Festival Presents 21 World and U.S. Premiere Feature Films

Festival Opens October 21 and Runs Through November 11

Fort Lauderdale, FL – The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF) announced its highly anticipated film line-up for the 26th edition, September 22, 2011, featuring 6 World Premieres, 15 U.S. Premieres and 61 Florida Premieres. FLiFF (www.FLiFF.com) will present features, documentaries, shorts and student films from the U.S. and around the world, including Spain, Italy, France, U.K, Russia, Fiji, and South Africa, Sweden, Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Peru, Italy, France, Portugal, over 40 different countries in all and will host filmmakers, producers, and actors to represent and discuss their films. The festival takes place October 21 - November 11.

“We’re looking forward a great festival this year,” comments FLiFF President and CEO, Gregory von Hausch. “The program offers an eclectic array of films; some reflect political and environmental concerns and others range from young love to how to keep love alive after 50. There are knee slapping comedies to edge of your seat thrillers, films that reflect other cultures as well as ours at home, films for families and films about families. There’s a party every night, live concerts, filmmaking seminars and for the first time in three years, films will be presented at three area theater venues. We’ll also launch the Inaugural year for FLiFF on Location: Grand Bahama Island with a four-day fest.”

FLiFF revs up October 21 with screenings at two locations, Sunrise Civic Center and Cinema Paradiso. the line-up includes: There Once Was An Island, a verite-style film directed by Briar March that shows us, first -hand, the human impact of an environmental crisis. Round Trip (Viaje Redondo) from Mexico directed by Gerardo Tort is a tender lavender tale about two women searching for what they want in life and blazing new frontiers together. The East Coast Premiere of About Fifty is a modern comedy that reaffirms it’s never too late to start over again. Directed by Thomas Johnston About Fifty stars Wendie Malick, Drew Pillsbury and Martin Gottlieb. Garcia (from Spain), directed by Jose Luis Rugeles, is laced with comedy yet fraught with peril as a man’s routine existence takes an unexpected turn when his wife is kidnapped.

The official Opening Night on October 22, sends the festival into full gear with the Florida Premiere of The Artist directed by Michel Hazanavicius. Charming and clever, The Artist, pays homage to the age of silent film with all of the glamour and romance of the times as it tells the story of the interlinked destinies between a rising young starlet and a silent movie superstar whose career is on the decline at the advent of the talkies. The film features an all-star cast including: Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle, Malcolm McDowell. Actress Penelope Ann Miller will be presented with a Career Achievement Award and will attend the opening night festivities held at Bailey Hall on Broward College campus followed by the FLiFF Starry Starry Night Gala at The Signature Grand.

Earlier in the afternoon of October 22nd, at 2:00pm, FLiFF will present the Southeast Premiere of My Week With Marilyn, which is based on Collin Clark’s diary account The Prince, the Showgirl and Me, published nearly 40 years after he met Marilyn Monroe on the set but, one week was missing and was published some years later– this is the story of that week. Michelle Williams and Eddie Redmayne portray Monroe and Clark in My Week With Marilyn along with an all-star cast. Also, at 4:00pm, October 22nd Senator George McGovern, the idealistic statesman who came to prominence during another time of war and political division, will receive a Lifetime Achievement in Humanity Award at a special screening of the Oscar-winning film, All The President’s Men, starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. McGovern will do a post-screening Q&A. Both screenings will be held at Bailey Hall on Broward College Campus.

FLiFF’s Centerpiece Film is the re-make of Patrick Leconte’s scrumptiously literate 2002 crime drama, The Man on the Train, starring rock musician Larry Mullen, Jr. and Hollywood veteran Donald Sutherland. At this spotlight event, held November 1 at Cinema Paradiso, Mullen will be presented with FLiFF’s Star on the Horizon Award and will take questions from the audience via a live webcast Q&A. The event will be followed by the Centerpiece Party at the Downtowner Saloon.

FLiFF closes with the Florida Premiere of Like Crazy, directed by Drake Doremus. The passionate, well-crafted story stars Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones as two young people who fall head-over-heals in love but, whose perfect relationship and trust is tested when geography sets them apart for extended periods of time. Like Crazy also stars Jennifer Lawrence, Charlie Bewley, Alex Kingston, Oliver Muirhead, Finola Hughes, Chris Messina, Ben York Jones and Jamie Thomas King. Closing night festivities will take place November 11 at Cinema Paradiso with the FLiFF Wrap Party and Film Awards presentation at The Manor entertainment and restaurant complex.

Additional feature films to be presented during the festival include the Florida Premieres of: David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, the adaptation of Christopher Hampton’s 2002 stage play, portrays the turbulent relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud as they struggle to treat a troubled patient. The film stars Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley. Butter, in the tradition of Best In Show and Election, Butter, is a tale of competition at its most cut-throat. The straightforward, albeit merrily twisted, comedy about American life and culture stars Jennifer Garner, and Hugh Jackman. Starring Jennifer Garner as Laura Pickler and Ty Burrell Late Bloomers, directed by Julie Gavras stars Isabella Rossellini and William Hurt as a couple trying to keep their marriage fresh as they gracefully grow older together. Edward Burn’s Newlyweds stars Burns, Kerry Bishé and Caitlin Fitzgerald in a tale of the untold pleasantries that comes with marriage such as the in-laws and extended family. Martha Marcy May Marlene, directed by Sean Durkin stars Elizabeth Olsen as “multi-named lead”, a damaged woman haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, who struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing a cult. Hugh Dancy, Sarah Paulson and John Hawkes round out the cast.

Of the documentaries featured, two are World Premieres, The Legend of Ivan Tors and How To Start a Revolution. The Legend of Ivan Tors showcases the incredible career of the screenwriter who became an anti-violence and animal rights maverick, zoologist, adventurer and almost single-handedly established the South Florida film industry as well as changed the way non-human animals were treated in the entertainment industry. How to Start a Revolution is the remarkable untold story of Nobel Peace Prize nominee Gene Sharp, the world’s leading expert on non-violent revolution.

FLIFF also presents two Florida Premieres: Jessie’s Dad tells the story of Mark Lunsford’s transformation from an uneducated truck driver to a savvy activist after losing his 9-year-old daughter to a convicted pedophile. The Lost Airmen of Buchenwald, chronicles the little-known story of Allied airmen imprisoned at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in the waning months of World War II.

On October 24, FLIFF will present a tribute to actor Dennis Haysbert at which time the festival will present a Career Achievement Award to the actor best remembered for his role in the Oscar nominated film Far From Heaven as well as hit TV series 24 and The Unit. A Q&A with Haysbert will follow the presentation and a catered reception will be held in his honor at the Seventh Street Wine Company within walking distance of Cinema Paradiso where the event will be held. Dennis Haysbert, will also join Penelope Ann Miller at the Starry Starry Night Gala on October 21.

November 5th FLiFF will present actor Dennis Farina with a Lifetime Achievement Award prior to the Florida Premiere of his new film The Last Rites of Joe May. Directed by Joe Maggio, the film chronicles the last days in the life of an aging, short money hustler who is presented with one last shot at greatness. Farina, whose acting career includes such films as Get Shorty, Crime Story and Midnight Run will discuss his career during a Q&A. A reception will precede the presentation at Cinema Paradiso. Farina will also field audience questions at a screening of the film on November 4th at Sunrise Civic Center.

FLiFF also honors three-time Oscar nominated actress, Piper Laurie ( The Hustler, Carrie, Children of a Lesser God) with a Lifetime Achievement Award at a special screening of The Grass Harp; an encore presentation from the 1995 Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival for which she earned FLiFF’s Best Actress Award. Piper will autograph copies of her new book , Learning to Live Out Loud, during a 6:00pm reception, after she will discuss her career during a moderated Q&A by notable film historian, Foster Hirsch. The event will be held at Cinema Paradiso followed by party at The Pillars Hotel.

Peter Ford, the son of Glenn Ford and Eleanor Powell will autograph his new book, Glenn Ford: A Life, during a reception at Cinema Paradiso followed by a moderated Q&A and a screening of the original 1957 film starring Glenn Ford, 3-10 to Yuma.

As the festival continues in Fort Lauderdale , the festival will launch it’s Inaugural offshore component, FLIFF On Location: Grand Bahama Island, October 27 – 30, 2011. As a part of the ongoing efforts in film development, the Ministry of Tourism & Aviation, FLiFF and the Grand Bahama Island Tourism Board, will present the festival program at the brand new, state of the art Canal House at Pelican Bay Hotel. The festival will feature an array of programs and events, including: Movies made in The Bahamas, Underwater Cinematography Workshop, American Independent and World Cinema films, complimentary outdoor screenings, an International Student Film Competition , and the Inaugural Grand Bahama Youth Film Competition’ Winner’s Screening; a competition is for young filmmakers (aged 14 to 18 years old). Travel packages are available for residents and tourists.

Additional Highlights of this year’s FLiFF include:  

• High School Competition finalists showcase of films on October 22, 10:00am at Cinema Paradiso.

• The Starry Starry Night Gala on October 22, 9:00pm at the elegant Signature Grand features a sumptuous buffet with multiple stations, the vibrant energetic music of the Bulldog Rock and Soul Band, and a silent auction that includes two beautiful pieces from Mayor's Jewelers and a vacation package to the Grand Bahama Island among other unique items. The Gala follows the Opening Night Film, The Artist.

• The Chairman's Brunch Cruise - join FLiFF's special guests the morning of October 23 for mimosas and a buffet during a two-hour cruise along Fort Lauderdale's Intracoastal waterway on the Caprice.  Boarding is at 9:30am and the yacht returns at approximately Noon.

• Nightly Parties before, between and/or after films at Cinema Paradiso and a variety of locations around town, October 21 - November 11.

• College Film Competition Winners films will be presented November 1 at 5:30pm.

• Ten short film programs will be presented throughout the festival, each themed for the films featured.  Program titles are:  And to All A Good Night, Love is a Four Letter Word,  One Life For Yourself, Pax De Duex, Sureal Reality, Survival of the Fittest, The Wonder of it All, Wise Beyond Their Years, Sunshine Celluloid and Short and Sweet (GLBT short films). 

