Friday, February 25 9:00 AM Comm. Bldg. Rm 1116
by Bret Renaud & Craig Renaud
Following the Arkansas National Guard as sons, daughters, fathers and mothers receive notice, get inducted, trained and transferred and finally deployed to Iraq.
By Alexandra Lescaze
"Where Do You Stand?" traces the story of textile workers' epic and often bitter struggle to organize a union in Kannapolis, North Carolina, as an attempt to cope with a rapidly changing social and economic climate.
By Teresa Konechne
This inspiring documentary chronicles the story of Bayview, Virginia, a community that fights the system, redefines the needs of poor people and challenges all conventional ideas of community development.
By Eeva Jantti
Mary Ann Kkailther is a Dene-Indian living in Saskachewan with her extended family. The Dene community depends heavily on traditional livelihood-trapping, hunting and fishing-but their age-old ways of life has been detrimental influenced by uranium mining that has ravished the environment.
Friday, February 25, 7:00 PM Long Branch Coffee House
by Rob VanAlkemade
The recent sermons and exploits of activist Reverend Billy who, along with his Gospel Choir conduct divine theatrical performances, flagrantly illegal parking lot revivals, and chilling cash register exorcisms across California before returning to their hometown to greet the Republican National Convention.
by Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson
A one-minute portrait of an inner-city ghost killer allows a glimpse into the world of a five year old.
by Laura Neri
The quirky daughter in a difficult father-daughter relationship is brought to life in this narrative story.
by Christopher Messina
This film, made up entirely of still photographs sequenced together to appear moving, focuses on the lights that illuminate the nights of the Charles River area in Boston, Massachusetts.
by Temah Nelson
Annoying habits become life-saving actions for a seemingly ordinary couple as real life events weave themselves into dreams. Over the course of one night, a couple's connection that goes beyond words is explored.
by Mark Mamalakis
The filmmaker returns to footage he shot years before while studying film, editing it with a new perspective, transforming it into an expression of becoming a filmmaker.
by Jared Varava
Three runners search for a fourth to run with them in a track meet.
by Brett Rutland
The adventures of three siblings who open a portal into a world of magical skies and menacing landscapes.
Friday, February 25, 9:00 PM Longbranch Coffee House
by Tom Weidlinger
Aid workers assist refugees who have lost everything due to colonial dependency, despite threats of violence and corruption. Their struggle to help the villagers' create a self-sufficient future makes for a story about courage and perseverance in the face of adversity.
by Kelly Saxberg
This is the tragic story of Aate Pitkanen, a man who was a Father, Brother, Comrade and a Spy. The film was shot in Canada, Russia, and Finland, meshing history, politics, and love into a compelling story about idealism and betrayal.
Friday, February 25, Midnight University Place 8 Theatre
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese's haunting 1975 film about a lonely cab driver without a place in the world around him is a true masterpiece of modern cinema. The character of Travis Bickle, brought to life by Robert De Niro in one of his finest performances, is one of cinema's greatest anti-heroes. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, and launched the career of a twelve-year old Jodie Foster playing a twelve-year old prostitute. Travis Bickle's slow descent into madness and brutal violence, then ascent to redemption has never been equaled, yet often imitated. The yellow taxi cab itself becomes a metaphor for Travis' loneliness, nightly cruising the streets of a New York City that is more Hell than tourist attraction. The Big Muddy Film Festival is proud to bring this classic to the big screen once again, as it was meant to be seen.
Saturday, February 26, 10:00AM University Place 8 Theatre
Written & Directed by Jonathan Caouette
It could be said that with Tarnation, director Caouette has elevated his own home movies to the level of great art. But few home movies provide early glimpses of genius such Caouette's; or of such heartbreaking tragedy. Using the fragments of his remarkable life∼ home video, letters, photographs, answering machine messages, and a few re-enactments that are hard to spot∼ Caouette constructs an autobiography centered on his intense, painful love for his traumatized mother Renee.
Made for only a couple hundred dollars with consumer-level software iMovie, championed by James Cameron Mitchell and Gus van Sant, his work is a miracle of independent filmmaking. Surely the most innovative film of our young century, Tarnation is an epic personal testament.
Saturday, February 26 11:00 AM Interfaith Center
The Bottom Line: Privatizing the World (63 min)
by Carole Poliquin
Using an effective parody of the "Voice-of-God" documentary style, the film shows the consequences of the world's submission to private interests. Can the human community survive if all elements essential to life (water, healthcare etc.) and all elements forming the very basis of life itself (genes) become commercial goods?
