February 14 – 20, 2008 Wilma Theatre • Missoula, Montana
Preview Guide
Where Reality Plays Itself.
www.bigskyfilmfest.org February 14 – 20, 2008 Wilma Theatre • Missoula, Montana Welcome to the 2008 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival! Now in our fifth year, we are again pleased to present Missoula with the best in documentary film. Box Office Information The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is a unique • Individual tickets are sold at the Wilma before each show. cinematic celebration of non-fiction filmmaking. With your • Passes are available for credit card purchase online at www.bigskyfilmfest.org or at the Wilma Theatre any support, our festival has evolved into an internationally time during the week of the festival. recognized venue showcasing innovative, contemporary, and classic works. • Passes purchased online will be held at the ticket window and will be available for pick up at any time This year's show includes 106 extraordinary films from during the week of the festival. Bring valid ID. more than 40 countries, a selection chosen from nearly 1000 • Passes are non-transferable. submissions. The 2008 program is truly distinguished, offer- • All-Access Passes are good for all screenings, including the Awards Night screenings, and all filmmaker ing the most diverse exhibition of work to ever screen under the Big Sky—taking you from rural Montana to the moon! and VIP events/parties. Includes access to balcony seating. Downtown's historic Wilma Theatre hosts a week-long • All Screenings Passes are good for all screenings, including the Awards Night screenings. Does not immersion into a world where reality plays itself. include special events or parties. All competition films are shown on Montana's largest • Awards Screening Tickets will be sold Wednesday February 20th at the box office. screen, the 1100-seat Wilma 1. A number of "sneak previews" and classics are screened in the adjacent 100- PRICES: seat Wilma 2. With packed audiences of avid moviegoers, All Access Festival Pass...... $250.00 most films are accompanied by a Q&A with their respective All Screenings Pass...... $100.00 filmmakers. Please check this program and the festival website—www.bigskyfilmfest.org—for a complete Single Screening Ticket events schedule. (After 5 p.m.)...... $7.00 (Before 5 p.m.)...... $6.00 We are also pleased to announce the creation of the Big Sky Film Institute, an organization designed to provide supporters with an enhanced festival experience, valuable Individual tickets are good for one screening block. All films screen once, except award winners, which will screen discounts, and year-round entertainment. Please see page again on closing night, February 20th. Award winners to be announced February 19th. See www.bigskyfilmfest.org 3 for Big Sky Film Institute details. for winning films. We cordially invite you to the Wilma Theatre, PLEASE NOTE: None of the films at this festival are rated. If you are bringing children, please read film February 14 - 20, 2008 synopses carefully as some films may have sensitive content. If you have questions, please call the Festival office at (406) 541-FILM (3456). Thank you to our generous IMPORTANT! Pass holders will have immediate entrance to the theatre. We recommend you arrive at least 10 minutes early for all daytimescreenings and at least 20 minutes early for all evening screenings, if you're purchasing supporters, sponsors, tickets at the door. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis and all seats are general admission, except balcony advertisers and volunteers. seating, which is reserved for pass holders. Barring any unforeseen technical difficulties, SCREENINGS WILL START ON TIME. Without you, the festival Big Sky Documentary Film Festival would not be possible. Wilma Theatre, 131 South Higgins, Suite 307, Missoula, MT 59802 [email protected] (406)541-FILM (3456) www.bigskyfilmfest.org
Cover Art: Andy Smetanka Design/Production: Art & Image Creative Saturday, February 16 Monday, February 18 4:45 pm INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY 12:45 pm Wild Horse Redemption, 90 min 2008 Big Sky CHALLENGE FILMS, 72 min 12:45 pm I Love Hip Hop in Morocco, 80 min - Wilma 2 Documentary Casualty of the Promised Land 2:30 pm SHORTS PROGRAM City of Lost Carts Reversing the Odds, 16 min Film Festival Milk Matters Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy, 40 min Blind Faith: A Film About Seeing The Legend of Rosalie, 10 min Getting Eve Off Hattenhorst, 5 min Schedule Begging For Grace 2:45 pm Jimmy Rosenberg: The Father, the Son, State of Mind and the Talent, 78 min - Wilma 2 of Films Unfettering the Falcons 4:00 pm Knuckleball, 64 min Portraits of Hope 4:15 pm Hell on Wheels, 90 min - Wilma 2 Unless indicated otherwise, all 6:30 pm Audience of One, 88 min 5:30 pm Up the Yangtze, 92 min screenings will be held in Wilma 1 8:30 pm Kurt Cobain: About a Son, 97 min 7:30 pm Oh My God! It's Harrod Blank!, 74 min 10:25 pm Row Hard, No Excuses, 88 min 9:15 pm Civilians on the Battlefield (C.O.B.), 85 min 11:00 pm 24 Solo, 55 min Thursday, February 14 Sunday, February 17 10:00 am Butte, America, 63 min 10:00 am Mexiphobia, 53 min Tuesday, February 19 11:30 am Finding Normal, 77 min 10:00 am PERRY FILMS RETROSPECTIVE - Wilma 2 10:00 am A Walk to Beautiful, 86 min 1:00 pm The Farther, The Dearer, 50 min Hartigan - 9 min 11:45 am Bending Space, 56 min 2:15 pm Cartoneros, 60 min John Hammond: From Bessie Smith to 1:00 pm Eloquent Nude, 57 min 3:45 pm Golden Days, 95 min Bruce Springsteen - 54 min 2:15 pm River Ways, 90 min 6:00 pm The Gates, 87 min 11:10 am Achieving the Unachievable, 52 min 4:15 pm SHORTS PROGRAM 8:00 pm 2nd Verse: The Rebirth of Poetry, 79 min 11:30 am PERRY FILMS RETROSPECTIVE - Wilma 2 Ya Shadad, 22 min 10:00 pm Knee Deep, 77 min Making a Noise: A Native American Musical Landscape as Muse: The Forest with Journey with Robbie Robertson, 56 min Peter Von Tiesenhausen, 23 min Friday, February 15 12:15 pm SHORTS PROGRAM The End For Beginners, 24 min 10:00 am King Corn - 90 min Conviction: The True Story of The Man with the Electric Boots, 4 min 11:45 am Wrath of Gods, 72 min Clarence Elkins, 44 min 6:00 pm A Snowmobile for George, 97 min 1:15 pm From Prison to Home, 70 min The Storytellers, 27 min 8:00 pm Second Chance Season, 97 min 2:45 pm Che Guevara: The Body & The Legend, 53 min Night Visions, 7 min 10:00 pm Sex: The Revolution, 88 min 4:00 pm SHORTS PROGRAM 1:00 pm PERRY FILMS RETROSPECTIVE - Wilma 2 (Perry Films Retrospective) Resting Places, 48 min And You Don't Stop: 30 years of Hip Hop City of Cranes, 14 min (Episode 1), 42 min Wednesday, February 20 Crack in the Sidewalk, 12 min The Rest is Silence - 25 min 10:00 am We Feed the World, 96 min Atlantis Unbound, 12 min 2:00 pm La Americana, 70 min 11:45 am Hear and Now, 85 min 6:00 pm In the Shadow of the Moon, 98 min 2:15 pm PERRY FILMS RETROSPECTIVE - Wilma 2 1:30 pm The Sky Below, 75 min 8:00 pm Silhouette City, 85 min Imagining America, 112 min 3:00 pm Verve, 90 min total 9:45 pm Lynch, 82 min 3:30 pm The Linguists, 65 min Iole Alexandrini - architect 4:30 pm PERRY FILMS RETROSPECTIVE - Wilma 2 Allen Johnson - performer/comedian Saturday, February 16 Harlan County, 103 min Scott Trimble - sculptor 10:00 am Doubletime 80 min 5:00 pm Class C, 88 min Anna Banana - designer 10:00 am A Father's Music, 105 min - Wilma 2 7:00 pm SHORTS PROGRAM Charles Krafft - ceramic artist 11:35 am Shadow of the House, 74 min Pictograph, 21 min Haruko Nishimura - movement artist (dancer) Noon 4 Elements, 89 min - Wilma 2 Left in Baghdad, 13 min Jim Rittiman - sculptor of bones/insect parts 1:15 pm Flying On One Engine, 52 min Love Takes, 10 min Dufon Smith - freestyle dancer 2:00 pm SHORTS PROGRAM - Wilma 2 The Ville, 17 min Tina Bafaro - tattoo artist Broadcast Cowboy, 20 min Ma’rib, 30 min 4:45 pm The Listening Project, 84 minutes Dimmer, 14 min 8:45 pm Soldiers of Conscience, 87 min 6:15 pm AWARD WINNERS (Winners TBA - 2/20/08) Prayer For Peace, 28 min 10:30 pm A Dream in Doubt, 57 min Best Short Doc El Otro Lado, 13 min Best Mini Doc Inheritance, 5 min Monday, February 18 Artistic Vision Award Conversing with Adearoa, 14 min 10:00 am When Clouds Clear, 77 minutes 7:45 pm AWARD WINNER (Winner TBA - 2/20/08) 2:30 pm The Little Red Truck, 102 min 10:00 am Little Mom Full of Color, 60 minutes Best Feature Doc Winner 4:00 pm Bomb it! The Global Graffiti Documentary, (Work-in-Progress) - Wilma 2 10:00 pm AWARD WINNERS (Winners TBA - 2/20/08) 93 min - Wilma 2 11:30 am Polis Is This, 57 min Big Sky Award Winner 11:15 am Movement (R)evolution Africa, 65 min - Wilma 2 Artistic Vision Award Tuesday, Feb 19th, 5pm Saturday, Feb 16th, Noon Awards Press Conference Panel Discussion - Short Form Documentary Festival Jurors announce the winners of the competitive categories over In a market driven by high-profile documentary features, why make a short? cocktails and appetizers. Filmmaker Lounge, downstairs in the Wilma. Special Events What are the broadcast, exhibition and internet options for short-form docs? • All-Access Pass holders only. Find out in this panel discussion, moderated by Doug Whyte, Director of the Wednesday, Feb. 13th, 6-8pm International Documentary Challenge. Missoula Art Museum, 335 N. Pattee, Wednesday, Feb 20th 6pm - Midnight Street, (406)728-0447. Award Screenings Kettlehouse Kickoff Party • Free and open to the public. Join us at the Kettlehouse on the eve of the festival to check out the This is your chance to see the best of the fest! Winners from each competition category will screen in front of a packed house to close the program, get insider tips, and kick off this year's event. Sunday, Feb 17th, Noon Kettlehouse Brewing Company, 602 Myrtle Street. (406)728-1660 festival. See www.bigskyfilmfest.org after 8 p.m. on Feb 19th for the list of Panel Discussion - From Cable to the World Wide Web winning films and screening times. Awards Night Screening tickets available As traditional television broadcast transitions rapidly toward the world wide at the box office all week long. Thursday, Feb 14, 6:00pm web, what are the distribution opportunities for documentary filmmakers in HBO Special Presentation of The Gates this emerging market? What is the future of television and the world wide All Week Antonio Ferrera and Albert Maysles co-direct the latest feature following web? Find out in this panel moderated by Shawn Beqaj of Bresnan Perry Films Retrospective artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude's controversial project that took place Communications. Big Sky Filmmaker Lounge, downstairs at the Wilma, A tribute to the work of documentarians, Hart Perry and Dana February 2005 when 7500 gateways graced the walkways of Central Park, (406) 541-FILM. Heinz-Perry. Each year BSDFF recognizes the work of important filmmakers New York City for 16 days. This will be the film's Montana Premiere. • Free and open to the public. Director Antonio Fererra will be in attendance. by highlighting their contribution to documentary arts. This distinguished • FREE public admission. filmmaking duo continues to make exciting new work today and will be two Monday, Feb 18th, Noon of this year's BSDFF Judges. Their latest work, SEX: THE REVOLUTION, will Panel Discussion -The Business of Documentary Friday, Feb 15, 8-11pm have its World Premiere at Big Sky this year. Learn how to market and distribute your independent documentaries Filmmaker Welcome Party in the world of mass media. Moderated by Danielle DiGiacomo, All Week Its your chance to meet Big Sky's filmmakers and judges, listen to live music, Head of Documentary Aquisitions at Indiepix Films. Crystal Theatre, Filmmaker and VIP receptions and parties. have a drink and toast the art of documentary film! Music by The Emily 515 S. Higgins Ave. Admission available to All-Access Pass holders only. All-Access Passes Crawford Band. Big Sky Filmmaker Lounge, downstairs in the Wilma's Red • Free and open to the public. available for purchase at the Wilma Box Office. Light Green Room, (406) 541-FILM. • Free to All-Access Pass holders, otherwise $5. * Capacity may be limited. Tickets are available on a first come, first serve basis.
“A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.” - Arthur Miller
(406) 543-6609 317 S. Orange St • Missoula, MT 59801 Saturday, February 16 • 4:45 pm Sunday, February 17 • Wilma 2 • 1:00pm Blind Faith And You Don’t Stop: 30 Years of Hip Hop USA, 2007, 7 minutes, DV. United States Premiere 2008 Big Sky USA, 2004, 42 minutes, DVC Pro 50. Perry Films Retrospective Directors: Dana Bartle, Ted Fisher, Linda Goldman, Maya Mumma, Laura Van, Documentary Film Festival Director: Dana Heinz Perry www.perryfilms.com Schendel & Anthony Weeks actualities.blogspot.com A five-part documentary series for VH1 chronicling the rise of hip hop, from its Blind Faith: A Film about Seeing reconsiders the notion of "disability," exploring the cre- humble beginnings in South Bronx to a global, cultural and economic powerhouse. ative space between light and dark as a collaboration and act of faith. Episode 1, Back in the Day, chronicles hip hop’s birth in an impoverished and neg- Monday, February 18 • 2:30pm Schedule of Films lected section of the Bronx, and the establishment of the four elements of hip hop culture: rapping, deejaying, break-dancing and graffiti. Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy Monday, February 18 • 11:00pm USA, 2007, 40 minutes, miniDV. Northwest Regional Premiere 24 Solo Director: Alice Elliott www.dianaandkathy.com Body and Soul: Diana & Kathy chronicles two disability rights activists who met in Illinois Montana Premiere USA, 2006, 55 minutes, HDV. 30 years ago. Diana, who has Down Syndrome, and Kathy, who has Cerebral Palsy, Director: Jason Berry www.24-solo.com vowed then to live independent lives. When aging and medical crises threaten this 24 Hour Solo World Champion Chris Eatough is on his quest to a 7th consecutive title. freedom, they meet the challenge—together. The story moves beyond disabilities and The film balances action and emotion with commentary from the biggest names in activism, giving a rare portrait of a profound and symbiotic friendship. mountain biking. For the championship race Eatough and Australian Craig Gordon push each other to life-threatening exhaustion. They each narrate the chain of events Saturday, February 16 • Wilma 2 • 4:00pm that end with one racer's hospitalization. Bomb It! The Global Graffiti Documentary Thursday, February 14 • 8:00 pm France/Germany/Japan/Brazil/Spain, 2006, 93 minutes, DV. Montana Premiere Director: Jon Reiss 2nd Verse: The Rebirth of Poetry Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy Friday, February 15 • 4:00pm A guerrilla look at contemporary graffiti around the globe, Bomb It spans five USA/Mexico, 2007, 79 minutes, HDV. Northwest Regional Premiere continents to capture street artists in action. What began in caves as ancient rock Director: Carl Brown www.2ndversefilm.com Atlantis Unbound paintings found its way to the streets, in galleries, and in popular culture. Yet some Urban teens in San Francisco connect through poetry and Spoken Word. The film tells USA, 2007, 14 minutes, 16mm. Montana Premiere groups, as well as New York's infamous 'Quality of Life' laws, aim to obliterate the art. the story of the teens' lives—from a young girl who loses her father to alcohol, to an Director: Lori Hiris Graffiti artists risk incarceration—even death—in a fight for our public spaces. undocumented boy struggling with poverty and sexuality—amid the Bay Area's melting pot of ethnic and economic backgrounds. Drawing strength from each other, they Loosely contrived from Francis Bacon's utopian novel, New Atlantis, Sir Francis Galton explore their identity and connection to their unique community. furiously writes letters to his cousin Charles Darwin in his pursuit to discover the truth about hereditary traits. Through the metamorphosis of images, myth and history are Saturday, February 16 • Wilma 2 • 12:00 noon interwoven by the act of drawing and erasing. Each charcoal drawing is erased and 4 Elements redrawn, filmed frame by frame. Saturday, February 16 • 6:30 pm USA/Siberia/Germany/Russia/Kazakhstan/Netherlands, 2006 85 minutes, 35mm. Montana Premiere An Audience of One Director: Jiska Rickels www.fuworks.nl/4elements USA/Italy, 2006, 88 minutes, miniDV. Northwest Regional Premiere Within four chapters, the film exhibits mankind's struggle with the different elements. Director: Michael Jacobs WATER tells the story of the Kingcrabfishers in Alaska. Two mineworkers crawl like ants between gigantic machines after an exhausting day in EARTH. In AIR, astronauts A pastor from the Voice of Pentecost Church in San Francisco receives directions from are followed during physical training, before being launched into space. 