February 20-25
Welcome to the 2004 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival!
We are extremely pleased to bring an exciting line-up of first-rate documentary films to Missoula as part of the first-ever non-fiction film festival in Montana. This year’s selections include documentary classics, Academy Award- nominated films, new films from first-time producers and documentaries that richly deserve increased recognition and a wider audience. Most of the films at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival will be Montana premiers and several will be United States or World Premiers. Films range in length from 30 second shorts to a 350 minute, six-part series. Countries of origin include Slovakia, Germany, Australia, USA, Canada, and Palestine. The topics covered are extremely diverse and tell stories from all over the globe. Original formats range from 35mm film (the Hollywood standard) to a digital still camera set on movie mode. Despite the vast disparities in budget, format, length, country of origin, and topic, the selected films share one over-arching commonality: dedication to artistry and exploration of cultural themes. In putting out our call for entries, we hoped for documentaries with compelling subject matter, high entertainment value, and innovative treatments that address pertinent social issues. The response we received was overwhelming, and more than we could have hoped for. A special thank you to all the filmmakers who submitted films to the festival. We are hon- ored and humbled to have the opportunity to share with Missoula this wonderful collection of documentary films. Doug Hawes-Davis Festival Director Awards and Judging
Awards will be given in three categories: Best Feature Documentary: over 50 minutes long, released after September 30, 2002. Best Short Documentary: under 50 minutes long, released after September 30, 2002. Best Montana Documentary–“The Big Sky Award”: A film of any length made by a Montana filmmaker, regardless of release date. A film can be in competition in both the Big Sky and Best Feature or Best Short category, depending on film length and release date.
Feature Category Judges Colin Chisholm, Film Critic/Writer Joel Baird, Filmmaker/General Manager, MCAT Danny Dauterive, General Manager, KUFM
Big Sky Category Judges Shorts Category Judges Jeff Haberman, Sunrise Studios Gita Saedi, Filmmaker Jennifer Ferenstein, former Sierra Club President John Lilburn, Filmmaker/Social Worker Eve Whitaker, Filmmaker Gwen Hoppe, Media Artist Roxy Theater - 718 South Higgins Avenue, Missoula, Montana
Location: All screenings will be held February 20-25, 2004 at the recently-restored Roxy Theater in downtown Missoula, Montana.
Directions The Roxy Theater is located at 718 South Higgins Avenue in between 5th and 6th, two blocks from the Clark Fork River.
Ticket and Pass Info
Festival Tickets All screening passes, five screening tickets, and individual tickets are available anytime at www.bigskyfilmfestival.org or by calling (406)728-0753. Tickets for individual screenings can also be purchased at the door prior to screening depending on availablility. Prices are as follows:
All screenings pass $50.00 Five Screenings Pass $20.00 Single screening ticket $6.00 evenings, $5.00 matinees Students $5.00 evenings, $4.00 matinees
Attention! While every effort will be made to accomodate all BSDFF guests, passes do not guarantee admission. Seating in the Roxy Theater is on a first come, first serve basis and all seats are general admission. Tickets and passes are non-refundable, passes are non-transferable. 66 seasons Almost Real 86 minutes - 35mm - Slovakia - 2003 48 minutesAtomic - Beta EdSP - CANADA & The - 2002 Black Hole
Director Director Peter Kerekes Ann Shin United States Premier Montana Premier A film about the Kosice, Slovakia swimming pool where history came to bathe. Seen through several stories which unfolded between the years of 1936 and 2002, the film captures 66 seasons at the popular swimming pool, Almost Real: Connecting in a Wired World focuses on six people and the same number of years in the who’ve pushed internet relations to the extreme. From a cyber history of Central and Eastern Europe. This film is supported by punk on an anti-aircraft rig in the middle of the English Channel the reminiscences of several visitors to the “Cehacko,” as the pool and a former monk who believes in online communion, to a was known. Different generations of swimmers replaced one disillusioned eight-year-old boy who schools himself on the another over the course of the decades, only the craving for water internet, and an American woman who finds the perfect “mar- as a place of absolute equality and a source of security remains riage” with a husband she never meets. Almost Real follows the just as strong. stories of these solitary individuals as they reveal to us their lives and their identities, real and virtual. Vistuk 277, Vistuk, Solvakia 900 85 - 427 905 255 698 [email protected], www.66seasons.com
with National Film Board of Canada Documents - by Ned Mudd - 5 minutes - MiniDV - USA - 2003 350 5th Avenue suite 4820, New York, NY 10118 & 212.629.8890, [email protected], www.nfb.ca Lost in the Baltics - by Andy Smetanka - 15 minutes - USA - 2003 An Injury To One Atomic Ed and the Black Hole 53 minutes - 16mm - USA - 2002 39 minutes - 16mm/Mini DV - USA - 2001
Director Director le TravisTitle Wilkerson Ellen Spiro
Atomic Ed and the Black Hole tells the story of a former Los An Injury to One provides a Alamos National Laboratory corrective - and absolutely machinist— turned atomic compelling - glimpse of a junk collector— known as particularly volatile moment in Atomic Ed. Over 30 years ago, early 20th century American Ed quit his job making “better” atomic bombs and he began labor history: the rise and fall of collecting what he calls “nuclear waste”, non-radioactive high-tech Butte, Montana. Specifically, it discards from the Los Alamos National Laboratory which are chronicles the mysterious death of Wobbly organizer Frank Little, auctioned off dirt cheap every month in a gigantic government a story whose grisly details have taken on a legendary status in the yard sale. As the self-appointed curator of an unofficial museum state. Much of the extant evidence is inscribed upon the landscape of the nuclear age called “The Black Hole”, Ed reveals a history of of Butte and its surroundings. Thus, a connection is drawn government waste that was literally thrown in a trash heap. By between the unsolved murder of Little, and the attempted murder transforming his ironic junkyard into a genuine museum, Ed of the town itself. hopes to preserve the artifacts of Los Alamos’ hidden history.
Travis Wilkerson
Directors Director Ruth Oxenberg Nina Gilden Seavey Rob Schumer Montana Premier Montana Premier Seven Russian teenagers come to America to become Country music stars. Debunking the This stunning and joyful documentary immediately draws in myth of the overnight sensation, The Ballad of Bering Strait both established bluegrass lovers and neophytes to the music with follows the journey of the band Bering Strait from their arrival in high-energy, intimately captured extended performances, verité Nashville in July 1999 to their appearance on the American stage footage and interviews that depict the contemporary bluegrass two years later. This cinema-verité story of these two girls and five music scene. It reveals breathtaking musical virtuosity, nearly boys from Obninsk, Russia witnesses the torturous path to fame obsessive audience dedication, and the rich spirit that infuses one that is littered with deals gone awry, unexpected personal sacrifice, of America’s great musical genres. Featured performers include hard-to-win audiences, and a revisioning of the American dream. The Del McCoury Band, Tim O’Brien, Jerry Douglas, Peter This film is one that crosses boundaries and fuses cultures in a Rowan, Tony Rice, Nickel Creek, and Rhonda Vincent. tale about what it really means to come of age in America.
