Our 2011 Selection of films:
“5 Minutes Each”
Animated Short (Shorts Program 2)
Director: Vojin Vasovic
Country: Canada
Awards: Reimage Film Festival Award of Distinction for Artistic Merit, Cineview Film Festival Best Animated Short, Indie Fest Award for Artistic Merit for Animated Short, Los Angeles International Underground Film Festival Honorable Mention, Akasha Metaphysical Film Festival Best Animated Short, Metropolitan Film Festival of New York Honorable Mention
5 Minutes Each is a metaphorical story about the constant struggle of the artist to reach those five minutes of limelight. A tale about an upswing and downfall, with the climax appearing concurrently and unexpectedly. The hermetical life of artists, who are enclosed into their own world of ideas, striving to create the epochal masterpiece. Even if they succeed, the image they create is the reflection of themselves. And with the same fervor, they repeat the process in endless cycles.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“50 DAYS with Alzheimer’s”
Short Documentary (Shorts Program 2)
Director: Lisa Cerasoli
Country: US
Premiere: World Premiere
50 DAYS with Alzheimer’s is a humorous, heartbreaking, intimate and inspirational account of what it truly means to be a family caregiver and a person with Alzheimer’s. But this isn’t any ordinary documentary. The love and interaction between the story’s lead, Nora Jo, and the rest of her family is surprising, entertaining and touching. These people have left little to the imagination — and it’s about time that a movie like this has been created to fully represent the power of family, and the unexpected comedies and true tragedies that come with a disease like Alzheimer’s.
50 DAYS with Alzheimer’s Trailer
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Beat”
Short Narrative (Shorts Program 2)
Director: Larry Pritchard
Country: US (Colorado Filmmaker)
Beat is a cinepoem that takes an expressive look at a man’s journey into the depths of serious illness. Through surreal visions and ritual purification the man overcomes fears resulting from a jarring health crisis and comes to terms his own mortality.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Connected”
Feature Length Documentary
Director: Tiffany Shlain
Country: US
Awards: Women in Film National Geographic Award
Connected offers an exhilarating stream-of-consciousness ride through the interconnectedness of humankind, nature, progress and morality at the dawn of the 21st century. With insight, curiosity, and humor, the film weaves both a personal and global story about interdependence. For centuries we’ve been declaring independence, this film asks if perhaps it’s time to declare our interdependence instead.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Deep Blue Breath”
Animated/Live-Action Short (Shorts Program 1)
Director: Patricia Cardoso
Country: US
Premiere: Colorado
In Deep Blue Breath, Clay travels deep inside his body to an animated dream world where he engages in battle against the Evil Lord Vater and his army of Kuk-nuks. Meanwhile, in the waking world, a medical team struggles to save Clay’s life.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“The Edge of Joy”
Feature Length Documentary
Director: Dawn Sinclair Shapiro
Country: US
Awards: Nafis Sadik Award for Courage
Inside a maternity ward, The Edge of Joy chronicles distressed labors, deaths, and miraculous survival. Outside, lack of blood supply transportation and family planning are examined as causes of the cycle that kills more than 36,000 Nigerian women each year.
The central characters in The Edge of Joy are the people deep within the Nigerian culture who know its misconceptions, its limitations, but also its capabilities. Narrated by award winning journalist, Eliza Griswold, and featuring animation by Yoni Goodman, this portrait of pregnancy and childbirth shows the consequences of poor maternal health as it explores the nuances and complexities of bringing emerging health technologies to the developing world.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Fly Away”
Feature Length Narrative
Director: Janet Grillo
Country: US
Premiere: Colorado
Fly Away tells the poignant, compelling, and surprisingly funny story of a single mother of a teenager with autism, at the crossroads of her daughter’s adult life. What will sustain her child, and herself? Fly Away is the first feature film about parenting a child with autism to be written and directed by the parent of a child on the autism spectrum.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“The Fourth Moment”
Preview (Shorts Program 2)
Director: Kenneth Green
Country: US (Colorado Filmmaker)
The Fourth Moment, a feature film in development, is an innovative blend of fiction and documentary. In the midst of editing a documentary on death and dying, filmmaker Janus Kairos is diagnosed with a fatal inoperable brain aneurysm and now must confront his own death. Through his encounters with remarkable men and women from diverse worlds including Buddhist teachers, rabbis, priests, shaman guides, caregivers, scientists, artists, doctors, hospice workers and a variety of holders of diverse wisdom traditions, Janus begins a visionary quest for liberation.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Ghetto Physics”
Feature Length Documentary/Narrative
Directors: William Arntz, E. Raymond Brown
Country: US
In the ghettos, prostitution is referred to as “the game.” Thing is, “the game” isn’t limited to the streets. In Ghetto Physics, African American philosopher/filmmaker E. Raymond Brown plays the cocky “Professor,” who through a series of interviews, animation and dramatic sequences reveals not only how the game works in politics, global economics, technology, media and entertainment, he points the finger at the global power brokers pulling the strings, making the rest of us mindlessly dance to their tune.
