An Advertising Supplement to The Washington Post Filmfestth DC The 20 Annual Washington, DC International Film Festival April 19–30, 2006 202 628 film filmfestdc.org 20th Annual International Filmfest DC 2006 Festival Introduction Theatre Locations Festival screenings will take place at the following convenient venues: Welcome to Filmfest DC, Washington’s ★ AMC Loews Wisconsin Avenue ★ Regal Cinemas celebration of the best in world cinema! 4000 Wisconsin Ave., NW 701 7th St., NW Take Metro Red Line to the Take Metro Blue, Green, Orange, There is nothing like a Tenleytown Metro stop. Parking is Red, or Yellow line to the Metro great movie and the 20th available in the building for $2.00 Center or Gallery Place/Chinatown Anniversary edition of with a validated parking ticket. Metro stops. Three hours of free parking with validation are avail- Filmfest DC promises to ★ Avalon Theatre able at Gallery Place Parking on 6th deliver an exceptional 5612 Connecticut Ave., NW Street between G and H Streets. entertainment experience. Prepare to be amused, ★ The Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre Other Locations provoked, and inspired by ★ 4200 Wisconsin Ave, NW Busboys and Poets extraordinary new films 14th and V Streets, NW Take Metro Red Line to the Take Metro Green line to the from some of the world’s Tenleytown Metro stop. Paid U Street/Cardozo Metro stop. most talented and innova- parking is available in the building along Van Ness Sreet and at 4000 tive filmmakers. From Rio ★ Embassy of Canada Wisconsin Avenue. to Reel, our selection of 501 Pennsylvania Ave., NW new films from Brazil, takes ★ Landmark’s E Street Cinema ★ us to the country that gave 555 11th St., NW Embassy of France Photo: Chad Evans Wyatt Evans Chad Photo: us Dona Flor and Her Two Take Metro Blue, Green, Orange, 4101 Reservoir Road, NW Tony Gittens, Festival Director, and Shirin Red, or Yellow Lines to Metro Husbands, Bossa Nova, and Ghareeb, Assistant Director ★ Center and/or Gallery Place/ GW’s Lisner Auditorium Pelé. Our Hip-Hop 4 Reel Chinatown stops. Three hours 730 21st St., NW. series explores this American urban phenomena and its influence on of reduced rate parking is avail- Take Metro Orange or Blue Lines 2 popular culture throughout the world. able in the adjacent garage (with to Foggy Bottom/GWU Metro stop. validation), Monday through Friday after 6 pm and anytime ★ National Gallery of Art As the festival has flourished, we are more aware than ever of the on weekends. East Building Auditorium, important role it plays in our city’s cultural life. We greatly value the 4th St. & Constitution Ave., NW. opportunity to create this platform from which talented filmmakers Take Metro Green or Yellow Lines to can tell their stories with passion, humor, and integrity. Filmfest DC is Archives/Navy Memorial Metro stop. an adventure and we invite you to join us. Ticket Information General Admission is $9.00. the first show of the day. Cash or Special Admissions are noted. check sales only at the theatres. Tony Gittens Tickets are available through Free events are available on Festival Director and Executive Director, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Tickets.com and by calling (800) a first-come, first-serve basis. 955-5566, or at all Olsson’s Reservations are not accepted and Books and Records and CD tickets are not required. Table of Contents Game Exchange stores. Director’s Pass: Ten-ticket package valued at $90.00 will be discount- Theatre Locations . 2 Tickets are also available through ed to $80.00. Available through Ticket Information . 2 the Filmfest DC Web site (www. Tickets.com BY PHONE ONLY (not filmfestdc.org) or the Tickets. applicable for Opening and Closing Opening Night. 3 com Web site at www.tickets. Nights or Special Events). Closing Night . 3 com. Call Tickets.com at (800) Filmfest DC Highlights. 4-5 955-5566 from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 Take Metrobus or Metrorail Feature Film Descriptions. 6-11, 14-21 p.m. Monday through Sunday for tickets. No advance tickets are to Filmfest DC Festival Schedule . 12-13 available at theatres. No Tickets. Filmfest DC Staff and Special Thanks . 22 com sales the day of the show. Print Sources . 23 Tickets may also be purchased Film Index . 23 at the theatre one hour before Sponsors. 24 An Advertising Supplement to The Washington Post 20th Annual International Filmfest DC 2006 Opening Night Wednesday, April 19 Gabriel Byrne Wah-Wah Richard E. Grant United Kingdom/France, 2005, 99 minutes, color Filmfest DC special guest Gabriel Byrne, star of Miller’s Crossing, The Usual Suspects, and many others, gives perhaps the strongest and most well-rounded performance of his distin- guished career in Wah-Wah, a mischievous, superbly acted, and utterly confident directorial debut from popular actor Richard E. Grant. The semi-autobiographical work takes its name from such impenetrable British slang as “toodle-pip” and “hubbly-jubbly,” and Grant’s obvi- ous affection for Swaziland and its people shines through in every widescreen frame. Among the superlative