Bird. Cat. Cat.

Fledgling Directed By: Tony Gault, Elizabeth Henry (IMDB) USA, 2009, 7 min Originally shot on Super 8 film, Fledgling is the story of Kevin and a baby crow found one stormy night, and how the crow became a part of the family,

Cat City Directed By: Justine Pimlott Canada, 2009, 54 min At the Toronto boatyard, at the city park, in the alley behind the restaurant, former housecats live in colonies tended by volunteers from shelters and rescue organizations. Some people just voluntarily look after the cats because it’s the right thing to do, gradually capturing and getting them spayed to keep future generations from roaming wild.

Love Child Directed By: Daniel Wirtberg (IMDB) Sweden, 2009, 7 min She had the perfect storybook life that every little girl deserves, until the day her papa brought home a new pet.

Chega De Suadade Fri, Apr 16th 5:15pm Sat, Apr 17th 5:00pm Stage Door Theater It is five-thirty in the afternoon, and already the guests are arriving, in silver sandals and polished shoes. In an old-time dance hall in São Paulo, the genteel regulars meet for an evening of gossip, flirtation, friendship, and a little wine. It is the perfect setting for criss-crossing stories, slipping in and out like the dancers on the floor. Circular, as is the ballroom, the story revolves around Marici and Eudes, who go to the dance together. Marici makes friends with Bel, a young “outsider” in the ballroom, who dates the young man responsible for the sound system. Eudes, a distinguished older gentleman, takes Bel out to dance, causing tongues to wag. Alice and Álvaro suffer the limitations of age, but unwilling to abandon the dances. And Elza, excited, arrives full of expectations for meeting someone new, and bringing along her timid friend Nice. This is a warm and mellow film, filled with wonderful characters and the sounds of night-time chatter, the clink of glasses, and hot Brazilian music keeping everything moving. Cooking History Thu, Apr 15, 5:30pm Wisconsin Union Theater A marching army has to eat. To fuel recent European wars, a behind-the-scenes force of army cooks keep the soldiers fed (sometimes well, sometimes not). In this eclectic and frequently hilarious documentary, men and women who worked in military kitchens recall their experiences, usually while recreating one of their signature recipes that fed their troupes (Russian blintzes, Hungarian sausages). More than one animal gets its neck cut in the process, but it was war after all, and a plucked chicken is nothing compared to the melancholy human toll that underscores the story. Still, humor is often front and center, such as the sequence in which Peter Silbernagel, the only survivor of a submarine that was sunk, makes schnitzel on a table set in the beach as the tide rolls in. Liepke Distel bakes bread while recalling the poisoned loaves for SS officers he made as a member of the Jewish resistance movement. “Kerekes also makes the point that spitefulness between nations is reflected in the disparagement of others' national cuisines. This observation is epitomized by the testimony of Branko Trbovich, Tito's personal taster, whose discussion of the differences between the preferred diets of Serbians, Croatians, and Bosnians encapsulates the rising nationalism in former Yugoslavia.” — Alissa Simon, Variety. Desert of the Forbidden Art How does art survive in a time of oppression? During the Soviet rule artists, who stay true to their vision are executed, sent to mental hospitals, or Gulags. Their plight inspires young Igor Savitsky. He pretends to buy state-approved art but instead daringly rescues 40,000 forbidden fellow artist’s works and creates a museum in the desert of Uzbekistan, far from the watchful eyes of the KGB. Though a penniless artist himself, he cajoles the cash to pay for the art from the same authorities who are banning it. Savitsky amasses an eclectic mix of Russian Avant-Garde art. But his greatest discovery is an unknown school of artists who settle in Uzbekistan after the Russian revolution of 1917, encountering a unique Islamic culture, as exotic to them as Tahiti was for Gauguin. They develop a startlingly original style, fusing European modernism with centuries-old Eastern traditions. Ben Kingsley, Sally Field, and Ed Asner voice the diaries and letters of Savitsky and the artists. Intercut with recollections of the artists’ children and rare archival footage, the film takes us on a dramatic journey of sacrifice for the sake of creative freedom. Described as one of the most remarkable collections of 20th century Russian art and located in one of the world’s poorest regions, today these paintings