Film Festivals

More Film Program Updates For 2012 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_2622" align="alignnone" width="550"]2012 Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant Winner , Let the Fire Burn (Director: Jason Osder)[/caption]

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival announced additional programming news for the 2012 festival: The Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant, the Southern Documentary Fund: In-the-Works program, and a celebration of 40 years of New Day Films. The festival will also feature a retrospective of short films in honor of its fifteenth anniversary, featuring one title from each previous year of the festival.

The 2012 Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant has been awarded to Jason Osder for “Let the Fire Burn” and Ben Powell for “Barge.”

The Southern Documentary Fund (SDF) will once again present their In-the-Works presentation at this year’s festival. The program will include the short film “Café Sense” directed by D.L. Anderson and Brooke Shuman, along with excerpts from “Can’t Stop the Water” directed by Rebecca Marshall Ferris and Jason Ferris and “untitled LUCY film” directed by Elisabeth Haviland James.

Full Frame will honor the 40th anniversary of New Day Films and exhibit New Day Film’s very first titles. The four films will screen as one program: Liane Brandon’s “Anything You Want to Be” and “Betty Tells Her Story,” Jim Klein and Julia Reichert’s “Growing Up Female,” and Amalie R. Rothschild’s “It Happens to Us.” A separate panel conversation around New Day Film’s history and legacy will also take place at the festival.

Full Frame has curated a selection of short films from the Full Frame vault. The fourteen shorts will, representing each year of the festival, will be screened in three separate programs over the course of the weekend. Vault One features “A Thousand Words,” “Caretaker for the Lord,” “For a Miracle,” and “Salt.” Vault Two features “Picture Day,” “Crow Film,” “The Intimacy of Strangers,” and “Lost Book Found.” Vault Three features “Metacarpus,” “Bitter and Sweet,” “A Love Supreme,” “Seltzer Works,” “Breadmakers,” and “Leche.” Directors and festival years are included below.

The 2012 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 12-15, in Durham, N.C.

2012 Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant

Barge (Director: Ben Powell)
This film examines the impact of one of America’s great rivers, documenting the next chapter of life on the Mississippi. Fascinating riverboat workers—notorious captains and seasoned first mates—expose both the decidedly colorful and highly specialized aspects of their profession.

Let the Fire Burn (Director: Jason Osder)
In 1985, police closed in on the Philadelphia row home headquarters of MOVE, a radical group some considered terrorists. Through archival footage, this film reveals a remarkable example of how intolerance, and incompetence, can lead to unthinkable acts of violence.

2012 SDF: In-the-Works

Café Sense (Directors: D.L. Anderson, Brooke Shuman)
In the last few decades, specialty roasting companies have tried to make the connection between the small farms that grow the plant to what we find at gas stations and in whipped drinks. Durham’s Counter Culture Coffee hosts a weekly tasting where drinkers learn to distinguish the flavors associated with different countries.

Can’t Stop the Water (Directors: Rebecca Marshall Ferris, Jason Ferris)
Over the last fifty years, Isle de Jean Charles has been gradually shrinking, and is now almost gone. Four months into filming the lives of the families that call this place home, one of the greatest environmental disasters in history left the people of this tiny island in south Louisiana with an even more uncertain future.

untitled LUCY film (Director: Elisabeth Haviland James)
Lucy Daniels believes a family secret radically impacted the trajectory of her life. Despite early promise, she endured brutal treatment in mental institutions only to pen a bestseller and win a Guggenheim fellowship, all before the age of twenty-two. Re-creations, animated dream sequences, and intimate interviews tell her story.

40th Anniversary of New Day Films

Anything I Want to Be (Director: Liane Brandon)
A teenager’s parents tell her time and again that she can grow up to be anything she wants to be. Through playful, yet troubling, reenactments, “anything” is discovered to be what exists within the realm of certain limitations.

Betty Tells Her Story (Director: Liane Brandon)
A woman sits in a chair before the camera. At the urging of the filmmaker, she describes a past event. She finishes her story, but then the filmmaker asks her to recount it. The distinctions between the first and second telling are restrained yet perceptible, raising ideas about femininity and self-worth.

Growing Up Female (Directors: Jim Klein, Julia Reichert)
This documentary captures six women, from ages four to twenty-six, as they experience coming of age in America. Touchingly revelatory, this pioneering feminist film acknowledges the countless pressures applied to young women and the many forms these influences can take.

It Happens to Us (Director: Amalie R. Rothschild)
Women of different ages, races, and economic backgrounds boldly speak to having had an abortion. This diverse collection of stories articulate and connect the viewer to powerful, sometimes graphic, recollections of the physical and emotional experience.

2012 Vault

Bitter and Sweet (Director: Johanna Lee) – 2001 Festival
Witness a day at an acupuncture shop in New York’s Chinatown, with Mom, Pop, and the family cat. A delightful, affectionate portrait of both a business and a marriage.

Breadmakers (Director: Yasmin Fedda) – 008 Festival
At the Garvald Bakery, a team of workers with mental disabilities prepare bread for all of Edinburgh. The participants, each in their own way, contribute to the rhythm of this choreographed effort.

Caretaker for the Lord (Director: Jane McAllister) – 2011 Festival
The maintenance man of a church in Glasgow’s East End muses about its future as he mops the floors and changes the light bulbs. The run-down church ministers to more members of its vulnerable community than those in charge realize.

Crow Film (Director: Edward P. Davee) – 2003 Festival
Ubiquitous and much-maligned crows are transformed into stately, mysterious objects of beauty. This film captures the intricate rhythms and textures of the birds flying and pecking their way through their world and ours.

For a Miracle (Po Cud) (Director: Jarek Sztandera) – 2005 Festival
This astonishing film of the national pilgrimage of disabled people and their caregivers from Poland to Lourdes by train—under the auspices of Catholic clergy—is a surreal passage that inspires faith and mercy, anxiety and despair.

The Intimacy of Strangers (Director: Eva Weber) – 2006 Festival
Cellphone conversations have the ability to collapse the distinctions between public and private space. Capturing intimate moments obliviously performed for strangers, this film is a love story of the modern age, transmitted for all to hear.

Leche (Director: Naomi Uman) – 1999 Festival
A dreamlike evocation of a dairy farm in Mexico through a textured film surface—the filmmaker develops her film in buckets. A document of a timeless place and the magic of crafting things by hand.

Lost Book Found (Director: Jem Cohen) – 1998 Festival
This film updates the venerable city symphony, but without the genre’s grandiose claims. Instead, this is more of a chamber piece; it starts as a personal documentary but then shifts from the private to the enigmatic.

A Love Supreme (Director: Nilesh Patel) – 2002 Festival
In this stunning and elegant tribute, Nilesh Patel pays homage to his aging mother as he captures the beauty and artistry of her life’s work: making samosas. A delicacy.

Metacarpus (Director: Nicole Triche) – 2007 Festival
Magicians, musicians, doctors, and others sing the praises of their hands. A collage of insight and image portrays this special limb’s beauty and diverse utility, its development and distinctive form.

Picture Day (Director: Steven Bognar) – 2000 Festival
One school. 601 kids. 12 frames per kid. What do you get? This playful, funny parade of images reveals the range of possibilities contained in half a second’s worth of pictures.

Salt (Directors: Michael Angus, Murray Fredericks) – 2009 Festival
Every year a photographer ventures to the middle of Lake Eyre, a desolate salt flat in South Australia, pitching camp at its very core. With neither land nor water in sight, he looks into the abyss and finds that, in the midst of nothingness, there is everything.

Seltzer Works (Director: Jessica Edwards) – 2010 Festival
Regular consumers are a rare breed but the dedicated owner of Gomberg Seltzer Works in Brooklyn takes great pride in his work and the details involved in creating the real throat-tingling spritz.

