November 28, 2006

WAGING PEACE

Two Boots Pioneer Theater

155 E. 3rd Street

www.twoboots.com

UNDERPASS

Rain Breaw

14 minutes, work-in-progress

1992, San Diego. A family of Cambodian Khmer Rouge survivors has rebuilt their lives over the past 15 years, operating a donut shop. But the son, Sann, is still tormented by memories. He copes with his anger by painting elaborate and violent graffiti murals on a city wall. When his mother reaches out to a young illegal immigrant from Central America, Sann is forced to face his anger and fears head-on. He finds that his mother, the one person he has shut out, is the only person who can help him.

About the filmmaker:

Rain Breaw

Writer / Director

Rain Breaw is currently completing her graduate studies at the USC School of Cinematic Arts as a director/producer. Prior to USC, Rain taught interactive and web media at multiple Community Colleges in the New England and Upstate New York region. She also curated a new media center at Vassar College known as the Media Cloisters. While at USC, Rain has produced and assistant directed numerous graduate thesis films, including the award winning Thermopylae. She also directed another advanced project prior to Underpass - a comedic action movie a-la Alias titled Secret Agent. Underpass is a story very close to Rain's heart because it is loosely based on her experiences during high school and inspired by a few amazing individuals who offered her support when it seemed they had nothing left to give.

BARE HANDS AND WOODEN LIMBS

Alison McMahan

58:30 minutes

In 1974 former Kh

mer Rouge commander Touj Soeurly and the fourteen year old Chhem Sip were deadly enemies. Sip was imprisoned, tortured, and just barely managed to escape with his life to the US. Soeurly lost his leg in battle. Now these two former enemies are working together to make possible the community of Veal Thom, a cooperative village composed primarily of disabled veterans, from both sides of the war, and their families. Through an unprecedented cooperation in a country still torn by political strife, a miracle takes place. With "bare hands and wooden limbs", the amputees make their village blossom. This documentary is a testament to what an impossible friendship and cooperation between a former Khmer Rouge commander and a former Khmer Rouge victim can accomplish.

About the filmmaker:

Alison McMahan

Director

Alison McMahan, Ph.D. is a documentary filmmaker and the head producer for Homunculous Productions, a company that producers training films, industrials and documentaries. Recent films include the training film Living with Landmines (2005), and industrial and a PSA for Pensamento Digital, an NGO in Brazil that provides computers and internet access to poor communities - see www.HomunculusProds.com. Her latest documentary is Bare Hands and Wooden Limbs (2006). She is currently in production on a feature length documentary, The Eight Faces of Jane: The Life and Work of Jane Chambers.

October 24, 2006

CineWomen NY Screens Women Filmmakers

from the 2006 IFP Market

Two Boots Pioneer Theater

155 E. 3rd Street

www.twoboots.com

CineWomen NY presents a special selection of shorts and works-in-progress from some of the talented women filmmakers who screened their projects at last month’s IFP Market. Join us for the screening and Q&A, followed by FREE beer, soda and pizza!

FRIENDS FOR LIFE

Julie Winokur

8 minutes

Friends for Life is a documentary about Arden Peters, 90, and Warren DeWitt, 76, two men whose lives intersected at a Wal-Mart one day. Their encounter transformed them forever, as their friendship evolved into a commitment of profound magnitude. Their story reveals both the beauty and the pain of growing older in America. Friends for Life is excerpted from the one-hour film Aging in America: The Years Ahead produced by multimedia innovators Ed Kashi and Julie Winokur.

About the filmmaker:

Julie Winokur

Producer

Julie Winokur is a freelance writer and producer whose work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine, Salon, and the Sunday magazines of the Seattle Times and the San Jose Mercury News, among others. She is author of the book, Aging in America: The Years Ahead, which features the photography of Ed Kashi. The book was named One of the Best Photo Books of 2003 by American Photo Magazine and The Village Voice, and it won the Golden Light Award for Best Collaborative Photo Book from the Maine Photographic Workshop. Winokur also produced and directed the one-hour documentary film for Aging in America, which received a Northern California Emmy nomination, won two Freddie Health & Medical Media Awards, and was named Best Educational Film in the Silver Images Film Festival. It has been aired on more than 70 PBS stations nationwide. Winokur and Kashi’s last book together was Denied: The Crisis of America’s Uninsured, which examines the plight of the millions of Americans who go without health coverage. Winokur and Kashi are currently in production on a film version of Denied. Winokur also co-edited the book, We the Media: A Citizen's Guide to Fighting for Media Democracy (New Press), which looks at the corporate influence over media content.