are worth millions, a lucrative target for Islamic fundamentalists, corrupt bureaucrats and art profiteers. The collection remains as endangered as when Savitsky first created it, posing the question whose responsibility is it to preserve this cultural treasure. Filmmakers scheduled to attend. Down Terrace "If you can imagine Mike Leigh directing an In the Loop-esque deadpan comedy embedded within a British version of The Sopranos, in which Tony is an embittered ex-hippie in passive-aggressive conflict with his pot-dulled but surprisingly ruthless adult son, then you might be able to wrap your head around Down Terrace." — Karina Longworth, spout.com. Is it even necessary to recount the plot with a quote like that? Here’s the set-up: Bill (a former hippie) and his son Karl (uptight) are back from the courts and looking to find out who squealed on them to the police. Waiting for them in their typical unassuming house is Bill’s wife, who is clearly aware of whatever got them locked up in the first place. Almost entirely shot in this cozy domestic setting, Down Terrace introduces family members, shifty friends, and a hit man with his toddler in tow, who show up at the house for a cup of tea, or something stronger. Paranoia hangs in the airs everyone suspects the others, and before long the family starts wrapping up the loose ends in a deadpan and deadly finale. Winner, Best UK Feature, 2009 Raindance Film Festival. Dzi Croquettes The Dzi Croquettes were a groundbreaking, all-male dance and theater group who used their talent and a mix of humor and derision to challenge the violent dictatorship that gripped Brazil in the 1970s. Creating a new sexy and flamboyant stage language that would influence an entire generation, this theater group revolutionized the gay movement despite being banned and censored by the military regime. They pushed the boundaries of masculine and feminine by combining physicality with makeup and costume. Through interviews and archival footage of the group’s incredible performances, directors Raphael Alvarez and Tatiana Issa reveal the origin of the group, their relentless perfectionism, and their unexpected stroke of luck when Liza Minnelli becomes a godmother of sorts to them. It also gives a very honest account of the sadness of their final years when tension, egos, AIDS, and even murder ripped them apart. Winner, Jury & Audience Awards for Best Documentary, 2009 Rio and São Paulo Film Festivals. Father and Guns What would it take to bump off Bon Cop, Bad Cop (WFF08) as Canada’s top French-language film? Another buddy cop film, naturallement. Two popular Canadian comedians take the role of Jacques (Michel Côté), a swaggering detective, and Marc (Louis-Jose Houde), his less-than-macho son, working together on the same squad to bust the Blood Machines biker gang which is terrorizing Montrèal. They bicker over everything, with Jacques frequently criticizing his nerdy son. The film starts with a stakeout at which one of their own gets kidnapped. The lawyer who represents the bikers may be the key to releasing the hostage and so Marc and Jacques are sent undercover to find out. The lawyer is going into the backwoods with his own son, to a wilderness camp for dysfunctional dads. Soon they have traded their bulletproof vests for flannel shirts, participating in the rock climbing and canoeing (and mud wrestling) activities designed to bring father and son closer together. It’s all very silly fun, with broad gags poking fun at the touchy-feely therapy sessions. Houde in particular is fun to watch with his rapid-fire dialogue (he played the memorable coroner in Bon Cop, Bad Cop). A Film With Me In It Don’t you dare watch the official trailer for this film; it uses a lot of the good bits. You’ve been warned. Mark (Mark Doherty) is back from another failed audition. His best friend Pierce (Dylan Moran, Black Books) has pretenses of being a film director, and is thinking about writing a script for Mark. But what, they wonder, would make for a really good story? Until Mark and his girlfriend get evicted for nonpayment of rent, they lives in an apartment that nearly as squalid as the flat in Withnail & I (also at this festival). It’s certainly falling to pieces. A big piece soon causes an accident that kills Mark’s wheelchair-bound brother (you may know at this point if this comedy is right for you). More freak occurrences keep the bodies falling faster than could be coincidence, so Mark and Pierce have to do some busy work to keep from getting nailed for the deaths. Pierce sees an opportunity, and starts to craft their screenplay for just such an implausible scenario — a nice twist given that Doherty also wrote the film’s script. "The Irish narrative tradition of the bleakly hilarious…is honored with gusto in Ian FitzGibbon’s Film With Me in It, a slender, supple comedy graced with appealing performers and laced with agreeable poison." — Andy Webster, New York Times. