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AMERICA SO BEAUTIFUL
Directed by Babak Shokrian
2001 – USA – 90 min
In competition - East Coast premiere
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 |
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An Iranian immigrant,
driven by a desire to belong, dreams of owning a glittery nightclub and
escaping work at his uncle's Los Angeles market. To enlist the support
of his friends he shows them a piece of his dream – a night at a disco.
But his desperate night of attempted assimilation is full of
disappointment, hilarity and confusion on the dance floor. Set against
the 1980s U.S./Iranian hostage crisis, the film is a moving search for
identity and culture and an insightful dissection of the American dream.
With Mansour, Diane Gaidry, Alain DeSatti, Fariborz David Diaan, Atossa
Leoni, Ali Reza Momeni and Houshang Touzie
Babak
Shokrian was born in Teheran, Iran in 1965. In 1971, he and his family
moved to Los Angeles. He attended USC and UCLA, graduating from the
latter with a degree in anthropology, with an emphasis in ethnographic
film. While at UCLA, Babak also studied acting and directing at
Burbank’s Victory Theatre, under director Maria Gobetti. After
graduating from UCLA, Babak pursued a career in the Los Angeles film
industry, learning all aspects of filmmaking by working in the
production, art and editing departments on various commercial and
feature film projects. During this period, Babak wrote a short film,
Peaceful Sabbath, which he also produced and directed. Peaceful
Sabbath enjoyed critical acclaim in the Los Angeles press before
being accepted into a traveling exhibition in American and European
festivals. In this film, Babak began to explore the themes of
conflicting cultures and ethnic identity, which were to form the basis
of America So Beautiful. Babak is currently working on the second
installment of his anticipated trilogy.
Producer:
Jane Reardon ï
Co-Producers: Willard Morgan, Marianne Slot, David F. Davoodian
ï
Screenwriters: Babak and Brian Horiuchi
ï
Director of Photography: Tom Ryan
ï
Original Score: Loga Rami Torkian (Axiom of Choice)
ï
Editors: Mary Stephen, Andrew Sommers
Screening with
SITE |
BLUE CAR
Directed by Karen Moncrieff
2002 – USA – 96 min
In competition -
East Coast
premiere
|
 |
9/20 - 6:30pm at Upstate I ($10)
9/22 - 2:30pm at Tinker St ($10)
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Blue Car
invites us into the teenage psyche of Meg, a gifted but emotionally
scarred eighteen-year-old who finds solace in writing poetry. Her English
teacher recognizes her talent and steps in as a mentor and father figure,
encouraging her to enter a national poetry contest. As tension at home
escalates and Meg struggles to find a way to get to the poetry finals, her
teacher’s role in her life becomes increasingly complex. The film pushes
emotional buttons and questions our attitudes about forbidden love. With
Agnes Bruckner, David Strathairn, Frances Fisher and Regan Arnold.
Karen Moncrieff received the Nicholls Fellowship
in Screenwriting for Blue Car, and has written and directed several
short films, including the award-winning Galatea's Make-up.
After graduating from Northwestern University, Karen completed the
certificate program in film studies at Los Angeles City College. She
recently scripted an adaptation of Edith Wharton's Summer, and is
polishing up an original drama, The Sword Man. Blue Car
is her first feature.
Producer:
Peer Oppenheimer
ï
Director of Photography: Rob Sweeney
ï
Editor: Toby Yates
ï
Print Courtesy of Miramax.
Screening
with Jim Jarmusch's
INT.
TRAILER - NIGHT
|
BOUND FOR GLORY
Directed by Hal Ashby
1977 – USA – 147 minSpecial
twenty-fifth anniversary screening in honor of producer Harold Leventhal, cinematographer
Haskell Wexler and the lasting legacy of Woody Guthrie |
 |
9/19 - 1:30pm
at Tinker Street Cinema ($5)
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|
Based on the life of
Woody Guthrie, Bound for Glory explores the social, economic
and political hardships that molded the legendary folk singer’s beliefs.
Beginning with his life in Texas and his horrific experiences in the
Southwest Dust Bowl, the film follows Guthrie as he moves to California to
begin his radio career. There he discovers the political power of music,
which he harnesses by writing and singing his own songs. With David
Carradine, Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon and Gail Strickland.
Hal Ashby (1929–1988) was admired for his ability to work with
actors and for his skills as an editor. Beginning in the early 1970s, he
produced a string of hits that
included
Harold and Maude,
The Last Detail,
Shampoo, Bound
for Glory, Coming Home and
Being There.
Bound for Glory broke new ground as the first feature film
in which the Steadicam was used. For his brilliant work, director of
photography Haskell Wexler, A.S.C. took home an OscarÒ
statuette. The film, which was produced by Harold Leventhal, was also
recognized for its score, which was based on Guthrie's own music.
