49-UP

49-Up is the seventh and latest installment of Michael Apted’s long running and acclaimed “Up Series.” Described by Roger Ebert as “one of the great imaginative leaps in film,” the non-fiction series has chronicled the lives of fourteen British citizens since the age of seven beginning in 1964. Every seven years, Apted revisits his film subjects and produces a documentary showcasing both the idealistic and physical changes and maturation of the individuals. In this film, the kids are now 49 years old and have achieved varying degrees of happiness, success and sadness in their lives.

Babel

Interlocking stories spanning the globe are presented in one of the most critically-acclaimed movies of 2006 from the director of Amores Perros, which used a similar structure of interlinking narratives.

Caché/Hidden *

Starring Academy Award winner Juliet Binoche, Caché/Hidden tells the story of Georges and Anne, a husband and wife couple whose perfect lives are abruptly disrupted by the mysterious appearances of candid and intrusive videotapes left on their doorstep. As Georges begins to investigate the unexplained appearances and subject matter of the videotapes, hidden secrets from his past are unveiled and soon his and Anne’s perfect world begins to collapse. Presented as part of the Tournées Festival (see bottom)

Camden 28 **

In the summer of 1971, with the Vietnam War raging, the FBI arrested 28 people for breaking into a Camden, New Jersey draft board office and destroying records. The 28 anti-war activists, which included four Catholic priests and one Lutheran minister, were all put on trial for their crimes against the government. The group thought of themselves as “America’s conscience,” but to the FBI they were simply known as the “Camden 28.” The film documents the tactics the group used in protest of the Vietnam War as well as the monumental court case and decision spurred by their arrest. This film contains what will be a surprise to some about the methods used by the FBI. Selection from the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival

Confederate States of America

What would America be like had the South defeated the North and won the Civil War? Director Kevin Willmott answers that question and then runs with it in his comical and satirically amusing mockumentary, C.S.A: The Confederate States of America. The film is presented as a British produced documentary examining the history of the United States beginning with the South’s domination over the North in the Civil War.

Crazy or What

Filmmaker/professor Kevin Corbett calls his documentary Crazy or What “a light-hearted look at the nature of obsession." This faculty member of the School of Broadcast and Cinematic Arts at CMU made the film after people responded to his training for a 100 mile bike ride as “crazy.” The documentary follows him as he trains for his ride and contains interviews with other people with obsessions that may appear “crazy.”

De Battre Mon Coeur S'est Arrêté / The Beat My Heart Skipped *

An updated and adapted reincarnation of James Toback’s 1978 cult classic Fingers, the film explores the internal struggles of a man torn between a life of crime and his love and passion for music. Set in the dirty underbelly of Paris, Tom works as a devious and sleazy realtor, who knows no end for how far he’ll go to ensure a deal. However, after a chance encounter with an old musical acquaintance of his mother’s, he realizes that he is no longer content with who he is and what he has become. Spurred by the musical aspirations he once had, Tom soon finds himself longing and working towards a better and more honest life. Presented as part of the Tournées Festival (see bottom)

Delwende *

Referred to by Variety Magazine as a film that is “firmly feminist and culture-changing in its aspirations, with aspects of Greek tragedy and a critical eye toward the misuse of tradition in contemporary Africa,” Delwende is an inspiring and candid glimpse into the war that wages between ancient tradition and a progressive society. Napoko is a loving mother just trying to do what’s best for her sixteen year old daughter, Pougbila, when she is accused of witchcraft and driven from her home. Harrowed by the accusations against her mother, Pougbila sets out to find her mother and expose the truth of the situation to all in her African community. Presented as part of the Tournées Festival (see bottom)

Film Society Shorts Showcase

The following original works by CMU students will be shown:
Play Date directed by Glenn Bronson (25 minutes) Two best friends, Brandon and Candice, enter a fake relationship under the belief that doing so will attract other 'romantic interests'. Complications arise as both struggle to keep up the hoax.
Pickle directed by Glenn Bronson (15 minutes) His girlfriend’s death was only the beginning.
What's Your Problem directed by Tim Marklevitz (30 minutes) A satirical homage to all of the prevention programs that defined a generation. Don't drink! Don't smoke! Don't do drugs! Treat others how you'd like to be treated! Wear a condom! (Admission is free to the Shorts Showcase.)

Half Nelson

Ryan Gosling plays Dan Dunne, a young Brooklyn inner-city junior high school teacher who strives to make a difference in the lives and futures of his troubled students. Dan employs edgy and non-traditional methods of teaching to help educate and nurture his pupils. For as great and effective as he appears in the classroom, once the school bell rings for the day Dan slips into another world, one that finds him drowning in a world of drugs and alcohol. Dan has always been able to keep both of his identities, respected school teacher and drug addict, separate until one of his conflicted students catches him getting high after school one day. The chance encounter leads both student and teacher on a journey of friendship, self-exploration and change.

