Select films will have Short Subjects played before the main feature and are a great opportunity to see some work by local filmmakers. Below is a list of the 2012 Short Subject films.
BOB YA HEAD
March 28 at 7:30 p.m. just prior to
Blacking Up: Hip Hop’s Remix of Race and Identity
Music
video shot on location in Detroit. Directed by Jeff Damron and Andrew
Langland. Photography by Jeff Damron and Andrew Langland. Edited by Jeff
Damron and Andrew Langland.
Produced by: Sunny Night Productions - 2012. Music by: Travis Reagan
(Brayal).
GOLDEN RULE
March 31 at 5:40 p.m. on, just prior to
Exit through the Gift Shop
April 1 at noon, just prior to
We Were Here.
April 1 at 9:40 p.m. on, just prior to
Exit through the Gift Shop
Golden Rule is about the very different lives of a good girl and a bad boy. It chronicles a typical day in each of their lives as they deal with the consequences of their actions.
Produced by Andrew Hickman. Directed by Ally Imhoff. Editied by Andrew Hickman. Cast: Dana Kuntzler, Cody Williams and Devin Rueter.
HORSE AND RIDER - 6:15pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
Nearly two million children are sold into sex trafficking each year. A small number are rescued. The film Horse and Rider follows two such survivors from India. CMU graduate Rodney Green was the assistant director for this film, which was shot in India in 2011. The 2012 Central Michigan International Film Festival will be one of the first locations in the world at which Horse and Rider (scheduled for completion just prior to its festival screening) will be shown.
SAMSON AND DELILAH - 7:00pm
Location: Celebration! Cinema
Realistic, visceral and haunting are words critics have used to describe this Australian film exploiting a relationship between two Aboriginal young people, one of whom is accused of responsibility for her grandmother's death.
BLACKING UP - 7:30pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
It asks whether white identification is rooted in admiration and a desire to transcend race or if it is merely a new chapter in the long continuum of stereotyping, mimicry and cultural appropriation.
BETTER THIS WORLD - 9:00pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
At the 2008 Republican Convention two young people are arrested and charged with planning terrorist acts. In this film -- described by Variety as a "docu-thriller" -- it turns out that all is not what it may seem to be. The film raises issues about the "war on terror" and its relationship to the right to dissent within the United States. (from the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival)
MY DOG TULIP - 9:15pm
Location: Celebration! Cinema
First and foremost, this is a film about a dog, a German Shepherd to be exact, and a man's love for her. The animated feature, in which one of the main characters is voiced by Christopher Plummer, is not light fare for children, but a moving exploration of an intense human-canine relationship. It could make people who don't know much about dogs understand how, as Roger Ebert puts it, "it is very difficult to dislike a being who would gladly die for you -- especially when it is handsome, frisky and emphatic." (Ebert, whom we suspect of strong pro-canine bias, gave it four stars.)
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
It asks whether white identification is rooted in admiration and a desire to transcend race or if it is merely a new chapter in the long continuum of stereotyping, mimicry and cultural appropriation.
NINE NATION ANIMATION - 7:00pm
Location: Celebration! Cinema
Can a cat and mouse find happiness even if their relationship is somewhat dysfunctional? That's just one of the themes explored in this (often humorous) collection of animation from around the world. Countries represented are: Belgium, Croatia, Norway, France, Ireland/Germany (a co-production), Turkey, South Africa, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Among the terms critics have used for this selection are "dazzling" and "eerily, poignantly irrational"
HORSE AND RIDER - 7:20pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
Nearly two million children are sold into sex trafficking each year. A small number are rescued. The film Horse and Rider follows two such survivors from India. CMU graduate Rodney Green was the assistant director for this film, which was shot in India in 2011. The 2012 Central Michigan International Film Festival will be one of the first locations in the world at which Horse and Rider (scheduled for completion just prior to its festival screening) will be shown.
PRICE OF SEX - 8:25pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
Mimi Chakarova, investigative photojournalist, is determined to find out why her childhood friends from a little town in Bulgaria have all disappeared. Chakarova's questions lead her to Greece, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates -- all destinations of trafficked Eastern European women that are now trapped in a dark world of prostitution. (from the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival)
SAMSON AND DELILAH - 9:00pm
Location: Celebration! Cinema
Realistic, visceral and haunting are words critics have used to describe this Australian film exploiting a relationship between two Aboriginal young people, one of whom is accused of responsibility for her grandmother's death.
