Friday, Feb. 29 / 7:30PM / Blue Note
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 6:30PM / Macklanburg Cinema

In person: director Nanette Burstein & producer Jordan Roberts.

“We’re all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that’s all.” — The Breakfast Club

In American Teen, Nanette Burstein (The Kid Stays in the Picture) follows four John Hughes archetypes — the beauty queen, the band nerd, the popular jock and the lovable basket case — through a senior year at a Midwestern high school. Over the course of nine months, the young adults cope with standard high school drama — depressing break-ups, broken alliances, private-turned-public pin-ups — and reveal their inner troubles. Though each character belongs to a completely different caste, under Burstein’s honest lens, all of them display an understandable angst — their futures are terrifyingly unwritten. American Teen‘s glossy visual style has drawn comparisons to MTV reality shows, but its core is every bit as thorough and insightful as a Ken Burns epic. Just like its complex characters, American Teen may appear to be one thing at first glance, but beneath the surface seethes the complicated culture of contemporary youth. (CB)

Thursday, Feb. 28 / 8:15PM / Little Ragtag
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 11:00PM / Forrest Theater

In person: director Owen Lowery.

Sneak preview. Not just one alternative, try 52 — one for each week of the year. When director and star Owen Lowery wakes up in a psych ward after a meltdown, he faces a choice: suicide, or create a list of 52 things he’s always wanted to do, then spend the next year exploring them. On the list: battle a shark, spit fire, get stung by a scorpion, eat brains, get tazered, hang glide, go squirrel fishing (you figure it out). The result plays like a bucket list for the Jackass generation. Sure, Owen suffers all the angsts common to twenty-somethings. But he faces them with uncommon self-awareness and good humor. So the best way to escape his own skull? List entry No. 28: make someone else’s dream or wish come true. (RM)

Thursday, Feb. 28 / 9:00PM / Windsor Cinema
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 3:00PM / Forrest Theater

In person: director Michael Jacobs.

Arguably, the leap from Pentecostal preacher to film producer (or vice versa) is not a big one. In either job, one needs a vision to rally the troops around, the drive to continue even when all seems lost and the faith that all the hardships will be worth it in the end. These beliefs existed in Richard Gazowsky, so, when God told him to make a $100 million sci-fi epic, he heeded the call. What followed, expertly documented by director Michael Jacobs, is a story of stupendous ambition, staggering inexperience and, ultimately, the sort of faith that few of us can muster for anything, much less a divinely ordained feature film. Audience of One could have gone so wrong, devolving into an exercise in winking and nudging. But director Jacobs has a clear fondness for Richard and is willing to let the story unfold in all its convoluted glory. In the end, whether Gazowsky’s “Star Wars meets The Ten Commandments” is ever completed becomes secondary to his internal struggle to follow the will of his Lord. (DW)

Friday, Feb. 29 / 5:00PM / Forrest Theater

LATE ADD! A highly entertaining look at the past, present and future of steroid use in America — with the filmmaker’s own family as both guides and guinea pigs. More info coming soon….

Friday, Feb. 29 / 10:30PM / Little Ragtag
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 10:30PM / Big Ragtag
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 10:00PM / Little Ragtag

In person: cinematographer Virginia Lee Hunter.

Hairy is a young woman head over heels in love with the carnival, though her radiant smile hides a world of childhood pain. Bozo the clown was born into the carnival — his brothers were conjoined twins who traveled with a freak show. Dave spent much of his youth in prison but now works the midway and juggles a pair of girlfriends. All of them have a love/hate affair with the sawdust and flashing lights, but it’s a relationship they just can’t quit. Filmmaker Alison Murray immersed herself in this world and gained an access that few have known before. The result is this effortlessly intimate and beautiful portrait of a vanishing American subculture. Mixing handheld video with mirage-like super 8 film, Murray finds honor and pride among those who travel with the carnival and survive on society’s fringes. (DW)

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 9:30PM / Blue Note
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 4:00PM / Blue Note

In person: director Harris Fishman.

Ron Holiday met his wife Joy when he was 11 and she was 7 and they were both growing up in a farm town in Maine. Little in their lives after that would be remotely normal. They moved to New York on the advice of a nun and became big adagio dance stars, playing to sold-out crowds at Radio City Music Hall and earning respect from the critics. One day, fan and actor William Holden sent the pair a life-changing present: a black leopard cub. In his documentary debut, director Fishman presents a moving look at the Holidays as they transform from world-renowned dance stars to Siegfried and Roy precursors. Along the way, the couple met Chuck Lizza, who became their apprentice, then partner and lover. But in the dangerous world of big cats, tragedy is always close. Now 70, Ron reflects on his life, injecting humor and sorrow into this meticulously crafted tale — the kind of American epic that you couldn’t make up if you tried.