4 Elements is God to make movies. Using his congregation's donations, he transforms his church into a fully functioning movie studio! After several small projects, he announces plans Bomb It! about the places where companionship and mutual trust are still of vital importance. Saturday, February 16 • Wilma 2 • 2:00pm to make a film entitled, Gravity: The Shadow of Joseph, a $50 million biblical science Sunday, February 17 • 11:10am fiction movie that will redefine the Hollywood epic and test the limits of faith. Broadcast Cowboy Northwest Regional Premiere Saturday, February 16 • 4:45pm USA, 2007, 20 minutes, miniDV. Achieving the Unachievable Director: David S. Washburn www.broadcastcowboy.com Canada, 2007, 52 minutes, HD & Beta SP. United States Premiere Begging for Grace Director: Jean Bergeron www.locomotionfilms.com Broadcast Cowboy tells the story of Dude Martin, one of California’s most famous USA, 2007, 7 minutes, miniDV. United States Premiere singing cowboys. By WWII, he had become one of its highest paid musicians, Achieving the Unachievable explores one of the most fascinating enigmas of modern Director: Greg Scott [email protected] entertaining thousands of fans on radio, television, and stage. But was his cowboy art—the empty circle at the centre of Print Gallery by Dutch artist Maurits C. Escher. In image real or simply a stage persona? Can such a distinction be made? Using brilliant Chronicles the social and economic world of "Freeway," a forty-something, heroin 1956, Escher challenged the laws of perspective and found himself trapped behind an sound and silent film footage from the era, Broadcast Cowboy captures a slice of old addicted panhandler on Chicago's west side. A gritty slice of life, the film documents impossible barrier. Half a century later, mathematician Hendrik Lenstra took everyone Western Americana, showing the imagination behind the cowboy iconography. by surprise when he fused the formidable intuitive talents of the artist with his own, the social and physiological patterns of a person who seemingly thrives in an environ- ment most would find repulsive. Begging for Grace brings the viewer to the addict's cor- shattering the Infinity Barrier! Thursday, February 14 • 10:00am ner where illicit drugs enjoy abundance and friendship may last as few as 30 seconds. Sunday, February 17 • 2:00 pm Butte, America Tuesday, February 19 • 11:45am La Americana USA, 2008, 63 minutes, Super 16. Sneak Preview Pam Roberts US/Bolivia/Mexico, 2008, 70 minutes, miniDV. Sneak Preview Bending Space Director: Director: Nicholas Bruckman USA, 2008, 56 minutes, HDV/DVCPro/miniDV. World Premiere A work-in-progress, Butte, America is the sometimes glorious, often sorrowful, but Directors: Kenny Dalsheimer & Penelope Maunsell always fascinating story of an island of industrial frenzy on the American frontier, as La Americana is an intimate documentary following an "illegal" immigrant's journey told through the lives of five-generation mining families. from Bolivia to New York City and back, as she struggles to save the life of her ailing Bending Space captures the genius of French artist Georges Rousse, celebrating his daughter. As Carmen fights to legalize her immigration status in the U.S., personal signature trompe l’oeil illusions of color and shape. The amazing happens when a and political tragedies converge. Filmed in three countries, her unforgettable story is photographer and an art-loving community join forces. A singular grassroots project Unless indicated otherwise, all woven into the current immigration crisis in the United States, putting a human face on emerges that confounds expectations and takes the city of Durham, NC by storm as screenings will be held in Wilma 1 this timely and controversial issue. buildings are transformed into temporary canvases for dramatic public art. Rousse’s colors and shapes ultimately become stunning, large format photographs exhibited around the world. Tuesday, February 19 • 1:00pm Saturday, February 16 • Wilma 2 • 2:00pm Eloquent Nude Thursday, February 14 • 2:15pm Conversing with Aotearoa USA, 2007, 57 minutes, HDV & Super 8. Montana Premiere Cartoneros New Zealand, 2007, 15 minutes, Animation. Montana Premiere Director: Ian McCluskey www.nwdocumentary.org Director: Corrie Francis www.corriefrancis.com/filmpages/conversing01.htm Now age 90, famous nude model Charis Wilson recounts her years with famed Northwest Regional Premiere Argentina, 2006, 60 minutes, miniDV. Living in an age of technological integration and urban life, some people turn to the Modernist photographer Edward Weston. When they met, they fell instantly in love. Director: Ernesto Livon-Grosman www.cartonerosdoc.com natural world when they realize something is missing. In this animated documentary, Taking off and driving out West during the Great Depression with only a camera and Recycling has exploded into a multimillion dollar industry since Argentina's economic New Zealanders attempt to fathom the deeply personal connection to their land. typewriter, Charis and Edward transformed photography and each other. Telling of love collapse. Cartoneros examines recycling in Buenos Aires—from trash collectors, to Images and interviews are used to explore both physical and mental wilderness. and loss, travel and adventure, Charis intimately shares her coming-of-age. middlemen in warehouses, to executives in large corporate mills. This is a record of the country's economic and social upheaval and invitation to rethink the value of trash. Sunday, February 17 • 12:15noon Tuesday, February 19 • 4:15pm The True Story of Clarence Elkins The End for Beginners Saturday, February 16 • 4:45pm Conviction: USA, 2008, 44 minutes, DVCam. World Premiere United Kingdom/France, 2007, 23 minutes, HDV. North American Premiere Casualty of the Promised Land Directors: Mike West & Bill Ward [email protected] Director: David Lale World Premiere USA, 2008, 7 minutes, miniDV. In small town Ohio, Melinda Elkins' mother is raped and murdered, and her husband is In a retirement home in Paris, elderly residents wait out their last days. Nothing much Director: Wes Kandel www.wes-kandel.com arrested and sent to prison for life. Proving they have the wrong man would take eight happens, but the arrival of some unusual visitors is about to disturb their peace—and A character study of Clifton W. Lee, a veteran of the Vietnam War and a citizen from the years, all of her money, and the only life she knew. Partly a meditation on the role of set the scene for a strange confrontation between the beginners and closers of life. streets of Washington, DC. luck with criminal justice, the film chases a story too unbelievable if it weren't true. Thursday, February 14 • 1:00pm Friday, February 15 • 2:45pm The Farther, The Dearer Che Guevara — The Body and the Legend Ireland, 2008, 49 minutes, miniDV. World Premiere Italy/Argentina/Bolivia/France, 2007, 52 minutes, Digi Beta. Director: Carol Moore North American Premiere. Authors: Raffaele Brunetti & Stefano Missio When dreams of Latvian independence