April 5 - 12, 2013
Sunshine Cinema
143 East Houston, New York City
2011
Winners of the 2011 SOHO International Film Festival
"Tanzania: A Friendship Journey" (USA/Tanzania)
Directed By: Sylvia Caminer
BEST WORLD SHOWCASE
*
"The Bad Penny" (USA/Thailand)
Directed By: Todd Bellanca
BEST SHOWCASE FEATURE FILM
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"Pipe Dreams" (USA)
Directed By: Ben Greene
BEST SHOWCASE SHORT FILM
*
"Tanzania: A Friendship Journey" (USA/Tanzania)
Directed By: Sylvia Caminer
BEST DOCUMENTARY
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"Get Real! Wise Women Speak" (USA)
Directed By: Joni Steele Kimberlin
FEATURE FILM AUDIENCE AWARD
*
"Wordless" (Australia)
Directed By: Lisa Kappel
SHORT FILM AUDIENCE AWARD
*
"Ganap Na Babae" (Philippines)
Directed By: Rica Arevalo, Ellen Ramos, Sarah Roxas
MIENT'S PICK: EXCELLENCE IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
| FRIDAY - April 15, 2011 | ||
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1:00pm |
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"Sister Mongsil"
Director: Lee Ji-Sang
Drama, South Korea, 75 mins
* US PREMIERE *
The child Mongsil probably never wanted to live the way she did, but she lives through her pain with an indifference of mind as if she wanted no reward. Nevertheless, the child sheds tears. As if without tears there are no women, she sheds tears and lives with pain.
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“One Dry Run”
Director: T J Thine USA, 7.15 mins, Short These are moments of time where the character tells the story of their inner conflict without verbalization. We let the audience choose for themselves what is happening with that particular character. |
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3:20pm |
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"Get Real: Wise Women Speak"
Director: Joni Steele Kimberlin Documentary, USA, 80 mins
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“Wordless”
Director: Lisa Kappel Australia, 8 mins, Short
* WORLD PREMIERE *
Martin was born with only 2,000 words to use in his entire lifetime. Fearful of a voiceless future, he decides to save his words until he is certain the present deserves them. But in being so cautious with his words, Martin risks watching his most precious moments quietly pass him by.
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6:40pm |
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"Jesse"
Director: Fred Carpenter
Drama, USA, 90 mins
* WORLD PREMIERE * Nassau County, New York Police detective Jesse turns vigilante as she investigates her brother's murder and enters into a world of crime, corruption, and shocking deception.
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“The Shoes Maketh a Man” Director: Tarek Sursock USA, 15 mins, Short
Alesandro Di Casano is an aspiring accountant who firmly believes that his immaculately groomed appearance is the key to his next successful business meeting. His belief and values are going to be put to the test as he sets forth to meet his new client in the concrete jungle of Beverly Hills.
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9:20pm |
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"Tanzania: A Friendship Journey"
Director: Sylvia Caminer
Documentary, USA/Tanzania, 114 mins
* NORTHEAST PREMIERE *
TANZANIA A Friendship Journey follows two friends from opposites ends of the earth who embark on a life changing journey across Tanzania. For one a homecoming for the other a transformation ...
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| SATURDAY - April 16, 2011 | ||
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1:00pm |
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"One Big Hapa Family"
Director: Jeff Chiba Stearns
Documentary, Canada, 85 mins
“And you thought your family was mixed up!” After a realization at a family reunion, half Japanese-Canadian filmmaker, Jeff Chiba Stearns, embarks on a journey of self-discovery to find out why everyone in his Japanese-Canadian family married interracially after his grandparents’ generation. This feature live action and animated documentary explores why almost 100% of all Japanese-Canadians are marrying interracially, the highest out of any other ethnicity in Canada, and how their mixed children perceive their unique multiracial identities.
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“Ode to a Post-It Note”
Director: Jeff Chiba Stearns Short, Canada 5 mins On a cluttered office desk plastered with Post-it Note ‘to do’ lists, one little Post-it Note escapes on an incredible journey of self-discovery to find its ‘father’. Shot using over 3500 digital photos, Ode to a Post-it Note, utilizes the magic of stop motion, classical, and pixilation animation to celebrate the inventor and the innovative inventions sparked out of even the smallest ideas. Featuring Art Fry, inventor of the Post-it Note. |
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“Sofia” Director: Shervin Kermani Canada, 14 mins, Short In his final moments, Joseph, an old reclusive painter, has a dream where he wanders through many memories. Over the course of his nostalgic odyssey, Joseph encounters many people from his past including his late wife, professor, and his mother Sofia, a ballerina whose solitary dancing becomes an image of redemption for the older man.