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her beloved uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) and the tattooed and troubled but resourceful computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) to investigate. When the pair link Harriet’s disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves. Author Stieg Larsson, who died suddenly in 2004, left behind three unpublished novels, known as the "Millennium" trilogy, which have become a global sensation, elevating Larsson to the world’s second best-selling author last year. The Host Fifty-odd years after Godzilla v.1.0, America’s imperial recklessness has birthed a new Asian cine-monster. Born of toxic chemicals dumped into the Han River, a slimy behemoth rises from the shore to terrorize Seoul. When the monster captures a young girl, it falls on her amiably dysfunctional family to save the day. Director Bong Joon-ho juggles sci-fi thrills, slapstick comedy, and subtle political critiques to create a lively genre mash-up that puts most American blockbusters to shame. Big-screen entertainment of the highest order, Bong’s beloved international breakthrough seemingly managed to please everyone: the critics fawned, the geeks geeked out, and the popcorn crowd made it the top-grossing South Korean film of all time. To no one’s great surprise, both a South Korean sequel and an American remake (produced by Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski) are in the works, so savor this unsullied crowdpleaser while you can. “This movie will be appreciated for years to come because of what happens in the 100 minutes after the beast is unveiled. Joon-ho’s decision to blow a large chunk of his special effects budget in one early scene takes away the young director’s safety net, and it forces him to prove his mettle with story and substance. The end result is a great piece of filmmaking and a legitimate science-fiction/horror classic.” — Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle. Starring Song Kang-ho (Memories of Murder, WFF10; Secret SunshineThe Show Must Go On, WFF09; Lady Vengeance, WFF06) and Bae Doo-na (Barking Dogs Never Bite, WFF10; Linda Linda Linda, WFF07). Best Film, 2006 Blue Dragon Awards (South Korean Oscars). 2006 Cannes, Toronto, and New York Film Festivals. I Killed My Mother When Xavier Dolan was in high school, he “wrote a story about an infantile hatred because I’d been encouraged by an unconventional teacher to write about issues that were intimate and close to my heart. I called the story ‘Matricide.’ I thought I’d leave it at that forever.” But the young Dolan, who had been acting in commercials and French-Canadian films, turned the story into the script that became I Killed My Mother, a breathtaking debut feature about a single mother and her gay adolescent son, played by Dolan himself. It skitters between droll comedy and very complex emotions drawn from their hostile codependence. Hubert is an angsty art student, desperate to get out of the house and become his own man. He pushes back against everything Chantale, his daffy mother, does (Anne Dorval, deliciously irritating), while she is oblivious to, or maybe just ignores, his petulance. (There is a slight resemblance to Celia Imrie playing Una Alconbury in Bridget Jones’s Diary, but this is a very different movie). Eventually, though, his youthful rages get under her skin and she calls in Hubert’s distant father to help sort him out. “In the vein of Ma Vie en Rose…and other gay adolescent coming-of-age films of comic rebellion, it’s a congeries of brilliantly achieved cinematic moments and repetitive, massively self-indulgent gestures of acting out.” — Peter Brunette, Hollywood Reporter. I Killed My Mother was Canada’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film, Academy Awards. Winner, C.I.C.A.E. Award, Prix Regards Jeune, and Prix SACD, 2009 Cannes Film Festival. 