The Sundance 2007 lineup:
"AN AMERICAN CRIME / U.S.A. (Director: Tommy O'Haver; Screenwriters: Tommy O'Haver, Irene Turner)--A fictionalized account of the true story of a suburban housewife who kept a teenage girl locked in the basement of her Indiana home during the 1960s. World Premiere.
AWAY FROM HER / Canada (Director and Screenwriter: Sarah Polley)--Married for almost 50 years, Grant and Fiona's serenity is interrupted by Fiona's increasingly frequent memory lapses. When it is no longer possible for either of them to ignore the fact that she is being consumed by Alzheimer's disease, the limits of love and loyalty are wrenchingly redefined. U.S. Premiere.
BLACK SNAKE MOAN / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Craig Brewer)--Desire is a burning sickness for Rae, while making her the white-trash sexual target of every man and boy in her small Tennessee town. When her true love leaves for military service, Rae plunges into wild excess. Beaten, left for dead, she's taken in by a reformed bluesman, a private self-contained black man who nurses deep anger of his own, who is fiercely committed to his task of keeping her alive. World Premiere.
CHAPTER 27 / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Jarrett Schaefer)--A terrifying glimpse into the deranged mind of Mark David Chapman during his days in New York City prior to murdering John Lennon. World Premiere.
CHICAGO 10 / U.S.A. (Director Brett Morgen)--CHICAGO 10 presents contemporary history with a forced perspective, mixing bold and original animation with extraordinary archival footage that explores the build-up to and unraveling of the Chicago Conspiracy Trial and the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention. World Premiere.
CLUBLAND / Australia (Director: Cherie Nowlan; Screenwriter: Keith Thompson)--Tim has a new girlfriend. It should be the perfect romance but something is holding him back. He has a secret...his parents are "Entertainers"! There are never just two people in a family love story. World Premiere.
THE GOOD NIGHT / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Jake Paltrow)-- A man finds he has more happiness and love with the woman in his dreams than in his miserable day to day reality. World Premiere.
KING OF CALIFORNIA / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Mike Cahill)-- An unstable dad who after getting out of a mental institution tries to convince his daughter that there's Spanish gold buried somewhere under suburbia. World Premiere.
LIFE SUPPORT / U.S.A. (Director: Nelson George; Screenwriters: Nelson George, Jim McKay, Hannah Weyer)--The true story of a mother who overcame an addiction to crack and became a positive role model and AIDS activist in the black community. World Premiere.
LONGFORD / U.K. (Director: Tom Hooper; Screenwriter: Peter Morgan)--A portrait of Lord Longford, a tireless British campaigner whose controversial beliefs often resulted in furious political debate and personal conflict. World Premiere.
THE NINES / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: John August)--A troubled actor, a television show runner, and an acclaimed videogame designer find their lives intertwining in mysterious and unsettling ways. World Premiere.
RESURRECTING THE CHAMP / U.S.A. (Director: Rod Lurie; Screenwriters: Allison Burnett, Michael Bortman, Chris Gerolmo, Rod Lurie)--A down on his luck sports reporter has his life and career upturned when he lands the story of his career: A former heavyweight boxing superstar, previously thought to be dead, is living his final years on the streets. Finally, he can earn the respect of his wife and editor---but the dark secret he finds may be too much for him to bear. World Premiere.
THE SAVAGES / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Tamara Jenkins)--A sister and brother face the realities of familial responsibility as they begin to care for their ailing father and in doing so discover certain truths about themselves and each other. World Premiere.
SON OF RAMBOW / U.K. (Director and Screenwriter: Garth Jennings)-- Will is the eldest son in a family with a strict moral and religious view and never been allowed to mix with other people, listen to music or watch TV. That is until he finds himself caught up in the extraordinary world of Lee Carter, the school terror and maker of bizarre home movies. World Premiere.
SUMMER RAIN (EL CAMINO DE LOS INGLESES) / Spain (Director: Antonio Banderas; Screenwriter: Antonio Soler)--The film is adapted from an award-winning novel written by the director's childhood friend, Antonio Soler, and is a deeply personal and poetic recreation of their generation growing up in Malaga in the late 1970s. World Premiere.
