A
Chronicle of Corpses, USA 2001 Director: Andrew Repasky
McElhinney Running Time: 83 minutes
Philadelphia, San
Francisco, Rotterdam Film Festivals
A lushly detailed early
19th century period piece concerning the last days of a family of
once-wealthy aristocrats. The film is an elegiac thriller- a totally
unforgettable, sinister and darkly comic cryptogram.
A
Gentleman’s Game, USA 2001 Director: J. Mills
Goodloe Running Time: 111 minutes
A Gentleman’s Game
penetrates the layers of the Fox Chase Golf Club from it’s
well-heeled members to the caddies who observe the passions and
peccadilloes of the club’s players. Men bond and tempers boil over
perfect drives, missed putts and sand pits that trap a shot that
might just cost the game. A captivating tale, A Gentleman’s Game is
richly insightful, not only into the game of golf, but also into the
foibles that cost tournament victories and wind up changing
lives.
Told from Timmy Price’s (Mason Gamble) point of view,
A Gentleman’s Game captures the ties that bind men to the game of
golf and each other. An average guy who works hard and plays by the
rules, Jim Price (Dylan Baker) gains prestige through the
accomplishments of his son Timmy, who, at age twelve scoring 79 on
the course, is going to be a better golfer than his dad ever was.
When Timmy’s father sends him to be a caddy for the summer, Timmy
learns much more about the workings of the game than a “looper”
might suggest. Charlie Logan (Philip Baker Hall), one of the club’s
oldest members, remembers almost all of the club’s legendary
players, and his stories may be part of what made them legends.
Foster Pearse (Gary Sinese), once the U.S. amateur champ, has
disappeared from the game with a secret that nearly costs him his
life.
Angels of the Universe, Iceland,
2000 Director: Fridrik Thor Fridriksson Running Time: 97
minutes
Paul loses his grip on reality when his girlfriend is
easily persuaded to drop him by her wealthy parents who do not
appreciate the boy’s proletarian background. Unable to control his
temper or moods, his conduct becomes more erratic, and soon he is
diagnosed as schizophrenic.
He is placed in a mental
institution, which does not pretend to cure him, just separate him
from the rest of society and minimalize the damage he might wreak
around him.
Most of the film takes place within the walls of
this institution, focusing not only on Paul, but also on several
other inmates, and while it is unsparing in its penetrating
depiction of the torment of madness, it is told with such sympathy
for its characters, such humor, such strong lyrical dialogue, and
such lush and artful cinematography that the viewer is drawn
effortlessly inside Paul’s world.
Bikini
Bandits, USA 2001 Director: Steve Grasse Running Time: 59
minutes
Philadelphia’s own Steve Grasse’s collection of
shorts began as a series of shorts made for the Internet.
Entertainment Weekly called Bikini Bandits “like watching a Russ
Meyer flick while thumbing through Maxim and spraying Cheez Whiz
down your throat”. Lots of profanity, big breasted women, who are
real-life strippers, in small bikinis with guns. Starring Corey
Feldman, Jello Biafra, Dee Dee Ramone as the Pope and Maynard James
Keenan as the devil, Bikini Bandit’s best moments come courtesy of
“real people”, like the animated, taped phone conversations between
Grasse and the producer of the film.
Cheerleader
Ninjas, USA Director: Kevin Campbell Running Time; 96
minutes
When meddling, self-righteous Church Ladies
mistakenly believe that perky Happy Valley Hamster Cheerleaders are
responsible for the "Internet Smut" invading their children's
bedrooms, they decide to take action!
The Church Ladies
recruit Stephen, once rejected by the cheerleading squad, who burns
with the desire for revenge! Now teaching at a parochial school,
Stephen recruits slutty schoolgirls to beat some sense into those
cheerleading hussies who rejected him.
Dischord,
USA Director: Mark Wilkinson Running Time: 104
minutes
Rhode Island, Atlantic City, RiverRun, Marco Island
and Bare Bones Film Festivals
Gypsy’s music rocked the world
until the alternative rock violin star inexplicably disappears.
