Trevor Noah, the subject of David Paul Meyer's "Township to the Stage."
By Brad Weismann BIFF DigiComm Director
Township to the Stage
Friday, Feb. 17, 9:45 p.m.
First United Methodist Church
It will be my privilege to get up and introduce this film in a few hours. The phrases "South Africa" and "comedy" don't really seem to go together -- but this film is one of the best that I've seen about standup comedy.
This portrayal of the remarkable rise of an aspiring comedian manages to be a personal portrait, an historical survey and an examination of a wounded society all at once.
And there are dick jokes. It's a win/win situation!
Trevor Noah's quick rise to the top of the comedy profession in this formerly segregated society speaks to the resentment of the comedy old-guard, whose grumblings about Noah's racial content is not so much a product of apartheid as it seems to be jealousy at someone whose star has risen faster than they deem fit. Noah must ignore this static, develop a ehadliner's worth of materials, and avoid all the pitfalls of an entertainer's life -- including a shocking family crisis that threatens to derail Trevor's big show.
Director David Paul Meyer provides us with a real portrait of nervous moments offstage, bad gigs galore, and the diligence and self-control needed to succeed in the comedy business. As a survivor of the great American comedy boom of the 1980's, I can testify that "Township" is the real deal.
Come on over! We'll chat the director right after the screening. Let's face it -- the Bouler Theater has the big movies, but the Church gets the sleeper gems. Come over and say hi! Enjoy the show!
In 1964, General Efraín Ríos Montt became the dictatorial leader of Guatemala. For the next 20 years, the indigenous Mayan population of the most populated country in Central America was subjected to an extended and brutal military campaign, secretly waged with the support of the United States government. Death tolls are estimated to be upwards of 200,000, an the 1998 Truth Commission in Guatemala City acknowledged the events as a genocide. "Granito: How to Nail a Dictator" is the story of bringing evidence against General Montt and serving justice. The country remains largely in the dark regarding the specifics of its recent history for many reasons, principal of which are to not admit to such atrocities and shelter Montt and other government and military leaders who are responsible.
Even today, in the highlands where the conflict was focused, it is not safe to discuss what happened. Malnutrition and misperceptions persist among the indigenous peasants, augmented by sustained army propaganda that insists it was they who saved the people against the armed insurgents. A lack of education is a major factor in the continued repression of these people.
But this documentary by Pamela Yates, and its predecessor, "When the Mountains Tremble", are not the only actions being taken. There are numerous organizations seeking to educate and enable Mayan communities in the highlands. This documentary was co-presented by Philanthropiece (www.philanthropiece.org) and Reading Village (www.readingvillage.org) as a part of the Boulder International Film Festival's call2action series, and they have identified 10 "Action Items" to encourage everyone to become involved: 1. Educate yourself! Learn more about the Guatemalan conflict and human rights violations by reading "Guatemala: Memory of Silence". http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/ceh/report/english/toc.html 2. Show your solidarity with the Guatemalan people by signing the Justice for Genocide petition. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/415/justice-for-genocide-in-guatemala/ 3. Donate to the Philanthropiece Scholars program in building the next generation of leaders for Chajul, Guatemala.http://www.philanthropiece.org/getinvolved.php#donate 4. Donate to Reading Village and support our mission to create leaders and to promote literacy in Guatemala.http://www.readingvillage.org/get-involved.html 5. Stay up to date with Philanthropiece's and Reading Village's work by following us on Twitter or liking us on Facebook. 6. Order this film to share with your personal networks and then donate it to a local middle school, high school, or university library. http://granitofilm.com 7. Invest 3 minutes! Watch "Granito, Every Memory Matters" about the film's sister project dedicated to building a digital library of firsthand accounts from the war. http://skylightpictures.com/films/granito 8. Connect with Antonio Caba of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) to express your support. Send messages for Antonio to: inquiry@philanthropiece.org. 9. Be proactive about preventing future genocide and ethnic cleansing. Write your representatives in Washington, D.C. and share your outrage about human rights violations occurring around the world. 10. Create change! Become a documentary filmmaker - attend the BIFF workshop "Produce a Documentary" Sunday, Feb 19, 3-5pm at the Boulder Library.
Another organization working in Guatemala is Cultural Survival, who has established a network of indigenous community radio stations that facilitate communication, sharing, learning, unification, politicizing, and cultural survival. They can be found at www.cs.org.
Love Free or Die: How the Bishop of New Hampshire is Saving the World
Friday, Feb. 17, 2:45 p.m.
First United Methodist Church
After this film ends, please join us and the director, Macky Alston, and Alicia Lewis of Out Boulder for a very special Call 2 Action talkback session in the Tent!
Here's a wonderful preliminary look at Macky and his film, via the Sundance Film Festival --
And the program description: "This film features the consecration of Gene
Robinson, the first openly gay Bishop in Christendom.
His historic elevation by the Episcopal
Church in America caused great controversy
worldwide, along with a stream of death threats.
