A note of thanks from our BIFF volunteers!

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for your support of the Boulder International Film Festival. Without your help, these amazing films that help educate, integrate and inspire our local community would not be seen.


The festival is this weekend, February 17 - 20 - what does your film "dance card" look like?


One of BIFF's most unique aspects honors our Boulder-activist sensibility. BIFF's Call 2 Action films and programming marries selected films' issues and causes with local community groups' efforts. Be sure to check out these very special films at www.biff1.com/call-to-action.html, and add YOUR voice to the conversation!

Here's a friendly reminder to get your tickets now, as many shows can sell out. Tickets are available on the website http://www.biff1.comand at the Boulder Theater box office and seating is limited. Tickets are $12/adults, $10/students/seniors, and special pricing is available for groups of 10 or more.

As an extra incentive, anyone with a BIFF ticket stub can attend the Keen Footwear Happy Hour, Friday and Saturday, Feb 18 and 19, from 4:00 - 6:00 at the Lazy Dog in Boulder for FREE wine, beer and appetizers. Also, they'll receive a FREE BIFF appetizer by presenting their ticket stub to any one of these great sponsoring Boulder restaurants: Centro Latin Kitchen & Refreshment Palace, Happy Noodle House, Jax Fish House Boulder, The West End Tavern, Zolo Southwestern Grill.
So buy your tickets, start tweeting, posting and shouting out your love for BIFF. We're sending the love right back at you!
The entire volunteer staff at the Boulder International Film Festival thanks you.


See you at the movies!

Five BIFF films you can see for FREE!

Of course there's a catch! You have to be a student older than 12, and younger than 19. That's it!

Here at BIFF, we want to encourage young people not only to get into movies -- but movies with VITAMINS. Yeah, movies that engage you and make you think . . . without being the kind of films that you are forced to watch that are so boring and stupid that you fall asleep in the back.

We have good ones this year! Take a look! There are two on Friday, two on Saturday and one on Sunday:

FRIDAY

THE FIRST GRADER
Noon, Boulder Theater
United Kingdom
Directed by Justin Chadwick
2010
103 min.

People’s Choice Award Runner-Up at the Toronto Film Festival
Closing Night Film at the 2011 Palm Springs Int’l Film Festival

When the Kenyan government declared free public education for all in 2002, 84-year-old tribesman and former Mau Mau warrior during the Kenyan war of independence from colonial rule, Kimani Maruge, shows up at school. This beautiful, unforgettable film tells Maruge’s true, sometimes shocking story, through flashbacks, and we find out why school officials had no chance against this warrior’s ferocity of purpose.

CALL 2 ACTION: Join us for a brief Q&A after the film, and visit the Call 2 Action tent to learn more about adult literacy from Diana Sherry of Boulder Reads! – and how you can help make a difference.

From National Geographic Entertainment
Colorado Premiere
www.thefirstgradermovie.com

THESE AMAZING SHADOWS
5 p.m., First United Methodist Church
USA
Feature Documentary
Directed by Kurt Norton
2010
88 min.

Direct to BIFF from Sundance

What do the films "Casablanca," "Blazing Saddles," "West Side Story" and "This Is Spinal Tap" have in common? They have been deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and listed on the National Film Registry. "These Amazing Shadows" tells the history and importance of The Registry, a roll call of American cinema treasures that reflects the diversity of film and, indeed, the American experience itself. The current list of 525 films includes selections from every genre—documentaries, home movies, Hollywood classics, avant-garde, newsreels and silent films. This film reveals how American movies tell us so much about ourselves—not just what we did, but what we thought, what we felt and what we aspired to.

Colorado Premiere
Director Kurt Norton in person

SATURDAY


THE LAST LIONS
10 a.m., Boulder Theater
Botswana
Directed by Dereck and Beverly Joubert
Feature Documentary
2010
88 min.

Renowned naturalists, Dereck and Beverly Joubert, track Ma di Tau (Mother of Lions) on her perilous, 3-year journey with her cubs, during her titanic primal bid to preserve the thing that matters most—the future of her bloodline. Spectacular, close-up filming and narration by Jeremy Irons, makes this a “must see” for everyone. And find out how you can work to preserve the King of Beasts who will be extinct in 20 years if they are not protected.