Peaceable Kingdom (1hr 9min)
by Jenny Stein
Imagine awakening one day to realize that the work you were trained to do since birth went against the deepest part of your being. In Peaceable Kingdom, former farmers share such life-changing stories.
Mardi Gras: Made in China (1 hr 18 min)
by David Redmon
This eye-opening documentary follows beads from the teenage women who make them in a 24 hour bead factory in China, to the adults who exchange them in the 24 hour New Orleans Mardi Gras Carnival.
Saturday, February 26, 4:00 PM Long Branch Coffee Shop
by Dominic Angerame
Footage used for this film was taken from part of an official United States military coalition operation called 'Anaconda' in northeastern Afghanistan, involving close combat with small sects of suspected members of al Qaeda and Taliban forces.
by Geoff Adams
The Boston Tea Party began a revolution that created a nation. Adams, a Colonial 'Re-enactivist' dressed in breeches and waistcoat, is set on crashing it to stop the multinational corporations' control of the event.
by Sara Rashad
Depicts the harsh reality of female genital mutilation. Amina must decide if she will submit to family pressure to circumcise her daughter, or find the courage to abandon this tradition and spare her daughter the same pain she once experienced.
by Lisa Barcy
A stop-motion animation featuring likenesses of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and The Pope.
by Mario Contreras
Sounds from the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride complement the visuals, which are random bits of 16mm film footage.
by Jen Heck
This film about the final days of 'the world's most famous female filmmaker' is shot in a documentary style.
Saturday, February 26, Midnight University Place 8 Theatre
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese's haunting 1975 film about a lonely cab driver without a place in the world around him is a true masterpiece of modern cinema. The character of Travis Bickle, brought to life by Robert De Niro in one of his finest performances, is one of cinema's greatest anti-heroes. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, and launched the career of a twelve-year old Jodie Foster playing a twelve-year old prostitute. Travis Bickle's slow descent into madness and brutal violence, then ascent to redemption has never been equaled, yet often imitated. The yellow taxi cab itself becomes a metaphor for Travis' loneliness, nightly cruising the streets of a New York City that is more Hell than tourist attraction. The Big Muddy Film Festival is proud to bring this classic to the big screen once again, as it was meant to be seen.
Sunday, February 27 10:00AM University Place 8 Theatre
Directed by Jonathan Demme
Jean Dominique, who spent six years of his life helping peasants grow rice and cocoa, became one of the most prominent and influential radio personalities in his native Haiti. A true man of the people who was murdered in 2000, his legacy lives on in this film by his lifelong friend Academy Award-winner director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs). A celebration of an inspiring man, and a look at the roots of Haiti's ongoing instability.
Sunday, February 27, 12:00 PM Carbondale Civic Center
by Bill Kern
Climbing Mount Everest gets an alternative perspective in this surprisingly entertaining tale captured by a one man film crew, brings to life the beauty, adventure and serenity of a place that so few have seen and one man dared to brave.
Sunday, February 27, 2:00 PM Carbondale Civic Center
by Kelly Saxberg
This is the tragic story of Aate Pitkanen, a man who was a Father, Brother, Comrade and a Spy. The film was shot in Canada, Russia, and Finland, meshing history, politics, and love into a compelling story about idealism and betrayal.
Sunday, 27, 5:00 PM Longbranch Coffee House
by Geoff Adams
The Boston Tea Party began a revolution that created a nation. Adams, a Colonial Re-enactivist dressed in breeches and waistcoat, is set on crashing it to stop the multinational corporations' control of the event.
by Isaac Isitan
The effects of structural adjustment programs on small economic countries like Argentina and Turkey are the subject of this story about what the citizens do to adapt to harsh economic conditions.
by Theo Lipfert
This is the story of one man's love of a shopping mall, and how it made internet legal history.