But Gene Robinson refuses to leave the Church—
or the man he loves. By the end of the film,
because of Gene's faith and leadership, the
Church has done a 180-degree turn: more gay
bishops are being considered, more same-sex
marriages are being blessed and, in 2010, history
was made when Gene's conservative home state
of New Hampshire legalized same-sex marriage.
Gene proves that you don't have to leave behind
your Christianity, or your civil rights, just to love
and be loved."
BIFF Workshops and Panels Coordinator and DigiComm Commando
Monsieur Lazhar
Friday, Feb. 17, 2:45 p.m.
Boulder Theater
Someone
asked me what film I would recommend seeing at BIFF this year and I
immediately thought of the Academy Award-nominated "Monsieur Lazhar," which
I had the opportunity to screen a few weeks ago. It's a quirky story of
Bachir Lazhar, who left a tragic past in Algeria, to become a
substitute teacher in Canada. Even if you know nothing about Algerian
politics (I don't), and don't speak French (it's subtitled) and find
dark subject matter like suicide difficult, there's something subtly and
strangely beautiful and hopeful about the film. Apparently the film is
resonating with many audiences in that way.
In
a recent interview with Canadian public television, the film's
director, Philippe Falardeau, explained why he thinks that is so, "In
the past, people came to me and said 'we really enjoyed your film' and
they were talking about the qualities of the film. Now they come to me
and they say 'I was moved by your film, then they start talking about
themselves, and how they felt, and how they have a kid that's in school
and how it reminded them of a teacher...I think the film touches more
people because we've all been to elementary school and we all have our
point of entry into that film."
Micha X. Peled's documentary Bitter Seeds explores
the answer to a shocking question: Why have 250,000 farmers committed suicide
in India in the last 16 years?
To answer this question, Peled connects with a young,
aspiring journalist, Manjusha Amberwar, from the farming village of Telung
Takli who is trying to answer to the same question. There have been a number of suicides in her
small village, the first of whom was her own father. While she goes door to door in her community
finding answers, Peled weaves in interviews with representatives of seed
companies, Dr. Vandana Shiva, and farmers' rights activists.
We see early in the film some representatives from the seed
company bump into town in a nice SUV with blaring loudspeaker. They've come to talk to the farmers about
their Bt+ seeds. These are genetically
modified with Monsanto technology – no insects, big buds. The farmers ask some pointed questions, which
will haunt the film later. The reps need
not bother, there is in fact no other option available in India ever since the
US, applying pressure through the WTO, forced India to open the door to foreign
companies.
The genetically modified seeds can only perform under
conditions of high fertilizer use, high pesticide use, and irrigation. Farmers take out loans, first from banks then
from illegal money lenders who charge exorbitant rates to pay for the seeds,
fertilizer and pesticides. But, for Bt
seeds, applying pesticide must be timed with water application. Since the majority of India's farmers don't
have irrigation they are doomed to failure.
The seeds because they don't reproduce, thus having to be purchased
every year, are not subject to natural selection and not at all suited to the
local farming conditions.
Peled and Amberwar focus on farmer Ram Krishna Kopulnar
whose trials are a perfect synecdoche of the Indian farmer's plight. Kopulnar,
the worry on whose face is reminiscent of the character Antonio Ricci from de
Sica's The Bicycle Thief, must have a good harvest this year so that his
daughter “can go to school and have a good marriage.” Daughters, though they seem to be well-loved,
are a financial burden in traditional communities as marriages require large
dowries. The well-lensed beauty and
dignity of the small village, where everyone is well turned-out despite the
difficult conditions, allows the viewer to empathize with the shame a father
must feel to have to give up his land to a money lender or to be rejected by a
suitor's family because one cannot afford the dowry. Suicide can seem the only way to free the
family of debt burden.
The solution to these problems seem simple if the government
were to get involved, yet the power of the forces pushing for the status quo –
Monsanto, the US – seem overwhelming. Bitter
Seeds is the final movie in Peled's unplanned Globalization Trilogy which
started with the much lauded Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town and
then went undercover into the textile industry in China with China Blue
and has ended with the seed of the problem in the area of India where the
cotton is grown for China's textile factories.
The trilogy goes from consumer to manufacturer to the producer of raw
material in three major economic powers.
Peled said he had “the pleasure of doing one at a time” without knowing
where this story would lead over twelve years, otherwise it might have been too
overwhelming.
The film is showing in the Call2Action category of the film
festival. Local actions one can rally
around in connection with the movie are the upcoming renewal of the Farm Bill
in Congress, which subsidizes cotton farmers to the tune of 4 billion dollars
in defiance of WTO law and keeps world cotton prices unfairly low. Also for the
first time there are ballot initiatives in many states and counties for mandatory
labeling of GMO food. As Peled's
documentaries demonstrate, it is all interconnected.
(Editor’s note: Here’sa lovely guest piece on the engrossing documentary “Nicky’s Family,” penned byKathryn Bernheimer.Kathryn isdirector of Menorah: Arts, Culture and Education at the Boulder Jewish Community Center, as well as the JCC Program Director.