A Thousand Words (Director: Melba L. Williams) – 2004 Festival
Williams’s lack of communication with her father, especially after a stroke silences his memories, leads her to explore his enthralling home movie footage and accomplished still photos from the Vietnam War, which speak of a fettered artistic soul.

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Benoît Jacquot’s Farewell, My Queen Starring Diane Kruger as Queen Marie Antoinette to Open 2012 San Francisco International Film Festival

The 55th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 19 – May 3) will open with Farewell, My Queen (Dans les adieux à la reine, France 2012), Described as Benoît Jacquot’s extraordinarily atmospheric historical drama about the turmoil at Versailles in the early days of the French revolution, starring Diane Kruger as Queen Marie Antoinette and Léa Seydoux as her reader.

Sumptuous and intimate, Benoît Jacquot’s portrayal of court life at Versailles during four crucial days in July 1789 observes at close range the social decay that brought down the monarchy. In this adaptation of Chantal Thomas’s novel, a servant — the queen’s reader and sometime confidante, Sidonie Laborde (Léa Seydoux) — navigates the quietly mounting atmosphere of confusion, denial and panic among the royal family and their cohort following news of the storming of the Bastille. For the tacit but not timid Sidonie, dogged at all times by Jacquot’s camera, the palace’s seemingly endless hallways all lead to one room, the chamber of Marie Antoinette, to whom she is devoted and by whom she is mesmerized. Diane Kruger plays the monarch in a state of charged vulnerability, having lost her head over the otherwise much-despised Gabrielle De Polignac (Virginie Ledoyen); compared to that thrall, the revolution is as nothing to her. She transfers this frisson to Sidonie. Meanwhile, the aristocrats, sycophants and pretenders ensconced at Versailles read the writing on its walls and begin to take their leave. Thus, regime change begins at home.

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Sarasota Film Festival Releases the Full Lineup of Films for 2012

[caption id="attachment_2615" align="alignnone" width="550"] Festival Centerpiece – DARK HORSE[/caption]

The Sarasota Film Festival (SFF) officially announced their complete 2012 Festival program today, featuring over 230 films from 30 nations. The Sarasota Film Festival kicks off on April 13th with the previously announced ROBOT & FRANK on Opening Night, with Todd Solondz’s DARK HORSE serving as the Festival Centerpiece and Joe Berlinger’s UNDER AFRICAN SKIES serving as the festival’s closer.

The Narrative Feature Competition

[caption id="attachment_2616" align="alignnone" width="550"]11 Flowers[/caption]
11 FLOWERS, Director: Wang Xiaoshuai
ALPS, Director: Giorgos Lanthimos
ARCADIA, Director: Olivia Silver – US Premiere
COMPLIANCE, Director: Craig Zobel
ELENA, Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev
FRANCINE, Director: Brian M. Cassidy, Melanie Shatsky
GOODBYE FIRST LOVE, Director: Mia Hanse-Løve
THE LONELIEST PLANET, Director: Julia Loktev

The Narrative Feature Jury
John Anderson, Chairman, New York Film Critics Circle
Steven Gaydos, Executive Editor VARIETY
Karina Longworth – Film Critic, LA Weekly

The Documentary Feature Competition
THE ATOMIC STATES OF AMERICA, Director: Don Argott, Sheena M. Joyce.
BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!, Director: Fredrik Gertten

[caption id="attachment_2337" align="alignnone"]CHASING ICE[/caption]

CHASING ICE, Director: Jeff Orlowski
DETROPIA, Director: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
FIRST POSITION, Director: Bess Kargman
JUSTICE FOR SALE, Directors: Femke van Velzen, Ilsa van Velzen
THE PATRON SAINTS, Director: Brian M. Cassidy, Melanie Shatsky
RADIO UNNAMEABLE, Director: Paul Lovelace, Jessica Wolfson

Documentary Feature Jury
Joe Neumaier- The NY Daily News
Thelma Adams, Yahoo!
Clemence Taillandier, Zeitgeist Films

The Independent Visions Competition
EMPIRE BUILDER, Director: Kris Swanberg -World Premiere
LEAVE ME LIKE YOU FOUND ME, Director Adele Romanski
GAYBY, Director Jonathan Lisecki
IN OUR NATURE, Director Brian Savelson
RICHARD’S WEDDING, Director Onur Tukel -World Premiere
SEE GIRL RUN, Director Nate Meyer
SUN DON’T SHINE, Director Amy Seimetz
THE UNSPEAKABLE ACT, Director Dan Sallitt -World Premiere

[caption id="attachment_2318" align="alignnone"]WELCOME TO PINE HILL[/caption]
WELCOME TO PINE HILL, Director Keith Miller

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Arizona Premiere of Robot & Frank as Opening Night film at 2012 Phoenix Film Festival

Robot & Frank will have its Arizona Premiere on March 29 as this year’s Opening Night film at the 12th Annual Phoenix Film Festival. On opening night Bob Oldfather, the founder of Bookman’s Entertainment Exchange, and Macerich, the owners, operators, and developers of over 65 diverse retail properties including the home of the Phoenix Film Festival, Scottsdale 101 will be presented with the festival’s annual Visionary Award. Both are being honored for their continued community service and their support of film in Arizona.

Set sometime in the future, Robot & Frank is a delightful dramatic comedy, a buddy picture, and, for good measure, a heist film. Curmudgeonly old Frank lives by himself. His routine involves daily visits to his local library, where he has a twinkle in his eye for the librarian. His grown children are concerned about their father’s well-being and buy him a caretaker robot. Initially resistant to the idea, Frank soon appreciates the benefits of robotic support—like nutritious meals and a clean house—and eventually begins to treat his robot like a true companion. With his robot’s assistance, Frank’s passion for his old, unlawful profession is reignited, for better or worse. Frank Langella makes acting—and acting with a robot, no less—look effortless, and his relationship with the machine is filled with poignant exchanges and amusing adventures. First-time director Jake Schreier creates a lush world with futuristic flourishes and tells a beautiful story about family and the implications of humankind’s ever-changing relationship with technology. Schreier will be on hand to introduce the film and also participate in a post screening Q&A session.

The 12th Annual Phoenix Film Festival kicks off with the Premiere event and will screen over 100 short and feature films from all over the world before concludes on April 5th. The Festival will be held once again at Harkins Scottsdale 101 Theaters located at 7000 E. Mayo Blvd. Phoenix, AZ 85054.

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Inaugural Sundance London film and music festival Special Events and panels Lineup

[caption id="attachment_2612" align="alignnone" width="550"]HARMONY: A New Way of Looking at Our World, Inspired by HRH The Prince of Wales[/caption]

The inaugural Sundance London film and music festival released the program of the Special Events and panels that will take place at the festival from April 26-29 , 2012, at The O2.

Among the Special Events announced are: ‘Rufus and Martha Wainwright sing Kate McGarrigle,’ an intimate performance by Rufus and Martha Wainwright following the world premiere of Sing Me The Songs That Say I Love You ~ A Concert for Kate McGarrigle, Lian Lunson’s film about the music of their mother, folk singer Kate McGarrigle; The debut theatrical screening of Coming Up For Air, a documentary about Placebo, which will be followed by an extended Q&A with the band and filmmaker Charlie Targett-Adams; Robert Redford will introduce a screening of Harmony, a documentary about the three decades of work by HRH The Prince of Wales to combat climate change and the global environmental crisis, which will be followed by an extended Q&A; the 25th anniversary screening of River’s Edge, which first premiered at the 1987 Sundance Film Festival; and multiple panels on the creative process of independent filmmaking, reflecting the year-round work of Sundance Institute.