2009 Toronto, Vancouver, AFI, Taipei, Palm Springs, and Rotterdam Film Festivals. Ilusiones Opticas A bone-dry satire of the health-care industry and corporate layoffs, this oddball comedy boasts an unlikely timeliness. Centered around a convincingly inept private healthcare corporation, the film is a web of barely intersecting stories – separated by technology, class, and corporate regulations, the amiably self-absorbed characters more brush past one other than coexist. Guajardo, a mall security guard, falls in love with a shoplifter over the closed-circuit monitors. Juan, a champion blind skier, regains his vision (sort of) only to become a pariah of the blind community and a propaganda tool of the corporation who semi-cured him. David, a longtime employee of said corporation, refuses to be laid off and sets up shop in the company’s “outplacement” department. Constructed in deadpan wide shots, the film’s understated, melancholy humor has earned critical comparisons Wes Anderson and Roy Andersson (You, The Living, WFF08, Songs from the Second Floor, WFF02). Before becoming a filmmaker, director Cristián Jiménez was torn between pursuing careers in sociology and stand-up comedy – his first feature represents a surprisingly natural fusion of the two. 2009 San Sebastian, Tokyo, Stockholm Film Festival. Looking For Eric Eric Bishop is in a middle-aged mess. Played by Steve Evets (Sunshine, WFF09), he’s a scruffy, graying dad who still misses his ex-wife (the first of two) and can’t quite manage his rowdy teenaged stepsons. Although his workmates from the local post office are a cheerful bunch who gather at the pub to watch Manchester United’s matches, they aren’t enough to solve Eric’s ennui and confusion. Part of his problem may be that Eric’s never fully matured; he has a giant poster on his bedroom wall of Eric Cantona, the superstar French forward for Manchester United. And, like a teen, he imagines that he has a connection with the great man, and talks through his troubles to the life-size poster figure. With shock, of course, he discovers one day the real Eric Cantona behind him, ready to become Eric’s life coach. It’s an effective and very funny premise. In reality, Cantona has a famed reputation as being intelligent, charming, and difficult. He is fascinating to watch on screen, as he plays a real fictional version of his fictional real self. The plots picks up steam as the two stepsons get into some hot water with the local thugs and Eric finds a chance to make something of himself. With Cantona’s encouragement (and fitness training), he gathers his mates from the pub for a comical finale. “A warm-hearted film which moves effortlessly between scenes of suffering and side-splitting comedy, Looking For Eric is a real gem. Evets gives a superb central performance and is supported by a great team of Manchester stand-up comedians as his friends….The belief that fans invest in [football] brings excitement and togetherness into lives which might otherwise seem very grim. Football, this film tells us, provides a space where it's okay to yell and laugh and cry and just be yourself. Looking For Eric has captured some of that magic and watching it is a real delight.” — Jennie Kermode, eyeforfilm.co.uk. The Magic Sword Bert I. Gordon is a legend in science fiction and fantasy filmmaking. Born in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1922 and educated at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he became best known for films using giant creatures like The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), Earth vs. the Spider (1958), and Village of the Giants (1965). Presented at this festival is Gordon’s personal 35mm print of The Magic Sword, a medieval adventure starring Basil Rathbone (the 1940s-era Sherlock Holmes) as Lodac the evil sorcerer. The film opens with the good witch Sybil in her potion room fretting about her foster son who has likely succumbed to a terrible curse — of being in love. Her two-headed assistant agrees. Princess Helene is the object of his desire, a radiant brunette who (as all good princesses do) is dreaming of the man that she’ll someday marry. Lodac kidnaps the princess to feed her to his dragon, and George leaps into action to rescue her. What follows is a splendid adventure with a handsome white horse, six magically frozen knights, a rival for the princess’s hand, a rather impressive dragon, and the Magic Sword. Filmmakers scheduled to attend. Masquerades After working for much of his life as a gardener for the richest man in his dusty Algerian village, Mounir dreams of improving his family’s fortune and gaining a measure of respect by finding the right man for his sister Rym to marry. She tends to fall asleep at inappropriate times, which makes her marriage prospects difficult. After a night of too much drinking, Mounir makes up a story that a wealthy outsider has agreed to the match. Rym plays along with the rumor with the hopes of making her own plans a reality. She dreams of marrying Mounir’s best friend, Khliffa, who has secretly courted her for years. “Genuinely amusing, if not