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 10:30AM / Blue Note
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 10:00AM / Big Ragtag

Sneak Preview. Growing up in the Alps, Christian Zehnder was repulsed by the “cheesy” yodeling of Swiss folk music. The masterful singer has transformed this wordless art into a wondrous sonic realm. Echoes of Home is out for big game — it’s about nothing less than our shared journey to fulfill “a perpetual longing for something one has lost.” With such weighty matters and alpine vistas as a backdrop, we follow Zehnder and other Swiss singers such as the American expatriate Erika Stucky, whose idiosyncratic agendas will forever change your view of Switzerland. When Zehnder connects with the throat singers of Mongolia, we see the potential of the human voice to access every possible range of emotion. A gem of a film, Echoes shows us that the road to freedom can be found inside ourselves.

Thursday, Feb. 28 / 9:30PM / Big Ragtag
Friday, Feb. 29 / 7:15PM / Macklanburg Cinema
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 8:30PM / Windsor Cinema
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 8:30PM / The Den

In person: director Anna Broinowski.

Sneak Preview. After escaping the brutal misogyny she experienced in Jordan, Norma Khouri told the shocking story of her best friend, murdered by her Muslim father because of an affair with a Christian man. After her book Forbidden Love became an international best seller, Khouri spoke against the practice of “honor killings.” But what really happened in Jordan? Is Khouri a world-class con artist? Investigative reporters in Amman and Australia discovered glaring inconsistencies in the book and Random House pulled it from circulation. Director Broinowski takes us deeper into Khouri’s story, following her from Chicago to Sydney to Amman and uncovering an unbelievable web of alternate realities and half-truths. Through it all, Khouri maintains the truth of her story, revealing still darker elements as it unfolds. The film becomes a deftly constructed exploration of the problems of representation — call it the true-false dilemma — that we media consumers navigate every day. (JS

Friday, Feb. 29 / 7:15PM / Big Ragtag
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 2:30PM / Big Ragtag

In person: co-director Arne Johnson.

Amelia is writing a 14-song opus about her dog Pippi, Palace is only 8 but has anxiety attacks that make her too ill to go to school, death metal fan Laura sometimes hates herself and Misty has a history of meth addiction. Being a girl ain’t easy. The 8- to 18-year-olds in Girls Rock! are dealing with everything from body-image problems to self-esteem issues, addiction, and bullying, but at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls they are also learning to turn up the volume and make some noise! The campers, many of whom have never so much as picked up a guitar before, must form bands, write their own songs and play to an audience of over 700 people at the end of the week — guided by some very rad rock and roll “elders” like The Gossip’s Beth Ditto and Sleater Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein. The camp becomes an exhilarating journey of self-discovery as the girls learn to jump and scream and take up space in a society where the number one wish of teenage girls is to lose weight. Making music is a revolutionary act for these kids, and it is a joy to watch them be transformed by the experience. As newly empowered Laura says at the end of the camp, “Everyone is beautiful in their own way, and they get even better when they decide to be powerful and they decide to rock!” (IK)

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 6:30PM / Blue Note
Friday, Feb. 29 / 10:00PM / Windsor Cinema

In person: Alex Gibney (Saturday showing only).

True Vision Award Screening. During Hunter S. Thompson’s 1970 campaign for mayor of Aspen, James Salter recorded an ad for him: “Hunter Thompson is a moralist posing as an immoralist. The only thing against him is that he’s a visionary.” Lost in the portrayals of Thompson as a trickster, dope fiend (which he was) and threat to the American way of life was an essential truth: the man was a trailblazing journalist, cultural critic and, as Alex Gibney’s film reminds us, the staunchest of patriots. Gonzo weaves together interviews with Jimmy Carter, George McGovern, Tom Wolfe and Jann Wenner, a rich selection of Thompson’s own writings (voiced by Johnny Depp), fantastic archival footage (including an appearance on the game show To Tell the Truth) and a pitch-perfect rock score. Eye-opening and honest, Gonzo will make you wish Thompson, who committed suicide three years ago, was still around, turning his laser-sharp gaze upon the absurdities of American power. (JS)

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 10:00AM / Windsor Cinema
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 3:30PM / Windsor Cinema

In person: director Ian Cheney and producer Curt Ellis.

Sneak preview. Who holds the key to turning down the global thermostat? Architects. If that answer surprises you, let the writers and stars of King Corn connect the dots with this inspiring film that argues for widespread adoption of green building practices, while still presenting the contradictions and quandaries. Estimates suggest that buildings and their construction account for 40 to 50% of the greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumed annually. Through design, architects could cut that number in half, and one brave development in the heart of South Boston answers the call: The Macallen Boston building saves 600,000 gallons of water, uses 30% less energy, and employs earth-saving building materials like highly compressed straw. The film achieves natural tension by following the struggle to achieve LEED gold status, the highest level of green building accreditation, and revels in the greening of southern Boston’s construction workers, born skeptics who rise to the occasion. The fluid editing and zippy time-lapse photography stand out — as well as the hip soundtrack by Force Theory, who did scores for Favela Rising and Manda Bala. (MF)

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 1:00PM / Macklanburg Cinema
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 10:00AM / Macklanburg Cinema

In person: subject Fiona Dall.