SPECIAL EVENTS
Coming Up For Air / UK (Director: Charlie Targett-Adams) — This candid and intrusive film follows Placebo through different continents and cultures with footage compiled from many of the countries, shows and travels which the band undertook throughout the Battle For The Sun tour campaign 2009-2011. This Worldwide Theatrical Premiere screening will include an extended Q&A with the band and filmmaker Charlie Targett-Adams. It will be immediately followed by Placebo in concert.

HARMONY: A New Way of Looking at Our World, Inspired by HRH The Prince of Wales / U.S.A. (Directors: Stuart Sender, Julie Bergman Sender) — For more than three decades, The Prince of Wales has worked side by side with a surprising and dynamic array of environmental activists, government and business leaders, artists, architects and visionaries. HARMONY tells the story of how they are working to transform the world, address the global environmental and economic crisis and find ways toward a more sustainable, spiritual and harmonious relationship with the planet. HARMONY is narrated by HRH The Prince of Wales and produced and directed by a team of filmmakers with Academy Award and Directors Guild nominations to their credit. Introduced by Robert Redford, this screening will be followed by an extended Q&A with the filmmakers and Tony Juniper and Ian Skelly, authors of the book that inspired the film. They will discuss the making of the film and the environmental issues it addresses.

River’s Edge / USA (Director: Tim Hunter, Screenwriter: Neal Jiminez) — A high school slacker kills his girlfriend and shows off her dead body to friends. Their reaction is almost as ambiguous and perplexing as the crime itself. Cast: Crispin Glover, Daniel Roebuck, Dennis Hopper, Ione Skye Leitch, Joshua Miller, Keanu Reeves. The film celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, after premiering at the 1987 Sundance Film Festival. This screening is made possible by MGMHD. Screening followed by Q&A with actor Crispin Glover.

Sing Me The Songs That Say I Love You ~ A Concert for Kate McGarrigle / USA, Canada (Director: Lian Lunson) — In May 2011 family and friends gathered together at the Town Hall Theater in New York City to pay tribute to the late, great singer, songwriter Kate McGarrigle. This documentary is part concert, and partly an intimate look at a family coming to terms with the loss of a loved one. The screening will be followed by an intimate performance of their mother’s work by Rufus and Martha Wainwright. World Premiere

PANELS
DOCUMENTARY FLASH LAB

This two hour immersion, fresh from Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program, will cut right to the edge of the new global documentary movement. Like Sundance’s signature Labs in Utah, leading doc artists from the US and beyond will challenge, inspire and present on all things non-fiction. Expect special guests, special treatment and special clips. A not-to-be-missed opportunity to co-create a trans-Atlantic doc community. Make a day of it and see the latest doc premieres.

Hear from leading American filmmakers Lauren Greenfield (The Queen of Versailles), Eugene Jarecki (The House I Live In) and Jeff Orlowski (Chasing Ice). Then join innovators Jess Search (CEO, Channel Four BritDoc Foundation) and other special guests as they dive into cutting edge funding and distribution possibilities. Come as you are, and leave with something more.

This Flash Lab will be hosted by Cara Mertes, Director Sundance Institute Documentary Program and Fund.

FILM MUSIC FROM THE COMPOSER’S POINT OF VIEW: An Afternoon with Harry Gregson-Williams

Peter Golub, Director of the Sundance Institute Film Music Program, will lead us on a journey exploring the creative evolution of one of the most successful and prolific film composers working today. Join world renowned composer Harry Gregson-Williams (Shrek, The Chronicles of Narnia, Kingdom of Heaven, Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason, Team America, Life in a Day and so many others) as he shares his process from that first spark of musical conception through to its culmination in the final delivery of a film score.

Experience a live demonstration by electric violinist Hugh Marsh and a not-to-be-missed discussion with members of the Abby Road team. Participants will examine scenes from The Chronicles of Narnia, Veronica Guerin, Unstoppable, and Gone Baby Gone and learn how the music for each of these films was conceived and realized and ultimately discover first hand how music shapes and enhances the lifeblood of a film and the experience of the viewer.
This panel is co-presented with BAFTA.

THINKING INDEPENDENTLY – UK versus US
Independent film has become synonymous with original storytelling and a breed of cinema that comes from courage and personal vision. For over 30 years Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival have supported emerging filmmakers from around the world. At the same time Britain has a long history of being a leader in cinematic innovation and has launched some of the most exciting talent working today. In this panel we will hear from filmmakers from both sides of the pond as US filmmakers face off with counterparts from the UK. How are we alike and how are we different?

John Cooper (Director, Sundance Film Festival) and Clare Stewart (BFI Head of Exhibition and Festival Director BFI London Film Festival) will be team captains. Representing the US will be visiting filmmakers Josh Radnor (Liberal Arts), So Young Kim (For Ellen) and Ry Russo-Young (Nobody Walks) and from the UK will be local indie heroes James Marsh (Shadow Dancer, Project Nim, Man on Wire), Gurinder Chada (Bend it Like Beckham, Bride & Prejudice) and other panelist to be announced.
This panel is co-presented with BFI.

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Kenneth Branagh to be honored with Founder’s Directing Award at the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival

Kenneth Branagh will be the recipient of the Founder’s Directing Award at the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 19 – May 3).

“We are thrilled to honor Kenneth Branagh for his remarkable directorial achievements and multifaceted career at this year’s Festival,” said Melanie Blum, the San Francisco Film Society’s interim executive director.

Branagh is currently receiving a lot of attention for last year’s Academy Award-nominated performance as Sir Laurence Olivier in My Week with Marilyn, a role based on the tense interaction between Olivier and Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) during a film production. This marks Branagh’s fifth career Academy Award nomination, making him the first person to receive five nominations in five separate categories (Actor, Supporting Actor, Director, Screenplay and Live Action Short). Also in 2011 Branagh released the Marvel action adventure Thor, which he directed.

The Founder’s Directing Award is presented each year to a master of world cinema and is given in memory of Irving M. Levin, visionary founder of the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1957. It is made possible by Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston. The award was first bestowed in 1986 on iconic filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, and for many years carried his name.

The award has brought many of the world’s most visionary directors to the San Francisco International Film festival over the years. Previous recipients are Oliver Stone, USA; Walter Salles, Brazil; Francis Ford Coppola, USA; Mike Leigh, England; Spike Lee, USA; Werner Herzog, Germany; Taylor Hackford, USA; Milos Forman, Czechoslovakia/USA; Robert Altman, USA; Warren Beatty, USA; Clint Eastwood, USA; Abbas Kiarostami, Iran; Arturo Ripstein, Mexico; Im Kwon-Taek, Korea; Francesco Rosi, Italy; Arthur Penn, USA; Stanley Donen, USA; Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal; Ousmane Sembène, Senegal; Satyajit Ray, India; Marcel Carné, France; Jirí Menzel, Czechoslovakia; Joseph L. Mankiewicz, USA; Robert Bresson, France; Michael Powell, England; and Akira Kurosawa, Japan.