From 1980-1996, Kathryn was the film criticand features writer for the BoulderDaily Camera. She was also the Bouldercorrespondent for the Intermountain Jewish News, the host of the Denver Jewish Film Festival, and a guest film programmerat the Mizel Center for Arts and Culture. She is theauthor of two books of film criticism, “The 50 Greatest Jewish Movies” and “The50 Funnies Films of All Time.”
“Nicky’s Family” tells the story of Nicholas Winton, whorescued more than 600 children from Czechoslovakia in 1939.
The Kinderstransport, which relocated nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children fromNaziGermany to England, is a well-documented and oft-told chapter of Holocausthistory, and there are already several terrific films that deal with thesubject.
“My Knees Were Jumping: Remembering the Kindertransports”(1998) was directedby the daughter of a Kindertransport child and narrated byJoanne Woodward.
“Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of theKindertransport,” narrated byJudiDench,won theAcademy Awardin 2001 for bestdocumentary feature. There is also a companion book by the same name. Thefilm's producerisalso the daughter of a Kindertransport survivor. Local audiences may rememberthe film’s director, Mark Jonathan Harris (a three-time Oscar winner), whospoke at the Boulder JCC a few years ago.
There alsoa British documentary film, “The ChildrenWho Cheated the Nazis,” narrated byRichard Attenborough, whose parents were amongthose who responded to the appeal for British families to foster the refugeechildren.
Although the story of Nicholas Winton’s role went untoldfor 50 years, during which time he never even mentioned it to his wife,“Nicky’s Friends” is the third film about the unsung hero – all directed by thesame person.
Slovak filmmakerMatej Mináč first told the story in 1999 as a feature film, “All My Loved Ones,” starring Rupert Graves as Winton in this well-made biographical drama. Next camehis 2002 Emmy Award-winning documentary “The Power of Good:Nicholas Winton,” which we showed at the Boulder JCC.
“Nicky’s Family” covers the same territory, and while it does not addmuch to the story, it is a very moving tribute to a modest man of great courageand tenacity.
Born in a family of German Jewish ancestry that convertedto Christianity, Winton was a 29 year old stock broker who abandoned plans fora ski trip to join a friend involved in Jewish relief work in Prague. Determined to help move children tosafety in England,he embarked on a heroic effort that has earned him a reputation as “The BritishSchindler.” Thousands of people are alive today thanks to his dramatic daring.Winton’s late-life recognition is much deserved, and this film allows us toshare that touching moment.
Granito plays a bit like a procedural in, as their slogan
says, how to nail a dictator. The movie
starts with present-day Pamela Yates combing through film footage from her
25-year-old documentary When the Mountains Tremble, her time-worn hands
on the old medium remind us of the time that has passed since the events in the
film and the young filmmaker synching the sound recording therein. Yates has been contacted by a Spanish lawyer,
Almudena Bernabeu, who thinks her footage can help them build a case in the
Spanish courts against the military dictators of Guatemala who committed
genocide against the indigenous population in the early 80's when Yates made
her film. (Here's a Feb. 3 news update from the Latinamerica Press.)
Slowly, piece by piece, person by person, like grains of
sand (granitos de arena) we see how an international criminal case is
built. The struggle begun in those days
and so violently crushed has continued with each person doing a little part
from then until now. As one of the
characters says, opening little cracks and pushing and pushing until they open
up. Everyone has a role to play and it
does seem almost like divine intervention (the film website credits a Mayan
god) that they all can come together and that evidence emerges from unexpected
sources.
From the old days, there is Yates and her footage, a
journalist who helped her get contact with the guerrillas who was working in
Guatemala at the time who is now an international lawyer, one of the commanders
of the Guerrilla Army of the Poor who lived underground in Guatemala City for
17 years, and a witness whose highland village was massacred when he was
11 years old. Coming into the story now
are the Spanish lawyers, a forensic archivist, a forensic archaeologist whose
family left Guatemala under death threats in 1980, and a daughter of the one of
the disappeared who has become a lawyer.
One of the most interesting aspects of the movie especially
for film lovers is Yates' coming to terms with the fact that witnessing and
telling the story was not enough. In
1982, she and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel risked their lives getting
footage that revealed the true story of what was happening in Guatemala at the
time. We are reminded in the days before digital how difficult it was to get
film footage under repressive regimes.
There is no way she should have gotten the footage that she got from the
guerrillas and the military, and yet she did, and she brought it together into
a film that had as much success as one could hope for.
When the Mountains Tremble showed at
the first Sundance Film Festival, the narrator Rigoberta Menchú received the
Nobel Peace Prize, the film showed broadly internationally and in 40 cities in
the United States and won many awards.
And yet the massacres continued with 200,000 thought dead, the U.S.
continued to support the Guatemalan dictators and other repressive
dictatorships in Central America, the perpetrators have continued to go
unpunished.