Sneak preview. Harrowing at one moment and heartwarming the next, Kim Longinotto’s film is set at England’s Mulberry Bush School, created for children suffering through severe emotional trauma. Longinotto, director of the T/F favorite Sisters in Law, spent a year filming these kids, who are prone to sudden, violent outbursts, and their teachers, who display enormous restraint and sensitivity (any parent who has waited out a tantrum will be amazed). This is no feel-good movie — the children’s problems are real, deep and stubborn — but the long arc of recovery is clear, with hope for these troubled kids just over the horizon. Over the course of 30 years, Longinotto has established herself as one of the most prolific and perceptive practitioners of cinema verité. Here, she and her steady, unobtrusive camera capture an intimate and unforgettable tale of the human capacity to hurt and to heal. (JS)

Thursday, Feb. 28 / 6:00PM / Little Ragtag
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 1:00PM / The Den
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 1:00PM / Little Ragtag

In person: co-directors Ingrid Demetz & Caroline Leitner and cinematographer Daniel Mazza.

Work in progress. A remarkable, humanist document, How I Am introduces us to Patrick, a teenage autistic boy — and to a talented team of young Italian filmmakers. With indelible imagery, the film follows him at school, with family, and by himself and transcribes his innermost thoughts onto the screen to reveal his point of view, which is normally muffled by his condition. What is revealed is a complex, philosophical soul. This shows one mission that movies can accomplish — giving us insight — not pity, but sympathy — into another’s life. Plays with Peter & Ben (dir. Pinny Grylls, 2007, 10 min.), about a man and a sheep who leave the flock; and The Days and Hours (dir. John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson, 2007, 8 min.), about a remarkable church that lets the homeless sleep in the pews. (PS)

Friday, Feb. 29 / 10:30PM / Forrest Theater
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 8:30PM / Big Ragtag
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 8:15PM / Little Ragtag

In person: director Sean Donnelly.

What would you do if you loved someone who didn’t love you back? What if that person was ’80s pop star Tiffany? And she had a restraining order against you? Well, Jeff Turner knows your pain. He also knows the connection between Tuesday Weld, psychedelic drugs and the Illuminati. Welcome to the weird world of I Think We’re Alone Now. Rarely does a movie take the viewer so far down the rabbit hole of obsession and longing. But as the camera spins around an apartment decorated only with photocopies of Tiffany’s face, one can’t help but empathize with Jeff — or with Kelly, the film’s other protagonist, an intersexed person from Denver whose love for Tiffany is even more steadfast than Jeff’s. It’s an uneasy ride but a fascinating one that walks the razor’s edge of exploitation and yet, in the end, finds empathy for its lovelorn subjects. (DW)

Friday, Feb. 29 / 10:00PM / Blue Note
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 8:00PM / Forrest Theater

In person: producer Tom Atencio.

Sneak preview. Bookending Joy Division with the city lights of Manchester, director Grant Gee communicates the profound changes initiated by four youths who, in 1976, attend a Sex Pistols concert and reinvent themselves as necessary pop stars. Soon they are known as Joy Division, led by the mesmerizing Ian Curtis, whose wide-eyed stare and gesticular dancing left peers and audiences rapt, and whose bipolar disorder led to great art and equally powerful despair. In less than four years, they indelibly changed pop music and were integral to the burgeoning Manchester music scene. The filmmakers capture essential interviews with bandmates and key figures, and unearth unseen performance video and recently discovered audiotape of the haunting, original voice of Curtis. Intertwined gracefully throughout the film, lost landmarks trace the razed ghosts of Manchester, measuring the profound social and cultural changes Joy Division witnessed and transcended. Plays with Under Construction (dir. Zhenchen Liu, 2007, 10 min.) — Through an arresting technique of animating photographs, we see that Shanghai’s old buildings are being demolished wholesale. (MF)

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 7:00PM / Little Ragtag

In person: director Michael Chandler.

Josh Osborne has spent much of his life in the seat of a tractor. Pulled from school at age 10, Josh’s parents sacrificed his childhood for the 80-hour weeks of a farmer’s life. So it was no surprise that Josh, now a grown man, was enraged when his mother told him she was going to sell the farm — which he figured he’d be running for the rest of his life — to a real-estate developer. But did he go too far when he tried to murder her? His neighbors didn’t think so; most just wish he had better aim. Michael Chandler’s film has the breadth of a Truman Capote novel, a tale of intrigue and deep emotional currents that broadens our understanding of American identity. Add a cast of colorful characters and a culture-wide crisis — the dying of the American small farm — and Knee Deep makes for compelling viewing. (JS)

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 12:30PM / Forrest Theater
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 1:00PM / Windsor Cinema

In person: director Eric Daniel Metzgar and subjects Jason, Marjorie and Lynn Crigler.

Work in progress. Fast on his way to becoming a rock star, Jason Crigler’s life as he knew it suddenly ended on stage on August 4, 2004. The singer-songwriter, who had performed with Linda Thompson, John Cale and Marshall Crenshaw, suffered a freak neurological incident that left him unable to care for himself or for his pregnant wife. Exploring similar terrain to Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Eric Daniel Metzger follows up his True/False favorite Chances of the World Changing with another exquisitely filmed story of determination and destiny. Metzger uses shatteringly intimate footage of the Crigler family, who never give up hope even during the darkest moments, and of Jason before and after the incident. By film’s end, he has painted a poetic portrait that reveals the power of love, the indomitability of the human spirit and the undeniable healing properties of music. (JS)

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 12:00PM / Big Ragtag
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 10:00AM / Forrest Theater
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 3:30PM / Little Ragtag

In person: co-director Jose Maria Goenega.

