Saturday, Feb. 14, 11:30 am; Ragtag Cinemacafé In person: Art Holliday

Using a combination of family home movies, videotaped interviews, and still photography, KSDK anchor Holliday uses his first-rate journalistic skills to bring the story of Matt McBride and his family to life. McBride, a native of Glendale, Missouri, murdered his parents in 1994, following years of struggle to get help for his mental disorder, paranoid schizophrenia. The devastating effects of the failure of the mental health system to provide adequate care are now borne by the surviving family members including Matt, a court-ordered patient at Fulton State Hospital, his brother Mark, and their sister, Lisa. A compassionate look at the human aftermath of a tragedy. (JA)

The True Vision Award. Friday, Feb. 13, 5:30pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé

A movie that appeared on the film landscape in 1992 like a revelation. Stark black and white cinematography raised the bar dramatically for nonfiction filmmakers while the story resonated with empathy and a palpable connection with the subjects/stars. What could have been exploitative or sensational became one of the best documentaries of the last twenty years. When it was done, Joe and Bruce blazed a trail of self-distribution that would inspire a generation of young mediamakers. The T/F Fest is proud to present this classic film as a reminder of the power of the true story. (DW)

Saturday, Feb. 14, 3:30 pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé

A fascinating look inside the Al Jazeera network, which claims most of the Arab world’s viewers. Egyptian-American filmmaker Noujaim (startup.com) went to Qatar a few weeks before the second Iraq war, and was able to win access inside the inner sanctum of the network, as well as U.S. Central Command. As history was being written, her camera was at the right place at the right time, as she shows how the network’s reporting attracted devotion and controversy (such as when it televised footage of Iraqi civilian casualties or American P.O.Ws.) The Control Room is a surprising story about serious journalists who’ve taken the mantle from a Western media that’s largely abandoned news for info-tainment and soft news “reporting.” (PS)

Saturday, Feb. 14, 7:30 pm; Missouri Theatre In person: Mark Achbar

The Corporation is a fast-moving critique and a bracing call-to-action that questions the sanity of the world’s most dominant institution. Using a mental health checklist developed by psychologists, the film finds that if a corporation were a person, it would be a self-interested, amoral, callous, and deceitful one — in short, a psychopath. After winning awards and attracting sold-out screenings at other festivals including Toronto and Sundance, The Corporation is looking like this year’s Bowling for Columbine, a no-holds-barred, devastating assault that is nonetheless deeply entertaining and humorous. While the film would seem to be capitalizing on recent corporate meltdowns a la Enron, it’s been in production for the last six years, and the makers, including co-director Achbar (Manufacturing Consent) have masterfully shaped it into something that will be long relevant. (PS)

Sunday, Feb. 15, 3:30 pm; The Blue Note In person: Kevin Willmott and producer Rick Cowan

Whether the South really won the Civil War is thrown into question, as we are finally able to watch a long-suppressed TV special right here in the Confederate States of America. Commercial breaks include spots for a Home Shopping Network-type program that specializes in marketing slaves and the Shackle, an electronic device that monitors wandering servants. University of Kansas professor Willmott has rewritten history in the guise of a Ken Burns-inspired package (including some little-seen 1906 footage of Abraham Lincoln in Canadian exile) that calls into question where the truth lies. The simultaneously angry and funny result compels us to look at a contemporary landscape where Confederate values may indeed have triumphed — it’s no wonder that Spike Lee has signed on as the film’s executive producer. (PS)

Sunday, Feb. 15, 2:30pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé

Curated by Helen Stickler, director of Stoked, this collection of short films will definitely change the way you think about skate/snowboard videos forever. Delving more into the culture and the people behind the tricks, these shorts offer glimpses into a world that, whether or not it’s yours, is completely fascinating. The kids haunting the skateparks with miniDV cameras and rollerblades today may be the future of filmmaking, so pay attention! Featuring new work by Mike Mills, Lisa Barnstone, Rick Charnoski, Tobin Yelland, Chris Johanson and Lucia Helenka. Plus, “NARF,” a brand new locally produced video. (This screening will feature apparel and board giveaways courtesy of Dreamcatcher.) (DW)

The Fat by Lucia Helenka (2001, 13 min. color digital video) — Skateboarders both local and pro discuss the injuries sustained through their sport and the passion behind the wipeouts that keeps them coming back. Featuring top pro skaters Steve Berra, Tony Hawk, Bucky Lasek and Kris Markovich, among others.