Josh Green Director, Marketing and Development Emerging Pictures, 245 West 55th Street, 4th Floor Ruth Oxenberg Bluegrass Productions New York, NY 10019, (212) 245-6767 80 John Bay Road, Germantown, NY 12526 [email protected] 518-537-6535, [email protected],www.bluegrassjourney.com www.emergingpictures.com/bering_strait.htm Bones of Forest Bringing the Condor Home 80 minutes - 16mm - Canada - 1995 4 mins. - Beta SP - USA - 2003
Directors Director Heather Frise Firelight Films Velcrow Ripper Montana Premier Montana Premier
Expanding the expressive possibilities of the activist documentary, In 1987, for the first time in over 10 millennia, the California Bones of the Forest brings a deliriously avant-garde aesthetic to the condor no longer flew free in North America. Their re-introduc- controversial subject of contemporary forest practices. It explores, tion to the wild is the story of hope and determination. Witness in lively, lyrical fashion, the often conflicting relationship to the the dedication of many as these birds are raised in captivity and land taken by “Those that were here” and “Those that came.” released in the wild. The story unfolds through the reminiscences of native and non- native elders, including retired loggers, native sovereigntists, corporate forestry executives, and long time activists. These compelling interviews are mixed with abstract nature imagery, processed archival footage, blockade confrontations, quirky time- lapse photography, and scratch animation, all set to an evocative, off-beat expressionist soundcape. “A diverse poetic weave that mirrors the fecund complexity of the forest itself.” -Jim Sinclair (Pacific Cinematheque).
The Video Project, PO Box 411376, San Francisco, CA 94141-1376 Firelight Films P.O. Box 379, Moss Landing, CA 95039 www.videoproject.net, [email protected] (831)402-0813, www.firelightfilms.net, [email protected] Billy The Buffalo War 20 minutes - MiniDV - USA - 2002 57 minutes - Beta SP - USA - 2001
Director Director Kerri Yost Matthew Testa Montana Premier
A film about the battle over the yearly slaughter of America’s last wild bison outside Yellowstone National Park.
What happens when a man living in the margins of society, Golden Gate Award, San Francisco International Film Festival constantly observing others while going unnoticed himself, finally gets a captive audience? In Billy, a minimalist documen- “A fascinating look at the untold story of the current decimation of tary approach lets us examine the daily life of a homeless man in the last wild herd of buffalo.” San Francisco Film Society an affluent Midwest college town.
Bullfrog Films Kerri Yost PO Box 149 610 Paris Court Oley, PA 19547 Columbia, MO 65201 phone:800-543-3764 fax:610-370-1978 (573) 443-6805 [email protected] [email protected] www.bullfrogfilms.com
The Collector of Bedford Street Containment: Life After Three Mile Island 34 minutes - mini DV - USA - 2001 60 minutes - miniDV - USA - 2003
Director Alice Elliott Director Chris Boebel Montana Premier Nick Poppy
The Collector of Bedford Street fol- World Premier lows Larry Selman, a community activist and fundraiser, who hap- pens to be mentally challenged. Containment: Life After Three Mile Island examines the legacy of Larry, a 60-year-old Jewish man, the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant from the raises thousands of dollars for char- perspective of the nearby community of Middletown, Pennsylva- ity, while he lives at the poverty level nia. Containment explores the accidents’ long-term effects on local in his West Village, Manhattan residents, including the rise of anti-nuclear activism, psychologi- apartment. This touching film captures the moment Larry’s neigh- cal consequences, and the debate over health effects. Containment bors rally to protect his future care. Nominated for an Academy maps out the tensions and divisions that continue to run through Award last year in the short subject documentary category. Middletown, asking not only whether radiation can truly be contained by four-foot-thick concrete walls, but whether fear and anger can be contained by the process of history. What is the half- life of memory?
Welcome Change Productions 107 Bedford Street, Upper 1 New York, NY 10014 212-924-7151 [email protected] Chris Boebel, 41 West 68th Street, #3F, New York, NY 10023 www.welcomechange.org 212-875-8403, [email protected] Cinema Vertical Contrary Warriors 60 minutes - DVCAM - USA - 2003 60 minutes - 16mm - USA - 1985
Directors Dave O’Leske Directors Stash Wislocki Pam Roberts Connie Poten Montana Premier Beth Farris Cinema Vertical examines the history of ski films Contrary Warriors: A Film of the Crow Tribe from the 1920s to the provides a rare glimpse into contemporary present. Now an eagerly Crow life and history through the coura- anticipated winter tradition geous life of 92-year old Crow Indian spanning 75 years, ski films bring skiing and high alpine cinema- leader Robert Yellowtail. Warriors broadcast tography to sold out venues across America. From the works of on Arts & Entertainment and PBS in Warren Miller, now in his 53rd year of producing films, to Otto 1987. It was featured at the Sundance Film Festival and won Lang, Dick Durrance, John Jay, Dick Barrymore, Roger Brown, numerous awards including, the “John Grierson Award for Best Barry Corbett, and Greg Stump to the filmmakers of today, each Film, First Time Director” at the New York Film Festival; the of which has continued the tradition through their own unique “Golden Plaque Award” at the Chicago International Film vision and style. Cinema Vertical introduces you to the lives of the Festival; the “Silver Prize” at the San Francisco Film Festival; and filmmakers and athletes, sharing their personal stories and the “Golden Eagle Award” at CINE, in Washington, D.C., incredible footage from the most spectacular mountains in the among others. world. Dave O’Leske, Through a Child’s Eyes Productions 1825 County Rd. 12 Ridgway, CO 81432 Rattlesnake Productions, Inc. 970.209.8427, www.throughachildseyesproductions.com PO Box 266 with Bozeman, MT 59771 #406-586-1151 Clean Flicks by Jennifer VanEenenaam - 14 minutes - USA - 2003 [email protected] Circuit Earth End of An Old Song 43 minutes - 16mm - USA - 1970 27 minutes - 16mm - USA - 1972
Director Director John Abrahall, et al. John Cohen Montana Premier Montana Premier
Circuit Earth was produced in honor of the first Earth Day in 1970. Shot in Philadelphia, it is based on the work of Gregory Bateson, and features community groups, citizens and celebrities Filmed in the mountains of North Carolina, this documentary reflecting on the nature of the environmental crisis as they saw it. revisits the region where English folklorist Cecil Sharp collected For aesthetic reasons, the film is structured around long takes with British ballads in the early 1900s. It contrasts the nature of the no cutaways. Amongst those appearing are Allen Ginsberg, Sen. ballad singers with the presence of the juke box: although the Ed Muskie, the Broadway cast of Hair, Jerry Rubin, Alan Watts, lyrical tradition has changed, the singing style continues. Features and Ed Sanders of the Fugs. The film was shown in 1971 and at Dillard Chandler, who sings with rare intensity and style. a few conferences, but was never in distribution. In April 1999, the film was screened for the first time for nearly 30 years to a highly enthusiastic audience at the Equinox Environmental Film Festival.