Sneak preview. Lucio Uturbia, whose life belongs at the very front of the stranger-than-fiction file, is best known in France as the bricklayer/con-artist/anarchist who brought the world’s largest bank to its knees. But that’s just a fraction of his story. A fugitive, raconteur, visionary and folk hero (fans called him “Basque Zorro” and the “good bandit”), Lucio aided radicals worldwide, including the Black Panthers, Baader-Meinhoff and Che Guevera. For years, he managed to duck the authorities and work full shifts mixing mortar and setting tile. Directors Aitor Arregi and Jose Mari Goenaga, both of whom have backgrounds in animation, reveal Lucio’s surprises in imaginative, sweetly stylized ways; suffice to say that Lucio’s the most compelling subversive you’ll see on screen this year. “I was fortunate to have been poorer than poor, ” this unlikely hellraiser tells the camera, “and so had no problem losing respect for the system.” (JS)

Sunday, March 2 / 7:00PM / Jesse Hall, MU campus

In person: director James Marsh.

The French acrobat Philippe Petit thrilled the world in 1974 when, after months of spying and planning, he snuck to the top of the World Trade Center, strung a high wire from the corner of one of the Twin Towers to the other, and performed the world’s greatest high wire walk. For the serious-minded, acrobatics might seem a frivolous pursuit. But raise the stakes to 1,300 feet above New York City’s cold, hard pavement, and circus stunts become a matter of life — as in the kind that’s lived to its fullest — and death. In revisiting Petit’s story, director James Marsh (Wisconsin Death Trip, The King) has constructed a gorgeous, innovative, nail-biting and operatic celebration of free spirits. Man on Wire combines home movies, interviews, snippets of heist films and an editing rhythm that echoes Petit’s own sense of wonder and adventure. This uplifting documentary was the deserving winner of Sundance’s Grand Jury and Audience Awards. (JS)

Man on Wire, our closing night film, is this year’s main event, and it’s in Columbia’s colossus of theaters, Jesse Auditorium, on the MU campus. The pre-show starts at 6pm with appetizers cooked up by Addison’s, washed down with Schlafly beer and Domaine Chandon wine. Then after the film and a Q&A with director James Marsh, we invite you to the Buskers’ Last Stand, a T/F tradition which brings together many of our visiting musicians for one last join-hands finale in the lobby of Jesse, again accompanied by drinks. After that we’ll head up Ninth Street to catch They Might Be Giants at the Blue Note and bring the fest to a rocking close.

Friday, Feb. 29 / 10:00PM / Macklanburg Cinema
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 2:30PM / Little Ragtag

In person: director Daniel Vernon.

Note: The Friday, Feb. 29 showing of this film has been moved to Macklanburg Cinema. Tickets will show the correct venue.

Sneak preview. You know those old TV nature shows where some crisp British anthropologist trots off into the wild Amazon jungle to “discover” an isolated tribe of real life “savages” and marvel at their bizarre traditions and cultural proclivities? They might as well have stayed home because director Daniel Vernon has discovered that the most isolated, wild-eyed primitives on Earth are roaming around a tiny hamlet right in soggy old England. Now, to answer your question: yes, The Man Who Ate Badgers does have a bit of badger eating in it, but friends, that’s just the beginning. For one thing, the man doesn’t stop there: he’ll down a scavenged barn owl quicker than you can say, “bacterial infection.” For another he is hardly the oddest person in town. That honor might go to the flashlight-wielding Panther hunter. If the queen of England ever decided to throw Crispin Glover a Nuit Blanche, every single character in this film would be on the guest list. The film is as good an argument you will ever see for the spread of technology because there has never been a group of men in more desperate need of an X-Box. Plays with City of Cranes (dir. Eva Weber, 2007, 15 min.) — The private thoughts of crane operators as they help erect the towers of London, with movements that feel like a choreographed ballet; The Truth about Tooth (dir. Hazel Baillie, 2007, 9 min.) — The inside scoop about the tooth fairy and the denture factory; Flora & Thieves (dir. Xanthe Hamilton, 2007, 3 min.) — Flora tends her plants and remembers an attempted burglary.(BH)

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 7:30PM / Big Ragtag
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 3:30PM / Big Ragtag

In person: co-creator Lilia Topouzova.