Encinitas Realization by Chris Johanson (1999, 3 min, color 16mm film) — SF painter Chris Johanson brings the whimsical thought bubbles of his artwork to perfect filmic “realization” in his self help film about individuality and what people pick and choose from society and culture to make their uniqueness. Featuring photographer Tobin Yelland.

Sugar by Lisa Barnstone (2000, 7 min., b/w Super 8 film) — Top Burton snowboarding pro Victoria Jalouse teams with NYC Super eight stop motion animator Barnstone to create a tale of object love and identity in which Jealouse carves the mountains of Alaska and the concrete of NYC.

Skateopia by Rick Charnoski (1998, 12 min., analog video) — Rick Charnoski’s definitive documentation of the infamous backwoods skate party in Ohio called “Skateopia,” featuring car fires, guns, drunken decadence and some of the raddest hillbilly skateboarding ever seen, helped seal the park’s reputation as a haven for all things badass.

Thorn and Toad by Tobin Yelland (1998, 3 min., color Super 8 film) — Deadpan Super-8 chronicle of a fight between a skateboarder and someone much larger.

Dirtboarding Skateopia by Rick Charnoski, (2001, 2 min., color Super 8 film) — These guys don’t stop. Rick Charnoski returns to Ohio for a follow up, and demolition derby.

Deformer by Mike Mills (1998, 16 min., color 16mm film) — Renowned graphic designer, video, commercial, and film director Mike Mills paid of visit to Huntington Beach in 1998 to document pro skateboarder and artist Ed Templeton. Deformer looks at Templeton’s domestic life with his wife and muse Deanna, and the southern California skateboarding culture that shaped them, and which they in turn shape.

Saturday, Feb. 14, 1:30 pm; Missouri Theatre In person: editor Karen Schmeer

Errol Morris, the mad scientist of American documentary filmmaking, has masterminded a stream of innovative and completely distinctive works. Though his latest, The Fog of War, is conventional in structure, its subject, Robert McNamara, is anything but. McNamara, the Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson, was the architect of the Vietnam War — he’s the man who famously applied mathematical principles to the battlefield. But The Fog of War is no by-the-numbers history piece; McNamara is the sole voice in the film, and he’s surprisingly frank, at one point equating his actions to war crimes. The Fog of War is both an indelible portrait of a major historical figure and a revelatory examination of America’s use of military force, then and now. (JS)

Friday, Feb. 13, 8 pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé In person: Ed Marszewski

Curated by Ed Marszewski, a Chicago-based media activist and force behind the Lumpen magazine and Select Media Festival empire, this program exposes the casualty of truth in an era of government propaganda. Included are flash reanimation of State of the Union speeches and soundbite blitzkriegs, Eric Fensler’s legendary appropriated GI Joe PSAs, and Little Brother Gets Busted, a filmstrip-inspired look at drug policy. Also highlighted are cultural jamming efforts such as smart-mobbing. (PS)

Sunday, Feb. 15, noon; Ragtag Cinemacafé In person: Ramona Diaz

Go “beyond the shoes,” and the public mythology of oft-caricatured Imelda Marcos, fallen diva of the Filipino dictatorship. Ramona Diaz enjoyed unprecedented access to Imelda’s colorful life as she was welcomed into her mansion, video archive, and unpublished books. The portrait that emerges is of a curiously magnetic yet disconnected personality, hopelessly adrift in her remembrances of her husband’s dictatorship and her role in it — most of her comments are refuted by archival footage and witnesses — but mysteriously sympathetic despite it all. Exquisitely edited, this is a swirling stew of politics, personality, and personal responsibility, as the fantastic Imelda opines philosophically while the hoi polloi outside her tinted-glass limousine clamor for autographed pictures. (PS)(PS)

SPECIAL SCREENING. North American premiere. Thursday, Feb. 12, 7:30pm, 9:30pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé In person: Chad Friedrichs & Paul Fehler

Local boys make good. Or at least make weird. Director Freidrichs and producer Fehler kick off the T/F fest with this superbly crafted story about a musician from Texas named Jandek who has released 34 albums over 25 years, yet never played a single live show or even made a public appearance. No one even knows his real name. But from the bluesy, atonal music and haunting lyrics to the artist’s steadfast seclusion and sheer longevity, everything about this man intrigues. Jandek on Corwood is the 89-minute documentary that explores the man, his world and his music. As a veiled source at Corwood Industries (Jandek’s personal record label) wrote to Paul and Chad when they began the documentary, “You may not get all the answers you want. It’s better that way.” (DW)

