Saturday, Feb. 26; 10:30pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé

In person: producer Jason Fried

Dubbed the Weegee of the Wedgie, Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki has made a career of walking the line between art and exploitation. Many of his photos feature nudity and sometimes bondage, yet he is in high demand as both a fashion and art photographer. Among his fans are Richard Kern, Bjork and even Takashi Kitano, who expresses awe at how much fun Araki has doing his job. The spry, impish 64-year-old shutterbug may come off as a pervy uncle, but it’s clear that everybody, including his female subjects, loves him. An original score by DJ Krush is put to great use as thousands of photos flash by, but Araki’s early shots with his wife serve as the visual and emotional heart of this film.

Friday, Feb. 25; 5:30pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé

The war in Iraq, seen nightly on tv sets around the world, has finally made it to a theater near you. Four docs about the ongoing conflict are hitting theaters this winter and more are sure to follow. Few, if any, will have the power of BattleGround: 21 Days on Empire’s Edge. Having cut his teeth on innumerable music videos and short political pieces for his website Guerrilla News Network, Stephen Marshall ups the ante in his first feature-length documentary. Following soldiers, Iraqis citizens and some interested outsiders, Marshall maintains the visual flair that marks much of his work, but keeps it firmly in service to his story. What could have been a simple polemic develops into something much richer, as the interests and actions of these men plumb the intricacies, good and bad, of the US occupation.

Midwest Premiere

Saturday, Feb. 26; 3pm; Blue Note

In person: Margaret Brown, Lee Daniel

At the beginning of this poignant profile, we’re told of a mysterious hitchhiker, a haunted stranger on the side of the highway with the batch of incomparable songs in his bag. Singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt seemingly came out of nowhere in the late ’60s, writing deeply personal, sometimes inscrutable songs that transcended all genres. While remaining a fringe figure commercially, he won devotion from Willie Nelson (who recorded his “Pancho and Lefty”), Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle among others. Artfully combining rare performance pieces, home movies, and interviews with friends and family, Brown and cinematographer Lee Daniel have fashioned an evocative piece that taps deep into the high and lonely spirit of Van Zandt’s music, invoking the romance of a beautiful dreamer while showing the wreckage that trailed behind.

Saturday, Feb. 26; 6:30pm; Missouri Theatre

In person: director Liz Mermin

After the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, many Western aid organizations moved in to help repair the war-torn country. Amidst the more traditional efforts of food and supplies, one relief attempt stood out — a team of American cosmetologists, sponsored by beauty-product manufacturers, attempted to open the first Western-style beauty school since the rule of the Taliban. With energy and enthusiasm they work to teach Afghani women the trade and give them a new way of looking at themselves and others. The culture clash that ensues isn’t surprising, but Mermin is never content to let the movie rest on the obvious. Waves of American (and Australian) teachers that pass through are as changed by the experience as the students and our assumptions about the effort are constantly confounded. The movie is full of laughs and vitality, but it’s also, in the end, a surprisingly nuanced look at a new era of Western global influence.

Friday, Feb. 25; 10pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé

It’s like something out of a movie. Bobby Dukes was the king of the paintball underground. Many consider him the best to ever play the game, but none of that mattered when, 10 years ago, he was caught “wiping” — the paintball equivalent of a mortal sin. But after years away from the sport, Dukes has come back and he’s wants to put together a new team. The only problem is, few players will speak to him, much less join his team. Featuring Rob Corddry in a rare departure from his journalistic work on the Daily Show, this film opens the audience up to an often overlooked sport and the intense competition it fosters. And Dukes himself is a revelation, the sort of complex blend of machismo and sensitivity that would probably have had to be invented if he didn’t already exist.

