June 23, 2005: OPENING NIGHT – 8:45pm
This Land is Your Land
(2004, 82 mins)
Directed by Lori Cheatle & Daisy Wright
With a presentation from the directors.
This Land Is Your Land is a thoroughly entertaining and enlightening survey of corporate influence on American politics and the citizens who are fighting back. Contributors include Marc Kasky, whose lawsuit over truth in advertising made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Father Tryphon, a Russian orthodox monk, who fought a coffee giant to keep the name “Christmas Blend” on his monastery coffee, Doris Haddock, the 89 year old who walked across the country to get corporate money out of politics, cultural critic Naomi Klein and LIFF favourite The Reverend Billy.
June 30, 2005 – 8:45pm
Screen Door Jesus
(2004, 118 mins)
Directed by Kirk Davis
With a presentation from the director.
When Jesus appears on Old Mother Harper’s screen door, it’s time to take sides. After a violent storm leaves what appears to be an image of Jesus himself on a screen door in Bethlehem, TX (pop. 2,378), media and crowds gather around the phenomenon, setting in motion an Altman-esque series of interrelated dramas that try the ideals, principles and stamina of a cast of eclectic characters colliding around themes of race, religion and faith.
Awards: Best Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Score, Hamptons International Film Festival; Best Drama, New York International Film & Video Festival; Best Emerging Talent (Eugene Williams), St. Louis International Film Festival; Best Texas Film, Deep Ellum Film Festival.
July 7, 2005 – 8:45pm
Grey Gardens
(1976, 94 mins)
Directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde & Muffie Meyer
With a presentation from director Albert Maysles.
Meet Big and Little Edie Beale — high society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O. — thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. Five years after Gimme Shelter, the Maysles unveiled this impossibly intimate portrait of the unexpected, an eerie echo of the Kennedy Camelot, which has since become a cult classic and established Little Edie as fashion icon and philosopher queen.
July 14, 2005 – 8:45pm
Road
(2005, 92 mins)
Directed by Leslie McCleave
With a presentation from the director.
Margaret (Catherine Kellner), a freelance photographer on her first big job, uses the latest government-supplied technology to survey environmental disaster areas. But the real toxicity in her life is her unresolved feelings for Jay (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), her unemployed ex-boyfriend, who has tagged along for the ride. When the trip goes off course, the couple is forced to confront their relationships: to the environment, the world at large and, finally, to each other.
July 21, 2005 – 8:45pm
Gotham Fish Tales
(2005, 70 mins)
Directed by Robert Maass
With a presentation from the director.
A hopeful, inspiring story of the dogged fishermen who ply New York City waters, from Hell’s Gate to the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. Flying against the conventional wisdom, Gotham Fish Tales is a portrait of a highly utilized marine ecosystem pressed against the density of America’s largest city and its vibrant, varied fishery. As professional fishermen struggle to hang on, recreational anglers catch and eat fish of surprising abundance and variety. Genuine fish tales entertain, provoke and reflect the city’s buoyant character.
July 28, 2005: Closing Night – 8:45pm
Mana — Beyond Belief
(2004, 92 mins)
Directed by Peter (”Silverlake Life”) Friedman & Roger Manley
With a presentation from director Peter Friedman.
“Mana” is the Polynesian word for the power that resides in things. A Maori priest filmed in a New Zealand rainforest sets the stage for a trip around the world, from the sacred to the absurd. From a Navajo medicine man’s mud-covered hogan to the eternity of space — with stops along the way at nuclear reactors, art museums, Burmese temples, Elvisland, relic smugglers, voodoo ceremonies and the halls of Congress — “MANA-Beyond Belief” is an adventure spanning the concrete world of objects and the projected world of values. It takes us across the globe and into the human psyche, from the individual’s attempt to comprehend the secret powers surrounding him to the power our own minds give us to shape our experiences.