Sunday, Feb. 15, 4 pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé In person: Karin Hayes

Young, charismatic, and idealistic Ingrid Betancourt opens this film campaigning as the Oxygen Green Party candidate for President of Colombia. Her campaign and her subsequent kidnapping by the FARC guerillas is not only a fascinating story, but one that helps us open our minds and hearts to the plight of the thousands of kidnap victims abandoned by an indifferent government. Betancourt denounced the corruption within the Liberal Party and cited evidence of “a secret alliance between politicians and drug traffickers.” But what makes this documentary so compelling is not political analysis or advocacy. Rather the focus here is a personal story about the effects on Ingrid Betancourt’s family and, by extension, on the other families with members in captivity. (JA)

Sunday, Feb. 15, 1:30 pm; The Blue Note

Moving with the rhythm of the musicians and dancers from the working-class Havana dance hall, Salon Rosado Benny More, a.k.a. “La Tropical,” David Turnley’s libidinous documentary at first appears to be an exercise in sexual abandon. But the characters pile up: Juan Cruz, the elderly charismatic M.C., Pedrito of the Grammy-winning, Los Van Van, Luis Manuel of Son Candela, interracial dancers and sweethearts Benny and Ayme. As La Tropical peeks into some of their lives, it does so with disarming honesty and intimacy. By the end, nothing less than a highly personal microcosm of Cuban society has been unveiled. The music and dance are marvelous, but the movie is astonishing in its ability to unveil vignettes that reveal everyday struggles simply and directly, with pleasure and sorrow all of a piece. (JA)

Saturday, Feb. 14, 6 pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé In person: David Petersen

Let the Church Say Amen is a gritty yet elegant portrait of one tiny storefront church that’s trying to turn around one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Washington, DC. Petersen immersed himself in this African-American subculture — shooting 280 hours of intimate footage — and has emerged with a story long overlooked by a skeptical press — about how faith and community can act as a life raft for so many. Shooting with a low-profile digital camera, he was able to get up close to his subjects, and emerged with one intimate scene after another: one woman ministering to prostitutes and junkies, a minister testifying about his early days as an addict, and a congregation caught in the grip of religious ecstasy. (PS)

Saturday, Feb. 14, 1pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé In person: Speed Levitch, Sean U’ren

Watch carefully… A family comes together and falls apart… Elvis meets a president… Samosas are made… An adopted son searches for his birth parents… Speed holds court… A murder? A mercy killing?… A photographer finds purpose in six city blocks… The artist confronts the audience. These eight films push and pull at the boundaries of nonfiction and find new ways to tell old stories. Includes: The Tower (Quirine Racké and Helena Muskens, 15 min); The King and Dick (dir. Scott Calonico, 7 min.); A Love Supreme (dir. Nilesh Patel, 10 min.); Light of Other Days (dir. Sean U’ren, 6 min.); Live from Shiva’s Dance Floor (dir. Richard Linklater, 21 min.); 9 is a Secret (dir. Vanessa Renwick, 6 min); Milton Rogovin: The Forgotten Ones (dir. Harvey Wang, 12 min.); La Tombola (dir. Ximena Cuevas, 2001, 7 min.). (DW)

Saturday, Feb. 14, 11 am; Missouri Theatre In person: Peter Dut

Peter Dut and Santino Chuor survived the killing fields of Sudan, site of one of history’s bloodiest civil wars. Having seen hell on earth, Peter and Santino are relocated to the U.S., where they expect to see heaven. America, unfortunately, does not always receive newcomers with open arms, and these two lost boys find themselves struggling to survive and maintain their cultural identity in the domain of the almighty dollar. Though it begins in an African refugee camp, The Lost Boys of Sudan becomes a remarkably revealing investigation of the American Dream, circa 2000. It’s heartbreaking and inspiring and filled with drama — a vivid portrait of strangers in a strange world. (JS)

Saturday, Feb. 14, 4 pm; Missouri Theatre In person: Bruce Sinofsky (2004 recipient of the True Vision Award)