UC Extension/CMIL 2000 Center St. 4th Floor,Berkeley, CA 94704 Bullfrog Films, PO Box 149, Oley, PA 19547 (510) 642-0460, [email protected] 800-543-3764, fax:610-370-1978, [email protected], www.ucmedia.berkeley.edu www.bullfrogfilms.com Extraordinary Lives: Freedom Feelin’ No Pain 22 minutes - Various - USA - 2002 80 minutes - DVCAM/DigiBeta - USA - 2003
Director Director Chris Triffo, C.S.C. Josh Aronson United States Premier World Premier
Extraordinary Lives chronicles the pursuit of freedom and justice as experienced by two people of very different backgrounds, John In his 50s, Kenny Vance, founder of Jay and the Americans, starts Artis and Anhua Gao. John Artis was arrested along with Rubin The Planotones, an oldies band to renew his childhood passion for “Hurricane” Carter in 1966 and charged with the murder of three singing. Searching for childhood memories of early musical influences white people. John was twice convicted, but he is finally vindi- he revisits old Brooklyn haunts: Erasmus Hall High School where he cated in 1985 when a federal court judge overturned the convic- sang as a kid and the Brooklyn Paramount where he first heard his tions. A child of parents hailed as revolutionary heroes by Mao musical heros. Kenny also searches other paths for his mid-life plea Tse Tung, Anhua Gao is in a position of privilege. However, her for happiness. He reminisces and sings with childhood music icons parents die, leaving Anhua and her siblings to grow up in the like Little Anthony, Vito Picone (The Elegants), Cleveland Still (The chaotic realm of Maoist China. Anhua, who writes and speaks Dubs), and Pookie Hudson (The Spaniels). After three of his long time English, is then accused of being an enemy agent and imprisoned. band members quit Kenny is forced to recruit new band members to Escaping that fate and eventually China, Anhua tells the story of continue his dream. The film is laced with wonderful songs filmed at her struggle to survive the ideological machine of Red China. a Planotones concert at New York’s Bitter End.
Nova Herman [email protected] ARONSON FILMS, 35 EAST 20TH STREET, NYC NY 10003 (306) 545-1482 212 253 6941, [email protected] www.partnersinmotion.com The Fourth World War Farmingville 76 minutes - DV -USA - 2003 78 minutes - DVCAM - USA - 2003
Directors Directors Jacqueline Soohen Catherine Tambini Richard Rowley Carlos Sandoval Montana Premier Montana Premier
The chilling hate-based attempted murders of two Mexican day laborers catapults the Long Island town of Farmingville into Shot on the frontlines of struggles on five continents - where the national headlines, exposing a frontline of the new border wars‚ mainstream media can not go - The Fourth World War is the suburbia. Blending the stories of town residents and day laborers, untold human story of the current global conflict. The film this bilingual, verite documentary reveals the human impact of weaves together the images and voices of the war on the ground national policies that can lead to fear, isolation, racism and - in Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, Palestine, Korea, ‘the violence. Like Farmingville, communities from Siler City, North North’ from Seattle to Genova, and the ‘War on Terror’ in New Carolina to Gisors, France, are grappling with assimilating new, York and Iraq. It reveals a terrifying system of global violence in unfamiliar neighbors as more and more economic migrants risk which we are all caught, but more importantly, it introduces us illegal crossings‚ whether across the Rio Grande or under the to the men and women with whom we share this planet - men English Channel, in search of a better life for their families back and women who will stop this war. home. The filmmakers lived and worked in Farmingville for nearly a year in order to capture first hand the voices of people for whom immigration in the new global economy is not an abstract BIG NOISE FILMS 56 Walker Street, 4th Floor debate, but a reality of daily life. New York, NY 10013 ph - 617 306 0120, fax - 646 349 4200 Carlos Sandoval, P. O. Box 1908, Amagansett, NY 11930, 631-267-6565 [email protected] [email protected] The God Squad Growin’ A Beard 57 minutes - Beta SP - USA - 2003 29 minutes - Hi 8/MiniDV - USA - 2003
Director Director Emily Hart Mike Woolf Montana Premier
The God Squad investigates the controversial Endangered Species Committee proceedings over the Northern Spotted Owl and 44 Growin’ A Beard is a documentary that follows the men of Shamrock, proposed federal timber sales in southwest Oregon. In May TX - and a hairy outsider - as they compete in the town’s annual 1992—for the first time in history—the cabinet-level committee Beard Growing Contest. Since 1938, it’s been a tradition in Shamrock selected economic interests over the survival of a species. While to grow a beard from New Year’s Day to St. Patrick’s Day. But not the proceeding ostensibly focused on the owl and a limited just any beard - a Donegal beard. On the morning of St. Patrick’s number of timber sales, the controversy was a microcosm of a Day, right before the big parade, they face-off on Main Street Route much larger debate concerning the fate of the Pacific Northwest’s 66 and are judged to see who has the best Donegal. This year, the old growth forests and the Endangered Species Act. competition is fierce and hairy.
Mike Woolf C/O Aspyr Media, Inc. Bullfrog Films 412-A Congress Ave. PO Box 149 Austin, TX 78701 Oley, PA 19547 512.708.8100 610-779-8226 [email protected] [email protected] www.growinabeard.com www.bullfrogfilms.com www.aspyr.com Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on Hitler’s Hat a Moving Train 69 mins. - MiniDV - USA - 2003 47 minutes - Beta SP/miniDV - USA - 2003
Director Director Deb Ellis Jeff Krulik Denis Mueller Montana Premier Montana Premier
Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train documents the life and times of historian and activist Howard Zinn and his involvement in the most important social movements of the past sixty Richard Marowitz, a Jewish-American GI, was present at the years. Zinn believes that historians cannot simply chronicle the search of Hitler’s Munich apartment in April 1945. Finding a past, but must actively participate in the present, a commitment to black top hat, Marowitz flew into a rage, stomping on the hat and activism grounded in his conviction that passivity sanctions then donning it in imitation of Charlie Chaplin’s The Great injustice. Zinn’s life is a testament to the spirit of resistance in an age Dictator. That same day, Hitler committed suicide in his bunker. where popular culture often seems to celebrate cynicism. This Absurd and poignant in equal measure, Hitler’s Hat follows documentary is about the power of optimism and action, even in the Marowitz to a reunion of his division after 55 years. face of seemingly impossible odds.