Saturday, Feb. 26; 11:30am; Ragtag Cinemacafé

In person: producer Guy Picciotto

Jem Cohen is unmatched in the world of personal filmmaking. Constantly shooting, mostly in Super8 and 16mm film, he snatches beautiful compositions from the midst of the mundane. He has collaborated with others on two features (Benjamin Smoke with Peter Sillen and Instrument with the band Fugazi), but Chain marks his first feature-length solo effort. Blurring boundaries between doc and narrative, Chain challenges viewer expectations and is unmatched in the strength of its unique visual style. The plot follows two women, one a Japanese office worker doing research on theme parks, the other a teenage runaway living clandestinely inside a mall. Although the locations seem uniform, the film was shot in seven cities around the world and functions less as an indictment of global homogenization than an attempt to come to terms with the structures and terrain of our late-capitalist era.

Saturday, Feb. 26; 4:00pm; Missouri Theatre

In person: co-director Filip Remunda

Daring, provocative, and even highly objectionable to some, Czech Dream has caused a stir in festivals around the world. It follows two film students — the directors Filip Remunda and Vít Klusák — who use a government grant to promote the opening of a big-box supermarket offering impossibly low prices. Their marketing machine goes into overdrive: catchy jingles are commissioned, glossy flyers are handed out, billboards get erected. Only catch was that the store was entirely fictitious, and nothing much existed at its advertised location: in a meadow outside Prague. The resulting scandal is alternately hilarious and discomfiting. An original, cheeky treatise on capitalism, with more than a whiff of exploitation, Czech Dream offers a penetrating look at how marketers and politicians vie for our hearts, minds, and pocketbooks.

Midwest Premiere

Sunday, Feb. 27; 11am; Blue Note

In person: Shelby Knox

Shelby, a bright, young, Christian woman calls Lubbock, Texas home — where boys will be boys, pastors will be righteous, and the teen gonnorhea rate will eclipse the national average. When she decides to spearhead a campaign to bring nonsecular sex education to Lubbock high schools, Shelby finds herself in they eye of a complex storm. Negotiating a mix of politics, morality, and personal discovery, she remains an irrepressible champion of the underdog. This funny portrait of a sometimes frightening town, an endearing family, and a comically stubborn opposition, Education teaches volumes about the one topic American can’t not talk about enough.

Sunday, Feb. 27; 10am; Missouri Theatre

In person: director Robert Stone

Patty Hearst called herself an “urban guerrilla” — hardly the occupation her parents and billionaire grandfather, media mogul William Randolph Hearst, envisioned for her. But Hearst’s story was more sensational than anything her grandpa’s editors could have dreamed up. Kidnapped in 1974 by radical militants, held in captivity for months and then converted to the cause, Hearst became an emblem for a country mired in severe political turmoil. Robert Stone’s vivid, stylish and painstakingly researched document examines the Hearst kidnapping from a variety of angles, documenting the militant group’s success in using the mass media as a mouthpiece and the unruly feed-the-hungry programs it forced the Hearst family to create. It even includes surveillance footage of Patty wielding a gun in a bank robbery. Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst isn’t just the tale of a freakish crime; it’s the story of a country forced to watch dissent, radicalism and class warfare on the nightly news. Death to the fascist insect!

Saturday, Feb. 26; 8pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé

In person: director David Flamholc

A British explorer on a quest for lost Incan gold is aided by a driven filmmaker but hampered by a psychotic American expatriate guide. File this film in the “stranger than fiction” slot. There’s a lot to question in this Fitzcarraldo-meets-Indiana-Jones-story, but director Flamholc’s will to persevere is completely genuine. Dragging a film crew deep into the Peruvian jungle (twice), he heads upriver, battling weather, bad omens and skittish guides. The American expat seems entertainingly quirky at first, but his mania soon engulfs the expedition and everything goes topsy turvy. In the end, questions of veracity fall by the wayside, as the viewer is caught up in the more pressing issue of whether they might, despite it all, find the lost city.