Indian Summer: The OKA Crisis

A fictional retelling of actual events, the film recreates the struggle and fight for justice a group of Mohawk Indians experience during the summer of 1990 in the Canadian province of Quebec. A major crisis arises when the citizens of the town of Oka decide to build a new golf course on sacred Mohawk land. Outraged, the Mohawk Indians begin heavily protesting the town’s developmental plans. After local authorities fail to contain the escalating situation, the government is forced to call for the largest deployment of Canadian troops since the Korean War, thus highlighting the magnitude of the conflict as well as the harsh impediment of Native rights.

Infamous

Truman Capote (played by Toby Jones) develops a close relationship with two convicted murderers while doing research for his book In Cold Blood.

Jesus Camp

Reviewed in Time Magazine as a “most interesting and poignant portrait of denied and even desecrated childhood,” Jesus Camp is an intense and startling documentary examining the extreme religious teachings of “Kids on Fire,” a North Dakota children’s Christian summer camp. The film follows three kids: Levi, Rachael, and Victoria, as they devoutly attend the Christian camp. With each passing day the children learn and develop skills as well as the knowledge that according to camp director Becky Fischer are needed in order to help in the crusade to “take back America for Christ.”

KZ **

Director Rex Bloomstein brings the horrors and dark ironies of one of Austria’s lesser known Nazi concentration camps, Mauthausen, to light in his chilling yet fascinating documentary KZ. The brutal and ghastly story of Mauthausen, a concentration camp composed of mostly Polish and Russian inhabitants rather than Jewish, is told through interviews and testimonies as well as the varying perspectives from current tour guides of the now dilapidated camp. Selection from the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival

L'Enfant/The Child *

Living in a small Belgian steel town, Bruno is an unmotivated 20-year-old, content to live off his girlfriend Sonia’s unemployment checks. However, his simplistic apathetic world is thrown into a complete upheaval when Sonia gives birth to their son, Jimmy. The stress of being a father coupled with a desperate need for money, causes Bruno to sell Jimmy on the black market. However, as soon as the deed is done, the new father realizes his grave mistake and sets off on a journey of self discovery and maturity as he attempts to reclaim his son. Presented as part of the Tournées Festival (see bottom)

La Mujer de Mi Hermano/ My Brother's Wife

Based on the best selling novel by Peruvian author Jamie Bayly, the film is a steamy soap opera full of love, drama, lies and betrayal. Zoe and Ignacio are a young married couple, who appear to have the perfect life. However beneath the façade things are far from perfect. Ignacio is consumed with running the family business and soon begins to neglect his young beautiful wife. Feeling bored and ignored by her husband, Zoe finds love and comfort with Gonzalo, Ignacio’s estranged brother. Soon confessions are made that leave everyone in a state of hurt, heartbreak and confusion.

The Maze

In a futuristic dictatorship, Ashleigh Armstrong and her fiancé, Carter Demming, are targeted for “reassimilation.” The audience (through its selection of options at critical plot turns) guides Ashleigh through the worst memories of her life and tries to help her find a way out of “the maze.” Shot on locations in and around Mount Pleasant, MI. (See www.trick-b.com.) Admission to The Maze is free.

Maquilapolis / City of Factories

Carmen works in a maquilapolis, one of the multinational corporation owned factories that came to Mexico for the cheap labor. Carmen makes about $6 an hour, lives in a shack made from old garage doors, and suffers a number of ailments. Despite this, she decides to fight back for labor rights regardless of the possibility of her employers moving to China, which would leave her jobless. This documentary is her story that the New York Times says is, “A portrait of the perils of globalization that admirably seeks new forms of expression...a stirring work that'll provoke genuine outrage.”

Me and You and Everyone We Know

In a contemporary, isolated world, it is often hard for people to connect to each other in their day to day lives. This film shows us the connection of a young, lonely artist named Christine, and Richard, a recently single father of two boys.. When he meets Christine, he panics. His boys on the other hand have no trouble with love, one of them a 7 year-old who is having a internet romance with a stranger, the other a 14 year-old who is the practice dummy for all the neighborhood girls preparing for their futures of love and all that comes with it.

Petite Jérusalem/Little Jerusalem *

An 18 year-old Jewish girl falls in love with a Muslim man. She is one of two Jewish sisters who live among their strict Orthodox extended family in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, called “Little Jerusalem.” The other sister is married, but she finds her husband is cheating on her. Will they find love and happiness? Presented as part of the Tournées Festival (see bottom)

Quinceañera

Magdalena gets ready for her 15th birthday and the Quinceañera celebration that comes with it. Soon however, she finds out she is pregnant. Her religious parents and baby’s father rejects her and she moves in with her great-granduncle Tomas and her gay gangster-type cousin Carlos. Though at first they have trouble getting along, they eventually come together as a household of outsiders. Quinceañera is fueled by the racial, sexual, and class tensions of a Latino neighborhood in transition.