Sneak preview. First, dose Robert Altman with a sprinkling of James Thurber and set it a hard-luck Bulgarian town. Then make it all true. You’ll have created something like Andrey Paounov’s funny, disturbing 360-degree portrait of the bug-infested village of Belene. Located along the Danube, Belene was home to an infamous concentration camp (which one entrepreneur hopes to transform into a nature preserve). A nuclear power plant was shut down before it opened (though its logo’ed plates and saucers take place of pride in the local café). There is a piano tuner with a taste for boogie woogie, pom-pom dancers, frogmen back from Iraq and kids who play in the fog of DDT sprayed to kill some of the mosquitoes. On the one hand, the worst possible tourism film, The Mosquito Problem is, on the other, an amazing coup de cinema, a masterfully constructed, wryly funny portrait of a town that (hopefully) is unlike any other. (JS)

Friday, Feb. 29 / 5:00PM / Big Ragtag
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 5:00PM / Big Ragtag
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 2:30PM / The Den

In person: co-director Antoine Cattin.

Work in progress. Though its focus remains tight on its main subject — a Russian single mother of nine — Antoine Cattin and Pavel Kostomarov’s award-winning film has the scope, precision and resonance of a literary masterpiece. The cinematography is startling, with bleached colors that reflect the washed-out dreams of its subjects. Though shot largely with handheld cameras, its compositions would do Cartier-Bresson proud. The film’s blend of long takes and jump cuts give it the feel of an epic. And the characters and their stories are richer than fiction, as they celebrate, fight, grieve and survive. But The Mother is more than the sum of these magnificent parts, thanks to the richness and complexity of the themes it explores: the daily violence absorbed by women and children, the impossible traps of modern masculinity, the generations-long impact of addiction, the innocence of first love. Taking the long-form documentary to new heights, Cattin and Kostomarov have crafted an urgent classic of 21st-century cinema. (JS) Plays with the audio montage, “Actionwomen” (Anna Norberg & Simon Norberg, 2007, 3 min.) featuring the voices of women protesters and a service man remembering life in the 1980s at Greenham Common, England, a military base for American nuclear missiles. Presented by Third Coast International Audio Festival.

Thursday, Feb. 28 / 5:00PM / Big Ragtag
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 10:00AM / Big Ragtag

In person: director Cynthia Lester.

Eugenia Lester has a hoarding disorder that has compelled her to fill her house with so much junk that she has to sleep outside and crawl through a window to gain entry. Her daughter Cynthia was forced to leave home at 13 because there was literally nowhere for her to sleep anymore. Now Eugenia is facing eviction and Cynthia and her brothers have returned to their mother’s house in California where they are faced with piles of rotting garbage and their own feelings of abandonment as the children of a mentally ill parent. Cynthia films the process and explores the roots of her mother’s problems: being raised by a Holocaust survivor in communist Poland and then transplanted to the consumer excess of the US. My Mother’s Garden is a deeply personal film made with love, patience, compassion and a real desire to understand Eugenia’s mental illness. Cynthia helps us to see the brave woman beneath the manic hoarder but is also fiercely honest about the pain and frustration that her mother’s illness causes. (IK)

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 3:45PM / Blue Note
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 1:30PM / Blue Note

In person: director Margaret Brown.

Margaret Brown, who brought Be Here to Love Me about Townes Van Zandt to T/F in 2005, has returned to her childhood home in Mobile, Alabama, to tell a stylish tale of two cities. The backdrop is Mobile’s Mardi Gras, the oldest in the United States. It’s a source of pride for this southern city, but also a stew of racial issues that start with the historic slave trade and run right up to the still-segregated celebrations, complete with separate royalty and rituals. Rather than being heavy handed, Brown’s observational style brings us into the thick of the baroque preparations, revealing the playfulness and dignity in each royal court, and introducing us to nuanced characters that burst off the screen and make us examine our relationship with other races. Melding European aesthetics to an American knack for story and punchiness, The Order of Myths is gloriously assured filmmaking and a touchstone of contemporary documentary. (PS) (Presented by the University of Missouri)

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 12:30PM / Little Ragtag
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 12:30PM / The Den

In person: cinematographer Jarkko Virtanen.

Sneak preview. Having lost hope amid the stupefying poverty of his Malian village, the 23-year-old Bakary sets his sights on Europe. Elina Hirvonen traces his journey in reverse, starting in Spain, where the young man sleeps on the street at night, works on a tomato farm during the day, and in between is taken aback by the vicious, dehumanizing cycles of capitalism. In the second sequence, Hirvornen examines the border between Morocco and Spain, relating tales of struggle and misfortune by those who risk death during the perilous crossing. Finally, Paradise visits Bakary’s home in Mali, where a local griot sings a song in honor of this prodigal son. Shooting in expressionistic long takes, using digital video to striking, at times disorienting effect, Hirvomen transmutes the lives of the immigrants into a vernacular poetry. Paradise, an essential exploration of the African diaspora, offers a human-scaled glimpse at the have and have-not dichotomies defining our globalized economy. Plays with The First Day (dir. Marcin Sauter, 2007, 20 min.) — School-age kids from a native tribe are whisked off their peninsula to get acculturated in the ways of Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin. (JS)

Thursday, Feb. 28 / 7:30PM / Big Ragtag
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 10:30AM / Little Ragtag
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 4:30PM / Forrest Theater
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 5:15PM / The Den

In person: editor Jean Tsien.

