2008 NaFF SCHEDULE AND TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE ONLINE STARTING TUESDAY, APRIL 8 @ 8pm.
2008 NaFF Film Line-Up
(Panels listed at bottom of page.)
OPENING NIGHT FILM
The Deal (98 min.) William H. Macy is unforgettable as a Hollywood producer who sees a way to revive his so-called career by casting an action star in a film about 19th-century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and in outwits his financiers and the studio along the way. With Meg Ryan as a studio exec, LL Cool J (as an action star who has converted to Judaism), Jason Ritter as the scriptwriter and Elliott Gould in a supporting role as LL Cool J’s personal rabbi. Screening: April 17, 7:00pm
In Attendance: Director Steven Schacter, William H. Macy, Jason Ritter
The celebration continues at 9:00pm when you will join our guests on the rooftop at BMI for the Gala Party.
CLOSING NIGHT FILM
The Wrecking Crew (95 min.) You heard them playing on the Beach Boys hits, on the Mamas and the Papas' recordings, on Frank Sinatra records, on Monkees' singles, they WERE Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. In fact, you heard them everywhere. This film looks (with great period footage) about the famed group of session musicians who backed nearly all the hits made in L.A. in the sixties. Featuring interviews with the surviving session guys (including Glen Campbell, who was one of ‘em before going “out in front”), as well as Sinatra, Alpert, Brian Wilson, Mickey Dolenz and others. Great music, great period footage. Screening: April 24, 7:00pm
In Attendance: Director Denny Tedesco and members of the Wrecking Crew.
Party at 9:00pm at The Cannery follows, featuring live music by The Wrecking Crew with some very special guests!
2008 NaFF FILMS
45 Years of Canyon Cinema A program of classic, seminal experimental shorts from the celebrated distributor Canyon Films, including work by Stan Brakhage, Phil Solomon, Kenneth Anger, Len Lye and Ken Jacobs. Screening: April 19, 3:15pm
Alexandra (102 min.) A beautiful, allegorical film by Russian master Alexander Sokurov (The Son, NaFF 2006) about a grandmotherly woman (played by opera legend Galina Vishnevskaya) who visits her grandson who is serving in the Russian army on the frontlines of the conflict with Chechnya. A moving film about the endlessness of war. Preceded by the film "Water (Voda)." Screening: April 20, 12:00pm
Alone In the Real World, Together (90 min.) A look at the making of the short Alone in the Real World by teens at the Preston Taylor YMCA and the inspiration and creative process behind the film. Screening: April 21, 6:00pm
American Teen (100 min.) The 2005-2006 school year of seniors at Warsaw Community High School in Indiana. The film chronicles some of their hopes and lots of their fears as they navigate the tricky waters of small-town high school life and impending adulthood. Screening: April 18, 7:00pm
Animated Expressions I (89 min.) Instructional films, unsolvable riddles, confessional letters and once-in-a lifetime interviews. These animated stories will take you back in time, uncover secrets of the fairer sex, and, above all, entertain you with an assortment of imaginative animation styles. Screening: April 19, 5:00pm & April 24, 2:45pm
Includes:
· Einstein’s Riddle
· When I Grow Up
· Fetch
· Letter to Colleen
· Plush Life
· Teat Beat of Sex
· Simulacra
· Chainsaw
· Yours Truly
· Kentucky Kingdom
· Lapsus
· I Met the Walrus
· Crow Moon
· Wibbel-Ich & Glück
Animated Expressions II (91 min.) Ingenuity, self-discovery, and exploring a unique relationship with God are just some of the themes in our second animated program. Includes Oscar-nominee “Madame Tutli-Putli” and the new thriller by Bill Plympton. Screening: April 20, 10:15pm & April 24, 5:00pm
Includes:
· Migrations
· An Imaginary Life
· Lady on the Threshold (La Dama en el Umbral)
· Another B-Movie
· A Leg Up
· Shuteye Hotel
· For the Love of God
· 1977
· Milk Teeth
· Madame Tutli-Putli
Anita O’Day - The Life of a Jazz Singer (90 min.) This biographical documentary chronicles one of the most respected female vocalists in jazz, Anita O’Day (1919-2006), who died mere weeks after contributing interviews for the film. Full of great archival footage and interviews with her musical peers and collaborators. Screening: April 22, 9:15pm & April 23, 1:30pm