Saturday, Feb. 26; 8:30pm; Missouri Theatre

In person: Matt Mahurin

As a renowned music video director, photographer and illustrator, Mahurin has worked with a lot of difficult and charismatic stars — everyone from Sting to Metallica — but he never met his match until he started filming an endearing version of the Soup Nazi. Kenny Shopsin runs a hole-in-the wall restaurant in New York (first immortalized in a Calvin Trillin New Yorker article) where he dishes up exotic pancakes and 900 other specialties, stirring in his down-to-earth philosophy about morality, butter, sex, waste disposal, and child-rearing. Shopsin is the hot-tempered master of this off-kilter universe, and regulars fear banishment at every turn. Mahurin, a master craftsman working alone and on a modest budget, throws us into Shopsin’s deep fryer, and we’re transformed, emerging with nothing less than a robust version of what’s important in life.

Saturday, Feb. 26; 10am; Ragtag Cinemacafé

In person: Johanna Zorn and Julie Shapiro

A “screening” without images — audio documentaries from this standout Chicago-based radio festival which celebrates the best feature and documentary work heard worldwide on the radio and the Internet. Join festival directors Johanna Zorn and Julie Shapiro in listening to and discussing some of the unforgettable stories they’ve come across in the past five years. The program will include a variety of innovative audio work ranging in style and content — from a personal tale about post-humous photography to a sound rich story about border crossings, to a humorous look at the uncanny, magnetic power of Wagner’s “Ring Cycle” opera. An ongoing discussion will be held throughout the program, after each piece is played.

Ice Music by Gregory Whitehead

What if sounds could be frozen into ice cubes, then released upon their melting? Everyday movements and actions might become rich musical performances….(2:27)

Memento Mori by Jude Fletcher for the Third Coast Festival 2004 ShortDocs: Stories about Darkness

Some members of Jude Fletcher’s family have a fondness for taking pictures of the dead. Their photo albums boast the typical shots of joyous celebrations and family gatherings, side by side with shots of loved ones in their caskets. As eerie as this may seem, photographing the dead, or memento mori, was popular back in the 19th century. Fletcher takes a trip to Story City, Iowa, to discover why this faded tradition is still cherished by some in her family, and to come to terms with her own feelings on the matter. (8:19)

The Ring and I: The Passion, The Myth, The Mania by Jad Abumrad and Aaron Cohen for WNYC

It might seem hyperbolic to claim, as many Wagnerites do, that The Ring Cycle is “The Greatest Work of Art Ever,” but the grandeur and power of this monumental work have permeated our culture from Star Wars to Bugs Bunny to J.R.R. Tolkien. The Ring and I asks what many of the uninitiated must wonder: “What’s the big deal?” This radio journey, intended for both devoted fans and newcomers alike, encounters a diverse cast of characters who weigh in with their answers. (8:00 excerpt of 60:00 piece)

If by Sherre DeLys, for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, winner of the 2002 Third Coast Festival Silver Award for Best Documentary

A lyrical feature about life in the New Children’s Hospital in Westmead, Australia, from the perspective of a young patient named Andrew Salter. (6:24)

And I Walked… by Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler for the 2003 Third Coast Festival Shortdocs: Stories about Thirst

Much of the Sonoran desert between Tucson and Mexico is a haunting wasteland of discarded shoes, shirts and empty plastic water jugs. “And I walked…” is a soundscape exploration of how the thirst for the American dream translates into a literal thirst, for the scores of illegal immigrants who risk their lives while crossing the desert, in search of better-paying jobs. (6:06)

The Modern Woodsman by Adam Clitheroe for the Audible Picture Show (UK)

In this non-narrated piece, animator and filmmaker Adam Clitheroe explores Nature vs Nokia. (3:47)

Thirteen Ways by Pejk Malinovski for WNYC’s The Next Big Thing, winner of the 2004 Third Coast Festival Directors’ Choice Award

Writer Sam Swope visits a class of restless, imaginative eleven year-olds in Queens, New York, where he embraces the challenge of teaching Wallace Stevens’ poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” (7:39 excerpt of 18:39 piece)