Rosita **

As a result of rape, a 9 year-old girl named Rosa (called Rosita by the press), becomes pregnant. Her parents, who at the time are working as coffee pickers in Costa Rica, want a “therapeutic abortion,” meaning for the sake of Rosa’s mental health. However, the Costa Rican government will not allow abortions unless the mother’s life is at stake. Rosita chronicles the fight of the parents and countless others for Rosita’s abortion. Selection from the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival

Scanner Darkly, A

Starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Wynona Ryder, A Scanner Darkly takes place in the near future when the U.S. war on drugs has become intensified against a drug known as Substance D. Bob Arctor (Reeves) is an undercover narcotics agent who is made to spy on his friends (Downey Jr., Harrelson, Ryder), but eventually gets hooked on the drug himself. The film was adapted from Philip K. Dick’s novel of the same name and adapted for the screen and directed by Richard Linklater who also wrote and directed Dazed and Confused and Fast Food Nation. The film uses live action photography and is overlaid with an advanced animation process known as interpolated rotoscoping, making it resemble a living, breathing, graphic novel.

Scoop

Starring Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, and director Woody Allen, this comedy is about a murderer with a secret identity who a UK journalist is trying to identify even after his own death. To get the “Tarot Card Killer” who is still at large in London, the deceased UK journalist, Joe, appears to a young American journalist, Sondra (Johansson), at a magic show by Sid Waterman (Allen). With Sid’s help, the chase leads her to a British aristocrat named Peter Lyman (Jackman). Sondra’s romance with him may well be the dangerous scoop that she is looking for.

Strangers with Candy

“Strangers With Candy” is a prequel to the critically acclaimed series on Comedy Central. It is the story of Jerri Blank (Amy Sedaris), a 47 year-old ex-con junky prostitute who decides to go back to high school in an attempt to start her life over in a good way. Appearances are made by Stephen Colbert, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Matthew Broderick, and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Thumbsucker

Adapted from the novel by Walter Kim, Thumbsucker is about Justin Cobb, a 17 year-old who still sucks his thumb. He tries to stop, but because of many problems, he only replaces thumb sucking with other problems like drugs and sex. He gets help from his New Age Othodontist (Keanu Reeves), his debate coach (Vince Vaughn), and his father (Vincent D’Onofrio, from Law and Order: Criminal Intent), but they all have their own problems that they must deal with. Justin realizes he must figure out for himself that there is no such thing as “normal” and flaws are what make us human.

Tsotsi

Tsotsi, which literally means thug or gangster, follows six days in a ruthless young South African gangster’s life. It is a psychological thriller set in Johannesburg that deals with the consequences and victims of violent gang crimes, the kidnapping of a baby, and also with hope and the triumph of love over rage.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

The 2005 documentary focuses on the history of the hybrid electric car, its effects on our culture and business, and why the SUV was embraced instead it. Onscreen contributors include Mel Gibson and Ralph Nader. Narrated by Martin Sheen.

Why We Fight

In Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell speech, he addresses the American “military industrial complex” and how and why the U.S. took part in and gained from the military ventures of the time. This documentary was inspired by this speech. It tries to answer the questions “Why does the United States fight?” and “What forces cause us to keep on fighting against ever-changing enemies?”

Winter in Baghdad **

Filmmaker Javier Corcuera spent a few months of the winter of 2004 in Baghdad. This Spanish film documents his experiences. It concentrates on a group of Iraqi teenagers who manage to live their lives as normally as they can despite what’s going on in their country. The film creates a great portrait of what is going on in Baghdad today as well as gives viewers a different view than the one presented in the mainstream media. Selection from the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival

Woman Is the Future of Man

Two friends, one who just got back from studying film in the U.S. and the other a college professor, meet together after many years at a Chinese Restaurant in South Korea. They drink, tell stories, and reminisce about a woman they both tried to romance in the past. After they find her (lovely now as she was in the past), they have a depraved drinking party until morning.

Wordplay

Wordplay tells the story of the New York Times crossword puzzle editor and NPR Puzzle Master Will Shortz. It also takes viewers to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Celebrity crossword puzzler interviewees include Bill Clinton and Jon Stewart.

Yossi and Jagger

Two Israeli officers fall in love at a remote army base on the Israeli/Lebanese border. It is based on a true story and tells of the lives of young Israeli men and woman who are required to serve in the military.