The film includes interviews with notable entertainers and modern thinkers, such as Dr. Cornel West, Ice-T, KRS-One, Too Short, John Perkins, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, co-director William H. Arntz (“What the Bleep Do We Know?”) and Norman Lear. Of course, it also includes a colorful contingent of street characters with names like Filmore Slim, Hook da Crook, Mac Breed and Lo Da Show.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“The Greater Good”
Feature Length Documentary
Director: Leslie Bradshaw
Country: US
Premiere: Colorado
Awards: Amsterdam Cinematic Vision Award
The Greater Good looks behind the fear, hype, and politics that have polarized the vaccine debate in America today. The film re-frames the emotionally charged issue and offers, for the first time, the opportunity for a rational and scientific discussion on how to create a safer and more effective vaccine program.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“The Grove”
Feature Length Documentary
Director: Andy Abrahams Wilson
Country: US
Premiere: Colorado
More Americans have been lost to AIDS than in all the U.S. wars since 1900. But few know of the existence of the national AIDS memorial, a seven-acre grove and sanctuary hidden in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The Grove shows how one community responded to its overwhelming grief, and how the seeds of a few visionaries blossomed into something larger and more provocative than they could have imagined. How do we mark a time of unimaginable loss? And what does it mean to be a national memorial?
______________________________________________________________________________________
“How To Live Forever”
Feature Length Documentary
Director: Mark Wexler
Country: US
“ENGAGING…REMARKABLY SPRY AND LIGHTHEARTED!” — THE NEW YORK TIMES
Director Mark Wexler embarks on a worldwide trek to investigate just what it means to grow old and what it could mean to really live forever. But whose advice should he take? Does 94-year-old exercise guru Jack LaLanne have all the answers, or does Buster, a 101-year-old chain-smoking, beer-drinking marathoner? What about futurist Ray Kurzweil, a laughter yoga expert, or an elder porn star?
Wexler explores the viewpoints of delightfully unusual characters alongside those of health, fitness and life-extension experts in this engaging new documentary, which challenges our notions of youth and aging with comic poignancy. Begun as a study in life-extension, How To Live Forever evolves into a thought-provoking examination of what truly gives life meaning.
A great interview with director Mark Wexler is available here!
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Leave Without Running”
Short Narrative (Shorts Program 1)
Director: Juergen Tonkel
Country: Germany
Premiere: US
Awards: Shanghai International Film Festival Special Jury Award, Germany Deutsche Filmbewertung Shortfilm of the Month
In Leave Without Running, Frank, a man in his 40s, is stressed by his work, his wife, his life. After another bad day he only wants to go to bed and steps into his bathroom. But behind the bathroom door he finds himself in a bizarre night club with a weird band playing on stage. A parallel world inhabited by lounge lizards, gangster-types, sailor girls, femme fatales! And not only that – a charismatic guy grabs Frank and tells him that the people are waiting for his performance as a blues musician…and even this is not the end of the story…
Leave Without Running Trailer
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Little Town of Bethlehem”
Feature Length Documentary
Director: Jim Hanon
Country: US
Awards: John Paul II International Film Festival Best Documentary, DeadCenter Film Festival Best Oklahoma Film
Little Town of Bethlehem shares the story of three men of three different faiths, and their lives in Israel and Palestine. The film examines the struggle to promote equality through nonviolent engagement in the midst of incredible violence that has dehumanized all sides. The story explores each man’s decision to risk everything, in order to bring an end to violence in their lifetime.