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Sundance Winner Fishing Without Nets and 7 Other Short Films Headed to 2012 Sundance London

[caption id="attachment_2309" align="alignnone"]FISHING WITHOUT NETS[/caption]

Eight short films will screen at the inaugural Sundance London festival, taking place at The O2 in London from April 26-29. These films screened in January at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

SHORT FILM PROGRAMME IN DETAIL
The Arm / U.S.A. (Directors and screenwriters: Brie Larson, Sarah Ramos, Jessie Ennis) — In an attempt to keep up with social pressure in a technologically advanced world, Chance starts a texting relationship with Genevieve, a girl he meets at a yogurt shop. Winner of the Special Jury Award for Comedic Storytelling at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. 9 minutes

Dol (First Birthday) / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Andrew Ahn) — A gay Korean American man yearns for a family life just out of reach. 11 minutes

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared / United Kingdom (Directors: Joseph Pelling, Rebecca Sloan) — A short film about teaching creativity by This Is It Collective. 3 minutes

FISHING WITHOUT NETS / U.S.A. (Director: Cutter Hodierne, Screenwriters: Cutter Hodierne, John Hibey) — A story of pirates in Somalia, told from the perspective of the pirates themselves. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. 17 minutes

The Return (Kthimi) / Kosovo (Director: Blerta Zeqiri, Screenwriter: Shefqet Gjocaj) — A man comes back from a Serb prison to his wife and son. Much has changed since he was declared missing and continuing where they left off four years ago may not be as easy as it seems. Winner of the Jury Prize in Short Film, International Fiction at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. 21 minutes

Robots of Brixton / United Kingdom (Director: Kibwe Tavares) — The trials and tribulations of young robots surviving at the sharp end of inner city life, living the predictable existence of a populous hemmed in by poverty, disillusionment and mass unemployment. Winner of the Special Jury Award for Animation Direction at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. 6 minutes

Song of the Spindle / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Drew Christie) — An animated, humorous and informative conversation between a sperm whale and a man. Each one tries to convince the other that his brain is bigger. 4 minutes

Tooty’s Wedding / United Kingdom (Director: Frederic Casella, Screenwriters: Laura Solon, Ben Willbond) — A young couple’s marriage hilariously hits the rocks during a weekend wedding in the country. 19 minutes
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First American Documentary Film Festival Set For Palm Springs, California, Opens on March 29

[caption id="attachment_2595" align="alignnone" width="550"]Oliver Stone’s controversial 2003 documentary Comandante to screen on opening night[/caption]

The first annual American Documentary Film Festival is set to open in Palm Springs, CA, on March 29, 2012. The event, which runs through April 5th at the Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs, will include more than fifty screenings of documentary films, plus a variety of film seminars and filmmaker Q&As. Festivities begin Thursday evening, March 29th with a very special Opening Night Reception and Tribute, honoring legendary filmmaker Oliver Stone.

“Oliver will receive our highest honor – the ‘Filmmaker Who Makes A Difference Award’,” says Ted Grouya, Festival Director. “His grit and determination as an American film director, producer and screenwriter have resulted in films that have raised awareness and inspired change. Oliver has single handedly redefined the way we look at film.”

Following the reception and tribute, Stone’s controversial 2003 documentary, Comandante, will be screened. The documentary, which details Stone’s first journey to Cuba to interview Fidel Castro, was screened extensively in other countries, but was rarely screened in the United States because it was considered too ‘sympathetic’ to the Castro regime.

The American Documentary Film Festival, which is being presented by the Palm Springs Cultural Center, has long been a dream of Grouya’s. “As a filmmaker, and a fan of the documentary art form, I had been working to create a festival focusing on documentaries for a number of years. The opportunity to partner with Ric and Rozene Supple and their Palm Springs Cultural Center was the catalyst I needed to make the American Documentary Film Festival a reality.”

Screenings for the American Documentary Film Festival run daily, at 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm. Most screenings feature multiple documentaries that have been packaged together, both because they focus on similar subject matter, and so that the overall run times are similar. Q&As with the filmmakers follow screenings and are included in ticket prices.

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Dallas International Film Festival Releases Full Film Lineup for 2012 Festival

[caption id="attachment_2331" align="alignnone"]5 BROKEN CAMERAS[/caption]

The Dallas International Film Festival revealed the full schedule of features and shorts that will be screened through the Festival’s 11-day run (April 12 – 22, 2012).

The festival also announced that the past president and CEO of United Artists and Orion Pictures respectively, Eric Pleskow, will be honored for his lifetime achievements in the film industry at the Dallas Film Society Honors on April 20.

The 2012 Dallas International Film Festival schedule includes Morgan Spurlock presents COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN’S HOPE; Robert Byington returns with SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME following his success at DIFF 2010 with HARMONY AND ME; DIFF 2009 Environmental Visions winner for CRUDE and Academy Award nominee Joe Berlinger will grace this year’s Festival with the celebrated Paul Simon documentary, UNDER AFRICAN SKIES. World Premieres of Will Moore’s SATELLITE OF LOVE and Timothy Armstrong’s COWGIRLS N’ ANGELS will see talent Zachary Knighton (HAPPY ENDINGS), Janina Gavankar (TRUE BLOOD), James Cromwell (L.A CONFIDENTIAL, THE ARTIST) and rising star Bailee Madison (CONVICTION, DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK) adorning the Dallas screens. Brandon Dickerson’s SIRONIA will see musician and writer Wes Cunningham and SMU alum Amy Acker (CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, ALIAS) return to their Texas roots and X-MEN’s Famke Janssen will introduce her directorial debut BRINGING UP BOBBY.

The full schedule is as follows
Centerpiece

MY WAY (South Korea) – Texas Premiere
Director: Je-gyu Kang
Inspired by a true story. Jun Shik works for Tatsuo’s grandfather’s farm while Korea is colonized by Japan, but he has a dream to participate in Tokyo Olympics as a marathon runner. Starring Dong-gun Jang, Jô Odagiri, Bingbing Fan and In-kwon Kim.

Premiere Series

BROOKLYN BROTHERS BEAT THE BEST, THE (USA) – Texas Premiere
Director: Ryan O’Nan
A singer-songwriter hits the road with a self-appointed music revolutionary. Cast includes Ryan O’ Nan, Michael Weston, Arielle Kebbel, Andrew McCarthy, Jason Ritter, Wilmer Valderrama, Christoper McDonald and Melissa Leo.

BRINGING UP BOBBY (USA) – Texas Premiere
Director: Famke Janssen
A European con-artist and her son Bobby find themselves in Oklahoma in an effort to escape her past and build a better future. Starring Milla Jovovich, Bill Pullman, Marcia Cross and Rory Cochrane.

COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN’S HOPE (USA)
Director: Morgan Spurlock
A behind-the-scenes look at the fans who gather by the thousands each year in San Diego, California to attend Comic-Con, the world’s largest comic book convention. Featuring Kevin Smith, Stan Lee, Eric Hensen, Stephenie Werner, Tayler Hudson and Chuck Rozanski.

COMPLIANCE (USA)
Director: Craig Zobel
When a prank caller convinces a fast food restaurant manager to interrogate an innocent young employee, no one is left unharmed. Starring Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker, Pat Healy, Bill Camp and Philip Ettinger.

DARLING COMPANION (USA) – Texas Premiere
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
A story of a woman who loves her dog more than her husband and then her husband loses the dog. Cast includes Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Dianne Wiest, Richard Jenkins, Sam Shepard, Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss and Ayelet Zurer.

DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL (USA) – Texas Premiere
Directors: Lisa Immordino Vreeland, Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt, Frédéric Tcheng
A look at the life and work of Diana Vreeland, the influential fashion editor of Harpers Bazaar and later the editor of Vogue.

LIBERAL ARTS (USA) – Texas Premiere
Director: Josh Radnor
When 30-something Jesse is invited back to his alma mater, he falls for a young 19-year-old college student and is faced with the powerful attraction that springs up between them. Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Zac Efron, Josh Radnor, Allison Janney, Richard Jenkins.

Narrative Feature Competition

FAITH, LOVE AND WHISKEY (USA, Bulgaria) – Texas Premiere
Director: Kristina Nikolova
Neli, a Bulgarian woman, engaged to a well-off American panics and runs back home. She reunites with her drifter friends and falls in love with her passionate but alcoholic best friend. When her fiance arrives Neli must make a choice between two opposing futures. Starring Ana Stoyanovska and Valeri Yordanov.

FATHER’S CHAIR (Brazil) – Texas Premiere
Director: Luciano Moura
A man who has put his career ahead of everything else in life learns the value of family when his son goes missing. Stars Wagner Moura, Lima Duarte, Mariana Lima and Brás Antunes.