Jeff Krulik Marc Mauceri, First Run Features 3221 Connecticut Avenue, NW #308, Washington, DC 20008 153 Waverly Place, New York, NY 10014 Phone: (212) 243-0600, Fax: (212) 989-7649 202-966-5304, [email protected] http://www.hitlershat.com www.firstrunfeatures.com, [email protected] Hybrid Horns and Halos 92 minutes - 16mm - USA - 2001 79 minutes - mini DV - USA - 2002
Directors Director Suki Hawley Monteith McCollum Micheal Galinsky Montana Premier Montana Premier
Fortunate Son, the first published Hybrid combines interviews, archival footage, original animation, biography of George W. Bush was and a dry wit to create a quirky, yet meditative portrait of 100- pulled by its publisher in October, year-old Milford Beeghly and his obsession with corn. Directed 1999. At the time of its recall, the by his grandson, this intimate film contemplates the American book was #8 on Amazon.com’s best-seller list - no doubt due to Midwest and the complexities of Beeghly, a peculiar philosopher the book’s widely publicized allegations that Bush had been of the soil. arrested for cocaine possession in 1972. This film follows the obstacles faced by a small independent press, Soft Skull publish- ers, to reissue the book. After months of lawsuits, bad press, and disagreements with the distributor, Soft Skull made one final Documentary Educational Resources desperate attempt to make a splash at the 2001 Book Expo of 101 Morse Street Watertown, MA 02472 America, an effort which resulted in electrifying consequences. ph. 617.926.0491 fax. 617.926.9519 [email protected] Rumur Inc, 164 Hall St., Brooklyn, NY 11205 www.der.org 718-636-0949, [email protected], www.hornsandhalos.com Hidden Wars of Desert Storm The Invisible Hand 60 minutes - Beta SP - USA - 2000 12 minutes - 16mm/Beta SP/DV - USA - 2003
Directors Director Audrey Brohy Lori Hiris Gerard Ungerman Montana Premier Montana Premier
On August 2nd, 1990, Saddam Hussein launched his troops This is a story about greed, gambling and executive compen- against Kuwait, triggering the first major international crisis of sation in corporate America. the post-Soviet Union era. The United States and its allies responded with Operation Desert Storm, a military action that drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait but ended with Saddam Hussien still in power. Hidden Wars examines questions around the events and aftermath of the first U.S. war against Iraq and provides a fascinating and disturbing historical context for the current U.S. involvement in the region.
Arab Film Distribution Alex O. Williams 10035 - 35th Ave. NE Lori Hiris Seattle, WA 98125 USA 129 East 101 St #6 206-322-0882 NY, NY 10029 [email protected] 212-427-0406 www.arabfilm.com [email protected] I Am Trying to Break your Heart In the Reign of Twilight 94 minutes - Super 16 - USA - 2002 88 minutes - 35mm - USA - 1995
Director Directors Kevin McMahon Sam Jones Peter Abraham Thousands of years ago the Inuit came to terms with the harsh reali- ties of existence in the Arctic. When the Cold War swept in during the 1950s, it blew them from the Stone I am Trying to Break your Heart is a feature length black and white Age to the Space Age. The United film about Wilco. More specifically, it follows the band through States bombarded the Arctic with the making of their fourth album, “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” The military technology in their efforts film shows the conflict that arises when a band creates an artistic to provide an early warning system and challenging record while signed to a record company in the of a Soviet nuclear attack. Canada, fearing for its sovereignty, re- midst of a giant corporate takeover. sponded by providing a welfare society for the Inuit. Together the two countries created a high-tech outpost where the Inuit are trapped between the ancient and the post-modern.
Bullfrog Films PO Box 149 Oley, PA 19547 800-543-3764 fax:610-370-1978 Peter Abraham Fusion Films 1548 18th St. Santa Monica CA 90404 [email protected] 310.449.1300, [email protected], www.fusionfilms.com www.bullfrogfilms.com
Japan’s Lost Wolves Jenin, Jenin 8 minutes - miniDV - USA - 2003 54 minutes - Beta SP - Palestine - 2002
Director Director Mohamed Bakri Tracy Graziano Montana Premier World Premier
Directed and co-produced by Palestinian actor and director Mohamed Bakri, Jenin Jenin includes testimony from Jenin Professor Brett Walker of Montana State University is one of a residents after the Israeli army’s Defensive Wall operation, during few people in the world that can read ancient Japanese writing. In which the city and camp were the scenes of fierce fighting. The the course of his research, he discovered a reference to Japanese operation ended with Jenin flattened and scores of Palestinians wolves. These wolves became extinct only one hundred years ago, dead. Palestinians as well as numerous human rights groups and no one was sure why. Professor Walker discusses not only the accused Israel of committing war crimes in the April 2002 attack ecological changes that occurred which caused the extinction, but on the refugee camp. Jenin Jenin shows the devestating aftermath the religious and cultural forces that contributed as well. of the operation and the extent to which the prolonged oppres- sion and terror has affected the state of mind of the Palestinian inhabitants of Jenin.
Tracy Graziano Arab Film Distribution 217 Beachgrove Drive, Erie, Pennsylvania 16505, 814.835.7790 Alex O. Williams, 10035 - 35th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98125 [email protected], http://naturefilm.montana.edu 206-322-0882, [email protected], www.arabfilm.com King of Bluegrass The King of Steeltown 65 minutes - DV - USA - 2003 75 minutes - 16mm - USA - 2001
Director George Goehl Director Montana Premier Chris Sautter Montana Premier King of Bluegrass is a film about the most colorful figure in bluegrass music. The story follows Jimmy Martin’s lifelong quest to reach his childhood dream of becoming The King of Steeltown is an offbeat, sometimes humorous inside a regular cast member of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN. look at Chicago-style machine politics in a rust-belt city (East Known for his flamboyant dress, crazed hunting trips, and brash Chicago, Indiana) struggling with the decline of the steel behavior, Martin is the renegade of bluegrass music. The crew, industry. The film focuses on the 1999 re-election campaign of which gained almost unlimited access, gives the viewer a slice of Robert A. Pastrick, mayor for three decades a dominant political Martin’s life outside of music as they filmed one of his famed force since he launched his career in the early 1950s. Described as raccoon hunting trips, a rabbit and squirrel barbecue picnic, and a the last of America’s political bosses, Pastrick is portrayed as an trip back to his old home place in the hills of Sneedville, TN. old-style pol who skillfully retains control of this gritty multi- racial industrial community with a well-oiled political machine, an elecion year multi-million dollar works program, and a clinical George Goehl, 773/330-9095 display of old fashion retail politics. [email protected], www.kingofbluegrass.com with Bullfight - 6 minutes - 16mm/DVCAM - USA - 2003 & Sautter Films, Everett St, NW, Washington, DC 20008 I Promise Africa - 3 minutes - DVCAM/MiniDV - USA - 2003 202-244-3111 fax: 202-244-4220 [email protected] Lowell Blues Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton 27 minutes - 16mm/Beta SP - USA - 2001 88 minutes - 16mm - USA - 2001
Director Directors Henry Ferrini Susan Froemke & Montana Premier Deborah Dickson with Albert Maysles
Montana Premier Lowell Blues: The Words of Jack Kerouac is a “film poem” excerpted from the “king of the beats” novel Dr. Sax and set in his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts. This internation- Deep in the Mississippi Delta, an economically depressed ally acclaimed film recollects the life of a working class kid in a community faces the issues of generational poverty. A great depression age town. By using archival and contemporary footage, grandmother struggles to hold her family’s world together in the Lowell Blues blends contemporary experiences together with face of dire poverty, and the superintendent of an embattled Kerouac’s memories to create a mezmerizing sense of place and school system dedicates himself to the challenge of educating the time. Blues is a poem with a story - a story of immigration where children of illiterate parents. This film explores the painful legacy French Canadian and Greek faces of yesterday become the of slavery and sharecropping in the Delta. Cambodian and Dominican faces of today, a story of the power of the Catholic Church, a story of the love of reading and the beauty Nominated for Best Documentary 2001 Academy Award of a river.