downright funny at times, Lyes Salem’s biggest asset in Masquerades is himself, playing the pop-eyed, misguided, at times quite delusional Mounir, de facto head of a small but troubled family in a dust-ridden Algerian village where nobody takes him seriously…. Masquerades marks Salem out as a talent we’ll certainly be seeing more of; and if his next work is as genial as this, the pleasure will be all ours.” — Fionnuala Halligan, Screen Daily. Winner, FIPRESCI Prize, Muhr Award for Best Film, 2008 Dubai International Film Festival. Masquerades is copresented by the Global Film Initiative and is part of the 2010 Global Lens film series. OSS 117: Lost In Rio The 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival opened with OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, a send-up of the international spy genre. Director Michel Hazanavicius and writer Jean-François Halin have teamed again with comic megastar Jean Dujardin for this sequel (there’s another in the works). Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, aka OSS 117, is the bastard love-child of James Bond and Austin Powers. He has taste in tailors but not in jokes, and Lost In Rio plunges further into emphatically politically incorrect humor by sending the spy to Brazil to chase former Nazi officers in the late 1960s. He is joined by the beautiful Dolorès, a Mossad agent also pursuing the same quarry. (Yes: Jewish jokes, Nazi jokes, hippie jokes. You’ve been warned.) “The real core of the comedy lies in Bonisseur's blissful ignorance of changing society. He is Ward Cleaver given a gun and dropped into the free love era of women's lib, equal rights and desegregation. He is not only completely uncomprehending of the issues of the time, he is completely unaware that there even are issues at all. When the comedy of the OSS films work best it is precisely this clash of Bonisseur's legitimate well meaning – he truly believes that he is being the good guy and wants nothing more than to be the dashing hero loved and respected by all – and the wildly unacceptable belief system that he has built his world around that makes it sing.” — Todd Brown, twitchfilm.net. Paddle To Seattle: Journey Through The Inside Passage The Inside Passage waterway from Alaska to northern Washington is 1,300 miles long and holds North America’s only rainforest. J.J. and Josh are going to conquer it in homemade wooden kayaks (top speed: 3 miles per hour). Filling their kayaks with food and camping supplies, the two embark on a journey that will last almost a hundred days, through pristine waters, raging storms, and a few quaint coastal towns. The trip becomes more grueling than the kayakers expected (well, of course), but they never lose their sense of humor. That’s not just an expression — these guys are entertaining (stick around for the credits). It’s great fun joining them in their adventure from the comfort of your dry movie-theater seat. Producer/editor Ben Gottfried is a UW–Madison alumnus and producer J.J. Kelley attended high school in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. Winner, Audience Award 2009 Port Townsend Film Festival; Independent Spirit Award 2009 Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Winner, Golden Badger, 2010 Wisconsin Film Festival. Filmmakers scheduled to attend. Passenger Side Two brothers of similar age but differing personalities spend the day driving around Los Angeles in a weathered 1975 green BMW. Michael (Adam Scott) gets a call from his younger brother Tobey (Joel Bissonnette, real-life brother of the director) who begs a favor: he’s got some mysterious stuff he’s got to do, and needs Michael to drive him. It’s clear that Tobey is the underachiever, a recovering addict who doesn’t surprise Michael by sponging a ride and not really revealing the details. And Michael is too well-mannered to deny his brother (a habit that was likely developed two decades earlier in their lives). On the road to take care of Tobey’s business, they pass through parts of the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area that reveal what a remarkably diverse city that is. As the often very funny conversation unspools, little details emerge that make clear that for all the surface differences between them, they envy each other. With a soundtrack assembled by Superchunk frontman Mac McGaughan, including Wilco, the Silver Jews, Leonard Cohen, Unrest, Smog, and Guided By Voices. 