Sunday, Feb. 27; 2:30pm; Blue Note

In person: director Sean McAllister and star Samir Peter

When director McAllister went to Iraq to shoot a documentary for the BBC, he didn’t have any particular subject in mind. But, sitting in his hotel bar, he came across Samir Peter, Iraq’s preeminent concert pianist in pre-Sadaam Iraq. Now, sleeping in a windowless hotel room and playing out his nights to half-empty lounges, Peter seems a world away from the fame and fortune he once enjoyed. Peter’s larger-than-life personality and fatalistic yet optimistic worldview lure us into rooting for his dreams, which include moving to America, the country his daughter and many other Iraqis blame for the instability and fear they face daily. Through eight months of shooting, with bullets flying and ballads flowing, filmmaker and subject attempt to navigate the nuances of the new Iraq.

Saturday, Feb. 26; 10:30pm; Missouri Theatre

As rowdy as its subjects, this crowd-pleasing flick celebrates the overlooked “girl wrestlers” of the ’40s and ’50s. Women like Gladys “Killem” Gillem wrestled women, men, alligators and bears at the dawn of this spectator sport. She and women like her, unafraid of losing a few teeth and breaking a few ribs, hit the road to make new lives for themselves at a time when most women stuck to the kitchen. Hired by post-war carnival promoters as sideshow attractions, they inadvertently flaunted feminism in the ring, while remaining entrenched in the era’s stifling sexism outside the ropes. From Ida May Martinez, now a prison nurse, to The Fabulous Moolah, still a top promoter, the women reflect on the ups and downs of their incredible lives, reconciling their wild and flamboyant youth with the realities of growing older.

Saturday, Feb. 26; 6pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé

In person: director David Redmon

Ever wonder where that trinket, widget or plastic fork came from? Filmmaker David Redmon traces some mass-produced items — those gaudy Mardi Gras beads — back to their source and uncovers troubling truths about the inequities of our global economy. At a factory in a Chinese free-trade zone, Redmon introduces us to four teenage girls, all of whom work long hours for pay topping out at 10 cents an hour to make the beads.

Then Redmon travels New Orleans and confronts Mardi Gras celebrants: Do you know where your beads come from? With clarity and a wry sense of humor, Mardi Gras puts into human terms the huge gap between the world’s rich and poor. The cast of characters is memorable, from the baby-faced Chinese workers to the drunk, giddy Mardi Gras celebrants, and especially the smug, wrong-headed factory owner who has no hesitation in fining underperforming workers.

Opening Night Film/Midwest Premiere

Friday, Feb. 25; 7:30pm; Missouri Theatre

In person: co-director and co-producer Dana Adam Shapiro; producer Jeff Mandel; co-director Henry Alex Rubin

Get it straight: Wheelchair rugby (aka “murderball”) is not a part of the special Olympics. These guys aren’t in it for hug and a smile, ok? They’re athletes, and, as competitors, nobody wants to win more than them. This story, told with the speed and passion that characterizes their matches, follows two men and their repeated clashes on and off the court. Mark Zupan, the captain of the US team, is a tattoed badass and former soccer player. Joe Soares, once the best of the best on the US team, has now defected to coach the Canadian team to victory over his former teammates. Their rivalry sets the stage for this engrossing look at life after a life-changing accident and how these men deal with their new reality. As gripping as any narrative feature, this finely-tuned film moves like a well-built racecar, immersing the audience in a world that most able-bodied people choose to ignore. The result is truly inspiring as the directors eschew watery, feelgood moments in favor of simple scenes of true human triumph.

Just confirmed! Henry Alex Rubin, co-director of Murderball, will be appearing along with co-director Dana Shapiro and producer Jeff Mandel at the opening night screening of the film.

The Every Boy (Dana Adam Shapiro’s debut novel)

Sunday, Feb. 27; 10am; Ragtag Cinemacafé

In person: Chris Metzler

The Salton Sea wasn’t supposed to exist. Created in 1901 through a diversion of the Colorado River, this glimmering jewel is now a highly polluted dead zone. Except maybe it’s not. And therein lies the story. This film covers both the environmental history of this curious body of water as well as exploring the lives of those who still live on its shores. An eccentric and eclectic mix of people now inhabit the area around the lake and the interviews with them shine amidst the decaying real estate and rotting fish that dot the landscape of Salton City. Carefully crafted by Missouri director Chris Metzler and co-director Jeff Springer, this film covers all its bases, environmental and ethnographic without ever breaking stride or bogging down. If you watch documentaries to be transported to a world you know nothing about, here is film for you.