Sunday, February 27, 7:00 PM Yellow Moon Cafe
by Rob VanAlkemade
The recent sermons and exploits of activist Reverend Billy who, along with his Gospel Choir conduct divine theatrical performances, flagrantly illegal parking lot revivals, and chilling cash register exorcisms across California before returning to their hometown to greet the Republican National Convention.
by Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson
A one-minute portrait of an inner-city ghost killer allows a glimpse into the world of a five year old.
by Laura Neri
The quirky daughter in a difficult father-daughter relationship is brought to life in this narrative story.
by Christopher Messina
This film, made up entirely of still photographs sequenced together to appear moving, focuses on the lights that illuminate the nights of the Charles River area in Boston, Massachusetts.
by Temah Nelson
Annoying habits become life-saving actions for a seemingly ordinary couple as real life events weave themselves into dreams. Over the course of one night, a couple's connection that goes beyond words is explored.
by Mark Mamalakis
The filmmaker returns to footage he shot years before while studying film, editing it with a new perspective, transforming it into an expression of becoming a filmmaker.
by Jared Varava
Three runners search for a fourth to run with them in a track meet.
by Brett Rutland
The adventures of three siblings who open a portal into a world of magical skies and menacing landscapes.
Sunday, February 27, 8 PM Mungo Jerry's Fat Cat Café
by Joanna Priestley
A Macromedia Flash animation that focuses on the lines and shapes created by condensation and the line of Distant Early Warning (DEW) radar stations constructed in Alaska during the Cold War.
by Temah Nelson
Annoying habits become life-saving actions for a seemingly ordinary couple as real life events weave themselves into dreams. Over the course of one night, a couple's connection that goes beyond words is explored.
by Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson
A one-minute portrait of an inner-city ghost killer allows a glimpse into the world of a five year old.
by Lisa Barcy
A stop-motion animation featuring likenesses of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and The Pope.
by Andrew Kennedy
A gnarled and claustrophobic space provides the backdrop for an exploration into the psychology of aging and self-imposed oppression of youth.
by Leeanne Williams
In a line of verse or melody, a caesura is a pause to breathe dictated by sense or natural speech rhythm. This intuitive act of breathing is translated into a non-narrative watercolor animation.
by Brett Rutland
The adventures of three siblings who open a portal into a world of magical skies and menacing landscapes.
by Chel White
Wooden mannequins are animated in this story about a man recalling his lost affair with a beautiful circus contortionist.
Monday, February 28, 4PM Carbondale Civic Center
by Jamie Levinson
The brother of late 1970s No-Wave music pioneer James Chance reflects on watching his brother rise to fame before ending up as a vending machine salesman in Chicago.
by Kris Williams
A personal documentary about immigration, family, and the loss of a culture.
Monday, February 28 5:00 PM Student Center Auditorium
A Family Finds Entertainment/Born in a Barn (2004)
Two films: one narrative (of a sort), the other documentary, paired together only because each defies explanation. A Family Finds Entertainment, which you might call an explosive, home-made collision between Hedwig and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is an abstract narrative that follows the adventures of Skippy (director Ryan Trecartin) through a world of finger-paint aesthetics, overwhelming color, manic music, and eye-boggling interiors. Born in a Barn explores the lives of ordinary people with a fetish for pretending to be horses: to be groomed, ridden, and stabled by their partners as they gallop and neigh. This practice, called "Pony Play" by its enthusiasts, is one of the fastest growing fetishes in America. Both films for Mature Audiences only.
Monday, February 28, 6PM Carbondale Civic Center
by Tim Schwab
Being Osama is an intimate exploration of six people with highly diverse backgrounds, interests, and personalities, united by their first name and by their experiences living in Canada in the post 9/11 world.
by Jan Krawitz
A follow-up to the director's 1982 film Little People, this film examines the lives of five dwarfs, and the everyday choices they must make in order to live their lives. This intimate portrait asks questions about spousal choices, decisions to have children, and new advances in genetic technology.
Monday, February 28 7:00PM Student Center Auditorium
Written and directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Distant is a profoundly beautiful and moving meditation on loneliness whose essential seriousness does not preclude some tender comic moments. Muzaffer Özdemir plays Mahmut, a prosperous and successful photographer in Istanbul. Now divorced, he has cultivated fastidious bachelor habits that fall apart when his dopey country cousin Yusuf comes to stay while looking for work.
Calling Uzak an odd-couple comedy does not quite convey the melancholia that drifts through the movie like a cloud, with unapologetically long single takes and wistful silences. But it really is funny, with a humor rooted in compassion for unhappiness, absurdity and the encroachment of old age. There are, hard though it may be to believe, sight gags that are the work of tremendous comic talent. It is a film of exquisite piquancy: a real masterpiece. - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Monday, February 28, 8PM Mungo Jerry's Fat Cat Café
by Andrew Kennedy
A gnarled and claustrophobic space provides the backdrop for an exploration into the psychology of aging and self-imposed oppression of youth.
by David Smith
A lonely and frustrated violin maker is driven to the brink by a beautiful Gypsy street musician, playing beneath his window, until a chance encounter opens the door to inspiration.
by Theo Lipfert
This is the story of one man's love of a shopping mall, and how it made internet legal history.
by Leighton Pierce
This film is constructed in three parts, and its primary focus is the shifting of the perceptions of the viewer. The question of absence as pertaining to memory and imagination is the main subject.
by Joanna Priestley
A Macromedia Flash animation that focuses on the lines and shapes created by condensation and the line of Distant Early Warning (DEW) radar stations constructed in Alaska during the Cold War.