• Filmmaking & Beyond Seminars at Cinema Paradiso, on October 29 starts at 6:15pm with VFX/CGI for the Indie Filmmaker presented by Dean Lyon - VfX Supervisor and entrepreneur, ‘the seminar provides a look at the creative and technological aspects of Visual effects (VFX) and Computer Graphics Imaging (CGI) utilized by the screen industry.    Next is Billy Corben REAL, the filmmaker and co-founder racontur, Corben, will provide a fascinating look into the world of documentary filmmaking.  Corben directed Cocaine Cowboys, Square Grouper, The U, and most recently Limelight among others. The short film NEVO, directed by William Djuric will be featured just before a third seminar titled, Movie Trailer Mashups and Going Viral on YouTube hosted by video editors Justin Goudreau and Justin Niemeyer of Hollywood.com .  The Justins, as they are known in Hollywood, will discuss how they rose the ranks of YouTube to be the number one YouTube Channel in the Film and Animation Category. Thay will discuss what a 'Trailer Mashup' is and how they used them to move up the social ranks of YouTube.  To spark up those creative juices "The Justins" will also showcase a selection of Trailer Mashups and explain some stories behind their creation. Join The Justins in the Festival Lounge for a down-tempo vinyl after-party.  Admission to all the seminars the short and the party is just $5.
  
• FAB Films For Kids, Saturday November 5 at Cinema Paradiso  offers a fun, free family film and children's activity.

• The Halloween BOO-Tacular on October 31, 5:00pm-7:00pm at Cinema Paradiso is free for families and offers a fun, safe way for kids to celebrate the spookiest night of the year. FLiFF turns Cinema Paradiso into a ghostly haunt with a pumpkin patch, hayrides, costume and scream contests, a not too scary movie, and of course lots of treats.

• Halloween Eve, October 31, at Cinema Paradiso starts at 7:00pm with the last show at 11:00pm and features four new horror themed films. Start the evening off with Dr. Limptooth, the depressed vampire, who lost his "mojo", and hasn't been on top of the food chain for 300 years until he meets Chris... a dead ringer for his love who bit the dust decades ago; the multi-award winning horror short An Evening With My Comatose Mother will be followed by Vamperifica, a campy riot with a malevolent mix of malice and mayhem evoking laughs and gasps. Arrive early with your ticket for the late night "zombedy" Deadheads and get a complimentary Zombie Cocktail.

• Live Concerts at Cinema Paradiso feature a variety of music throughout the festival.  October 26 The Old Time Jammers perform Appalachian Mountain music; free with your ticket to the movie Martha, Marci, May and Marlene.  October 27 listen to organic music by Otoo Band.  November 6 Music Can Change the World Recital features the unique style and melodies from Italy, Spain by world renown, Argentinian pianist/ songwriter/producer UrieL Natero.

• SoSos Live In Concert & CD Release Party features music from their new album "For You."  The event takes place October 28.  Doors open at 9:30pm with the concert at 10pm.  All paid tickets t the concert receive a free copy of SOSOS "For You" CD.

• Frankie & Johnny's in Fort Lauderdale welcomes Dennis Farina on November 5 with a party in his honor.  Enjoy  complimentary hors d'oeuvres and drink specials with your ticket stub from LAST RITES OF JOE MAY. 

• November 8 at 9:00pm, Pillars Hotel hosts the post-screening party with Piper Laurie.  Enjoy elegant hors d'oeuvres with the best scenic view in town! The party ticket Includes the 7:00pm award presentation and screening of Grass Harp.  

• Closing Night Party, November 11 after the film Like Crazy, enjoy a distinguished buffet with original recipes and a live performance by up and coming singer/ songwriter Joe Rocco and his Otto Band at The Manor.

FOR ADDITIONAL EVENT HIGHLIGHTS AND COMPLETE LISTING OF FILMS, PLEASE SEE BELOW.

The 26th Annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival

October 21-November 11

About Fifty

Film Line-Up  

American Indie Features  

A DANGEROUS METHOD  - American Indie Feature  / Florida Premiere

Director: David Cronenberg / France-Ireland-United Kingdom-Germany-Canada / 2011 / 93 min / English

Director David Cronenberg adapts Christopher Hampton's 2002 stage play depicting the turbulent relationship between Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and his mentor Sigmund Freud (Vigo Mortensen) as they struggle to treat a troubled patient (Keira Knightley).  

ABOUT FIFTY - American Indie  / East Coast Premiere

Director: Thomas Johnston / USA / 2011 / 88 min / HDCam / English

Writers Martin Grey and Drew Pilsbury star alongside Wendy Malick in a film that explores the simple yet comical truth that it’s never too late to start over again, even at age 50.  Golf-buddies, Adam who is going through a trial separation from his wife, and Jon who's losing work to the more efficient youth, decide to take off on a weekend journey to let loose and re-live their youth. Within the struggles to fit in with the younger crowd, they are forced to come to grips with their “mid-life crisis”.  

BUTTER - American Indie / Florida Premiere

directed by Jim Field Smith/ USA / 2011 / 90 min / English

In the tradition of Best In Show and Election, Butter, a tale of competition at its most cut-throat is a straightforward, albeit merrily twisted, comedy about American life and culture.   Starring Jennifer Garner as Laura Pickler and Ty Burrell at her husband Bob, Iowa's long-reigning champion butter carver. When Bob is pressured to retire, the indignant Laura decided to enter the competition herself. Her odds of victory fall below 100% with the arrival of an unlikely yet formidable contender: 10-year-old Destiny (Yara Shahidi), the African-American foster child of local couple Julie and Ethan ( Alicia Silverstone and Rob Corddry).  And that’s not all.  Bob’s would-be mistress, bad-girl stripper Brooke ( Olivia Wilde) also declares her candidacy, as does his #1 fan, Carol-Ann (Kristen Schaal).   Facing three opponents, mocked by her stepdaughter Kaitlen (Ashley Greene) and furious with her husband, Laura resolves to do whatever it takes to win.  And if that means resorting to sabotage – and recruiting her dim-witted former boyfriend Boyd ( Hugh Jackman) as a co-conspirator – then so be it.  

DEADHEADS- America Indie / Florida Premiere

Director:  The Pierce Brothers / USA / 2011 / 95 min / HDCam / English

A return to 1980s’ style comedy-adventure movies like BACK TO THE FUTURE and THE GOONIES, the Pierce Brothers’ winning combo of gory horror action, smart humour and heartfelt emotion follows zombie slackers Mike and Brent as they travel across country to find the former’s old girlfriend and love of his life.  As a zombieland Abbott and Costello, actors Michael McKiddy and Ross Kidder’s chemistry and timing are superb. And you’ll just love Markus Taylor as the lumbering Cheese in this Road Trip of the Living Dead that’s hilarious and surprisingly sweet.  

DON'T FADE AWAY- America Indie Feature / Florida PRemiere

Director:  Luke Kasdan / USA/ 2009 / 90 min / HDCam / English

Don’t Fade Away, starring Mischa Barton, Ryan Kwanten, and Beau Bridges, details the seemingly easy life of Jackson White. With looks, brains, and athletic ability, the world's possibilities seemed limitless.  But, when he came to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the music industry, he was so seduced by money and status that he los track of who he was.  Now, with both his personal and professional lives on the edge of ruin, he's been called home to care for his dying father.  While in North Carolina, he'll have to confront the friends he lost touch with and the girl he never met  

DR. LIMPTOOTH – American Indie Feature / Southeast Premiere

Director Matt Jespersen and Maclain Nelson USA / 2011/ 95 min / HDCam / English

Starring Gary Cole, Julie Gonzalo and Adam Johnson - directors Matt Jespersen and Maclain Nelson bring us the tale of Wayne Gretzky (Johnson) a vampire who can't grow his teeth. His impotence began when he inadvertently killed Mary Lipinsky, the love of his life, 300 years ago.  To take his mind off the pain, he teaches college history--who better?  All attempts at regaining full power are futile until a new semester brings freshman Chris Keller, dead ringer for his wife comes along…   

THE ENCORE OF TONY DURAN- America Indie Feature / East Coast Premiere

Director:  Fred A. Sayeg / USA / 2011 / 85 min / English

Chronicling the day Tony Duran hits bottom, the tick-tock of a human train-wreck, Tony is a singer washed-up 20 years ago: fat, drunk, broke, unemployed and trapped-- clinging to his house and 12 year old Mercedes, neither he can afford anymore; a victim of the economy, raging against universe, alienated and facing the rest of his life in dread. He turns to crime to turn a buck, and proves incompetent even at that.  In disgrace, having lost his friend's money, Tony stands in judgment, and Jerry forces from him the TRUTH about his downward spiral. Jerry sets Tony on a path of human transformation and redemption; he makes Tony sing again.  

THE LAST RITES OF JOE MAY – American Indie /Florida Premiere

Director: Joe Maggio / USA / 2011 / 104 min / HDCam / English

Dennis Farina stars in as Joe May, an aging, short money hustler who, despite a life of loss and failure, has always believed that a glorious destiny awaited him. Now in his sixties, his health failing and resources dwindling, Joe is presented with one last shot at greatness...        

LEADING LADIES - Amer Indie

Director: Daniel Beahm and Erika Randall Beahm / USA / 2010 / 102 min / English

The Camparis are a family of women in which everyone knows her place. Sheri is the larger-than-life, overbearing stage mom. Once a young and beautiful ballroom champion, Sheri now lives vicariously through her youngest daughter Tasi, the darling of the local amateur ballroom circuit. Sheri’s oldest daughter, Toni, is Tasi’s practice partner, the wallflower who must quietly support them all.  Find out what happens to each as they reexamine their roles in modern life and on the dance floor and learn to "Let Love Lead”.  