Soured by the industry_s commercialism, Gypsy (Annunziata Gianzero)
slips away with her husband, Lucian (Andrew Borba), a famous New Age
composer, to the desolate environs of off-season Cape
Cod.
Yet, even here, Gypsy cannot escape her talent and
celebrity. Lucian_s arrogant exterior thinly masks an element of his
professional jealousy, which threatens to destroy what little
remains of their once vibrant marriage.
While Gypsy searches
for personal and creative peace, the couple_s retreat is disrupted
by the unexpected arrival of Lucian_s estranged brother, Jimmy
(Thomas Jay Ryan). Unbeknownst to them, Jimmy is silently tormented
by his shattered past and has brutally killed his
girlfriend.
As a retired local detective (Dick Bakalyan)
closes in on Jimmy, another dead body turns up in the local waters.
Meanwhile, Jimmy is becoming increasingly captivated by Gypsy_s
free-spirited nature, and as Lucian further alienates Gypsy, she is
left in Jimmy_s more attentive company. When Jimmy and Gypsy become
friends, this unlikely bond between a tormented murderer and a pure
artist strains the delicate balance of nature into
discord.
Hamlet,
USA 2000 Director: Michael Almereyda Running Time: 112
minutes
A modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare’s immortal
story about Hamlet’s plight to avenge his father’s murder in New
York City. Ethan Hawke plays Hamlet with a superb supporting cast
including Julia Stiles as Ophelia, Bill Murray as Polonius, Live
Schreiber as Laertes and Sam Shepard as Ghost. Director Michael
Almereyda has effectively transposed many of the enduring themes of
this classic work to our contemporary high-tech
era.
Rifat is a Nationalist pensioner living in
western Turkey who instinctively sides with the police when they
raid the apartment next door and kill his Kurdish neighbors in an
exchange of gunfire. Yet he can’t resist offering his protection to
5-year-old Hejar, who miraculously survives the
blitz.
Writer-director Ipecki makes much of the language
question, using it as the hinge of Kurdish identity. Rifat
repeatedly tries to get Hejar to speak Turkish, which she can’t, and
gets angry when his housekeeper Sakine talks to Hejar in “forbidden”
Kurdish. Gradually, the straightlaced old judge is led to question
the national ban on speaking the language of the country’s 12
million-strong minority.
When, at the end, Rifat takes Hejar
back to her relatives in the southeast- in the film’s most
understated and successful section- he finds their poverty and
misery too horrifying to bear.
In Praise of
Love, France/Switzerland 2001 Director: Jean-Luc
Godard Running Time: 98 minutes
Realized in two sections,
Godard’s film takes place in Paris. Shot in luxuriant in black and
white, part one is about Edgar, a director involved in a project
that deals with the four stages of a love affair- meeting, sexual
passion, separation and rediscovery- as experienced by three
couples, one young, one adult, and one elderly.
During the
casting process, Edgar discovers a beautiful and enigmatic young
woman who it turns out, he had met earlier. She seems perfect for
his leading role, but their unresolved romantic feelings for each
other get in the way. When Edgar is finally ready to offer her the
part, he hears some tragic news that casts his mind back two years
to his first encounter with her.
The second segment of the
film, shot in striking, vibrantly saturated color video, takes Edgar
to the house of an elderly couple whose granddaughter is the woman
Edgar encounters later while casting the film. The couple, former
Resistance fighters during the war, are negotiating the sale of
their life story under Nazi occupation to Hollywood producers, and
reflecting on the past while wondering about the
future.
Jane White is Sick and Twisted, USA
2001 Director: David Michael Latt Running Time: 84
minutes
Hollywood Underground Film Festival, Houston’s
WorldFest, Bare Bones Film Festival
Kim Little stars as Jane,
an unstable female version of "Being There’s” Chance the Gardener,
whose life is so wrapped up in television that she imagines the
popular Jerry Springer clone "Gerry" (David L. Lander) to be her
long-lost father. Desperate to rejoin him and leave the orbit of her
agoraphobic, overprotective mother (Alley Mills), she sets out on a
quest to become any kind of sideshow freak that could conceivably
land a guest spot on "Gerry".