Little Town of Bethlehem Trailer
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Mary and Max”
Animated Feature
Director: Adam Elliot
Country: Australia
Awards: Ottawa International Animation Festival Best Animated Feature, Annecy International Animation Film Festival Best Feature, Traverse City Film Festival Best Foreign Fiction Film
Mary and Max is a clayography feature film from Academy Award® winning writer/director Adam Elliot and producer Melanie Coombs, featuring the voice talents of Toni Collette, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Humphries and Eric Bana. Spanning 20 years and 2 continents, MARY AND MAX tells of a pen-pal relationship between two very different people: Mary Dinkle (Collette), a chubby, lonely 8-year-old living in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia; and Max Horovitz (Hoffman), a severely obese, 44-year-old Jewish man with Asperger’s Syndrome living in the chaos of New York City. As MARY AND MAX chronicles Mary’s trip from adolescence to adulthood, and Max’s passage from middle to old age, it explores a bond that survives much more than the average friendship’s ups-and-downs. Like Elliot and Coombs’ Oscar® winning animated short HARVIE KRUMPET, MARY AND MAX is both hilarious and poignant as it takes us on a journey that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, sexual differences, trust, copulating dogs, religious differences, agoraphobia and many more of life’s surprises.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“My Mother Said (Kuna Ni Nanang)“
Short Documentary (Shorts Program 2)
Director: Jessica Sison
Country: US
Premiere: Colorado
Awards: San Joaquin Film Festival Best Short Documentary, Cape Fear Independent Film Festival Best Documentary, Baltimore Women’s Film Festival Honorable Mention, Bare Bones International Film & Music Festival Honorable Mention
In this day and age, when everything is documented and even cell phones have cameras, one woman has no souvenirs or photos of her beloved mother.
Meet Elena Bautista, 99 years…YOUNG.
This is not your standard ‘talking head and b-roll’ documentary. Through compositing, the metaphorical use of color, and the mixing of traditional Filipino music with modern music, the visuals and sound design are as haunting and poetic as the story. In this day and age, when everything is documented and even cell phones have cameras, My Mother Said reminds us that there are people whose only souvenirs of the ones they love are memories.
Kuna Ni Nanang (My Mother Said) Trailer
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Over 90 And Loving It”
Feature Length Documentary
Director: Susan Polis Schultz
Country: US
Over 90 And Loving It is a documentary about people in their 90s and 100s living extraordinary and passionate lives in every way. These are people who aren’t aware of chronological age at all, but live as though the future and youth spring eternal, writing, marrying, getting a degree, putting on concerts, working full-time, as starters.
Putting it succinctly, one says, ‘You can drive yourself nuts worrying about something you can’t do anything about, getting older, but you sure can be exhilarated about living.’ Over 90 And Loving It will inspire people all across the age spectrum. We all need heroes and heroines to emulate and this film will reach the hearts and minds of all of us who want to have a full life.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Le Passage (The Passage)”
Short Narrative (Shorts Program 1)
Director: Fabien Montagner
Country: France
Premiere: US
The Passage is about a lonely teenager struggling with life in her grandfather’s house. One day on a walk, she slips back in time to uncover a dark moment in her family’s history.