Producers:
Robert F. Blumofe, Harold Leventhal, Jeffrey M. Sneller
ï
Associate Producer: Charles Mulvehill
ï
Writers: Robert Getchell, Woody Guthrie (book)
ï
Director of Photography: Haskell Wexler
ïOriginal
music:
Leonard Rosenman
ï
Editors: Pembroke J. Herring, Robert C. Jones
ï
Print courtesy of MGM. |
CRADLE WILL ROCK
Directed by Tim Robbins
1999 – USA – 132 min
|
 |
9/20 - 10am at Tinker Street Cinema ($8)
|
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Special
screening in honor of Tim Robbins, the 2002 Woodstock Film Festival Maverick
Award recipient
As the art and
theater world of 1930s New York City is exploding in a cultural revolution,
labor strikes are breaking out throughout the country. Against this backdrop, a
paranoid ventriloquist tries to rid his vaudeville troupe of communists and
young Orson Welles directs his Federal Theater group in an infamous stage
production of Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock that is
closed down on the eve of its opening by U.S. soldiers. Based on true events,
the film relives an exciting and dangerous time in American history when
individual courage prevailed over censorship and artists risked their livelihood
by continuing to perform and paint according to conscience. With Hank Azaria,
Ruben Blades, Joan Cusack, John Cusack, Bill Murray, Vanessa Redgrave, Susan
Sarandon and John Turturro.
Executive
Producers:
Frank Beacham, Louise Krakower, Allan F. Nicholls
ï
Producers: Lydia Dean-Pilcher, Jon Kilik, Tim Robbins
ï
Associate Producer: Allison R. Hebble
ï
Director of Photography : Jean-Yves Escoffier
ï
Original Music: David Robbins
ï
Nonoriginal Music: Marc Blitzstein (songs)
ï
Editor: Geraldine Peroni
ï
Print
courtesy of Buena Vista.
CHICO
Directed and written by Ibolya Fekete
2001 - Hungary - 112 minSpecial Screening |
 |
9/19 - 10:30am @ Tinker ($5)
9/20 - 9:45pm @ Upstate II ($8)
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Chico is the story of an ideologically confused son, student, secret
agent, journalist and mercenary. Born in Bolivia with Jewish, Hungarian, Spanish
and Communist roots, Chico, played by Eduardo Rózsa Flores, is destined to
witness one revolution after the next, from the collapse of the Allende
government in Chile to the Serb/Croat conflict in 1990s Europe. Throughout it
all, he searches for an identity while taking refuge in crisis and a multitude
of religious and national identities. This controversial, fictional story, which
intersperses real documentary TV footage, explores the vulnerability of idealism
and the chaos that is so pervasive in revolution and war. (Laurent Rejto)
Ibolya Fekete was born in 1951 and studied Hungarian and Russian
literature and linguistics at the Lajos Kossuth University in Debrecen. In 1980
she began working with Hunnia Studios, where she has also been co-author of
György Szomjas' scripts. In 1990 she directed her first documentary. Her
feature-film debut, Bolse Vita (1996), captured the chaotic spirit of the times
and won several international awards. She received the Béla Balázs Award in
1997.
Producers:
J. J. Harting, Hans Kutnewsky, Sándor Simó, Damir Teresak
ï
Directors of Photography: Mátyás Erdély, Antonio Farías, Nyika Jancsó
ï
Editor: Anna Kornis
FAR FROM HEAVEN
Written and Directed by Todd Haynes
2002 FRANCE/USA - 107 min
Closing Night Film
|
 |
9/22 - 5:30pm at Tinker Street Cinema
SOLD OUT |
|
Far From Heaven marks the second teaming of
leading lady Julianne Moore with writer/director Todd Haynes and producer
Christine Vachon, following the trio's collaboration on the acclaimed 1995
drama Safe.
Far From Heaven tells the story of a privileged
housewife in 1950s America, and is inspired by the great Hollywood
"women's films" of that era. Haynes vividly evokes the intense colors and
visual style of filmmaker Douglas Sirk (Imitation
of Life, Written on The Wind)
in order to depict the teeming, oppressive surfaces of middle-class,
mid-century America – and the furtive, life-shattering desires that fester
beneath them.
It is the fall of 1957 in Hartford, Connecticut, and Cathy Whitaker
(Julianne Moore) is returning home from a day of errands. Her husband,
Frank (Dennis Quaid), who heads the local branch of the Magnatech TV sales
company, is expected home for a dinner engagement. As Sybil, their maid,
helps Cathy unload the car, David and Janice, the Whitaker children, are
told to hurry inside and prepare for dinner. There's only one problem:
Neither Cathy nor Sybil has heard from Mr. Whitaker all afternoon.
What begins as a curiously un-ironic snapshot of 1950s American values is
soon transformed into a tangle of competing conflicts, igniting Cathy's
friendships with her formidable gardener, Raymond (Dennis Haysbert), her
plucky best friend (Patricia Clarkson), and her maid, Sybil (Viola Davis).
As secrets are revealed, Cathy is faced with choices that spur hatred and
gossip within the community. She comes to recognize her own desires, even
as, in the process, she has to give up the object of them.
TODD HAYNES (Writer/Director) founded Apparatus Productions in 1985 with
Barry Ellsworth and Christine Vachon.
Apparatus is a non-profit, grant-giving organization providing funding,
production and distribution support to emerging filmmakers. Todd is also
one of the founding members of Grand Fury, a collective of artists in the
AIDS activist community.