A nautical breakfast, courtesy of Maude Vintage, will be served from 10-10:20am before the film.

Friday, Feb. 25; 8pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé

In person: Pedro Carvajal and Ron English

Here’s a man who would not take it anymore. Tired of billboards broadcasting their insidious, insistent messages at us, the guerrilla artist Ron English decided to reverse the equation, and has perfected “subvertising” in which he hijacks outdoor ads to incriminate the original company or product. One eye-catching doctored ad calling for “Oil Dependence Day” features an SUV sale with a Chevy logo and the phrase “Like Iraq.” In another, a wild-eyed Manson leers from Apple’s “Think Different” ad. We’ve seen this sort of thing before, but English is a revelation: a master painter accomplished enough to replicate any style through the ages, but willing to risk arrest at every turn. The inspiring Popaganda is a celebration of our power to take control of our lives and our surrounding landscape.

Saturday, Feb. 26; 11am; Blue Note

In person: Adam Curtis

Aired in three parts on the BBC, this compelling film caused a firestorm in England last fall, overturning all conventional wisdom about the War on Terror. Curtis, narrating in the BBC’s authoritative voice, traces the intertwined stories of neoconservatives and radical Islamists in the last 50 years, and how they have stoked the Fear Factor so as to cultivate a myth: that a hidden, highly organized Islamist terrorist network is ready to strike at any moment. While Curtis doesn’t deny 9/11, Madrid, or the possibility of fresh outrages in future, he questions why our leaders embrace and reinforce this particular threat. Curtis’s rigorous analysis — so unwilling to topple easy targets — is augmented by rich archival images. All throughout, the viewer’s mind reels: Our world has been made ripe for reevaluation.

Links:

Guardian Unlimited article BBC News story

Saturday, Feb. 26; 4pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé

John Pierson had done almost everything in the independent film world — launching notable careers (including those of Spike Lee, Kevin Smith and Michael Moore), writing books, hosting a popular TV show. But he hadn’t run an indie moviehouse. Never one to take the easy route, Pierson signed up to operate one of the world’s most remote theaters, the 180 Meridian in Fiji, with the intent of spreading the gospel of good movies to the islanders. Filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams) captured the Pierson family’s trials and triumphs: Janet Pierson is happier than expected, except when her laptop is stolen; their daughter forges deep friendships with the locals; and their son offers plenty of smart-mouthed programming advice. More than just a personal tale, Reel Paradise is a movie-love story — watch the Fijians roar with delight during a Three Stooges comedy and you’ll remember why we started going to the theater in the first place.

Sunday, Feb. 27; 12pm; Missouri Theatre

In person: Enrique Sánchez Lansch

Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring caused riots at its premiere in 1913, and nearly a century later, the ballet still inflames high passions. At least that’s true for the 250 students who signed up to dance in a massive production of The Rite of Spring in Berlin in 2003. This motley crew of teenage performers, under the direction of choreographer Royston Maldoom, received a crash course in dance, discipline, creativity, confidence and courage. Filmmakers Thomas Grube and Enrique Sánchez Lansch captured it all in Rhythm Is It!, a thrilling mix of coming-of-age tale, performance film, and music video. The film wraps with gorgeous footage of the final performance, featuring the music of Simon Rattle’s Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Rhythm Is It!, a box office sensation in Germany, will inspire anyone who has dared to step on stage or wished they had. Prepare to stand and cheer.