LUV (USA) – Texas Premiere
Director: Sheldon Candis
Over the course of one day, a shy 13-year-old forms a bond with his troubled uncle as he shows the boy what it takes to be a man in Baltimore. Starring newcomer Michael Rainey, Jr., Common, Michael K. Williams, Danny Glover, Meagan Good and Charles S. Dutton.

MAYA (Albania) – North American Premiere
Director: Pluton Vasi
A man who has been living in the west returns to his village in Albania to bury his father. Having met the beautiful Maya, he wants to stay on and make a life for himself there, but a vicious web of rumor and hearsay threatens his happiness. Starring Genti Kame, Rovena Lule Kuka, Myzafer Zifla

SAVE THE DATE (USA) – Texas Premiere
Director: Michael Mohan
Two sisters fumble their way along the road to happiness. Stuck between having it figured out and screwing it up, they’re compelled to learn how to love and be loved in the moments when everything changes. Stars Lizzy Caplan, Alison Brie, Martin Starr and Mark Webber.

SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME (USA)
Director: Robert Byington
The film follows Max, his best friend Sal and a woman they both adore through 35 years of mandatory but apparently unfulfilling entanglements at weddings, funerals, hospitals, eateries, divorce courts… and the tool shed. Stars Keith Paulson, Jess Weixler, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman

TEDDY BEAR (Denmark) – Texas Premiere
Director: Mads Matthiesen
Dennis, a 38-year-old bodybuilder, would really like to find true love. He has never had a girlfriend and lives alone with his mother in a suburb of Copenhagen. Stars Kim Kold, David Winters, Elsebeth Steentoft, Chanicha Shindejanichakul and Lamaiporn Hougaard.

Documentary Feature Competition

BIBA! ONE ISLAND, 879 VOTES (USA) – World Premiere
Director: Benjamin Bloodwell
BIBA! follows the rallies and debates of Trenton Conner and Henry San Nicolas in their battle for control over the Pacific island, Tinian, which was the launch point for the Enola Gay in World War II and presently the home of the Voice of America broadcasting towers, sending pro-democracy propaganda into China and North Korea.

BROOKLYN CASTLE (USA)
Director: Katie Dellamaggiore
Amidst financial crises and unprecedented public school budget cuts, BROOKLYN CASTLE takes an intimate look at the challenges and triumphs facing members of a junior high school’s champion chess team.

ESCAPE FIRE: THE FIGHT TO RESCUE AMERICAN HEALTHCARE (USA)
Directors: Matthew Heineman, Susan Froemke
ESCAPE FIRE exposes the perverse nature of American healthcare, contrasting the powerful forces opposing change with the compelling stories of pioneering leaders and the patients they seek to help. The film is about finding a way out, about saving the health of a nation.

THE IMPOSTER (UK)
Director: Bart Layton
Layton uncovers the story about a young Frenchman who convinces a grieving Texas family that he was their 16-year-old son who went missing for 3 years.

LOW & CLEAR (USA)
Directors: Kahlil Hudson, Tyler Hughen
A meditation on friendship and life in the disappearing wilderness of the West, LOW & CLEAR follows two formerly close friends who reunite for one last fly-fishing trip. Over the course of their time together they come to understand how much they have each changed and how these changes now threaten the friendship.

TCHOUPITOULAS (USA)
Directors: Bill Ross, Turner Ross
Three young brothers take to the night streets of New Orleans in this sensory and kaleidoscopic odyssey.

WE’RE NOT BROKE (USA) – Texas Premiere ♥
Directors: Karin Hayes, Victoria Bruce
An exposé on how the government has allowed U.S. corporations to avoid paying taxes and the growing wave of discontent that it has fostered.

Documentary Showcase

GIRL MODEL (USA) ♥
Directors: David Redmon, A. Sabin
Follows a complex supply chain between Siberia, Japan, and the U.S. within the modeling industry. The story is told through the eyes of the scouts, agencies and a 13 year-old model.

THE INVISIBLE WAR (USA) – Texas Premiere ♥
Director: Kirby Dick
An investigative and powerfully emotional documentary about the epidemic of rape of soldiers within the US military, the institutions that perpetuate and cover up its existence, and its profound personal and social consequences.

NO ASHES NO PHOENIX (Germany) – Texas Premiere
Director: Jens Pfeifer
A locker room exposé about young basketball players in Hagen, Germany who face their fears of losing and challenge enormous odds to succeed. The team signs “Michael Jordan”, but their savior brings a lot more baggage to Hagen than just a famous name.

VITO (USA) – Texas Premiere ♥
Director: Jeffrey Schwarz
The story of Vito Russo, founding father of the gay liberation movement, author of “The Celluloid Closet,” and vociferous AIDS activist in the 1980s.

World Cinema

5 BROKEN CAMERAS (Palestine, Israel, France) – Texas Premiere ♥
Directors: Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi
A documentary chronicles a Palestinian farmer’s nonviolent resistance to the actions of the Israeli army.

ALPS (Greece) – Texas Premiere
Director: Giorgos Lanthimos
A nurse, a paramedic, a gymnast and her coach have formed a service for hire. They stand in for dead people by appointment, hired by the relatives, friends or colleagues of the deceased. Starring Aris Servetalis, Johnny Vekris, Ariane Labed, Aggeliki Papoulia and Stavros Psyllakis.

ELENA (Russia) – Texas Premiere
Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev
Elena and Vladimir are an older couple from different backgrounds. Vladimir is a wealthy and cold man, Elena comes from a modest milieu and is a docile wife. They
have met late in life and each one has children from previous marriages. Stars Aleksey Rozin, Andrey Smirnov, Yelena Lyadova and Nadezhda Markina.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL (Spain)
Director: Nacho Vigalondo
Everyone knows what to do if one morning the sky would be absolutely full of UFOs: run as fast as you can. However, what would happen if the invasion started while you are in the flat of the girl of your dreams, the one you have just met? Starring Michelle Jenner, Carlos Areces, Julián Villagrán, Raúl Cimas and Miguel Noguera.

I WISH (Japan) – Texas Premiere
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
A 12-year-old boy, Koichi, wishes that his family separated by divorce is brought together again. He devises a plan that a miracle will transpire at the exact moment when two bullet trains bound in opposite directions pass each other.
Starring Hoshinosuke Yoshinaga, Rento Isobe Ryôga Hayashi and Kanna Hashimoto.

SALT OF LIFE (Italy) – Texas Premiere
Director: Gianni Di Gregorie
Gianni is a retiree who has become invisible to most everyone around him. In response, he tries his best to generate some kind of extracurricular love life. Stars Gianni Di Gregorio, Valeria De Franciscis Bendoni, Alfonso Santagata and Elisabetta Piccolomini.

UNTOUCHABLES (France) – Texas Premiere
Directors: Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano
A true story of two men who should never have met: a quadriplegic aristocrat who was injured in a paragliding accident and a young man from the projects. Starring François Cluzet, Omar Sy, Anne Le Ny, Audrey Fleurot and Clotilde Mollet.

WHERE DO WE GO NOW? (France, Lebanon, Egypt, Italy) – Texas Premiere
Director: Nadine Labaki
A group of Lebanese women try to ease religious tensions between Christians and Muslims in their village. Starring Claude Baz Moussawbaa, Layla Hakim, Nadine Labaki and Yvonne Maalouf.

Latino Showcase

BEING: CAFÉ TACVBA (Mexico) – U.S. Premiere
Directors: Ernesto Contreras and José Manuel Craviotto
As Mexican rock band Café Tacvba celebrates 20 years, this film uncovers the creative process that brings them together, their friendship, frustrations and the desire of still being a rock band, Featuring Ruben Albarran, Emmanuel del Real, Enrique Rangel and Joselo Rangel.

HELENO (Brazil) – Texas Premiere
Director: José Henrique Fonseca
A biography of the tragic life of one of Brazil’s greatest soccer players, Heleno de Freitas. Starring Rodrigo Santoro, Othon Bastos, Herson Capri, Angie Cepeda and Erom Cordeiro.

