2009 FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL

42 YEARS OF IMPACT

May 2 – 6, 2009 : Full schedule available for download below
Atlanta Marriott Marquis
265 Peachtree Center Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30303

The films will be shown in Room M 101 on the Marquis Level. If you would like to view a film on your own, on-demand screening is available. (Please ask for DVDs at the screening room or at the GFEM exhibit booth in Resource Central on the Marquis Level). All screenings are free unless otherwise noted.

6:00 pm − 9:00 pm Saturday Night @ the Movies
BANISHED, a film by Marco Williams
2009 Henry Hampton Award winner

Dinner, screening and discussion.
Tickets: $30 general; $21 GFEM Members.
Tickets on sale at the door or advance tickets are available at http://banished.eventbrite.com/

The Hollywood Reporter calls Banished an “enlightening” documentary that “adds another compelling and necessary chapter to the literature of racism in this country.” From 1864 well into the 1920s, in dozens of towns and counties, white Americans drove out entire African American communities. Many of these towns remain all white to this day. The documentary investigates the ongoing impact of the expulsions on families and communities, Black and White, including a town in Georgia just north of where the Council on Foundations conference is taking place. The film asks us to consider our responsibility for past wrongs and our role in righting them. After the screening, meet the filmmaker Marco Williams for a discussion about the film and the issues it highlights. Trailer available at http://www.banishedthefilm.com/index.htm

Co-sponsored by the Council on Foundations, Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media, ABFE, Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities and Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement.

SUNDAY, MAY 3

9:00 am ─11:00 am Sunday Morning @ the Movies
BODY & SOUL: DIANA & KATHY
by Alice Elliott and Simone Pero Audi
2009 Henry Hampton Award winner
Hot breakfast, screening and discussion.

Tickets: $25 general; $17.50 GFEM Members. Tickets on sale at the Council on Foundation’s Resource Central, located in the exhibit hall on the Marquis level.

Advance tickets available at http://bodyandsoul.eventbrite.com/

Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy offers an intimate portrait that is alternately heartbreaking and inspiring. This triumphant film captures the poignant story of two visionary women and their fight for a dignified and independent life. Kathy, 65 years old, has cerebral palsy and speaks through an electronically generated voice, and her friend and caregiver, Diana, 57 years old, has Down Syndrome and works to heal from her abusive childhood. Refusing to live in the institutions that would claim to serve them, Diana and Kathy fight tenaciously not only for their own independence but for the rights of all people with disabilities. After the screening, join filmmaker Alice Elliott, and Diana & Kathy for an in depth discussion on disability rights, the importance of independent living, the need for effective advocacy from all sectors, and how media can be a potent organizing tool. http://dianaandkathy.com/

Co-sponsored by the Council on Foundations, Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media, Disability Funders Network, Grantmakers in Aging, Grantmakers in Health, Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities and Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement.

11:05 am ─12:30 pm Election Day
1:00 pm ─ 1:56 pm 9 Star Hotel
2:00 pm ─ 3:25 pm In the Family
3:30 pm ─ 3:16 pm Calavera Highway
3:20 pm ─ 4:46 pm Critical Condition
4:50 pm ─ 5:50 pm Including Samuel

MONDAY, MAY 4

9:30 am ─ 10:55 am Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita
11:00 am ─ 11:20 am America’s Next Top Immigrant
11:25 am ─ 11:55 am Exposé America’s Investigative Reports “Blame Somebody Else”
1:35 pm ─ 2:45 pm Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans
2:50 pm ─ 4:15 pm Greensboro: Closer to the Truth
4:20 pm ─ 5:45 pm The Judge and the General


8:30 pm ─ 10:00 pm Late Night Movie and a Meaty Discussion
Desert and coffee. Tickets: $20 general; $15 GFEM Members. Tickets on sale at the Council on Foundation’s Resource Central, located in the exhibit hall on the Marquis level. Advance tickets available at http://takingroot.eventbrite.com/

TAKING ROOT: THE VISION OF WANGARI MAATHAI
2009 Henry Hampton Award winner
by Lisa Merton & Alan Dater.
See how one woman has made a world of difference. Taking Root is a must-see documentary that tells the story of Wangari Maathai, the first environmentalist and first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The film presents an awe-inspiring profile of Maathai’s thirty-year journey of courage to protect the environment, defend human rights, and promote democracy. Join filmmaker Lisa Merton for a discussion after the screening. Trailer available at http://takingrootfilm.com/trailer.htm


Co-sponsored by the Council on Foundations, Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media, Africa Grantmakers’ Affinity Group, Environmental Grantmakers Association and Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities.