Open on Jack Carter, a gangster whose family is
being held captive by Mal Locke, a fallen crime lord. After his wife
Linda is executed for attempting an escape, and with Patrick, his
young son, in Mal’s clutches, Jack arranges to sell out his best
friend Savitch, a ruthless killer. Assisted by Rita, an
aide-de-camp, and Big Bertha, his lieutenant, Mal has concocted a
scheme to take revenge on Savitch, who had left him for dead many
years ago.
This hilarious satire is to action movies what
SCREAM is to horror..
Loaves,
USA 2000 Director: Shannan Keenan Running Time: 73
minutes
In this heartland tale of love, ill-fated murder
plots and day-old bread loaves, a dimwitted man hires his equally
dimwitted cousin to murder his wife, only to have unexpected
results.
Lying Beside
You, USA 2001 Director: Joe Valenti Running Time: 106
minutes
New York & Los Angeles International Film
Festivals
A romantic comedy dealing with the fact that love,
lies and filmmaking do not mix, while also showing the trials and
tribulations of making an independent film.
One
Man’s Ceiling, USA 2002 Director: Richard LaPorta Running
Time: 102 minutes
Tribeca Film Festival, European Film
Market- Berlin, IFP Market- New York
One Man's Story: A
not-so-successful architect and would-be artist, with a broken-down
car, married without kids, whose wife is ready to start a family,
reaches the end of his rope with an inconsiderate upstairs neighbor.
What does it take to make a change in life? It’s not always that
earth shattering. Sometimes a long, slow burn can result in an
epiphany.
Franco Zefferelli’s Romeo and Juliet beautifully
brings William Shakespeare’s tragic drama to the big screen. The
lyrical score by Nino Rota and the splendid period costumes combine
with the sensuous cinematography to evoke the Italian Renaissance’s
setting perfectly.
In keeping with the specifications of the
original play, Zefferelli made a daring move in casting the film.
For the first time in movie history, two teenage actors portray
Shakespear’s tragic protagonists. Olivia Hussey as Juliet and
Leonard Whiting as Romeo physically fit the roles
exactly.
Romeo and Juliet was nominated for four Academy
Awards, and won for cinematography and costume
design.
Scotland, PA, USA, 2001 Director: Billy
Morrissette Running Time: 111 minutes
Scotland, PA is a
black comedy retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, set against the
backdrop of a fast-food restaurant in the early ‘70’s in rural
Pennsylvania. This classic tale of guilt and betrayal centers on the
McBeths, Joe “Mac” (James LeGros) and Pat (Maura Tierney), who are
stuck in their dead end jobs at Duncan’s restaurant. Pat is getting
restless and hatches a plan as Mac starts to see things- three
hippies (Andy Dick, Amy Smart and Timothy Levitch) to be
exact.
Their boss, Norm Duncan (James Rebhorn), is a
visionary who has dreams of turning his restaurant into a fast food
empire. His idea will revolutionize the fast food industry and
nobody knows about it- not the happy customers in his small town,
his employees, or his two dysfunctional teenage sons, Malcolm and
Donald. When Norm meets with a bizarre death, Lieutenant Ernie
McDuff (Christopher Walken) is called in to
investigate.
Things seem to work out well for Mac and Pat
after Malcolm and Donald sell the restaurant to them, until their
friend and coworker Anthony “Banko” Banconi (Kevin Corrigan) starts
becoming suspicious as people begin to disappear.
The bodies
continue to drop as Mac’s visits from the three hippies become more
frequent, and Pat, with a few obsessions of her own, starts to break
down. With McDuff hot on the trail, the McBeth’s dream of fame,
fortune and french fries crumbles before their
eyes.
Seduction of the Will, USA 2001 Director:
Jim Starr Running Time: 115 minutes
New York, Santa Fe,
Philadelphia, Los Angeles Film Festivals
Leni Riefenstahl:
greatest woman filmmaker of all time or a master Nazi propagandist?
A pawn in the game of politics, or did she knowingly help Hitler
secure his Third Reich?
These questions dog Leni Riefenstahl.
