Opening Night: Back and Forth: A Program of Shorts Curated by Courtney Egan
| 55m | shorts program |
Curator Courtney Egan presents a program of locally produced shorts that explore “before and after.” Short films made before the storm and flooding of 2005 will be contrasted with work made since, presenting similar subjects seen through different eyes, at different times. What things used to be like, what it’s like now, who gets to tell the story — how do these things shape what’s to come?
Includes short films and excerpts by Royce Osborn, Helen Hill, music video director Will Horton, Walter Williams (of Mr. Bill Fame) Earlneka Royale of Students at the Center, J. Bogas, the Yes Men, NOCCA Student Helen Schmehl, the New Orleans Kid Camera Project, Laura Belsey with Babs Johnson, and Survivors Village.
Some filmmakers present, Q&A to follow.
Tickets: $10
SCREENING:
4.12 7PM @ Canal Place Cinema
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A Girl Like Me
| 8m | Director – Kiri Davis |
A film about young Black girls and issues concerning the standards of beauty imposed on today’s black girls and how this affects their self-image. The film also reconducts the “doll test” initially conducted by Dr. Kenneth Clark, which was used in the historic desegregation case, Brown vs. Board of Education, shedding new light on how society affects black children today and how little has actually changed.http://www.reelworks.org.
SCREENING:
4.15 5PM @ Zeitgeist
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Ahlaam (Dreams)
| 110m | Director – Mohammed Al – Daradji | drama |
Baghdad 2003: confusion, uncertainty and death engulf the bombed ruins of a Psychiatric Asylum. A fiction film from post-war Iraq, shot with non-professional actors in the days after the US invasion. Note: film features scene that may be disturbing for sexual assault survivors.
SCREENING:
4.16 9PM @ Zeitgeist
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Alienated
| 28m | Director – Educational Video Center | doc |
Alienated gives voice to undocumented youth immigrants facing the challenges of life after high school with no options for legalized work or college. A determined young woman from St. Vincent commutes from Brooklyn to New Jersey to work as a nanny for $4 an hour, while another young woman from St. Lucia tells how she was detained in seven U.S. prisons between the ages of 17 and 20. Meanwhile, anti-immigrant groups rally around lobbying efforts that seek to impose ever-harsher policies and to ‘protect our borders.’ Through interviews with legal counselors, youth service providers, and activists on both sides of the immigration debate, Alienated examines what it means to be young, able and ‘illegal’ in America.
SCREENING:
4.13 6PM @ Ashé
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An Unreasonable Man
| 122m | Director – Henriette Mantel and Steve Skrovan | doc |
With the help of exciting graphics, rare archival footage and over forty on-camera interviews conducted over the past two years, “An Unreasonable Man” traces the life and career of Ralph Nader, one of the most unique, important, and controversial political figures of the past half century. http://www.anunreasonableman.com/
SCREENING:
4.13 9PM @ Zeitgeist
4.14 9PM @ Zeitgeist
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Bamako
| 118m | Director – Abderrahmane Sissako |
Melé is a bar singer, her husband Chaka is out of work and the couple is on the verge of breaking up… In the courtyard of the house they share with other families, a trial court has been set up. African civil society spokesmen have taken proceedings against the World Bank and the IMF whom they blame for Africa’s woes… Amidst the pleas and the testimonies, life goes on in the courtyard. Chaka does not seem to be concerned by this novel Africa’s desire to fight for its rights… “Needs to be seen, argued over, and seen again.” – NY Times.
SCREENING:
4.22 7PM @ Zeitgeist
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Boom
| 2m | Director – David Sullivan | experimental |
A short abstract film by New Orleans filmmaker David Sullivan.