LIKE CRAZY- America Indie Feature / Florida Premiere  & Closing Night Film

Director:  Drake Doremus / USA / 2011 / 89 min / 35mm / English

Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones stars as two young people who fall madly in love.   Jacob, an American, and Anna, who is British, meet at college in Los Angeles and fall madly in love. It’s the purest kind of romance—they’re each other’s first significant attachment. When Anna returns to London, the couple is forced into a long-distance relationship. Their perfect love is tested, and youth, trust, and geography become their biggest enemies.  Like Crazy also stars Jennifer Lawrence, Charlie Bewley, Alex Kingston, Oliver Muirhead, Finola Hughes, Chris Messina, Ben York Jones and Jamie Thomas King.   

MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE – American Indie Feature / Florida Premiere

Director: Sean Durkin / USA / 2011 / 120 min / 35mm / English

Elizabeth Olsen stars as "multi-named lead", a damaged woman haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, who struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing a cult.

Hugh Dancy, Sarah Paulson and John Hawkes round out the cast.  

NEWLYWEDS – America Indie Feature / Florida Premiere

Director: Edward Burns / 2011 / USA / 93 min / HDCam / English

Kerry Bishé, Caitlin Fitzgerald and writer/director Edward Burns star in a tale of the untold pleasantries that comes with marriage such as the in-laws and extended family.  Such is the predicament Buzzy (Burns) and Katy (Fitzgerald) find in the delightfully dark comedy, NEWLYWEDS.  Buzzy is a successful personal trainer in Tribeca.  Katy has found her niche managing a restaurant.  They're perfect for each other – due to rarely seeing each other, thus not falling into same manholes that other couples do.  All is perfect, until the mixture of the two families along with an addition of a half sister begins to stir up all sorts of trouble.  Throw in an ex-husband, a self-imposed exiled former lover, and a befuddled sexually deprived brother-in-law and this alphabet soup spells dysfunctional.  

THE PILL – America Indie Feature

Director: J.C. Khoury / USA / 2011 / 83 min / English

You meet someone at the bar, one thing leads to another, and the next thing you know you're waking up wondering (and potentially regretting) exactly what took place the night before. Such is the case for Fred (Noah Bean), who starts to panic when his free-spirited one night stand, Mindy (Rachel Boston), informs him that she's not on birth control; but for some reason isn't too concerned. Fred, determined not to become a father, is forced into an all-day adventure with Mindy that is filled with awkward social situations. While searcing for a solution, Mindy starts to grow on the overly anxious Fred, and urges him to make a decision that will change the rest of his life.  

SILVER TONGUES – America Indie

Director: USA / 2011 / 88 min / HDCam / English

Lee Tergesen and Enid Graham star as a pair of lovers who travel from town to town, and take on different identities in each new place. Driven by an insatiable appetite for change and with no regard for consequences, they manipulate, toy with, and forever alter the lives of the strangers they meet. However, with each performance, their deceitful game spirals ever more out of control.  One lie leads to another and in the end escape becomes impossible. Both morally ambiguous and sophisticated, SILVER TONGUES takes you to the brink of the unexpected  

TURBINE -American Indie Feature.

Director: Isaak & Eva James / USA / 2011 / 86 min / HDCam / English

Nick, an adulterous New Yorker, relocates to the Midwest with his wife Sarah.  Nick is in pursuit of a career in wind energy, while Sarah wants desperately to make a fresh start at beginning a family outside of the city.  Nick soon forms a unique bond with a wealthy local farmer and discovers that the secret haunting him is not so easily left behind in this erotic and darkly surreal drama set against the wind turbines of rural Missouri.   

VAMPERIFICA – America Indie Feature / Florida Premiere

Director: Bruce Ornstein / USA / 2011 / 95 minutes / HD / English 
“Vamperifica” is the story of Carmen McCoy, a flamboyant, twenty-something, sometime student at a small community college, who wants nothing more than to hang out with his best friend Tracy, be in a musical production at school, and maybe, one day, be a star. Instead, he discovers that for him, destiny has something else in store -- he is the reincarnation of the 200 year old vampire king, Raven.  Now, Carmen must choose between his friends and that destiny.   

WALK A MILE IN MY PRADAS – America Indie Feature / Florida Premiere

Director: Joey Sylvester / USA / 2011 / 87 MIN / HDCam / English

Tony Parisi (Nathanial Marston) is a real “man’s man” and all around “good guy”.  He works hard at his job.  He’s a loyal friend and fully devoted to his fiancé.  He happens to also be completely homophobic.  Tony takes great pleasure in ridiculing his new, gay co-worker, Steve (Tom Archdeacon).  That is until fate intervenes and Tony finds that he is suddenly gay, while Steve learns he has mysteriously turned straight. Now, truly a man’s man, Tony must scramble to straighten out in time for his wedding.  But, not before he walks a mile in Steve's shoes. 

Also starring Tom Arnold, Mike Starr and Dee Wallace.  
 

World Cinema Features  

ANDANTE- World Cinema Feature / Florida Premiere

Director:  Satoshi Kaneda / Japan / 2010 / 108 min / DVD / Japanese w/English sub-titles

Chika, though a talented pianist and attractive young woman, is one of an increasing number of agoraphobics in Japan. Approaching 30 and nearing the tenth year of having locked herself into her childhood bedroom, she ignites her father's rage when he has to beg Chika's boss (his former student) to allow his immature daughter to keep her job. The pressure from her parents to succeed, along with the harsh surrealities of Japanese culture cause her to flee to the countryside where she meets Shinpei, the, a rice farmer who responded by snail mail to her bottled S.O.S. Enjoying the delicious fruits of her labor, Chika's love of life is reborn through her new found respect of herself.  

ANDROS - World Cinema / U.S. Premiere

Director:  Matthew McCoy / Bahamas / 2010 / 55 min / DVD / English

This film explores the natural resources of largest island in The Bahamas.  Andros is known as the major source of fresh water for Nassau, the capital of The Bahamas, and is famous for its bonefishing as well as a home to land crabs, tarpon, turtles, iguanas, birds and the third largest barrier reef in the world, giving it the potential to become an international eco tourism mecca. This documentary provides the opportunity to meet the people who live there and learn about the issues they face.  

ANOTHER SENSE - World Cinema Feature / U.S Premiere

Director:  Yuri Grymov / Russia / 2010 / 105 min / Russian w/English sub-titles

In the life of little Gleb everything is fine.  He loves a girl Nastya and they decided to get married, when they grow up. Gleb is blind, and he defines the whole world around him by touching or based on his grandfather's words.  And most important, what Gleb keeps in memory from his childhood:  "The main thing is not looking; the most important seeing.”  Suddenly, he recovers his sight and the world turns out to be totally different.  

THE ARTIST - World Cinema Feature / Florida Premiere

Director: Michel Hazanavicius / France / 2011 / 100 min / Silent w/English insert-titles

Hollywood 1927. George Valentin is a silent movie superstar. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller, it seems the sky's the limit - major movie stardom awaits. THE ARTIST tells the story of their interlinked destinies.  The film features an all-star cast including: Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle, Malcolm McDowell.   

CAIRO EXIT - World Cinema / Florida Premiere

Director: Hesham Issawi / Egypt / 2010 / 96 min / Arabic w/English subtitles

Director Hesham Issawi details a girl’s dreams of freedom through 18 year-old Amal’s battle with the decision to escape illegally to Italy with her Muslim boyfriend or remain with her Coptic Orthodox Christian family. In seeing the sacrifices and unbearable difficulties of a poor woman in Egypt through her sister and best friend, she seeks out her own journey.  

DELHI IN A DAY -  World Cinema Feature / Florida Premiere

Director: Prashant Nair / INDIA / 2011 / 88 min / English & /Hindi w/English subtitles

When the money of an idealistic British traveler disappears in a nouveau-riche Delhi home, the staff of the house are blamed and given twenty-four hours to replace it or face the consequences.  The film moves sweetly between the upper middle class country clubesque family with varying degrees of indifference, to their servants that fear for their jobs constantly, to the privileged twenty-something British tourist who yearns to show compassion but is hesitant due to the complexities of custom.  Throughout it all there is comedy and a richness of discovery making DELHI IN A DAY a sensory treat.  

ESPIRAL- World Cinema Feature / East Coast Premiere

Director: Jorge Pérez Solano /Mexico / 2009 / 90 min / Spanish w/English sub-titles

With the desire to improve their lives, men migrate without realizing that destroy what they want to save, their families.This is the story of Diamantina and Aracely, two youths from the Mixtec Oaxacan starting to see his men north in search of economic improvement.  Santiago tries to raise money in order to marry Diamantina.  Macario looking out of poverty his family. When the men returned to the people, and nothing is equal.  Both want to recover what they left behind in the past, Santiago courting the daughter of Diamantina, Macario seeking forgiveness from his wife and children by abandoning them.  

GARCIA – World Cinema Feature / Florida Premiere

Director: Jose Luis Rugeles / Colombia / 2010 / 100 min / Spanish & Portuguese w/English sub-titles

Garcia is 58-year old security guard who is about to accomplish his lifelong dream of buying his wife a house, when his life takes an unexpected turn when his wife Amalia is kidnapped for a hefty ransom. Director Jose Luis Rugeles brings a story of the series of perilous adventures that will lead to the secret behind his wife’s disappearance.  

THE IMMATURI - World Cinema Feature / U.S. Premiere

Director: Paolo Genovese / Italy / 2011 / 108 min / Italian w/English sub-titles

Giorgio , Lorenzo , Piero, Luisa, Virgilio, Francesca : what do these 38-year-olds have in common? Twenty years ago they were classmates, but above all they were friends, they were a group. Then something happened and the group broke up. Soon they’ll become a group again, at least for a few days: the Ministry of Education has annulled their high school graduation exams and they’ll have to take them again, or witness the annulment of all qualifications acquired thereafter. And so, with a few more wrinkles and a little less hair, we’ll see them together again, like old times. With the desire to savor again the taste of youth, but with a greater or lesser awareness that that period has ended.  