TRADE / U.S.A. (Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner; Screenwriter: Jose Rivera; Story: Peter Landesman/Jose Rivera)--Adriana is a 13-year-old girl from Mexico City whose kidnapping by sex traffickers sets in motion a desperate mission by her 17-year-old brother, Jorge, to save her. As Jorge dodges immigration officers and incredible obstacles to track the girls' abductors, he meets Ray, a Texas cop whose own family loss to sex trafficking leads him to become an ally in the boy's quest. World Premiere.
YEAR OF THE DOG / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Mike White)-- Peggy is a happy-go-lucky secretary - a great friend, employee, and sister who lives alone with her beloved dog. But when Pencil unexpectedly dies, Peggy must embark on a journey of personal transformation that is hilarious, poignant and suspenseful. World Premiere.
Spectrum
ANGEL-A / France (Director and Screenwriter: Luc Besson)-- A fairy tale about a man who gets a second chance in life when he saves a statuesque, mysterious beauty from a suicide bid in the Seine River. North American Premiere.
BUGMASTER (MUSHISHI) / Japan (Director: Katsuhiro Otomo; Screenwriter: Sadayuki Murai)-- A traveling mystical doctor, "a Bugmaster," passes through remote regions of Japan curing the ill-effects of supernatural creatures, the "Mushi," who plague the people in this tale of ancient legend based on a celebrated Manga. U.S. Premiere.
DARK MATTER / U.S.A. (Director: Chen Shi-Zheng; Screenwriter: Billy Shebar)--Inspired by real events, DARK MATTER delves into the world of a brilliant Chinese astronomy student whose dreams are challenged when he arrives in America to pursue his Ph.D. World Premiere.
DEDICATION / U.S.A. (Director: Justin Theroux; Screenwriter: David Bromberg)--A socially dysfunctional children's book author is forced to work closely with a female illustrator when he loses his long-time collaborator and only friend. World Premiere.
DELIRIOUS / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Tom DiCillo)--A small time paparazzo befriends and hires a homeless young man who flirts with fame and fortune when he becomes entangled with a famous pop star. North American Premiere.
THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK / U.S.A. (Directors: Annie Sundberg, Ricki Stern)--THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK exposes the genocide raging in Darfur, Sudan as seen through the eyes of a former U.S. marine who returns home to make the story public. World Premiere.
EXPIRED / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Cecilia Miniucchi)--When a lonely, gentle meter maid meets a troubled fellow parking officer, their love affair becomes an awkward dance of attraction and antagonism. World Premiere.
FAY GRIM / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Hal Hartley)--A single mother whose husband has been missing for seven years is used as bait by the CIA in this international espionage caper. U.S. Premiere.
FRÄULEIN / Switzerland (Director and Screenwriter: Andrea Staka)--A hardened Zurich restaurant owner from Yugoslavia finds her cool detachment from the past disrupted with the arrival of a younger, free-spirited woman seeking a better life after the Balkan War. North American Premiere.
THE GO-GETTER / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Martin Hynes)--When his mother dies a teenager takes a road-trip in a stolen car to find his long-lost brother. Along the way he discovers a profound connection with the car-owner and with himself as well. World Premiere.
THE GREAT WORLD OF SOUND / U.S.A. (Director: Craig Zobel; Screenwriter: George Smith, Craig Zobel)--When a man answers an ad to train as a record producer, he's excited by the prospect of signing undiscovered artists only to discover his new job isn't all it's cracked up to be.
World Premiere. IF I HAD KNOWN I WAS A GENIUS / U.S.A. (Director: Dominique Wirtschafter; Screenwriter: Markus Redmond)-- A young African-American man recounts his life. When he finds out he has a high IQ he struggles to fit in somewhere while also battling with his dysfunctional family. World Premiere.
INTERVIEW / U.S.A. (Director: Steve Buscemi; Screenwriters: Steve Buscemi, David Schechter)--A fading political journalist has a falling out with his editor and is given an assignment to interview a top television actress, which derails into a battle of wits and deep dark secrets. World Premiere.
LOW AND BEHOLD / U.S.A. (Director: Zack Godshall; Screenwriters: Zack Godshall, Barlow Jacobs)--When an unmotivated young man signs on as an insurance adjuster in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, he is profoundly changed by the destruction and loss he encounters. World Premiere.
LA MISMA LUNA (THE SAME MOON) / U.S.A. (Director: Patricia Riggen; Screenwriter: Ligiah Villalobos)--When his grandmother dies a young Mexican boy struggles to cross the border to reunite with his beloved mother, who is working hard in Los Angeles to create a better life for the family. World Premiere.