It’s 1945. Germany is ruined. So too, it seems, is Riefenstahl as
she faces these hard questions from U.S. Army investigators. She
tells them her story, and slowly, the layers of lies and fact are
peeled away to reveal what this woman did to create great art, and
even greater controversy.
Fifteen years earlier: Young Leni
gives up her successful career as a dancer for a bawdy new venture:
movies. Soon, she’s starring in Mountain Films, and learning the
craft of filmmaking. She resolves to make her own films. Remarkably,
her directorial debut is a critical success, and its romantic,
heroic themes bring her to the attention of a rising star in German
politics- Adolph Hitler.
Hitler asks her to produce a
documentary that will capture the essence of his Party on film for
the world to see. She tries to delegate the project, but at a
fateful confrontation with Hitler in Nuremberg, it’s clear that the
Fuehrer of Nazi Germany has made his choice and his will must be
obeyed. The project brings her into the conflict with the man who
most covets the Fuehrer’s attention- the Reich Minister for
Propaganda, the dark, shriveled genius Dr. Goebbels.
Despite
the immensity of the project and interference from Goebbels and his
Storm Troopers, “Triumph of the Will” is completed to nationwide
acclaim. Riefenstahl is then commissioned to document the 1936
Summer Olympics in Berlin.
Finally, art is overshadowed by
life: Kristalnacht; the Jewish Question; and the Invasion of Poland,
where Riefenstahl witnesses the horror of Nazi ideology in practice.
Shaken, she returns to Berlin to confront Hitler with these facts,
only to find her fate is in the hands of her hated enemy,
Goebbels.
A broken woman, all that remains for Riefenstahl
now is the decision to the U.S. Army investigators. Will she, too,
be tried in Nuremberg? Certainly she’s guilty. But of
what?
Simply
Being, USA 2002 Director: Lu Marin Running Time: 85
minutes
An ex-con in search of peace and happiness renounces
his familiar wayward path for a simple life.
The
Haven, USA 2001 Director: Andrew Bowen Running Time: 111
minutes
New York, Long Beach, Vermont, Ojai Independent Film
Festivals
We all search for a place to belong, a home, and
for Trevor McCaffery and this three best friends, that place has
always been the Haven, a makeshift camp in the Connecticut mountains
that they have come to all their lives. After graduation from
college, the friends make a pact to spend one last summer there
before they head out into the real world. Through their
often-humorous adventures in urban night life, the film chronicles
their last months together as they are forced to come to terms with
their lives, the inevitable changes that accompany adulthood and the
night that none of them could have prepared for…
The
Taming of the Shrew, Italy 1966 Director: Franco
Zefferelli Running Time: 126 minutes
This was the
directorial debut for Franco Zefferelli, and it’s Shakespeare with a
real zest; a treat to both scholars and film lovers.
Richard
Burton and Elizabeth Taylor bring gusto and ferocity to their roles
as Katherine and Petruchio in the quintessential battle of the
sexes, a vibrant adaptation of the classic Shakespeare play. The
roles of these battling lovers are perfectly suited to Burton and
Taylor, whose passionate and publicized love affair was in full
flower at the time.
The realistic period detail is lovingly
photographed by Luciano Trasatti, while Nina Rota contributes a
lively score.
The War on the War on Drugs, USA
2002 Director: Cevin Soling Running Time: 87
minutes
Comprised of over 60 independent short scenes shot in
a wide variety of cinematic styles, The War On The War On Drugs
parodies drug war propaganda and those who insist we fight the drug
war at any cost.
The Zookeeper, Denmark/UK/Czech
Republic/The Netherlands, 2001 Director: Ralph Ziman Running
Time: 108 minutes
A disillusioned ex-Communist is left behind
to take care of the animals in the capital’s zoological gardens
until a U.N. rescue force arrives. Sam Neill plays the zookeeper,
who finds himself forced to come to terms with the mess he’s made of
his own life. The film is gritty and realistic, showing the effects
of war on both man and beast.