KROMOV- World Cinema Feature / U.S. Premiere

Director:  Andrey Razenkov / Russia / 2009 / 112 min / Russian w/English sub-titles

The scene of the film’s action is gorgeous Paris in the beginning of the XX century. The characters in the play are immigrants from Russia. The main intrigue is concentrated on the hunt for 250 millions in gold, left over in the Paris banks after the fall of the Tsar Russia.  This capital is under the control of count Kromov, a former attaché of the Russian Empire in France. Nevertheless he does not consider the money is his and does not take it, which only adds to the enthusiasm of those who are eager to make their fortune in troubled times.  

LATE BLOOMERS – World Cinema Feature / Florida Premiere 
Director: Julie Gavras / France-Belgium-UK / 2011 / 90 min / English 
Isabella Rosselini and William Hurt star as  Mary and Adam, a couple who  have spent more than half their lives together being married for 30 years. Although, they have made it through life’s ups and downs, gradually, certain irritations begin to creep into their lives as the years begin to take their toll. Their children have noticed their parent’s problems and would dearly like to repair their marriage but soon realize that any intervention from afar is fruitless. A quiet study of keeping a marriage fresh and gracefully growing old together.  

MABUL – World Cinema Feature / Southeast Premiere

Director: Guy Nattiv / Israel / 2011 / 100 min / Hebrew w/English sub-titles

Everything in Yoni’s (Yoav Rotman) life is complicated. He’s almost 13, a gifted student, but physically undeveloped and desperate to change that before his up-and-coming Bar Mitzvah. He’s sells his homework to buy a bodybuilding “wonder powder”. Every night, Yoni lifts weights tied and he’s tries to find a way to deepen his voice.  Suddenly, the arrival of his 17 year old autistic brother, Tomer (Michael Moshonov) not only turns Yoni’s life upside down, but also shakes the already unstable foundations of the entire Roshko family.  

MAN ON THE TRAIN- World Cinema Feature/Florida Premiere & Centerpiece Film

Director:  Mary McGuckian / Canada-Ireland / 2011 / HDCam / English

Rock musician, Larry Mullen, Jr stars opposite stars opposite Hollywood veteran Donald Sutherland in this re-incarnation,  of  Patrick Leconte’s scrumptiously literate 2002 crime drama  Man on the Train.  Sutherland stars as the retired literature professor, who, in his own parlance, seems cut out of the mold of J. Alfred Prufrock.  Refined and restrained, he lives alone in the posh home his mother left him. The stale professor, however, is stirred by a chance meeting with his psychological and professional opposite, a laconic criminal (Mullen) who rides into town on a train. This mystery man is in cahoots to rob the local bank, the very day that the Professor is to have heart surgery. Opposites do attract in this witty character study as the Professor takes in the itinerant to stay a few days in his comfy manse.  

THE MATCHMAKER - World Cinema Feature

Director: Avi Nesher / Israel / 2011 / 112 min / Hebrew w/English sub-titles

Arik, a teenage boy growing up in Haifa in 1968, gets a job working for Yankele Bride, a matchmaker. Yankele, a mysterious Holocaust survivor, has an office in back of a movie theater that shows only love stories, run by a family of seven Romanian dwarves. As Arik begins to learn the mysteries of the human heart through his work with Yankele, he falls in love with Tamara, his friend Beni's cousin, who has just returned from America and is full of talk of women's rights, free love and rock and roll. The disparate parts of Arik's life collide in unexpected, often funny and very moving ways as he lives through a summer that changes him forever.  

MEHERJAAN – World Cinema Feature / Florida Premiere

Director: Rubaiyat Hossain / Bangladesh / 2011 / 119 min / 35mm / English and Benglai & Urdu w/English sub-titles  

In 1971, during Bangladesh’s war of independence, Meher falls in love with a soldier from the enemy side. When her love is discovered, she is shamed and silenced by her family and society.  Today, 38 years after the war, Meher has a visitor she cannot turn down. Sarah—a ‘war-child,’ Meher’s cousin Neela’s daughter, who was given away for adoption has come back to piece together her past.  Together, these two women must re-tell history through their stories in order to cut through the stigmas and walk into light.  

MISS TACUAREMBO - World Cinema Feature / U.S.  Premiere

Director: Martin Sastre / Uruguay / 2010 / 90 min / DigiBeta / Spanish w/English sub-titles

A Young girl who grew-up under the influence of Flashdance is looking for her fame via a television contest. Maybe she could escape her boring life between a Christian theme park and a small village at the end of the world.  Where’s there’s hope...there’s a way.  An hilarious musical with all telenovelas, TV reality and religious cliché possible! featuring South American star Natalia Oreiro together with Rossy de Palma...Super catchy tunes for the all family!  

MONTEVIDEO – World Cinema Feature / U.S. Premiere

Director: Dragan Bjelogrlic / Serbia / 2011 / 140 min  / 35mm / Serbian w/English sub-titles

In Belgrade, during the spring of 1930, Tirke is a boy from Čubura that is forced to choose between a factory job and football. After much thought, he stays faithful to his true love – football. During this time, you couldn’t earn a living by playing football – but you could live for football.  Only Moša Marjanović was paid for every goal.  Suddenly, an official letter of invitation arrives stating that the team has been invited to compete in the First World Football Championship to be held in the summer of 1930 in Montevideo.  

MOTHERS –  World Cinema Feature

Director: Milcho Manchevski / Macedonia-France-Bulgaria / 2010 / 123 min / Macedonian w/English sub-titles

Two nine-year-old girls report a flasher to the police even though they never saw him and condemn an innocent man. Three filmmakers meet the only residents of a deserted village - an elderly brother and sister who have stopped talking to each other many years ago. Retired cleaning women are found raped and strangled in a small town. The DNA leads to a journalist who was reporting on the murders. Did he kill by night, write by day? Three days after his arrest, he is found in his cell, his head in a bucket of water. Was it suicide or murder?  Every story is true, but one of them is real.  Employing an innovative structure, the three stories in MOTHERS highlight the delicate relationships of truth and fiction, of drama and documentary.   

My Week With Marilyn

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN- World Cinema Feature / Southeast Premiere

Director:  UK / 2011 / 96 min / DCP / English

Featuring an all-star cast, My Week With Marilyn brings us to the early summer of 1956, when 23 year-old Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), just down from Oxford and determined to make his way in the film business, worked as a lowly assistant on the set of ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’. The film that famously united Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams), who was also on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott).  Nearly 40 years on, his diary account The Prince, the Showgirl and Me was published, but one week was missing and this was published some years later as My Week with Marilyn – this is the story of that week.  Also starring  Emma Watson and Judy Dench   

ODD ONE OUT – World Cinema Feature / U.S. Premiere

Director: Paweł  Wendorff / Poland / 2010 / 87 min / Polish w/English sub-titles

The film is a surreal collage of interrelated threads revolving around history of thirty-year-old Kuba who, with his parents’ encouragement, decides to take his first job. Though none too convinced, he starts work as a delivery man. Having set out on his first delivery soon, he witnesses a traffic accident. He ends up giving a statement at the police station. And his plans begin to unravel. By a twist of fate Kuba has no idea about the significance of the part he will have to play on this particular day.  

REFRACTAIRE – World Cinema Feature / U.S. Premiere

Director: Nicolas Steil / Luxembourg – Switzerland / 2011 / 100 min / French w/English sub-titles

François, a 21-year-old, is living in Luxembourg, which Nazi Germany has just annexed. His father collaborates with the fascist regime, forcing Francois to go to German university. François commits a first act of disobedience by leaving this place that preached racial hatred.  Now he is facing a Cornelian choice: to become forcibly enrolled and leave for the Russian front to fight the Allies or to become a draft dodger, buried alive in the cold and damp mines for months on end without seeing the light of day, the only hope being the Liberation.  

SAVIORS IN THE NIGHT – World Cinema Feature

Director: Ludi Boeken / Germany / 2011 / 95 min / English and German & French w/English sub-titles

Based on the memories of Marga Spiegel, published in 1965, she describes how the courageous farmers in southern Münsterland hid her, her husband Siegfried {named Menne} and their little daughter Karin from 1943 until 1945, thus saving them from deportation to the extermination camps in the East. The film tells this story of survival with a sense for the absurd in daily life and not without the typical Westphalian humor.  

SILVER CASE - World Cinema / World Premiere

Director: Christian Filippella / Italy/US / 2011 / 87 min. / NTSC / English

In Tinseltown, the world of scheming reaches a nasty low when a powerful producer known as the 'Senator' hatches a plan to undermine the future success of the 'Master', his shady arch rival. His plot begins with the delivery of a silver briefcase. But the case goes missing, which sets off a chain of events that are not part of the plan. The Senator engages the best of his team to locate the package but doesn't count on the tenacity of two thugs who have the mysterious prize in their possession.  

VIAJE REDONDO- World Cinema Feature /Florida

Director: Gerardo Tort / Mexico / 2009 / 102 min / Spanish w/English sub-titles

Two women searching for what they want in life – search together and blaze new frontiers in this sweet, tender, often sexy tale of longing.  Fer and Lucia are casually in a bus stop. After a misunderstanding between them, Lucia accepts a ride in Fer´s car so that she can get to her destination. Despite their differences, in the adventure and in the game of rivalry and complicity that exists between them, they create bonds of sympathy.  

THE WOMEN ON THE 6 ^TH FLOOR- World Cinema Feature / Florida Premiere

Director: Philippe Le Guay / France / 2010 / 104 min / French w/English sub-titles

Paris, 1960. Jean-Louis (Fabrice Luchini, Potiche) lives a bourgeois existence absorbed in his work, cohabitating peacefully with his neurotic socialite wife Suzanne (Sandrine Kiberlain, Mademoiselle Chambon) while their children are away at boarding school. The couple’s world is turned upside-down when they hire a Spanish maid Maria (Natalia Verbeke). Through Maria, Jean-Louis is introduced to an alternative reality just a few floors up on the building’s sixth floor, the servants’ quarters. He befriends a group of sassy Spanish maids (Carmen Maura, Lola Duenas, Berta Ojea, Nuria Sole, Concha Calan), refugees of the Franco regime, who teach him there’s more to life than stocks and bonds. The women’s influence on the house brings change… muy rápido!  

