Schedule/Program: Arlington International Film Festival 2012

Oct 14, 2012

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

7:00PM Best of Festival Shorts (31 min)
CASUS BELLI (11 min)
Yorgos Zois, Director|Greece|2010
AIFF Jury Award for “BEST NARRATIVE SHORT” From grocery stores to night clubs, lines form for access to every need. Is life punctuated by waiting in line, a cycle of endless anticipation? Is it a habit that unites people from all backgrounds?
KAHANIKAR (The Storyteller) (10 min) Nandita Jain, Director|UK|2011 AIFF Jury Award for “BEST ANIMATION SHORT” Seven year old Nirmala attempts to grapple with the demons of her grandfather’s dementia when he starts to forget the details of her favorite story EVERYTHING IS INCREDIBLE (10 min) Tim Skousen, Tyler Bastian, Trevor Hill, Directors|USA/Honduras|2012 |NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE AIFF Jury Award for “BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT” A disabled man named Agustin in Honduras has been building a helicopter in his home for the past 53 years causing controversy amongst his family and community. Some wonder if he is crazy. Other’s see him as inspirational. Some believe he is wasting his time. But for Agustin, the helicopter has become a way to cope with his debilitating polio as he painstakingly crafts the homemade flying machine. But will it fly?

7:30PM
ALL ME: The Life & Times of Winfred Rembert (Film, 78 min)
Vivian Ducat, Director|USA|2012
AIFF Jury Award for “BEST OF FESTIVAL” With his intensely autobiographical paintings depicting the day-to-day existence of African Americans in the segregated South, Winfred Rembert has preserved an important, if often disturbing, chapter of American history. His indelible images of toiling in the cotton fields, singing in church, dancing in juke joints, or working on a chain gang are especially powerful, not just because he lived every moment, but because he experienced so much of the injustice and bigotry they show as recently as the 1960s and 70s. Now in his sixties, Rembert has developed a growing following among collectors and connoisseurs, and enjoyed a number of tributes and exhibitions of his work. In “ALL ME: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert,” the artist relives his turbulent life, abundantly visualized by his extensive paintings and, in a series of intimate reminiscences, shows us how even the most painful memories can be transformed into something meaningful and beautiful. A glowing portrait of how an artist—and his art—is made, “ALL ME” is also a triumphant saga of race in contemporary America.
Panel discussion to follow:
Vivian Ducat, Director, Winfred Rembert, Artist & Subject of Film

After-Party for VIP and Festival Pass Holders at Tango Restaurant

Thursday, October 18, 2012

7:00PM
REINALDO ARENAS (3:45 min) Lucas Leyva, Director|USA/Cuba|2011|NORTHEAST PREMIERE Narrated from the point of view of a dying shark, this film metaphorically explores the current state of the aging Cuban-American exile community, many of whom have still not come to terms with the Communist Revolution that changed their lives forever. The film culls from various Cuban films and works of literature to create not a singular voice, but a feeling of a particular moment in time.
THE WALL: A World Divided (57 min) Eric Stange, Director|USA|2010 A story documenting the forces that built and then brought down the Berlin Wall is told through rare archival film and photos, as well as the unique historical insights of George H. Bush, James Baker, Helmut Kohl, Mikhail Gorbachev and the people of East & West Germany Q&A with Eric Stange, Director and John Kusiak, Composer

8:45PM
Forgás, Hungarian Folk Dance Troupe & Musicians
THE MAIDEN DANCED TO DEATH (107 min)
Endre Hules, Director|Hungary|2012|EAST COAST PREMIERE
Set in post-communist Hungary, The Maiden Danced to Death is a story about two brothers – two dancers; one defected, the other stayed… one gave his soul to commerce, the other to the Party. After twenty years, they meet again…and the dance begins. Expelled by the Communists 20 years earlier, Steve (Hules), has earned success abroad before returning to Hungary where his very presence challenges the ideals of his brother Gyula (Laszlo) who “stuck it out” at home all those years. This exceptional film combines dramatic scenes with dance and music, seamlessly slipping from one into another. Where words fail, the dance takes over revealing long-held secrets and emotions the protagonists kept even from themselves. The Maiden Danced to Death is a reckoning with old shadows, and an examination of the individual’s social responsibility in old and new Europe.

Friday, October 19, 2012

6:00PM
SUDDENLY ZINAT (21 min)
Navid Nikkhah Azad, Director|Iran|2012|MASSACHUSETTS PREMIERE
Simin’s world is turned upside down when the biological mother of her daughter wants her back.