“I want to be a manager,” one candidate tells the electorate, “not a dictator.” Our 7-year-old silver-tongued candidate is out to woo his third-grade classmates in a hard-fought election. The position? Class monitor. The place? Evergreen Elementary School in Wuhan, China. Weijun Chen’s hilarious film explores China’s democratic reforms, a growing middle class and Westernized culture. Most of all, however, it celebrates kids being kids trying to be grown-up. They threaten, cajole, bribe and, even under tremendous pressure from their parents, manage to have fun. Though the battle’s hard fought (“You beat your friends like a fascist,” one candidate says to another during a debate), Chen keeps the tone light. Please Vote offers a look at democracy and childhood unfolding in one surprising and wondrous test tube. Plays with Time Piece (dir. Kat Mansoor, 2007, 10 min.) — Another era lives on in this magical, timeless portrait of Swiss watchmakers. (JS)

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 3:30PM / Windsor Cinema
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 1:00PM / Macklanburg Cinema

In person: animator Andy Smetanka.

An unlikely diary of the artist as a young Canadian. A city huddled on the windswept northern steppes, its history a tangled mix of the bizarre and the quotidian. A free mix of half-truth with complete fabrication that in the process creates something imbued with ice-clear honesty. It’s all the work of one of Canada’s most beloved and idiosyncratic filmmakers, responsible for highly stylized flights of retro-fantasy. But this documentary, his first, gives both historic and emotional grounding to his vision and, in doing so, brings new focus to the art and life of this exceptionally talented director. (DW)

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 6:00PM / The Den
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 12:30PM / Forrest Theater

In person: director Joshua Z. Weinstein.

Doctor Sharadkumar may seem like a homeless man with a funny voice, but he’s also a humanitarian who has performed plastic surgery on tens of thousands of Indians with facial deformities. He divides his time between Brooklyn where he lives a pauper’s life and India where he’s deified by some; similarly he can seesaw from sweet to acidic: at one point he tears into his longtime competitor for the Nobel Prize, Mother Teresa for “not doing anything.” In his first film, Weinstein shows a sure-handed touch, capturing unexpectedly uproarious humor. Plays with I Met the Walrus (dir. Josh Raskin, 2007, 8 min.) — 14-year-old Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room during the “Give Peace a Chance” era and emerged with an audio interview, which has now been animated; and 200,000 Phantoms (dir. Jean-Gabriel Periot, 2007, 10 min.) — A history of 20th-century Hiroshima as told through 600 photographs of the iconic Gembaku Dome between 1914-2006. (PS)

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 10:00AM / Forrest Theater
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 2:30PM / Forrest Theater

In person: the co-director.

While the rest of the world was apprehensively crossing fingers in hopes that President Bush had some semblance of a post-invasion plan for Iraq he just wasn’t telling the rest of us about, one man was getting ready for business. A good salesman can always smell a potential opportunity, and German armored car dealer Fidelis Cloer is an excellent salesman. In their previous film, the talented directors showed us the Iraq war from the inside. This time, they reveal an equally surreal but far more dangerous Iraq from the pocketbook up. By documenting the war-loving Cloer on what turns out to be the business opportunity of a lifetime, the filmmakers illuminates the complex underbelly of the modern battlefield. To call Cloer a war profiteer is to misunderstand the increasingly globalized nature of war. Commerce drives the industry, but here cost-cutting costs lives. When Cloer decries a military contractor’s unwillingness to buy his high-priced but high-quality vehicles for their workers, it’s hard not to sympathize. After all, we’ve all seen footage of what a roadside bomb can do. In the end, as Cloer himself says, he is no simple “car salesman.” By the end of the film you will need skin as thick as one of his cars not to feel disheartened by such callous truths, and such brilliant, unending success. (BH)

Thursday, Feb. 28 / 6:00PM / Windsor Cinema
Friday, Feb. 29 / 7:30PM / Forrest Theater
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 12:30PM / Windsor Cinema

In person: director Peter Entell and musician Glenn David Andrews.

As if losing their homes and having their city destroyed wasn’t enough, the parishioners at St. Augustine Church in New Orleans find themselves under siege once again. The archdiocese has decided to close their parish, shuttering their 165-year-old church, the city’s first multiracial house of worship. Peter Entell’s film follows the growing movement to keep the church open and retain the articulate and beloved Father Jerome LeDoux in his position. As the parishioners stand up to the powers that be, accusing them of selling LeDoux out to cash in on the church’s rising real estate value, Entell is there. Shake the Devil Off is a stirring story about civil rights, collective action and the transformative power of faith. Filled with glorious music — appropriate, as St. Augustine is considered a birthplace of jazz — Entell’s movie adds another fascinating chapter to the growing post-Katrina story. (JS)

Thursday, Feb. 28 / 9:00PM / Forrest Theater
Friday, Feb. 29 / 8:00PM / Little Ragtag
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 10:30AM / Windsor Cinema

In person: director Greg Kohs.