MISS NAVAJO / U.S.A. (Director: Billy Luther)--A documentary that explores the role of women and tradition in Navajo culture by following one young woman as she prepares for and competes in the Miss Navajo Nation Pageant. World Premiere.
RED ROAD / UK (Director and Screenwriter: Andrea Arnold)--When a man she never wanted to see again suddenly appears back in Jackie's ordered, isolated Glasgow life, she has no choice; she is compelled to confront him. U.S. Premiere.
REPRISE / Norway (Director: Joachim Trier; Screenwriters: Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt)--Two competitive twenty-something friends, fueled by literary aspirations and youthful exuberance, endure the pangs of love, depression and burgeoning careers. U.S. Premiere.
SAVE ME / U.S.A. (Director: Robert Cary; Screenwriters: Craig Chester, Alan Hines, Robert Desedario)--When a young gay man flees his life of drugs and sex to check into a Christian-run ministry, his attempts to cure himself of his "gay affliction" are tested by powerful forces. World Premiere.
TULI / Philippines (Director: Auraeus Solito; Screenwriter: Jimmy Flores)--When a young girl in a remote Philippine village is forced into an arranged marriage by her abusive father, she rejects traditional mores and creates an alternative life. U.S. Premiere.
THE UNFORESEEN / U.S.A. (Director: Laura Dunn)--This documentary about a west Texas developer, who over two decades has tried to build a major housing development around a creek in pristine hill country, takes a hard look at the American dream and asks "What does it mean to grow?" World Premiere.
WAITRESS / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Adrienne Shelly)--A pregnant, unhappily married waitress in the deep South falls into an unlikely relationship as a last attempt at happiness. World Premiere.
WONDERS ARE MANY / U.S.A. (Director: Jon Else)--A documentary that tracks the creation of Peter Sellars' and John Adams' 2005 opera about Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project, while also exploring the complex birth of nuclear weapons. World Premiere.
YEAR OF THE FISH / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: David Kaplan)--A rotoscope-animated modern-day Cinderella story set in the underbelly of New York's Chinatown. World Premiere.
New Frontier
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: PIERRE HUYGHE / France (Director: Pierre Huyghe)--A presentation of short films that have rarely been screened outside of a museum or art gallery context. Huyghe is one of France's most celebrated young artists. His multimedia installations--which are concerned with collective memory, the construction of narratives, and textures of re-enactment--have been exhibited at museums across the world including the Guggenheim, Tate Modern, and the Whitney Museums.
THE LAST DINING TABLE / South Korea (Director and Screenwriter: Gyeong-Tae Roh)--This minimal and surrealist film about irony and separation poetically explores modern social problems including pollution and environmental concerns and the collapse of family values.
OFFSCREEN / Denmark (Director: Christoffer Boe; Screenwriter: Christoffer Boe, Knud Romer Jørgensen)--Actor Nicolas Bro reigns supreme in the role of Nicolas Bro – a man intent on making a film about himself. After his director friend Christoffer Boe lends him a camera, his self-monitoring is so hair-raisingly private (and creepy!) that it becomes impossible to separate fact from fiction. World Premiere.
PHANTOM LOVE / U.S.A. (Director: Nina Menkes)--A surreal drama about a woman trapped within an enmeshed family, and her slow process of personal liberation. Set in Los Angeles and Rishikesh, India, the film combines fairy-tale elements with brutal black and white photography to create a powerful testament about inner transformation. World Premiere.
SLIPSTREAM / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Anthony Hopkins)--A man discovers that life is random and fortune is sightless as he is thrown into a vortex where time, dreams and reality collide in an increasingly whirling Slipstream. World Premiere.
ZIDANE: A 21ST CENTURY PORTRAIT / France (Director: Douglas Gordon, Philippe Parreno)-- During the course of an entire football match, seventeen super-35mm Scope format cameras were set around the playing field focusing solely on football legend Zinedine Zidane, who agreed to become the center of attention for this out-of-the-ordinary, full-length feature film. U.S. Premiere.
Park City at Midnight
FIDO / Canada (Director: Andrew Currie; Screenwriters: Robert Chomiak, Andrew Currie)--Timmy Robinson's best friend in the whole wide world is a six-foot tall rotting zombie named Fido. But when Fido eats the next-door neighbor, Mom and Dad hit the roof, and Timmy has to go to the ends of the earth to keep Fido in the family.