TUESDAY, MAY 5

10:00 ─ 11:30 am Meet the Filmmaker ─ UNNATURAL CAUSES: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?
2009 Henry Hampton Award winner
by California Newsreel & Vital Pictures
“Riveting” says USA Today, and the New York Daily News calls it “instructive, informative … and occasionally infuriating.” This PBS-broadcast film investigates startling new findings that suggest there is much more to our health than bad habits, healthcare or unlucky genes – the social conditions in which we are born, live and work actually get under our skin and affect our risk for disease as surely as germs and viruses. After the screening, meet Larry Adelman of California Newsreel for an in depth discussion about the film and how it is being used to help reframe the national debate over health and what we can do to tackle our health inequities. Trailer available at http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/

Co-sponsored by the Council on Foundations, Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media, ABFE, Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, Grantmakers in Health, Neighborhood Funders Group, and Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement.

11:35 am ─ 11:55 am America’s Next Top Immigrant

1:40 pm ─ 3:35 pm Meet the Filmmaker ─ TROUBLE THE WATER

2009 Academy Award nominated film and a 2009 Henry Hampton Award winner
by Tia Lessin & Carl Deal.

This film features a young African American couple who record the flooding of New Orleans in a chilling video diary which threads through the film. It’s a story about a young couple living on the margins who are surviving not only deadly floodwaters, armed soldiers, and bungling bureaucrats, but also a social system that has failed them. After the screening, meet filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal for an in depth discussion about the film, its partnership strategies, and effective audience engagement program. Trailer available at http://www.troublethewaterfilm.com/

Co-sponsored by the Council on Foundations, Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media, ABFE, Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities and Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement.

3:40 pm − 4:55 pm The Dhamma Brothers

WEDNESDAY, MAY 6

10:00 am – 11:30am Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North
2009 Henry Hampton Award winner
by Katrina Browne

Filmmaker Katrina Browne discovers her New England ancestors were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. She and nine fellow descendants set off to retrace the Triangle Trade: from their old hometown in Rhode Island to slave forts in Ghana to sugar plantation ruins in Cuba. http://www.tracesofthetrade.org/

Co-sponsored by the Council on Foundations, Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media, ABFE, and Africa Grantmakers’ Affinity Group.

9 Star Hotel; by Ido Haar, Director
SUMMARY: "9 Star Hotel" documents the lives of a group of young Palestinian men working illegally as construction laborers in the Israeli city of Modi'in. Caught between Israeli security laws and a Palestinian Authority they see as having failed them, they work for Israeli contractors by day while hiding from police by night. Like youths everywhere, they pass their idle hours talking about love, marriage and future hopes.
KEYWORDS: Israeli/Palestinian conflict, immigration, family, friendship, war
RUNNING TIME: 56 minutes; GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS: Israel, Palestine
http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2008/9starhotel/

Exposé: America’s Investigative Reports - “Blame Somebody Else”; by Jon Shenk, Producer
SUMMARY: When the Chicago Tribune’s Cam Simpson heard a report about 12 Nepalese men who were kidnapped and brutally executed by an extremist Islamic group in Iraq, he traced each step of the Nepalese men's journey from the foothills of the Himalayas to their brutal murder in Iraq, and in the process illustrated a vast international human trafficking network with ties to American corporations.
KEYWORDS: human rights, military and government corruption, journalism, international affairs
RUNNING TIME: 27 minutes; GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS: Chicago, Nepal, Iraq, Himalayas
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/expose/expose_2007/episode214/index.html

America's Next Top Immigrant; by Global Action Project
SUMMARY: America’s Next Top Immigrant (A.N.T.I.) follows seven immigrants as they battle it out for the American Dream. A satire of reality TV, this piece brings to light what the Dream means to these young immigrants.
KEYWORDS: Immigration, Americana, Youth, Community Activism.
RUNNING TIME: 20 minutes; GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS: New York
http://www.global-action.org/main.html

Calavera Highway; by Renee Tajima Pena
SUMMARY: When brothers Armando and Carlos Pena set off to carry their mother's ashes to south Texas, their road trip turns into a quest for answers about a strangely veiled past. As they reunite with five other brothers, the two men try to piece together their family's shattered history.
KEYWORDS: Male identity, Fatherhood, Family relationships, Mexican American, Multi-culturalism, Immigration, Poverty, Labor Activism.
RUNNING TIME: 86 minutes; GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS: California, Arizona, Texas, Mexico
http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2008/calaverahighway/

Critical Condition; by Roger Weisberg
SUMMARY: What happens when you’re sick and uninsured in America? Critical Condition puts an intimate human face on America’s growing health care crisis by chronicling the struggles of a diverse group of uninsured Americans as they battle critical illness over a two-year period.
KEYWORDS: Health Care, Poverty, Unemployment, Disabilities, Immigration
RUNNING TIME: 86 minutes; GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS: California
http://www.pppdocs.com/criticalcondition.html

The Dhamma Brothers; by Jenny Phillips, Andy Kukura, Anne Marie Stein
SUMMARY: The Dhamma Brothers tells a dramatic tale of human potential and transformation as it closely documents the stories of 36 prison inmates who enter into an arduous and intensive Vipassana meditation program. It challenges assumptions about the nature of prisons as places of punishment rather than rehabilitation.
KEYWORDS: Prisons, Alternative Treatment, Rehabilitation.
RUNNING TIME: 76 minutes; GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS: Alabama
http://www.dhammabrothers.com/