It’s not just the story of Lightning (Neil Diamond impersonator Mike Sardina) and his wife Thunder (chanteuse Claire). It’s the triumph and tragedy of the American Dream. Boy meets girl, boy and girl forge career singing “Forever in Blue Jeans” in front of happily soused Midwestern fans, then boy nearly loses girl to a freak accident. But Lightning and Thunder will never die! (though divorce is an option). The raw, unvarnished Springer-esque footage of these dreamers’ slog through pain, addiction and depression gradually transmutes cheddar into pure gold. And if you’ve ever wondered what would happen if “Neil Diamond” opened for Pearl Jam (no, we hadn’t either), it is both worse and much, much better than you could imagine. As Neil himself would attest, nothing can crush the spirit of a true entertainer. (RM)

Thursday, Feb. 28 / 6:30PM / Forrest Theater
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 6:00PM / Windsor Cinema

In person: co-directors Rivkah Beth Medow and Gregory O’Toole.

Work in progress. A freshly minted classic, Sons of a Gun is a portrait of a new archetypal American family — Larry, a laissez-faire LAPD hostage negotiator, and the three mentally ill adults under his care in a Bay Area motel room. Inside this claustrophobic fish bowl, we come to see lovability and comic timing along with the tics and the outbursts. Delightful and disturbing, the film crackles like a dark sitcom by way of R. Crumb and the Beale sisters. With expressive camerawork and brisk editing, Medow and O’Toole have created indelible characters and a narrative that fulfills a social mission much more effectively than a prescriptive piece on behalf of the mentally ill. It’s a jaw-dropping ride that confounds our expectations at every turn — including a second-act twist that shatters any notion their lives were going to be romanticized. (PS)

Friday, Feb. 29 / 7:00PM / Windsor Cinema
Friday, Feb. 29 / 7:00PM / The Den
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 10:00AM / Macklanburg Cinema
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 12:30PM / Big Ragtag

In person: director Gonzalo Arijon.

The sensational saga of the Uruguayan rugby team that resorted to cannibalism after crashing in the Andes is familiar to anyone who was conscious in the early ’70s, but Stranded: I’ve Come from a Plane That Crashed in the Mountains tells a definitive story that leaves us red-faced for thinking we knew the truth. Over time, director Gonzalo Arijon befriended the survivors and convinced them to finally tell their story and to revisit the scene of the crash. 35 years later, Stranded suggests the men have only now summoned up the courage to talk about it. The men — who live within a few blocks of each other to this day — continue to honor their comrades through a palpable, lingering regret about desecrating the corpses. Arijon took some chances in shooting dramatic reenactments of the events and they work better than can be imagined; he intercuts this footage with clips of the post-recovery press conference, and recently found archival photographs By handling the story with tremendous care, Arijon transforms a titillating tale into a sanctified, inspirational one: we’re left with a profound respect for the men and an awakened awe for life itself. (PS)

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 5:30PM / Forrest Theater
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 10:30AM / Little Ragtag

In person: director Hugo Perez.

Work in progress. Here in America, the apex of European high culture is in trouble. That is, classical music is dying. Composer Rob Kapilow means to save it, so he enlists some unlikely help: Darrell Robes Kipp, a Blackfoot poet and American Indian activist. Kapilow asks Kipp to write the libretto for his symphony commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition — which, by some counts, marked the beginning of the end for American Indian culture. It was certainly the end for two unarmed Blackfoot boys shot and killed by Captain Lewis — an episode that Kipp’s Blackfot students have witnessed as a stage play. When high culture meets native culture, there are eerie resonances and overtones, and not just those of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, who will premiere the men’s unconventional collaboration. Plays with Kredens (dir. Jacob Dammas, 2007, 27 min.) — Jacob goes back to Poland to reclaim a piece of his family’s history; — a wood cupboard confiscated in the late ’60s — only to find it’s not going to be easy. (RM) (Presented by the University of Missouri)

Sunday, Mar. 2 / 10:30AM / Blue Note

In person: director Alex Gibney.

On December 1, 2002, an Afghani taxi driver named Dilawar took three passengers for a ride. Nine days later he died in an interrogation cell at Bagram Air Force Base. The military coroner ruling: homicide. Was his murder the work of a few bad apples? What about 36 other military-declared prisoner homicides? From Bagram to Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo and beyond, patterns of abuse have emerged. Where does the buck stop? Oscar nominee Alex Gibney, director of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, asks New York Times journalists, military guards and government officials — and shows disturbing never-before-seen footage from inside the prisons. As Vice President Cheney told Meet the Press, “We also have to work through ‘the dark side’ to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our objective.” (RM)

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 1:00PM / Blue Note
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 3:45PM / Macklanburg Cinema

In person: director David Schisgall and subjects Rachel Lloyd and Carolina Cruz.

Sneak preview. Two pimps drive around in a beat-up car, candidly discussing the psychological (and often physical) abuse they dish out to the young women they’re attempting to bring into the “life.” What’s more, they’re videotaping everything with the hope of turning it into a cable-access show. Hustle and Flow this is not. There’s nothing remotely glamorous about the degradation these girls face on the streets of New York. They are beat down in every way and made to feel their lives are utterly hopeless. But one ray of light shines into their corner of the world — GEMS, a shoestring organization founded by a former sex worker to give women aid and hope. Director Schisgall (who, ironically, also made The Lifestyle) shows an ability to blend unobtrusively into the tumultuous lives of these women on the edge. The result is a powerful, emotional portrait of how a small group of dedicated people can effect change and the perfect honoree for the True Life Fund. (DW)

Friday, Feb. 29 / 10:00PM / Big Ragtag
Saturday, Mar. 1 / 10:00AM / The Den
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 3:30PM / Macklanburg Cinema

In person: co-director Amanda Micheli (La Corona) and cameraman/editor Francisco Bello (Salim Baba).