2009 Los Angeles, Toronto, London Film Festivals. Point Traverse Roland Echavarria’s splendid, moody cinematography and sound design by Steve Cupani perfectly capture the bleak northern landscapes of Point Traverse. This is an artful, delicate story of two friends, Adwin and Cael, who have followed different paths. At first Cael (Dave Rachar) feels like the more classically cinematic of the two: a handsome drifter in a black leather jacket, rolling back into town. He takes a job as a nighttime janitor and meets Mia, another outsider who aims to escape to a better life. The real screen presence, though, is Adwin (Will Ennis), who runs a fast-food restaurant on the outskirts of town. Compared to Cael, he’s the responsible one, who’s made something of himself. He too meets someone new, a girl who applies for a job at the restaurant. But the routine of frying chicken sandwiches and listening to the hum of the electric lights eventually makes him realize how little he has, and the opportunities that he’s missed. This is a challenging, effective film that carefully unfolds into unexpected directions. Director Albert Shin says: “How many of us have confronted the possibility that perhaps we are not destined for something special? Or even if we do reach our dreams, why do we catch ourselves sometimes staring blankly into our coffee cups or out our apartment windows? We are so often overcome by intangible feelings that make us restless and dissatisfied. What would a film that explores such an elusive notion look like?” Filmmakers scheduled to attend. Red Riding: 1974 An immaculate cast of accomplished British film and television actors, and three incredibly talented directors, create the world of the Red Riding trilogy, adapted from David Peace’s quartet of cult noir novels. These are interlinking stories of crime and punishment in northern England, during the years of the very real Yorkshire ripper. There are jilted lovers, impressionable journalists, soused old men, betrayed wives, and corrupt cops: all the elements that have made British crime thrillers among the best in the world. Originally created for television, each of these three separate stories could perhaps be watched on its own, but to do so would deny you the incredibly rich layering of story threads that weave between the characters (there’s a lot to keep track of.) The 1974 episode is Eddie’s story, a local crime reporter at the Yorkshire Post. A girl has gone missing, and Eddie thinks there might be connections between this and other girls who disappeared under similar circumstances. A local lad gets accused of the crime, but Eddie suspects that maybe the police are looking for easy solutions, and have something to hide. The trilogy “has already laid a strong claim to being one of the most darkly powerful dramas of the year….This was an unrelentingly seedy and corrupt place, where the misdeeds of the police went far beyond giving villains the odd slap — and where all the people with any sort of power swigged their whisky, smoked their fags and plotted their crooked schemes together. As one typically psychotic officer put it, ‘This is the North. We do what we want.’” — James Walton, telegraph.co.uk Red Riding: 1980 After the gritty murder mystery of Red Riding: 1974, it becomes clear that this ambitious series is as interested in the broken, twisted system of crime-solving as the crimes themselves. James Marsh (Wisconsin Death Trip, WFF00; The King, WFF06; Man on Wire) directs this investigation into Yorkshire police corruption. There have been some questions about how the Yorkshire Ripper case is being handled, so Manchester Assistant Chief Constable Peter Hunter (Paddy Considine) is brought in to set up an outside inquiry. He handpicks two Manchester detectives to come with him, including Helen Marshall, who is fighting for respect on the force. Their team reviews the evidence for each of the Yorkshire Ripper murders, and becomes convinced that something’s amiss. Bob Craven, a local officer assigned to be their liaison, is being as unhelpful as possible. Viewers watching the whole series will discover familiar characters emerging in this installment, providing an extra dimension to this frightening and contorted world of perversion, greed, and revenge. Red Riding: 1983 The concluding episode of the Red Riding trilogy continues the epic masterwork of Yorkshire’s corrupt police department, violent criminals, and missing girls, but differs from 1974 (shot on 16mm film) and 1980 (35mm) by being shot on high-definition digital video. Characters that hung around the edges of the first two films shift into focus here: Detective Chief Superintendent Maurice Jobson (David Morrissey) and a solicitor named John Piggott (Mark Addy), who has returned to Yorkshire after the death of his mother. Her neighbor was Mrs. Myshkin, whose son was accused of murdering a