SCREENING:
4.15 7PM @ Zeitgeist
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By Invitation Only
| 57m | Director – Rebecca Snedeker | doc |
Inclusion in New Orleans’ old line Carnival society remains “by invitation only,” but this new documentary gives viewers an unprecedented look at the inner workings of this insular world through the lens of one of its own. Questioning its racial exclusivity, filmmaker Rebecca Snedeker decided to forego the debutante tradition that was a birthright of women in her family – but still she could not ignore its hold on her identity. In this film, she follows another young woman’s ascension to her throne as a Mardi Gras queen, along the way revealing the tension between family and social status with both her own personal convictions and the winds of change in tradition-bound New Orleans. As Hurricane Katrina laid the cultural and racial complexities of the Crescent City bare, this film offers a probing and highly personal view into one of its oldest and most controversial traditions.
Filmmaker present for Q&A.
http://www.byinvitationonlythefilm.com/
SCREENING:
4.15 5PM @ Zeitgeist
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Canal Nueve
| 7m | Director – Jen Lawhorne and Arnaldo Pena | doc |
Canal Nueve (“Channel Nine”) explains how a march of neighborhood women arrived at a state television station asking for a space to get their voices on the air. Upon being denied by media executives, the women decided to stay and occupy the station. For a few weeks they operated the station on their own.
Filmmaker present for Q&A.
SCREENING:
4.15 7PM @ Zeitgeist
4.19 9PM @ Zeitgeist
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Cleveland Street Gap
| 3m | Director – Helen Hill and Courtney Egan | experimental |
Filmmaker Helen Hill recovered soggy home movies from her flooded house. These recent 16mm films, underwater for weeks, show haunting decayed imagery of lives so suddenly and drastically displaced by water. Cleveland Street Gap, edited by Courtney Egan, contrasts Helen’s neighborhood before and after the flooding.
SCREENING:
4.15 7PM @ Zeitgeist
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Color of Olives, The
| 92m | Director – Carolina Rivas | doc |
From Mexican director Carolina Rivas and cinematographer Daoud Sarhandi comes this elegant and visually breathtaking new film about the Palestinian experience. The Amer family lives surrounded by the infamous West Bank Wall, where their daily lives are dominated by electrified fences, locked gates and a constant swarm of armed soldiers. This unique and intimate documentary shares their private world, allowing a glimpse of the constant struggles and the small, endearing details that sustain them. THE COLOR OF OLIVES is an artistic and beautifully affecting reflection on the effects of racial segregation, the meaning of borders and the absurdity of war.http://www.thecolourofolives.com/
SCREENING:
4.20 7PM @ Zeitgeist
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Crossing Arizona
| 77m | Director – Joseph Matthew and Dan DeVivo | doc |
With Americans on all sides of the immigration issue up in arms and Congress embroiled in a knock-down-drag-out policy battle over how to move forward, Crossing Arizona shows how we got to where we are today. Crossing Arizona examines the crisis through the eyes of those directly affected by it. Frustrated ranchers go out day after day to repair cut fences and pick up the trash that endangers their livestock and livelihoods. Humanitarian groups place water stations in the desert in an attempt to save lives. Political activists rally against anti-migrant ballot initiatives and try to counter rampant fear mongering. Farmers who depend on the illegal work force face each day with the fear that they may lose their workers to a border patrol sweep. And now there are the Minutemen, an armed citizen patrol group taking border security into their own hands. As up-to-date as the nightly news, but far more in-depth, Crossing Arizona reveals the surprising political stances people take when immigration and border policy fails everyone. http://www.crossingaz.com/
SCREENING:
4.19 9PM @ Zeitgeist
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Fallujah
| 30m | Director – Hamudi Jasim, Brandon Jourdan, Jacquie Soohen | doc |
Fallujah starts out with a chronicle of events leading up to the November 2004 assault: The April 2003 massacres in Fallujah, when the U.S. opened fire on residents protesting the US military’s taking over their local school, killing 15 civilians; the four Blackwater private security contractors killed in March 2004; the April 2004 attack that failed to “secure” the city, and so on. Then, through compelling and emotional first-hand accounts and live-action cinema verite, the Deep Dish TV video provides a ground-level view of the effects of the November assault on the families who were unable to flee the city. Stories and images of maimed and injured children, as well as destroyed mosques, schools, and hospitals, glaringly contradict the official claims that there were no more civilians remaining in Fallujah when the attack began.