On the Sunday before T/F weekend, the Academy hands down its verdict of what short film deserved the Oscar. But all of these marvels deserve to be seen.

Salim Baba (dir. Timothy Sternberg, 14 min.) — Since 1965, Salim Baba has run his handcranked 1897 projector for his neighbors in the slums of Kolkata, India. Six days a week he “packs the house” — a scrap of black tarpaulin — to show discarded film fragments from Bollywood musicals. It’s a constant battle to keep the gear running — he scavenges a cheap lens normally used for palm reading.

Sari’s Mother (dir. James Longley, 21 min.) is a missing chapter of the stunning Iraq in Fragments, and tells the story of a poor family living south of Baghdad and how one courageous mother struggles to get help for a sick child in the shattered healthcare system.

Freeheld (dir. Cynthia Wade, 40 min.) is about a nail-biting political fight. When police lieutenant Laurel Hester battled cancer, she didn’t bargain for another struggle: to leave her earned pension to her domestic partner. As Laurel’s plight worsens, it spurs a media frenzy and a passionate advocacy campaign. In

La Corona (dir. Amanda Micheli & Isabel Vega, 40 min.) — We are plunged headfirst into a beauty pageant made up of killers, guerillas and thieves. In a Bogota, Colombia, women’s penitentiary, the pageant is a major annual event, featuring a “queen” from each cellblock.

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 4:30PM / Little Ragtag
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 6:00PM / Big Ragtag
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 6:00PM / Little Ragtag

In person: director Oscar Perez (The Tailor), Stephen Hyde (Shika Shika), and David Fenster (Wood).

People work for similar reasons — to survive, to keep busy or, if they’re lucky, to do what they love. From rapidly disappearing timber mills to an organic bakery, the films show what people go through to get the job done.

34x25x36 (dir. Jesse Epstein, 10 min.) — What is the perfect female? The designers at Patina V believe they know and the company uses their ideals to manufacture synthetic bodies in this behind-the-scenes look at the ubiquitous mannequin.

Wood — (dir. David Fenster, 21 min.) Beautifully shot images of a Northwest logging company and stories from its employees form this elegy to a rapidly disappearing type of labor that includes pride in work, generational history and physical labor.

Shika Shika (dir. Stephen Hyde, 10 min.) — This spirited film follows one family that for three generations has scaled the Peruvian Andes to “harvest” ice for shika shika, a colorful shaved ice treat they sell in the market.

Breadmakers — (dir. Yasmin Fedda, 11 min.) A tender portrait of a unique community of workers with disabilities who work together to produce organic breads for delivery in Edinburgh. Watching the bread-making is mesmerizing and observing the intricate social relationships is touching.

The Tailor (dir. Oscar Perez, 29 min.) — In a small shop in Barcelona, Pakistani tailor Mohamed holds court over mounds of plastic bags containing customer’s clothing. His unique customer service and relationship with his Indian assistant make for fascinating, and comical, observation. (KC)

Saturday, Mar. 1 / 3:30PM / The Den
Sunday, Mar. 2 / 10:00AM / The Den

In person: directors Daniel Robin (My Olympic Summer), and Maura Ugarte & Michael Miller (Through Fire and Water).

When we love, we want to hold on to the object of our affection at any cost. But how hard should we hold on and when is it okay to let go? These five beautiful films explore issues of love and loss.

My Olympic Summer — In the context of his own cracking marriage, filmmaker Daniel Robin explores his parents’ union. He discovers a letter detailing his mother’s unhappiness, feelings which were then swallowed up by historical dramas that kept his parents together. So what truths are these home movies telling?

Through Fire and Water — Injured Marine Mike Jernigan lost a lot from his experiences in the Iraq War and the consequences once he returned home. But he has managed to make a new life for himself, even as he struggles with his inner conflict over the war. Here we see the repercussions of war in human form — but this is one man not to be pitied.

Bulletproof Vest — In Richmond, California, young kids and mothers talk about the violence that is present everyday. The black-and-white imagery and mature observations show a world where innocence is lost.

Loss — Years after her father dies, director Kristen Nutile attempts to resurrect memories of him through old family movies. In a beautiful mix of grainy old footage, music and interviews with her family, she recreates a portrait of her father. We go on this moving journey with her to rediscover the past.

One Day — In a small apartment in Copenhagen, a 36-year-old Ghanaian prostitute runs her business. We see the grainy images from the hallway surveillance camera as customers come in and out and call for appointments. But inside, in saturated, extreme-close-up shots, we see the tasks of her everyday life, most importantly the calls to her daughter back in Ghana. The intimate and painful conversations convey what a mother must do to support her child. (KC)