2002 Festival Archive

Schedule:

Friday, 11/8:

8 p.m. (Library): Opening reception with filmmakers for all Friday night ticket-holders.

9 pm (Auditorium): Scarfmania (4 min) / Spring Forward (110 min).

9:15 p.m. (Venue #2): The Indescribable Nth (9 min) / Little Otik (127 min).

Saturday 11/9:

12 noon (Auditorium): A Celebration of Shorts catered by Bread and Chocolate. Gu (5:00), Butoh (7:50), Shake 'Em Up (28:00), Spoken Flesh (15:00), Q&A with filmmakers: Mike Eschenbach, Hugues Dalton, Patrick Shea and Skip Tenczar.

12 noon (Venue #2): Spring Forward (110 min).

3 p.m. (Auditorium): Dead River Rough Cut (70 min). Post-film Q&A with director Stu Silverstein.

3 p.m. (Venue #2): Little Otik (127 min).

5 p.m. (Auditorium): Paid To Eat Ice Cream (73 min). Post-film Q&A with star Bob McQuillen.

6:30 p.m. (Bistro): Margaritas' Comidas. A catered reception of Mexican food.

7 p.m. (Cafeteria): Contra Dance: Blackwater String Band, caller: Carolyn Parrott. Special guest Bob McQuillen.

8 p.m. (Auditorium): Que Viva Mexico.

8 p.m. (Venue #2): The Acid House (112 min).

9:45 p.m. (Auditorium): Larry Meistrich: Movie-making Stories. Que Viva Mexico follow-up Q&A with the Executive Producer of Slingblade and Niagara, Niagara.

10:45 p.m. (Auditorium): Calle 54 (106 min).

Sunday 11/10:

1 p.m. (Auditorium): Hollywood Screenwriters: Stories from the 40s, 50s and 60s. Barry Steelman of Cinema 93 Video hosts a discussion with Kate Phillips and Tad Mosel, including clips of their films from the 40s-60s. Catered by Bagel Works.

1 p.m. (Venue #2): The Acid House.

3 p.m. (Auditorium): More Good Shorts. Black Kites (28 min), Isaac's Interpretation (9 min), Scarfmania (4 min), Loaves and Fishes (29 min).

3 p.m. (Venue #2): Indescribable Nth (9 min), People's Painting (60 min).

7 p.m. (Concord City Auditorium): Nosferatu (85 min), accompanied live by the Alloy Orchestra. (Transylvanian garb is welcome, even encouraged!)

8:30 (Concord City Auditorium): Closing reception for Nosferatu ticket-holders.

On-going Activities:

• There will be a continuous loop of more student and locally made films shown in the Student Senate Room, NHTI. The loop schedule will be posted in the Student Senate Room. Times: Saturday: Noon-8 p.m.; Sunday: 1 p.m-5 p.m.
• There will be a display of original Hollywood movie posters in the NHTI Library all weekend.
• Food and concessions will be available on campus throughout the day Saturday and Sunday. Cafeteria and Bistro hours will be printed in the program. Coffee and snacks will be available throughout the festival.

Film Descriptions
(Feature Films and Shorts):

Feature Films:

Spring Forward: (1999/U.S./ Dir: Tom Gilroy/110 min) Spring Forward is a funny and moving character study about unlikely friendship and life-changing revelation. Murph (Ned Beatty) is a municipal employee nearing retirement, and Paul (Liev Schreiber) is a young ex-convict new to the job. The two work for the Parks and Recreation Department in a small New England town, and their mismatched partnership provokes challenges to each man's assumptions and worldview. The film owes its convincing look to director Gilroy's unique production schedule: he shot Spring Forward over the course of one year. The changing seasons provide an apt metaphor for Paul's chance to start again and Murph's graceful fade into old age. Beatty and Schreiber's tour-de-force performances head a cast of the finest indie performers. It's a reminder of why we love independent cinema!

Little Otik: (2000 /Czech./ Dir: Jan Svankmajer / 127 min) Czech w/English subtitles. Surrealist master Jan Svankmajer's newest film brings a famous Czech legend eerily to life. An ordinary couple, Karel and Bozena, are unable to conceive a child. When Karel digs up a tree root and whittles something vaguely resembling a human baby, Bozena's maternal longings transform the stump into a living creature with a (literally) monstrous appetite that can't be met with baby formula. Svankmajer brilliantly mixes his dark and wicked humor with his subversive politics and love of mythology into a stunning live-action fable for our times.

The Acid House: (1999/UK/ Dir: Paul McGuigan/112 min) is an iconoclastic triptych adapted by Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh from his own collection of short stories. Combining a vicious sense of humor with hard talking drama, The Acid House plunges the viewer into increasingly bizarre situations: Boab Coyle, a poor sap who has just lost everything, meets God in a bar; hapless Johnny tries so hard to please that he is mercilessly exploited by everyone, including his wife and upstairs neighbor; and "Top Boy" Coco Brice drops acid and mysteriously switches bodies with a newborn. Starring Ewan Bremmer (Black Hawk Down), Kevin McKidd (Trainspotting) and Stephen McCole (Rushmore), The Acid House reaches into the hearts and minds of the "chemical generation" and casts a dark and unholy light into the hidden corners of the human psyche. (Adult content)

Dead River Rough Cut: (2002/US/ Dir: Richard Searls, Stu Silverstein /70 min) For the past 30 years, Dead River Rough Cut has had the power to charm, offend, mesmerize and sell more videos than any movie ever produced in Maine. Recently, filmmakers Searls and Silverstein ransacked their film archives and were able to reassemble the primary elements. Here, for the first time, is the absolute original uncut new version of this Maine classic, with 20 minutes of never-before-seen footage. Bob Wagg and Walter Lane live in a tarpaper shack, hunting, fishing, trapping and logging with oxen. They prefer the sounds of birds to the roar of highway traffic, and scorn the money-chasing syndrome of city life. Covering a period of four seasons in the remote backwoods of Maine, Dead River Rough Cut presents a revealing look at an individual way of life.