THE DISHES

Katy Chevigny 

13 minutes

Work-in-progress about four Midwesterners – 3 women and a man – who rock just for the love of it...and it ain't easy. The Dishes is a documentary that follows a midwestern punk rock band as they juggle family, careers and survival in America’s cutthroat music industry. The film takes the viewer from the band’s local haunts in Chicago to life on the road during their U.S. tour. The Dishes is not a story about the likes of The Rolling Stones or Beyoncé. It is about bare-bones band-making and the dramatic politics that surround it.

ELECTION DAY *

Katy Chevigny 

A work-in-progress, Election Day is a verité film that follows the actions of ordinary people over the course of one important day: Election Day. During November 2, 2004, we filmed from dawn to dusk in 14 different locations around the United States capturing 105 hours of Election Day footage. We show how the system really works in all its messy glory. (*Note: Although not screened at the IFP, we’re happy to be able to show a special sneak preview of Katy's upcoming film.)

About the filmmaker:

Katy Chevigny

Director

Katy Chevigny co-founded Big Mouth Productions in 1997 with long-time friend and colleague Julia Pimsleur. Chevigny's producing credits include the award-winning documentaries Innocent Until Proven Guilty, Nuyorican Dream, Brother Born Again and Outside Looking In: Transracial Adoption in America. Chevigny produced and directed the one-hour documentary Journey to the West: Chinese Medicine Today. Before founding Big Mouth Productions, Chevigny produced and directed advocacy videos at the Chicago Video Project, including The Chicago Jobs and Living Wage Campaign and Cabrini Green: Mixed In, not Mixed Out. She is a graduate of Yale University and the Chicago Community Film Workshop. She currently directs and produces films at Big Mouth Productions. She recently finished the film Deadline, which she co-directed with Kirsten Johnson, and which premiered at Sundance 2004. Her latest project is The Dishes, which she is producing and directing. Chevigny also oversees operations for MediaRights.org.

NO UMBRELLA: ELECTION DAY IN THE CITY

Laura Paglin

26 minutes

No Umbrella: Election Day in the City is a documentary which takes an unblinking look at the 2004 US Election Day failures in one of Ohio's poorest neighborhoods. In the most hotly contested state in the country, gridlock at inner city polls ignites tempers and sets off charges of conspiracy. No Umbrella drops us squarely into the chaos as we watch the irascible octogenarian councilwoman (Ms. Fannie Lewis) take on polling place breakdowns, an unresponsive bureaucracy and an increasingly agitated electorate. No Umbrella premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, won the Jury Award for Best Short at the prestigious Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, N. Carolina and an Audience Award at the Sydney Film Festival.

About the filmmaker:

Laura Paglin

Director

Laura Paglin has been producing and directing films since she was a teenager in Portland, Oregon. Her nostalgic comedy/drama feature, NightOwls of Coventry, tells the tale of cultural turf warfare in the 1970’s, where a seedy all-night deli is the “theatre of battle”. After a three week run Cleveland Cinemas, NightOwls opened theatrically in Toronto and continues to play throughout Canada. Her documentary short, Shadow of the Swan – A Composer’s Story, which chronicles the triumphs and travails of a disabled contemporary classical composer Dennis Eberhard, premiered at the Calgary International Film Festival and won a Crystal Heart Award at the 2005 Heartland Film Festival. Paglin is currently working on City on the Brink, a feature verité doc that follows the controversial and charismatic mayor of a troubled city.

September 26, 2006

PORTRAITS OF TWO HEROES 

Two Boots Pioneer Theater

155 E. 3rd Street

www.twoboots.com

In honor of September 11th, CineWomen NY Screens presents a very special program. Two films by two women filmmakers about family members who were reluctant heroes on that tragic day. 

FIREFIGHTER 

Vanessa Ruane 

20 minutes

Firefighter Ruane is haunted by his idealistic actions in 1971, as he struggles with the guilt of having traded tours with a young firefighter lost to the rubble of the WTC. Unable to face his family and unwilling to heed the advice of his Lieutenant and go home and rest he pushes himself to continue on. When his company is called to fight their first fire since 10 days of digging, he finds redemption when he rescues a woman trapped in the building and in the act of saving a life he remembers who he is and what he stands for and is finally able to go home to his family. Best Director, DC Shorts; Best Story L.I. International Film Expo; Best Digital Film, Big Bear Film Festival.