His short film
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
has become an
underground cult classic. Written and directed by Haynes, the film traced
Karen Carpenter's demise from anorexia nervosa. Using Barbie dolls as
actors, a sound track of heartrending Carpenters songs and a 70s wardrobe
that any doll would be proud to own, this seminal film demonstrated
Haynes' intense empathy and theatrical bravado. The film was awarded the
Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco Film Festival and the Best
Experimental Film Award at the USA [later Sundance] Film Festival.
Poison,
Haynes' first feature film as writer/director, interwove three separate
tales of transgression inspired by the writings of Jean Genet. It
premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1991, where it was awarded the
Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature Film. It subsequently played in over
twenty film festivals, earning a Teddy Award at the Berlin International
Film Festival and the Critics' Prize at the Locarno International Film
Festival, prior to its theatrical release.
The thirty-minute short
Dottie Gets Spanked
followed. Set in suburban New York
in 1966, the film explored juvenile sexuality through a little boy's
obsession with a television comedienne.
Haynes' second feature film,
Safe,
looked at the life of a California housewife (played by Julianne Moore)
who finds that she is becoming allergic to the twentieth century.
Safe
premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, screened in the Directors
Fortnight section of the 1995 Cannes International Film Festival, and was
released theatrically in the summer of 1995. In the Village Voice Critics'
Poll of 2000, sixty-five film critics voted
Safe
the best film of the '90s.
Velvet Goldmine, his third feature as
writer/director, premiered as an Official Selection at the 1998 Cannes
International Film Festival and earned Haynes a Special Jury Prize for
Artistic Contribution. A multi-layered glam-rock epic tracing the rise and
fall of a mythical rock star, the film starred Ewan McGregor, Jonathan
Rhys Meyers, Toni Collette, Christian Bale and Eddie Izzard. Released
theatrically in the fall of 1998,
Velvet Goldmine
won an Independent Spirit Award for Best
Cinematography (by Maryse Alberti) and earned a BAFTA Award and an Academy
Award nomination for Best Costume Design (by Sandy Powell).
A Focus Features and Vulcan Productions presentation of a Killer
Films/John Wells/Section Eight production.
Written
and Directed by
Todd
Haynes
Produced
by
Christine Vachon
Produced
by
Jody Patton
Executive Producers:
Steven
Soderbergh, George Clooney
Executive Producers:
John Wells, Eric Robison, John Sloss
Co-Producers:
Bradford Simpson, Declan Baldwin
Director
of Photography:
Edward
Lachman, A.S.C.
Production Designer:
Mark Friedberg
Editor:
James
Lyons
Costume
Designer:
Sandy Powell
Music:
Elmer
Bernstein
A Focus Features release
Print courtesy of Focus Features
|
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FUNNY HA HA
Directed by Andrew Bujalski
2002 – USA – 90 min
In competition - World premiere
|
 |
9/20 - 7pm at Bearsville ($8)
|
Marnie is
a twenty-three-year-old girl living alone in Boston. We join her as she
ping-pongs between several awkward and ill-advised boy situations, all
the while gamely attempting to maintain her humor and dignity. Critic
Ray Carney says, "The loose weave of experience – the shaggy, baggy
randomness of young adult life and love – has never been captured more
truly and convincingly on film." With Kate Dollenmayer, Christian
Rudder, Myles Paige, Jennifer L. Schaper, Lissa Patton Rudder and
Marshall Lewy.
Andrew Bujalski has lived and worked on films in Mississippi,
Texas, California, and Massachusetts.
Producer: Ethan Vogt
Associate
Producer: Morgan Faust
Director
of Photography: Matthias Grunsky
Editor:
Andrew Bujalski
|
GERRY
Directed by Gus Van Sant
2001 – USA – 103 min
Centerpiece screening -
East Coast premiere |
 |
9/21 -6pm
at Tinker St
SOLD OUT
|
In a striking return to his independent
roots, Oscar-nominated director Van Sant creates this drama of two
friends (Casey Affleck and Matt Damon) who go hiking in a remote area
and lose their way in the forbiddingly beautiful terrain. At first their
confidence and humor propel them forward, but then the gravity of the
situation takes hold. As their strength and their prospects for survival
wane, the young men face the ultimate test. A powerful study of man
against the elements, Gerry
uses the seemingly limitless
expanses of Death Valley to create a series of images that evoke the
beauty, freedom and occasional terror of nature.
Gerry is an extremely disconcerting
film, emotionally and aesthetically, partly because of escapes easy
categorization. It's neither an avant-garde landscape epic such as
Michael Snow's The Central
Region nor a narrative movie
such as Thelma and Louise
or Van Sant's own My Own
Private Idaho. which use
landscape to define character and story. But like those three, it is a
distinctly North American film (despite the fact that
Van Sant
talks about being influenced by Hungarian director Bela Tarr,
particularly in relation to duration and the use of the moving camera.
Its inspiration is the land itself – the huge, incomprehensible scale of
it, and the loneliness it engenders. The need to give the landscape its
due, lest it turn on the artist for his presumption, is palpable from
the first frame to the last. (Amy Taubin)
Gus Van Sant burst onto the cinematic scene in 1985 with his acclaimed
first feature, Mala Noche.