schoolgirl in Red Riding: 1974. She begs him to look into the eight-year-old case, which has drawn comparisons in the press to the recent disappearance of another girl. Director Anand Tucker (Hilary and Jackie) carefully draws together the threads of the story. Screenplay writer Tony Grisoni says: “The action in 1983 revisits 1974, shining a light in some of the darkest corners. It is a collage of events and years bound by a rent boy’s stream of consciousness. And with the conclusion of the novel, David doesn’t spare us. No future. And so it became a kind of mission of mine to save a child and to turn this into a redemptive story....The challenge was how to do this without destroying the essential nature of David’s novels. All through the process I’d held onto his words as a guide through the process. I hope against hope he does not feel betrayed. But I had to save that one child….Watching a final cut of 1983, I found myself intensely moved in the film’s closing moments because I believed what I was watching, because I believed we really had managed to save one child. But then that’s fiction for you.” Special When Lit Special When Lit rediscovers the lure of pinball, the American invention that made more money than Hollywood through the 1950s and 1960s. Its success swept the world, making it the epitome of cool. Has the video game killed pinball, or is there still an “extra ball” left? The rise and fall of pinball is told by the fans, collectors, designers and champion players from across the globe. There exists a passionate sub culture keeping the dream alive. Collectors swap spare parts, repair manuals, and scorecards dating back for decades. They cram every room in their house with flashing machines, then rent warehouse space for the rest. We learn about the early history of the game, with Chicago as the major hub of production for Bally, Gottlieb, Chicago Coin, and Genco (and where Stern Pinball remains the only manufacturer of original pinball machines. Everyone has their favorite game – Evel Knievel? Ali Baba? , and this film celebrates the game’s kitschy, sometimes bizarre game designs with terrific graphics and effects. Everything culminates at the really quite suspenseful annual pinball championships where hopeful competitors face off against the seasoned pros, flipping their way to glory. Sweetgrass Baah. Chronicling the final drive of 3,000 sheep across Montana’s Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains for summer pasture, Sweetgrass is a film in which the dialogue unfolds primarily in bleats. Cowpoke shepherds John Ahern and Pat Connolly (old-timer and young gun, respectively) steer the flock on this months-long odyssey through Big Sky Country, fending off bears and boredom. The high definition cinematography has had critics falling all over themselves in search of superlatives, and for good reason–the mountains surge with rivers of fleece, causing every vista to quiver with motion. Classic films ranging from The Searchers to McCabe and Mrs. Miller have long been hailed as the quintessential Western tombstone, but this documentary about the actual business of being a cowboy in the 21st century seems a far more eloquent eulogy. One of the few clues that Sweetgrass was shot in the past fifty years is that the cowboys have cell phones (but terrible reception). Pat’s anguished mountaintop call home reminds us that for all the natural beauty, it’s not all romance on the range. But hey, you try keeping track of 3,000 sheep. 2009 Berlin, New York, Vancouver Film Festivals. Tibet In Song Tibet in Song is both a celebration of traditional Tibetan folk music and a harrowing journey into the past fifty years of cultural repression inside Chinese controlled Tibet. Director and former Tibetan political prisoner, Ngawang Choephel, weaves a story of beauty, pain, brutality and resilience, introducing Tibet to the world in a way never before seen on film. The beauty of traditional Tibetan folk music is showcased through a variety of working songs, songs about family and the beauty of the land. These rarely seen performances are deftly juxtaposed against startling footage of the early days of the Chinese invasion and a concise explanation of the factors leading to the Dalai Lama’s flight into exile in 1959. Ngawang Choephel sets the stage for a unique exploration of the Chinese impact on Tibetans inside Tibet. What follows is a heartbreaking tale of cultural exploitation and resistance, which includes Ngawangs’ own eventual imprisonment for recording the very songs at the center of the film. Tibet in Song provides raw and uncensored look at Tibet as it stands today, a country plagued by Chinese brutality, yet willing to fight for the existence of its unique cultural heritage. Tibet in Song is directed by Ngawang Choephel, and contains both original music composed by Ngawang himself, and an array of traditional folk songs sung by native Tibetans. 