About the filmmaker:

Vanessa Ruane

Director

Firefighter marks Vanessa Ruane’s directorial debut. The film was written about her father and his struggles with survivor’s guilt after September 11, 2001. It has been a labor of love that has taken three years to finish. Vanessa has studied under and worked for the award winning director John Badham for the past five years. Studying under him and shooting uncredited 2nd Unit on TNT’s Evel Knievel and CBS’s Footsteps. She first began taking on producing duties as John Badham’s assistant on the USA movie Brother’s Keeper and received her first upgraded credit to Production Associate on the Lifetime movie Obsessed.

VITO AFTER

Maria Pusateri

Deeply relevant, Vito After tells the story of NYPD homicide detective Vito Friscia, one of the 40,000 workers and volunteers who participated in the 9/11 rescue and recovery and now suffer from health problems. It is an intimate portrait of a selfless cop and devoted husband and father — a man whose life was forever changed by just doing his job. The film explores the emotional, physical and spiritual price of heroism.Best Documentary, Long Island Film Expo.

About the filmmaker:

Maria Pusateri

Director

Maria Pusateri is a documentary filmmaker and Vito After is her first film. She was compelled to explore her brother-in-law Vito’s emotional journey in the aftermath of his WTC rescue and recovery experiences. Awed by his bravery, she was driven by a need to better understand someone who instinctively risks his life to help others. Previously, Pusateri was a field producer for Metro Channel’s Unblinking Eye, creating 40 cultural arts shows covering literary, music and film events in New York City. Her work netted several Communicator and OMNI Awards, and a NY Emmy nomination. She has also studied acting and performed in theater and film. Pusateri is co-director of programming for NYWIFT/CWNY’s monthly screening series.

 August 22, 2006

SUMMER SHORTS: CLASSICS FROM 

THE WOMEN MAKE MOVIES COLLECTION

 presented by

CINEWOMEN NY and WOMEN MAKE MOVIES

Two Boots Pioneer Theater

155 E. 3rd Street

www.twoboots.com

In partnership with CineWomen NY, Women Make Movies presents a rare screening of films from our archives, including a classic short from pioneering filmmaker Maya Deren; tales of teenage love from Pixelvision auteur Sadie Benning; and three more entertaining shorts on self-image and identity.

Women Make Movies is the largest distributor of films by and about women, and is a leading nonprofit organization serving both users and makers of independent women’s film and media. Join WMM staff for a Q&A about Women Make Movies afterwards.

The Program:

REAL INDIAN

Malinda Maynor

7 minutes

A lighthearted personal look at the meaning of cultural identity and the complex world of Lumbee Indian culture.

MY FILMMAKING, MY LIFE, MATILDE LANDETA

Patricia Diaz

30 minutes

A portrait of Mexican filmmaking legend Matilde Landeta.

HAIR PIECE

Ayoka Chenzira

10 minutes

An animated satire on the question of self image for African American women living in a society where beautiful hair is viewed as hair that blows in the wind and lets you be free.

ME AND RUBYFRUIT

Sadie Benning

18 minutes

An assembly of in-your-face shorts that thoughtfully mediate on issues of teen angst, first loves and growing up queer in a small town.

A STUDY IN CHOREOGRAPHY FOR THE CAMERA

Maya Deren

3 minutes

The Mother of the avant garde’s film-dance: “a dance so related to the camera and cutting that it cannot be performed as a unit anywhere but in this particular film."

These films are part of WMM on MNN, a series curated with the assistance of Manhattan Neighborhood Network's Community Media Grant, and cablecast on MNN’s Channel 34 on alternate Wednesdays. Don’t miss the final episodes on August 29th and September 5, when more films from the Women Make Movies collection will be shown.

Find out more about…

- Women Make Movies: www.wmm.com

- MNN’s Community Media Grant: www.mnn.org

July 25, 2006

REFRACTED LENS:

A WOMAN’S EYE VIEW OF MUSIC

Two Boots Pioneer Theater

155 E. 3rd Street

www.twoboots.com

What to expect? films, free beer, pizza, and BUST magazines!

A woman making music is a beautiful thing, but women making music videos are all too rare. In light of the industry’s overwhelming male status, celebrating the accomplishments of women in the field becomes even more urgent. Refracted Lens turns the spotlight on the women behind the camera, often in collaboration with their colleagues – or themselves - squarely in front of it.