Henry Ferrini Susan Froemke Productions LLC [email protected] 40 West 67th Street, New York, N.Y. 10023 978-281-2355 212-877-6864 Lifers: Stories From Prison Law and Order 51 minutes - Beta SP - Canada - 2001 81 minutes - 16mm - USA - 1969
Director Director Sheona McDonald Frederick Wiseman Montana Premier Montana Premier
Lifers: Stories From Prison looks at the lives and stories of five men in the Canadian prison system, serving Law and Order documents the routine activities of the Kansas life sentences for murder. Reflecting City, Missouri Police Department. Filmed in the highest crime on their lives, their crimes and district of the city, the film surveys the wide range of work the wondering when they’re going to police are asked to perform: enforcing the law, maintaining order get out, these men allow an intimate and humane glimpse into and providing general social services. Some of the incidents a world most of us don’t get to, or want to, experience. shown include arrests of a car thief and prostitute, a clothing store Originally conceived as a documentary aimed at preventing hold-up, medical emergencies, and intercession in family argu- youth violence, Lifers evolved to become a deeper exploration ments. of crime and humanity. A look at the prison system and the people entrenched in it, including inmates, their families and Emmy Award, Best News Documentary, 1969 people who work with them. It also became the journey of a filmmaker looking to find answers to questions she hadn’t known she was asking. Zipporah Films, Inc. One Richdale Avenue, Unit 4 Cambridge, MA 02140 T: 617 576 3603 Sheona McDonald F: 617 864 8006 10 Borden Street, Toronto, ON Canada M5S 2M9 416.972.6980 [email protected], www.zipporah.com [email protected], www.dimestore.org Love and Diane Maybe Logic 155 minutes - Beta - USA - 2002 82 minutes - Beta SP - USA - 2003
Director Director Jennifer Dworkin Lance Bauscher
Montana Premier Montana Premier
Jennifer Dworkin’s critically acclaimed documentary is a searingly A hilarious and mind-bending journey into the multi-dimen- honest and moving examination of poverty, welfare and drug sional life of Robert Anton Wilson, author of the cult classic rehabilitation in the United States today. It is the remarkable story Illuminatus! Trilogy. Featuring R.A.W. video spanning 25 years of a family reunited after being torn apart for six years, at the and the best of over 100 hours of footage thoroughly tweaked, heart of which lies the highly charged relationship between a mother transmuted and regenerated, Maybe Logic follows a reality and daughter desperate for love and forgiveness. Despite being caught labyrinth which leads through the hollows of human perception in a devastating cycle of addiction, depression, teen pregnancy and to the vast star fields of Sirius where we find one man alone, the bureaucracy of an over-burdened welfare system, they demonstrate joyfully accepting his status as Damned Old Crank and Cosmic an inspiring resiliency and the ability to find strength during the Schmuck. most desperate of times. Ultimately uplifting, Love & Diane is a real life triumph of the spirit and a profoundly moving portrait of a family surviving in spite of insurmountable odds.
Women Make Movies deepleaf productions, 1840 41st Ave #102 - 219, Capitola, CA 95010 462 Broadway, Ste. 500, New York, NY 10013 831.325.5360, [email protected], www.deepleafproductions.com (212) 925-0606, [email protected] Schedule of Programs
Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday February 20 February 21 February 22 February 23 February 24 February 25
10:00 am 10:00 am 10:00 am 10:15 am 10:00 am 10:00 am Bringing the Hidden Wars of The Collector of Circuit Earth The God Squad In the Reign of Condor Home Desert Storm Bedford Street Twilight Lifers: Stories Bones of the The Ballad of Men of Deeps Return to From Prison Forest Almost Real Bering Strait Kandahar
12:15 pm 12:00 pm 12:30 pm 12:30 pm 12:00 pm Rivers and Tides 12:00 pm The New Ameri- Valley of Tears Winter Soldier The New Ameri- The New Ameri- cans V & VI cans Parts I & II cans III & IV 2:00 pm 2:00 pm 2:15 pm Sunday Night 2:00 pm Forgotten Sorrows Return of Navaho 2:00 pm Poets 2:00 pm The Place of Boy The Place of Radio Fishtown Falling Waters II The Place of Falling Waters I The Ralph Falling Waters III Contrary Warrior Stanley Story Feelin’ No Pain Farmingville The King of Sadaa E Zan Steeltown (Voices of 4:30 pm 4:00 pm 4:00 pm 4:00 pm Women) Japan’s Lost Growin’ a Beard Lowell Blues:The Sipay Khorlo: Wolves 4:00 pm Words of Jack The Wheel of Life Extraordinary People Say I’m Kerouac 4:00 pm No Room Lives Crazy Yum Cha Cha Jenin, Jenin to Roam The Fourth World Lalee’s Kin : The War This Means The Tree that The Buffalo War Legacy of Cotton 6:00 pm Something Remembers Billy 6:00 pm 6:15 pm 6:00 pm Nine Good Teeth So Glad I Made It 6:00 pm 6:00 pm Bluegrass Atomic Ed & The Strands of Con- Bullfight Journey Black Hole sciousness 8:00 pm 8:00 pm I Promise Africa Law and Order Evil Cleric Howard Zinn: You Hybrid 8:00 pm Can’t Be Neutral King of Bluegrass Containment: Life We interrupt this on a Moving Train After Three Mile 8:15 pm Empire 8:00 pm Island The Invisible Hand Maybe Logic Polaroid 8:00 pm Trading with the Stevie An Injury to One Horns and Halos Enemy Love and Diane 10:30 pm Return of the 10:30 pm 10:05 pm 10:00 pm 10:05 pm Scorcher Hitler’s Hat End of an Old Clean Flicks Documents Song Speedo The Plutonium Cinema Vertical Lost in the Baltics Circus I Am Trying to Break Your Heart 66 Seasons Men of the Deeps Nine Good Teeth 51 minutes - 16mm - Canada - 2003 80 minutes - 35mm - USA - 2002
Director Director Alex Halpern John Walker Montana Premier United States Premier
Men of the Deeps is a moving portrait of a group of former coal miners gathered together by their love of song. They are all Most families have secrets, mysteries and mythologies shared members of the Men of the Deeps chorus, whose performances behind closed doors and passed down from generation to of traditional and contemporary songs evoke their working lives generation. Perhaps what is most remarkable about this documen- as miners. The film shows Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, as a land of tary feature is director Alex Halpernís insistence on ferreting out astounding physical beauty: mountains dropping away dramati- the most painful aspects of his family mythology in an irreverent, cally into the ocean; stunning, luminous skies; rivers cutting their uncompromising fashion. The film unfolds through the stories of way through lush green valleys. Many of the men began working Alex’s 104-year-old Brooklyn-born, Italian-American grand- in the mines as teenagers, and this is the land they left behind mother, Mary Mirabito (‘Nana’). In an intimate and often every day. We see them, coal dust filling the grooves on their hilarious portrait, the fiercely independent and outspoken Mary faces, working side by side in a black pit where death can come at dispenses homespun wisdom in a series of unflinching conversa- any time. tions with her persistent and equally outspoken grandson.
