2006 Films

Diva Dog: Pitbull on Wheels

The true story of Coral, a pit bull with a heart of gold and an indomitable will to live, who was hit by a car and left permanently paralyzed. With the use of a doggie wheelchair, she touched and inspired people from all walks of life. This is a love story between a dog and her best friend that will live forever.

World Premiere, Year: 2006, Length: 28 min., Format: MiniDV, Origin: California, USA
Producer/Director: Chris Cory, Cinematographer: Helene Oritsland, Duncan McFarland, Shanra Kehl, Composer: Dig Lewis, Paul Bolotin. Editor: Joel Patrick, Danny Oliva
Featuring: Debra Wilson, Linda Blair, Kelli McCarty, Jordan Ladd, James Madio, Adrienne Frantz

Global Focus II: The New Environmentalists

This program features intimate portraits of seven passionate and dedicated environmental activists who put themselves between their environment and its adversaries - willing to risk it all!

Northeast Premiere, Year: 2005, Length: 28 min., Format: DVCam, Origin: California, USA
Producers/Directors: John Antonelli, Lorrae Rominger, Tom Dusenbery, Will Parrinello,  Cinematographer: Andy Black, Jim Iacona,  Editor: Tom Miro
Featuring: Robert Redford

Looking Skyward: A Passion for Hawkwatching

Hawk watchers are a different breed of birders, gathering in large numbers on mountaintops and rocky outcrops to observe the annual migration. “Looking Skyward” examines this tribal community, and our fascination with birds of prey.

Year: 2006, Length: 16  min., Format: BetaSP/DV, Origin: Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA
Producer: Shawn Carey, Director/Editor: John Sutherland, Writer: Fred Bouchard, Cinematographer: Don Crockett, John Sutherland, Composer: Chris Duval
Featuring: Pete Dunne, Bill Clark

Muriel

Through quirky and sometimes hilarious anecdotes, a Jewish New Yorker living in Key West reveals her unusual spin on a cheating husband, orgasm, a troubled teenager, mental illness, food, and a bedroom ceiling fan. Muriel describes the relationships she has with her husband; the teenage son he had through an affair; her gay friend; and her grown son with bipolar disorder.

World Premiere,  Year: 2005, Length: 21min., Format: Digital, Origin: New York, USA,
Director/Editor Kim Romano, Cinematographer: Kim Romano, Cody Romano
Featuring: Muriel Kutner, Artie Kutner, Arron Kutner, Eric Trigili

TRAILER

My Eyes Were Fresh: The Life and Photographs of John Gutmann

In 1933 John Gutmann was forced to leave behind a promising career as a painter in Germany to start a new life in the United States. 'My Eyes Were Fresh' is a profile of an artist who made an important contribution to the history of modern photography and forged a link between European modernism and the burgeoning artistic culture of San Francisco.

Year: 2006, Length: 30 min., Format: MiniDV, Origin: California, USA,
Producer: Sandra S. Phillips, Director: Jane Reed, Composer: Richard Marriott, plus Johnny Hodges, Charles Mingus, Jimmy Giuffre, Editor: Nathaniel Dorsky

Ordinary Lives

Ordinary Lives uncovers the living conditions of residents in a slum in Mumbai, focusing on the daily struggles of one joint family with ten members of three generations crammed in a 180-square-foot shack. This family represents those in India at the very bottom of the social hierarchy. The subordinate and poor (especially the young and the women) have different concerns from those of government officials, whose goal is to replace the slums with a new cosmopolitan, modern development. Through a poised juxtaposition of voices from both inside and outside the slums, the film re-examines issues such as poverty, human rights, and gender equality that have been troubling India and other developing countries. (Hindi, English, Marathi w/English subtitles)

Year: 2005, Length: 38 min., Format: BetaSP, Origin: India
Producer/Director/Editor: Sheetal Agarwal, Cinematography: Sheetal S. Agarwal, Ameen Syed Kader

Project: B-Boy/Kujo

Project: B-Boy introduces an amazing, gravity-defying, fluid, physical art form that is currently making a worldwide comeback.  'Krazy Kujo,' a partially deaf break-dancer with a fascinating perspective of life and a matching dance style, shows us why.

Year: 2006, Length: 14 min., Format: DVCam, Origin: Massachusetts, USA,
Producer: Doug Shineman, Director: Brad Hasse
Featuring: Krazy Kujo

Remembering John Marshall

A portrait of filmmaker and activist John Kennedy Marshall who began his career in the 1950s documenting the lives of the Ju/'hoansi people of Namibia--among the last remaining hunter-gatherers--for anthropological audiences. In the 1980s Marshall became an activist helping the Ju/'hoansi fight for land and water rights. He leaves behind an extensive ethnographic film archive including over 20 films on the Ju'/hoansi.

Year: 2006, Length: 16 min, Format: BetaSP, Origin: Massachusetts, USA
Producer: David Tamés, Cynthia Close, Director/Editor: Alice Apley, David Tamés
Featuring: Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, Robert Gordon, Alexandra Eliot Marshall, Cynthia Close, Sandeep Ray, Karma Foley, Jayasinhji Jhala, Rakhi Jhala.

Somewhere on the Vineyard

A lyrical musical and visual montage of the sights and sounds on Martha's Vineyard.

World Premiere, Year: 2005, Length: 6 min, Format: BetaSP, Origin: Massachusetts, USA
Filmmaker: Federico Muchnik, Composer: Rale Micic

Starter Pack

At lower cost than traditional food aid, Malawi's Starter Pack program dramatically increased food production with free small packs of improved seed and fertilizer for every small farmer. Key participants explain the creation of this controversial national productivity program; how and why it was transformed into a social welfare program only for the least able farmers. The film illustrates many of the central issues and controversies of international development strategies.

World Premiere, Year: 2005, Length: 32 min, Format: DVD, Origin: Massachusetts, USA
Producer/Director/Writer: Charles Mann, Cinematographer: Douglas Karr, Editor: Clint Kenley, Michael J. Palmer
Narrator: Charles Mann

The Right To Sing

The Right to Sing is a short documentary about one man, Stephen Baird, who has performed for audiences on the streets of Boston for over thirty years. However, he found very early on that police harassment was as much a part of the show as the singing itself. The film is a brief telling of Mr. Baird's story of advocacy for street performance and the first amendment rights that go with it.

Year: 2005, Length: 4 min, Format: MiniDV, Origin: New York, U.S.A.
Filmmaker: JD Marlow
Cast: Stephen Baird