The program features music videos by women working all over the map and across a variety of genres, including: Sadie Benning for ubiquitous feminist rocker Kathleen Hanna’s solo project, Julie Ruin; Gina Birch, filmmaker and bassist of the seminal post-punk band The Raincoats; Birgit Rathsmann (with Bruce Alcock) for Dutch solo female artist Solex; Julia Feyrer (Canada) for Canuck indie rockers They Shoot Horses Don’t They; Rosa Barba (Germany/NL), for experimental electronic artists Mouse on Mars and Microstoria; Valerie Toumayan (France) for the all-female Vancouver quintet The Organ; Meredith Danluck (US) for the unclassifiable Japanese electronic artist Mu; performance and video artist Angie Reed (Germany); and others.

Capping off the lineup is Deborah Schamoni’s (Germany) 2005 short film, Visitors, featuring art-rockers extraordinaire and role models for record label-owning aspirants everywhere, Chicks on Speed, reimagined as aliens exploring New York City.

Refracted Lens is by no means an exhaustive survey of women music video makers, but it’s an earnest attempt to capture some of the magic that happens when a woman and her camera meet some of the most exciting music around.

Program details:

AEROBICIDE

Sadie Benning / Julie Ruin

4:00, video, 1998

SOLEX ALL LICKETYSPLIT

Birgit Rathsmann and Bruce Alcock / Solex,

2:26, DV, 1999

Gina Birch / The Raincoats, TBD.

SUNLIGHT

Julia Feyrer / They Shoot Horses Don’t They

2:50. animation, 2006

CACHE COEUR NAIF

Rosa Barba / Mouse on Mars

3:30, 16mm projected as video, 1998

KONTRA

Rosa Barba / Microstoria

3:00, Beta, 2000

LET THE BELLS RING

Valerie Toumayan / The Organ

3:13, video, 2006

PARIS HILTON

Meredith Danluck / Mu

4:10, video, 2005

COSMO HO

Angie Reed

3:46, video, 2003

VISITORS 

Deborah Schamoni / Chicks on Speed 

26:13, video, 2004

About the filmmakers:

Rosa Barba is an artist working with film, sound, text, and photography. She works and lives in Cologne and Amsterdam.

Sadie Benning is an experimental filmmaker and one of the founding members of the feminist band, Le Tigre. She lives in Chicago.

Gina Birch is a founding member of the Brit all-girl band, The Raincoats and also the founder of The Hangovers. She is an artist and filmmaker and lives in London.

Meredith Danluck is a multi-disciplinary artist working in video, sculpture and painting. She has worked with musicians such as DJ Hell, Mu, Lopazz and The Roots and lives in NYC.

Julia Feyrer is an artist and designer, as well as the drummer for the band They Shoot Horses, Don’t They. She lives in Vancouver.

Birgit Rathsmann makes art, animations, and documentaries and lives in Brooklyn. 

Angie Reed is an Italian-American visual and performance artist, musician, and filmmaker living in Berlin. She was the former bass player for the band Stereo Total. Currently, she’s working on a new movie and touring with her multimedia show XYZ Frequency.

Deborah Schamoni regularly collaborates with Chicks on Speed and is the founder of Smoczek Policzek, a film and video production company in Hamburg, Germany.

Valerie Toumayan is an artist, designer, and filmmaker and recently finished her graphic design studies in Paris.

Curated by Kelly Shindler.

June 27, 2006

CINEWOMEN NY presents:

HUMAN RIGHTS: AT HOME AND THE WORLD

Two Boots Pioneer Theater

155 E. 3rd Street

www.twoboots.com

ORANGE BOW

Dee Rees 

14 mins

A Brooklyn teen navigates through seemingly mundane obstacles as he makes his way to a neighborhood birthday party. Inspired by a true story, Orange Bow shows that the victims of police brutality are often not criminals, but are just regular folks going about their daily routine—our brothers, uncles, husbands, and friends.

About the filmmaker:

Dee Rees

Director

Dee Rees is a native of Nashville, Tennessee and is currently a graduate film student at New York University. She has produced, written, and directed three short films, all of which have gone on to be screened at festivals. Most recently, she produced and directed a feature documentary film titled Eventual Salvation which was shot in Monrovia, Liberia, and is now in post-production. She is a two-time winner of the Benjamin L. Hooks Fellowship from Fox Television Group, the Celebration of Diversity Scholarship from the Producer’s Guild of America, and was recently awarded the Richard Vague Production Grant and an MTV Networks Production Grant toward the production of a short adaptation of her first feature-length screenplay, Pariah. Dee holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from Florida A&M University and slaved away at three different, successively more soul-crushing FORTUNE 500 companies in a far, far distant former life.