Journalist turned lawyer
Naomi Roht-Arriaza expresses similar disillusionment at the time, when she felt
she was getting a story out and yet it was doing absolutely no good against the
violence of the state apparatus. Only
now are the pieces starting to come together, bringing together different
fields from law, to forensic science, to digitizing archives, to begin to bring
justice in the region. On January 26th
of this year, after thirty years of impunity, General Ríos Montt, who reveals
himself in an interview with Yates done in 1982 as the head of the Guatemalan
military, was placed under house arrest for 11 massacres against the Mayan Ixil
population.
This self-reflection makes Granito a perfect film for
BIFF's Call2Action where it has been paired with Philanthropiece
and Reading Village, both of whom work in development in highland
Guatemala, to direct viewers to action-oriented responses. Granito will be showing Friday,
February 17th at 10am at the Boulder Theater followed by a Q&A
in the theater and a public discussion in the Call2Action tent on the Pearl
Street Mall in front of the courthouse.
No Room for Rock Stars Saturday, Feb. 18, 10 p.m. Boulder Theater
This is a great film, but we had to put it on late as it's not family-friendly, safe-for-work, homogenized, or pasteurized. If you have ever stood in a 200-degree parking lot watching your favorite band -- or went on tour and broke up, and no one noticed -- or you're a freak -- this one's for you.
Here's the program description:
"'The funnest summer of my life'—600,000 fans, 43 cities, 200 bands. Allyou old rockers will remember your owntouring days, sleeping in a van, scrounginggas money, the mud, the groupies,the glory, the ganja. Well, nothing haschanged much. For 17 years, the VansWarped Tour has been a music juggernaut,a misfit circus criss-crossing NorthAmerica every summer as a wanderingminstrel show for youth culture. The tourhas grown and prospered as the musicindustry itself has stagnated, and alongthe way has provided a launching padfor a dizzying array of talent: from GreenDay and Blink-182 to Ice-T, Eminem andNo Doubt, along with punk legends likePennywise, All, Bouncing Souls and BadReligion. Follow Joe, Mike, Chris and Mitchfrom Suicide Silence as they embark ontheir own summer of adventure with theWarped Tour. Who knows what couldhappen?"
Donor Unknown Saturday, Feb. 18, 7:15 p.m. Boulder High School Auditorium
Not to be indelicate, but you really need to keep a handle on where your sperm winds up.
That's NOT the thrust of "Donor Unknown," the feature documentary that follows the search of several half-siblings (including Fletcher from Boulder) for their sprem-donor father. In fact, this film by Jerry Rothman puts the nature-versus-nurture debate to its viewers in affecting human terms, and asks us to consider what we inherit from our progenitors, what we make our own, and how vastly intricate the relationship between expectations and reality is for children and parents is. Who are we? "Donor Unknown" opens the doors to all these considerations and more.
Don't miss this fascinating, funny and moving event, AND enjoy a special talkback session with the film's producer Hilary Durman and executive producer Jim Butterworth! Hilary is making the trek from England to be with us; Jim won Best Documentary at BIFF in 2005 for "Seoul Train," and has taught documentary filmmaking to festivalgoers as well. Should be a hoot!
Here's the program description:
"This sweet, funny movie follows JoEllen Marsh, 20, whoalways realized that her family was different. She hadtwo mothers after all, and she has only known her fatheras Donor 150. Through an online registry that connectsdonor-conceived children, she manages to track down13 half-siblings across the U.S., including Fletcher, wholives with his two moms near Boulder, Colorado. JoEllentracks down Donor 150—amiable, self-described "beachbum" Jeffrey Harrison, who lives an idyllic life in an old“Rockford-style” motor home on Venice Beach. For extraincome during the ‘80s and ‘90s, he donated sperm nearly500 times. What impact will this stranger have on theirlives? And how will this vanguard of innumerable sons anddaughters affect Jeffrey's life?Winner at the Tribeca and Silverdocs Film Festivals. On the Grierson short list (the British Documentary Oscars). Directed by Jerry Rothwell. Produced by Hilary Durman. Executive producer Jim Butterworth. Colorado Premiere."
BIFF in the news: once again, as with "Pink Ribbons, Inc." and "The Island President," yet another topic that has been covered in a BIFF 2012 film has hit the front pages.
"Bitter Seeds" tackles another aspect of Monsanto's questionable practices. Here's the program description:
"When aspiring reporter Manjusha Amberwar's beloved father becomes one ofthe 250,000 farmers in central India to have committed suicide, she beginsan investigation. She learns that conventional cotton seeds have been phasedout in her lifetime, and that the multi-national corporation Monsanto's loftypromises for its genetically-modified cotton have since given way to harshreality. In order to buy the expensive new seeds, Indian farmers had to mortgagetheir land just to plant a crop. But because the new varieties are toowater-hungry to produce a dependable crop for dry central India, hundreds ofthousands of farmers are losing their land. Outrageously, the U.S. governmentoriginally forced India—through the World Trade Organization—to acceptGMOs, and has been forcing WTO members to do the same thing throughoutthe world."