Pickled Punk Pictures 161 Ave. of the Americas, 11th floor Madeleine Belisle, National Film Board of Canada New York, NY 10013 3155 Cote de Liesse Road, Montreal, QC H4N 2N4, Canada 212-627-1662 www.ninegoodteeth.com 514-283-9805, [email protected], www.nfb.ca [email protected] The New Americans No Room To Roam 350 minutes - DVCAM - USA - 2003 24 minutes - 16mm - USA - 1990
Directors Director Kartemquin Films Stuart Perkin
Montana Premier No Room to Roam documents the clash between buffalo hunters and protesters near West Yellowstone, Montana. Bison have historically used land in Montana outside of Yellowstone Park as winter range and calving grounds. Montana The New Americans follows four years in the lives of a diverse doesn’t want bison roaming outside of group of contemporary immigrants and refugees as they journey the park and alleges that bison, which to start new lives in America. From Nigeria, India, the Domini- can carry the disease brucellosis, pose a can Republic, Mexico and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, each threat to cattle herds in the state. Using the buffalo as a meta- family has come with different dreams: to achieve athletic glory or phor, No Room to Roam illustrates how land available for wildlife high-tech riches, to escape poverty and persecution, or to better is rapidly disappearing. The buffalo were nearly wiped out during provide for their families in America and back home. The New the turn-of-the-century wave of human expansion into their Americans captures the lives of these newcomers, before they habitat. This human “progress” continues today as wildlife habitat leave their homelands, then follows them through their first is destroyed by developers carving up remaining wilderness areas. tumultuous years in America.
Stuart Perkin Kartemquin Films 2380 Birch Street 1901 West Wellington Ave, Chicago, IL 60657 Denver CO 80207 (773) 472-4366 ph, (773) 472-2238 fax 303-355-3304 www.kartemquin.com [email protected] The Plutonium Circus People Say I’m Crazy 74 minutes - Super 16mm - USA - 1995 87 minutes - DVCAM - USA - 2003
Director Director George Ratliff John Cadigan
Montana Premier Montana Premier
It’s the final decade of the millennium. Nuclear disarmament has During his senior year of college, artist John Cadigan had a begun. 150,000 pounds of weapons grade plutonium are out of a psychotic break. He dropped out, cycled through a number of job and looking for a place to stay. Welcome to The Plutonium doctors and medications, then decided to film his agonizing Circus, where sideshow freaks, public relations contortionists, fire- struggle with mental illness. People Say I’m Crazy is the first-ever eating politicians, and a sizeable cadre of clowns gather under a documentary photographed and directed by someone with Texas big top to celebrate the town’s newest residents: thousands schizophrenia. John invites audiences to tour the world inside his of dismantled warheads, capable of destroying the world hun- “beautiful mind” - a chaotic, paranoid and creative universe, dreds of times over. But check your p.c. hysteria and conspiracy where he struggles to know what is real. Over the decade-long theories at the door—all you’ll need at this circus is a sense of course of his illness, he films his meltdowns and triumphs, his humor and a healthy appreciation of all the mutations of human family and friends - shattering cultural notions of “madness.” behavior that are the true fallout of the nuclear age.
Zena Wyss 1330 N. Gardener St. #210 Los Angeles, CA 90046 323-969-8500 George Ratliff, 333 West End Avenue, New York, NY 10023 [email protected] 917-304-0898, [email protected] www.peoplesayimcrazy.org Polaroid The Place of the Falling Waters 10 minutes - Digital Still Camera - USA - 2004 90 minutes - Beta SP - USA - 1991
Director Directors Tom Fullum Thompson Smith Roy BigCrane World Premier
The Place of the Falling Waters is a Native American produced documentary history of the Flathead Indian Reservation from the perspective of the Indian people who live there. The story relates Bipolar Disorder is a stigmatized, misunderstood medical condition the complex and volatile relationship between the people of the that affects millions of people. Whether genetic, environmental, or Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and a major hydroelec- both, the brain’s ability to handle stress is compromised by tric dam situated within the Flathead Indian Reservation. The unregulated releases of critical mood-controlling chemicals and documentary is presented in three 30 minute parts: 1) a history of faulty nerve synapses that handle their circulation. Long periods of tribal society and culture before the dam’s construction; 2) the depression bring isolation, guilt, and despair, while episodic bouts construction of the Kerr Dam in the 1930’s and it’s impact on the of mania can deliver destructive rages and anxiety, but also intense reservation; and 3) the hopes and dilemmas of the Salish and euphoria and creativity. Polaroid offers a glimpse through imagery, Kootenai people as they prepare to take over the Kerr Dam music, and self-reflection into the struggle to understand and during the next three decades. manage a life channeled by the disorder.
Roy BigCrane, Salish Kootenai College, P.O. Box 70 Pablo, MT 59855 Tom Fullum, [email protected] 406.275.4879, email [email protected], www.skc.edu phone 406-829-8999, 406-360-4286 cell Return to Kandahar The Ralph Stanley Story 65 minutes - Beta SP - USA - 2003 82 minutes - Beta SP - USA - 2000
Directors Director Paul Jay Herb E. Smith Nelofer Pazira Montana Premier Montana Premier
Nelofer Pazira, the star of the feature film Kandahar, returns to The Stanley sound is true old-time, mountain style bluegrass Afaganistan to search for her childhood friend Dyana, whose music. This documentary film tells Ralph’s story through story inspired the film. Landing Kabul, 13 years after her family interviews with Ralph, fellow musicians, and those who know left Russian occupied Afganistan, Nelofer unravels her past and Ralph best. The video explores the tension between holding on the history of her country while searching for Dyana. The epic to traditions with one hand, and integrating modern tech- journey takes her to Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif, where niques and influences with the other. Dyana’s uncle last had contact with her family. Nelofer journeys across a broken land, smashed by war with the Russians, years of anarchy under the “Northern Alliance,” the Taliban and now by America’s “war on terror.”