FINISHING THE GAME / U.S.A. (Director: Justin Lin, Screenwriters: Josh Diamond, Justin Lin)--The unexpected death of Bruce Lee comes at the zenith of his popularity. Having already shot scenes for his upcoming movie Game of Death, studio heads decide to complete the film by launching a search for his replacement attracting hopefuls from all around the world. World Premiere.
IT IS FINE! EVERYTHING IS FINE. / U.S.A. (Director: Crispin Hellion Glover, David Brothers; Screenwriters: Crispin Hellion Glover, Steven C. Stewart)-- A man with a severe case of cerebral palsy, Steven C Stuart's naïve, fantastical, psychosexual retelling of his point of view of life involving many women. World Premiere.
THE SIGNAL / U.S.A. (Directors and Screenwriters: David Bruckner, Jacob Gentry, Dan Bush)-- Told in three parts from three unique perspectives created by three visionary directors, THE SIGNAL is a horrific journey towards the discovery that the most brutal violent monster might actually be within all of us. World Premiere.
SK8 LIFE / Canada (Director: S. Wyeth Clarkson; Screenwriters: S. Wyeth Clarkson, Elan Mastai)--8 sk8trs brought together to make a 'sk8 tape', crash at the legendary "Crashpad." They soon discover its days are numbered and band together to save it. North American Premiere.
SMILEY FACE / U.S.A. (Director: Gregg Araki; Screenwriter: Dylan Haggerty)--Jane F, an unsuccessful slacker actress, inadvertently eats her roommate's pot cupcakes and proceeds to have a very strange day of hijinks and surreal misadventures. World Premiere.
THE TEN / U.S.A. (Director: David Wain; Screenwriters: Ken Marino, David Wain)--Ten stories, each inspired by one of The Ten Commandments, illustrate the perils of modern life via extreme comedy. World Premiere.
WE ARE THE STRANGE / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: M dot Strange)--In this animated feature film, two outcasts fight for survival in a sinister fantasy world. Their lives are constantly in jeopardy after they're caught in the middle of a deadly battle between bizarre monsters on their way to the ice cream shop. World Premiere.
From the Sundance collection
THE RIVER'S EDGE / U.S.A. (Director: Tim Hunter; Screenwriter: Neal Jimenez)-- A tight-knit group of high school slackers struggle to reconcile friendship and responsibility when one of them kills his girlfriend in this disturbing portrait of moral ambivalence and alienated youth in small town America.
X: THE UNHEARD MUSIC / U.S.A. 1986 (Director: W.T. Morgan)-- A rarely seen 1987 documentary that explores the music and musicians of the early 1980s LA punk band X, as well as the underground music scene of the time, the foibles of the music industry, and the "unheard music" of American culture in the 1980s.
Special Screenings
THE LAST MIMZY / U.S.A. (Director: Bob Shaye; Screenplay by: Joel Rubin and Toby Emmerich; Screen Story by James V. Hart and Carol Skilken)--Based on the acclaimed sci-fi short story by Lewis Padgett, The Last Mimzy centers on two children who discover a mysterious box containing some strange devices they think are toys. World premiere.
AUTISM EVERY DAY / U.S.A. (Director: Lauren Thierry)--Autism Every Day is a short film that takes you inside the lives of families struggling to raise children with autism. World premiere.
Documentary Competition
BANISHED (Director: Marco Williams)--This story of three U.S. towns which, in the early 20th century, forced their entire African American populations to leave, explores what--if anything--can be done to repair past racial injustice. World Premiere.
CHASING GHOSTS (Director: Lincoln Ruchti)--Twin Galaxies Arcade, Iowa, 1982: the birthplace of mankind's obsession with video games. The fate of this world lies in the hands (literally) of a few unlikely heroes: They are the Original Video Game World Champions and the arcade is their battleground. World Premiere.
CRAZY LOVE (Director: Dan Klores)--An unsettling true story about an obsessive relationship between a married man and a beautiful, single 20-year-old woman, which began in 1957 and continues today. World Premiere.
EVERYTHING'S COOL (Directors: Daniel B. Gold, Judith Helfand)--A group of self-appointed global warming messengers are on a high stakes quest to find the iconic image, proper language, and points of leverage to help the public go from embracing the urgency of the problem to creating the political will necessary to move to an alternative energy economy. World Premiere.
FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO (Director: Daniel Karslake)--Grounded by the stories of five conservative Christian families, the film explores how the religious right has used its interpretation of the Bible to support its agenda of stigmatizing the gay community and eroding the separation between church and state. World Premiere.
GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB (Director: Rory Kennedy)--This inside look at the abuses that occurred at the infamous Iraqi prison in the fall of 2003 uses direct, personal narratives of perpetrators, witnesses, and victims to probe the effects of the abuses on all involved. World Premiere.
GIRL 27 (Director: David Stenn)--When underage dancer Patricia Douglas is raped at a wild MGM stag party in 1937, she makes headlines and legal history, and then disappears. GIRL 27 follows author-screenwriter David Stenn as he investigates one of Hollywood's most notorious scandals. World Premiere.
HEAR AND NOW (Director: Irene Taylor Brodsky)--Filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky tells a deeply personal story about her deaf parents, and their radical decision--after 65 years of silence--to undergo cochlear implant surgery, a complex procedure that could give them the ability to hear. World Premiere.
MANDA BALA (SEND A BULLET) (Director: Jason Kohn)--In Brazil, known as one of the world's most corrupt and violent countries, MANDA BALA follows a politician who uses a frog farm to steal billions of dollars, a wealthy businessman who spends a small fortune bulletproofing his cars, and a plastic surgeon who reconstructs the ears of mutilated kidnapping victims. World Premiere.
MY KID COULD PAINT THAT (Director: Amir Bar-Lev)--A 4-year-old girl whose paintings are compared to Kandinsky, Pollock and even Picasso, has sold $300,000 dollars worth of paintings. Is she a genius of abstract expressionism, a tiny charlatan, or an exploited child whose parents have sold her out for the glare of the media and the lure of the almighty dollar? World Premiere.
NANKING (Director: Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman)--A powerful and haunting depiction of the atrocities suffered by the Chinese at the hands of the invading Japanese army during "The Rape of Nanking", one of the most tragic events of WWII. While more than 200,000 Chinese were murdered and ten of thousands raped, a handful of Westerners performed extraordinary acts of heroism, saving over 250,000 lives in the midst of the horror. World Premiere.
NO END IN SIGHT (Director: Charles Ferguson)--A comprehensive examination of the Bush Administration's conduct of the Iraq war and occupation. Featuring first-time interviews with key participants, the film creates a startlingly clear reconstruction of key decisions that led to the current state of affairs in this war-torn country. World Premiere.
PROTAGONIST (Director: Jessica Yu)--PROTAGONIST explores the organic relationship between human life and Euripidean dramatic structure by weaving together the stories of four men--a German terrorist, a bank robber, an "ex-gay" evangelist, and a martial arts student. World Premiere.
CHASING GHOSTS (Director: Lincoln Ruchti)--Twin Galaxies Arcade, Iowa, 1982: the birthplace of mankind's obsession with video games. The fate of this world lies in the hands (literally) of a few unlikely heroes: They are the Original Video Game World Champions and the arcade is their battleground. World Premiere.
WAR DANCE (Director: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix Fine)--Devastated by the long civil war in Uganda, children and their school in the Patongo refugee camp find hope as they make a historic journey to compete in their country's national music and dance festival. World Premiere.
WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN: THE DESTRUCTION OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI (Director: Steven Okazaki)--WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN offers a visceral, topical and moving portrait of the human cost of atomic warfare. World Premiere.
ZOO (Director: Robinson Devor)--A humanizing look at the life and bizarre death of a seemingly normal Seattle family man who met his untimely end after an unusual encounter with a horse. World Premiere.
Dramatic Competition
ADRIFT IN MANHATTAN (Director: Alfredo de Villa; Screenwriters: Nat Moss, Alfredo de Villa)--Set in New York City, a grieving eye doctor is forced to take a closer look at her life; an aging artist confronts the loss of his eyesight, and a young photographer battles his innermost demons. World Premiere.
BROKEN ENGLISH (Director and Screenwriter: Zoe Cassavetes)--A young woman in her thirties finds herself surrounded by friends who are married, in relationships or with children. She unexpectedly meets a quirky Frenchman who opens her eyes to a lot more than love. World Premiere.