MARIACHI GRINGO (USA) – Texas Premiere
Director: Tom Gustafson
A stifled, small-town man stuck in a dead end life, runs away to Mexico to be a mariachi singer. Starring Shawn Ashmore, Martha Higareda, Kate Burton and Adriana Barraza.

South Korean Spotlight

LET ME OUT (South Korea) – World Premiere
Directors: Jae Yong Soh, Chang Rae Kim
A student filmmaker whose inexperience, demands and impatience cause every human involved in his first film – an undead melodrama – to go crazy. So, the zombies step in and help out.
Starring Hyun Sang Kwon, Geunsup Han, Yumouyoung, Hee Von Park and Jessica Choi.

Texas Competition in partnership with PANAVISION

AMERICA’S PARKING LOT (USA)
Director: Jonny Mars
Two die-hard fans and leaders of the legendary ‘Gate 6’ tailgate party spend their last season with the Dallas Cowboys at historic Texas Stadium. When the Cowboys move 20 miles west to Arlington, the shifting politics and economics of major league sports threaten to dissolve the friendships and traditions they have built over 20 years and they scramble to preserve their place in AMERICA’S PARKING LOT.

CINEMA SIX (USA) – World Premiere
Directors: Mark Potts, Cole Selix
Three small-town friends have to decide whether to keep their easy jobs at a movie theater or actually try to do something meaningful with their lives. Cast includes John Merriman, Mark Potts, Brand Rackley, Byron Brown, Lindsey Newell, Heather Wallis, Madi Goff, Chris Doubek, Cole Selix, Kevin M. Brennan, Maggie Carey and Barry Corbin.

KID-THING (USA)
Director: David Zellner
A fever-dream fable about a rebellious girl who spends her time roaming the land, leaving destruction in her wake. Starring Sydney Aguirre and Nathan Zellner.

SATELLITE OF LOVE (USA) – World Premiere
Director: Will Moore
To atone for his absence at their wedding, globe-trotting and hard-partying musician, Samuel, invites his best friend Blake, a successful chef, and Blake’s new wife Catherine (with whom Samuel has previously shared both a bed and a bond) to idyllic Nadi Vineyards for a week-long party in paradise. Samuel imports cosmopolitan DJ, Michelle, from Barcelona to stir the pot. Stars Nathan Phillips, Zachary Knighton, Shannon Lucio and Janina Gavankar

SIRONIA (USA)
Director: Brandon Dickerson
A singer-songwriter beat up by the L.A. music machine moves with his wife to Sironia, Texas. Starring Wes Cunningham, Amy Acker, Tony Hale, Jeremy Sisto, Courtney Ford, Carrie Preston and Robyn Lively.

THANK YOU FOR JUDGING (USA)
Directors: Sean Fornara, Michael Urie, Selma Al-Faqih, Travis Flournoy
In Texas every year, the best of the best come to be judged at the mother of all Speech and Debate competitions. These kids will tug at your heart strings and tickle your funny bone as they learn not only about speaking in public, but also confidence, adult relations, and self-presentation, both in appearance and eloquence. Featuring Michael Urie.

WOLF (USA)
Director: Ya’Ke Smith
A family is shaken to the core when they discover that their son has been molested. As they struggle to deal with the betrayal, their son heads towards a total mental collapse because of his love for his abuser. Cast includes Irma P. Hall, Amelia Jeffries, Shelton Jolivette and Jordan Cooper.

Environmental Visions Competition in partnership with Whole Foods

ATOMIC STATES OF AMERICA, THE (USA) – Texas Premiere
Directors: Dan Argott, Sheena Joyce
In 2010, the United States announced construction of the first new nuclear power plant in more than 32 years. A year later, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Fukushima Power Plant in Japan sparking a fierce debate in the U.S. over the safety and viability of nuclear power.

DIRTY ENERGY (USA) – Texas Premiere
Director: Bryan D. Hopkins
April 20th, 2010: The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig abruptly exploded into flames off the Gulf of Mexico just 50 miles from the coast of Louisiana tragically taking the lives of 11 workers. Now, with the disaster’s first anniversary passed, the fate of the Gulf is still largely unknown.

LAST CALL AT THE OASIS (USA)
Director: Jessica Yu
LAST CALL AT THE OASIS presents a powerful argument for why the global water crisis will be the central issue facing our world this century. Among those appearing in the film are Erin Brockovich-Ellis, Jay Famiglietti, Peter H. Gleick and Tyrone Hayes.

Family Friendly

COWGIRLS N’ ANGELS (USA) – World Premiere
Director: Timothy Armstrong
A group of rodeo trick-riders recruits a young girl to join them. Stars Jackson Rathbone, James Cromwell, Bailee Madison, Alicia Witt, Drew Waters and Frankie Faison.

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982, USA)
Director: Steven Spielberg
A meek and alienated little boy finds a stranded extraterrestrial. He has to find the courage to defy the authorities to help the alien return to its home planet. Stars Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton and Drew Barrymore.

FIRST POSITION (USA) – Texas Premiere
Director: Bess Kargman
A documentary that follows six young ballet dancers as they prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix.

OBLIVION ISLAND: HARUKA AND THE MAGIC MIRROR (Japan) – Texas Premiere
Director: Shinsuke Sato
Having lost her mother, Haruka is now a 16-year-old girl and feels neglected by her father. She escapes to her grandmother’s house and discovers a fox-like creature who steals her keys. She follows him and is transported into a magical world. Starring Haruka Ayase, Miyuki Sawashiro, Mitsuki Tanimura, Naho Toda and Nao Ohmori.

Deep Ellum Sounds

ANDREW BIRD: FEVER YEAR (USA) – Texas Premiere
Director: Xan Aranda
Filmed during culminating months of the acclaimed singer-songwriter’s most rigorous year of touring, Andrew Bird crosses the December finish line in his hometown of Chicago – feverish and on crutches from an onstage injury. FEVER YEAR is the first to capture Bird’s precarious multi-instrumental looping technique and features live performances at Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater with collaborators Martin Dosh, Jeremy Ylvisaker, Michael Lewis and Annie Clark of St. Vincent.

UNDER AFRICAN SKIES (USA)
Director: Joe Berlinger
Paul Simon returns to South Africa to explore the incredible journey of his historic Graceland album, including the political backlash he received for allegedly breaking the UN cultural boycott of South Africa designed to end the Apartheid regime. Among those appearing in the film are Maya Angelou, Harry Belafonte, Whoopi Goldberg, Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey and Paul Simon.

Midnight Specials

BINDLESTIFFS (USA) – Texas Premiere
Director: Andrew Edison
Three high school virgins, suspended from school on a bogus graffiti charge, flee to the inner city in an attempt to live out the plot of The Catcher in the Rye – a book they neither have read nor understand. Starring John Karma, Luke Loftin, Andrew Edison and Will Fordyce.

JUAN OF THE DEAD (Spain, Cuba)
Director: Alejandro Brugués
Where the Cuban government sees an American conspiracy and the rest of the world sees a non-political zombie outbreak, Cuban nationalist and scoundrel Juan sees the business opportunity of a lifetime – charging people to kill their undead loved ones.
Stars Blanca Rosa Blanco, Elsa Camp, Alexis Díaz de Villegas, Antonio Dechent and Andrea Duro.

THE PACT (USA) – Texas Premiere
Director: Nicholas McCarthy
As a woman struggles to come to grips with her past in the wake of her mother’s death, an unsettling presence emerges in her childhood home. Starring Caity Lotz, Casper Van Dien, Agnes Bruckner, Mark Steger and Haley Hudson.