Monday, February 28 9:30 PM Student Center Auditorium
Written & Directed by Bryan Poyser.
Wes Slack is a troubled kid: gloomy, sexually frustrated, and recently fired from his grocery job for reading "Dear Pillow," a porn mag filled with fake erotic letters, on the job. The author of those phony fantasy letters is Dusty Meyer, an eccentric, middle-aged neighbor of Wes's at their low-income apartment complex. Dusty quickly becomes Wes's mentor in the art of pornography; in Dusty, Wes finds an understanding of sex and adulthood, however strange, that his single father can't provide. More thought-provoking than titillating, Dear Pillow puts an intelligent discussion of sexual taboos on screen.
Tuesday, March 1, 5PM Carbondale Civic Center
by Gerard Ungerman and Audrey Brohy
First examining today's dwindling oil reserves and skyrocketing consumption sets the stage to ask questions about the 'coincidence' of focusing the U.S. led 'War on Terror' in the Middle East and Central Asia and the plentiful oil deposits beneath the earth.
Tuesday, March 1, 7PM Longbranch Coffeehouse
by Brian Standing
The history and tactics of war propagandists are on display here, essential soldiers that use words, pictures, and advertising as the weapons in their war to 'win hearts and minds.'
Tuesday, March 1, 7PM Student Center Auditorium
by Clive Holden
Made with a camera the size of a deck of cards carried in the artist's pants-pocket for a period of a year, the "white-city" beckons, repulses, and quakes with portent.
by Mario Contreras
Sounds from the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride complement the visuals, which are random bits of 16mm film footage.
by Leighton Pierce
This film is constructed in three parts, and its primary focus is the shifting of the perceptions of the viewer. The question of absence as pertaining to memory and imagination is the main subject.
by Katherine Balsley
This found footage film elaborates the surreal qualities of a film dating back to the 1940s.
by Dominic Angerame
Footage used for this film was taken from part of an official United States military coalition operation called 'Anaconda' in northeastern Afghanistan, involving close combat with small sects of suspected members of al Qaeda and Taliban forces.
by Christopher Messina
This film, made up entirely of still photographs sequenced together to appear moving, focuses on the lights that illuminate the nights of the Charles River area in Boston, Massachusetts.
by Mark Mamalakis
The filmmaker returns to footage he shot years before while studying film, editing it with a new perspective, transforming it into an expression of becoming a filmmaker.
by Ariana Gerstein
A combination of experimental and documentary styles, this film also combines the use of a voice over narration taken from a phone interview in which an older woman's regrets clash with the visuals of a found photograph featuring a younger woman.
by Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson
Explores the gesture of natural forces, memory and nostalgia that physically and metaphysically shape the Skugafjortur region of Iceland.
by Clive Holden
A film that admires people who do their jobs well, and like Les, seem to fit what they're doing like a well-tailored suit.
Tuesday, March 1, 9PM Longbranch Coffeehouse
by David Smith
A lonely and frustrated violin maker is driven to the brink by a beautiful Gypsy street musician, playing beneath his window, until a chance encounter opens the door to inspiration.
by Laura Neri
The quirky daughter in a difficult father-daughter relationship is brought to life in this narrative story.
by Sara Rashad
Depicts the harsh reality of female genital mutilation. Amina must decide if she will submit to family pressure to circumcise her daughter, or find the courage to abandon this tradition and spare her daughter the same pain she once experienced.
by Josh Hyde
The title is in reference to the Spanish word for chewing gum, and the film deals with the innocence of a young boy attempting to maintain his morality in a third-world environment surrounded by depravity.
Tuesday, March 1 9:30 PM Student Center Auditorium
Written and directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Distant is a profoundly beautiful and moving meditation on loneliness whose essential seriousness does not preclude some tender comic moments. Muzaffer Özdemir plays Mahmut, a prosperous and successful photographer in Istanbul. Now divorced, he has cultivated fastidious bachelor habits that fall apart when his dopey country cousin Yusuf comes to stay while looking for work.