His body of work includes
Drugstore Cowboy, My Own
Private Idaho, and To Die
For. Van Sant received an
Academy Award nomination for directing
Good
Will Hunting in 1997, which he followed with his controversial
remake of Psycho.
The winter of 2000 saw the release of his literary drama,
Finding Forrester,
starring Sean Connery.
Producer:
Dany Wolf
ï Screenwriters: Casey Affleck,
Matt Damon, Gus Van Sant
ï
Director of Photography:
Harris Savides
ï Orginal Score: Arvo Part
ï
Print
courtesy of ThinkFilm.
|
THE GREY ZONE
Directed by
Tim Blake Nelson
2001 – USA – 108 min
Spotlight Film |
 |
9/21 - 9pm at Tinker St
9/22 - 6:15pm at Upstate I ($10)
|
|
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This is the tale of
Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, who worked for the “Angel of Death," Dr. Joseph
Mengele, and the Jewish prisoners – the Sonderkommando – who were forced
to work in the crematoria at Auschwitz. The film depicts the traumatic
experiences that forced them into a moral "grey zone." With Harvey Keitel,
David Arquette, Daniel Benzali, Steve Buscemi, Allan Corduner, Natasha
Lyonne, Mira Sorvino and Brian F. O'Byrne.
Tim Blake Nelson is
a New York – based director, actor and writer. His writing/directing
debut, Eye of God, premiered at the Sundance Film
Festival and went on to the San Francisco International Film Festival, the
Seattle International Film Festival, where it won the American Independent
Award, and the Tokyo International Film Festival, where it won the Bronze
Prize. Nelson’s second film, O, a modern-day adaptation of
Shakespeare’s Othello, garnered him the Best Director award
at the Seattle International Film Festival 2001 and was released by Lions
Gate Films. Nelson co-starred in the Coen Brothers’ acclaimed hit
O Brother, Where Art Thou? with George Clooney and John Turturro.
Other screen acting credits include Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red
Line, Mike Newell’s Donnie Brasco, Hal Hartley’s
Amateur and Nora Ephron’s This is My
Life. Nelson is also an award-winning playwright and has acted
extensively in New York theater, most recently in Oedipus,
with Frances McDormand and Billy Crudup. Born and raised in Tulsa, he is
a graduate of Brown University and the Juiliard Theater Center.
Executive Producers:
Danny Dimbort, Trevor Short, Brad Weston, John Wells, Harvey Keitel, Peggy
Gormley ï
Producers: Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon, Tim Blake Nelson, Avi
Lerner, Danny Lerner ï
Co-Producer: David Varod
ï Director of Photography: Russell Lee Fine
ï
Original Score: Jeff Danna
ï
Editors: Tim Blake Nelson, Michelle Botticelli
ï
Print courtesy of Lion’s Gate.
|
IL POSTO
Directed by Ermanno Olmi
1961– Italy - Black and White – 90 min
Special screening |
9/21 - 1pm at Upstate I ($8)
|
In
Ermanno Olmi's lost classic, a shy boy just out of school goes after a
job in a large company that offers security but low wages. He
commutes into Milan to undergo a ridiculous battery of tests and meets a
pretty girl among the other candidates. Both are hired, but for
different departments that run on different schedules. Their interaction
is limited – until the eve of the company New Year’s Eve party, which
they both promise to attend. With Sandro Panseri and Loredana Detto.
Print courtesy of Cowboy Pictures.
Ermanno Olmi is an extraordinary Italian filmmaker whose
gentle, unforced and humanistic approach to his characters and themes
has resulted in a body breathtaking work. The critic John Simon once
compared his films to those of the similarly empathetic Jan Troell, by
noting: "They make you love not only them but also the man who made
them."
Producer:
Alberto
Soffientini ï
Directors of Photography: Roberto Barbieri, Lamberto Caimi
ï
Screenwriters: Ettore Lombardo, Ermanno Olmi
ï
Music: Pier Emilio Bassi
ï Print
courtesy of Cowboy Pictures.
|
|
Sometimes
it takes only one man to make a conspiracy. Ron Kobeleski, an
out-of-work TV news cameraman, may have just stumbled onto the story of
a lifetime. His shadowy older neighbor, Walter Ohlinger, has summoned
over Ron and his camera, saying he's got a secret to reveal. What's the
big secret? Walter claims he was the "grassy knoll gunman" - the second
assassin of President John F. Kennedy. Is he telling the truth? As Ron
and Walter search for the only witness who can back up the story, the
pressure mounts and their lives begin to unravel. First-time
writer/director Neil Burger has meticulously crafted Interview with
the Assassin to feel like a verité documentary, masterfully creating
a chilling realness and accumulation of detail, but making it seem
offhanded and spontaneous. The actors are mesmerizing, especially
character-actor Raymond J. Barry in an unbelievable performance as the
inscrutable Walter. Interview with the Assassin will challenge
your assumptions. Also starring Dylan Haggerty, Renee Faia, Jared McVay
and Kate Williamson.Print
courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Neil
Burger is an award-winning director of commercials, music videos and
documentaries. After graduating from Yale University with a degree in
fine arts, Burger began his film career by creating and directing the
acclaimed “Books: Feed Your Head” campaign for MTV. These “one-minute
movies” promoted language and literature and featured actors such as
Timothy Hutton and Aidan Quinn. Burger was also chosen to create a
series of television spots for Amnesty International and their campaign
for “prisoners of conscience.” Interview with the Assassin is
his first feature film.