WE WERE HERE - 9:50pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
Some people survive hurricanes, other live through wars. The five testimony givers survived something just as traumatic and deadly -- the onset of AIDS. By the 1990's, the gay community of San Francisco lost thousands of friends and family members to this disease. Most reactions from outside groups were cruel, homophobic. But this isn't a story of falling down; it is about standing stronger than ever.
I SAW THE DEVIL - 1:30pm
Location: Celebration! Cinema
When special agent Soo-hyun's wife is killed by a viscous serial killer he makes up his mind to hunt him down. During the ensuing game of cat and mouse the lines between hero and monster begin to blur.
IDES OF MARCH - 4:30pm
Location: Celebration! Cinema
Billed as an "American political thriller", The Ides of March, directed by George Clooney tells a tale of corruption in politics as a young idealist and communications expert must face the harsh realities working the campaign trail.
PRICE OF SEX - 6:15pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
Mimi Chakarova, investigative photojournalist, is determined to find out why her childhood friends from a little town in Bulgaria have all disappeared. Chakarova's questions lead her to Greece, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates -- all destinations of trafficked Eastern European women that are now trapped in a dark world of prostitution. (from the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival)
OWL AND THE SPARROW - 7:45pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
Friday, March 31st at noon, Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
A little girl with a Barbie backpack sells postcards and flowers on the streets of Saigon. An elephant, a zoo worker and a beautiful, but unhappy flight attendant enter into the story. A recent award winner at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, The Owls and the Sparrow was directed by a Vietnamese American (Stephane Gauger), is told in a manner that calls to mind the French New Wave and has perhaps the widest appeal of any film in the year's festival. If you are looking for a film to attend with your older children, this is the one.
TYRANNOSAUR - 9:40pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
Joseph is an alcoholic plagued by rage in the wake of his wife's death. When he develops a relationship with Hannah, a good woman with an abusive husband, they find that they may be the answer to each other's problems. Sight and Sound magazine calls it a "composed treatment of masculine violence and self-destruction" and the film's American distributor calls it a film about "the emergence of grace and redemption from the least likely of places."
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
Friday, March 31st at noon, Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
A little girl with a Barbie backpack sells postcards and flowers on the streets of Saigon. An elephant, a zoo worker and a beautiful, but unhappy flight attendant enter into the story. A recent award winner at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, The Owls and the Sparrow was directed by a Vietnamese American (Stephane Gauger), is told in a manner that calls to mind the French New Wave and has perhaps the widest appeal of any film in the year's festival. If you are looking for a film to attend with your older children, this is the one.
IDES OF MARCH - 1:30pm
Location: Celebration! Cinema
Billed as an "American political thriller", The Ides of March, directed by George Clooney tells a tale of corruption in politics as a young idealist and communications expert must face the harsh realities working the campaign trail.
LOST IN BEIJING - 1:50pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
The film deals with issues among very contemporary Chinese couples, presenting a perspective on current life in China's capital that may come as a shock to many foreigners whose perspective on China is still fogged by the residue of the Cold War. One critic describes it as "blackly comic." The New York Times calls it "old fashioned class-conscious pulp" and "a sturdy morality tale about innocence and corruption, wealth and want, sex and power." Note that it is NOT a documentary.
ROMEOS - 3:45pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
Being transgender is complicated. In the midst of his female to make transition, 20 year-old Lukas is stuck in all the wrong social situations--including an all girls dorm. Soon, he falls for the confident, daredevil, and also homosexual Fabio. What will happen with Fabio learns Lukas's secret? Romeos takes a unique look at what it means to be transgender and more simply, in love.
NINE NATION ANIMATION - 4:00pm
Location: Celebration! Cinema
Can a cat and mouse find happiness even if their relationship is somewhat dysfunctional? That's just one of the themes explored in this (often humorous) collection of animation from around the world. Countries represented are: Belgium, Croatia, Norway, France, Ireland/Germany (a co-production), Turkey, South Africa, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Among the terms critics have used for this selection are "dazzling" and "eerily, poignantly irrational"
EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP - 5:40pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
A journey through the world of underground and illegal street art. This Oscar-nominated documentary follows the reclusive street artist Banksy as he is first the subject, but later turns the camera back on the documentation.
OCTUBRE - 7:30pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
Clemente, a middle-aged man in Peru, has sex with a prostitute and the same evening a baby is secretly delivered to his house. He asks a neighbor named Sofia to help take care of the infant until he can discover the mother and return his unsought responsibility. All of this takes place during "The Purple Month" -- a time of religious processions and thoughts of miracles -- in a part of Lima that tourists probably rarely visit. Peruvian brothers Daniel and Diego Vega have received much praise for this 2011 release.