Bullfrog Films, PO Box 149, Oley, PA 19547 Appalshop, 91 Madison Avenue, Whitesburg, Kentucky 41858 610-779-8226, [email protected], www.bullfrogfilms.com www.appalshop.org
Radio Fishtown Return of Navaho Boy 28 minutes - VHS - USA - 1990 57 minutes - DVCAM - USA - 2000
Director Director Jeff Spitz Henry Ferrini Montana Premier Montana Premier In 1997 a white man identifying himself as Bill Kennedy from Chicago showed up in Monument Valley with a silent film called Navajo Boy which he says his late The only one-man radio station in the country, battles corporate father produced in the 1950s. Seeking to avarice and an FCC Goliath who threaten his only love, his understand his father’s work on the Navajo Reservation, Kennedy broadcast license. The view is transported from the quaint fishing returns the film to the people in it. When Cly family matriarch, town of Gloucester, Massachusetts to the serried streets of New Elsie Mae Cly Begay, watches the film she is amused to see herself York City in an effort to track the solitary, radio broadcaster. as a young girl and delights in identifying other members of her Simon Geller, always heard but rarely seen is remembered by his family. Elsie recognizes her late mother in the old film as well as listeners who both hated and revered him. A recluse who spoke to her infant brother, John Wayne Cly, who was adopted by white thousands, creating an island of individuality in a sea of soul missionaries in the 1950s and never heard from again. When destroying samesness. Alive with Classical music, Radio Fishtown John Wayne Cly learns about the return of “Navajo Boy” in a creates a shifting, non-linear portrait of this enigmatic man while New Mexico newspaper, he contacts the Clys in hopes that they debunking the myth that working people don’t listen to Classical are his family. The Return of Navajo Boy sets in motion John Music. Wayne’s unforgettable return to his blood brothers and sisters in an emotional reunion in Monument Valley. Henry Ferrini Groundswell Films, 1917 west warner, chicago, IL 60613 [email protected] p 773.975.9534, f 773.975.0699, www.groundswellfilms.com 978-281-2355 Rivers and Tides Return of the Scorcher 90 minutes - 35mm - Germany - 2001R 28 minutes - BetaSP - USA - 1992
Director Director Thomas Ted White Riedelsheimer Montana Premier
Rivers and Tides is an extraordinary journey into the world and Return of the Scorcher is a spirited celebration of the bicycle that mind of Scottish sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. A land-artist who asks why this cheap, clean, quiet, and healthy method of uses materials from nature to make site-specific works, transportation isn’t more widely used in America. In the 1890’s, Goldsworthy allows the elements to have the last say in his when the speed of a bike was considered amazing, “Scorcher” beautiful creations, as his ingenious patterns of wood, leaves, was a euphemism for bicyclist. Today, most of the world relies stone and ice move and erode over time. German filmmaker on the bicycle for basic transportation,while in America it’s now Thomas Riedelsheimer followed the artist for over a year in used primarily for recreation. several outdoor locations, intimately documenting his improvisa- tional process and capturing the serene spectacle of his works and their delicate changes.
Roxie Releasing 3125 16th Street The Video Project San Francisco, CA 94103 PO Box 411376, San Francisco, CA 94141-1376 415.431.3611 www.videoproject.net, [email protected] Speedo Stevie 78 minutes - DV - USA - 2003 145 minutes - Super16mm - USA - 2002
Director Director Steve James Jesse Moss Montana Premier Montana Premier
Speedo is a feature documentary about the promising racing career After a ten year absence, filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams) returns to and troubled family life of Ed “Speedo” Jager, one of the nation’s rural Pomona Illinois to document what has become of the top demolition derby drivers. Trapped in a failing marriage, difficult, lonely boy he had been a mentor ‘Big Brother’ to back in Speedo channels his violent frustrations onto the track, hoping to 1985. What James’ intimate camera uncovers, over the course of five parlay his talents into a “real” racing career. When he falls for Liz, years of filming, is a troubled, child-like young man and a a racetrack official from Flemington, New Jersey, his life takes a family history of sadness, courage, love and mystery as rich and surprising turn. fearless as a first-rate naturalistic novel. This complex and deeply emotional documentary, produced in collaboration with Kartemquin Films, has rewarded and challenged audiences at theaters and Jesse Moss festivals throughout the U.S. and internationally. Mile End Films Inc. 150 West 22nd Street, 7th Floor New York, NY 10011 212.727.7533 Tel Hank Truxillo Lions Gate Entertainment 212.727.7534 Fax 4533 Glencoe Avenue, Suite 200 [email protected] Marina Del Ray, California. 90292 www.mileendfilms.com Sunday Night Poets Strands of Consciousness 31 minutes - 16mm - USA - 2003 12 minutes - miniDV -- USA- 2002
Director Directors David Rorie Colin Ruggiero Owen Bissell Montana Premier
This film is a brief glimpse into the life of Mark Strand. Al- Fifteen years ago, in a small jazz club in Chicago’s uptown though based out of Pray, MT in neighborhood, a new twist on an old art form was beginning to the Paradise Valley, Mark is hard emerge. The art form was poetry, and what immerged would to track down with no phone, no become known around the world simply as “The Slam.” Sunday formal employment and no lack of wanderlust. He is a sort of Night Poets takes you inside the club to meet the shows founder, cult hero in small towns throughout Montana where his pen and spend an evening among the candle-lit tables, and warm and ink drawings hang in local saloons. In addition he is a neon glow of the Uptown Poetry Slam. talented painter, wood-carver and poet. This film sets the process of carving a buffalo against the backdrop of an original poem about Montana revealing Mark’s efforts to integrate his life, philosophy and art.
David Rorier 2226 Spruce Rd. Homewood, IL 60430 Colin Ruggiero 708-307-1483 3214 Mittower Rd. Victor MT. 59875 [email protected] 406.570.9532, [email protected]
Sipay Khorlo: The Wheel of Life Sadaa E Zan (Voices of Women) 4 minutes - Beta SP - USA - 2003 70 minutes - DV - USA - 2002 Director Director Renee Bergan Liz Smith Montana Premier Lobsang Samten, formerly a Sadaa e Zan (Voices of Women) Buddhist monk and personal is an intimate look at the attendant to the Dalai Lama, has contemporary challenges practiced the art of sand painting for over 30 years. In January facing the women in Afghani- 2003, Lobsang visited the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, stan. Shot entirely in Afghanistan in March 2002, Sadaa e Zan Montana, to create an intricate mandala called the Sipay Khorlo, offers an astonishingly unsentimental view of post-Taliban life. or the Wheel of Life. After the mandala is finished, the children The film is composed of testimonials from women and girls who of the community destroy it in a dissolution ceremony. The sand describe firsthand what it was like to live in fear for over five is then distributed so it can bring luck and peace to the places years, stripped of all rights and denied any access to education or that it reaches. Lobsang also spoke with many of the local meaningful work. Despite the consequences, many engaged in children about Tibet, asked them about their culture, and showed daring efforts to provide medical care and underground schools them how to create their own mandalas using crayons and for women and children. The film offers no easy answers, the watercolors. The monks of Tashi Lhumpo Monestary performed future of Afghanistan is anything but clear, but it captures the several ceremonial songs which create a beautiful soundtrack. resilient spirit of these women as they bravely emerge from the Sipay Khorlo: The Wheel of Life creates an appreciation for this rubble of tyranny and oppression, determined to reach freedom. ancient art form as well as for the importance of crossing cultural Renee Bergan, Renegade Pictures, Inc. boundaries. 805.967.4679-ph, 805.967.5248-fax www.renegadepix.net WorkinSync Productions, Liz Smith 806 Golden West Drive Belgrade, MT 59714 with [email protected], www.workinsync.com Forgotten Sorrows by Colin Holtz - 4 minutes - MiniDV - USA - 2003 So Glad I Made It This Means Something 100 minutes - 16mm/BETA SP - USA - 2004 46 minutes - DV - USA - 2003
Director Director Chris Sautter Mike Steinberg
World Premier World Premier
So Glad I Made It is a portrait of America’s best unknown Weaving together interviews, artwork, and archival footage, This songwriter, Roger Salloom. The film follows the efforts of Means Something is a short experimental documentary that Salloom, a fifty-something former San Francisco psychedelic explores the meaning of life - or at least how it relates to four rocker and Nashville songwriter, as he attempts to jump-start his diverse (and occasionally eccentric) characters: a cellist, a taxider- career after a 20 year hiatus from the music business. Shot over a mist, a costume shop owner, and a dance crazed music fan. period of six months, the film weaves performances by Salloom and Grammy Award winners James Cotton and The Blind Boys of Alabama, with contemporary verite and candid interviews resulting in a kind of counter-VH1 “behind the music”. Salloom’s struggles reveal how illusive the American Dream is for most contemporary musical artists underscoring the hard realities of the music industry.