YESTERDAY IN RWANDA

Davina Pardo

16 minutes

Yesterday in Rwanda tells the powerful story of Claire Wihogora, a Rwandan genocide survivor now living in Canada. As Claire recalls the genocide, interwoven images of Toronto and Rwanda reveal the texture of memory and one woman's daily struggle to live with yesterday.

About the filmmaker:

Davina Pardo

Director

Davina Pardo is a recent graduate of Stanford University's M.A. program in Documentary Film and Video, where she directed and produced four short films including Yesterday in Rwanda and Birdlings Two, a personal documentary that screened widely, including the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and Slamdance Film Festival, where it received an Honorable Mention for Best Documentary Short. Before film school, Pardo was director David Cronenberg's assistant for two years. Born in Montreal and raised in Toronto, she now lives in Brooklyn, New York.

VENDETTA SONG

Eylem Kaftan

52 minutes

Eylem Kaftan gazes from her hotel window down over the bustling streets of Istanbul. She is preparing for a 1,400-kilometer journey into the heartland of her Kurdish ancestry. Armed with only a few contacts, a faded family photograph and a passionate urge to discover the truth, the Montreal filmmaker will travel deep into eastern Turkey to attempt to unravel the 30-year-old mystery of her aunt Guzide's murder.

Vendetta Song is the story of her incredible journey - a riveting account of a senseless vendetta killing, the antiquated customs that brought it about and one woman's search for connection and closure in an ancient culture she's never known.

Working against time, political instability and facing possible retribution for her investigation, Eylem follows a series of word-of-mouth clues, venturing from village to village as she pieces together Guzide's final days and closes in on the identity of her killer. Amazingly,Vendetta Song brings Eylem face to face with one of the men she suspects is her aunt's murderer. It is 30 years later. Can the vendetta finally be laid to rest? http://www.dliproductions.ca/vendettasong/

About the filmmaker:

Eylem Kaftan

Director

Eylem Kaftan was born in Turkey, Eylem Kaftan completed a B.A. in Philosophy at Bogazici University in Istanbul and a Masters degree in Cinema at York University in 2002. At York University, she worked as a teaching assistant and wrote her thesis on the identity crisis in post-1980 Turkish cinema. Her first documentary Faultlines which investigates the aftermath of the earthquake, which hit Turkey in 1999, won Best Short Film and the Jury Prize at the Planet Indie Film Festival in Toronto. Kaftan recently completed an one-hour documentary, co-produced with the National Film Board, about her personal journey into the honour-killing of her aunt in a small Kurdish village in Turkey. The film will soon be broadcast on Vision TV and Télé-Québec. She is also co-directing an important film about Montreal's non-status Algerians for the Quebec broadcaster Télé-Québec. Kaftan contributed to several Canadian documentaries on social and political issues ranging from immigration, women's rights, mental illness to culture shock. Kaftan wrote, directed, edited and collaborated on several short films, among which are the award winning shorts of Turtle Productions.

May 23, 2006

ECHOES OF MOTHERHOOD

Two Boots Pioneer Theater

155 E. 3rd Street

www.twoboots.com

PERIOD PIECE

Camille Holder Brown

MAYBE MUM’S NOT THE WORD

Beth Taylor

THE WHISPERER

Andrea Odezynska

A HARD PLACE

Kate Clere

THE McCOMBIE WAY

Kristina and Nick Higgins

PERIOD PIECE

Camille Holder Brown

18 min.

A humorous look at how one mother and daughter navigate the transition from girl to woman.

About the filmmaker:

Camille Holder Brown

Director

Camille Holder Brown has a B.S. in Anthropology and Film from the University of Miami, Film Theory Study Abroad Program at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, MFA in Filmmaking from Howard University. Interned at 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks. Director of Photography for a documentary on FESPACO (Burkina Faso, West Africa) produced by Howard Film Department. DP on several student films, both 16mm and digital formats. Assistant camera on 35mm feature film, Winter Wheat. Produced a documentary in Jamaica at the Univ of West Indies campus on the Marcus Garvey Student Association.

MAYBE MUM’S NOT THE WORD

Beth Taylor

26 min

A funny, moving look at the lives of three women in their thirties with very different ideas on motherhood and why “Mum” may or may not be the word for them.