turn into a nightmare as families struggle for From execution in 1967 to exhumation in 1997, international political events kept Che any quality of life under a new market economy, a migrant worker pays an agency to Guevara's remains hidden from the world, making a recovery of history’s most famous find him a job anywhere in Europe. The agency relocates him to Belfast where he revolutionary all but impossible. Told from the critical, personal perspectives of those struggles to get his young family settled. This personal insight into sacrifice and who touched his remains, these accounts reveal his last hours, the reasons that led to patience may deem love as the only pursuit. his disappearance, the creation of a myth, and the unfolding of a 20th century icon. Saturday, February 16 • Wilma 2 • 10:00am Friday, February 15 • 4:00pm A Father's Music (Nach der Musik) City of Cranes Conviction Friday, February 15 • 4:00pm — Conductor Otmar Suitner United Kingdom, 2006, 14 minutes, Super 16mm/HDCAM. Germany, 2007, 105 mins, 35mm. Montana Premiere Northwest Regional Premiere. Director: Eva Weber www.cityofcranes.com Crack in the Sidewalk Director: Igor Heitzmann www.nachdermusik.de/en/ USA, 2007, 12 minutes, DVCam. Montana Premiere On a journey high up, we view the world through the eyes of crane drivers. What is the Austrian conductor Otmar Suitner ends his long-standing career at the State Opera in Director: Kris Kristensen [email protected] psychological impact on these people, removed from the world they are building? A East Berlin after developing Parkinson's. But the fall of the Wall brings more change. mesmerizing insight into a world unnoticed by most, yet fundamental to us. A visual Little-known musician Bryan Harvey of the 80’s rock-duo House Of Freaks makes For decades, Suitner lived a double life. One with his wife in East Berlin and the other and poetic celebration of life, the film captures the human spirit in extreme conditions. national news when he's brutally murdered with his family. To most this is simply a with his mistress and son, Igor, in the west. His son tells the story of the distant sensational headline but means so much more to those who treasure Harvey’s music. conductor and the exceptional paths of his parents’ lives among a vanished country. Saturday, February 16 • 4:45pm City of Lost Carts Saturday, February 16 • Wilma 2 • 2:00pm USA, 2008, 8 minutes, miniDV. World Premiere Dimmer Directors: Karen Kane & Kurt St. Thomas USA, 2005, 12 minutes, miniDV. Montana Premiere Each year 1.8 million shopping carts are stolen nationwide—most carts are abandoned Director: Talmage Cooley [email protected] Music by Interpol. and left unwanted in the streets. An introverted photographer in Los Angeles brings the Dimmer is unexpectedly funny and poignant, following a tough gang of blind teenage carts to life. City of Lost Carts is a touching portrait of Shawn Nee and a journey of boys that roam the worst neighborhoods of Buffalo, NY, looking for trouble and girls. transformation made possible only by his connection to these objects. Saturday, February 16 • 10:00am Monday, February 18 • 9:15pm C.O.B. Civilians on the Battlefield Doubletime USA, 2007, 82 minutes, DVCam & HD. Montana Premiere USA/Germany, 2006, 86 minutes, miniDV. North American Premiere Director: Stephanie Johnes www.doubletimethemovie.com Director: Teresina Moscatiello www.sinafilm.de A Dream in Doubt Thursday, February 14 11:30am Jump roping has gone from kid's play on sidewalks to international competitions fea- • Four Germans work as U.S. war extras at a combat training center in the Bavarian turing astounding acrobatics. Doubletime follows two disparate teams—suburban white Finding Normal forest where they play-act being Arabian terrorists. What are the reasons and and inner-city black—training to compete against each other for the championship. motivations of the four protagonists in their decision to work for the U.S. Army? USA, 2006, 77 minutes, HDV. Montana Premiere How have their their lives changed? Can you be for peace and yet work for war? Sunday, February 17 • 10:30pm Director: Brian Lindstrom www.brianlindstromfilms.com Long-time heroin and crack users try to rebuild lives devastated by addiction and jail. Sunday, February 17 • 5:00pm A Dream in Doubt The film follows 3 people leaving detox and entering a program that provides clean and Class C USA, 57 minutes, 2007, video 16:9. Northwest Regional Premiere sober housing, drug treatment and—most importantly—a recovery mentor who knows Director: Tami Yeager www.adreamindoubt.org what it takes to stay clean and build a “normal life." We witness day to day challenges USA, 2008, 88 minutes, DV. World Premiere of recovery, the heart-break of relapse, and life's simple victories. Directors: Justin Lubke & Shasta Grenier Deadly hate crimes terrorizes the Sikh American community in Phoenix. Featuring Rana Sodhi, an Indian immigrant whose life is forever altered by 9/11, not because he As their tiny hometowns fight to stay on the map, girls from across rural Montana knows someone who died, but because his turban and beard-articles now symbolize compete for the basketball title and bring home something worth celebrating. America's new enemy. The film travels to Rana's hometown, where his eldest brother Montana native and basketball legend Phil Jackson brings insight and humor to the is gunned down by a man who claims he is rooting out a terrorist. disappearing landscapes in a story that will change the way you see rural America. Sunday, February 17 • Wilma 2 • 2:15pm Sunday, February 17 • Wilma 2 • 10:00am Imagining America Hartigan — Icons of 20th Century American Art Saturday, February 16 • 1:15pm USA, 1969, 10 minutes, 16mm. Perry Films Retrospective USA, 2005, 113 minutes, DigiBeta. Perry Films Retropective Flying on One Engine Director: Hart Perry Director: Hart Perry www.perryfilms.com Sneak Preview USA/India, 2008, 51 minutes, miniDV. An early, experimental film by director Hart Perry about the painter Grace Hartigan. Imagining America traces art movements over the course of the twentieth century, Director: Joshua Z. Weinstien www.FlyingOnOneEngine.com Using abstract expressionist techniques such as collage and splatter, Perry simulated providing a landscape in which to re-imagine ideas about America. Featuring archival tactile quality of painting on film. Wheelchair bound, without a larynx, and diagnosed with a life-threatening aortic interviews from those who both chronicled and transformed it—such as Georgia aneurysm, Dr. Sharadkumar Dicksheet now lives only (and barely) so he can travel O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Willem de Kooning, Marcel Duchamp, Andy to India to perform free operations in marathon-like surgery sessions where Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat as well as new critiques from Ed Ruscha, Wanda children receive treatment for their cleft lips and deformities. Although Dicksheet Corn, Jonathan Fineberg and Grace Hartigan. survives off of social security while living in his Brooklyn apartment, his life is drasti- Friday, February 15 • 6:00pm cally different in India where the eight-time Nobel Prize nominee lives like a god. In the Shadow of the Moon Friday, February 15 • 1:15pm USA, 2007, 100 minutes, 16mm/HD. Montana Premiere From Prison to Home Director: David Sington www.thinkfilmcompany.com www.intheshadowofthemoon.com USA, 2008, 70 minutes, miniDV. World Premiere Directors: Adam Blank & Brian Huston www.fromprisontohome.com Between 1968 and 1972, nine American spacecraft voyaged to the Moon. 12 men walked on its surface. This documentary brings together surviving crew members from Two million Americans in prison. Some 1,700 are released back into society per day. every single Apollo mission that visited our satellite. The riveting first-hand testimony is From Prison to Home traces the experiences of four African American ex-inmates interwoven with visually stunning