected by a timeless narration in 'If I make it, I win'. Roberto Ferri, a young filmmaker experiments with the ideas of 'failure' and the 'unfinished' as he shares his own experience during the process of telling the juxtaposing stories of a famous fictional boxer and one of the most important artists of the 1900's.
2:15pm - The Pact (80 min) (Drama)
Dir. Matt Toronto
Their love lives in shambles, two brothers make a pact: No women for a year! The pact holds them under an almost magical spell as they take turns trying, but failing to break it.
3:40-4:40 Animation Festival (60 min)
Landscape (11 min) (France)
Dir. Anabela Costa
Landscape, is what can be seen, and not in physical terms but as an outward expression of human perception: 'a landscape is a cultural image, a pictorial way of representing, structuring or symbolizing surroundings', so it will always be a personal take over an area of land, of human elements buildings or structures with a cultural and aesthetic dimension.
O-Bon (12 min) (Japan)
Dir. Robert F. Kauffmann
Haruko Yamagawa was a young professional working in Tokyo. Every midsummer, she would endure the painful reminder of the tragic loss of her family and her ancestral home during the O-Bon festival when everyone else would leave the city to visit with family. This year seemed as if it would pass like the others before it...But Yamagawa's family had other plans for her...
The Story of Cholera (4 min) (Israel)
Dir. Yoni Goodman
The Story of Cholera will save lives. Developed in response to the devastating cholera epidemic that began in Haiti in fall of 2010, the animation helps affected populations around the world better understand cholera and how to prevent it from spreading. It's an engaging, educational animation in which a young boy helps a health worker save his father and then guides his village in preventing cholera from spreading. By making the invisible cholera germs visible, this simple animated narrative brings to life the teaching points of cholera prevention.
Feathers (4 min) (Local)
Dir. Daniel Hoffman
Through alternative animation techniques 'Feathers' uses the venue of a music video to illustrate the physicality, transiency, and cyclic nature of the city.
Tripped Into You (4 min) (Local)
Dir. Daniel Hoffman
In this hand-drawn music video for the band Toy Soldiers, Daniel Hoffman explores the relationship between a man, his home, and the new development that takes place there.
The Game (6 min) (Poland) (Animation)
Dir. Marcin Janiec
Somewhere between life and death a thrilling chess match takes place. The stake is high - a gateway to the world of living. And the sole referee of this exciting tournament is a figure no one wish to meet in their path.
Sunday, June 24th, 2012
12:00pm – Kyoto Sanjyo Mystery (25 min) (Japan)
Dir. Hiroshi Toda
A French antique dealer named Guillaume visits Japan to sell one of his paintings to an antique collector.
The collector who lives in Kyoto, the old capital of Japan, collects all different types of antique objects from all over the world.
The collector offers Guillaume big money. The price is far beyond what Guillaume expects. Guillaume, however, turn down his offer when he finds a mask in his collection. He tries to trade his painting with the mask instead of just selling for money. He rejects his offer for some reason. Guillaume cannot give up the mask and decide to do something.
1:30pm – Parachute Ball (20 min) (UK)
Dir. Peter Boothby
Set during World War II, on a secluded farm in Kent, two elderly and eccentric women are unexpectedly called to duty one night when they discover an unconscious German pilot, hanging from his parachute in their tree.
1:50pm – Stigma (80 min) (Documentary) (India)
Dir. Jeff P. Johns
'STIGMA' follows young filmmakers Jeff Johns and Ryan Lougridge as the travel the globe in search of answers as to why more hasn't been done to completely eradicate leprosy for good. Through India, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, they talk to WHO doctors, aid workers, meet those affected in colonies and try to understand why more isn't being done to whip out the World's oldest and most misunderstood disease.
Armed with only two backpacks, their passports and $1,200, follow the filmmakers on a journey around the world to find themselves and those stigmatized by this horrible disease.
3:20pm – Conducting Change (29 min) (Juilliard) (Music Documentary)
Dir. Denise Blostein and Nathan Ehrlich
Though the number of women that have careers conducting symphony orchestras has increased over the past few decades, it is still rare and considered somewhat unconventional for a woman to be the leader of an orchestra. Conducting Change examines questions surround this issue: Is it due to the slow pace of change in a male-dominated field? Is there a persistent undercurrent of gender bias? Or is there a shortage of role models to encourage women to pursue conducting?
Through the experiences of Sarah Kidd, one young woman about to launch her career, Conducting Change looks at how the role and image of what a conductor is has been changing in America, and examines the reasons why it may be difficult for women to break through.
3:55pm - Short Collection #10:
Sea Pavilion (10 min) (South Africa) (Silent/Drama)
Dir. Todd Somodevilla
An innocent picnic turns surreal when curiosity leads to the uncovering of secrets hidden in the decrepit yet beautiful ruins of a seaside pavilion. Filmed in eerie and picturesque Macassar, South Africa, where the dunes have half-buried a once vibrant recreation park, a young couple learn that some dark corners should not be revealed in the light of day.
Written in Ink (11 min) (Poland)
Dir. Martin Rath
Written in Ink is a documentary about hope. The compelling story of a man trying to regain contact with his sister after 14 years of silence. But can one change what has already been written in ink?
Beautifully shot on 35mm the film has been praised for its ability to extract with sensitivity the most hidden recesses of the human soul and for its distinctive documentary language. Without the use of interviews and voice-over the film closely follows its protagonist's endeavor and becomes an allegory for the trials of human existence.
THE PHILADELPHIA INDEPENDENT EYE EVENT
Free screenings at the Piazza on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday! Come on out.
Thursday, June 21st 2012:
7:00pm - Find the Way (le Monde doit m’arriver) – (85 min) (France) (Drama) (Feature)
Dir. Jonathan Taieb
Ludo, an almost-30-year-old wistful artist, finds his life turned upside down after a potentially serious health problem, a break-up and after meeting Raphael, a child doomed by an incurable disease.
Friday, June 22nd 2012:
7:00pm - Diary of a Decade - (90 min) (Feature) (Music Documentary) (US)
Dir. Jason Orr
This film is the story of a cultural legend as told by the innovators of an important, and in some cases overlooked, era in Black culture. Spanning the late 1980′s through to the early 2000′s, this story goes deep into the fabric of soul music, it’s definitions, it’s pioneers, it’s offspring, it’s movements, the challenges with the “mainstream” industry as well as the evolution of the FunkJazz Kafé Arts & Music Festival, a music and artistic renaissance movement born out of Atlanta’s diverse musical and cultural arts heritage. The film covers the decade when Atlanta’s underground music scene became established on the world stage and a new generation of soul singers and musicians emerged. FunkJazz Kafé: Diary Of A Decade (The Story Of A Movement) also explores the question of how we got to live soul bands being non-existing in the commercial music landscape of the 21st century when there once was a plethora of soul and R&B bands since the creation of recorded music.
Saturday, June 23rd, 2012:
7:00pm - Big Guns – (87 min) (Comedy) (US) (LA/Local)
Dir. Chris McDonnell
When the world's worst cop is fired he becomes the world's worst private detective. For reasons unknown he finds himself the target of every criminal in town. He must overcome his incompetence and several character defects to solve the case and save his life.
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