SCREENING:
4.14 7PM @ Zeitgeist
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Free Ya Hood
| 80m | Director – Free Your Hood Coalition | doc |
Free Your Hood Coalition is a NYC coalition working on issues of police brutality. This video highlights the Coalition’s work organizing against police brutality and informing community members about their rights when interacting with the police. The video also discusses “Rapintelpro,” the government’s profiling and targeting of the hip-hop community
SCREENING:
4.18 6PM @ Ashé
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Garlic and Watermelons US PREMIERE
| 56m | Director – Cameron Hickey and Lauren Feeney | doc |
Prokopis is a 36-year-old father with two precocious young sons and a new baby daughter. To support his family, he sells seasonal produce from the back of his red pickup truck: garlic in the spring, watermelons in the summer, potatoes in the fall, and holly around Christmas. He also collects and sells scrap metal. When his family is evicted from the settlement where they had lived for generations, his job becomes more difficult. Now, he has to come up with money for rent, water, and electricity every month. He is promised a subsidy from the local municipality, but the money proves elusive. Prokopis takes on a new role: as the unofficial representative of the group of forty families who were displaced to make room for the parking lot. He meets with human rights activists, shares his story with the international media that have descended on Athens in the months leading up to the Olympics, and brings his struggle to the mayor’s doorstep and finally to the courts. http://www.patternfilms.com/
SCREENING:
4.21 9PM @ Zeitgeist
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Hazards of Engagement
| 24m | Director – Sammy Loren | doc |
A New Orleans student visits Argentina and stays with social movements there. His visit raises questions about what is international solidarity..
SCREENING:
4.15 7PM @ Zeitgeist
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Heartlines
| 97m | Director – Angus Gibson | drama |
After serving a jail sentence for theft, Mayisa, a young man with a cruel past and an uncertain future, is released. He is offered a new chance at life by a well-meaning pastor, Jacob Musi. Jacob and Manyisa must learn that the road to redemption is not without pain.
SCREENING:
4.17 8:30PM @ Ashé
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Hide Your Words
| 24m | Director – Behnam Behzadi | doc |
A graceful and eloquent documentary about the plight of young girls in Iran and the reality of arranged marriages.
SCREENING:
4.15 7PM @ Zeitgeist
4.21 9PM @ Zeitgeist
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Jean Paul WORLD PREMIERE
| 9m | Director –Francesco Uboldi | doc |
Baloum is a very remote and pristine village up in the mountains of Western Cameroon. Jean Paul was born and raised there. He’s dying chained to a tree, victim of superstitions. He’s been left without food and water for days. Jean, the man who is in charge of his custody, talks about a magical ring. http://www.francescouboldi.com
SCREENING:
4.15 7PM @ Zeitgeist
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Just Married
| 72m | Director –Ayelet Bechar | doc |
This film follows Kifah and Sudah, two newly married Palestinian women, and their experiences with the Citizenship Law that has been in effect in Israel since 2003. Under the law, residents of Palestinian-ruled territories are forbidden to enter Israel, even if they are married to Israeli citizens. Bechar, by capturing each couple in its most private moments, reveals the personal drama that emerges from the political crisis. Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles.
SCREENING:
4.18 9PM @ Zeitgeist
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Kamp Katrina
| 73m | Director – Ashley Sabin and David Redmon | doc |
Ms. Pearl — a New Orleans native — converts her backyard into a tent city where 14 displaced people live for 6 months. She provides construction jobs and basic resources to help them assist in rebuilding the city. The situation gradually goes violently awry and she is confronted with an array of abuses amidst a broken city.