Election Day; by Katy Chevigny
SUMMARY: "Election Day" combines 11 stories — shot simultaneously on November 2, 2004, where factory workers, ex-felons, harried moms, Native American activists and diligent poll watchers, from South Dakota to Florida, take the process of democracy into their own hands.
KEYWORDS: Politics, Elections, Immigration, Community, History
RUNNING TIME: 86 minutes; GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS: Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida, Missouri, South Dakota, New York
http://www.electiondaythemovie.com/

Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans; by Dir/Prod: Dawn Logsdon
SUMMARY: New Orleans’s Faubourg Tremé is arguable the oldest African American neighborhood in the US, the birthplace of the black civil rights struggle in the South and the home of jazz. Its unique, little known past adds a revealing new dimension to black history from slavery to the problems of racial inequality today. Every frame is a tribute to what African American communities have achieved under even the most hostile conditions.
KEYWORDS: History, Civil Rights/Race Relations, Hurricane Katrina
RUNNING TIME: 68 minutes; GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS: New Orleans
http://www.tremedoc.com/

Greensboro: Closer to the Truth; by Adam Zucker
SUMMARY: This film chronicles 1979’s Greensboro Massacre, in which the Ku Klux Klan murdered five members of the Communist Workers Party. The film reconnects 25 years later with the players in this tragedy—widowed and wounded survivors, along with their attackers all converge for the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission ever held in the United States.
KEYWORDS: Social injustice. Reconciliation and healing. Civil rights. Judicial abuse. Labor.
RUNNING TIME: 83 minutes; GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS: North Carolina
http://www.greensborothemovie.com/

Including Samuel; by Dan Habib
SUMMARY: This film is built on the efforts of the Habib family to include their physically disabled son, Samuel, 7, in all facets of school and community. Including Samuel also features four other families with varied inclusion experiences, plus interviews with teachers, young people, parents and disability rights experts.
KEYWORDS: Inclusive education, Physical disabilities, Civil rights
RUNNING TIME: 56 minutes; GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS: New Hampshire
http://www.includingsamuel.com/

In the Family; by Director: Joanna Rudnick
SUMMARY: At 31, filmmaker Joanna Rudnick faces an impossible decision: remove her breasts and ovaries or risk incredible odds of developing cancer. Armed with a genetic test result that leaves her vulnerable and confused, she balances dreams of having her own children with the unnerving reality that she is risking her life by holding on to her fertility.
KEYWORDS: Cancer, Women, Family relations, genetics, Jewish,
RUNNING TIME: 83 minutes; GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS: Chicago, New York
http://inthefamily.kartemquin.com/

The Judge and The General; by Elizabeth Farnsworth and Patricio Lanfranco
SUMMARY: In 1998 Chilean judge Juan Guzman was assigned the first criminal cases against the country's ex-dictator, General Augusto Pinochet. Guzman had supported Pinochet's 1973 coup that left the democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, and thousands of others dead or "disappeared." The filmmakers trace the judge's descent into what he calls "the abyss," where he uncovers the past — including his own role in the tragedy.
KEYWORDS: International politics, Law/Justice, Genocide,
RUNNING TIME: 86 minutes; GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS: Chile
http://www.westwindproductions.org/the-judge-and-the-general.html

The Last Conquistador; by John Valadez and Cristina Ibarra
SUMMARY: Renowned sculptor John Houser is building a monument to Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate in El Paso, TX that will honor the contributions Hispanics made to the American West. But Native Americans are outraged — they remember Oñate as the man who brought genocide to their land. As El Paso divides along lines of race and class, the artist must face the moral implications of his work.
KEYWORDS: Race, Genocide, Art, Politics, Mexican-American, Native American
RUNNING TIME: 86 minutes
http://thelastconquistador.com/lastconquistador/Last_Conq_Home.html

Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita; by Maria Finitzo
SUMMARY: Dr. Jack Kessler re-focused his research to seek a cure for spinal cord injury using stem cells after his daughter, Allison, became paralyzed from the waist down in a skiing accident at age 15. This film follows the interplay between the promise of new discoveries and the controversy of modern science.
KEYWORDS: Physical disability, Religion, Science, Bio-ethics, Family Relationships
RUNNING TIME: 83 minutes; GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS: Illinois, Massachusetts
http://www.kartemquin.com/films/terra-incognita

Scaredycat; by Andrew Blubaugh
SUMMARY: Scaredycat is an experimental documentary examining the desire to manage fear of factors out of our control. The narrative examines the events leading up to and following the beating and mugging of the filmmaker at the hands of five young men in September 2004.
KEYWORDS: Psychology; Violence; Forgiveness, Mental health, Race relations
RUNNING TIME: 15 minutes; GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS: Oregon
http://mediaartists.org/content.php?sec=artist&sub=detail&artist_id=730