Closing Night/Midwest Premiere

Sunday, Feb. 27; 7:30pm; Missouri Theatre

In person: director Don Argott and producer Sheena Joyce

Jack Black has got nothing on Paul Green. As the “grown-up” pied pipers of a group of rock ‘n’ roll kids, both are crass, hard-edged and fully focused on bringing the rock. But Paul Green is real. And he’s been dedicated to creating pint-sized fret-shredding guitar gods since he opened the Paul Green School of Rock Music in 1999. The kids get a first-rate education in the thundering highpoints of classic rock — Zeppelin, the Stones, Black Sabbath, and Frank Zappa. Green himself is a force of nature, ricocheting from practice room to practice room, doling out effusive praise and blistering criticism with equal vigor. His is such a natural and classic character that director Don Argott need only sit back, give him room to work and let the camera roll. But Argott isn’t content to let Green take control of the show, and he pushes the movie deeper, asking hard questions about prodigal talent and the nature of the rock ‘n’ roll dream. Ultimately, Paul’s commitment to the students is never in doubt, and Rock School stands as an invigorating celebration of youthful exuberance combined with kickass music.

Midwest Premiere

Saturday, Feb. 26; 5:30pm; Blue Note

In person: Curt Tofteland

In its seventh year, The Shakespeare Behind Bars program challenges prisoners at Luther Luckett Correctional Complex to take on the bard by staging a jailhouse producton of Shakespeare’s last play, “The Tempest.” Rehearsing over several months with director Curt Tofteland, the inmates encounter a range of formidable setbacks, from deciphering Elizabethan language to losing a cast member to a stint in “the hole.” The themes of the play are not unappreciated by the troupe of convicts. Their Tempest provides a stirring look into the nature of guilt and redemption and the lives they envelope.

Sunday, Feb. 27; 12pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé

Feeling personally challenged to find positive stories in the otherwise dark trend of international corporate consolidation, Canadian power pundit duo Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis made their way to Argentina. Following the economic collapse of 2001, factories there had closed and owners took their money and ran. But many of the factories sat unused and full of slowly rusting equipment. So, the workers moved back in. Bringing the factories back to life as worker-owned collectives, these cooperative efforts met with some initial success. But the threat of government crackdown is ever present and the more successful a reclaimed factory, the more the old owners want them back. Lewis and Klein focus on personal stories amidst this political chaos, and the movie is all the stronger for it. Their heroes are not lifelong radicals or organizers but working class factory men and women, not too different from those you’d find in any US city. They just want to work and receive an honest paycheck for their efforts. This simple desire that takes them into the heart of political machinations and clashes with police in the street, as the workers fight for their most basic needs.

Sunday, Feb. 27; 5pm; Blue Note

In person: Stephen Marshall

True and false have rarely been as provocatively blended as in Stephen Marshall’s first feature, which weaves together on-the-streets footage of the 2004 Republican National Convention with the fictional story of a conflicted cameraman. Jake (Nathan Crooker) shoots footage for a CNN-like outlet; just returned from Iraq, he’s asked to infiltrate an anarchist group that plans to protest the convention. Jake finds a way in through Tina (Rosario Dawson), an activist and widow of a US soldier. Marshall modeled his film on Haskell Wexler’s 1968 classic Medium Cool, which braved the Chicago riots, and This Revolution is equally fearless and uncompromised. It’s also completely convincing — during the shoot Marshall and Dawson were accused of anarchist activities and arrested by the NYPD. In addition to its bird’s-eye view of the protest movement, This Revolution provides a chilling look at the news media’s too-cozy relationship with the powers that be. Preceded by controversial Eminem video White America (4 min.) and the presentation of the 2005 True Vision Award.

Saturday, Feb. 26; 1:30pm; Missouri Theatre

In person: stars Sam Cagnina and Samantha Singh Cagnina

This extraordinary documentary lets us eavesdrop on a decidedly unconventional family in New York: two bisexual men and a straight woman joined together in matrimony. While Susan Kaplan’s film sounds like it has the makings of an awkward situation comedy, this is no quickie. Director Kaplan (her first production Small Wonders was made into a Meryl Streep film) is remarkably patient, letting the story unfold over the course of eight years. While Three of Hearts will no doubt stimulate debate about marriage, the film is far from simple advocacy for ditching conventionality. The film reveals the complexity of real life and challenges the radical and the righteous.