Executive
Producer: Tom Tucker
Producers: Brian Koppelman, David Levien
Director
of Photography: Richard Rutkowski
Editor:
Brad Fuller
|
JUST A KISS
Directed by Fisher Stevens
2002 – USA – 89 min
Spotlight screening
|
 |
9/20 - 9:30pm at Tinker Street Cinema
SOLD OUT9/22 - 1pm at Upstate I ($8)
|
|
A smart, hip black
comedy that features an energetic sound track, a sexy cast and expert use
of digital animation. The film follows a group of friends as they learn
the hard way that a kiss is never just a kiss as the film's themes of
constant, inevitable infidelity and constant, inevitable sex are played
out. The result is hilarious, cruel and poignant. The imagination behind
some of the gags in the film is nothing short of brilliant. With Ron
Eldard, Kyra Sedgwick, Patrick Breen, Marley Shelton, Taye Diggs, Sarita
Choudhury and Marisa Tomei.
Fisher Stevens moved
from his native Chicago to New York at the age of thirteen to pursue an
acting career. He has performed in more than twenty stage productions,
including 544 performances in Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy,
both on and off Broadway. He also played the central character in Neil
Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs. Most recently, he played the
leads in Thomas Babe's Carrying School Children,
Almost Romance and Jules Feiffer's Little Murders
with Christine Lahti. He sang and danced in the musicals Miami,
by Wendy Wasserstein, and the late Michael Bennett's Broadway production
of Scandal, with Swoosie Kurtz and Treat Williams. He
appeared in the recent New York City Shakespeare Festival production of
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Despite having lived in New York
City for more than a decade – where, with several fellow actors, Stevens
has started an off-off-off Broadway theater company called Naked Angels –
he insists that he is still a fan of the Chicago Cubs.
Producer:
Matthew Rowland ïExecutive
Producers: John Penotti, Dolly Hall, Bradley Yonover
ï
Screenwriter: Patrick Breen
ï
Director of Photography: Terry Stacey
ï
Print
courtesy of Paramount Classics. |
|
KHALED
Directed by
Asghar Massombagi
2001 –
Canada –
85 min
In Competition -
East Coast
premiere
|
 |
9/21 - 3:30pm at Upstate I ($8)
9/22 - 10am at Tinker St ($8)
|
|
|
A
ten-year-old boy keeps his mother's death a secret to avoid being sent
to a foster home. While juggling pressure from a crooked landlord, a
nosy social worker, and suspicious neighbors, the boy finds solace in
his relationships with his best friend and an elderly woman. This drama
by Asghar Massombagi can be taken as a one-of-a-kind thriller, as well
as the poetic story of a young outsider, discriminated against because
of his social position and racial difference.
With Michael
D'Ascenzo, Michelle Duquet, Normand Bissonnette, Michael Kanev, Lynne
Deragon, John Ralston, Gerry Quigley, Joanne Boland, Richard Banel, Alex
Hood, Bryn Mcauly and Paul Lee.
Born and raised in Tehran, Massombagi immigrated to Canada when barely
out of his teens. Putting himself through school, he graduated from
Simon Fraser University with a double major in film and computer
science. Khaled is his first feature film.
Producer: Paul Scherzer
Screenwriter: Asghar Massombagi
Director of Photography: Luc Montpellier
Original
Score: Mel M'rabet
|
KWIK STOP
Directed by Michael Gilio
2002 – USA – 111 min
In competition -
East Coast premiere |
 |
9/20 - 1pm at Tinker Street Cinema ($8)
9/21 - 6pm at Upstate I ($8)
|
|
|
A new
spin on the road movie in which the characters never quite manage to hit
the road. This Midwestern fable follows Mike, an aspiring actor who sets
off for sunny L.A. but makes a fateful "quick stop" at a convenience
store. With Michael Gilio and Lara Phillips.
Michael Gilio began his career writing and acting in the Windy City. He
graduated from Columbia College in Chicago and made a name for himself,
most notably when he co-starred with Sidney Poitier in To Sir With
Love 2, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and in Only in America:
The Life and Crimes of Don King with Ving Rhames. He also acted in a
film about his hometown, Love and Action in Chicago, with
Kathleen Turner and Jason Alexander. He has guest starred on numerous TV
shows, including Chicago Hope and The Profiler.