RACING THE REZ (59 min)
Brian Truglio, Director|USA|2012| WORLD PREMIERE
AIFF Jury Award for “BEST DOCUMENTARY” The film follows Navajo and Hopi runners from two rival high schools cross country teams in northern Arizona who are fighting for a state championship. Shot over two years, it focuses on how the sport impacts the lives of five boys growing up on the reservation and helps them confront the challenges they face on and off the course. Panel Discussion moderated by Larry Gagnon, panelists Brian Truglio, Director, Sean Sandefur, Editor, Christopher McDougall, Author. McDougall will reveal the “Best Story Never Told” the missing chapter of Born to Run which concerns the Hopi tradition of running.

8:45PM
MY SO-CALLED ENEMY (89 min)
Lisa Gossels|USA|2010 In July 2002, twenty-two Palestinian, Israeli and Palestinian Israeli teenage girls traveled to the United States to participate in a women’s leadership program called Building Bridges for Peace. “My So-Called Enemy” is the story of six of the girls and how the transformative experience of knowing their “enemies” as human beings meets with the realities of their lives at home in the Middle East over the next seven years. Through the coming-of-age narratives of Building Bridges participants Adi, Gal, Hanin, Inas, Rawan and Rezan, we see how creating relationships across personal, political and physical borders is a first step towards resolving conflict. By watching “My So-Called Enemy” communities will experience the complexities of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict though a human lens - as well as the possibility and hope that come from listening to each other’s stories. The girls are the experts in “My So-Called Enemy” - and their voices need to be heard, especially because they are young women.
Q&A with Lisa Gossels, Director

Saturday, October 20, 2012

THE READER|Narrative|10 min
Duncan Rogers|USA|2002

11:00AM High School and College Division – Selected Shorts
High School Division
La Joie de Vivre|Documentary|4:57 min|2012
Jeremy Vassiliou, Director|Montreal, Canada
AIFF Jury Award for “BEST OF FESTIVAL IN HIGH SCHOOL CATEGORY” &
“BEST DOCUMENTARY IN HIGH SCHOOL CATEGORY”

MOLINEUX|Narrative |10:00 min|2012
Jacob Sussman, Director|Wayland, MA
AIFF JURY AWARD FOR “BEST NARRATIVE IN HIGH SCHOOL CATEGORY”

IN YOUR HEART|Animation|3:08 min|2012
Raymond Caplin, Director |Montreal, Canada
AIFF JURY AWARD FOR “BEST ANIMATION IN HIGH SCHOOL CATEGORY”

THE CROWN OF LIFE| Experimental|7:12 min|2012
Real Junior Leblanc, Director|Montreal, Canada
AIFF JURY AWARD FOR “BEST EXPERIMENTAL IN HIGH SCHOOL CATEGORY”

PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT|Experimental|5:46 min|2012
Sonny Finch & Dimitri Giannopoulos, Directors|Boston, MA

BAD WOLF| Narrative|4:52 min|2012
Joe Poverchuk, Director|Allston, MA

BREAKING THE CYCLE| Documentary|7:22 min|2012
Maxwell Anthony, Director|Boston, MA

ME NOT YOU|Experimental|1:03 min|2012
Felicia Imbriana, Director|East Boston, MA

NIGHT GLASSES|Narrative|3:39 min|2012
Louis Phillippe Moar, Director|Montreal, Canada

HOLLOW LAKE|Narrative|2 min|2012
Thomas Violet & Nancy Alberson|Billerica, MA

A PERFORMER|Narrative|7:48 min|2012
Malcolm D.C.|Brighton, MA

College Divison
5-DAY FORECAST|Narrative|18:00 min|2012
Joe Wielosinski &Leah Shortell Chapman, Directors|Chicago, IL

12:45PM
MICROPHONE (116 min)
Ahmed Abdallah, Director|Egypt|2011|USA PREMIERE
When Khaled returns to Alexandria after years of travel, he discovers that it is too late to rekindle a relationship with his old love and with his aging father. Self-absorbed, he roams the city and stumbles across the underground art and music scene. He is mesmerized by the discovery of this world and his life gradually changes. Supporting the movement, he draws attention to the diverse facets of the city. Details of his private life and events of the movement overlap. He awaits an inevitable change that he believes will come from the dynamic and unique art scene in Alexandria, rather than from Cairo; the overpopulated capital. Microphone is a vibrant image of this colorful music and art movement. It is a real narrative of this new generation of artists from Alexandria and the intricate details of their lives.