Le Passage (The Passage) Trailer
______________________________________________________________________________________
“The Power Of Two”
Feature Length Documentary
Director: Marc Smolowitz
Country: US
Premiere: Colorado
The Power of Two is a feature documentary that tells the remarkable story of twin sisters, two cultures, and two new chances at life. Inspired by their 2007 memoir, the film offers an intimate portrayal of the bond between half-Japanese twin sisters Anabel Stenzel and Isabel Stenzel Byrnes, their lifelong battle with the fatal genetic disease Cystic Fibrosis, survival through miraculous double lung transplants, and improbable emergence as authors, athletes and global advocates for organ donation. Featuring expert interviews, archival footage and deeply personal testimony from the twins and others whose lives have been impacted by organ transplantation from the U.S. and Japan, the film provides unprecedented insight into the personal and societal aspects of this modern medical miracle affecting millions worldwide.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“The Quiet Life”
Animated Short (Screening with Little Town of Bethlehem)
Director: Tim Hittle
Country: US
Jay Clay has ceased his wanderings and built a home for himself and Blue, his faithful animal companion. Jay is content to live The Quiet Life. Yet trouble is never far away, and soon chaos is at his door. He encounters two visitors amid the mayhem, and his life is forever changed.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“The Reality Clock”
Animated Short (Shorts Program 2)
Director: Amanda Tasse
Country: US
Awards: L.A. 3D Movie Festival Outstanding Student Achievement (Note: LAD screening not in 3D)
The Reality Clock is an experimental animated portrait of an elderly watchmaker’s struggle to accept the influence of early stage Dementia on his identity and sense of time. The Reality Clock poetically references specific tests and dialog drawn from autobiographical works written by individuals with Dementia, while delicately expressing broader themes of loss. Through contemplating who the raw essence of a person is when stripped bare of new memories and rational clarity, The Reality Clock searches for a sense of beauty and peace amidst the confusion.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Samsui Women”
Short Documentary (Shorts Program 2)
Director: Derrick Lui
Country: Singapore
Premiere: Colorado
In the 1930s, many China women went to Singapore to work as odd job labourers. They were poorly paid, and living conditions were bad. Many worked till they died, and others never had the chance to go home. This is the true life account of 2 of them, known as Samsui Women.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Stay Home”
Animated Short (Shorts Program 2)
Director: Caleb Wood
Country: US
A house at the center is home to a dog and cat. The sun shines down and a day goes by.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Suicide Room (Sala samobójców)”
Feature Length Narrative
Director: Jan Komasa
Country: Poland
Premiere: Colorado
Awards: Polish critics’ Fipresci award
During his prom, condescending rich kid Dominik (Jakub Gierszal) accepts a dare to make out with classmate Aleks (Bartosz Gelner). Cell-phone footage of their kiss is posted online with snarky comments, giving rise to suspicions that he is gay — something his irritated parents dismiss, noting, “Even if you are, keep it to yourself.” Dominik refuses to return to school, locking himself in his room and virtually consorting with the mysterious masked Sylvia (Roma Gasiorowska), who turns out to be Queen of the Suicide Room. And as usual with queens, she expects her courtiers to obey her every command.
Sala samobójców (Suicide Room) Trailer
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Sunny Boy”
Short Narrative (Shorts Program 1)
Director: Jane Gull
Country: United Kingdom
In Sunny Boy, Danny and his overprotective father live in a world of darkness due to his rare skin condition. He longs to be a regular teenager playing football out in the sun. When Danny receives some news about his medical condition he decides to stand up to his dad and take control of his own life.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“This Side Of The Afterlife”
Short Narrative (Shorts Program 1)
Director: Adam and Joe Horton
Country: United Kingdom
Premiere: US
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Touch”
Short Narrative (Shorts Program 1)
Director: Jen McGowan
Country: US
Awards: Breckenridge Film Festival Best Short Drama
An ode to city life, Touch explores themes of isolation and the universal need for community when two strangers make the most important connection of their lives while waiting for a train.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Twist of Fate”
Animated Short (Screening with The Greater Good)
Director: Karen Aqua
Country: US
Twist of Fate explores the transformative experience of being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. This expressionistic piece captures impressions of such an experience: upheaval, uncertainty, a sense of physical intrusion, and loss of control. Exploring this emotional landscape, the film visualizes an internal world inside the body, imagined on a cellular level.
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Undertow (Contracorriente)”
Feature Length Narrative
Director: Javier Fuentes-Leon
Country: Peru
Premiere: Colorado
Awards: Sundance World Cinema Audience Award, Miami Audience Award, San Sebastian International Film Fest Sebastian Award
Contracorriente (Undertow) Trailer
______________________________________________________________________________________