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3:40pm |
CINEMA NIGHT AT SIFFNYC (Shorts Program): | |
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“5 Minutes with Frida”
Director: Rob Santana, USA, 5 mins, Short
A beautiful young artist imagines herself as a tour guide for for idol, Frida Kahlo, in lower Manhattan.
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“Before We Get to Seattle” Directors: April Mosqus / Adam Linn, USA, 10 Mins, Short t's 1992 and Kurt Cobain's screams roar from every car stereo. Grunge rules. Seattle is the new rock n' roll center of the universe. Teenage runaway Chloe has big dreams, and her heart set on getting out of New Jersey and heading out to the West Coast to start a band. Before she hits the highway with her bass-playing, pot-dealer boyfriend, Slater, she desperately needs to see her best friend Michelle one last time... |
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“Delight” Director: Anthony J. Milio, USA, 4 mins, Short A romantic evening for two gets a little too hot. |
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“Heaven is Waiting” Director: Shlomi Ben Yair, 15 mins, USA, Short After being smuggled into Israel for a suicide bombing, a Palestinian girl must convince her handler that, although she is a woman, she is prepared to die. But is she?
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“The Secret Life of a Coin” Director: Aldo Romero, USA, 3 mins, Short |
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“Roy” Director: Gregory Mitnick, USA, 10.23 mins, Short It is hard to make friends. |
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“StereoTyped” Director: Frances Lozada / Franky G, USA, 18 mins, Short A look at different stereotypes from actors and Latino Artists and other cultures. A look at the entertainment industry and encouraging ways to make it better.
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“Tape Worm” Director: Margaret Laney, USA, 15 mins, Short Ever considered eating a tapeworm to lose weight?
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“The Encounter”
Director: Daryl Denner, USA, 13 mins, Short
* WORLD PREMIERE * Doris and Denny meet in a park and there is an instant connection between the two. Is it an unexpected meeting?...or are they two souls who were destined to meet?... |
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7:00pm |
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"Mountain Thief"
Director: Gerry Balasta
Drama, USA/Philippines, 78 mins
Celebrated with prestigious awards and numerous film festival selections, THE MOUNTAIN THIEF is a powerful and a touching motion picture that is not only a film, but also an agent of philanthropy and a plea for change!
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“Going….Somewhere” Director: Nicco Quinones USA 9 mins, Short |
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9:40pm |
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"Gang Girl"
Director: Damien Bailey
Drama, USA,
90 mins
LIFE or DEATH. Choose. A troubled girl involved in a female gang called THE CRONIKS, commits a crime and is sent to a "Scared Straight" program to meet the reformed leader who created it 25 years ago. |
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“Beautiful” Director: John Gallagher USA, 10 mins, Short Beauty, vanity, narcissism – these are the crimes of gorgeous young Lauren. Boyfriends, her father, strangers both male and female, constantly remind her how beautiful she is. That is, until she finds herself on trial … in Beauty Court. “Out of literary models John Gallagher creates a colorful smorgasbord of beauty-pictures, which not only raises questions about aesthetics, but also entertains in a saucy way" -- Filmfest Oldenburg |
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| SUNDAY - April 17, 2011 | ||
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1:00pm |
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"Beneath the Rock"
Director: Eliana Ujueta
Drama, USA,
74 mins
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“Star Crossed”
Director: Nader Awad USA, 13 mins, Short When a young couple find themselves in a complicated relationship, the world, as they know it turns upside down.
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3:20pm |
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Directors: Rica Arevalo, Ellen Ramos, Sarah Roxas
Drama, Philippines,
91 mins
* US PREMIERE * |
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“Philippine Independence Day Parade NYC”
Director: Josephus Tudtud USA, 5 mins, Short The pageantry of the Largest Filipino Parade outside the Philippines was captured cinematically in this short documentary of this event that happens in June every year in New York City. |
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6:40pm |
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"The Bad Penny"
Director: Todd Bellanca
Action/Drama, Thailand/USA,
93 mins
* NEW YORK PREMIER *
A gambling debt destroys a young boxer's career, now six years later his violent past returns to haunt him. |
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“The Dreamer” Director: Jose Venutolo USA / Venezuela, 15 mins, Short |
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9:20pm |
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"Nine Days That Changed The World"
Director: Kevin Knoblock
Documentary, USA, 90 mins
"Nine Days That Changed The World" will present the Pope’s trip to Poland in June 1979 as the cataclysmic event that changed a nation and changed the world, and which ultimately contributed greatly to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The film will feature the homilies and remarks he gave during these nine days and the places he went in the context of their special relevance in Polish history, including the first public Mass on the eve of Pentecost before millions in Warsaw’s Victory Square.