Throughout their long career, Metallica has seen a great deal of drama, from the tragic death of one bass player and the departure of another to concert riots, lawsuits and the Napster debacle. Through all that the band has still sold over 90 million albums worldwide, won 6 Grammy awards, and been the #1 North American concert draw of the last 10 years. So there was little need for Metallica to grant filmmakers Berlinger & Sinofsky access to their recording process as well as the stormy and intense group therapy that they underwent to try and stay together as a band. That they did is what makes this warts-and-all look at one of the greatest metal bands of all time a riveting success. Moving smoothly from monster riffs to emotional meltdowns this film offers an unprecedented look at a band battling creative stasis and middle age, yet proving far more resilient and insightful than their early screams of “Metal up your ass!” might suggest. Destined to be a legendary rock film, Some Kind of Monster is also a fascinating psychological portrait of a band on the edge.(DW)

Saturday, Feb. 14, 8 pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé In person: Scott Hamilton Kennedy and Catherine Borek

While transcending dire circumstances through putting on a show is a tired Hollywood conceit, OT: our town breathes surprising life into the idea, telling the complexly layered tale of a Compton, California high school performing its first play in 20 years, despite having no budget and no stage. Teacher Catherine Borek chooses Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” for its universal themes but at first her students rebel against its old-fashioned Yankee personality, hilariously brought out with intercut scenes from a Hal Holbrook tele-play from the ’70s. But OT: our town has more on its mind than culture clash: it moves beyond Compton’s gangsta stereotypes to tell a moving story about personal transformation and art’s ability to break through boundaries. (PS)

Newsweek article about OT (PDF)

Saturday, Feb. 14, 10 am; Ragtag Cinemacafé In person: Chaille Stovall

Popping out from underneath tables at a press conference isn’t standard practice for documentary filmmakers, but when you’re ten-year-old Chaille Stovall, sometimes you’ve got to bend the rules. Two years in the making, this film follows the 2000 presidential campaign trail from the New Hampshire primaries through the Florida recounts, as seen through the eyes of Chaille and his preteen camera crew (Zack Skipp, age 11 and Elizabeth Farrell, age 10). Utilizing any available opportunity, the trio blazed after the action, getting kicked out of an MTV Rock the Vote event in Los Angeles, and eventually scoring an interview with then-presidential hopeful, George W. Bush. With wry commentary and a curious eye, this movie sneaks a backstage view of a surprisingly unarmed political circus. (CL)

Saturday, Feb. 14, noon; The Blue Note

“Animated documentary” may seem a contradiction, but the connection in Britain dates back to the 1930s, when documentaries and experimental animation were produced side by side as homegrown alternatives to Hollywood’s advancing influence. The new wave of British animation has revived this independent spirit as artists again mine the real world: photographs with their aura of authenticity, sound recordings and interviews, history, and more subjective realms such as memory. Included are Nick Park’s Oscar-winning Creature Comforts, plus a new episode, in which interviews with the public emanate from the mouths of plasticine animals, revealing the funny or poignant sides of existence. Robert Bradbrook’s Home Road Movies reconstructs childhood memories of family vacations, while Chris Shepherd’s Dad’s Dead is a gritty photographic drama of growing up in a deprived neighborhood. Tim Webb’s A is for Autism is a collaboration with autistic subjects, who, like the subjects of Paul Vester’s Abductees, provided drawings and interviews. (IK)

Creature Comforts (dir. Nick Park, 1989, 5 mins.) — The original Oscar-winning claymation, in which vox pop interviews with visitors to the zoo, and with residents of a retirement home, are placed in the mouths of zoo animals.

A is for Autism (dir. Tim Webb, 1992, 11 mins.) — A collaboration between the film-maker and autistic subjects, who performed the music track as well as providing interviews and drawings which inspired the animation.

No Experience Necessary (dir. Stephen Loveridge, 2003, 3 mins.) — Three kids in empty shops talk about their tedious work whilst they invent distractions to defeat the monotony. The film is an animated series of painted and drawn portraits, which have then been scanned and digitally extended.

The Phantom Museum: Random Forays into Sir Henry Wellcome’s Medical Collection (dir. Brothers Quay, 2003, 11 1/2 mins.) — Sir Henry Wellcome (1853-1936) amassed one of the world’s largest museum collections, capturing human culture and history through medical eyes. The film uses animation to imaginatively “document” this extraordinary assemblage and simultaneously reveal an extremely beautiful yet odd inner cosmos of things.