About the filmmaker:

Beth Taylor

Director

Beth Taylor received a Bachelor of Media at Macquarie University in 2000 and has worked on a number of documentaries including The Trouble With Merle and Chinese Take Away. In 2002/3 she production- managed the SBSi/Film Australia series, Under One Roof. Her short film Swing (writer/director) screened on ABC as part of the noise arts initiative in 2001, winning awards in festivals around Australia along with her other documentary A Labour of Love and Lunacy.

THE WHISPERER

Andrea Odezynska

18 minutes

Andrea, a New York filmmaker, embarks on a journey to the land of her ancestors to escape the stresses of her city life. Accompanying an ethno-musicological excursion, she enters the village of Utoropy. Sensitive cinematography reveals the magic of a culture deeply connected to the earth that still exists in rural Western Ukraine. Elderly women sing ancient songs as a wedding procession follows the dirt path from the church. The women meet Baba Ana, a traditional healer who uses natural remedies and whispered incantations to cure ailments.

About the filmmaker:

Andrea Odezynska

Director

Andrea Odezynska has an MFA in Film Directing from AFI. Her AFI thesis film, Dora Was Dysfunctional won an award at the Hampton's Film Festival and received honors at The Rotterdam Film Festival. Over the last decade, Andrea, has shot/directed close to 50 short films for the NYC based experimental theater company Yara Arts Group. Variety's review of Yara's show Circle included a special mention about Andrea Odezynska's "beautiful iconic video images."

A HARD PLACE

Kate Clere

15 minutes

A young mother, torn by love she has for her son, faces the daily inner struggle saying goodbye to him, for another long day apart.

About the filmmaker:

Kate Clere

Producer, Director, Writer

Kate Clere was born in New Zealand. Based in Sydney, Kate spent 18 years creating spectacular outdoor theatre and film projects celebrating people and the environment. In 1997 co-founded Second Nature Films – recent works include: A Year on the Wing - a multi media documentary, What to do about Whales? – discussing the future of whales. Gaining Ground - looking at wildlife extinction. Kate has two children – Piripi and Miro.

THE McCOMBIE WAY

Kristina and Nick Higgins

6.25 minutes

Ann McCombie is 81, gardens 15 acres every day, built the road to her house and is single handedly cleaning the blighted landscape of a deserted community. Along the way, she figured out the secret to a happy life.

About the filmmakers:

Kristina Robbins-Higgins began her career as an improvisational and solo performer. As a writer / director, her awards include a 2003 grant from AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women for Wet Fur, 2005 Nicholl Fellowship semifinalist for The Harlots of Haversham and The Step Ahead with Audi Grand Prize and People’s Choice Award for Life As You Know It which will screen at AFI Fest this year and will be the subject of an A & E Special.

Nick Higgins graduated with a Masters in Cinematography from AFI. His most recent shooting can be seen throughout the fall on the Discovery Channel’s Firehouse USA - Boston. Feature documentaries as DP include Himalaya Heaven shot deep in the jungles of the Indian Himalaya, Hessians MC about a group of outlaw bikers and Mother Divine about a Chicago south side mother of 8 whose children all graduated with masters and/or PhD’s from Ivy League Universities.

TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2006

BLUE VINYL:

Two Boots Pioneer Theater

155 E. 3rd Street

www.twoboots.com

BLUE VINYL

Judith Helfand and Daniel B. Gold, Directors

Daniel B. Gold, Judith Helfand and 

Julia D. Parker, Co-Producers 

"That rare muckraking film with a sense of humor." -

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Blue Vinyl, recently released on DVD by Docudrama and winner of the Excellence in Cinematography Award at Sundance and nominated for two Emmy Awards (Best Research/Best Documentary), is a deeply personal and vital expose that has been applauded by Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times as "scary and hilarious!" 

Skeptical of her parents' decision to "re-side" their home with vinyl siding (polyvinyl chloride or PVC), Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand set out with award-winning cinematographer/co-director Daniel B. Gold in search of the truth about vinyl, one of the fastest selling plastics in America. With a deep appreciation for irony, a great deal of chutzpah, and a piece of vinyl siding firmly in hand, Helfand and Gold travel from suburban Long Island to the vinyl-manufacturing capital of Louisiana and as far as Venice, Italy - where 31 former executives from a PVC-producing company are on trial for manslaughter.