Plays with Small Town Secrets (dir. Katherine Leggett, 2005, 8 min.), a textured look at the director’s parents, who were closeted gays in a small Midwestern town in the ’80s.

Sunday, Feb. 27; 2pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé

In person: director Mike Wranovics

Barry Bonds’ record-setting home run ignited a free-for-all over ownership of the baseball — and more important, the right to sell it. This is the absurd true story of a bleakly comic skirmish that ensued between two fans: the publicity-craving Alex Popov, and the more demure Patrick Hayashi — from the frightening melee in the bleachers through the trial, verdict and ultimate awarding of the historic ball. The film has all the ingredients of a detective story and an old-fashioned farce, as eyewitnesses and commentators weigh in. What at first seems to be a trivial incident somehow gains tremendous gravity: Up For Grabs becomes a sobering parable about a litigious society where things have clearly gone off the deep end.

Saturday, Feb. 26; 11am; Missouri Theatre

In person: Mark Bittner

Author, amateur ornithologist, and former homeless musician Mark Bittner could be called The Birdman Not Far From Alcatraz. In the spring of 1990, Bittner began a friendship with a flock of wild parrots that frequent San Francisco’s famed Telegraph Hill. While he fed and cared for the spirited birds, it is clear from this astounding, poignant documentary by Judy Irving, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, that the parrots were also taking care of Bittner. As the story of Mark and the parrots began spreading, at first locally and then around the world, he found shelter, purpose, friendship, and a story that would resonate deeply: first with readers and now with moviegoers. Punctuated with a surprise ending, Parrots is a documentary that single-handedly restores respect for the label “feel good movie.” Preceded by Stealing Altitude (dir. John Starr/Roger Teich, 2004, 10 min.) A stunner about the sport of parachuting from skyscrapers. (MF)

Sneak Preview

Sunday, Feb. 27; 5pm; Missouri Theatre

In person: directors Eyal Avneri, Kimberlee Acquaro and Kerri Yost, plus Rwandan survivor Norah Bagarinka

A collection of three films, each of which offers a glimpse into conflict and attempts to find closure.

In Little Peace of Mine, Nadav, an Israeli boy, witnesses firsthand a bus bombing and decides that he can no longer live with his frustration over the grown-ups slow path to peace. He founds Peace for the Future, with confidence that children can accomplish what adults can’t. He first gathers other Israeli kids to his cause and then sets up meetings with like-minded Palestinian youth. As the effort progresses, we see the kids experiences many of the same pitfalls that have plagued adult efforts — internal dissent, lofty ambition and closemindedness. But the movie never becomes precious and we root for Nadav to overcome all of these obstacles. In the end, a tenuous friendship is formed, and we glimpse hope in this untenable situation.

God Sleeps in Rwanda shows us the aftermath of genocide, and tells the story of Rwandan women who are attempting to pick up the pieces of their broken country. Finally, locally-made Waiting for Adnan is a love story between a Bosnian refugee living in Columbia and the man she left behind.

Thursday, Feb. 24; 6pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé

The Academy will be deciding on Feb. 27 what short documentary is worthy of this year’s Oscar; until then, be one of the few people in the US to see all five of the nominees. First dibs go to True/False Film Festival passholders who have reserved tickets in advance (by emailing [email protected]) Non-passholders can buy tickets at the T/F Cherry St. Artisan box office starting Feb. 24 at noon along with the rest of the True/False schedule. Each program is $5 for non-passholders; the package of all three programs goes for $10. As with any T/F program, all remaining tickets will go on sale at the door of the venue 10 minutes prior to the film’s start time. (See the T/F ticket FAQ for more info.)