CALL 2ACTION: Join us for a Q&A with WILD Foundation’s Vance Martin, and visit the Call 2 Action tent to hear more about his recent trip to the very community this film depicts.

From National Geographic Entertainment
Colorado Premiere

BAG IT!

12:30 p.m., First United Methodist Church
USA
Feature Documentary
Directed by Suzan Beraza
2010
78 min.

Winner at the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival 2010

Come see where all the 500 billion plastic bags used on Earth every year end up! In this humorous and unsettling documentary, narrator, Jeb Berrier, travels around the world to find better possible models for getting rid of plastic bags.

CALL 2 ACTION: Join filmmaker Suzan Beraza after the film for a Q & A and visit the Call 2 Action tent to continue the conversation with her, and with representatives from New Vista High School’s EARTH TASK FORCE and ECOCYCLE about all the small ways we can make a huge difference.

Boulder Premiere
Suzan Beraza in person

SUNDAY

STUDENTS ONLY!

FREEDOM RIDERS
12:30 p.m., Boulder Public Library
USA

Feature Documentary
Directed by Stanley Nelson
2010
113 min.

Share the experience of Civil Rights activists who rode buses from Washington D.C. to Jackson, Misssissippi during the height of segregation. Along the way they encountered the hatred of white segregationists and were beaten, fire-bombed and tear-gassed. Their triumphant efforts are recorded in this amazing documentary. Join U.S.-Rep.(GA) John Lewis, after the film for an intimate conversation about his experience as a Freedom Rider!

Students should arrive 20 minutes prior to seating
Contact Ruth @ ruthe@biff1.com for group reservations or questions.

Boulder Premiere
Congressman John Lewis will be introduced by Senator Mark Udall and Congressman Jared Polis

Spotlight on: “Armadillo”

A Danish soldier stares in shock after being shot in the documentary "Armadillo."

When the killing commences, you’re as taken aback as the men in the middle of it.

The cameraman dives to the ground – we see nothing but flashes of sky, the ground, sky again. Then he orients himself, gets vertical again, and runs toward the shooting, taking us with him.

This is the epicenter of “Armadillo,” a documentary feature that takes its place alongside “The Battle of San Pietro,” “Hearts and Minds,” “Taxi to the Dark Side” and “Restrepo” as one of the most eloquent stories of mankind’s most tragic enterprise – warfare.

The irony of tiny Denmark sending peace-keeping troops to Afghanistan is quickly undermined by the day-to-day realities of life on the front lines. The Danes are sitting ducks – sharing an advance post with the British, surrounded by fields and foothills, an unfriendly and frightened populace, and an enemy that can’t be seen.

Despite what look to be the most sophisticated detection and assault devices available, the Taliban enemy is maddeningly hard to find and engage. If they are confronted, they strike and retreat into the dull brown-and-gray landscape, indistinguishable from civilians.

The gradual reversion of the troops on their six-month mission to aggressive, reactive thinking is plain and painful to watch. The constant stream of aggrieved farmers who have lost crops, animals, friends and relatives to the stray and misguided shells of the “good guys,” the embattled desperation of their position, the vulnerability to sabotage – all grind away at the soldiers’ nerves.

When they get a clear shot at the enemy in the film’s central sequence, their relief at overcoming their enemies and their joy at still being alive is hard to dismiss. When repercussions threaten them, they close ranks and become stubborn and defensive. For better and worse, they are in full combat mode.

No matter what your politics are, “Armadillo” will move you. It makes clear that, if you survive battle, you will never be the same after it.

Armadillo

Denmark

Dir: Janus Metz Pedersen

Feature Documentary

2010

100 min.

Presented at the First United Methodist Church

Saturday, Feb. 19, 9:30 p.m.

Spotlight on: “Hand Held”

Mike Carroll (right) and friend.

If you don’t cry at some point during this film, check your pulse. You may be dead.

“Hand Held” is the new documentary directed by two-time Boulder International Film Festival guest Don Hahn, the Oscar-winning producer of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” who brought us the wonderful documentary “Waking Sleeping Beauty” last year.

His offering this year is entirely different – probing and lacerating, asking hard-hitting questions about political decisions that impact innocent lives, and even the nature of do-gooding itself.