Are your middle- and high-schoolers planning to spend thePresidents’ Day weekend hanging around the house, complaining that there’snothing to do? Well, send them down to us – we have FREE films and eventsSaturday and Sunday for students ages 13 to 18!
Educational outreach is a big part of our master plan hereat BIFF. We believe in putting together young audiences with films and seminarsthat stimulate and engage them, and possibly even inspiring the next MartinScorcese or Jane Campion. This year, we have more opportunities than ever forjuvenile cinephiles to get involved and find out more – including an exclusivepreview screening of our Closing Night film “Chasing Ice.”
Here is all the info you’ll need –tell the kids to show up at lest 20 minutes before screening time. Advance tickets are not held out for these special screenings!
FILMS
Wild Horse, Wild Ride
Saturday, Feb. 18, 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 19, 5:15 p.m.
Boulder High School Auditorium
Each summer, the federal government rounds up thousands ofwild horses for relocation. A lucky 100 of them are given to 100 trainers, whohave 100 days to ready the animals—which have never experienced humancontact—to compete in the Extreme Mustang Makeover Challenge. This intimatefilm follows a handful of the men and women trainers as they work with theirhorses. What starts as a cautious, fearful relationship evolves slowly andmagically into a powerful bond as intuitive and telepathic as any love affair.How many of these remarkably diverse humans and horses will actually succeed atthis seemingly impossible task? And what will they learn about themselves?
This Call 2 Action film will feature the directors, AlexDawson and Greg Gricus, in person, and will be introduced by the ExecutiveDirector of Colorado Horse Rescue, Dr. Judy B. Smetana.
The Big Fix
Saturday, Feb. 18, 5 p.m.
Boulder High School Auditorium
Filmmakers Rebecca Harrell Tickell and her husband Josh aremad as hell, and you should be too. While working on “the Big Fix” on the Gulfbeaches supposedly cleaned up by BP, they discovered oil and Corexit, a dispersantfor breaking up oil slicks, which washed ashore and had been plowed under thesand to present an illusion of pristine beaches. They allege a massivepolitical and corporate cover-up, including bribery and murder, all the way upto Congress.
This Call 2 Action film will be introduced by 250.orgregional organizer Micah Parkin.
Chasing Ice (Student-only showing!)
Saturday, Feb. 18, 5 p.m.
BoulderPublic Library, Main Library Canyon Theater
Produced in Boulderby Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jerry Aronson (The Divided Trail) andOscar-winning producer Paula DuPré Pesmen (The Cove), this breathtakinglybeautiful film is one of the most anticipated documentaries of 2012. FamedNational Geographic photographer James Balog deploys revolutionary time-lapsecameras throughout the Arctic to capture amulti-year record of the world’s changing glaciers. His electrifying videoscompress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion asthey disappear at a breathtaking— and rapidly accelerating—rate. Chasing Ice isa hair-raising adventure story as cinematographer and director Jeff Orlowskifollows Balog and his team through brutal weather on three continents whileBalog bravely documents the biggest story facing humanity.
Almanya – Welcome to Germany
Saturday, Feb. 18, 7:15 p.m.
First United Methodist Church
This sweet comedy tells the universal story of assimilationby one family over several generations in a strange land. “What am I, German orTurk?” asks six-year-old Cenk Yilmaz when neither his Turkish nor his Germanschoolmates pick him for their football teams. In an attempt to comfort Cenk,his 22-year-old cousin Canan tells the story of their grandfather Hüseyin, whocame to Germany at the end of the ‘60s as "guest worker number one millionand one," and who later brought his wife and children. The laugh-out-loudhumor from cultural misunderstandings multiplies when grandfather Hüseyinpurchases land in his home village of Anatalya, Turkey, and insists his family allcome “home” with him on a road trip. Can you ever really go "home"again? Subtitled.
Nicky’s Family
Sunday, Feb. 19, 10 a.m.
Boulder High School Auditorium
Now known as the British Oskar Schindler, Nicholas Winton,while vacationing in Praguein 1938, learned about the refugees fleeing Hitler’s army and about the manychildren who were in danger of losing their lives. Winton took action: Hemanaged to arrange visas and admission to British families for nearly 700Central European Jewish children. After the war, he returned to his privatelife and never mentioned this incident. Fifty years later, his wife found ascrapbook full of documents and transport plans. Today, 102-year-old SirNicholas Winton, knighted by Queen Elizabeth and nominated for the Nobel PeacePrize, is unbelievably active and still engaged in charity work. He issurrounded by his children, his grandchildren and, of course, all of hisrescued “children,” who today represent almost 6,000 people.
WORKSHOP
How to Make a Short Film (Students only!)
Sunday, Feb. 19, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.
BoulderPublic Library, Main Library Canyon Theater
Led by Antony Cooper of Boulder Digital Arts, this workshopwill provide practical demonstrations of how to turn stories into filmdocuments. From concept through planning, shooting, editing and presentation,this seminar will give you the tools you need to succeed!