Producer: Rachel Tenner
Director
of Photography: David H. Blood
|
|
LOVE IN THE TIME OF MONEY
Directed by Peter
Mattei
2002 – USA/India – 90 min
In Competition
|
 |
9/21 - 3:15pm at Tinker Street Cinema
SOLD OUT
9/22 - 3:30pm at Upstate I
SOLD OUT
|
|
In this
quintessentially metropolitan sexual roundelay, set at the height of the
Nasdaq boom, nine New Yorkers, representing a cross-section of society,
are linked by romance, commerce, and often both. In a successive series
of one-on-one encounters connecting a prostitute, carpenter, bored
socialite, bisexual art collector, struggling painter, art gallery
receptionist, love-sick student, lonely telephone psychic and desperate
Wall Street trader, the mad quest for sex, love or lucre ultimately places
them on the cusp of a profound change. This is a darkly funny and often
touching portrait of New York in the days of reckless need. With Steve
Buscemi, Rosario Dawson, Vera Farmiga, Michael Imperioli, Carol Kane,
Adrian Grenier, Jill Hennessy, Malcolm Gets and Domenick Lombardozi.
Print courtesy of ThinkFilm.
Peter
Mattei is a 1998 Sundance Lab fellow and a founding member of the
Cucaracha Theatre in New York. The Village Voice called his
theater work “rare and distinctive,” and The New York Times
hailed it as “electrifying.” His plays have also been produced in Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago. Mattei studied at Brown
University and the Yale School of Drama. Love in the Time of Money
is his first feature film.
Executive
Producers: Robert Redford, Michael Nozik
Producers: Lisa Bellomo, Joana Vincente, Jason Kliot, Gretchen McGowan
Co-Producer: Yves Chevalier
Director
of Photography: Stehen Kazmierski
Editor:
Myron Kerstein
Screening
with RULES OF LOVE
|
|
MALA NOCHE
Directed by Gus Van Sant
1985 – USA – 78 min
Special Screening
|
 |
9/21 - 11:45pm at Tinker St. ($8)
|
The
rarely screened Mala Noche is a gorgeous, unique experience that
instantly established Gus Van Sant as a unique voice in cinema. Shot for
$25,000, it tells the simplistic tale of a Portland liquor store clerk
who develops a crush on a poor Mexican street kid who speaks very little
English. Basing his film on the Walt Curtis autobiography, Van Sant
creates his own visual poetry with wonderfully impressionistic black and
white imagery. According to then L.A. Times critic Peter Rainer,
“The ardor in this film isn't only in its love story, it's also in Van
Sant's experimental, poetic use of the medium." A true diamond in the
rough, especially for those who liked Drugstore Cowboy or My
Own Private Idaho. With Tim Streeter and Doug Cooeyate. Print
courtesy of ThinkFilm.
Gus Van Sant burst onto the cinematic scene in 1985 with his acclaimed
first feature, Mala Noche. His body of work includes
Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, and To Die For. Van
Sant received an Academy Award nomination for directing Good
Will Hunting in 1997, which he followed with his controversial
remake of Psycho. The winter of 2000 saw the release of the
literary drama, Finding Forrester, starring Sean Connery.
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MANIC
Directed by Jordan
Melamed
2002 – USA – 100 min
In competition |
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9/20 - 3:30pm at Tinker Street Cinema ($8)
9/21 - 9pm at Upstate ($8)
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Manic
turns the inner lives of today's most desperate kids into a visceral
battle between the yearning for freedom and the need for control. Follow
the fate of Lyle, a violent adolescent who, in lieu of prison, is placed
in a juvenile mental institution, where he encounters a group of equally
troubled teens. This motley crew – abused, sexually confused, violent,
yet hanging on by their grit and anger – becomes Lyle’s last lifeline as
he fights to find meaning in a world that seems to defy understanding. A
frenzied view of society seen through the eyes of kids who have given up
trying to accept life on the usual terms. With Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Don
Cheadle and Michael Bacall. Print courtesy of IFC.
Jordan Melamed is an AFI graduate. His thesis film, A Corner In Gold,
set in the ruthless Chicago trading pits, played festivals worldwide
(including the Emerging Filmmakers Showcase at the 1998 Cannes Film
Festival) and won a student Emmy for best drama. Melamed has chosen to
make Manic digitally to achieve a special realism. He explained
that "DV is the right format to capture the immediacy and claustrophobia
of life on the ward as well as the emotional desperation and
explosiveness of the characters. The audience will feel at the center of
the action, not at a safe distance."
Writers:
Michael Bacall, Blayne Weaver
Executive
Producers: Peter Broderick, Chuck Reeder, Joanne Hoffman
Producers: Trudi Callon, Kirk Hassig
Co-Producers: Paul Greenstone, Rocky Eversman
Director
of Photography: Nick Hay
Original
Score: David Wingo, Michael Linnen
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MAY
Directed by
Lucky McKee
2002 – USA – 90 min
In competition - NY premiere
|
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9/20 - 12am at Tinker Street Cinema ($8)
9/21 - 9:15pm at Upstate ($8)
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In the
style of Brian De Palma’s Carrie, and a modern-day tribute to
Frankenstein, May is a chilling tale of a young woman’s passion and
obsession. The subject of constant ridicule from her peers and parents
as a young girl, May retreats to a life of seclusion, one in which she
believes that her only true friend is the homemade doll given to her by
her mother -- a doll that she regularly consults for advice. With Angela
Bettis, Jeremy Sisto, Anna Faris and James Dural. Print courtesy of
Lions Gate.