THE ZERO HOUR – World Cinema Feature /East coast Premiere

Director: Diego Velasco / 2010 / Venezuela / 102 min / DVD / Spanish w/English sub-titles

A gritty fast paced heist film set in Caracas, during the 24 hours of a controversial medical strike in 1996.  It follows Parca, a tattooed hitman as he takes an entire hospital hostage in order to save his girlfriend.  What seemed as a perfect plan will end in a frenetic outcome, as Parca is forced to come to terms with his past, and as he discovers that his worst enemies are closer than he ever imagined.  A love story told in the midst of chaos, LA HORA CERO is a timely and universal story about the mythic rise to power and the inevitable fall from grace.   
 

There Once was an Island

Documentaries

American Indie, World Cinema & Sunshine Celluloid  

ABANDON SHIP: The Sinking of the SV Concordia – World Cinema Documentary / Florida

Director: Dianne Carruthers-Wood / Canada / 2011/ 49 min / HDCam / English

Director Dianne Carruthers brings us the nail-biting account of the journey of 48 Canadian students and 16 crew members through the sinking of the SV Concordia in 2010. Stranded with no means of communication and only four life-rafts, we follow through their memories and handheld footage during the darkest hours until their miraculous rescue.   

A NEW KIND OF LISTENING – American Indie Documentary / Southeast Premiere

Director: Kenny Dalsheimer / USA / 2009 / 57 min / English & Captioned subtitles for hearing impaired

A New Kind of Listening that takes us inside the creative work of the Community Inclusive Theater Group where Richard Reho inspires cast members, some with disabilities, to be writers, actors and dancers in an overcoming fashion. We bear witness to Chris Mueller-Medlicott’s journey from a lonely, withdrawn adolescent to co-director of the theater group.  The result is a groundbreaking film that will revitalize spirits in doing what it takes to be heard.  

CONCERT – American Indie Documentary / World Premiere

Director: Richard Warren Rappaport / USA / 2011 / 56 min / DVD / English

Live the American singer-songwriter Richard Warren Rappaport’s introspective look into the world of music, art and creativity as every song has a story and every story has a song.  

THE COOL SCHOOL- America Indie Documentary

Director:  Morgan Neville / USA / 2008 / 86 min / DVD / English

THE COOL SCHOOL is an abject lesson in how to build an art scene from scratch and what to avoid in the process. The film focuses on the seminal Ferus Gallery, which groomed the LA art scene from a loose band of idealistic beatniks into a coterie of competitive, often brilliant artists, including Ed Kienholz, Ed Ruscha, Craig Kauffman, Wallace Berman, Ed Moses and Robert Irwin. The Ferus also served as launching point for New York imports, Andy Warhol (hosting his first Soup Can show), Jasper Johns, and Roy Lichtenstein, as well as leading to the first Pop Art show and Marcel Duchamp's first retrospective. What was lost and gained is tied up in a complex web of egos, passions, money, and art. This is how LA came of age.  

DOG POO - World Cinema Documentary / U.S. Premiere

Director:  James Boldiston / Argentina-Australia-France- Ireland-Poland-Sri Lanka-USA-UK / 2011 / 89 min / DigiBeta / English and Spanish & French w/English sub-titles

The only film you can step in, 'Dog Poo - the truth at last' is the first feature film that gets down with doggies poo poo. Shot in 8 countries, the secret life of dog poop is brought out in glorious detail.  From Harvey Milk's pooper scooping laws in San Francisco and onto poo detection in the outback of Australia, the truth about poop comes to the surface.  

FLORIDA CRACKERS: The Cattlemen and Cowboys of Florida – Sunshine Celluloid Documentary 
Director: John Michie / USA / 2010 / 87 min / HDCam / English

John Michie details the story of a little-known pioneer culture dating back to 1521, when Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in what is now Florida and introduced the first cattle and horses into North America.  Decades later, additional settlers arrived and established missions as well as cattle ranches and thus giving rise to the first cowboys and cattle industry in America.   

HAPPY - World Cinema Documentary / Florida

Director: Roko Belic / USA / 2011 / 77 min / English + Various w/English sub-titles

In 2005, director Tom Shadyac ('Liar Liar', 'Patch Adams' and 'Bruce Almighty') handed Roko Belic a New York Times article about the new science of happiness. The article ranked the United States down at number 23 on its list of happiest countries. Shadyac, himself dissatisfied with his luxurious Beverly Hills lifestyle, suggested the two collaborate on a documentary investigating the sources of genuine human happiness. How can America be one of the richest countries in the world and nowhere near the happiest?  

HOLLYWOOD TO DOLLYWOOD – American Indie Documentary / Florida

Director: John Lavin / USA / 2011 / 79 min / DigiBeta / English

Twin brothers Gary and Larry Lane had one dream: get a script into their idol’s hands- Dolly Parton.  This is the story of their cross-country journey from RV parks and Bars through the floods of Nashville and even an Oklahoma Tornado.  The journey also becomes a discovery of their hopes, fears, and ambitions as they strive towards their dream.  

THE HOPEFUL – America Indie Documentary / Florida Premiere

Director:  Brendan Kirsch / USA /2011 / 92 min / Blu-Ray / English

The two-year journey of young man whose dream is to become a Division I college quarterback.  From Charlotte, North Carolina, Cody Keith is the son of a wealthy family who became the center of a very heated social discussion on the ethics of transferring high schools for athletic purposes.  To avoid the growing media attention, the family moves to Los Angeles, where Cody has one last shot at earning a Division I college football scholarship.  Surrounded by pressure and critics who are waiting for him to fail, Cody finds himself on a personal journey of self discovery - and realizes that playing the game for himself is the most gratifying experience he ever could have hoped for.  

HOW TO START A REVOLUTION - World Cinema Documentary / World Premiere

Director: Ruaridh Arrow / UK / 2011 / 87 min / HDCam / English

RUARIDH ARROW educates us about the remarkable untold story of Nobel Peace Prize nominee Gene Sharp, the world's leading expert on non-violent revolution.  This new film reveals how Gene's work has given a new generation of revolutionary leaders the weapons needed to overthrow dictators and provided people with the power to change their world.  

ISLANDS OF LIFE - World Cinema Documentary / East coast Premiere

Director: Bo Boudart / Bahamas / 2011 / 70 min / HDCam / English

More than 50 years ago, the islands of the Bahamas were being sold to wealthy individuals. The fisheries were endangered, flamingos were being hunted to near extinction, forests were cut down, and the fisheries were being depleted.  As a result, the Bahamas National Trust was formed and has created 26 national parks on 1 million acres of land and sea. This documentary shows the results of Bahamians’ conservation efforts-from the rich forests that shelter parrots and crabs, to the colorful reefs that nurture fish, turtles and other natural wonders.  

JESSIE’S DAD – Sunshine Celluloid Documentary / Florida Premiere

Director: Boaz Dvir / USA / 2011 / 50 min / English

This film tells the story of Mark Lunsford’s transformation from an uneducated truck driver to a savvy activist after losing his 9-year-old daughter to a convicted pedophile.   A blue-collar “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “Jessie’s Dad” follows Mark as he visits Capitol Hill and state capitals to urge lawmakers to wise up and crack down on child predators. The film offers a behind-the-scenes look at a single father haunted by the knowledge that a child molester held his daughter within an earshot for three days.   Mark channels his anger toward making a difference for all American children, pushing for the passage of Jessie’s Law, which toughens penalties against sex offenders.  

THE LEGEND OF IVAN TORS -  American Indie Documentary /World Premiere

Director: Scott Cardinelli / USA / 2011 / 108 min / English 
Tors was the brilliant Creator of Science Fiction Theatre, which was the world’s first successful syndicated TV series. The program concentrated on such concepts as space flight, robots, telepathy, flying saucers, time travel, and the intervention of extraterrestrials in human affairs. Tors also created and Produced Sea Hunt which was the first television series that centered on underwater adventures.  Other films and TV Shows in his repertoire include: FLIPPER, GENTLE GIANT, DAKTARI, A COWBOY IN AFRICA, CLARENCE THE CROSS-EYED LION, NAMU THE KILLER WHALE, and HELLO DOWN THERE.  As a result, Tors carved a special niche for himself in the history of Hollywood cinema.  

LOST AIRMEN OF BUCHENWALD – American Indie Documentary / Florida Premiere

Director: Mike Dorsey / USA / 2011 / 117 min / HDCam / English

In the summer of 1944, 168 airmen from the US, England, Canada and other Allied countries were captured in Paris by the German Gestapo and sent to the infamous "Koncentration Lager Buchenwald" in Germany. Falsely accused of being "terrorists and saboteurs," the airmen became part of a very controversial moment in history that their home countries tried to hush-up. This film gives us the first-hand story via interviews with the seven surviving members including the heroic commanding officer of the group while hiding with the French Resistance to the darkest corners of the Holocaust, where they struggled to survive as Germany collapsed under the weight of the advancing Russian and Allied armies.  

PARAISO FOR SALE- - World Cinema Documentary / Southeast Premiere

Director: Anayansi Prado /Panama / 2011 / 73 min / HDCam / English w/Spanish sub-titles & Spanish w/English sub-titles

What price would you pay for paradise? And who would you be willing to take it from? The pristine Archipelago of Bocas del Toro, Panama attracts retirees and developers from the U.S. with its crystal clear waters and its island culture. In PARAISO FOR SALE, filmmaker, Anayansi Prado, returns to her homeland to document the effects the fast-growing migration is having on the local community.  PARAISO FOR SALE explores issues of modern day colonialism, residential tourism, global gentrification and reverse migration, by revealing that immigration between Latin America and the US is not just a one-way street.  

THE POWER OF TWO- World Cinema Documentary/Southeast Premiere 
Director: Marc Smolowitz / USA-Japan / 2011 / 94 min / English & Japanese w/English sub-titles

The Power Of Two 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 (CF), survival through miraculous double lung transplants, and improbable emergence as authors, athletes, and advocates for organ donation and those suffering from CF in the U.S. and Japan.  