The work centers on Mike Carroll, a photojournalist who uncovered the nightmare of government orphanages in Romania after the downfall of dictator Ceausescu in 1989. Here, underfed, un-cared for and AIDS-infected children languished, victimized by the whims of a leader who demanded record amounts of reproduction from his people while keeping them in abject poverty.

Carroll’s eyes become ours, as he walks us through his increasing involvement in a mission to save these kids.

What’s most intriguing about the film is the fact Carroll does question his motives, especially as his personal life starts to fall apart as a result of his commitment to the cause. Hahn has the good sense and commitment to truth to keep this footage in the film – as aspect of social action not often brought up or considered in film.

Too, Carroll wonders about the exploitative nature of using photos – and by extension, the film he’s in – to arouse sympathy and gather support for Romania’s unfortunate. Does the act of witnessing reduce the complex human beings in the viewfinder to stereotypes of need? What gets lost in the process? “Hand Held” looks bravely at the cost on both sides of the camera.

We are very fortunate to host, not only director Hahn, but Mike Carroll as well at this screening. After the film, we’ll sit down with them to discuss this remarkable project.

Hand Held

USA/Romania

Dir: Don Hahn

Feature Documentary

2010

85 min.

Presented at the First United Methodist Church

Saturday, Feb. 19, 7:15 p.m.

Co-presented by Romanian Children’s Relief (rcr.org) and the Boulder County AIDS Project (bcap.org)

Introduction by Jenny Borys, Boulder County AIDS Project

Post-screening interview and Q & A conducted by Brad Weismann, BIFF Social Media Director

A BIFF CALL 2 ACTION FILM

“’Carmen’ in 3D’ joins the BIFF roster

Christine Rice as Carmen, Bryan Hymel as Don José and Maija Kovalevska as Micaëla in "Carmen' in 3D," newly added to the schedule at the Boulder International Film Festival.

Photo credit: RealD and The Royal Opera/Ollie Upton

Top tunes, sex and death! In depth!

Now that we have your attention . . .

The Boulder International Film Festival is proud to add Film Number 55 and Program Number 40 to its program. “’Carmen’ in 3D” will be screened on Sunday, 2/20 at 11 a.m. at the Cinemark Century Theaters at 29^th and Canyon in Boulder.

The film opens in more than 750 theaters nationwide on March 5, but BIFF gets a chance to give its ticketholders a sneak preview.

Now, stay with us – it’s an opera.

Yes, many of you just flinched. We could feel it. All right, hold on just a minute. Despite the genre’s reputation as a diversion fit only for the rich and bored, we’d like you to know that operas for decades were the equivalent of “Avatar” – flocked to by the masses, and considered by some an overwhelming (and vulgar) spectacle that overloaded and disoriented the senses.

In other words, it’s already a party. Operas routinely traffic in melodramatic situations, betrayals, passions, acres of violence, perversity and the like. “Carmen” is no exception. Its wild and willful heroine, a Spanish gypsy, triggers all manner of chaos that she blithely leaves in her wake, until her past catches up with her in a stunning final scene.

"If you don't love me, I love you -- if I love you, guard yourself!"

Of course, she's hot -- so hot that the Seville Fire Dept. had to stop by and hose her down periodically. (A mousy Carmen would be a contradiction in terms.) In fact, the first production of “Carmen” was booed by a scandalized audience. The composer, Georges Bizet, tragically died at the age of 36 before he could see the second production of “Carmen” triumph and sweep into the repertory of opera houses everywhere.

Christine Rice as Carmen -- the original Bad Girl.

The idea of a strong central female character that makes her own choices and controls her own sexual life, can still be seen as disturbingly transgressive today. In “Carmen,” the male characters are the ones who tag along and suffer (Carmen’s pathetic, clingy and desperate lover Don Jose), or who serve as eye candy (the studly Escamillo, who struts around singing the familiar “Toreador” song). Here's Ruggerio Raimondi singing it in Francesco Rosi's 1984 film of the work --

The point is, this show’s for everyone mature enough to handle its themes. The tradition of broadcasting “Live from the Met in HD,” and other cultural events, is five years old now, and has proved remarkably successful. In this sense, presenting a production in 3D is not so much a gimmick as it is a logical extension of the medium. “Carmen,” full of action, dance and song, is a prime candidate for rendition in three dimensions.