TORMENTED (Japan, Netherlands) – Texas Premiere
Director: Takashi Shimizu
TORMENTED centers on a young boy whose family seems to be unraveling around him. His sister is grappling with the reality of life or death, while his father walks a line with insanity. The situation intensifies when the boy manifests a dangerous friendship with a stuffed toy rabbit that comes to life. Starring Teruyuli Kagawa, Hikari Mitsushima and Nao Ohmori.

Special Presentation

L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (1997, USA)
Director: Curtis Hanson
A shooting at an all night diner is investigated by three LA policemen in their own unique ways. Stars Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger and Danny DeVito.

GAYBY (USA)
Director: Jonathan Lisecki
Jenn and Matt, best friends since college who are now in their thirties, decide to have a child together, the old-fashioned way – even though Matt is gay and Jenn is straight.
Starring Jenn Harris, Matthew Wilkas, Charlie Barnett, Samantha Buck and Louis Cancelmi.

AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY (USA) – Texas Premiere
Director: Terence Nance
Nance’s explosively creative debut feature documents the relationship between Nance and a young woman as it teeters on the divide between platonic and romantic delving into his own male psyche when she stands him up. Stars Alisa Becher, Jc Cain, Dexter Jones and Namik Minter.

QWERTY (USA) –Texas Premiere
Director: Bill Sebastian
An off-beat love story about a closeted competitive Scrabble savant, Zoe & her new found irascible love-interest, Marty. Together they try to carve out their place in a world filled with other people. Starring Dana Pupkin, Eric Hailey, Bill Redding

THE REVISIONARIES (USA) – Texas Premiere
Director: Scott Thurman
THE REVISIONARIES follows the rise and fall of some of the most controversial figures in American education through some of their most tumultuous intellectual battles. Among those appearing in the film are Don McLeroy, Kathy Miller and SMU professor, Ron Wetherington.

ROBOCOP (1987, USA)
Director: Paul Verhoeven
In a dystopic and crime ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg with submerged memories haunting him. Starring Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O’Herlihy, Ronny Cox and Kurtwood Smith.

Community Showcase

CLOSE TIES: TYING ON A NEW TRADITION (USA)
Director: Gemal Woods
Cultural traditions have been the cornerstone of African American communities for centuries, and CLOSE TIES examines the similar impact of a new tradition—the tying of a necktie, an act associated with men who embody professionalism and prestige—that inspires high school boys to commit to a life of achievement and success.

KISSED BY THE DEVIL (USA)
Director: M. Legend Brown
Although Oakland Hill is a well known, late night radio personality, her life is far from storybook. She spends most of her time caring for her mentally ill brother Michael, who witnessed their father commit an unimaginable act.

PATRIOCRACY (USA) – Texas Premiere
Director: Brian Malone
PATRIOCRACY explores the extreme polarization in America that cripples the country from tackling its most serious problems. Featuring Elliot Ackerman, Jason Altmire, Rob Andrews, Pat Buchanan and Jason Chaffetz.

Shorts Competition

’92 SKYBOX ALONZO MOURNING ROOKIE CARD (USA)
Director: Todd Sklar
Two estranged brothers are forced to come together for a week when their dad dies in Kansas City. Dave believes he has a limited edition 1992 Skybox Series Alonzo Mourning rookie card, but Jim has other ideas.

AARON BURR, PART 2 (USA)
Director: Dana O’Keefe
A contemporary re-imagining of the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr explores the idea of history as a contested narrative.

ANOTHER BULLET DODGED (USA)
Director: Landon Zakheim
A wolf in sheep’s clothing who thinks he is a sheep.

AT THE FORMAL (Australia)
Director: Andrew Kavanagh
Modern and ancient rituals collide in this macabre depiction of a high school formal.

AUDACITY (India)
Director: Anirban Roy
What happens when a father scolds his daughter? Meltdown of an entire community.

AURORA BOREALIS (USA)
Director: Matt H. Mayes
A man visits his mother in a rest home when a shift of light reveals the spaces between and inside them.

BEAR (Australia)
Director: Nash Edgerton
Jack means well, but sometimes good intentions have horrible consequences.

CHORES (USA)
Director: Terence Bernardo
On a remote and isolated farm, a man passes his days with only his animals for company. His idyllic life quickly takes a turn for the unexpected when he realizes that he is not alone.

DOUBLES WITH SLIGHT PEPPER (USA, Canada, Trinidad)
Director: Ian Harnarine
Set in Trinidad during Christmas a young street food vendor must decide if he will help save his estranged father from dying.

THE DUMP (New Zealand)
Director: Hamish Bennett
A comedy/drama about an 11-year old boy and the gradual bond he develops with his estranged dad Orlando, the sole employee at a tiny rubbish dump in rural New Zealand.

THE ELECT (USA)
Directors: Dan Moore, Erin Zacek
Everyday life inside the controversial Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, is explored through this verité-style documentary

EVERYTHING IS INCREDIBLE (USA)
Directors: Tyler Bastian, Trevor Hill, Tim Skousen
A disabled man named Agustin in Honduras has been building a helicopter in his home for the past 53 years causing controversy amongst his family and community.

FAMILY NIGHTMARE (USA)
Director: Dustin Guy Defa
This dizzying trip through the mid-1990s with a dysfunctional American family is a crumpled letter from a filmmaker to his family: a shattered kaleidoscope of the destructive patterns that have been trapped and wounded its members.

FUNGUS (Sweden)
Director: Charlotta Miller
Katrin is sitting apathetically in her dump like apartment, after being cheated on and left by her boyfriend. Time passes slowly and Katrin is just trying to endure being in her own skin.

HEART STOP BEATING (USA)
Director: Jeremiah Zagar
Two visionary doctors from the Texas Heart Institute successfully replaced a dying man’s heart with a rotor-driven artificial one—proving that life is possible without a heartbeat.

HELLION (USA)
Director: Kat Candler
Little seven-year old Petey falls prey to his older brothers’ hellion ways.

THE HICCUP (USA)
Director: Matt Smukler
Two friends desperately trying to skip town find that an overheated radiator is the least of their problems.

IZZY & SALVADOR (USA)
Director: Jean-Pierre Caner
Izzy is bringing Salvador home to meet the family for the first time.

A LETTER TO JULIA (Spain)
Director: David González Rúdiez
She writes a letter to Julia.

LIFE AND FREAKY TIMES OF UNCLE LUKE (USA)
Director: Jillian Mayer
A modern adaptation of the 1962 French short film ‘La Jetee’, the film recounts Luke’s (Uncle Luke, legendary rapper from the hip-hop group 2 Live Crew) rise to fame as he changes the face of hip-hop, fights for first amendment rights, and later ushers Miami into a golden era of peace and prosperity as Mayor.

LIFELIKE (USA)
Directors: Erick Stoll, Chase Whiteside
A taxidermist coolly goes about his business.

THE LOVE COMPETITION (USA)
Director: Brent Hoff
The Stanford MRI Lab hosts the world’s first ever love competition, in which seven contestants have five minutes to neurochemically love someone as hard as they can.

LOVE HACKING (USA)
Director: Jenni Nelson
A virtual relationship becomes a reality when a robot inventor falls in love over the Internet and journeys to Nepal to meet his fiancée for the first time. They marry the next day.

MEANING OF ROBOTS (USA)
Director: Matt Lenski
The benevolent Mike Sullivan, age 65, has been shooting a stop-motion robot sex film in his apartment for the last 10 years. Now his miniature robot porn stars are threatening to squeeze him out of the space he needs to shoot his epic.

ONCE IT STARTED IT COULD NOT END OTHERWISE (USA)
Director: Kelly Sears
Terrifying and strange happenings descend on a 1970s high school.

PERFECT FIT (Mexico)
Director: Leonel Fernandez
A 30-year-old man works at a mall’s parking lot booth. He lives a lonely, monotonous and apparently an emotionless life.