MARATHON BOY – World Cinema Documentary / Southeast Premiere

Director: Gemma Atwal / India-UK-USA / 2010 / 99 min / HDCam / English & Oriyan w/English sub-titles

This dynamic epic follows 4 year-old Budhia, rescued from poverty by Biranchi Das, a judo coach and operator of an orphanage for slum children in the eastern Indian state of Orissa. When Budhia displays a remarkable talent for long-distance running, Biranchi nurtures his gift, heralding him as a folk hero. But after golden child Budhia breaks down during a world-record 65 kilometer run, public opinion begins to turn on the guru and his disciple, and soon the two are swept up in a maelstrom of media controversy and political scandal.  

MARY AND BILL – American Indie Documentary / Southeast Premiere

Director: Andrew Napier / USA / 2011 / 49 min / HDCam / English

Mary and Bill is a feature length documentary about Mary Stroebe, a 90-year-old triathlete, and Bill Wambach, an 83-year-old high jumper. We follow them immediately after they experience health related problems, where Mary has broken her leg while down-hill skiing and Bill, who smoked for 45 years, is recovering from a heart attack. Despite these physical ailments, Mary hopes to complete the Lifetime Fitness triathlon and Bill will attempt to win the National Senior Olympics. Through their amazing commitment, both Mary and Bill prove that age is just a number.  

MINDS IN THE WATER – American Indie Documentary / Southeast Premiere

Director: Justin Krumb / USA / 2011 / 85 min / HDCam / English

Minds In The Water is a feature-length documentary following the quest of professional surfer Dave Rastovich and his friends to protect dolphins, whales and the oceans they all share. Through Dave's journey—a five-year adventure spanning the globe from Australia to the Galapagos, Tonga, California, Alaska and Japan—we see one surfer’s quest to activate his community to help protect the ocean and its inhabitants.   

MISS SOUTH PACIFIC: Beauty and the Sea – World Cinema Documentary / Southeast Premiere

Director: Mary Lambert / USA / 2011 / 40 min / DigiBeta / English

What does a beauty pageant in Suva, Fiji have to do with climate change? Quite a lot, as it turns out. 'Miss South Pacific: Beauty and the Sea' is a short documentary film about the 2009-2010 Miss South Pacific Pageant that brought contestants, or Queens, from all the major Pacific Island Nations to compete in a week long pageant for the crown of Miss South Pacific. Addressing the theme of Climate Change and its impact on Pacific Island countries, the Queens eloquently and passionately implore judges, spectators, and the world at large to reduce global carbon emission lest their island homes will be lost to rising seas. Is it too late to turn back the tide? Watch Miss South Pacific and see.  

SCISSORS AND GLUE –  World Cinema Documentary / U.S. Premiere 
Director: Helmut Schuster / Germany / 2010 / 51 minutes / HDCam / English 
Scissors and Glue follows Helmut Schuster on his journey as a gallery owner in Berlin to the founding of his new Gallery Schuster in Miami. The recent explosion of artistic interests and endeavors drew him to Miami, where he immersed himself in discovering the city and ultimately set up shop in the thriving art district of Wynwood. Drawing inspiration from Miami’s recent art renaissance, this film uses his experiences to illustrate the international draw of the city’s art scene and expose its origins and outcomes.  

THERE ONCE WAS AN ISLAND – World Cinema Documentary

Director: Briar March / New Zealand / 2010 / 80min / English, Takuu & Tok Pisin w/English sub-titles

What if your community had to decide whether to leave their homeland forever and there was no help available?   This is the reality for the culturally unique Polynesian community of Takuu, a tiny low-lying atoll in the South Western Pacific. As a terrifying tidal flood rips through their already damaged home, the Takuu community experiences the devastating effects of climate change first hand.  Three intrepid characters Teloo, Endar and Satty, allow us into their lives and their culture and show us first-hand the human impact of an environmental crisis. They take us on their personal journeys as they consider whether to move to an uncertain future in Bougainville or to stay on Takuu and fight for a different, but equally uncertain, outcome.  

TRAPPED BY DRUGS – World Cinema Documentary

Director: Peru-France / 2010 / 55 min / Spanish & French w/English Voice-over

They are young and dream of easy money: more and more Europeans fall into the trap of trafficking cocaine. They are recruited by the South American cartels on the European territory. Their new destination: Peru, where the drug is trading 20% cheaper than in Colombia. Traffic, odd jobs, extortion: what are the rules to survive in an outsized prison where money makes the law.   Among these new European smugglers there are more and more women, who are often pregnant to escape notice during the security inspection.  

TROUPERS – America Indie Documentary / Southeast Premiere

Director: Saratoga Ballantine & Dea Lawrence / USA / 2011 / 85 min / DVD / English

What's the craziest career choice anyone can make and spend over 80 years pursuing that path? "Troupers" gives new meaning to the phrase, "hang in there". Meet 12 talented, successful people who beat the odds, followed their dream and are still working well into their 80's and 90's. These are the journeymen actors, the ones you see in a movie or TV show and who seem really familiar.  "Troupers" takes a humorous look at how this fearless group survived parental disapproval, the black list, divorce, debt, rejection, disappointment, depression, the depression, bad acting coaches, nasty casting directors, and decades of auditions to do what they wanted to do: Act.  
 
 

Special Retro Film Tribute Screenings  

3:10 to YUMA

Special Screening with Peter Ford book signing  Glenn Ford: A Life and  Q&A   

Based on a short story by Elmore Leonard (and the first Leonard story to be filmed), 3:10 To Yuma stars Glenn Ford and Van Heflin and was directed by Delmer Daves. By the time they made 3:10 to Yuma, both Ford and Heflin were established as first-rate film actors, but what set Ford’s performance apart in this film was his casting against type as the story’s villain, Ben Wade. Set in the Arizona Territory of the 1880s, Wade, leader of a gang of outlaws, is captured and must be transported to court on the 3:10 train to Yuma. Desperate for cash after suffering through a long drought, rancher Dan Evans, played by Heflin, agrees to a $200 fee to join another man in escorting Wade to the train. The film includes a well-constructed, suspenseful plot, which coupled with the fine acting and direction, makes 3:10 to Yuma stand out among western films.  

ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN

Special Screening with Senator George McGovern Q&A & Award Presentation

Director: Alan J. Pakula / USA / 1976 / 138 min / English

Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman star in the Oscar-winning film that takes place in 1972 as a seemingly minor page 4 story of a break-in to the Democratic Party National Headquarters at Watergate Office Complex in Washington, DC is assigned to Washington Post reporter, Bob Woodward.  Director Alan J. Pakula brings us Woodward's discovery of intrigue, deceit, greed, paranoia and lust for power, which would culminate in the only resignation of a U.S. President in history.

THE GRASS HARP

Special Screening with Piper Laurie Q&A and Award Presentation

Set in a small 1940s Alabama town, the film follows Collin Fenwick (Edward Furlong) as he is sent to live with his father's maiden cousins, the sweet Dolly (Piper Laurie) and the overbearing Verena (Sissy Spacek), following the death of his mother. He soon discovers that the Talbo household is anything but normal. After also losing his father, Collin grows to be close to Dolly and Catherine (Nell Carter) and becomes acquainted with the eccentric townspeople, from the gossip-loving barber (Roddy McDowall) to a traveling evangelist with fifteen illegitimate kids (Mary Steenburgen). To escape Verena's oppression, Dolly, Collin, and Catherine run away to an old tree house in the woods. Their rebellion sparks a series of events that change their lives and the entire town as well  
 
 
 

Short Films  

19 GIORNI DI MASSIMA SICUREZZA – World Cinema

Director: Enzo De Camillis / Italy / 2010 / 12 min / DVD / Italian w/English sub-titles

A true story experienced by De Camillis and his wife, Anna. And it is she who writes from prison, the past 19 days in jail without knowing why this unjust detention.  

BAD INFLUENCES- America Indie

Director: Kate Emery / USA / 2010 / 16 min / DVD / English

Enter the hilariously sick mind of Jillian, a timid hypochondriac with a vivid imagination. Instead of making real friends, she hangs out with the diseases she thinks she has: Influenza, Asthma and Mono. Jillian moves into a rural, germ-ridden town just in time for her freshman year of high school. Her “friends” tag along, ready to keep her safe from the hazards of a ninth-grade social life. When a renegade upperclassman named Dave encourages Jillian to emerge from her shell, she must make a real human connection or remain sick forever.  

HOLD FOR LAUGHS - America Indie 
Director: Amy French / USA / 2011 / 16 min / DVD / English

Margaret's life sucks. A shy thirteen year old freshman at an all-girls Catholic high school, she's got braces and a baby face. The other girls make fun of her and the boy she longs for doesn't know she exists, not to mention her parents are getting divorced and her dog is dying. But by night, Margaret is precocious, confident, and full of witty and irreverent observations, as she transforms into Margaret Rose, stand-up comic.  

HYPNOCUS-POCUSED - America Indie

Director: Victor Suarez / USA / 2011 / 12 min / DVD / English

A casual hypnosis goes bananas!  

NEVO

Directed by William Djuric /USA / 2011 / 26 min / HDCam / English

By day, Chris works the busy kitchen of a trendy New York City restaurant.  While the City sleeps, Chris assumes his alternate identity, Nevo.  On what was supposed to be the start of a relaxing weekend from the stress his daytime job, Chris’s world is turned upside down when he discovers all his work defiled by a new and mysterious rival.  
 

Short Film Programs  
 

And To All A Good Night

A QUIRK OF FATE – World Cinema

Director: Marco Riedl Germany / 2011 / 40 min / HDCam / German w/English sub-titles

Anyone who doesn’t believe in miracles isn’t a realist“, says Billy Wilder. A quirk of fate leads Luke Hallow to risk violating his parole and losing his newly won freedom to save the life of his nine-year-old daughter, Noel. Only a miracle can keep him from losing everything… forever.  