TYRANNOSAUR - 9:15pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
Joseph is an alcoholic plagued by rage in the wake of his wife's death. When he develops a relationship with Hannah, a good woman with an abusive husband, they find that they may be the answer to each other's problems. Sight and Sound magazine calls it a "composed treatment of masculine violence and self-destruction" and the film's American distributor calls it a film about "the emergence of grace and redemption from the least likely of places."
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
Some people survive hurricanes, other live through wars. The five testimony givers survived something just as traumatic and deadly -- the onset of AIDS. By the 1990's, the gay community of San Francisco lost thousands of friends and family members to this disease. Most reactions from outside groups were cruel, homophobic. But this isn't a story of falling down; it is about standing stronger than ever.
OCTUBRE - 2:00pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
Clemente, a middle-aged man in Peru, has sex with a prostitute and the same evening a baby is secretly delivered to his house. He asks a neighbor named Sofia to help take care of the infant until he can discover the mother and return his unsought responsibility. All of this takes place during "The Purple Month" -- a time of religious processions and thoughts of miracles -- in a part of Lima that tourists probably rarely visit. Peruvian brothers Daniel and Diego Vega have received much praise for this 2011 release.
ROMEOS - 3:45pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
Being transgender is complicated. In the midst of his female to make transition, 20 year-old Lukas is stuck in all the wrong social situations--including an all girls dorm. Soon, he falls for the confident, daredevil, and also homosexual Fabio. What will happen with Fabio learns Lukas's secret? Romeos takes a unique look at what it means to be transgender and more simply, in love.
YOU DON'T LIKE THE TRUTH: Four Days inside Guantanamo - 5:30pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
It is 2002. Omar Khardr is a 16-year old Canadian. He is also a Guantanamo Bay prisoner. Actual security footage from Guantanamo Bay shows a four-day interrogation Omar underwent from the Canadian Intelligence Service -- people he thought were going to help him. With commentary from lawyers, psychiatrists, journalists, former detainees, former interrogators, and Khadr's former cellmates, the true terror of this shocking interrogation is exposed. (from the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival)
I SAW THE DEVIL - 6:45pm
Location: Celebration! Cinema
When special agent Soo-hyun's wife is killed by a viscous serial killer he makes up his mind to hunt him down. During the ensuing game of cat and mouse the lines between hero and monster begin to blur.
LOST IN BEIJING - 7:25pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
The film deals with issues among very contemporary Chinese couples, presenting a perspective on current life in China's capital that may come as a shock to many foreigners whose perspective on China is still fogged by the residue of the Cold War. One critic describes it as "blackly comic." The New York Times calls it "old fashioned class-conscious pulp" and "a sturdy morality tale about innocence and corruption, wealth and want, sex and power." Note that it is NOT a documentary.
MY DOG TULIP- 9:35pm
Location: Celebration! Cinema
First and foremost, this is a film about a dog, a German Shepherd to be exact, and a man's love for her. The animated feature, in which one of the main characters is voiced by Christopher Plummer, is not light fare for children, but a moving exploration of an intense human-canine relationship. It could make people who don't know much about dogs understand how, as Roger Ebert puts it, "it is very difficult to dislike a being who would gladly die for you -- especially when it is handsome, frisky and emphatic." (Ebery, whom we suspect of strong pro-canine bias, gave it four stars.)
EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP- 9:40pm
Location: Park Library Auditorium (CMU)
A journey through the world of underground and illegal street art. This Oscar-nominated documentary follows the reclusive street artist Banksy as he is first the subject, but later turns the camera back on the documentation.
$4 for single tickets
$10 for a book of 10 tickets*
*best price offered for tickets since the festival began
Tickets can be purchased at:
- Celebration! Cinema
- Art Reach Gift Shop & Gallery
- Java City, CMU Park Library
- CMU's School of Broadcast & Cinematic Arts
Tickets may also be purchased before each of the screenings (Cash and check only please)
CO-SPONSORS:
- Celebration! Cinema
- CMU School of Communication and Fine Arts
- CMU Libraries
- Pleasant Graphics, Inc.
FILM UNDERWRITERS:
- CMU College of Graduate Studies
- CMU Office for Institutional Diversity
- CMU Office of International Affairs
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
- Art Reach of Mid-Michigan
- CMU Art Professor Donghwa Kim and students of the Motion Graphics class
- Java City
- Mt. Pleasant Area Chamber of Commerce
- Nicole Shackelford
- WCFX
- WCZY
Questions? Feel free to send us an e-mail!