Paid to Eat Ice Cream: (US / Dir: David Millstone/73 min) Bob McQuillen has been a mainstay of the New England contra-dance world for 50 years with his piano and accordion playing. Millstone's film captures his irrepressible personality and, through interviews and rare footage, also presents an informal history of contra-dancing in New England.

Que Viva Mexico: (1931/1975 /MEX/USSR/US/ Dir: Sergei Eisenstein /85 min) Eisenstein's epic celebration of Mexico's history and people was never completed due to financial problems. Fifty years after its initial production, this great work has been faithfully assembled by the great director's editor, 80-year-old Grigory Alexandrov. Digitally remastered edition highlights the beautiful photography.

Calle 54: (2000/US/ Dir: Fernando Trueba/106 min) Acclaimed as one of the very best motion pictures ever made about music, the vibrant Calle 54 offers an incredible behind-the-scenes glimpse into the lives of some of the greatest Latin Jazz artists of our time. Showcased in a series of extraordinary performances, Latin legends use their immense musical talents to weave an innovative tapestry of sound, style and rhythm that becomes a passionate celebration of life. From the director of the Academy Award-winning Belle Epoch (Best Foreign Language Film, 1993)-featured artists include the late godfather of Latin music Tito Puente, barefoot Brazilian pianist Eliane Elias, Argentinean tenor sax great Gato Bararbieri, Paquito D'Rivera and many more you don't want to miss.

Nosferatu: (1922/Germany/ Dir: F.W. Murnau /85 min) The Greatest Vampire movie of all time! This exquisite new print reveals the creepy genius of this masterpiece for the first time in decades! Shot in the Carpathian mountains of Transylvania and in Germany, master director F.W. Murnau, has bequeathed us the mother of all nightmares. What makes the film special on November 10, however, is that the score is original, written and performed live by the Alloy Orchestra. A symphony of horror!

The People's Painting: (1998/UK/ Dir: Chris Granlund/49 min) Fascinated by the West's obsession with polls, market research and focus groups, Russian avant-garde artists Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid set out to create a painting using these revered tools of modern marketing. Based on their findings, the pair produce a "most perfect" painting-and in the process a wry critique of modern capitalism.

Shorts:

Gu: (2002/TWN/US/ Dir: Chuan Chu Lin and Michael Eschenbach/4 min) This animation made by a Taiwanese landscape painter and a local Concord documentary filmmaker is the first in a four part series depicting Chuan's empirical moments growing up as a farmer in Taipei, Taiwan. Escher-like, mythological like Sisyphus, this tale finds beauty within its repetition.

Butoh: (2002/US/Dir: Michael Eschenbach/10 min). Made by a Concord filmmaker, Butoh is a documentary about Katsura Kan's transformative process into the world of Butoh, Japan's newest and most shocking art form. We watch Kan as he applies his make-up and discusses the mysterious mindset of the Butoh dancer.

Shake 'Em Up: (US/Dir: Hugues Dalton/ 28 min) Shake 'Em Up is about a day and a half in one of the working class neighborhoods that make up Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The social life of the residents who are over fifty revolves around their weekly games of bingo. Everyone ostensibly goes to win the big jackpot, but the real reason is the neighborhood gossip and to get out of the house. What unfolds is a comedy about friendship, bingo and death.

Spoken Flesh (US/ Dir: Anthony Tenczar/1995/13 min). Made by a Concord film-maker, Spoken Flesh explores a cultural phenomenon through seven individuals: men and women who have adorned their bodies through tattoos and piercing. Best Short Documentary, Great Plains Film Festival; Bronze Award, New York Exposition of Short Film and Video. (Adult content)

Black Kites (1996/US/Dir: Jo Andres/26 min) Based on 1992 journals of Bosnian visual artist Alma Hajric who was forced into a basement shelter to survive the siege of Sarajevo, Black Kites is a dreamlike testament to artistry, imagination and the resiliency of the human psyche.

The Indescribable Nth: (2001/US/ Dir: Oscar Moore/9 min) A magical story about the mystery of the human heart, written and directed by Academy Award-nominated director Oscar Moore, animated and produced by Character Builders animation studio.

Isaac's Interpretations: (US/Dir: Aaron Strong/9 min): A young boy's desire for an embracing fantasy world is juxtaposed against the heartless monologue of his frustrated mother.

Loaves and Fishes: (US/Dir: Nancy Schiesari/2000/29 min) Spanish w/English sub-titles. Academy-Award nominated cinematographer Nancy Schiesari directs this film. Made in a production class at the University of Texas, Austin, Loaves and Fishes has a lot of style within a small budget. The original script by Amparo Garcia Crow offers a restrained view of veiled relationships and their tragic consequences in a Mexican-American family and their failing motel business.

Scarfmania (2001/US/Dir: Chris Lanier/4 min): In yet another of Lanier's poetic tales, his yin-yang faced hero Romanov finds himself alienated in a town of scarf-wearers. Romanov's adventures unfold in the style of old silent movies, accompanied by the free-wheeling jazz-inflected music of Ralph Carney.