FOUR SHEETS TO THE WIND (Director and Screenwriter: Sterlin Harjo)--Cufe Smallhill finds his father dead. Fulfilling a dying wish, he disposes of the body in the family pond and sets off to begin a new life in the big city of Tulsa. World Premiere.
THE GOOD LIFE (Director and Screenwriter: Steve Berra)--A story about a "mostly normal" young man whose small town existence running a faded movie palace is shaken when he comes in contact with a mysterious young woman. World Premiere.
GRACE IS GONE (Director and Screenwriter: James C. Strouse)--A young father learns that his wife has been killed in Iraq and must find the courage to tell his two young daughters the news. World Premiere.
JOSHUA (Director: George Ratliff; Screenwriters: David Gilbert, George Ratliff)--A successful, young Manhattan family is torn apart by the machinations of Joshua, their eight-year-old prodigy, when his newborn baby sister comes home from the hospital. World Premiere.
NEVER FOREVER (Director and Screenwriter: Gina Kim)--When an American woman and her Asian-American husband discover they are unable to conceive, she begins a clandestine relationship with an attractive stranger in a desperate attempt to save her marriage. World Premiere.
ON THE ROAD WITH JUDAS (Director and Screenwriter: JJ Lask)--Reality, fiction and the notions of storytelling intertwine in this narrative about a young thief and the woman he loves. World Premiere.
PADRE NUESTRO (Director and Screenwriter: Christopher Zalla)--Fleeing a criminal past, Juan hops a truck transporting illegal immigrants from Mexico to New York City, where he meets Pedro, who is seeking his rich father. World Premiere.
THE POOL (Director: Chris Smith; Screenwriters: Chris Smith, Randy Russell)--A boy working in a hotel becomes obsessed with a swimming pool at a home in the opulent hills of Panjim, Goa in India. His life gets turned upside-down when he attempts to meet the mysterious family that arrives at the house. World Premiere.
ROCKET SCIENCE (Director and Screenwriter: Jeffrey Blitz)--A 15-year-old boy from New Jersey with a stuttering problem falls in love with the star of the debate team and finds himself suddenly immersed in the ultra-competitive world of debating. World Premiere.
SNOW ANGELS (Director: David Gordon Green; Screenwriter: Stewart O'Nan)--A drama that interweaves the life of a teenager with his former baby-sitter, her estranged husband, and their daughter. World Premiere.
STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING (Director: Andrew Wagner; Screenwriters: Andrew Wagner, Fred Parnes)--The solitary life of a writer is shaken when a smart, ambitious graduate student convinces him that her thesis will bring him back into the literary spotlight. World Premiere.
TEETH (Director and Screenwriter: Mitchell Lichtenstein)--Still a stranger to her own body, a high school student discovers she has a "physical advantage" when she becomes the object of male violence. World Premiere.
THE UNTITLED DAKOTA FANNING PROJECT (Director and Screenwriter: Deborah Kampmeier)--Set in late 1950s Alabama, a precocious, troubled girl finds her angel in the Blues. World Premiere.
WEAPONS (Director and Screenwriter: Adam Bhala Lough)--WEAPONS presents a series of brutal, seemingly random youth-related killings over the course of a weekend in a typical working class American suburb, and tragically reveals how they are all interrelated. World Premiere.
World Cinema Documentary Competition
ACIDENTE / Brazil (Director: Cao Guimarães and Pablo Lobato)--Experimental in form, this lush cinematic poem weaves together stories and images from twenty different cities in the state of Menas Gerais, Brazil, to reveal the fundamental role the accidental and the unpredictable play in everyday human life. North American Premiere.
BAJO JUAREZ, THE CITY DEVOURING ITS DAUGHTERS / Mexico (Director: Alejandra Sanchez, Jose Antonio Cordero)--In an industrial town in Mexico near the US border, hundreds of women have been sexually abused and murdered. As the body count continues to rise, a web of corruption unfolds that reaches the highest levels of Mexican society. U.S. Premiere.
COCALERO / Bolivia (Director: Alejandro Landes)--Set against the backdrop of the Bolivian government's attempted eradication of the coca crop and oppression of the indigenous groups that cultivate it and the American war on drugs, an Aymara Indian named Evo Morales travels through the Andes and the Amazon in jeans and sneakers, leading a historic campaign to become the first indigenous president of Bolivia. World Premiere.