archival material from the original NASA film the first year after being released. With no easy answers to the problem of reentry Hartigan footage—much of it never used before. The result is epic! An extraordinary look into a and no easy definitions of success, the film still asks one pressing question: “Did all Monday, February 18 • 2:30pm historical era when the whole world literally looked up to America. the tax dollars we spend incarcerating these men actually make us any safer now that they are back among us?” Hattenhorst Saturday, February 16 • Wilma 2 • 2:00pm Germany, 2006, 5 minutes, 35mm. Montana Premiere Thursday, February 14 • 6:00pm Director: Ove Sander www.hattenhorst.org Inheritance USA, 2006, 5 minutes, DVCam. Northwest Regional Premiere The Gates In the 40s, Hans Hattenhorst moved to the German island of Juist and has since Director: Mary Katzke USA, 2008, 70 minutes, miniDV. Montana Premiere. FREE! worked as a projectionist in the small cinema. He has long lost his passion for movies. Directors: Antonio Ferrara & Albert Maysles www.mayslesfilms.com In static black & white images, the film tells his story, but Hattenhorst will die before A child marvels at the pristine magnificence of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ever hearing it. while his trip to Ground Zero in New York City illustrates the devastation and tragedy Christo and Jeanne-Claude have completed many controversial projects around the induced by a world struggling for power. A child's awe is a poignant whisper against world, yet remain fixated on this one installation for New York City. But their proposals Wednesday, February 20 • 11:45am noise of debate, allowing us to consider the legacy we leave our children. are met with hesitation from local residents, and the process of securing approval from the respective government is an arduous one. But opposition only enriches their artistic Hear and Now process. Footage begins more than 20 years ago, culminating in this rare look at artists USA, 2007, 84 minutes, DVCam. Montana Premiere who fight to accomplish their vision—on a grand scale. Director: Irene Taylor Brodsky www.vermilionpictures.com
Saturday, February 16 • 4:45pm A deaf couple undergo a risky, cochlear implant surgery at 65—a procedure that could let them hear. This is the riveting story of two people gifted with their fifth sense late in Getting Eve Off life. The film documents their complicated journey from a comfortable world of silence USA, 2007, 6 minutes, miniDV. Montana Premiere to a new and profoundly challenging world of sound. The question is, what will they Directors: Eli Hunt, Patrick Gill, David Medina & Travis Morss make of it? And what might they gain, or lose, forever?
Getting Eve Off is a look at the Missoula resident prostitute as she attempts to legitimize Monday, February 18 • Wilma 2 • 4:15pm her "pay-for-play" Maternal Order of St. Eve Church. Hell on Wheels Thursday, February 14 • 3:45pm USA, 2006, 90 minutes, miniDV. Northwest Regional Premiere Jimmy Rosenberg Golden Days Director: Bob Ray www.HellOnWheelsTheMovie.com Monday, February 18 • Wilma 2 • 2:45pm USA, 2006, 95 minutes, MiniDV and Super 8. Montana Premiere A from-the-trenches look at the dizzying clash of athleticism, exhibitionism, egos, Jimmy Rosenberg: Director: Chris Suchorsky www.goldendaysmovie.com business, and politics in the modern-era roller derby. A group of hard-hitting Texas women overcome obstacles in resurrecting and revamping the sport, only to find The Father, The Son & The Talent Struggling indie band THE DAMNWELLS finally sign a record deal with EPIC only to internal strife ripping the fledgling organization apart. Two leagues emerge from the Netherlands, 2006, 78 minutes, DigiBeta. United States Premiere have their album and career nearly destroyed by the people who discovered them. They clash, and what follows ignites an international roller derby revival. Featuring original Director: Jeroen Berkvens www.idtvdocs.nl had been in complete control before they signed on the dotted line. Now, a year of music by …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. recording is just sitting on the shelf, waiting to be heard. Will the band break up and When he was fifteen years old, musical prodigy Jimmy Rosenberg signed a million go their separate ways, or will they take back their future? Monday, February 18 • Wilma 2 • 12:45pm dollar contract with Sony. With the help of his ambitious father, they travelled widely making appearances, culminating in a sold out Carnegie Hall. Ten years laterJimmy Sunday, February 17 • Wilma 2 • 4:30pm I Love Hip Hop in Morocco is in a psychiatric clinic, his father in prison. This film pieces together a family's Morocco/USA, 2006, 80 minutes, miniDV. Northwest Regional Premiere disintegration and the destructive lifestyle that left a trail of victims. Harlan County, USA Directors: Josh Asen & Jennifer Needleman www.ilovehiphopinmorocco.com USA, 1976, 103 minutes, 16mm. Perry Films Retrospective Director: Todd Darling A group of Moroccan hip hop artists dream of putting on a hometown concert. Unfortunately, resistance is strong in their society and resources scarce. They appeal Winner of the 1976 Academy Award for Documentary Feature, the film portrays a for funding and begin a journey that leads to their country's first hip hop festival. The classic 20th-century conflict between labor and management. Harlan County, USA film reflects thoughts from the true future of the Arab world. And their views on chronicles efforts of 180 coal miners to win a United Mine Workers contract in ‘73. America, Islam, and the world in general might surprise a few around the globe. Featuring a haunting soundtrack—with legendary country and bluegrass artists Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis, Sarah Gunning and Florence Reece—the film is a heartbreaking record of a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line. Saturday, February 16 • 2:30pm Sunday, February 17 • 7:00pm Left in Baghdad The Little Red Truck Sunday, February 17 • Wilma 2 • 10:00am USA, 2008, 98 minutes, DVC Pro/HD. World Premiere USA, 2007, 12 minutes, DVCam. Northwest Regional Premiere Director: Rob Whitehair www.thelittleredtruck.com John Hammond: Directors: John Kane & Peter Jordan www.localfilms.org www.middlepathfilms.com When a little red truck from Missoula Children's Theatre rolls into town, sixty local From Bessie Smith to Bruce Springsteen children take on an impossible task: to stage a full-scale musical in just six days. USA, 1990, 57 minutes, 16mm. Perry Films Retrospective After being discharged from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a happy-go-lucky Tensions build when some casts sail through the week while others are a fit of chaos. Director: Hart Perry www.perryfilms.com American soldier returns with his wife and daughter to their home in Kentucky. Alternately tragic and comic, Left in Baghdad is a portrait of a family man on the first John Hammond was responsible for discovering Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Billie day of the rest of his life, which he must live without his left arm. Holiday, Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Pete Seeger, and Bruce Springsteen among others. As a producer, writer, critic, and board member Monday, February 18 • 2:30pm of the NAACP, he was credited as a major force in integrating the music business. Narrated by actor Ossie Davis, this PBS American Masters features Hammond The Legend of Rosalie reminiscing about his life and talking with many artists he worked with. USA, 2007, 10 minutes, 16mm. Northwest Regional Premiere Director: Nicholas Berger Friday, February 15 • 10:00am www.stanford.edu/group/docprogram/2008/berger/rosaliewebsite/index.htm King Corn A small trailer park community in California’s Mojave Desert sets up the story of a USA, 2007, 90 minutes, DVCPro. Montana Premiere beautiful and mysterious woman, known to locals simply as Rosalie. Diagnosed with Director: Aaron Woolf www.kingcorn.net breast cancer, Rosalie dies a couple of years later but not before she ensures that a grand, cultural structure is built—out of only found materials. Ready for an adventure and alarmed by signs of their generation's bulging waistlines, The Little Red Truck Sunday, February 17 • 7:00pm college friends move to the heartland. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically Sunday, February 17 • 3:30pm modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they grow a bumper crop of the most Love Takes productive, most subsidized grain that drives our fast-food nation. But when they try to The Linguists United Kingdom, 2003, 10 minutes, miniDV. Northwest Regional Premiere follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions USA/Russia/India/Bolivia, 2006, 70 minutes, DVCam. NW Regional Premiere Director: Jeanie Finlay www.jeaniefinlay.com about what we eat and how we farm. Directors: Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller & Jeremy Newberger ironboundfilms.com Finding Mr. Right is as difficult at 8 as it is at 80. This short documentary charts the Two scientists race to document languages on the verge of extinction. In the rugged Thursday, February 14 • 10:00pm places that love takes us and leaves us as we fall in and out of love over a lifetime. landscapes of Siberia, India, and Bolivia, resolve is tested by forces stifling languages: Knee Deep institutionalized racism and violent economic unrest. The scientists must overcome Friday, February 15 • 9:45pm USA, 2006, 81 minutes, MiniDV. Montana Premiere their fears and preconceptions to draw in speakers from decades of silence. Director: Michael Chandler www.kneedeepthedoc.com Lynch Wednesday, February 20 • 4:45pm Every time Josh Osborne find himself exhausted from work and knee deep in cow USA/Poland, 2007, 84 minutes, DVcam. Montana Premiere dung, his parents remind him that someday their Maine dairy farm will be all . But then The Listening Project Director: blackANDwhite www.absurda.net www.lynchdocumentary.com Dad dies and Mom reneges on the deal. Josh and a motley crew of backwoods friends USA/Canada/Mexico/Brazil/South Africa/Tanzania/Israel/Palestine/France/UK/ Explore David Lynch's creative process and cinematic visions as he completes his latest and relatives hatch a hare-brained scheme: kill Mom and keep the farm. Russia/Afghanistan/India/China/Japan, 2006, 75 minutes, miniDV film, Inland Empire. Lynch emerges not only as one of the most original and compelling Northwest Regional Premiere directors of contemporary film but also as an artist who continues to explore and Monday, February 18 • 4:00pm experiment in countless mediums. His enthusiasm is infectious. Knuckleball Directors: Dominic Howes & Joel Weber www.thelisteningprojectfilm.com With the 2008 elections fast approaching, Presidential candidates promise to restore Sunday, February 17 • Wilma 2 • 11:30am USA, 2006, 64 minutes, DVCam. Northwest Regional Premiere America's image abroad. But what does the world actually think? A quest spanning 14 Director: Ken Sons www.kensonsfilms.com/knuckleball countries—from Bethlehem to Bangalore, Kabul to Cape Town—the feedback reveals Making A Noise: the breadth of our nation's impact on ordinary people. The result is an appeal to the A Native American Musical Journey Diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at age 13, comedian Brett Leake has come a American voter about the meaning of citizenship in a globalized world. long way to perfect his hilarious stand-up/ sit down act. Leake, who has performed in USA/Canada, 1997, 57 minutes, 16mm/BetaSP. Perry Films Retrospective comedy clubs around the world and made repeat guest appearances on the Jay Leno Director: Dana Heinz Perry show, has a confident and cheerful demeanor that creates a positive ripple effect everywhere he goes. Knuckleball examines the forces in Leake’s inner life that bring Best known as the lead guitarist and songwriter of The Band, little was mentioned of him joy and inspire his performances. Robbie Robertson’s Native American heritage. The son of a Jewish father and Mohawk mother, Robertson's first brush with live music came at the Six Nations Reservation Saturday, February 16 • 8:30pm outside Brantford, Ontario. Robertson embarks on a pilgrimage of rediscovery, returning to Six Nations and his musical roots. Featuring Native American performers Kurt Cobain: About a Son John Trudell, Rita Coolidge, and Buffy Saint Marie. USA, 2005, 94 minutes, HD. Montana Premiere Tuesday, February 19 4:15pm Director: AJ Schnack www.sidetrackfilms.com • The late Kurt Cobain recounts his life—from adolescence to being discovered to The Man With the Electric Boots explosive fame. Based on more than 25 hours of previously unheard interviews USA, 2007, 4 minutes, 16mm. Northwest Regional Premiere conducted by music journalist Michael Azerrad for his book Come As You Are: The Story Director: Nicholas Berger of Nirvana. In the film, the conversations reveal a highly personal portrait of an artist Kurt Cobain: About a Son much discussed but not particularly well understood. Monday, February 18 • Wilma 2 • 10:00am Daniel Bartsch is an inventor who constructs a pair of electric boots to deal with his Little Mom Full of Color perpetually cold feet. Just a few scenes from the man who brought this world the Tuesday, February 19 • 4:15pm “handcycle” and science journal bedtime stories. USA, 60 minutes, miniDV. Work-in-Progress Landscape as Muse Director: Katy Garton www.montanasproutgroup.com — The Forest with Peter Von Teasenhausen Little Mom is a rich and textured film exploring the filmmaker's journey to understand Canada, 2006, 24 minutes, 16mm. United States Premiere her mother's terminal illness. By weaving together observations, reflexive narration, Director: Ian Toews www.291filmcompany.ca whimsical soundtrack, and her mother's spitfire humor, we find a moving story about life and death. It's about an artist living through the pain of cancer and a medical Amid Alberta’s vast oil and gas fields and insatiable logging industry, Peter Von system that couldn't heal. Of a daughter and filmmaker on a quest to do more than Tiesenhausen’s isolated farm remains relatively untouched—except by his own hand. grieve—sharing a universal message about how our culture approaches death. Using materials that the land provides—trees, wood, pulp, rock, fire, ash—Von Tiesenhausen, his home, and his art demonstrate an inextricable link to nature. Sunday, February 17 • Wilma 2 • 1:00pm Monday, February 18 • 7:30pm Oh My God! It's Harrod Blank! The Rest is Silence USA, 1973, 20 minutes, 16mm. Perry Films Retrospective Sunday, February 17 • 7:00pm USA, 2007, 75 mintues, 16mm. Montana Premiere Director: Hart Perry Director: David Silberberg Ma'rib The Rest is Silence follows the Spanish sculptor Martin Chirino as he creates a Germany/Yemen, 2008, 30 minutes, Super 16mm. World Premiere Tracing the adventures of a filmmaker and art-car maven, the film chronicles him from sculpture for the grave of filmmaker Hart Perry’s brother. Director: Rainer Komers [email protected] adolescence to adulthood and beyond! From his youth growing up in the woods with chickens to his current multi-faceted career as creator and head of the national art-car Friday, February 15 • 4:00pm Ma’rib is the second installation in a tetralogy examining destroyed cities. Each film is movement, we witness the sacrifices he makes to pursue his vision. Unique by any connected to one of the four elements. Ma’rib is ‘earth’ in the form of sand, soil, and standard, Blank uses his creativity to rail against society's mass produced mentality. Resting Places stone. In the city, 4000 Diesel pumps irrigate the desert oasis and a new power station USA, 2006, 48 minutes, HD. Northwest Regional Premiere will supply mass electricity. Without dialogue or narration, the film's stark offering of Saturday, February 16 • Wilma 2 • 