Artfully balancing the horror with the humor,unexpected twists with unbelievable turns, Blue Vinyl is a sobering, shockingly funny, uniquely personal exploration into what it takes to be a really educated consumer. (Bluevinyl.org)

About the filmmaker: 

Judith Helfand 

Co-Director/Co-Producer

Filmmaker, activist and educator Judith Helfand is best known for her ability to take the dark, cynical worlds of chemical exposure and heedless corporate behavior and make them personal, resonant, highly charged, and entertaining.

Her films, The Uprising of '34 (POV, 1995; co-directed with George Stoney), Blue Vinyl (HBO, 2002) (for which she and Co-Director Daniel Gold were nominated for two Emmy's), and its Peabody award winning "prequel" A Healthy Baby Girl (POV, 19'97) (a five-year "video-diary" about her experience with DES related cancer), explore home, class, corporate accountability, intergenerational relationships and the ever shrinking border between what is "personal" and what is a critical part of the public record.

Building on a decade of developing innovative outreach and organizing efforts around the distribution of her own films, Helfand co-founded Working Films in 1999, a national organization dedicated to leveraging the power and reach of documentaries to strategically support long-term social change. She speaks widely and passionately about this work in North America and internationally, and is full-time faculty at New York University's Undergraduate School of Film and Television. Concurrently with producing and co-directing Melting Planet she is developing a feature documentary about the 1995 heat wave that ravaged the city of Chicago leaving 739 people dead in a matter of days.

Daniel B. Gold

Co-Director/Co-Producer/Director of Photography

Daniel B. Gold won the 2002 Sundance "Excellence in Cinematography Award" for his work on Blue Vinyl, which he both co-directed and co-produced. Gold also received two Emmy Nominations for Blue Vinyl in 2003: one for Research, and one for Best Documentary.

His recent broadcast credits as DP include The Nazi Officer's Wife (A&E Special, 2003), Breaking The Violence (Lifetime Special, 2003), and a segment on the upcoming PBS series, Colonial House (sequel to the PBS series Frontier House). Prior to concentrating on documentary work, Gold's camerawork was frequently seen on Saturday Night Live, Dateline NBC, and the Hallmark Channel.

Currently, Gold is producing and co-directing Melting Planet, a toxic comedy about global warming, and Waiting To Be Sung, a film about the songwriter's life in Nashville. He is also developing a feature documentary he will direct In Cuba with Click and Clack -- the Tappet Brothers of NPR's Car Talk fame.

Gold came to filmmaking after college where he studied music and photography. In 1985 he made Skin On Skin under the tutelage of George Stoney, which won an award as one of the best New York University documentaries of the year. He went on to produce, direct and edit several short films for non-profit organizations and won two Cine Golden Eagle Awards, a USA Film and Video Screen Award and an NY festivals ITVF Award.

Blue Vinyl represents a challenging and rewarding return to directing and producing for Gold and he has started a new production company with collaborator and co-director Judith Helfand, Toxic Comedy Pictures. Toxic Comedy is a production company formed to create original, entertaining media with a social conscience and a sense of humor.

Julie D. Parker

Co-Producer

Julie D. Parker began her documentary career in 1994 as a researcher on Walter Cronkite's eight-hour television autobiography Cronkite Remembers that aired on the Discovery Channel. In 1996, she moved to non fiction films and served as production executive on three documentary series -- Choosing Sides: I Remember Vietnam, The Warrior Tradition for The History Channel and Gunfighters Of The West for The Learning Channel. Julia’s commitment to linking filmmaking to environmental health started with her work on the one hour documentary Prostate Cancer: A Journey Of Hope which aired nationally in June 1999, attracting over 3.5 million viewers -- one of public television’s largest audiences. In addition to co-producing Blue Vinyl, Parker is the Bay Area Coordinator for the My House Is Your House consumer organizing and education campaign.

March 28, 2006

Two Boots Pioneer Theater

155 E. 3rd Street

www.twoboots.com

HARLEM SISTAS DOUBLE DUTCH

Directed by Nicole Franklin

- and -

THE ART OF LOVE AND STRUGGLE

Directed by Jessica Habie 

HARLEM SISTAS DOUBLE DUTCH

Nicole Franklin

7 minutes

Nicole Franklin's short film, Harlem Sistas Double Dutch brings to life the characters Vivian and Ruby who are thriving women in Harlem's new renaissance. Vivian, a free-spirited Harlem diva gives advice to her admiring niece in a film that shows how family bonds can get in the way of a woman's night on the town. Or do they?