COMRADES IN DREAMS / Germany (Director: Uli Gaulke)--From the far ends of the globe, four lives that could not be more different are united by a single passion--their unconditional love of cinema and their quest to bring the magic of the silver screen to everyday lives to those who need it most. North American Premiere.
CROSSING THE LINE / UK (Director: Daniel Gordon)--CROSSING THE LINE reveals the clandestine life of Joseph Dresnok who, at the height of the Cold War was one of the few Americans who defected to North Korea, one of the least understood countries in the world. North American Premiere.
ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS (VORES LYKKES FJENDER) / Denmark (Director: Eva Mulvad and Anja Al Erhayem )--Malalai Joya, a 28-year-old Afghani woman, redefines the role of women and elected officials in her county with her historic 2005 victory in Afghanistan's first democratic parliamentary election in over 30 years. North American Premiere.
THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN / Ireland/UK ( Director: Julien Temple)--An invitation from Joe Strummer, the Punk Rock Warlord himself, to journey beyond the myth to the heart and voice of a generation. His life, our times, his music. World Premiere.
HOT HOUSE / Israel (Director: Shimon Dotan)--At once chilling and humanizing, HOT HOUSE provides an unprecedented look at how Israeli prisons have become the breeding ground for the next generation of Palestinian leaders as well as the birth place of future terrorist threats. North American Premiere.
IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON / UK (Director: David Sington)--One of the defining passages of American history, the Apollo Space Program literally brought the aspirations of a nation to another world. Awe-inspiring footage and candid interviews with the astronauts who visited the moon provide an unparalleled perspective on the precious state of our planet. World Premiere.
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES / Canada (Director: Jennifer Baichwal)--This stunningly visual work provides the unique perspective of photographer Edward Burtynsky, who chronicles the transforming landscape of the world due to industrial work and manufacturing. U.S. Premiere.
THE MONASTERY: MR. VIG AND THE NUN / Denmark ( Director: Pernille Rose Grønkjær)-- Worlds collide, tempers flare and dreams are realized when Mr. Vig, an 82-year-old virgin from Denmark and Sister Ambrosija, a headstrong Russian nun, join forces to transform Mr. Vig's run-down castle into an Orthodox Russian monastery. North American Premiere.
ON A TIGHTROPE / Norway, Canada (Director: Petr Lom)--The daily lives of four children living in an orphanage who are learning the ancient art of tightrope walking becomes a metaphor for the struggle of the Uighur's, China's largest Muslim minority, who are torn between religion and the teachings of communism. North American Premiere.
THREE COMRADES (DRIE KAMERADEN) / Netherlands (Director: Masha Novikova)--In this intimate film we witness the lives of three lifelong friends who's worlds are torn apart by war in Chechnya's bloody struggle for independence. North American Premiere.
A VERY BRITISH GANGSTER / UK (Director: Donal MacIntyre)--Given his many contradictions, Dominic Noonan, head of one of Britain's biggest crime families, is a man who defies stereotypes. This close up look at his life, from gun trials to the murder of his brother on the streets of Manchester, reveals a community struggling with poverty, violence and drugs. World Premiere.
VHS--KAHLOUCHA / Tunisia (Director: Nejib Belkadhi)--In a poor district of Tunisia, self-made auteur, Moncef Kahloucha, a guerilla filmmaker in the purest sense, demonstrates that it takes a village to make fun movies as he brings the power of cinema to the people. North American Premiere.
WELCOME EUROPA / France (Director: Bruno Ulmer)--Kurdish, Moroccan and Romanian young men migrate to Europe for a better life only to face the harsh realities and the laws of survival on the streets of a foreign land. North American Premiere.
World Cinema Dramatic Competition
BLAME IT ON FIDEL (LA FAUTE A FIDEL) / France (Director and Screenwriter: Julie Gavras)--A 9- year-old girl weathers big changes in her household as her parents become radical political activists in 1970-71 Paris. North American Premiere.
DRAINED (O CHEIRO DO RALO) / Brazil (Director: Heitor Dhalia; Screenwriters: Marçal Aquino, Heitor Dhalia)--A pawn shop proprietor buys used goods from desperate locals--as much to play perverse power games as for his own livelihood, but when the perfect rump and a backed-up toilet enter his life, he loses all control. North American Premiere.