The production, staged at the Royal Opera House in London and helmed by top-flight director Francesca Zambello, is thought as the first true verismo opera – a gritty approach that traffics in real characters and emotions rather than overblown plot points and stiffly sung arias.

"Carmen" stage director Francesca Zambello in front of the prestigious Glimmerglass Opera, which she recently took over as Artistic & General Director. Julian Napier directed the film of "Carmen' in 3D."

The screening will attract the usual fan base of dedicated opera-lovers in the region, but we encourage all our festivarians to put it on their schedules this weekend. The music is thrilling, the knives are sharp, the emotions are naked (and so are some of the extras, evidently.)

And, hey, cognoscenti – this performance text uses the spoken dialogue passages, not the recitatives interpolated later, which many think weakens the impact and Bizet and his librettists intended the show to have.

So, come one, come all! Let’s get Bizet!

"The chain which binds us will bind us until death!"

As a final treat, here's the divine Maria Callas singing the famous Habanera from "Carmen" in a recital at Covent Garden in 1962.



(P.S. During my research, I recalled listening to a recording of this obscure and bizarre pop number. It was the flip side of the 1955, 78 rpm hit cover of "Sh-Boom" by the Crew-Cuts. I could not find that recording, but here's the Andrew Sisters' version of "Carmen's Boogie" from 1952 -- solid, cats!)

Merch madness

So you want to be in the Cool Club? Then you gotta don the gear.

BIFF merchandise is back, and it's better than ever! We have got some swell items for you this year, available ONLY during BIFF 2011. In addition to our classic short- and long-sleeved T-shirts, we are featuring a hit from last year, the BIFF ball cap:

AND we are adding new items: the BIFF tote, and the hoodie (not pictured yet -- coming soon!)

These high-quality items will be available throughout the festival at three locations -- the Boulder Theater, our Info Booth at The Tent at 14th and Pearl Streets, and via our registration office in the St. Julien Hotel.

This year, our hats come to us from Hat Tails, and will include a handy zipper cord on the back. Why is this cool? 'Cause you can attach your hat to your jacket, and when those howling Chinook winds come lashing down the canyons in the spring -- your hat doesn't fly to Kingdom Come!

The rest of the gear comes from Anvil Knitwear, which is proud to announce that Anvil Organic is amde from 100% certified organic cotton. A cradle-to-grave grenhouse-gass product life-cycle assessment of this T-shirt yields 3.09kgCO2e per T-shirt.

AnvilSustainable tees are made from a blend of RPET (recycled plastic bottles) and cotton in conversion to organic farming methods. It takes about three plastic bottles to produce enough polyester to make the AnvilSustainable tee. A cradle-to-grave greenhouse-gas product life-cycle assessment of this T-shirt yields 3.29kgCO2e per T-shirt. AnvilSustainable hoodies are made from a blend of RPET and organic cotton. It takes about eight plastic bottles to produce enough polyester to make the AnvilSustainable hoodie. (Thanks to our printers as well, Anthem Branding!)

All of our merchandise will be available for purchase via cash, check or money order. We want you to leave the festival with only memories -- and a double handful of stuff you can wear that proves you were there!

BIFF Presents: THE TENT!

For several years, we've thought of the Boulder International Film Festival as a circus. Now, we've got The Tent to prove it!

Ladies and gentlemen, and children of all ages, we welcome you to The Tent, a central gathering place for all kinds of BIFF activities. It will be located conveniently at 14th and Pearl Streets on the Mall, and will be this year's site of our round-the-clock Info Booth, as well as a place for post-film discussions, networking, kibitzing, and just plain chewing the fat.

Most importantly, it will house groups associated with all our Call 2 Action films. Here you will be able to meet with people from organizations such as the Boulder County AIDS Project, Goodwill Industries of Denver, the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, Ecocycle, the WILD Foundation, Boulder Reads! and the Boulder Valley Women's Health Center. These entities, representatives of which will be at the screenings of films that touch on their topics of activism, will be present at The Tent as well and can help you effect positive and swift change that will address concerns of social conscience.

No matter what Mother Nature may have in store for us over the course of BIFF 2011, The Tent will serve as a warm and cozy shelter for festival-goers and activists alike. See you there!

(Thanks to RC Special Events for setting up The Tent, and to the Twisted Foundation for funding its pitching this year.)