Home Road Movies (dir. Robert Bradbrook, 2001, 12 mins.) — An autobiographical childhood memory of a father who wanted the family car to make him a better parent…

Abductees (dir. Paul Vester, 1995, 11 mins.) — Based on interviews, hypnotic regression tapes, and drawings by members of a support group of New Yorkers who believe they have been abducted by aliens.

Dad’s Dead (dir. Chris Shepherd, 2003, 11 mins.) — Through a series of ghostly reminiscences a young man tries to piece together fragmented moments from the past, when he was captive to the influence of a deceitful and violent friend. A gritty drama using manipulated live action combined with ghostly digital animation.

Creature Comforts: The Circus (dir. Richard Goleszewsky, 2003, 10 mins.) — A US premiere for one episode from a brand new series based on the award winning original short by the celebrated Aardman Animations.

Sunday, Feb. 15, noon; The Blue Note

Intending to make a straightforward portrait of the president of Venezuela, Irish filmmakers Bartley and O’Briain instead found themselves in the midst of a coup d’etat. This stirring piece of cinema verite, shot on the streets and inside the presidential palace, follows the attempted overthrow of President Hugo Chavez, whose socialist programs have incited the wrath of the nation’s elite. At first, the film looks like a typical Latin American political tragedy — a democratically elected government is overthrown, allegedly with the support of the CIA. (Jesse Helms calls Chavez a “narco-terrorist,” and the coup’s leaders are flown to the White House.) Venezuela’s citizens, however, have the final word, and that makes Revolution an inspiring, immediate expression of the power of the people. (JS)

Friday, Feb. 13, 10 pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé In person: Robin Luke and directors William Preston Robertson and Sean Anderson

Though the ukulele may have a reputation as a silly instrument, this film bestows sweet grandeur to this most novel of all “novelty” instruments and counters skepticism with wry testimonial. We learn that an inordinate number of off-kilter types find their way to the instrument sooner or later, playing everything from old-fashioned 1930s lullabies sung in near-whispers to irreverent takes on Dead Kennedys songs. The film takes us on a road trip to visit these musicians, including a “ukulele chanteuse,” and a man who promotes “Ukulele Consciousness,” a belief system that sees the underdog instrument as a beacon to spiritual serenity. Before the film will be a performance by onetime teen idol and Ricky Nelson pal, Robin Luke, whose 1958 hit, “Susie Darlin'” featured him on ukulele and sold 2.5 million records. (PS)

Sunday, Feb. 15, 11 am; Missouri Theatre

Coming from the new freeze-dried humor capital of the world — Finland — this film profiles a charismatic perfectionist, Petri Sirvio, who brings to life his unique musical vision. He conducts a men’s choir whose oddball members are carefully selected for their lung capacity and ability to scream continuously. They are the Screaming Men, and we see them entertaining bemused audiences around the world, belting out uniquely adapted renditions of operating instructions, treaties and national anthems — the last leading to diplomatic stirs in France and Iceland. Framing the film are breathtaking scenes of the conductor and group in the icy wilderness pulling ocean liners, howling songs, and wearing matching rubber ties. With this bizarre and pleasing concoction, the Finnish have shown us the way to unlimited human expression. Preceded by Branson: Musicland USA (dir. Peter Sillen, 2003, 11 min.) (PS)

Sunday, Feb. 15, 5:30 pm; The Blue Note In person: Ed “Speedo” Jager and Liz Mallows

The Hoop Dreams of demolition derbies, Speedo follows one remarkable competitor, Ed “Speedo” Jager, as he bashes up cars, cares for his two kids and navigates a loveless marriage. Jager’s sport is the kind of subject that might have been treated with either smirking irony or an unwarranted seriousness; instead, director Jesse Moss nimbly steers a route between the two. Moss recognizes the humor in Jager’s obsession with crunching metal, but also shows a deep affection and respect for this decidedly low-rent pastime. The terrific derby footage, combined with Moss’s sensitive handling of Jager’s stormy domestic life, elevates Speedo into something unexpected, a film about the nobility of human endeavor. (JS)