Filmmaker and Ms. Pearl present for Q&A.
http://www.carnivalesquefilms.com
SCREENING:
4.15 9PM @ Zeitgeist
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Katrina Story
| 35m | Director – 10th Ward Buck | doc |
New Orleans Bounce music superstar 10th Ward Buck tells his first-hand experience of being in New Orleans East as Katrina struck, his evacuation to the Houston Astrodome, as well as music performances, interviews with other New Orleans rappers, and more.
Filmmaker present for Q&A.
SCREENING:
4.21 7PM @ One Eyed Jacks
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Legacy of Torture
| 28m | Director –Andres Alegría, Claude Marks | doc |
The Freedom Archives. In 2005 several former members of the Black Panthers were held in contempt and jailed for refusing to testify before a San Francisco Grand Jury investigating a police shooting that took place in 1971. The government alleged that Black radical groups were involved in the 34-year old case in which two men armed with shotguns attacked the Ingleside Police Station resulting in the death of a police sergeant and the injuring of a civilian clerk. In 1973, thirteen alleged “Black militants” were arrested in New Orleans, purportedly in connection with the San Francisco events. Some of them were tortured for several days by law enforcement authorities, in striking similarity to the horrors visited upon detainees in Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib.
Special Program, featuring guest speakers:
Malik Rahim, former New Orleans Black Panther and founder of Common Ground
Kali Akuno, People’s Hurricane Relief Fund and SF8 Solidarity Campaign.
SCREENING:
4.13 6PM @ Ashé
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Leila Khaled: Hijacker
| 58m | Director – Lina Makboul | doc |
It was August the 29th, 1969 and TWA flight 840 had just taken off. The destination was Tel Aviv, Israel. A short while later a woman leaves her seat and threatens the crew with hand grenades and enters the cockpit. She takes hold of the microphone; “Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please, kindly fasten your seat belts. This is your new Captain speaking. The Che Guevara commando unit of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine…” 24 year old Leila Khaled had just completed her first hijacking and at the same time she became the first woman ever to hijack an airplane.http://www.leilakhaled.com/
SCREENING:
4.22 9PM @ Zeitgeist
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Letters from Beirut
| 20m | Director – Rick Rowley | doc |
This powerful film, shot in the days following the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon, follows one Beirut woman’s personal story of the devastation, as well as her search for the stories behind the photos of violence and loss she’s seen, in her work as a journalist.
SCREENING:
4.22 9PM @ Zeitgeist
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NOLA Students Speak Out! Special Shorts Program
| 40m |
Selections from the Ashe Cultural Arts Center youth filmmaking camp, NOCCA Student filmmakers, and Students at the Center.
Films Include:
NOCCA student filmmakers:
1. Beautiful by Querido Arias (2:30 min)
2. Exodus by Zachary Manuel (7 min)
Ashe Cultural Arts Center youth filmmaking camp:
1. Spilled Gumbo, Broken City, by Brandon (4 min)
2. Ghost Town by Tanisha (4 min)
3. South Tsunami by Ryan (4 min)
Students at the Center student films:
1. UN vs North Korea by Calvin Thompson (1:30)
2. Making a Choice by Keva Carr (4 min)
3. Jackie Seal by Kalamu Ya Salaam and SAC (9:45)
Some filmmakers present for screening.
SCREENING:
4.17 6PM @ Ashé
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Notes From Porto Alegre
| 28m | Director – Global Action Project Youth Producers | doc |
In January 2005, G.A.P. youth producers traveled to Porto Alegre, Brazil to participate in the World Social Forum. Using the WSF credo “Another World is Possible” youth interviewed activists who participate in local and global social movements, and filmed cultural and political activities in the Youth Camp, City of Hip Hop and other spaces at the WSF. Included are interviews with Sem Terra Movement (Brazil), Cooperativa Impa (Argentina), La Fábrica Ciudad Cultural (Brazil), Jubilee South (South Africa), Freedom of Expression Institute (South Africa).