Saturday, Feb. 18, 2:30 p.m. Boulder High School Auditorium
Sunday, Feb. 19, 5:15 p.m. Boulder High School Auditorium
(Editor's note: Not only do we have this preview write-up to share with you, but we are proud to share to following mini-documentary, made expressly for BIFF by Jackson Hole, WY documentary filmmaker Melinda Binks! To see it, go to http://vimeo.com/36662097 -- password wildhorse! Enjoy!)
"Wild Horse, WildRide," a film by husbandand wife team Alex Dawson and Greg Gricus, takes us inside the relationshipbetween horse and human as we watch nine horse trainers of varying experience,age, location and background try, in three months, to turn nine wild mustangswhich have never before had human contact into “sterling examples of fine ridinghorse."
Every year, the U.S.Bureau of Land Management rounds up thousands of mustangs. This is a very controversial process, but alucky 100 of them, at a few round ups a year, get randomly assigned to 100horse trainers, professional and amateur, who have 100 days to train andprepare them for the Extreme Mustang Makeover Challenge, a competition thattakes place in Fort Worth, Texas before the horses are publicly auctionedoff. The trainers have to bid againstthe public if they want to keep the horses that they have worked with, sweatedover and bonded with over the past three months.
Some have it easierthan others. Mexican immigrant Jesus who“dreams in horses,” true to his namesake, seems to hold an almost a religious spell over his horse Compadre,whereas prodigy professor of medical engineering, Melissa, leads us to fear shemight be seriously injured in this endeavor.
Each subject is doingthis for the love of horses, but also to prove something to themselves. Limping Navajo patriarch Charles needs toshow he still has it in him, even though his horse Comanche challenges him to evenmount in the hundred days. Charles hints that although his life dreams may havebeen sidetracked at some point that his son Carlos, also a competitor, is closeto achieving his as a professional horse trainer.
Two brothers in NewHampshire want to demonstrate that by studying their horses’ reactions toobjects and the world around them and then mimicking that in their approach totraining that they can create a bond of trust with their steeds. The boys’ bonds with their horses grow so strongthat the idea of parting, as they can’t hope to compete financially at auction,looms over the last third of the film.
Bombastic cowgirl,Wylene, wants to show that a loving, single mom can also be a badasshorse-tamer, daredevil and showgirl. Andthe film opens and closes with George, an elderly Texas cowboy, “not overlyloaded with” patience as he puts it, recently married on his seventh try tobest friend and fellow competitor, Evelyn. George knows that his riding days are almost over and that he needs tomake the most of this effort to win the competition as he may not have anotherchance. Jittery horse Waylon waylayshis plans, but brings him unexpected wisdom in exchange.
The humans in thismovie are tested as much as the horses. They must be brave and calm and patient and intuitive. This close interaction and trust with a trulywild creature is not something that most of us will ever get to experience, butit is beautiful to watch.
We are so happy to announce that acting legend PAM GRIER will be attending the Boulder International Film Festival this year, courtesy of the fine folks at the International Film Series! This special event is FREE FOR ALL CU STUDENTS!
This pioneering performer, sometimes referred to as American film's first female action hero, starred in a groundbreaking series of films such as "Coffy," "Foxy Brown" and "Sheba, Baby," portraying tough, sexy, three-dimensional characters who held their own in a white- and male-dominated society.
In 1997, she received her long-overdue tribute in Quentin Tarentino's "Jackie Brown," and since has gone on to triumph in numerous roles in film and on television. She will be at the Saturday, Feb. 18 screening of "Jackie Brown" at the International Film Series on the CU campus at 7 p.m. (for full details, see the Miramax press release, reproduced below).
IFS director Pablo Kjolseth hosts the evening, and will elad a Q & A with Ms. Grier following the film. This event will be LIVE-STREAMED via Facebook (facebook.com/miramax and facebook.com/jackiebrownmovie), innovatively allowing viewers to pose real-time questions to Grier during the event.
Don't miss this one-of-a-kind evening with a one-of-a-kind performer! See you there!
Pam Grier, Star of Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, to Attend Hit Film Screening at C.U. Boulder and Participate in Q&A
BOULDER, CO – University of Colorado Boulder International Film Series (IFS) is proud to announce that on Saturday, February 18th, the IFS will join forces with the Boulder International Film Festival (BIFF) and the Miramax College Tour to bring PAM GRIER, star of Quentin Tarantino’s JACKIE BROWN, to the C.U. Boulder campus for a Q&A following an exclusive 7 p.m. screening of the hit Miramax film in 35 mm. The screening at C.U. Boulder will be the second stop for the Miramax College Tour — a distinctive screening series hosted by Miramax, a worldwide film and television studio, taking place at colleges and universities across the U.S. Each event in the series features affiliated talent or industry professionals in unique Q&A sessions following each screening.
Ms. Grier’s performance in JACKIE BROWN – which Tarantino tailor-made with Ms. Grier in mind – earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.