The Art of Negative Thinking (91 min.) A dark and hilarious story about a depressed but bitterly funny and articulate paraplegic who rejects the sympathy his injury generates and the fiasco that results when a “municipal positivity” group comes to their home. Preceded by the film "Three Towers." Screening: April 17, 9:30pm & April 19, 7:30pm
The Assassin (111 min.) A modern film noir about a hit man in New York who must evade the cops and the gangsters who hired him after a job goes awry. Co-written, directed by and starring Nashville native/TSU grad Devin E. Haqq. Screening: April 20, 9:30pm & April 23, 4:30pm
At the Death House Door (96 min.) Terrific documentary about a chaplain in a Texas prison who spent 15 years accompanying prisoners on their last day on earth. His belief in capital punishment changed when one excecuted prisoner appeared to be innocent. Screening: April 20, 9:15pm & April 22, 1:45pm
August the First (81 min.) Award winning film about an African American family’s party celebrating the youngest son’s graduation that takes a turn when the Nigerian father, who left years ago, suddenly arrives. Screening: April 19, 8:00pm
Bearing Light: A Journey to Sudan (100 min.) The journey of Big Kenny Alphin and others as they join members of the organization My Sister’s Keeper to bring aid, hope, love and encouragement in support of a campaign to build a school for the girls of Akon Village, Sudan. Screening: April 23, 7:00pm
The Black List (112 min.) Film critic/writer Elvis Mitchell interviews twenty prominent African Americans of various professions, disciplines and backgrounds who offer their own stories and insights on the struggles, triumphs and joys of black life in this country. Preceded by the film "A Child Shall Lead Them." Screening: April 19, 4:45pm
Bunnyland (87 min.) A stranger-than-fiction story of ancient civilizations, bunny golf, pre-fab houses, deception, and scandal in and around Pigeon Forge—and Johnny Tesar, who makes it difficult to discern all the facts of legal battles, spiritual alliances, and unexplained deaths. Screening: April 21, 9:15pm & April 23, 2:00pm
The Colors of Memory (93 min.) A successful Iranian surgeon living in Germany returns to his the earthquake-ravaged hometown Bam and slowly reconnects with his past. A beautiful, touching story about re-connecting with one’s roots. Screening: April 21, 7:15pm
Cook County (93 min.) An abused and alienated teenage boy and his absentee father attempt to re-establish their relationship while struggling to overcome addictions to crystal meth amidst a household of meth addicts. Starring White Bluff native Anson Mount. Screening: April 23, 9:30pm & April 24, 2:00pm
Cornered (88 min.) In a 1983 boxing match at Madison Square Garden, the padding was removed from the gloves of Luis Resto and for 30 minutes he assaulted Nashville’s Irish Billy Collins. The film not only investigates this brutal crime but follows Resto’s quest for redemption. Screening: April 20, 5:30pm & April 22, 1:00pm
Crossing the Dust (74 min.) Two Kurdish rebel army men find an abandoned five-year-old Iraqi boy in northern Iraq in 2003. They search for the boy’s parents in this moving story that captures the climate of the early part of the Iraq. Screening: April 19, 1:15pm & April 22, 5:00pm
Dear Mr. Waldman In the early sixties, Hilik, a ten-year-old boy who lives in Tel Aviv, is torn between his fear that his father, a Holocaust survivor, would abandon him, and the wish to make him happy. A sweet, engaging story about moving on. Preceded by the film "my olympic summer." Screening: April 23, 6:30pm & April 24, 2:15pm
Diggin’ Your Roots (83 min.) Three short music documentaries covering Vanderbilt’s legendary DJ Ken Berryhill, the Jayhawks’ Mark Olson and bluegrass faves The Infamous Stringdusters. Includes "Salvation Blues," "Four Days of Infamy," and "Turn Your Radio On: A Tribute to Ken Berryhill." Screening: April 23, 4:00pm
Eden Court (90 min.) Heartwarming comedy of misunderstandings starring Kimberly Williams-Paisley whose husband (Thomas Lennon) blew an opportunity to play pro baseball and gets more preoccupied with a land deal than their fragile marriage. Screening: April 19, 7:45pm
Encounters at the End of the World (99 min.) Not just another penguin movie—humans share equal time with nature as maverick director Werner Herzog explores his newest frontier, Antarctica, to capture the absurd, the surreal and the sublime of this icy wilderness at the bottom of the world. Screening: April 19, 5:45pm