BUNCE - Short Film Program, And to All a Good Night / World Cinema

Director: Peter Cattaneo / United Kingdom / 2010 / 11 min / DVD / English

12 year-old Stephen Fry Secundus isn’t popular with his headmaster. Unhappy with the pitiful offerings of the tuck shop, Fry, often ventures out of bounds to the village candy shop. But when one trip too many catches up with him, and he is threatened with the exclusion from Christmas festivities, Fry’s only hope lies with Bunce, the frightened new boy he’s taken under his wing.  

CAPTURING SANTA - Short Film Program, And to All a Good Night / World Cinema

Director: Peter Cattaneo / United Kingdom / 2010 / 11 min / DVD / English

Nine-year old Chris O’Dowd has had enough of Christmas gift disappointment and thus determines that it’s time to show Santa Claus who’s boss. And so, young Chris embarks on a cunning plan to catch his life-long nemesis.  

CAR PARK BABYLON- Short Film Program, And to All a Good Night / World Cinema

Director: Bill Bailey & Joe Magee United Kingdom / 2010 / 11 min / DVD / English

Tis the season of merriment...shops alive with the lights, happy people, the cheer is contagious...ah, its a wonderful life!  
 

Short and Sweet (GLBT Shorts)

DREAMING AMERICAN- Short Film Program, GLBT Shorts

Director: Lee Percy / USA / 2011 / 25 min / DVD / English

After escaping a dangerous past a young man fights to keep his body, his dignity and his dream alive.  Survival is the first order of business in New York City and when success comes within his grasp he finds himself up against an uncaring immigration bureaucracy.  Based on a true story, "Dreaming American" is a humorous, sad, and always compelling story of courage, living by one's wits, and the struggle to make it in America.  

CATCH 22- Short Film Program, Sunshine Celluloid

Director:  Mario Fernandez / USA / 2011 / 10 min / DVD / English

What would you do if you knew you're friends husband was having an affair? Would you keep the secret or would you tell her?  Morgan finds out that her Best Friend's husband is having an affair.  She is crossed between keeping the secret or exposing it.  In an effort to seek guidance, she visits her friend Crystal.  Crystal persuades Morgan to trust her with the secret, a secret that Crystal was not ready to hear.  

CONDUIT- Short Film Program, Sunshine Celluloid

Director:  Alyn Darnay / USA / 2011 / 13 min / DVD /English

In this riveting and powerful, yet uplifting drama, about how unexpected events can hold tremendous pain and limit one’s ability to go on, famed surgeon Susan Peck sits at a tipping point. One year after the accident that forever changed her life, and took away her will to live, she titters on the brink of a tragic decision. Into her life comes a message that can change the course of her life, or end it.   

SOME THINGS ARE WORSE THAN BEING GAY- Short Film Program, GLBT Shorts

Director: Regine Richards / USA / 2011 / 6 min / DigiBeta / English

Leah, a young Jewish woman has decided to come out to her parents and while she expects the worst, they react surprisingly well until they learn that their daughter's girlfriend is not Jewish.  

VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED- Short Film Program, GLBT Shorts

Director: Drew Stephens / USA / 2011 / 11 min / Blu-Ray / English

Is love an obsession or addiction? Modern socio-political issues play out in the fragile romance between two Filipino-American men. On this date night, Vince is ready to take their relationship to a new level - until he discovers that Jerry's problems with a former addiction have resurfaced. Instead, Vince must decide if he will continue to fight for the relationship, or acknowledge that perhaps his love alone will never be enough.  

WITH THIS RING- Short Film Program, GLBT Shorts

Director:  Michael Jacoby / USA / 2011 / 13 min / DVD / English

In this romantic thriller two men meet for the first time – and have the most unusual encounter.  
 
 

Love Is A Four Letter Word

AMORES CIEGOS - Short Film Program, Love is a Four Letter Word

Director: Marisé  Samitier / Spain / 2011 / 23 min / HDCam / Spanish w/English sub-titles

The story revolves around four people consumed by jealousy, deceit and betrayal. Marta suffers because she can’t have children. Her husband has an affair with Mila, Marta’s own sister, and single mother of Daniel. Their lives turn around when Daniel’s father, shows up.  

BUZZ-KILLER - Short Film Program, Love is a Four Letter Word

Director: Heland Lee / U.S.A. / 2011 / 113 min / DVD / English

This is on-line dating gone awry. But luckily, neither Josiphyne nor Larry knew what happened.

Everyone deserves a second chance.  

DISTILLED LOVE- Short Film Program, Love is a Four Letter Word

Director: Joe Kicak / Canada / 2010 / 14 min / Betacam SP / Engligh

Hoping to fix the crack in their relationship, Rene locks himself and his hipster girlfriend, Emma, in their apartment. His personal remedy for their woes is a weekend-long, cold turkey detox for Emma. But as her alcohol withdrawal takes hold, the couple discovers addiction is not the only problem they need to face.  

LAST WORDS OF THE HOLY GHOST- Short Film Program, Love is a Four Letter Word

Director: Ben Sharony / USA / 2011 / 19:35 / HDCam / English 
Besotted with the precocious and sexy ROSE, 14 year old HAROLD agrees to be re-baptized in her church and speak in tongues in order to win a date with her.   He gets the date, but things don’t go as well as he had hoped.  A bittersweet coming-of-age story.  

PROPOSAL- Short Film Program, Love is a Four Letter Word

Director: Chris King / USA  / 2011  / 16 min  / DigiBeta  / English

Haunted by memories of a lost love, a lonely man finally decides to move on with his life. With family wedding ring in hand, he gathers the last bit of courage he needs before asking the biggest question of his life. Based on a true story.  
 
 

One Life For Yourself

THE LIFE SMUGGLERS - Short Film Program, One Life for Yourself – One for Your Dreams

Director: David W. Wells / USA / 2011 / 25 min / English & Spanish w/English sub-titles

Two retirees from Phoenix, Arizona run prescription drugs from Mexico to help pay for a wife's medical bills. But when their work suddenly includes people smuggling, it becomes much more ethically complex.  

NORTH ATLANTIC - Short Film Program, One Life for Yourself – One for Your Dreams

Director: Bernardo Nascimento / Portugal-UK / 2010 / 15 min / HDCam / English & Portuguese w/English sub-titles

An isolated air traffic controller in the Azores connects with a lone pilot cut helplessly adrift over the North Atlantic.  

PIZZANGRILLO- Short Film Program, One Life for Yourself – One for Your Dreams

Director: Marco Gianfreda / Italy / 2011 / 15 min / Blu-Ray /Italian w/English sub-titles

Tired of life, Ettore, 65 years old, everyday tries to find the courage to drive himself and his three wheeler down a country ditch. When Luca, his 10 year old nephew, finds out about his grandfather's intentions, he decides to furtively follow him.  

THINGS TO DO - Short Film Program, One Life for Yourself – One for Your Dreams

Director: Daniel Jameison & Ana Maria Belo / Australia / 2011 / 7 min / DVD / English 

One night and day in Tim and Sara’s life. How far do you go for the one you love? How much can you sacrifice? How much can you ask? What do you really need to be happy?  
 
 

Pas De Deux

AN EVENING WITH MY COMATOSE MOTHER - Short Film Program, Pas De Deux

Director: Jonathan Martin / USA / 2011 / 33 min / HDCam / English

Dorothy Pritchard thought she had it easy; house sit for the wealthy Poe's on All Hallows Eve while collecting a cool paycheck. That was, until, she was introduced to the Poe's comatose mother living upstairs. As the dark of the night comes, and as the approaching storm blacks out the neighborhood, Dorothy soon finds herself on a nightmare ride through hell that she can only beg to be woken up from.  

HOMECOMING – World Cinema Short Film 

Director: Lorian James Delman / France/ 2010 / 46 min / DVD / English & French w/English sub-titles

Paul Berling is suffering from a grave kidney disease.  When he returns to his native village in France in order to seek out help from his brother, he discovers that the home he left isn't what it used to be.  Caught between his pride and his health, he battles to find a solution for both  

MISH MUSH - Short Film Program, Pas De Deux

Director: Amar Chebib / Syria –Canada / 2010 / 18 min / HDCam / Arabic w/English sub-titles

Upon being drafted for military service, Ahmad, a determined young Syrian poet, decides to flee the country. Consequently, he is forced up against a complex bureaucracy, conservative family, and reluctant lover. En route to Lebanon, he discovers himself in an unexpected place, an apricot orchard.  

STUFFER- Short Film Program, Pas De Deux

Director: Jake Silbermann / USA / 2010 / 20 min / HDCam / English

A female Sgt. returns from the front lines of Afghanistan to her husband and daughter for fear that they will foreclose on their home. But she is coming home with a secret  

WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED- Short Film Program, Pas De Deux

Director: Dave Porfiri & Linda Duvoisin / USA / 2011 / 11 min / DVD / English

The Nashville Sit-ins of 1960 were among the most important events of the Civil Rights Movement. Over a period of several months, college students from Fisk University and other schools staged a very well-organized, non-violent protest at downtown lunch counters. The protests culminated in the mayor agreeing to end segregation of lunch counters on the steps of City Hall with the eyes of the nation watching. It was just the first step in ending segregation in all facets of life throughout the city and it inspired similar movements throughout the South.  

A YOUNGER MAN- Short Film Program, Pas De Deux

Director: John Howard Swain / USA / 2010 / 10 min / English

“Come grow old with me, the best is yet to be.” A Younger Man is a short film that explores the choices you make when life cheats you out of the best. Rosa, a woman who has been saddled with the all consuming task of caring for her dying husband makes a bold choice that will unite her with a young passionate man and the two embark on a deceptive journey that begins with murder  
 

Sunshine Celluloid

CAPTAIN FIN- Short Film Program, Sunshine Celluloid

Director:  Kevin James O’Neil / USA / 2011 / 15 min / HDCam / English

Hank Gunner was arrested for manslaughter in 1975 after he killed a man in a bar fight.  He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. His wife Carol made the decision to protect Hannah by keeping his whereabouts a secret. Many years later, Hank receives a visit from Hannah his now eighteen-year-old daughter. The visit becomes more than a rekindling of their relationship and they find a way to be together forever.  