The Q&A will be moderated by IFS Director, Pablo Kjolseth, and will be open to questions from the audience. Representing Miramax at the event will be Tommy Moreno, SVP, Head of Operations for the Company. Additionally, Miramax will host a live stream of the Q&A on Facebook via TinyChat at facebook.com/miramax and facebook.com/jackiebrownmovie — allowing viewers to chat their questions for Ms. Grier directly to the moderator in real-time.
In anticipation of this event, four additional Tarantino films from the Miramax archives – Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 – will screen as part of IFS offering Feb. 15 – 19. These screenings will be free for all C.U. Boulder students, otherwise the standard $7 General Admission will apply. For a complete schedule, please go to http://www.internationalfilmseries.com/.
The JACKIE BROWN screening will take place at 7 p.m. on Saturday, February 18th at C.U. Boulder’s Muenzinger Auditorium, just west of the Folsom Football stadium. The Q&A with Ms. Grier will begin promptly after the screening.
About International Film Series (IFS) Established in 1941, the IFS is Boulder’s first arthouse film series, screening over 100 independent and foreign films every year. Screenings are held in the Muenzinger Auditorium on the C.U. Boulder campus, a 400-seat venue located west of Folsom Stadium. For more information please visit http://www.internationalfilmseries.com/.
Mohamed Fellag in the title role of Philippe Falardeau's Oscar-nominated "Monsieur Lazhar," part of BIFF 2012.
A tribute to the good taste of our BIFF programmers is the fact that so many of our past selections have wound up as Oscar nominees. This year is no different, and you can see no less than FIVE of them! If you are an Academy Award oddsmaker and/or obsessive completist (like us), you should pick up tix right away.
They are, as follows:
Monsieur Lazhar Best Foreign Language Film nominee Friday, 2:45 p.m. Boulder Theater
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore Best Animated Short nominee
AND Raju Best Live Action Short Subject nominee
Part of Shorts Program #1 Saturday, 12:15 p.m. Boulder Theater
Incident in New Baghdad Best Short Subject Documentary nominee Part of Short Documentaries program Saturday, 2:45 p.m. First United Methodist Church
Pentecost Best Live Action Short nominee Part of Shorts Program #2 Sunday, 12:30 p.m. Boulder Theater
Howdy, y'all! We like to offer all the services we can to our festivalgoers, and one of our most enjoyable website benefits is our Trailers page, thanks to webmaster Doug Turley. You can check out practically every film on the BIFF program this way -- it sure helps you as you start circling choices in your program.
Who dat? Festival director Robin Beeck at BIFF 2008. [Photo by Randy Malone]
Year Four comes back to us in bits and pieces. There was no overriding event or personality that year. Instead, BIFF 2008 was like a firework exploding in the night – a thousand flashes of color that lit up the landscape.
Here are some moments:
The premiere of Helen Hunt’s directorial debut, “Then She Found Me,” on opening night (Valentine’s Day, don’t you know!). Hazel Miller sang the night away.
Denver diva Hazel Miller entertains on BIFF's opening night in 2008.
Seeing Alex Gibney’s amazing and profoundly disturbing feature documentary, “Taxi to the Dark Side.” A week later, it won an Academy Award.
A breathtaking live performance by Boulder’sown blues master, Otis Taylor, in the wake of the documentary short “American Black Banjo Player,” filmed in conjunction with the recording of Taylor’s groundbreaking album “Recapturing the Banjo.”
Boulder bluesman Otis Taylor (far right) and ensemble. [Photo by Randy Malone]
“3 Peaks, 3 Weeks” – Michael Brown’s doc about 10 women climbers assaulting the three highest peaks in Africa brought together the intrepid mountaineers for the first time to see the completed film and interact with the audience.
The women who were the subject of Michael Brown's "3 Peaks, 3 Weeks."
Offsite, BIFF worked with the International Film Series to present the original cut of Richard Kelly’s enigmatic epic, the failed“Southland Tales” in Muenzinger Auditorium. That same weekend, Sergei Eisenstein’s epic historical drama “Alexander Nevsky” was screened at CU-Boulder’s Macky Auditorium, with the Boulder Philharmonic playing Prokofiev’s classic score live.
Over at the Filmmakers’ Panel, Film Threat’s Chris Gore led a hilarious and too-short session about how to get backing a film idea, which climaxed with taking aspiring filmmakers out of the audience and subjecting them to impromptu pitch sessions.
Among the five sell-out shows at the festival were “Les Paul: Chasing Sound” and “Dalai Lama Renaissance.” The latter was so popular that a second screening was added – a BIFF first!
The Festival’s powerful closing night film, “Stranded: I’ve Come from a Plane that Crashed on the Mountains”, a documentary about the infamous 1972 Andes plane crash, was followed with a Q&A session with Antonio “Tintin” Vizintin, a survivor of the horrific crash who traveled to Boulder from his home in Montevideo, Uruguay, to help present the film. The sold-out crowd was mesmerized as Tintin described the harrowing 73 days he spent in the Andes and the impact of the crash on his life.
Antonio “Tintin” Vizintin and the Vielher for "Stranded". [Photo by Randy Malone]
BIFF 2008 Award Winners:
Educator of the Year
Jim Palmer, CU-Boulder
Best Student Film
“The Replacement Child,” Justin Lerner, director (U.S.)