Sunday, Feb. 15, 6 pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé

Winner of the Silver Wolf award at the IDFA festival in Amsterdam, Surplus is an explosive film, a cinematic Molotov cocktail flung back against an unthinking culture of docile consumerism and destructive Capitalism. With Surplus, the Atmo filmmaking collective, steeped in the language and techniques of the 60-second ad and the music video, have turned on their masters but shanghaied their fast-paced editing and music to make an electrifying 57-minute “anti-commercial commercial.” Looped sound bites like “I love this company” coming from the mouths of capitalists duke it out with the provocative ideas of Adbusters’ Kalle Lasn and primitivist John Zerzan. Near the end is a stunning scene that explicitly shows the end of capitalism’s tailpipe: a mountain of discards barged in to an Indian scrap heap. Preceded by My Dad, The Inspector. (PS)

Friday, Feb. 13, 7:30pm; Missouri Theatre

Touching the Void is a mountain-climbing movie about one man’s near-death experience, and a powerful and incredible real-life adventure story. In person: director Kevin Macdonald.

Saturday, Feb. 14, 4 pm; The Blue Note In person: Marco Williams and Whitney Dow

After hearing of a modern-day lynching in a small Texas town, longtime friends Whitney and Dow hit upon a novel idea: they took segregated film crews there to interview members of their own racial communities. As white supremacists went to trial, the pair captured residents’ uncensored reactions, and after a year of filming, illuminated a country a generation after desegregation. It’s compelling and complex stuff — transcending easy stereotypes about racist whites and angry blacks — in exploring one of America’s biggest challenges, a racial divide not easily bridged. In the editing process, the filmmakers were not immune to this gap: they clashed heatedly over whether the case was an isolated incident or part of a continuing story of brutality. (PS)

Sunday, Feb. 15, 10 am; Ragtag Cinemacafé In person: Sophie Raymond (S.L.A.G.) and Sandra Fierlinger (A Room Nearby)

Roll over, Walt. A lively hybrid genre that mixes animation with documentaries has come of age, stretching our ideas of what can be done with each, and honestly showing that documentaries are a manipulated form. Program includes: Hidden (dir. Heilborn/Aronowitsch/Johansson, 8 min) — Peruvian refugees in Sweden under threat of deportation; Bike Ride (dir. Tom Schroeder, 7 min.) — A surprise visit to a girlfriend 50 miles away must be done with an old Schwinn bicycle; A Room Nearby (dir. Paul and Sandra Fierlinger, 27 min.) — how loneliness has benefitted interviewees, including director Milos Forman; Grasshopper (dir. Bob Sabiston, 14 mins.); A Conversation with Haris (dir. Sheila Sofian, 6 min.) — an 11-year-old Bosnian immigrant recounts his war experiences; Figures of Speech (dir. Bob Sabiston, 4 min.); Ame Noire/Black Soul (dir. Martine Chartrand, 10 min.); Repetition Compulsion (dir. Ellie Lee, 7 min.) — Depicted in charcoal renderings, homeless women share their stories; It’s Like That (dir. Southern Ladies Animation Group., 7 min.) — young refugees seek asylum in Australia. (PS)

CLOSING NIGHT FILM. Sunday, Feb. 15, 8 pm; Missouri Theatre (closing night reception) In person: Sarah Price

While most protesters were in the streets, the Yes Men slipped inside. Posing as WTO representatives, the activist group The Yes Men wrangled invitations to speak at several world trade conferences, where they created an outrageous and troubling form of performance art. Their suggestions to the international business community: hunger can be eradicated by having workers eat “recycled” food, e.g. feces; the main trouble with sweatshops is monitoring lazy workers; and schoolkids need brainwashing to accept the benefits of free trade. Response from the audiences? Applause, with barely a word of complaint. Chris Smith Sarah Price (American Movie) and Dan Ollman capture the hilarious exploits of the Yes Men, painting a picture of a global economic system willing to explore any profitable notion, human rights be damned. (JS)

Saturday, Feb. 14, 9:45 pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé In person: star Calvin Robertson

Andre and Calvin are high school friends determined to issue a “wake up call” to those around them. With camcorder in hand, they record their meticulous planning period for posterity, partly to ensure that their exploits are not mis-analyzed by dimestore psychologists intent on labeling them as the product of neglectful parents or violent video games. Increasingly, the “found footage” becomes a startling window into the pair’s souls. Suicide is for losers; they contend. They’re going out in a blaze of glory in what they call an act of love. (PS)