SCREENING:
4.17 7PM @ Ashé
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Occupation 101
| 89m | Director – Abdallah Omeish and Sufyan Omeish | doc |
Occupation 101 presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions. The film also details life under Israeli military rule, the United States’ role, and sheds light on the major obstacles which stand in the way of a lasting and viable peace. Unlike any other film ever produced on the conflict -– ‘Occupation 101’ explains the situation in a comprehensive manner and gives audiences a complete context in which to better understand the Israeli-Palestinian encounter. The film depicts the root causes of the conflict through Israeli, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, American, and Palestinian voices that are rarely ever heard through mainstream media outlets. The film covers a wide range of topics — which include — the first wave of Jewish immigration from Europe of the 1880’s, the 1920 tensions, the 1948 war, the 1967 war, the first Intifada of 1987, the Oslo Peace Process, Settlement expansion, the role of the United States Government, the second Intifada of 2000, and also covers the recent Gaza Disengagement of August 2005.http://www.occupation101.com
SCREENING:
4.19 7PM @ Zeitgeist
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Palestinian Revolution Cinema
| 80m | Curated by Emily Jacir |
A special tribute to a group of filmmakers who have made significant contributions to various categories of Palestinian Revolution Cinema between the years of 1968 and 1982. Given the current political environment in Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon in 2007, it is especially important to screen these films that have slipped through the cracks of history. They are a visual testament to past events and offer us a glimpse of history from the perspective of the people who actually lived it, a perspective not sanctioned by the official US/European meta-narrative of the region. In the context of last summer’s Israeli invasion of Lebanon, screening Monica Maurer’s film Born Out of Death of the aftermath of the Israeli bombardment of Beirut in 1981 has an ever more present urgency. How does our frame of reference of the current dire and desperate situation for Palestinians shift when we see the 1974 Israeli destruction of the Palestinian refugee camp Nabatiya in Mustafa Abu Ali’s film They Do Not Exist? Films include: 1) Away from Home – Qais Il Zobaidi/Syria /11 min/ 1969. 2)The Visit – Qais Il Zobaidi/Syria/ 10 min/ 1970. 3) Children Nonetheless – Khadija Abu Ali/Palestine/ 25 min/1980. 4) They Don’t Exist – Mustafa Abu Ali/Palestine/ 25 min/ 1974. 5) Born Out of Death – Monica Maurer/ Palestine/ 9 min/ 1981. Click on film name for link to more detailed description. Please see here for more information and context on the program: Palestine Revolution Cinema
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Plagues And Pleasures on the Salton Sea
| 71m | Director – Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer | doc |
Once known as the “California Riviera,” the Salton Sea is now called one of America’s worst ecological disasters: a fetid, stagnant, salty lake, coughing up dead fish and birds by the thousands. Yet a few hardy eccentrics hang on to hope, including a roadside nudist waving at passing European tourists, a man building a religious mountain out of mud and paint, beer-loving Hungarian Revolutionary Hunky Daddy, and the real-estate “Ronald McDonald” known simply as The Landman. Through their perceptions and misperceptions, the strange history and unexpected beauty of the Salton Sea is revealed. Narrated by underground film icon John Waters.
Filmmakers Present for Q&A.
SCREENING:
4.22 5PM @ Zeitgeist
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The Present
| 8m | Director – Julietta Boscolo | doc |
Living in Sydney, Miyoko’s seemingly simple existence is complicated by the weakness of her body and the strength of her memories. A beautiful and surprisingly powerful film.
SCREENING:
4.15 7PM @ Zeitgeist
4.15 7PM @ Zeitgeist
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Ra Choi
| 120m | Director – M. Frank | doc |
Set in the Sydney suburbs; Ra Choi is the story of four street kids down on their luck and trying to make a life for themselves. It’s a moving and emotional journey where the strength of the human spirit is often the only hope they have in their intertwined lives. Ra Choi is a Vietnamese expression, which translated means “Coming out to play.” It refers to the immersion into street life. Dac Kien, Lanh, Trinh and Lucy and their friends are more than just kids on the street. They are family who cannot survive without each other’s support. They will soon discover the true meaning of friendship and loyalty.Note: film features scene that may be disturbing for sexual assault survivors. http://www.rachoi.com .