Most InspirationalFilm
“The Singing Revolution,” Jim Tusty and Maureen Castle,directors (U.S.)
Best Comedy
“The Job,” Jonathan Browning, director (U.S.)
Best Colorado Film
“Iron Ladies of Liberia,” Daniel Junge and Siatta ScottJohnson, directors (Liberia/U.S.)
Best Adventure Film
“3 Peaks, 3 Weeks,” Michael Brown, director (U.S.)
Best Animation
“The Fog,” Emilio Ramos, director (Mexico/Spain)
Best Short Film
“Tanghi Argentini,” Guido Thys, director (Belgium)
Best ShortDocumentary
“In Times of War: Ray Parker’s Story,” Mark and ChristineBonn, directors (U.S.)
Best FeatureDocumentary
“War Dance,” Andrea Nix and Sean Fine, directors(Uganda/U.S.)
Best Feature Film
“Charlie Bartlett,” Jon Poll, director (U.S.)
Grand Prize
“Stranded: I've Come from a Plane that Crashed on theMountains,” Gonzalo Arijon, director (France)
Here’s another fun BIFF preview event! Check out “Racing Dreams” at the Old Town Cinema in Louisville Saturday! This award-winning documentary (Jury Prize, Best Documentary, Tribeca Film Festival) will be presented on Saturday, Feb. 4 at the Louisville Center for the Arts at 801 Grant St., in the beautiful period auditorium next to Memory Square.
“Racing Dreams” was a big hit at BIFF 2010. This year, its director Marshall Curry has a feature documentary in contention for Best Documentary at the Oscars – “If a Tree Falls . . . A Story of the Earth Liberation Front.” CURRY WILL INTRODUCE THE FILM VIA VIDEO! Oh, the magic of technology. DON’T MISS THIS EXCITING FILM! Doors open at 6 p.m. for food and drink – film starts at 7 p.m. We will be there, too, to talk, and answer questions, about BIFF 2012.
This is our last big party before we put on BIFF 2012 – we love hooking up with our faithful fans in East County. Come on down and let’s have fun! And did we say you can win tickets to BIFF's Closing Night film, award ceremony and party? We didn't? WELL YOU CAN! For tickets and information, please go to http://www.oldtowncinema.org/. SEE YOU THERE!
In another amazing example of different organizations working together, BIFF is happy to announce that the Boedecker Theater at the Dairy Center for the Arts, 2950 Walnut St. in Boulder, is showing the latest directorial effort of Emilio Estevez, "The Way." This film stars the director and his father, the latter of whom you may have heard of -- Martin Sheen?
"The Way" marks the seventh film collaboration of father and son. Here's a lovely interview in America Magazine outlining the creation of the project, which stemmed from a pilgrimage Sheen and Taylor Estevez, Emilio's son, took along the Camino in 2003. (During that trip, Taylor met his future wife!)
So don't miss this wonderful film, not least so that you can ask Martin about it when he comes to town. It plays on Friday at 4:30 p.m.; Saturday at 3:30 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 7 p.m.! See you there!
ARE YOU INCENSED over the decision announced Tuesday by the organization Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, the group that co-opted and capitalized the iconic "pink ribbon" to support awareness and preventative treatment for breast cancer, to halt its funding of those efforts by Planned Parenthood? Here's a link to the story -- many advocates say that Komen caved in to pressure from right-wing groups who oppose a woman's right to choose . . . even if cutting off funds will make those women sicken and die.
If so, you must see the feature documentary we have scheduled for BIFF 2012. "Pink Ribbons, Inc.," directed by Lea Pool, will receive its Colorado premiere at BIFF on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 12:15 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 1421 Spruce St.
This hard-hitting film blows the pink lid off of corporate"Pink Ribbon" marketing campaigns for breast cancer. Labeled a"dream cause" by marketing experts, the ubiquitous Pink Ribbon hasbeen hijacked by companies as diverse as Yoplait, Ford Motors and Kentucky Fried Chicken as a tool tosell their products. But where does this money go? Research has stronglysuggested that estrogen-imitating food and cosmetics additives are some of thecauses of the breast cancer explosion, yet the boards of cancer foundations aredominated by the very corporations that sell and deliver these products. Findout about the daily realities of breast cancer treatment, far below the pinkcloud of corporate double-speak, and see what you can do to change it.
This movie is part of our 14-film Call 2 Action package -- where we provide you with access, dialogue and tools to make change happen NOW. This screening is co-presented by the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation's Army of Women Program, and will be introduced by Vicki Tosher, president of the Colorado Breast Cancer Coalition.
Movies like "Pink Ribbons" are important to put on society's radar. That's a huge part of why we put on BIFF, and why we act through our Call 2 Action program to empower YOU to raise your consciousness and change your world with the help of the power of film. Let's see if we can sell out this screening TODAY! BUY TICKETS ONLINE AT WWW.BIFF1.COM!
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