Warm
Water Under a Red Bridge, Japan 2001 Director: Shohei
Imamura Running Time: 119 minutes
2001 Cannes
International Film Festival, 2001 Toronto International Film
Festival, and 2001 New York International Film
Festival
Yosuke has been laid off, his wife has given up on
him and he’s living on the streets of Tokyo, constantly looking for
work. He stumbles upon an interesting story told by Taro, a homeless
wanderer. Taro tells Yosuke that he stole a valuable gold Buddhist
statue from a temple in Kyoto, and hid it in a house by a red bridge
in a town on the Noto Peninsula near the Sea of Japan.
When
Taro suddenly dies, Yosuke recalls the story of the Buddhist statue
and sets off to find it. Upon reaching the town, he meets a woman
named Saeko, who has mystical powers. Taro decides to stay in town
and gets a job with some fisherman.
Meanwhile, another
acquaintance from the streets of Tokyo, Gen, has also heard Taro’s
story, and arrives in town to ask about the long-missing golden
treasure.
A contemporary road movie in the tradition of FIVE
EASY PIECES, WORLD TRAVELER centers on Cal (Crudup,) a man to whom
everything in life has come easily. Possessing the sort of dashing
good looks and effortless charm that endears him to both women and
men, Cal enjoys success as an architect and shares a comfortable
West Village apartment with his lovely wife and adorable young son.
But, in a classic case of “watch-out-what-you-wish-for,” Cal finds
himself in his early 30’s with everything a man could want and with
his grasp far exceeding his reach. And so, in a gesture that is at
once completely sudden yet obviously long in-the-works, Cal hits the
road in the family car – but without the family.
On his
cross-country journey Cal takes a job as a day laborer, shares
drunken nights with a new-found buddy (Derricks), picks up a
hitchhiker (Balaban,) and tumbles into a series of rented beds with
a series of unquestioning, undemanding women (Allen and Moore). But,
with every encounter, the romance of the open road somehow eludes
him. Even though he is looking for something, Cal can’t escape the
fact that he is also running away from something, and what he has
left behind is worth more than what he hopes to find.
WORLD
TRAVELER premiered at this Fall’s Deauville and Toronto Film
Festivals and will be presented as part of the inaugural “American
Showcase” event at Sundance 2002. The film will open in exclusive
engagements beginning in April.
Ziggy Stardust and the
Spiders From Mars, USA 1973/1983/2002 Director: D.A.
Pennebaker Running Time: 91 minutes
The digitally
remastered glam-rock classic features David Bowie as his
gender-bending alter ego Ziggy Stardust, in his final performance
given at London’s Hammersmith Odeon in 1973. The original album
which inspired the show “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the
Spiders from Mars"”(named as one of the Greatest Albums of All Time
by both Rolling Stone and VH-1) celebrated its 30th anniversary on
June 6, 2002.
Outfitted in some of the most outrageous,
form-fitting, colorful outfits this side of Mars, David Bowie helped
invent glam-rock in the early 1970’s. With striking red hair, long
legs and a face of strikingly androgynous beauty, his Ziggy Stardust
was an inspiration for the recent glam-rock spoof, Hedwig and the
Angry Inch. In the movie, Bowie performs some of his greatest hits
including “Changes”, “All the Young Dudes”, “Suffragette City” and
“Ziggy Stardust”.
A Skin
Too Few: the Days of Nick Drake, The Netherlands
2000 Director: Jereon Berkvens Running Time: 48
minutes
One chilly autumn afternoon in 1974, Nick’s parents
were unable to wake their son. British singer-songwriter Nick Drake
(1948-1974) is one of rock’s most tragically romantic figures. “A
Skin Too Few” portraits this artists who symbolizes the destructive
effect of loneliness. Dutch director Jeroen Berkvens and Lithuanian
cameraman Vladas Naudzius depict the silent landscapes, people and
music from Drake’s life in an attempt to understand the tragedy of
this loner.
Between
Resistance & Community: The Long Island DIY Punk Scene, USA
2002 Directors: Joe Carroll & Ben Holtzman Running Time:
44 minutes
This documentary explores the Long Island
Do-It-Yourself punk scene, both in its success and its shortcomings
in attempting to create an alternative community.