THE ART OF LOVE AND STRUGGLE

Jessica Habie 

1:20 minutes

A new feature documentary preview on: hip-hop, spoken work, and performance artists, singers and activists; narrated by Smokifantastic. Love? Money? Political Propaganda? What inspires female artists to take risks? An up-close look at eleven ladies and the paths they choose in life, love and the movement for social change. Artists include: Raqiyah Mays, Denise De La Cruz, Nemesis, Elizabeth Mendez Berry, Claudia Alick, Helena D. Lewis, Amanda Diva, Kyana Brindle, Vista Solo, Toni Blackman.

About the filmmaker:

Jessica Habie 

Director

Jessica Habie  is the founder of EyesInfinite Films and President of the EyesInfinite Foundation. She graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Film Program where she completed her short film Act Accordingly in 2003. Since then she has traveled to the World Social Forum in Mumbai India (2004) to produce her first documentary feature Another World is Happening which documents the artistic involvement at the Third Social Forum. The Art of Love and Struggle is set to be released in March 2006! Jessica is coming back from the Middle East, where she is in production with her current feature Art and Apathy to celebrate the release of the film with all of the talented ladies featured in the project.
 

DANCIN ' IN THE STREET

Leslie Weinberg

Jendra Jarnigan,Director Of Photography

Scott Freiman, Composer

5 mins.

An experimental film exploring the idea of four dancers listening to the same piece of music in four different locations of New York City. They simultaneously break out into dance to express themselves, "dancin in the street." There is a fusion of hip hop, jazz, modern and ballet styles. 

February 28, 2006

TWO SIDES OF A COIN: BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS

Two Boots Pioneer Theater

155 E. 3rd Street

www.twoboots.com

SOMETHING FOR HENRY

Nina Tsai

15 minutes

Thirty-six years old, still at his first job, and living with his parents, Henry is shopping for a change. He stumbles upon Anna, who gives him a gift to help set them free.

A HOST OF DAFFODILS

Jane Clark 

15 minutes

When the patriarch has a debilitating stroke, an estranged family finds themselves thrust back together in a cramped hospital room. Deep seated issues threaten to destroy a fragile truce. Over four difficult days they come to realize that love is stronger than their differing religious preferences, personalities and lifestyles.

LIFE AT BAY

Susan Stuart

20 minutes

On one fateful day in an isolated coastal town, five characters' yearnings clash as they await major life events... the death of a family member, the blossoming of a young romance, the return of a husband. Life At Bay explores living in the moment, and the drifting feeling of being in limbo even while there is so much going on.

SPACE AVAILABLE

Kathilynn Phillips

16 minutes

In 2025, no baby can be born and remain alive unless at the moment of birth, or within sixty seconds thereafter, there is space available. At the moment of Lazaro’s birth, the counter reads zero. Will the man clinging to life in another room lose his battle in time to make a space for little Lazaro? 

January 24, 2006

Two Boots Pioneer Theater

155 E. 3rd Street

www.twoboots.com

CRIMES OF THE HEART

Robyn Hughan

This film generates awareness and exposes the horrors of child sexual abuse on a global scale. This is achieved through a unique and effective fusion of dramatic enactments and documentary, and archival footage.

A.K.A.084 94####

Pei-lin Kuo

A new immigrant to American society tries to identify herself by the numbers associated with her.

EVERYBODY'S PREGNANT

Debra Solomon

A wild ride through the rough terrain of modern baby making.

THE ABORTION DIARIES

Penny Lane

This film gives voice to an important but silenced community: women who have had abortions. Over a million American women will have an abortion each year. The Abortion Diaries, directed by 27-year-old Penny Lane, dispels the stigma of abortion by presenting the abortion stories of twelve diverse women. Their stories weave together with Lane’s own diary entries to present a compelling, intimate and at times surprisingly funny “dinner party” where the audience is invited to hear what women say behind closed doors about sex, love, careers, motherhood, medical technology, spirituality and their own bodies.

CONFESSIONS OF A BLACK WOMAN

Tamiko Joye Ball

Using her own experience of getting the HIV test as a backdrop, filmmaker Tamiko Joye Ball sets out to examine the reality behind the surge in HIV infection among black women by looking at how the virus has impacted individual women as well as presenting concrete ways to stem this destructive tide through awareness and self-empowerment.

LOVE STORY

Signe Baumane

A story about the separation of love and sex.