Family Shorts Program (98 min.) The whole family will enjoy these shorts tales of grand theft fish rescues, a boy with a very special grandfather, and a mom who’ll stop at nothing to keep her son from dating. Featuring Dakota Fanning in “Cutlass.” Screening: April 20, 3:00pm
Includes:
· Borderline
· Goldfish
· Paul's Grandpa (Pauls Opa)
· Drawing Angel
· Cutlass
· The Truth About Tooth
· Earano
· Odysseus and the Cyclops
Film Without Boundaries (85 min.) Our annual program of the year’s best experimental film and video featuring new works by such artists as Ariana Gerstein and Leighton Pierce. Screening: April 20, 12:45pm
· The Drift
· Sera Sera
· Number One
· Dig
· 96
· Light Is Waiting
· SEVILLA → (∞) 06
· Harrachov
· Kip Masker
· Kogel vogel
· The Green Bag/Documentary Happens
· Daddy I'm Scared
FLOW: For Love of Water (91 min.) Focusing on pollution, human rights, politics, and corruption, filmmaker Salina constructs an exceptionally articulate profile of the precarious relationship uniting human beings and water. Preceded by the film "My Biodegradable Heart." Screening: April 19, 2:15pm & April 22, 4:30pm
Fun with Our Shorts On (91 min.) The plight of the male gynecologist, libationary self-improvement techniques and man-boobs are some of the critical issues tackled in our annual program of comedy shorts. Screening: April 20, 7:15pm & April 21, 12:45pm
Includes:
· Day Stripper
· The Pick-Up Artist (Der Aufreisser)
· Goodnight Vagina
· Know the Customer
· The BBC Challenge
· Just One of the Gynos
· Primitive Technology
· Another BBC Challenge
· Matumbo Goldberg
· The Frank Anderson
· No Coke
Heart & Soil (45 min.) A journey into the rich landscape and lives of farmers in the Southwest and the bustling energy of farmer's markets. A look at the importance of small scale farming as a means toward better personal and planetary health. FREE ADMISSION in honor of EARTH DAY Screening: April 18, 5:30pm
Hud (Screening after "A Conversation with Patricia Neal") This excellent story of moral degradation set in the modern west garnered Oscars for Patricia Neal as the family housekeeper who wants nothing to do with the no-account Hud Bannon (Paul Newman); Melvyn Douglas as Hud's father; and James Wong Howe's cinematography. The film begins after the onstage discussion with Patricia Neal on April 22, 6:00pm (film will begin at approximately 6:30pm.)
In the City of Sylvia (98 min.) A young foreigner spends his afternoons in an outdoor cafe, sketching the women he sees...while looking for Sylvia, who he met years before in the same city. An exceedingly graceful work that captures a youthful sense of a world filled with an almost limitless sensuality. Screening: April 20, 5:00pm
In the Company of Actors (90 min). - An ensemble of Australia's finest actors, including Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving, prepare to perform the Sydney Theatre Company's production of Hedda Gabler at the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. Preceded by the film "A Day's Work." Screening: April 20, 2:45pm
Join Us (85 min.) Riveting documentary about a twisted Christian cult in South Carolina, how seemingly “normal” people were attracted to it and how they broke away. Screening: April 22, 6:45pm & April 23, 2:15pm
JUMP! (85 min.) This family documentary follows the progress of several competitive jump rope teams as they work their way through regional and national competitions, towards their eventual goal of being world champions. Screening: April 18, 4:15pm & April 19, 3:15pm
Kings (96 min.) A group of Irish men, who all left home for work in London, reconvene at the wake of one of their compatriots. A depiction of the isolation felt by long-term migrants who struggle to find a place to call home. Preceded by the film "The Sound of People." Screening: April 19, 12:15pm
Lights, Camera OUT!– (GUYS) (102 min.) Our annual gay shorts program includes the stories of a melancholy boy who has a not-so-happy birthday, an artist struggling with prejudice and hypocrisy in the Bahamas, and a closeted zombie who gets a much-needed makeover. Screening: April 21, 4:30pm & April 22, 9:45pm
Includes:
· Bloom
· Float
· The Manual
· Swim For Life
· Gay Zombie
· The Saddest Boy in the World
Lights, Camera OUT!-(GIRLS) (77 min.) In this year’s lesbian-themed shorts, uncovered family secrets lead to startling discoveries, an unfortunate hairstyle won’t let go, and the new girl in town finds out that membership really does have its privileges. Oh, and did we mention white girls can rap? Screening: April 22, 7:15pm & April 24, 4:45pm
Includes:
· Just Me?