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“Ficurinie” Director: Marco Gozzo Italy, 16 mins, Short A young Sicilian boy, while walking in the countryside, arrives at the home of the village “crazy” man, but this encounter will bring the boy a new perspective on life and on his own perceptions. |
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| MONDAY - April 18, 2011 | ||
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1:00pm |
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"Lee Strasberg's Method"
Director: Jeremy Kruse
Documentary, USA, 91 mins
"Lee Strasberg's Method" is a documentary film that investigates and clarifies Method acting and dispels some of the misconceptions that many people have about Lee Strasberg's work. The film, made by Jeremy Kruse, is primarily an interview with Geoffrey Horne, who started studying with Lee in 1954. |
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“Cold Truths”
Director: Faith Selby United Kingdom, 13 mins, Short
Peter, a desperate former spy is returning to Berlin at the end of the Cold War to find the women he loves. Only to find that she has been employed by his former superior and has replaced him in his job. Susan, a spurned lover sees he opportunity to fight for her country and against the communist state unaware that she has become the pawn in a much larger game. Peter urgently must uncover the true nature of her assignment before Susan is left out in the cold. |
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"Kindergarten Shuffle"
Director: Douglas Morse
Documentary, USA, 93 mins
A moving movie with a serious social message: the New York City school system is set up to fail children and their parents from the start simply because there aren't enough decent options for children entering kindergarten. Julia faces the prospect of a failing local school. From private school, home schooling, gifted and talented, and public school lotteries, she quickly overwhelmed. Julia discovers that school choice is really a euphemism for school chance and her options quickly winnow to a very scary number: zero.
In attendance: Douglas Morse, writer, director, etc. Lead actors Julia Motyka, Seth Duerr and Uma Incrocci Producers Gerry Balasta, Patrick Terry Educators from the UFT and other organizations
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“The Birds Upstairs”
Director: Christopher Jarvis USA, 9 mins, Short Frustrated attempts to bear children overwhelm the lives of an aristocratic, avian couple in the early nineteenth century.
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"God's Land"
Director: Preston Miller
Drama, USA,
164 mins
Teacher Chen and his followers are beckoned from Taiwan to Garland, Texas by God to deliver a message of eternal love, space travel and the end of the world. God’s Land is a gentle comedy of cultural dislocation; a bittersweet story about searching for faith in strange places.
Q & A with Director & Actors following the movie.
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| 9:40pm |
SIDEBAR: In Exhibition | |
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"Multo"
Director: Sherwin Morada
Drama, USA,
70 mins
This peaceful neighborhood is suddenly haunted by a serial killer and a ghost. Typical Horror Flick: Sexy, Gorey and Controversial. For Mature Audiences only. (Warning: NUDITY and VIOLENCE Not for the faint of heart.) Q&A with Director: Sherwin Morada and Actors: Antonio Alvaira and Remy Aquino
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"Miss Bomba Claudie"
Director: Leonard Plunkett
Short, USA,
5 mins
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| TUESDAY - April 19, 2011 | ||
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1:00pm |
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"Close-Up"
Director: Jose Cruz Jr.
Drama, USA,
85 mins
After falling off the wagon, a once aspiring Actor tries to rekindle his career, win back his estranged wife and daughter, and stay clean during the Holidays. He soon finds himself immersed in a deep kinship with a young woman he meets. Over the course of one day on New Years Eve in NYC, she shows him how to stand up, rediscover himself and move on with his life.
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“The Next Gotta Have It”
Director: Michael Cravotta USA, 18 mins, Short The guys at Humungo Toys put their trust in a dull, introverted toymaker and his newest creation to keep the company from going under. |
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3:40pm |
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"A Lonely Place For Dying"
Director: Justin Eugene Evans
Action/Drama, USA, 94 mins
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“The Birthday Circle”
United Kingdom, 5 mins, Short |
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7:00pm
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"Tarima"
Director: Neal Tan
Drama, Philippines, 90 mins
* US PREMIERE * Q & A with Director & Actors following the movie.
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“No Asians…It’s Just Not My Thing”
Director: Scott Ericksson USA, 16 mins, Short |
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9:40pm |
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"The Abduction of Zack Butterfield"
Director: Rick Lancaster
Action/Drama, USA,
91 mins
A beautiful young woman who is a murderous sexual psychopath returns from combat as a mercenary in Iraq and abducts a 14 yr-old boy, holding him prisoner as a bizarre relationship develops. |
| WEDNESDAY - April 20, 2011 | ||
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1:00pm |
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"Lesson Plan"
Directors: David Jeffery & Philip Neel
Documentary, USA,
76 mins
Young, gifted, and charismatic, Ron Jones had a dynamic connection with his students. Eager to shake up their political consciousness, Jones launched a two-week experiment, igniting a firestorm.