SCREENING:
4.21 5PM @ Zeitgeist
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Rainbow’s End
| 75m | Director – Jochen Hick & Christian Jentzsch | doc |
Rainbow’s End is a multinational journey exploring gay rights from the center to the borders of Europe. From parades and protests in Warsaw and Krakow to touching personal stories with social, religious and political insights, the film moves from street activism to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. A starting point for any timely and relevant discussion regarding the future of lesbian, gay, bi and transgender people within Europe and throughout the world. Canvassing the European countryside, Rainbow’s End covers significant territory:
SCREENING:
4.18 7PM @ Zeitgeist
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Road to Guantanamo
| 75m | Director – Michael Winterbottom | doc |
Part documentary, part drama, this stunning and powerful film tells the story of the ‘Tipton Three’ three young British men from Tipton who were captured by the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan in 2001 and detained as “enemy combatants” at Guantánamo Bay, without charge or legal representation, for nearly three years. As well as interviews with the three men themselves and archive news footage from the period, the film contains an account of the three men’s experiences following their capture by the Northern Alliance, the subsequent handover to the United States military and their detention in Cuba. The Tipton Three were all released without charge in 2004. http://www.roadtoguantanamomovie.com/
SCREENING:
4.16 7PM @ Zeitgeist
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¡Salud!
| 92m | Director – Connie Field | doc |
A timely examination of human values and the health issues that affect us all, ¡Salud! looks at the curious case of Cuba, a cash-strapped country with what the BBC calls ‘one of the world’s best health systems.’ From the shores of Africa to the Americas, !Salud! hits the road with some of the 28,000 Cuban health professionals serving in 68 countries, and explores the hearts and minds of international medical students in Cuba — now numbering 30,000, including nearly 100 from the USA. Their stories plus testimony from experts around the world bring home the competing agendas that mark the battle for global health—and the complex realities confronting the movement to make healthcare everyone’s birth right.http://www.saludthefilm.net
Film Introduced by Actor/Producer Danny Glover and New Orleans youth with Fyre Youth Squad.
SCREENING:
4.14 5PM @ Zeitgeist
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USA vs Al-Arian
| 99m | Director – Line Halvorsen | doc |
An activist Arab family in Tampa Florida is targeted by the US government. The film shows a personal story of a family living in a society where fear of terrorism has resulted in increasing stigmatization and discrimination against Muslims. For years, Nahla Al-Arian and her children have been fighting to prove the innocence of husband and father Sami, a Palestinian refugee, university professor and civil rights activist, who has lived in the USA for more than thirty years. In 2003, Sami Al-Arian was accused of giving material support to a terrorist organization and held in solitary confinement for over three years. His six-month trial ended without a single guilty verdict. The failure to convict Dr. Al-Arian was seen as a stinging rebuke for the federal government. While the Bush administration considered this a landmark case in its campaign against international terrorism, Sami Al-Arian claims he has been targeted in an attempt to silence his political views. Because the jury hung on some of the counts, however, Dr. Al-Arian remained in jail as the prosecution threatened to retry him.http://www.usavsalarian.com/
SCREENING:
4.20 9PM @ Zeitgeist
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Vital Voices: Special Shorts Program
| 95m |
A selection of powerful, poetic, and beautiful short films from around the world. Films include Present, Cleveland Street Gap, Canal Nueve, White Feathers, Boom, Jean Paul, Hide Your Words, and Hazards Of Engagement. (See individual descriptions for short films, listed in alphabetical order.
SCREENING:
4.15 7PM @ Zeitgeist
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White Feathers
| 8m | Director – Rebecca Scott |
A young African woman is being initiated into an African ceremony with an unacceptable past. Within this ceremony Female Genital Mutilation is believed to cleanse woman and promote virginity, women cannot be respected as an adult unless they have undergone this procedure.