Catching
Fire, USA, 2001 Director: William McMeekan, Jr. Running
Time: 59 minutes
"Catching Fire" chronicles 24 hours in the
life of a small New Jersey Fire Department as they work, train and
respond to emergencies
I Am Trying To Break Your
Heart, USA 2002 Director: Sam Jones Running Time: 92
minutes
The film began as a 16mm black & white
documentary by first-time filmmaker and award-winning photographer
Sam Jones about alt-country turned experimental rock band Wilco’s
recording of their forth album “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” (the album was
released on April 23, 2002). Initially intended to follow the
collaborative process of this handful of very creative artists
making a highly anticipated album, director Sam Jones soon had
unexpected human drama and corporate intrigue to contend with when
the band started breaking apart and their new album was rejected by
their record label, Reprise Records.
What ensued was a
bidding war that eventually led Wilco to sign with Nonesuch Records,
another label under the AOL/Time Warner umbrella. After its release
in April, the record received overwhelming critical acclaim, and
climbed to #13 on the Top 100.
In Honor, USA,
2002 Director: Erin M. Callaway Running Time: 41
minutes
A touching look at the memories of three WWII
veterans
Local 82, USA, 2000 Director: Doug
McLennan Running Time: 35 minutes
Inside look at local
"ski bums" in Aspen, Colorado.
A documentary about Crash
Test Dummies' drummer Mitch Dorge and his transition from
large-scale to up close and personal with his innovative and
inspiring performance "In Your Face and Interactive". You'll watch
as Mitch tries to find answers to difficul
A documentary that tracks the burgeoning
careers of three classical guitarists as they speak about their
lives, trials and love for music.
Promises, USA
with Arabic, Hebrew and English dialogue with English
subtitles Directors: Justine Shapiro and B.Z. Goldberg Running
Time: 106 minutes
Best Documentary, 74th Annual Academy
Awards Best Documentary, IFP Spirit Awards Truer Than Fiction
Award, IFP Spirit Awards
In 1995, Justine Shapiro traveled to
Israel and the Palestinian Territories to shoot an episode of Lonely
Planet. The strong words and violent emotions she encountered in her
Israeli cousins and in the Palestinian children she met inspired her
to make PROMISES.
PROMISES follows Goldberg’s journey as he
travels to Palestinian communities and settlements in the West Bank-
places he had never ventured before- and to the familiar
neighborhoods of Jerusalem. He meets seven Palestinian and Israeli
children between the ages and nine and thirteen.
When two of
the children, Israeli twins, see a Polaroid of one of the
Palestinian children, their curiosity is peaked, and they want to
visit him. The twins travel to the camp, and it is the first time
that the Palestinian children have ever seen anyone from “the other
side”. They share a meal, play soccer and begin to get close. But
the promise of friendship is short-lived as physical and cultural
obstacles intercept their hopes of becoming closer.
Two years
later in a sobering yet honest epilogue, the children share their
views on the “other”, their thoughts about the possibility of
meeting and their dreams for the future.
Ray 4 the
NBA, USA 2001 Director: Jim O’Donnell Running Time: 27
minutes
Ray, a 5'3" 30-year old student finally follows his
dream and tries to get into the NBA. He puts together an intramural
basketball team with hopes of being noticed by the NBA. Rays wonders
when he will get his day on the court.
STRUT!,
USA 2001 Director: Max Raab Running Time: 68
minutes
Hamptons International Film Festival, Philadelphia
Festival of World Cinema
STRUT! celebrates the world of the
Mummers and the Mummers Parade, the annual New Year’s Day event that
for 14 captivating hours transforms Philadelphia from the City of
Brotherly love to the world capital of Surrealism.
From the
parade’s pre-colonial roots and the evolutionary contributions of
European and African immigrants- to the Vaudeville slapstick
routines and the 4 _ minute Broadway shows- to the extraordinary
bonding of Mummers families, and the powerful loyalty of fraternity-
to the extraordinary exclusiveness and social tolerance of everyone
except the competition- STRUT! captures the pride, passion and pure
soul of America.