2:55PM
CHINESE TAKE-AWAY (93 min)
Sebastian Borensztein|Argentina|2012
A comedy about the meeting between Jun, a Chinese man who has just landed in Argentina and doesn’t speak a word of Spanish and Roberto, a cranky loner who is forced to “adopt” him. Seeking a way out of this absurd situation, Roberto will discover a way of solving his deeper problem… loneliness.

4:45PM Aconcagua Chilean Folk Dance
SKYDANCER (74 min)
Katja Esson, Director|USA|2011
The Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center: for more than 120 years, Mohawk ironworkers have raised America’s modern cityscapes. They are called ‘sky walkers’ because they walk fearlessly atop steel beams just a foot wide, high above the city. Who are these Mohawk sky walkers? What is their secret for overcoming fear? Has ‘sky walking’ replaced an ancient rite of passage? Or is it the pure need to adapt in order to survive? And what is their life really like when every Friday at quitting time, they jump in their cars and make the eight-hour drive up north to their families on the reservation?

6:45PM
Martin Haroutunian and Friends, Armenian Music
GRANDMA’S TATTOOS (58 min)
Suzanne Khardalian, Director|Sweeden/Armenia|2011
Filmmaker Suzanne Khardalian makes a journey into her own family to investigate the terrible truth behind her late grandma’s odd tattoos. Her grandma was always a bit strange, never liking physical contact and covered with unusual marks. Everybody in the family seemed to know the story, but no-one ever spoke about it. So when grandma’s mystery is slowly unveiled, family taboos are broken down and Suzanne exposes the bigger story - the fate of the Armenian women driven out of Ottoman Turkey during the First World War. The painful journey behind Suzanne’s grandma’s tattoos unfolds through Armenia, Lebanon, Sweden and Syria, finally bringing out the truth.
Q&A with Lerna Ekmekcioglu, Professor of History, MIT

8:50PM
ASHBASH…A Love Story (56 min)
Heidi Sullivan, Director|USA|2012
A single woman. A singular celebration. The inspiring film that tells the story. Amusing, unflinchingly honest, and deeply profound, this ultimately inspiring documentary follows one woman’s journey of self-exploration from full-on panic over being single to her epiphany that she does not have to get married; that her single life and all the many relationships in it are worth celebrating – in style.
Q&A with Heidi Sullivan, Director/Producer and Ashley Norwood, Subject/Producer

10:20PM
TUNGSTEN (98 min)
Giorgos Georgopoulos|Greece|2011|MASSACHUSETTS PREMIERE Tungsten deals with the idea of electricity as a metaphor; of all metals in pure form, tungsten has the highest melting point, lowest vapor pressure and the highest tensile strength. It is known for its heat endurance, as well as for its high conductivity. The scenery is urban, and the plot is unfolded during a single day…one day in Athens, continuous outages, and a final blackout, caused by the strike of technicians at the electricity company. A day during which, six people’s lives are being crossed and diverted, two teenage boys, a ticket inspector, a young couple, immigrants, children, all cornered at the end of a blind alley in the center of Athens. A black & white episodic film with spare, non-linear narration portrays a society on the edge, “forgotten in the dark” as noted by one of the characters. As victims and villains switch roles, a mechanism stronger than their own volition is revealed: the meat grinder of bounced checks, empty bank accounts and bankrupt dreams that moves the action forward to the point of dead end.

Sunday, October 21, 2012
9:45AM Selected Shorts | MA Filmmakers |50 min

OÙ EST FLEURI ROSE|Animation|23 min
Nick Thorkelson, Mark Warhol & Amy MacDonald|USA|2012

INTERFACES|Narrative|15 min
Tom Kingdon|USA|2009

11:00AM
BUDRUS (82 min) Julia Bacha, Director|Occupied Palestinian Territories/Israel/USA|2009 Struggling side by side, father and daughter unleash an inspiring, yet little-known movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that is still gaining ground today. In an action-filled documentary chronicling this movement from its infancy, Budrus shines a light on people who choose nonviolence to confront a threat yet remain virtually unknown to the world. While this film is about one Palestinian village, it tells a much bigger story about what is possible in the Middle East. Ayed succeeded in doing what many people believe to be impossible: he united local Palestinian political factions, including Fatah and Hamas; he brought women to the heart of the struggle by encouraging his daughter Iltezam’s leadership; and he welcomed hundreds of Israelis to cross into Palestinian territory for the first time and join this nonviolent effort. Budrus includes diverse voices from the Palestinian leaders of the movement and their Israeli allies to an Israeli military spokesman, Doron Spielman, and Yasmine Levy, the Israeli border police officer stationed in the village at that time. While many documentaries about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict either romanticize the notion of peace, or dwell entirely on the suffering of victims to the conflict, this film focuses on the success of a Palestinian-led nonviolent movement. In a keynote address immediately following the debut of Budrus at a Gala screening at the Dubai International Film Festival in December 2009, Her Majesty Queen Noor Al Hussein of Jordan praised the film, stating that Budrus: “Gives an enormous amount of hope… It’s a story which will have an impact and can help bring change.”