2:00pm particular habits, rhythms, and gestures of a rugged country constantly zigzags Directors: Melissa Villanueva & J. Michael Kipikash www.restingplacesdoc.com between sociological observation and sudden poetry. El Otro Lado Actor Liam Neeson narrates this thought-provoking film about the global phenomenon USA/Mexico, 2006, 13 minutes, miniDV. Northwest Regional Premiere of roadside memorials, their explosive worldwide growth, and the legal controversy that Director: Anne Wallace [email protected] now surrounds the tradition. Some see these memorials as a nuisance, while others view them as an integral part of the grieving process that should continue unregulated. Anne Wallace drove the US/Mexico border, crossing back and forth recording interviews. El Otro Lado follows the hypnotic rhythm of an endless wall as voices and Monday, February 18 • 2:30pm sounds reveal the border fence to be a projection of our fears and desires. Reversing the Odds Sunday, February 17 • 7:00pm USA, 2008, 16 minutes, miniDV. World Premiere Pictograph Director: Meta Newhouse www.fourpointproductions.com USA/Ukraine/Slovakia, 2007, 21 minutes, 35mm. Northwest Regional Premiere Through advancing DNA technology, three women reopen their sexual assault “cold” Director: Miso Suchy [email protected] cases 20 years later. Women now are being encouraged to pursue past cases in hopes of finding a DNA match from an attacker. The result of each search illuminates how Images by two female artists—color drawings and black & white photo stills—are laws have not yet caught up with today's crime-solving technologies. Ma'rib animated to create woven vignettes of life in the Ukraine. The village, made legendary Sunday, February 17 • 10:00am in the novel Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, has a unique pace in the passage of time. Tuesday, February 19 • 2:15pm
Mexiphobia Monday, February 18 • 11:30am River Ways USA, 2008, 53 minutes, miniDV. World Premiere Polis is This USA, 2007, 85 minutes, miniDV. Special Presentation Director: Nevie Owens www.mexiphobia.com Director: Colin Stryker www.sawgrassproductions.com/river_ways USA, 2006, 57 minutes, Beta SP. Northwest Regional Premiere The lives of regular, working people are affected by the possible removal of four dams In the Big Bend area of West Texas, the historic border crossings in Boquillas, Director: Henry Ferrini www.polisisthis.com Santa Elena, and Paso Lajitas are shut down by United States’ Homeland Security, on the Snake River. Combining interviews with everyday observation, River Ways takes devastating communal bonds which have existed on both sides of the Rio Grande for John Malkovich joins an ensemble cast exploring Charles Olson's amazing world, us into the world of wheat farmers, fishermen, salmon advocates, and others to generations. Mexiphobia tells the story of a struggle to maintain a way of life. Showing where the ordinary landscapes of our daily lives become extraordinary portals to portray a complex issue reaching into the ideological differences that divide us. us how to build bonds instead of barriers between neighbors, the film is a discussion timeless truths about the places in which we live. on how to effectively protect our borders. Saturday, February 16 • 10:25pm
Saturday, February 16 • 4:45pm Row Hard, No Excuses USA/Spain/Barbados, 2006. 88 minutes, miniDV. Montana Premiere Milk Matters Director: Luke Wolbach www.lanternfilms.com Canada, 2007, 7 minutes, miniDV. United States Premiere John Zeigler and Tom Mailhot are among the oldest competitors in the Atlantic Rowing Directors: Marisa Rossy, Baptiste Neis, Guy Godfrey & Andrew Kines Challenge, a 3,000 mile race. They spend three years (and personal savings) to make Whatcha drinkin’? Watcha eatin’? Using the Raw Milk Debate in Ontario as a starting their dream of winning possible, but once on the water the ocean takes over. An point, this short film then delves into issues on Blind Food Consumption. inherently exciting sport—adventure story on the surface—the film questions this crew in order to declare their feat either a noble quest or an ill-fated nightmare. Monday, February 18 • Wilma 2 • 11:15am Tuesday, February 19 • 8:00pm Movement (R)evolution Africa Second Chance Season USA, 2007, 65 minute, DVCam & Beta SP. Northwest Regional Premiere Second Chance Season Directors: Joan Frosch & Alla Kovgan www.movementrevolutionafrica.com Saturday, February 16 • 4:45pm USA, 2007, 97 minutes, DVCam. Northwest Regional Premiere Director: Daniel H. Forer www.secondchanceseason.com In an astonishing exposition on dance, nine African choreographers tell stories of Portraits of Hope After a senseless murder takes place, a family desperately attempts to move on by an emergent art form and their diverse and deeply contemporary expressions of USA, 2007, 8 minutes, HDV. Montana Premiere placing all their hopes in the basketball aspirations of the 17-year-old son, Nick. His self. Stunning choreography and riveting critiques challenge stale stereotypes Director: Jon Ward www.a4creative.net/POH.html hoop dreams become a nearly unbearable burden as he realizes that he must succeed of "traditional Africa" to unveil soul-shaking responses to the beauty and tragedy on and off the court for his family to finally stop dwelling on their tragic past. of 21st century Africa. Lynette Huffman Johnson captures sweet moments during the most incomprehen- sible times in these emotional portraits of children who have little time left to live. Tuesday, February 19 • 10:00pm Sunday, February 17 • 12:15noon Night Visions Saturday, February 16 • Wilma 2 • 2:00pm Sex: The Revolution – Episodes 1 and 2 Prayer for Peace: USA, 2008, 97 minutes, DVC Pro. World Premiere. Perry Films Retrospective USA, 2007, 7 minutes, miniDV. Northwest Premiere Director: Hart Perry www.perryfilms.com Director: Kathy Huang www.kathyhuangfilms.com Relief & Resistance in Burma's War Zones A multi-part film on the sexual revolution and its influence on American culture. A Northwest Regional Premiere Night Visions is a reflection on life and loss as experienced by a young soldier Burma/Thailand, 2007, 28 minutes, HDV. story of incredible styles, scenes, visionaries, movements, fanatics, charlatans, and returning from service in Iraq. Through his intimate interviews and personal photos of Director: Matt Blauer www.blog.frontfilms.com middle-class experimentation, and of people of traditional values who feel threatened, the battlefield, we realize that the greatest casualties of military conflict are not always Ethnic Karen relief workers bring aid to internally displaced people suffering under condemn it, and launch a counter-revolution. visible to the naked eye. Burma's Army. A first hand account of oppression and human rights abuses the military dictatorship inflicts on native people. Wednesday, February 20 • 10:00am Saturday, February 16 • 4:45pm We Feed the World State of Mind Austria/Brazil/France/Romania, 2007, 96 minutes, DigiBeta. Montana Premiere Saturday, February 16 • 11:35am Canada, 2007, 6 minutes, miniDV. Northwest Regional Premiere Director: Erwin Wagenhofer www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/wftw.html Shadow of a House Director: Mash Ashdown www.nx6.com Food and globalization; fishermen and farmers; long-distance truck drivers and high- USA/Cuba/France/Spain, 2006, 74 minutes, DVCam. NW Regional Premiere Talking to God, walking in oncoming traffic, stripping under a streetlight, and asking powered corporate executives! We Feed the World is a film about scarcity amid plenty. Director: Allie Humenuk www.shadowofthehouse.com Scotty to beam him up! First impressions can be deceiving when you meet courageous Its unforgettable images provide insight into the production of our food and answers and spirited Bill MacPhee, publisher of Schizophrenia Digest. MacPhee challenges that the question: "What does world hunger have to do with us?" After escaping from Castro's regime, Abelardo Morell emerges as a world renowned a man is more than a label, and definitions are a cramped geography. photographer. 