FORGOTTEN SOUL- Short Film Program, Sunshine Celluloid  
Director:  Ernie Minera / USA / 2011 / 8 min / DVD / English  
Born into a life of hardship and no-luck, Miller believes God forgot about him. Now in college, he learns that the one forgetting who he is, is himself.   

GHOSTWRITER- Short Film Program, Sunshine Celluloid

Director:  Jay Mogavero / USA / 2011 / 15 min / DVD / English

Aaron Drake is a successful mystery novelist, who has been stricken with writer's block since the unexpected death of his wife.  After over a year of being unable to string a sentence together he discovers the beginning of a new novel in the tray of his computer printer.   

MARIO SANCHEZ:  PAINTER OF MEMORIES- Short Film Program, Sunshine Celluloid

Director:  Jack Ofield / USA / 2007 / 14 min / BetaSP / English 
Mario Sanchez was a self-taught artist born in Key West in 1908. In painted, hand-chiseled wood reliefs, he depicted his memories of daily life on the island. With the affection and humor of a native son, he recorded for posterity a distinctive part of the American scene.  

NUTS FOR PIZZA- Short Film Program, Sunshine Celluloid

Director:  David Andrade / USA / 2011 / 2 min / DVD / English

Nuts to nuts! The only food Squirrely craves is delivered in 30 minutes or less. But for a squirrel, fresh pizza’s an unobtainable dream, until fate delivers Matt, the slacker delivery boy. It’s man versus nature showing just how far one determined squirrel will go when he’s Nuts For Pizza.  The film represents a new wave of filmmaking techniques and is the world's first online collaborative animated short film.  
 

Surreal Reality

A VIDENTE - Short Film Program,

Director: Darcyana Moreno Izel / Brazil / 2011 / 15 min / DVD / Portuguese w/English sub-titles

After a psychic suggests that her fiancée Rogerio is cheating on her, Carmen plays a dangerous game to discover the truth at any cost. Reality and fantasy become intertwined in this uproarious comedy, where nothing is exactly the way it appears.  

EKO - Short Film Program, Surreal Reality

Director: Goran Kapetanovic / Sweden / 2004 / 16 min / BetaSP / Swedish & Bosnian w/English sub-titles

Things are going pretty well for Sonja. She left the ex-Yugoslavian war and lives peacefully with her family in Sweden. The normal life she is trying to live is interrupted by her trauma from the war.  Sanja struggles alone with her trauma, but when she goes on a weekend trip with his family then everything begins to change. Her son is in danger.  

FRIENDLY STRANGERS - Short Film Program, Surreal Reality

Director: Katsumi Funahashi / USA / 2010 / 14 min / DVD / English

One morning, a computer tech, Peter Benson is finishing up his household chores.  he receives an unexpected visit from a young married couple, Angie Taylor(Amber Ford) and Derek Taylor(Aaron Macerelli).  The Taylor's are planning to buy the house next door and are seeking information about the quality of their perspective neighborhood, so Peter invites them in.  

INVISIBLE - Short Film Program, Surreal Reality 
Director: Harold Chapman / UK / 2010 / 15 min / HDCam / English

Victor is an African immigrant who, as a child, witnessed the slaughter of his family. He has now vanished into London, working as an anonymous street sweeper. But violence seeks him out once more and he realizes that to regain his humanity he must become ‘visible’ again.  

THE POND - Short Film Program, Surreal Reality

Director: USA / 2010 / 20 min / HDCam / English

A heartbroken young woman sets about scattering her husband's ashes on the pond in an apple orchard they had both loved. But the waters of the pond hold a secret, and when a stranger  appears unexpectedly, the very fabric of reality is ripped apart and she must choose between sacrifice and oblivion.  

SPLITSCREEN - Short Film Program, Surreal Reality

Director: James Griffiths / UK / 2011 / 2min / DVD / Silent

The screen is split down the middle. On the left we witness the world through the eyes of a woman. On the right we see the world through the eyes of a man. Although they live thousands of miles apart, their lives seem to be inextricably linked.  
 

Survival of the Fittest

AFTERSHOCK - Short Film Program, Survival of the Fittest 
Director: George Billard / China-USA / 2010 / 17 min / HDCam / Mandarin w/English Subtitles

Aftershock tells the dramatic story of Baojia, a man who loses his family in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. Subsequently, he becomes an illegal immigrant in New York City working for a cruel boss. With nothing but bitter memories and hardship, he struggles to make a human connection.  

BEEP - Short Film Program, Survival of the Fittest

Director: Haytham Saqr / UAE – Egypt / 2011 / 5 min / DVD / No dialogue

Mr. K, the invariably common man, his life passes by as an allegorical equivalent of modern life that is based on work and shopping. A life wasted over a bunch of equipment and devices, which in spite designed to provide easy living, they turn into death machines.

A tempo that hastily transits between home, work and mall summing up human life into a number of digits and beeps.  

BURNED - Short Film Program, Survival of the Fittest

Director: Phyllis Toben Bancroft/ USA / 2011 / 20 min / HDCam / English

Burned is the story of a young woman’s struggle to cope with her life after returning home from serving in the Iraq war.  Monica Wilson is a young female veteran who is struggling with accepting the fact that she is suffering from the silent scars of post-traumatic stress disorder after returning home from the war in Iraq.  As a result of her unwillingness to accept her scars of combat, she self medicates with alcohol and must find her own way to get back on track.  

PERHAPS TOMORROW - Short Film Program, Survival of the Fittest

Director: Sandy Garfunkel / USA / 2010 / 21 min / HDCam / English

Annie has detached herself from her friends and her work, and seems desperate to find a connection with a world other than her own. She thinks there is only one path to resolution, but unexpectedly, her daily lunch routine becomes the key to making peace with the ghosts of her past.  

SOLD - Short Film Program, Survival of the Fittest

Director: John Irwin / USA / 2010 / 13 min / HDCam / English & Spanish w/English sub-titles

Set on the backdrop of human trafficking and sex trade happening in America, and told through the eyes of a young journalist named Maya, who goes undercover to do an investigative article on the treatment of illegal immigrants in America.   

UNA CARRERITA, DOCTOR! (A DOCTOR'S JOB) - Short Film Program, Survival of the Fittest

Director: Julio O. Ramos / Peru / 2011 / 10 min / HDCam / Spanish w/English Subtitles 

A doctor forced by circumstance to also drive a cab finds himself challenged by his latest fare.   
 

Wise Beyond Their Years

BOY IN THE TREE - Short Film Program, Wise Beyond Their Years

Director: Aneel Ahmad / Pakistan / 2011 / 14 min / DVD / Punjabi w/English sub-titles 
Give the world the best you have and you might get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you've got anyway. Mother Teresa.  

EXTINCTION- Short Film Program, Wise Beyond Their Years

Director: Kevin McCarey  / USA / 2011 / 30 min / Blu-Ray / English & Xhosa w/English sub-titles  
On the coast of South Africa, paleontologists seek clues to Earth’s greatest extinction event.  They befriend Sipho, a Xhosa youth with a gift for finding fossils.  But the boy’s village is experiencing its own extinction, and Mandisa, a girl he loves, is dying.  Sipho shares with her what he’s learned: how the human species arose triumphantly from past extinctions.  But will this be enough to instill the hope they need for their own survival?  

FRESH SKWEEZED - Short Film Program, Wise Beyond Their Years  
Director: GB Shannon & Ryan Parker / USA/ 2011 / 22 min / HDCam / English

Maggie, a street smart 11 year old, is stifled by a shaky home-life and constant torment from the neighborhood bully. With a fair share of moxie and a talent for the hustle, this little spitfire is fighting for more than just stability in her turbulent surroundings. Her life's turned sour and she has no choice but to make a stand.        

PROTECT THE NATION - Short Film Program, Wise Beyond Their Years

Director: C. R. Reisser / South Africa, Germany / 2011 / 16 min / DVD / English & Zulu w/English sub-titles

When faced with the unexpected kindness of a stranger, a young boy begins to question himself. Does he have the courage to do what's right?  

SMALL DESIRES - Short Film Program, Wise Beyond Their Years 
Director: Joel Dunn / USA / 2011 / 1min / DVD / English 
A precocious girl with a small desire embarks on a quest with big determination and some heavy construction.  
 

The Wonder of it All

KITCHEN TABLE- Short Film Program, The Wonder of It All  
Director: Cara Hagan /  USA / 2010 / 13 min / DVD / English 
Kitchen Table, choreographed and directed by Cara Hagan, explores the roll of women in the 1950's through a comedic lens. Twins Cara and Mackenzie Hagan play Penny and Jo, a pair of catty homemakers who desire to fit the mold of the perfect woman, but desire also, to reach beyond their expected status. The film follows the women from the confined space of the kitchen to the expanse of the world outside, exploring themes of domesticity, femininity, and societal expectation.  

LIGHTWEIGHT- Short Film Program, The Wonder of It All

Director: Randy Kovitz / USA / 2011 / 23 min / DVD / English

Elizabeth lost her job. She lost her boyfriend. Now she's in Pittsburgh, staying with her mother. Suddenly, she can't keep her feet on the ground. Literally.  It's not convenient.   

MIYUKI’S BELLS- Short Film Program, The Wonder of It All

Director: Ken Ochiai / Japan / 2011 / 20 min / DVD / Japanese w/English sub-titles

Against her will, Miyuki must leave Tokyo and take her two young half-brothers to the country home of their quirky grandmother, but when they arrive she will discover that she had to leave her home in order to find it.  

PENNY- Short Film Program, The Wonder of It All

Director: Benj Thall  / USA / 2011 / 18 min / HDCam / English

An expert plumber, on a quest to save an aging city fountain, learns that with a little faith, a single penny can make even the most unlikely of wishes come true