Northern California native Lucky McKee received his BFA in 1997 from the
University of Southern California’s School of Filmic Writing. During
his time at USC, McKee penned the first draft of May. After
college, McKee gained production experience shooting, editing, writing
and acting in films and digital videos with friends and family. In late
2000, producer Marius Balchunas, a former classmate, told McKee he had
the resources to put an independent film together. Four years later,
with the formation of 2Loop Films, McKee got his chance. May is
his first feature film.
Executive
Producers: Eric Koskin, John Veague
Producers: Marius Balchunas, Scott Sturgeon
Co-Producer: Richard Middleton
Director
of Photography: Steve Yedlin
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OPERATION MIDNIGHT CLIMAX
Directed by Will Keenan & Gadi Harel
2002 – USA – 78 min
|
 |
9/21 - 9:30pm at
Woodstock Community Center ($8)
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Will Nitch, a paranoid downtowner, sets out to create an all-female secret
society and change the world through astro-sexual mysticism. Trust no one.
Love everyone. With Will Keenan, Caron Bernstein, Michael Showalter and
Michael Musto.
Will Keenan has been involved with over 25 films in varying capacities,
such as: Actor, Producer, Director, Writer, Casting Director, StuntMan/Choreographer.
He founded Hoverground Studios with Timothy Franklin in 1999. Notable
projects include: Good Machine's Love God, Fine Line's Trick,
GoKart/HGS' Into the Night: The Benny Mardones Story,
Troma's Tromeo & Juliet and Terror Firmer, TLA's Waiting,
Passport Pics' Margarita Happy Hour , CineBlasts' The Love
Machine, New Line's Most Wanted, Regents' Wolves of
Wallstreet, Henry Jaglom's Festival At Cannes, and Carter
Smith's upcoming doc Disfunctional Comfortability (a.k.a. F*!K
ROME!).
Since graduating from NYU, Gadi Harel has
apprenticed for a private eye, reported for The New York Observer,
penned episodic work for The Learning Channel, and had a design career
with clients ranging from GQ to Troma Entertainment. OMC is Gadi's debut
as a feature film director and producer.
Screenwriters: Will Keenan & Gadi Harel
Executive Producer: Timothy Franklin
Director of Photography: William M. Miller
Editor: Gino Foster
Original Score: Quentin Chiappetta
Screening with
FLO FOX's DICTHOLOGY
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PERSONAL VELOCITY
Directed by Rebecca Miller
2001 – USA – 90 min
Opening Night Film
|
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9/19 - 8pm at Tinker Street Cinema ($12)
SOLD OUT
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Dramatic Competition Grand Jury Prize Award – 2002 Sundance Film
Festival
Excellence in Cinematography Award - Ellen Kuras – 2002 Sundance Film
Festival
One of the truly special films of
the year, Personal Velocity
is a film that should be
celebrated. In adapting her own novel to the screen, Rebecca Miller has
crafted an exquisite, intellectually rigorous and emotionally intense
portrait of three women. Though their paths never cross, Miller uses a
variety of narrative techniques – narration, flashbacks, freeze-frames –
to link these women, whose childhood experiences will affect their adult
decisions as they reach crossroads in their lives.
Delia (Sedgwick) is in an abusive relationship with her husband of
twelve years. After he brutally beats her one night, she escapes with
her three children to reclaim what she has lost. Greta (Posey) is an
ambitious book editor whose sudden success forces her to reevaluate her
life. And Paula (Balk) is a troubled twenty-one-year-old who has just
had a near-death experience. Driving to her mother's house, she picks up
a hitchhiker with a secret who awakens something within her.
In creating the universe for these characters, Miller is expertly aided
on every level by her crew, including the one-of-a-kind DP Ellen Kuras,
who has finally shown us what the digital medium can do. And then there
are the actresses – Kyra Sedgwick, Parker Posey and Fairuza Balk – all
working at the top of their craft, each imbuing the film with her unique
intensity and humanity. (Ryan Werner)
Rebecca Miller
(Writer/Director) studied painting at Yale
University, before moving to
New York City, where she showed her paintings at the Leo Castelli and
Victoria Munroe Galleries.
She then began a brief career as
an actress, appearing in such films as
Regarding Henry,
with Harrison Ford; Mrs.
Parker and the Vicious Circle,
with Jennifer Jason Leigh; and
Consenting Adults,
with Kevin Spacey.
Miller, who felt more comfortable in the role of observer than
performer, then moved
on to directing. In 1991, she
wrote and directed a short film called
Florence,
which
caught the attention of the Cincinnati Ensemble Theater. The group
invited her to direct a
revival of
After the Fall,
a play written in 1964 by her father, Arthur Miller.
In 1995, she wrote and directed
her first feature film,
Angela, which won the Gotham
Award and the Filmmakers Trophy and Cinematography Awards at Sundance
that year.