Shot with no specific script and improvised
on a day-to-day basis, the colorful and ebullient tale is told
through revealing interviews, vintage footage, captivating still
photographs and feel-good music. The result? A cinematic gem that’s
personal, epic, touching and funny. It’s American, but
quintessentially Philadelphia.
The
Endurance, USA 2001 Director: George Butler Running Time:
93 minutes
THE ENDURANCE recounts one of history’s greatest
tales of survival, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1914-1916 expedition to
Antarctica. The expedition, Shackleton’s third, followed the tragic
death of the famous English polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott.
Shackleton was determined to be the first to cross the Antarctic on
foot and claim this last great terrestrial prize for Britain. In
August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Shackleton’s Imperial
Trans-Antarctic Expedition set sail from Plymouth, England on board
the Endurance. A three-masted wooden sailing ship _ a barkentine _
she was designed to withstand ice. Shackleton had named her
Endurance after his family motto, "By endurance we conquer." The
crew of 28 men would not be heard from again for nearly two
years.
In an act of astonishing foresight, Shackleton had
brought on the expedition Frank Hurley, a gifted Australian
photographer and cinematographer. More than one hundred of Hurley’s
stunning photos and extensive 35mm motion footage have survived. The
visual record provided by Hurley’s images, coupled with poignant
diary accounts by the men themselves, bring Shackleton’s expedition
alive in this remarkable film.
Director George Butler of
White Mountain Films together with WGBH/NOVA mounted a film
expedition to the Antarctic in 2001. This team filmed locations of
the original expedition, capturing scenes of striking and foreboding
beauty. The end result is a film unsurpassed in its compelling
narrative and breathtaking imagery.
The Poor Made By
God, Canada/China 2002 Director: Yu Qian Running Time: 48
minutes
A journey through a Roman Catholic village in remote
northwestern China
The Turandot Project, USA
2001 Director: Allan Miller Running Time: 84 minutes
In
1997, celebrated filmmaker Allan Miller began chronicling an
unprecedented cross-cultural collaboration. World-renowned conductor
Zubin Mehta and award-winning Chinese film director Zhang Yimou
(Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou) joined forces to produce Puccini's
opera Turandot in Florence, Italy.
Before the year was out,
an extraordinary opportunity arose: to stage Turandot in its
original setting of the Forbidden City of Beijing. The outdoor
production was an undertaking on an epic scale, including the
expansion of the site with the construction of huge new sets, the
creation of breathtaking hand-sewn Ming Dynasty costumes and the
adding of hundreds of soldiers and local extras, to lend a lavish
authenticity to the staging.
A fascinating chronicle
collaboration, The Turandot Project combines the pageantry of this
opulent opera production with a spectacular cinematic portrait of
the struggles and triumphs of Zubin Mehta and Zhang Yimou to mount
their production in this most historic venue of
China.
The Witness, USA 2000 Director: Jenny
Stein Running Time: 43 minutes
The Witness tells the story
of Eddie Lama, a construction contractor from a violent Brooklyn
neighborhood who was raised in a family with an aversion to animals.
Eddie describes his step-by-step journey to compassion for
animals.
Three
Nights At Ground Zero, USA 2002 Director: Matt
Siegel Running Time: 31 minutes
The film is based on
the personal experiences of 2 volunteer rescue workers at Ground
Zero during the week of 9/11/02.
Why Can’t We Be A
Family Again?, USA, 2002 Directors: Roger Weisberg and Murray
Nossel Running Time: 27 minutes
“Why Can’t We Be A Family
Again” is a cinema verité portrait of the bond that develops between
two brothers who long to be reunited with their mother. The film
chronicles their mother’s agonizing battle with crack addiction and
their grandmother’s struggle to keep the family
together.
Narrated by Ossie Davis, and shot over a three-year
period, this emotionally wrenching story reveals how two brothers
who were devastated by their mother’s addiction and neglect found a
way to thrive and redefine what it means to be a
family.
F I L
M F E S T I V A L
Wilmington Independent Film
Festival Presented by the City of Wilmington Film
Office
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