PLAYTIME (Germany)
Director: Lucas Mireles
A seamless journey of German youth and innocence on a Sunday afternoon.

PLUTO DECLARATION (USA)
Director: Travis Wilkerson
Restore the classical definition of planet! Bring back planet Pluto! The solar system needs its 12th planet.

RASPBERRY JAM (USA)
Director: Courtney Ware
A mystical tale about a man who loses everything on his journey toward hope. Oh, and there’s a leprechaun, too.

ZERGÜT (USA)
Directors: Natasha Subramaniam, Alisa Lapidus
ZERGÜT focuses on the unique, often overlooked, beauty of everyday edible delights.

Shorts Before Features

THE BIRTH OF SAINT ELISEO (USA)
Director: Stacy Dean Campbell
Set along the Texas-Mexico border in the late 1930’s, THE BIRTH OF SAINT ELISEO is a story of vengeance that is not solely the Lord’s.

Student Shorts Competition

BENNY (USA)
Director: Huay-Bing Law
An overweight teenager revisits a friend from his past – now a personal fitness trainer.

GRANDMOTHERS (UK)
Director: Afarin Eghbal
In a small apartment in Buenos Aires, an old woman eagerly awaits the birth of her grandchild. However, horrific circumstances mean that she will be forced to wait for over 30 years.

THE KIDS DON’T LIKE IT (USA)
Director: Jeremy David White
The bond between two brothers is tested amidst the turmoil caused by their father.

NANI (USA)
Director: Justin Tipping
Oscar got caught spraying graffiti. Now doing community service at a nursing home, he meets Isabel who is suffering from dementia.

NEWSWORTHY (USA)
Director: Jeremy Robbins
Frederick Wiles, an ambitious high-school sophomore, with dreams of becoming the next Woodward or Bernstein, tries to find a story worthy of the seniors-only news show.

WASH ME (USA)
Director: Winston Tao
After the death of their daughter, a remorseful policeman, Mick, faces a broken marriage and seeks his penance as he answers a domestic disturbance call.

Animation Competition in partnership with REEL FX

663114 (Japan)
Director: Isamu Hirabayashi
I am a 66-year cicada. There was a big earthquake. There was a big tsunami. There also was a big accident.

DR. BREAKFAST (USA)
Director: Stephen Neary
One day at breakfast, a man’s soul bursts out of his eyeball. While the soul roams the earth eating everything in sight, two wild deer bathe, clothe, and feed the man’s catatonic body.

IT’S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY (USA)
Director: Don Hertzfeldt
Don Hertzfeldt narrates the close of this trilogy as Bill finds himself in a hospital struggling to piece together his shattering psyche.

A MORNING STROLL (UK)
Director: Grant Orchard
When a New Yorker walks past a chicken on his morning stroll, we are left to wonder which one is the real city slicker.

MOXIE (UK)
Director: Stephen Irwin
A pyromaniac bear misses his mother.

SLOW DEREK (UK)
Director: Dan Ojari
The tale of Derek, an office worker, as he struggles with the true speed of planet earth.

WILD LIFE (Canada)
Directors: Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby
An Englishman moves to the Canadian frontier, but is singularly unsuited to it. His letters home are much sunnier than the reality.
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Mumbai to be Focus of 2012 Toronto International Film Festival City to City Program

Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival, announced today that the 2012 Festival’s City to City program will focus on Mumbai.

“Past editions of City to City explored how filmmakers represented their urban landscape. This year we’ll shift the scope of the program to showcase filmmakers living and working in Mumbai, regardless of where their films are set,” said Bailey, who is currently in Mumbai participating in FICCI FRAMES, the global media and entertainment convention. “There’s been an exciting evolution recently that’s seen local independent films emerge to contrast with Bollywood’s dazzling commercial movies. Whether you call it Mumbai or Bombay, this city is a massive player in the global film world, and a place I’ve grown to love in all its diversity. Toronto audiences are in for a thrill this September.”

This is the fourth year for the City to City series; cities featured in past programs include Tel Aviv, Istanbul and Buenos Aires. The announcement of the City to City lineup will be made in August. The 37th Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6 to 16, 2012.

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Beware of Mr Baker and Gimme The Loot take Top Jury and Audience Awards at 2012 SXSW

The results are in! SXSW Film 2012 Jury and Audience Award-winners were announced tonight at the Festival’s Awards Ceremony, presented by Veam and hosted by comedian and actor Doug Benson.

Only Narrative and Documentary Feature Audience Awards were announced tonight. Narrative Spotlight, Documentary Spotlight, Emerging Visions, Midnighters, 24 Beats Per Second, SXGlobal and Festival Favorites

And the winners are:

Feature Film Jury Awards
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION

Grand Jury Winner: Beware of Mr. Baker
Director: Jay Bulger

NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION

Grand Jury Winner: Gimme The Loot
Director: Adam Leon

Special Jury Recognition for Performance:
Jamie Chung – Eden
Besedka Johnson – Starlet
Nico Stone – Booster

Feature Film Audience Awards

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Winner: Bay of All Saints
Director: Annie Eastman

NARRATIVE FEATURE
Winner: Eden
Director: Megan Griffiths

*Audience Awards for Narrative Spotlight, Documentary Spotlight, Emerging Visions, Midnighters, 24 Beats Per Second, SXGlobal and Festival Favorites sections will be announced on Saturday, March 17.

Short Film Jury Awards

NARRATIVE SHORTS
Winner: The Chair
Director: Grainger David

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS
Winner: CatCam
Director: Seth Keal

MIDNIGHT SHORTS
Winner: Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared
Directors: Rebecca Sloan & Joseph Pelling

SXGLOBAL SHORTS
Winner: The Perfect Fit
Director: Tali Yankelevich

ANIMATED SHORTS
Winner: (notes on) biology
Director: Danny Madden

MUSIC VIDEOS
Winner: Battles, “My Machines”
Director: DANIELS

TEXAS SHORTS
Winner: Spark
Director: Annie Silverstein

TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL SHORTS
Winner: Boom
Director: Daniel Matyas & Brian Broder

SXSW Film Design Awards presented by iStockphoto

EXCELLENCE IN POSTER DESIGN
Winner: Man & Gun
Designer: Justin Cox

Special Jury Recognition: Pitch Black Heist
Designer: Andrew Cranston

Audience Award Winner: The Maker
Designer: Christopher Kezelos

EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN

Winner: Les Bleus de Ramville
Designer: Jay Bond, Oily Film Company Inc.

Special Jury Recognition: X-Men: First Class
Designer: Simon Clowes, Prologue Films

Audience Award Winner: Bunraku
Designer: Guilherme Marcondes, Hornet Inc.

SXSW Special Awards

SXSW WHOLPHIN AWARD
Winner: The Black Balloon
Director: Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie

SXSW CHICKEN & EGG EMERGENT NARRATIVE WOMAN DIRECTOR AWARD
Winners: Megan Griffiths for Eden and Amy Seimetz for Sun Don’t Shine

LOUIS BLACK “LONE STAR” AWARD
Winner: Bernie
Director: Richard Linklater

Special Jury Recognition: Trash Dance
Director: Andrew Garrison

KAREN SCHMEER FILM EDITING FELLOWSHIP
Presented to: Lindsay Utz
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Wes Anderson’s New Film MOONRISE KINGDOM to open 65th Festival de Cannes

Wes Anderon’s new film, MOONRISE KINGDOM, will open the 65th Festival de Cannes on Wednesday, May 16, 2012.

Starring Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and Jason Schwartzman as well as Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman playing the pre-adolescents, MOONRISE KINGDOM recounts a tormented and surprising story of children and adults during the stormy days of the summer of 1965.

Gilles Jacob, President of the Festival, is glad to proclaim: “With Wes Anderson opening the 65th Festival de Cannes, young American cinema will be celebrated on the Croisette.”

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