Program I (6pm)

Autism is a World (dir. Gerardine Wurzburg, 2004, 40 min.) takes us into the mind of an autistic woman who was wrongly diagnosed as mentally retarded until she began to communicate using a keyboard. Preceded by the mind-blowing Oscar-nominated animated short Ryan (dir. Chris Landreth, 2004, 14 min.) about a trailblazing animator from the ’60s who now struggles as a panhandler in Montreal. (Also playing as part of What’s Up, Docs? program on Sunday at the Blue Note.)

Program II (7pm)

Hardwood (dir. Hubert Davis, 2004, 29 min.) delves into the life of the director’s father, former Harlem Globetrotter star Mel Davis — and says a lot about the murky world of fathers, sons, family, and redemption. Mighty Times: The Children’s March (dir. Robert Hudson/Bobby Houston, 2004, 40 min.) documents one of the most remarkable stories of modern history: showing with indelible footage how courageous children in Birmingham, Alabama challenged segregation in 1963 despite police dogs, fire hoses, and threats of arrest.

Program III (8:30pm)

Sister Rose’s Passion (dir. Oren Jacoby, 2004, 39 min.) is about a New Jersey nun who battled anti-Semitism and helped officially change the church’s relationship with Jews, decades before taking on Mel Gibson’s interpretation of The Passion. The Children of Leningradsky (35 mins.) penetrates the secret lives of some of the 30,000 children who live in the streets, underground tunnels, and garbage containers of Moscow.

Saturday, Feb. 26; 2pm; Ragtag Cinemacafé

In person: directors John Lundberg, Scott Calonico, and Rory O’Connor

Be warned. Your mind will be reconfigured after these curious expeditions into the far reaches: The Mythologist (dir. John Lundberg, 2004, 27 min.) concerns a latter-day Walter Mitty — a crop circle/UFO/paranormal researcher who seems to revel in the netherworld between lies and secret knowledge. LSD A Go Go (dir. Scott Calonico, 2004, 10 min.) shows how quickly things went awry after the CIA embarked on a mind control program in the ’50s that included having some agents take LSD. Spotters (dir. Katherine Leggett/Davina Pardo, 2004, 8 min.) plunges us into the world of plane spotters, who scour the skies looking for planes to add to their lists. Devil’s Mask (dir. Jonathan Culp, 2004, 5 min.) is a crazed romp through one man’s genealogy. Devil’s Teeth (dir. Roger Teich, 2005, 9 min.) is about a sea urchin diver who works the California coast, even though he regularly encounters enormous sharks. The Brokaw Hoax (dir. Rory O’Connor, 2004, 10 min.) tells of a fraudulent first-hand report from the Panama Invasion aired by NBC News that evidently was called in from a suburban Indianapolis home.

Sunday, Feb. 27; 1pm; Blue Note

In person: 20 local directors

Innovative filmmakers are mixing together documentary and animation, stretching our ideas of what can be done with each. Featured are 15 animated documentaries produced in Columbia at a fall workshop as well as some of the best new works from around the world including the Oscar-nominated Ryan (14 min.), the story of an acclaimed artist who now panhandles in Montreal. International: Birdlings Two (6 min.) — a daughter’s discovery that her buttoned-down father has a past as a more uninhibited animator. Obsessively Compulsive (6 min.) — one man’s struggle to not think about Saddam Hussein. Backseat Bingo (5 min.) — the romantic lives of senior citizens. Leona Alone (3 min.) — a black girl born with Sickle Cell Disease. Local: Hablas Espanglish? (Sarah Paulsen); What We Have is a Failure to Communicate (Alex Yalen); God and Country (Mike Marcum); Play (Isaac Sleadd); Pilot (Danielle Eldred); Lawn Warriors (Kim Sherman); In and Out (Giavanna Accurso); Misery (Michael Sleadd); No Child Left Behind (Xi Cheng & Stephanie Toliver); Exclusion (Cody Finley & Danny Giles); Bicycle Diaries (Simone Hughley); The Sidewalk & the Street (Zola Sturtz); Old People are a Menace (Paige Hinshaw & Erin Kullman); Who Should Be President (Javier Kelty & Grant Portel).