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“A Little Story”
Director: Angel Cho Czech Republic, 7 mins, Short Life ends when you stop dreaming, hope ends when you stop believing.
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3:20pm |
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"In Between"
Director & Writer: Deborah Twiss
Cast: Mather Zickel, Annie Miesels, Nick Gregory, Deborah Twiss, Rene Alberta and Charles Fatone
Drama, USA, 120 minutes * SPECIAL SCREENING *
Whispered conversations, odd strangers, and voices coming out of drains take several people who are trying to heal from the tragedy of 9/11 down a path that changes each of them forever.
Q&A with director & actors following the movie. |
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* WORLD PREMIERE * |
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"A Night of New German Cinema" | |
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"Sie Hat Es Verdient" ("She Deserves It") * SPECIAL SCREENING *
Q&A with director Thomas Stiller and Actress Liv Fries following the movie
After Susanne is tortured to death by Linda, who’s abused by her father, and Linda’s Gang, the desperate mother of the victim is looking for an explanation.
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"The Aristofrogs" (3 minutes)
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| 9:20pm |
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"Angel Express - The Director's Cut"
Director: Rolf Peter Kahl Thriller, Germany, 90 minutes
* INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE* * World premiere in January 2011 at the Max-Ophüls-Prize Film Festival Saarbrücken, Germany *
Angel Express is a film about people restlessly seeking for the ultimate experience. Set in late nineties Berlin, it shows images of radical change: Young urban heroes in the glare of flashlights; an environment in which coldness and affection or lust for power and friendship go hand in hand. |
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"The Aristofrogs" (3 minutes) Directors: John Gallagher, Jan Hinrik Drevs, Douglas Buck, Buddy Giovinazzo, Arno Frisch, Matthew Harrison, Ben Bernschneider
Cast: Stacy Keach, Seymour Cassel, Ken Russell, Bela B. Felsenheimer, Peter Lohmeyer, Mareike Fell, Catherine Fleming, Christina Gooding, Deborah Twiss, Jan Hinrik Drevs, Jan Plewka, John Gallagher, Lauren Schacher, Melanie Kretchsmann, Sarah Besgen, Simon Rumley, Sylvia Caminer, Thomas Darchinger, Ryan O'Callaghan and Caitlyn Sponheimer
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| THURSDAY - April 21, 2011 | ||
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1:00pm |
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"Foreclosure"
Director: Danny Thompson
Documentary, USA,
50 mins
The economic downturn faced by millions of Americans has created one of the worst housing markets in United States History. Real Eastate investors Mike Baird and Doug Clark bring light to the sharp reality of the embattled Housing Market in the Salt Lake City, Utah area. |
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“Break”
Director: Maurice Moore USA, 12 mins, Short "Break" is a heart touching film about Rodney who has dedicated his life to working hard and chasing the American Dream, but the economy has taken its toll. Faced with a decision that will forever change his life, Rodney finds himself standing between the valley of good and evil. |
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“The Usual” Director: Chris Spisak USA, 12 mins, Short A mysterious character attempts to help an alcoholic come to grips with the devastating effects that his disease is having on him and those around him.
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3:20pm |
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"Lost Harmony"
Director: Takayuki Yamato
Cast: Mark Freiburger, Masanori Hatano and Yoshihiro Kitamura
Documentary, Japan/USA, 70 mins
By and large, the film deals with American influence on Japanese society, but it also shows some beautiful scenery and the traditional culture that exists in Iwate.
Q&A with the Direcror following the movie
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“Salim”
Director: Tommaso Landuci Italy, 14 mins, Short A young muslim boy, SALIM, makes petty thefts to survive. An evening, running away from cops, he hides himself in a church and rest inside it all night long: the church, at first a mysterious and a dark place will become a protective and cozy mother for him.
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Spotlight on FRANK VINCENT Night hosted by Director John Gallagher Meet Frank Vincent live and Q&A |
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9:00pm |
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“The Hungry Ghosts”
Director: Michael Imperioli
Cast: Steve Schirripa, Aunjanue Ellis, Sharon Angela, Nick Sandow and Emory Cohen * SPECIAL SCREENING *
A New York City-set drama of interlocking stories which occur over a 36-hour period.
Q&A with Director Michael Imperioli
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“Pipe Dreams” Director: Ben Green USA, 22 mins, Short |
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