ensemble cast are Julie Walters and British character stalwarts Celia Imrie, Julian Wadham, and Fenella Woolgar. The film is set in Swaziland in the mid-1960s, when 11-year-old Ralphie Compton (Zachary Fox) witnesses the indiscretion of his mother, Lauren Opening Night Sponsor (Miranda Richardson) with the best friend of his father, Harry (Gabriel Byrne). Harry’s public wrath and subsequent drinking prompts Lauren’s departure and Ralphie’s banishment to boarding school, events played out in front of the entire expatriate community. Two years later, Ralph (Nicholas Hoult) returns to find his father remarried to a brassy American air hostess, Ruby (Emily Watson). A movie to cherish on an evening to celebrate, Wah-Wah grandly and officially kicks off the third decade of Filmfest DC.—Eddie Cockrell Wednesday, April 19, GW’s Lisner Auditorium, followed by gala reception, $40.00 ★ In Person: Star Gabriel Byrne who will be Introduced by Sydney Pollack 3 Closing Night Sunday, April 30 Housewarming Brigitte Rouan France/United Kingdom, 2005, 95 minutes, color A thoroughly unexpected and lightning-fast comedy from director Brigitte Rouan, Housewarming is perhaps the perfectly pitched coda to a 20th anniversary Filmfest DC. A hard-charging and beautiful Parisian immigration lawyer who literally dances around the prosecution, Chantal (Carole Bouquet) puts her bankroll alongside her beliefs by hiring a United Nations in miniature of illegal aliens to connect an upstairs flat to the apartment she shares with dope-smoking son Martin (Ferdinand Chesnais) and pre-pubescent daughter Pulcheria (Giulia Dussollier). Whether she’s trying to visualize the “well of light” promised by the hyperkinetic Colombian architect, fend off the comically elaborate advances of a bearish Russian suitor, or deal with the eccentricities of the various laborers who gleefully destroy her walls and expensive tiling, Chantal is the model of tolerance. Warm and benevolent even in the midst of its comedic flights-of-fancy, Housewarming (the original French translates loosely as “Remodeling: You know when it starts but not when it’ll be over”) pauses to ponder the tensions and frustrations of the disenfranchised in Paris, while offering Chantal the chance to do an impromptu Hip-Hop breakdance for a hard-hearted magistrate. Energetic proof of cinema’s ability to simultaneously educate and entertain, Housewarming is a sunny screwball sendoff. See you next year at Filmfest DC.—Eddie Cockrell IN FRENCH, RUSSIAN, SPANISH, ITALIAN, AND ENGLISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES Sunday, April 30, 4:00 pm, Regal Cinemas, followed by a party at Lucky Strike, $15.00 Closing Night Sponsor An Advertising Supplement to The Washington Post 20th Annual International Filmfest DC 2006 Filmfest DC Highlights 2006 From Rio to Hip-Hop 4 Reel Hip-Hop: From the Street to the Screen Reel: The New The voices, beats, and rhymes of Hip-Hop have traveled from America’s cities to communi- Saturday, April 22, 4:30 to 6:30 pm, Busboys Brazilian Cinema ties around the globe. This year’s Filmfest DC and Poets, 14th and V Streets, NW presents a series of films exploring the growth Brazilian film is hot again and is currently under- and influence of this popular art form. Once Directors of films in the Hip-Hop 4 Reel series going a second renaissance. Filmfest DC pres- considered a unique expression of America’s discuss the making of their work, their influences ents a series of new features and documentaries urban streets, Hip-Hop music, dance, art, fash- and how they view the future and impact of Hip- reflecting this new trend. Our series includes ion, and social awareness have been absorbed Hop culture. Romeo and Juliet Get Married, the new film from by a diverse audience of young people around Bruno Barreto (who gave us Dona Flor and Her the world. The Hip-Hop culture continues to • Moderator: Mona Ibrahim, Director of Two Husbands), as well as wonderfully entertain- serve as a medium for voices that may other- Community Building and Preservation, Hip-Hop Association ing documentaries on Bossa Nova and soccer leg- wise go unheard. Fortunately, Hip-Hop refuses end Pelé. The energy and momentum we find in to go mainstream and still flourishes amongst • Thomas Gibson, Director, Letter to the today’s Brazilian cinema has not been seen since the creative minds that gave it life. Films in the President the 1960s’ Cinema Novo movement. Due to fund- series are drawn from Cuba, Senegal, Palestine, • Maori Karmael Holmes, Director, Scene ing shortage, cinema in Brazil all but completely Morocco, Kenya, and the USA. Filmmakers will Not Heard disappeared by the mid-1980s. Fortunately, cir- be on hand to discuss their work • Byron Hurt, Director, Beyond Beats and cumstances have improved and the innovative, Rhymes crowd-pleasing films audiences have come to Films in the Hip-Hop 4 Reel Series • Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi, Director, Inventos: expect from the world’s fifth-largest country have • Beyond Beats and Rhymes: A Hip-Hop Hip Hop Cubanos 4 returned to the screen.