40 years later, his return to Cuba uncovers the deepest layers of a man Monday, February 18 • 10:00am who must confront the past or forever live his exile. Filmed for more than seven years, Sunday, February 17 • 12:15noon Abelardo Morell's mysterious artistic process is divulged, creating an urgent narrative When Clouds Clear that skips across time and space. The Storytellers USA/Ecuador, 2007, 77 minutes, 16 mm & Super 8. NW Regional Premiere USA, 2007, 28 minutes, miniDV. Montana Premiere Directors: Anne Slick & Danielle Bernstein www.clearfilms.org Friday, February 15 • 8:00pm Jelly Helm Director: In the isolated cloudforest of the Andes, a community is threatened by a proposed Silhouette City From deep in the Rogue Valley of southern Oregon, seven thespians from the oldest, copper mine that would destroy their way of life forever. Thrust into a dangerous USA, 2007, 88 minutes, miniDV. Northwest Regional Premiere largest repertory theatre in America get into costume for what Time Magazine calls one world of corruption, splintered households, murder and arson, the people of Junín Director: Michael Wilson www.silhouettecity.com of the country’s top five theatre companies. This documentary follows the Oregon fight tenaciously to protect their land and families. Shakespeare Festival from the moment the curtain rises, and exposes them the sec- Silhouette City is a harrowing free-fall through the near space of American religious ond the curtain falls. A passionate look into the revelatory power of story. Monday, February 18 • 12:45pm extremism. Its emerging, apocalyptic mass movement seeks dominion over all aspects of contemporary society. Investigating the ideological echoes between an obscure Saturday, February 16 • 4:45pm Wild Horse Redemption Christian survivalist group from the 1970’s-80’s and today's mainstream Christian Right, the film reveals a political force seeking to usher in “The Kingdom of God” by any Unfettering the Falcons USA, 2007, 90 minutes, HD. United States Premiere means necessary, thrusting us all into a dramatic endtimes conflict. Director: John Zarotsky www.pointgreypictures.com USA, 2007, 8 minutes, DVCam. Montana Premiere Directors: Niklas Vollmer & Laura Kissel [email protected] [email protected] At a prison in the high desert foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, hard-core criminals are given 90 days to tame wild mustangs. The volunteers for the program It's a road movie meets nature flick! This film questions the false gender identity of the have never trained a horse before or even ridden one. Can a wild creature be rehabili- Atlanta Falcons football team, when bird-of-prey experts (who are identical twins) tated and socialized for safe interaction with humans? Can two wild creatures—prison- spark a courtship between an American Kestrel Falcon and a 1991 Toyota Tercel. er and mustang—help each other to a better life?
Monday, February 18 • 5:30pm Up the Yangtze China, 2007, 94 minutes, HD. Northwest Regional Premiere Director: Yung Chang www.uptheyangtze.com A luxury cruise boat motors up the Yangtze, navigating the waterway known in China as “The River.” The Yangtze is about to be transformed by the biggest hydroelectric dam in The Sky Below history. At the river’s edge, a young girl says goodbye to her family as floodwaters rise Wednesday, February 20 • 1:30pm towards their small homestead. In a dramatic documentary on life inside the 21st cen- The Sky Below tury Chinese dream comes a disquieting glimpse into a future that awaits us all. Wednesday, February 20 3:00pm Pakistan/India, 2006, 75 minutes, miniDV. Northwest Regional Premiere • Director: Sarah Singh www.sarahsingh.com Verve Wrath of Gods Friday, February 15 • 11:45am From their unresolved crises in Kashmir, the people of the divided NW regions have USA, 2007, 90 minutes, miniDV. Montana Premiere connections going back millennia. In 1947, a partition resulted in a legacy of suspicion. Director: Gabriel Miller & Patricia O'Brien www.seattlechannel.org/verve Wrath of Gods In this contemporary portrait of political unrest—from Kutch to Kashmir, Karachi to the Khyber Pass—emerges grounding realities of interwoven histories, cultures, and faiths. A series of portraits of diverse Seattle artists, Verve goes inside the artists' worlds, Iceland/Canada, 2007, 72 minutes, miniDV. Northwest Regional Premiere What lingers after 60 years of strained relations effects all—is reconciliation possible? creative processes, work, day to day lives, and who they are as people. Director: Jon Gustafsson www.WrathOfGods.com When Canadian director Sturla Gunnarsson went to Iceland to film Beowulf & Grendel, Tuesday, February 19 • 6:00pm Sunday, February 17 • 7:00pm they expected the usual complications. But what they encounter make them believe The Ville the Norse gods are wholly against them. While filming, the production team faces one A Snowmobile for George disaster after another, needing a miracle-like-force in order to complete this project. USA, 2007, 97 minutes, BetaCam. Northwest Regional Premiere USA, 2008, 17 minutes, Super 16mm. World Premiere Director: Todd Darling Director: Amy Bench [email protected] Tuesday, February 19 • 4:15pm Join the filmmaker as he motors across America in search of what drives environ- In its heyday, the Ville neighborhood was rich with notables; it was the place to be for Ya Shadad mental policy at the Bush White House. Fired up by a question over a used snow- black St. Louis residents. Alongside contemporary and archival images, 16 year-old Israel, 2008, 25 minutes, DV. World Premiere mobile in the Sierra Nevada, he visits Yurok Indians in Northern California, cowboys Jermaine and 80 year-old Kathryn reflect on living there today and why survival is more Director: Keren Shayo [email protected] in Wyoming, and Wall Street workers in New York. Delivered with a dry sense of real than history. A contemplation of race, identity, fear and acceptance . humor, the filmmaker discovers the personal cost of deregulation and—thanks to In the West Bank, a Palestinian farmer and his family live by the Israeli security barrier Tuesday, February 19 • 10:00am his snowmobile—uncovers a sophisticated political strategy. where their house is surrounded by fences on all directions. Considerations to relocate A Walk to Beautiful are negated by Palestinian Authority. His son grows resentful and keeps running away. Sunday, February 17 • 8:45pm In this family's deteriorating new reality, the farmer identifies the emotional and physi- USA/Ethiopia, 2006, 85 minutes, MiniDV/HDCAM. Northwest Regional Premier cal predicaments that trap them—and many others like them. Soldiers of Conscience Director: Mary Olive Smith www.engelentertainment.com USA, 2007, 86 minutes, HDV. Montana Premiere Ethiopian women who suffer from childbirth injuries are rejected by their husbands Directors: Gary Weimberg & Catherine Ryan www.socfilm.com and ostracized. They are left to spend their lives in loneliness and shame until a hospi- tal in Addis Ababa promises a cure. Filmed in the heart of Africa but taking place in the U.S. soldiers reveal their moral dilemmas about killing. Transcending worn, political hearts of these women, the trials they endure and attempts to rebuild their lives tell a rhetoric to comment on the human condition, the soldiers wrestle with duty and their universal story of hope, courage, and transformation. heart's guidance to prove the transformative power of the human conscience. Producing stories in AAHQUIFER real estate with Thank you to our happy endings! The Missoula aquifer, generous supporters, a shared resource. sponsors, advertisers and volunteers. Without you, the festival Supporting Independent Filmmaking. would not be possible. Supporting the Arts. www.mtnwater.com 406.728.8270 | fax 406.728. 2315
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