12:30PM
LARBI OR THE Fate of the Great Football Player (92 min)
Driss Mriani|Morocco|2011| USA PREMIERE Larbi, a fiction movie inspired from the life of the outstanding football player, Haj Larbi Benbarek. The movie tells wonderfully this extraordinary figure, the football player who surpassed all his challengers and the man who assumed his destiny with faith and dignity. This is Larbi, who was born in a modest family, who grew up in a popular district and who was a big fan of football since his young age. He invested himself passionately in the game, seeking with rage to surpass himself and to succeed. His intellect, his sense of observation and his perseverance take care of the rest. Success and prestige are soon part of his life: Olympic of Marseille, France’s national team, Athlético of Madrid, etc.. His nick name sums it all « The black Pearl » ! Before, during and after this wonderful and rich career between the 30s and 50s, it is Larbi, the man, who believes, who loves, who shares, whosuffers… But Larbi the believer, is clinging to the true values: love of his homeland, loyalty to his family and his children. He is loving and serene, at peace with himself. At the end of a prestigious career, he is facing, with courage and dignity, terrible hardship: the loss of his two wives and three children, the disease of his son, his own illness and ... death in loneliness!
2:15PM

GIVE ME THE BANJO (83 min)
Marc Fields, Director|USA |2011
The banjo’s been called America’s quintessential instrument, perhaps because its long and contested history has encompassed so many popular musical forms, from black folk styles and the 19th century minstrel show, to blues, ragtime, early jazz, old time folk and bluegrass. One of the biggest challenges of making Give Me the Banjo was trying to cover the full range and breadth of music that the banjo has helped to shape.
Q&A with Marc Fields, Director

4:10PM
CONSENT (86 min)
Ron Farrar Brown, Director|USA|MASSACHUSETTS PREMIERE A wealthy Manhattan family’s inability to cope with the suicide of their eldest daughter sends them into a downward spiral of drugs, alcohol and sexual taboos that threatens to destroy them.
Q&A with Ron Farrar Brown, Director.

6:10PM
Brendyn Schneider, Storyteller
AL HALQA – IN THE STORY TELLER’S CIRCLE (90 min)
Thomas Ladenburger|Germany/Morocco |2010|EAST COAST PREMIERE On Djemaa el Fna Suare in the Moroccan city of Marrakech, Abderahim El Magori tells stories that he has been collecting in his mind and heart since he was a child. Now that he is growing older, he is teaching his son, Zoheir the tricks of a dying trade. In the Halqu, the storyteller’s circle, the boy practices his skills and his father provide blunt criticism. Once Zoheir is ready for it, he and his father travel to Fez, the intellectural capital of Morocco, for the ultimate test on the lrge city square. The camera follows the pair on their journey which is interspersed with stories about ghosts, kings, shoemakers and animals. However, Zoheir has to find his own style for a new generation of listeners who do not only want to hear about days long past but also get information about things like AIDS.

8:00PM Dancers from the Thillai Fine Arts Academy, Newton
PLAY LIKE A LION (72 min)
Joshua Dylan Mellars|USA/India|2011|MASSACHUSETTS PREMIERE The film chronicles the legendary Indian sarodist Maestro Ali Akbar Khan, who introduced Indian classical music to the U.S. at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1955 and who has been referred to as “The Emperor of Melody”. Kahn is a national treasure in India and the U.S., a Grammy nominee, and according to renowned master violinist Lord Yehudi Menuhin, “possibly the greatest musician in the world”. His son, American born Alam Khan, travels from California to India on his first concert tour without his ailing father. When Alam shares with his father the weight he feels of living up to his family’s north Indian classical music tradition he remembers his father’s advice: “Don’t worry, play like a Lion!”

**Film programs and time schedule subject to change.**

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Schedule/Program: Arlington International Film Festival 2012

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