Chris Sautter, Sautter Communications/Sautter Films 3623 Everett Street NW, Washington, DC 20008 Mike Steinberg 1725 South McKnight Rd St. Louis, MO 63124 202-244-3111, 202-285-7560 (cell), 202-244-4220 (FAX) (314) 993-8318, [email protected] [email protected] The Tree That Remembers Trading With The Enemy 66 minutes - Beta SP - Canada - 2002 60 minutes - HI 8/16mm - USA - 2003
Director Director Masoud Raouf Jawad Metni Montana Premier World Premier
Exploring the lives of Iranian refugees who cannot escape painful memories, this documentary traces their plight under the brutal Trading with the Enemy follows an American looking to make a fast regime of Khomeini and their struggle to adjust in Canada. buck in Cuban’s illegal cigar trade. Fat cats back home clamor for the forbidden tobacco, and Terry knows just how to get it. From “A beautifully shot, thoughtfully realized work—a compelling Austin, Texas to Havana, Cuba, our guide Terry shows us the ropes and, at times, heartrending meditation on political violence, on of this black market bonanza. But cigars aren’t all that he’s after, survival of the human spirit, and on the sorrows of exile....Highly many young women of Havana have a lucrative business of their recommended.” Video Librarian own befriending tourists like Terry. The lines between business and pleasure, and between tragedy and comedy, have never been so “The historical footage of the revolution and the personal tangled. testimony of people who have suffered much combine to make Pinhole Pictures this a powerful documentary... Recommended” 131 Boerum St. #2, Brooklyn, NY 11206 Educational Media Reviews Online. 718-302-5857, 347-992-3861
Bullfrog Films PO Box 149 Oley, PA 19547 with 610-779-8226 [email protected], www.bullfrogfilms.com The Evil Cleric by Joel Baird - 4 minutes - Hi 8 - USA - 1995 Valley of Tears We Interrupt This Empire 79 minutes - 16mm/MiniDV - USA - 2003 52 minutes - MiniDV - USA - 2003
Director Director Hart Perry San Fransico Bay Area Video Activist Network Montana Premier Montana Premier
We Interrupt This Empire... is a collaborative work by many of San Hart Perry (Director of Photography - Harlan County, USA), has Francisco’s independent video activists which documents the documented the lives of Mexican-American migrant farm workers in direct actions that shut down the financial district of San Fran- Raymondville, TX since 1979 when the onion workers’ strike broke out. cisco in the weeks following the United States’ invasion of Iraq. What followed was a fight not only for higher pay but also for equal With the audio backdrop including the live broadcasts of SF rights and representation. For 24 years, the county’s Indymedia’s Enemy Combatant Radio and the SFPD’s tactical Mexican-American residents were determined to fight for what is communications that were picked up by police scanners, the right. Valley of Tears is a complex story of the long journey of documentary takes a look at the diverse show of resistance from individuals who endure hardship in order to make a better future for the streets of San Francisco as well as providing a critique of the their families. coporate media coverage of the war and exploring such issues as the Military Industrial Complex, attacks on civil liberties, and the Bush Administration’s current imperialist drive. Liz Poindexter Seventh Art Releasing 7551 Sunset Blvd., Suite 104 Video Acitivist Network Los Angeles, CA 90046 P.O. Box 40130 323-845-1455 San Francisco, CA 94140 [email protected] phone (415) 789-8484 [email protected] http://www.7thart.com http://www.videoactivism.org/empire.html Winter Soldier Yum Cha Cha 90 minutes - 16mm - USA - 1971 48 minutes - DVCAM/Beta SP - Australia - 2003
Director Director Winterfilm Collective Boyd Britton
Montana Premier Montana Premier
The 1971 Detroit Winter Soldier Investigation became a feature- length documentary. It was directed by a collective of indepen- In the late 1940s, Nancy King was emerging as one of China’s dent filmmakers and won prizes at both the Cannes and Berlin most promising landscape artists. However, on the brink of her Film Festivals . This documentary had much potential to impact professional debut, she suddenly withdrew from the art commu- the public. The Veterans themselves were sharing their personal nity and over time her name faded into anonymity. In 1988, accounts of the atrocities they had witnessed and participated in. after a 35-year hiatus, she resurfaced in Sydney and has since However, Winter Soldier was rejected by the mainstream media. developed a profound connection to the Australian people and The testimonies of the 125 veterans, who all had excellent the landscape. Yum Cha Cha explores Nancy’s passion for Aus- military records and quite a few medals, bore witness to crimes tralia and Western culture through painting and also ballroom against humanity that would never be justified or punished. These dancing – a pastime that has taken the Chinese-Australian com- crimes include torture, the use of napalm, executions, bombing munity by storm. Nancy talks about growing up in China, her civilians, and cutting off ears from the living and dead in order to search for a creative freedom not allowed by the Cultural Revo- exchange them for beer. Winter Soldier is still screened today and lution and the tragedies that forestalled the realization of her is available on video. dreams.
Lucy Massie Phenix Winterfilm Collective BB FILMS, 51 Kootingal St, Greystanes NSW 2145 AUSTRALIA PO Box 437 Oakville, CA 94562, phone 707.944.0706 61-2 9863 7323, [email protected] Festival Staff Festival Coordinators - Damon Ristau/Sarah Woods Festival Director - Doug Hawes-Davis Publicist - John Lilburn Program Design - Damon Ristau/John Lilburn/Sarah Woods Festival Web Site - Brian Musick
Thanks to all of our festival volunteers, sponsors, & pre-screeners! John Lilburn/Sarah White/Sarah Woods Damon Ristau/Tom Platt Jenifer Ferenstein/Rankin Holmes Jennifer Theodore/Elizabeth Temple Big Sky Documentary Film Festival 131 South Higgins Avenue, Suite 201, Missoula, Montana 59802 (406) 728-0753, [email protected], www.bigskyfilmfest.org