· Happenstance
· Members Only
· Dive
· Peace Talk
· Long Ago
Making Beautiful Music (64 min.) Two classical music documentaries: a New Zealand singing instructor's lifelong passion for the opera assures the future of many talented opera singers, while Memphis’ Earnestine Rodgers Robinson reflects on her rise from southern roots to become an unlikely composer that takes her all the way to Europe. Includes "That Certain Sound" and "Sounds of a Miracle." Screening: April 23, 4:45pm
Member Sneak Screening: April 19, 12:00pm
Mountain Top Removal (82 min.) Michael O'Connell reveals how strip-mining in West Virginia is impacting local communities in the heart of coal-mining country where citizens have stepped up to try to stop the destruction of Southern Appalachia's natural landscape. Preceded by the film "Unfettering the Falcons: The Possibility of a Performance Enhancing Makeover." Screening: April 23, 6:45pm
Moving Paths (100 min.) Four short documentaries about women’s health and social issues taking place in the US, Canada, Kurdistan and Australia. Includes: "On a Moving Path," "A Handful of Ash" and "The Sister of Significant Suffering" and "I Never Thought It Was Rape." Screening: April 18, 4:45pm
A Nashville State of Mind (102 min.) A look at Nashville’s current young alt country scene, including interviews with Ben Cashatt, Jeremy Lister, Courtney Jaye, Hank III, and lots of others. Screening: April 20, 7:45pm
Of All The Things (90 min.) A hilarious and touching documentary that follows ‘70s hit songwriter Dennis Lambert (“Rhinestone Cowboy”, “Ain’t No Woman Like the One I’ve Got”) on a whirlwind tour as he rediscovers his passion for music on a tour of the Philippines, where his obscure 1972 solo album is still wildly successful. Screening: April 21, 6:45pm & April 22, 3:30pm
One Bad Cat: The Reverend Albert Wagner Story (80 min.) Very provocative documentary about the transformative role art plays in the tumultuous life journey of 82 year-old, renowned, African American “outsider” artist Reverend Albert Wagner. Screening: April 20, 4:15pm & April 21, 2:00pm
Otis (94 min.) A gory story of American suburbia and family values gone haywire, when a Cleaveresque family decides to take revenge on the kidnapper of their teenage daughter. Preceded by the film "The Mark." Screening: April 21, 10:15pm
Out at the Wedding (96 min.) Alex can’t bring herself to tell her conservative family she is engaged to her bi-racial boyfriend, but her cover-up goes awry in this outrageously funny story about misunderstandings, rumors, stand-in lesbian girlfriends and who REALLY comes out! Screening: April 21, 8:00pm
The Pencil-Stand (78 min.) The latest work from celebrated folk art filmmaker Phil Chambliss concerns a blind pencil salesman, a minister, and the minister’s wife in a backwoods story of theology and business told in a way that only Phil could tell it. Screening: April 20, 7:00pm
Phantom Love (86 min.) A surreal, highly visual drama about an enmeshed family, in which violence and trauma are steadily percolating just beneath the surface. The lead character is Lulu, a very beautiful, but angry and isolated woman, who lives alone in Los Angeles. Screening: April 20, 2:00pm
Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind (69 min.) John Gianvito's poetic essay eloquently captures the vanishing tradition of American radical idealism as seen through a guided tour of the final resting places of some of its most controversial political figures (including Malcolm X, Eugene V. Debs, and Sacco and Vanzetti) Preceded by the film "John Lautner, The Desert Hot Springs Motel." Screening: April 19, 5:15pm
Prophets Rising (90 min.) A look at some of the leaders, committed in different ways and with different ways of reaching out, of the charismatic church scene in Nashville. Screening: April 18, 9:00pm
Pussycat Preacher (75 min.) The true story of a former stripper who found Jesus, won over some young housewives in one church and started a project to reach out to other strippers only to run into objections from some church members. Screening: April 20, 3:15pm & April 21, 1:15pm
Que Viva La Lucha: Wrestling in Tijuana (79 min.) Totally fun documentary uncovering the masked wrestling culture in Tijuana: the good guys, the bad guys, the masks, the costumes, the fanatics, the referees. Will get you into a head lock you won’t want to get out of! Preceded by the film "The Mother Hen." Screening: April 23, 7:15pm & April 24, 2:30pm
Reflections of Evil (110 min.) A hilarious, jaw-dropping ride through L.A.'s violence-infested streets as it follows a hapless, bloated protagonist surviving in the City of Angels, mixing found footage and live action and encountering Karen Carpenter, the Summer of Love and Steven Spielberg along the way. Screening: April 23, 9:15pm