DRIVING WITH MY WIFE'S LOVER (ANE-EUI AEIN-EUL MANNADA) / South Korea (Director: Kim Tai-sik; Screenwriters: Kim Jeon-han, Kim Tai-sik)--When a mild-mannered South Korean man decides to track down the cab driver having an affair with his wife, a strange bond develops between the pair during a long-distance drive. North American Premiere.
EAGLE VS. SHARK / New Zealand (Director and Screenwriter: Taika Waititi)--The tale of two socially awkward misfits and the strange ways they try to find love. World Premiere.
EZRA / France (Director: Newton I. Aduaka; Screenwriters: Newton I. Aduaka, Alain-Michel Blanc)--A young ex-child soldier in Sierra Leone attempts to return to a normal life after the civil war which devastated his country. World Premiere.
GHOSTS / UK (Director: Nick Broomfield; Screenwriters: Nick Broomfield, Jez Lewis)--Based on a true story, GHOSTS is the tragic account of an illegal Chinese immigrant woman as she struggles relentlessly for a better life in the U.K. North American Premiere.
HOW IS YOUR FISH TODAY? (JIN TIAN DE YU ZEN ME YANG?) / UK (Director: Xiaolu Guo; Screenwriter: Rao Hui, Xiaolu Guo)--Blurring boundaries between reality and fiction, HOW IS YOUR FISH TODAY? traces a Chinese writer's inner journey through his fictional characters. North American Premiere.
HOW SHE MOVE / Canada (Director: Ian Iqbal Rashid; Screenwriter: Annmarie Morais)--Following her sister's death from drug addiction, a high school student is forced to leave her private school to return to her old, crime-filled neighborhood where she re-kindles an unlikely passion for the competitive world of "Step" dancing. World Premiere.
THE ISLAND (OSTROV) / Russia (Director: Pavel Lounguine; Screenwriter: Dmitri Sobolev)--Somewhere in Northern Russia in a small Russian Orthodox monastery lives an unusual man whose bizarre conduct confuses his fellow monks, while others who visit the island believe that the man has the power to heal, exorcise demons and foretell the future. U.S. Premiere.
KHADAK / Belgium/Germany (Directors and Screenwriters: Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth)--Set in the frozen steppes of Mongolia, KHADAK tells the epic story of Bagi, a young nomad confronted with his destiny after animals fall victim to a plague which threatens to eradicate nomadism. U.S. Premiere.
THE LEGACY / Georgia/France (Directors and Screenwriters: Géla Babluani, Temur Babluani)--Three French hipsters and their translator travel through rural Georgia to claim a remote, ruined castle that one of them has inherited. En route, they encounter an old man and his grandchild who are on a journey to carry out a mysterious, morbid ritual designed to end a conflict between warring clans. North American Premiere.
THE NIGHT BUFFALO (EL BUFALO DE LA NOCHE) / Mexico (Director: Jorge Hernandez Aldana; Screenwriters: Jorge Hernandez Aldana, Guillermo Arriaga,)--A 22-year-old schizophrenic commits suicide after his girlfriend cheats on him with his best friend. Before killing himself, he lays out a plan that will drive the lovers into an abyss of madness. World Premiere.
NOISE / Australia (Director and Screenwriter: Matthew Saville)--A young cop, beset with doubt and afflicted with tinnitus (ear-ringing), is pitched into the chaos that follows a mass murder on a suburban train. He struggles to clear the screaming in his head while the surrounding community deals with the after effects of the terrible crime. World Premiere.
ONCE / Ireland (Director and Screenwriter: John Carney)--ONCE is a modern-day musical set on the streets of Dublin. Featuring Glen Hansard and his Irish band "The Frames", ONCE tells the story of a busker and an immigrant during an eventful week as they write, rehearse and record songs that reveal their unique love story. North American Premiere.
REVES DE POUSSIERE / Burkina Faso/Canada/France (Director and Screenwriter: Laurent Salgues)--A Nigerian peasant comes looking for work in Essakane, a dusty gold mine in Northeast Burkina Faso, where he hopes to forget the past that haunts him. North American Premiere.
SWEET MUD (ADAMA MESHUGAAT) / Israel (Director and Screenwriter: Dror Shaul)--On a kibbutz in southern Israel in the 1970's, Dvir Avni realizes that his mother is mentally ill. In this closed community, bound by rigid rules, Dvir must navigate between the kibbutz motto of equality and the stinging reality that his mother has, in effect, been abandoned by the community. U.S. Premiere."