Personal Velocity
is based on Miller's book of short
stories by the same name, which was published by Grove Atlantic in the
fall of 2001. A. R. Gurney, author of
Love Letters
and many other plays, called
Personal Velocity
“richly evocative, sexy as hell, and thick with dramatic event...a
startling debut." The Library Journal called the book “An original
collection" and added , “Each story is as sharply rendered and neatly
contained as a film shot.”
Presented by IFC Productions and InDigEnt in association with Goldheart/Blue
Magic Pictures
Producers: Lemore Syvan, Gary Winick, Alexis Alexanian
Executive Producers: Jonathan Sehring, Caroline Kaplan, John Sloss
Director of Photography: Ellen Kuras
Music:
Michael Rohatyn
Editor:
Sabine Hoffman
Print
courtesy of United Artists
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PIPE DREAM
Directed by John C. Walsh
2001 – USA – 95 min
Films of the Hudson Valley/Catskills |
 |
9/21 - 10am at Tinker Street Cinema
SOLD OUT9/22 - 6:45pm at Upstate II ($8)
|
After a
tipsy one-night stand, two New York neighbors seem to have nothing in
common. He's an unnoticed plumber; she's an unproduced scriptwriter. When
the plumber pretends to be a film director to get himself noticed, the
writer builds on his scam to get her script produced. Both think they are
using the other to get what they want. To their surprise they end up
discovering that what they may want is each other. With Martin Donovan,
Mary-Louise Parker, Rebecca Gayheart and Kevin Carrol. Produced by Hudson
Valley resident, Sally Roy.
A graduate of the NYU film school, John C. Walsh premiered his first
movie, Ed’s Next Move, to critical praise at the Sundance
Film Festival in 1996. The film was later released by Orion Classics.
Pipe Dream is his second film. John lives in Westchester, New
York with his wife, filmmaker Mary Harron, with whom he has two young
children.
Writers:
John C. Walsh, Cynthia Kaplan
Executive
Producer: Michael Zilkha
Producers: Sally Roy, Carole Curb Nemoy, Mike Curb
Director
of Photography: Peter Nelson
Editor:
Malcolm Jamieson
Original
Score: Alexander Lasarenko
Screening
with
THE
QUALITY OF MERCY
|
|
THE
TUNE
Directed by Bill
Plympton
1992 – USA – 69 min
Special screening – Focus on Music |
 |
9/21 - 6:45pm at the Kleinert/James ($8)
SOLD OUT |
A magical
journey through a musical fantasyland with a cast of hilariously
contorted characters. The Tune is a musical comedy based on Del,
a young, struggling songwriter who is trying to write a song for his
boss, Mr. Mega, the CEO of Mega Music. Del wants to be able to draw a
steady income so he can marry his sweetheart, Didi, who is also Mr.
Mega's secretary. Mr. Mega gives Del an ultimatum: a smash hit in
forty-seven minutes or he's fired.
The Tune
was animator Bill Plympton's first full-length feature. His short films
have been seen widely around the country, highlighting many animation
festivals. His oblique, off-center sense of the ridiculous in everyday
life has made Microtoons and his other shorts a popular MTV
offering. His distinctive style has even invaded the world of
advertising. Plympton's short films continue to be shown in animation
festivals around the world, and he has also released a comic book
featuring "The Sleazy Cartoons of Bill
Plympton." Plymptoons is a
video collection of Bill's short films.
Writers: Bill Plympton, P.C. Vey, Maureen McElheron
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WASHINGTON HEIGHTS
Directed by
Alfredo de Villa
2002 – USA – 81 min - video
In competition |
 |
9/21 - 6:45pm at Upstate II ($8)
9/22 - 2:30pm at Kleinert/James ($8)
|
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The story
of Carlos, a young illustrator burning to escape his Latino neighborhood
to make a splash in New York City’s downtown comic book scene. When he
is forced to put his dream on hold, he comes to understand that if he is
to make it as a comic artist, he must first engage with the community he
comes from and put it in his work. With Tomas Milian, Manny Perez, Danny
Hoch, Jude Ciccoella, Bobby Cannavale and Andrea Navedo.
Alfredo
de Villa, a resident of Washington Heights, has directed two
short films, Joe’s Egg and Neto’s Run; both received the
distinguished Best Latino Director award from the Director’s Guild of
America. With co-writer Nat Moss, Alfredo was invited to the Sundance
Screenwriter’s lab to develop the screenplay Little Angel, which
subsequently won the grand prize for screenwriting at the 2001 New York
International Latino Film Festival. Little Angel has also been a
finalist in the Austin Heart of Film screenplay competition. Alfredo is
currently preparing a documentary on groundbreaking Cuban filmmakers of
the 1960s and 70s. Born in Puebla, Mexico, he has worked for several
years as a commercial producer in the Latino Division of Young & Rubicam.
Executive
Producers: Peter Newman, Greg Johnson, Joseph La Morte
Producers: Luis Dantas, Tom Donahue
Writers:
Alfredo de Villa, Nat Moss, Junot Diaz
Director
of Photography: Claudio Chea
Editor:
Tom Donahue
Original
Score: Leigh Roberts
Screening
with NIGHTWINDOWS
click
here for print source info
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2000-2004 - Woodstock Film Festival, Inc.
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