The Return of the Re-Worked: Damon Packard Unleashed! (100 min.) Packard cannibalizes and recreates other people's movies in the form of trailers, making-ofs and music video montages. These deranged parodies and travesties of the b-movies that time forgot implode the distinction between irony and sincerity. Screening: April 23, 9:15pm April 24, 7:15pm
Searchers 2.0 – Alex “Repo Man” Cox’s laid back, funny sendup of The Searchers follows two men who seek revenge on a B-move screenwriter who mistreated them on the filmset of BUFFALO BILL VS. DOC HOLLIDAY many years before. Screening: April 17, 7:30pm & April 18, 4:30pm
Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America (107 min.) In 1007 AD on the mainland of North America, two stranded Vikings search against all odds to find their way home. A truly original work with a soundtrack that includes Eno and, yes, Judas Priest. Screening: April 19, 9:45pm
Shake the Devil Off (99 min.) A look at the parishioners of New Orleans’ 165-year-old St. Augustine Church, which the Archdiocese has decided to close after Katrina. The film follows the growing movement to keep the church open and retain the beloved Father Jerome LeDoux. Screening: April 20, 6:45pm & April 21, 3:30pm
Shorts Program I (100 min.) In these shorts we are reminded that, despite good intentions, things don’t always go as planned: Enchanted young lovers skip school, an Inuit sets out on an average day of hunting, and sunbathers spend a leisurely day at the beach. Well, as mom always said, it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Screening: April 20, 1:00pm & April 23, 12:15pm
Includes:
· All Day Long
· Gaining Ground (Land Gewinnen)
· Waves (Valuri)
· Sikumi (On the Ice)
· Spider
· A Tooth For An Eye
Shorts Program 2 (100 min.) A misanthropic asthmatic bicyclist has a unique relationship with his polar opposite cousin, a young couple connects through a mutual love of junk food and pop culture, and sisters are brought closer by a coercive young man. In these shorts, emotional bonds are both constructed and destroyed. But in the end, what’s left is all that really matters. Screening: April 17, 9:15pm & April 19, 1:00pm
Includes:
· Bruno
· Murdering Mama’s Boy
· Perfect to Begin
· Man
· Bitter Sweet
· By Modern Measure
Shorts Program 3 (100 min.) Relationships and commitments are put to the test in this group of shorts whose characters are challenged with the awkwardness of new-found matrimony, the stress of financial woes and the hindrance of imminent zombie attacks when trying to woo a girl. Screening: April 18, 2:15pm & April 20, 9:00pm
Includes:
· Soft
· Tomorrow Arigato
· Love Story
· Quick Feet, Soft Hands
· Dolls and Houses
· I Love Sarah Jane
Shorts Program 4 (103 min.) New meaning is given to the term “occupational hazard” in this program, where we find working in a post-Katrina, post-911, globalized world comes with all sorts of problems. Let’s just hope the power doesn’t go out. Screening: April 19, 9:15pm
Includes:
· A Day’s Work
· Look Sharp
· New Business
· The China Project
· Woman In Burka
· The Second Line
· The Execution of Solomon Harris
Shorts Program 5 (99 min.) Sometimes we find that who we are and what we’ve become aren’t exactly what we had hoped for. The films in this program show what happens when we are faced with the decision to do something about it. Screening: April 23, 8:45pm
Includes:
· Dog Run
· Aquarium
· Happy New Year
· Chief
· Crossbow
· Dog Altogether
Sons of Lwala (77 min.) Two Kenyan brothers studying medicine in America return home to open their village’s first health clinic. Unable to raise enough money on their own, they are joined by hundreds who rally support across America. Screening: April 21, 9:00pm & April 23, 5:00pm
Sozdar, She Who Lives Her Promise (70 min.) A profile of Nuriye Kesbir, a stubborn Kurdish woman and one of the leaders of the PKK, who served time in a Dutch prison because of her personal choices. Screening: April 20, 5:15pm & April 21, 3:00pm
The Spiritual Revolution (130 min.) A look at the growth of a new and vital form of spirituality which embraces both eastern and western traditions and yet transcends them both. Includes interviews with many well-known spiritual teachers, medical doctors and researchers. Screening: April 20, 12:30pm & April 22, 1:15pm
The Sweet Lady with the Nasty Voice (95 min.) Lovin’, rockin’ bio on the First Lady of Rockabilly Wanda Jackson. Need we say more? Great music and footage, with testimonials by Elvis Costello, Rosie Flores and others, plus reminisces by the late Hank Thompson. Preceded by the film "Broadcast Cowboy." Screening: April 19, 10:00pm
Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai (81 min.) Inspirational profile of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy. Screening: April 18, 7:30pm
Talking Guitars (90 min.) An intimate portrait of master guitar craftsman Flip Scipio, juxtaposing the quiet artist and the rock-star world of musicians who seek his expertise, such as Jackson Browne, David Lindley, Ben Taylor, Paul Simon and Carly Simon. Screening: April 21, 9:45pm