2009 Sundance Film Festival. The correct start time of this film is 3:00 pm. A Town Called Panic A stop-motion whirlwind set in a papier-mâché Belgian town populated entirely by squeaky-voiced toys, this surreal animated feature defies synopsis. But here goes: Cowboy and Indian want to surprise Horse with a backyard barbeque pit for his birthday, but a fateful typo leads to them ordering waaay too many bricks (50 million). The brick avalanche opens up an underwater alternate universe, and from there, it’s a quick jaunt to the center of the earth. In an age when so many animators are dedicated to the dubious cause of recreating reality, or stuck in formula stories, directors Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar charge in the opposite direction (or maybe all directions), gleefully reminding us that in animation, anything is possible. The characters’ movements alone are hilarious – they flail about with a herky-jerky recklessness that matches the plot’s gonzo energy. Packed with more imagination per minute than any film you’re likely to see this year, this haywire delight will have you forgetting all about newfangled fads like 3D. “They stuff every second of the film with little bits of comic business, so that a coffee pot features three spouts, a vending machine shoots out giant [Belgian] waffles, and the horse enjoys a chocolate hay bale for his birthday…. It unfolds like the fevered playtime imaginings of an over-bright and dangerously unbalanced child.” – Andrew Schenker, Slant Magazine. Audience Award, 2009 Fantastic Fest. 2009 Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals. Waking Sleeping Beauty Think back. Although Walt Disney Studios is the defining standard for feature-length animated films, can you name a Disney title from the mid-1980s? A few years later, though, comes The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and more. Director Don Hahn and producer (and Madison native) Peter Schneider worked at Disney during this fertile time. Just as The Pixar Story (WFF08) tells an inside story of a studio at a time of change, Waking Sleeping Beauty offers a fascinating and candid perspective of what happened in the creative ranks set against the dynamic tensions among the top leadership: Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Roy Disney (the nephew of Walt). Hahn says: “The story parallels the animated films themselves. They’re all about love and conflict. Waking Sleeping Beauty is about the love of a group of people for an art form and the conflict that occurred when that art form became incredibly lucrative and prestigious.” The filmmakers describe the ego battles, cost overruns and failed experiments. During times of tension, the animators’ favorite form of release was to draw scathing caricatures of themselves and their bosses (several memorable ones are on display in the film). Combining candid interviews with the key figures, home movies, internal memos and unseen footage. Waking Sleeping Beauty is a valuable glimpse into the filmmaking process. Winner, Audience Prize, 2009 Hamptons International Film Festival. 2009 Telluride, Toronto International Film Festivals Filmmakers scheduled to attend. Windmill Movie Filmmaker Richard P. Rogers tried for twenty years to make a documentary about his own life. He died in 2001, leaving boxes of film behind, the project unfinished, until his widow, acclaimed photographer Susan Meiselas, commissioned his former student Alexander Olch to make a film out of the pieces. Starting in the Hamptons, in the town of Wainscott, the film weaves Rogers’ footage into a journey through childhood memories, a less than encouraging mother, a family background of privilege, and Rogers’ persistent, dogged attempts to document his own life, his own constant search for meaning. “There’s footage Rogers took of both parents in their later years, but it’s the images of his mother, Muriel, that amaze. In her dotage, her regular attire appears to be slacks, a blazer, and salt-and-pepper wig. She delivers her putdowns right into his camera, asking with relish, “Is that what happens to all creative people: You go through life frustrated as all get-out? ’’ If the Beales of Grey Gardens weren’t Mrs. Rogers’s actual neighbors (both families lived in East Hampton), cosmically speaking, they were.” – Wesley Morries, Boston Globe. 2008 New York Film Festival.