Calling Uzak an odd-couple comedy does not quite convey the melancholia that drifts through the movie like a cloud, with unapologetically long single takes and wistful silences. But it really is funny, with a humor rooted in compassion for unhappiness, absurdity and the encroachment of old age. There are, hard though it may be to believe, sight gags that are the work of tremendous comic talent. It is a film of exquisite piquancy: a real masterpiece. - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Wednesday, March 2, 5:00 PMStudent Center Auditorium
by Chel White
Wooden mannequins are animated in this story about a man recalling his lost affair with a beautiful circus contortionist.
by Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson
Explores the gesture of natural forces, memory and nostalgia that physically and metaphysically shape the Skugafjortur region of Iceland.
by Leeanne Williams
In a line of verse or melody, a caesura is a pause to breathe dictated by sense or natural speech rhythm. This intuitive act of breathing is translated into a non-narrative watercolor animation.
by Katherine Balsley
This found footage film elaborates the surreal qualities of a film dating back to the 1940s.
by Hugues Dalton and Jeff Garton
How far would you go to win the woman of your dreams? You're a lift operator. She's afraid of elevators. Starring Dominique Pinon of Amelie.
by Monica Bigler and Sarah Prior
All across the United States, citizens are bunkering down and building bomb shelters, in case they may come in handy.
by Clive Holden
A film that admires people who do their jobs well, and like Les, seem to fit what they're doing like a well-tailored suit.
Wednesday, March 2 7:00 PM Student Center Auditorium
Derrida (2002)
Directed by Amy Ziering Kofman, Kirby Dick
This portrait of recently deceased Deconstructionist, Jacques Derrida, offers a personal glimpse at one of the most polemical and influential theorists of the end of the 20th century. The filmmakers 'deconstruct' the French Thinker, in both his private and professional life, attempting to capture the processes of an inquisitive and iconoclastic mind that has greatly influenced our way of understanding the limits of language.
Wednesday, March 2 7:00 PM Student Center Auditorium
Directed by Brett Ingram
Cult animator Bruce Bickford, most famous for his brilliant work on Frank Zappa films in the 70s, believes animation can save the world. "Instead of fighting wars we should all just be creating great animation," he says at one point; commenting on Bill Gates's obscene fortune, he can't understand why the man doesn't build a top-notch animation studio for himself. Working in a home-made studio in his basement, Bickford has continued to create dazzling, bizarre claymation work. But Monster Road goes beyond Bickford's work and into his complicated personal life, especially his relationship with brilliant father. In the tradition of biographical documentaries like Terry Zwigoff's Crumb, Monster Road is a fascinating look at two generations of eccentrics.
Wednesday, March 2, 9:30 PM Student Center Auditorium
by Joanna Priestley
A Macromedia Flash animation that focuses on the lines and shapes created by condensation and the line of Distant Early Warning (DEW) radar stations constructed in Alaska during the Cold War.
by Temah Nelson
Annoying habits become life-saving actions for a seemingly ordinary couple as real life events weave themselves into dreams. Over the course of one night, a couple's connection that goes beyond words is explored.
by Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson
A one-minute portrait of an inner-city ghost killer allows a glimpse into the world of a five year old.
by Lisa Barcy
A stop-motion animation featuring likenesses of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and The Pope.
by Andrew Kennedy
A gnarled and claustrophobic space provides the backdrop for an exploration into the psychology of aging and self-imposed oppression of youth.
by Leeanne Williams
In a line of verse or melody, a caesura is a pause to breathe dictated by sense or natural speech rhythm. This intuitive act of breathing is translated into a non-narrative watercolor animation.
by Brett Rutland
The adventures of three siblings who open a portal into a world of magical skies and menacing landscapes.
by Chel White
Wooden mannequins are animated in this story about a man recalling his lost affair with a beautiful circus contortionist.
Thursday, March 3, 5PM Student Center Auditorium
by Sarah Teitler
This experimental documentary set in Havana, Cuba paints a diverse portrait of the Cuban capital by characterizing several groups of long-standing residents through intimate personal stories.
Thursday, March 3, 9:30PM Student Center Auditorium
by Lorca Shepperd and Cabot Philbrick
Why would anyone buy someone else's family photographs? That's the question answered by this documentary, featuring nine obsessive collectors ready to pay hundreds of dollars for a single snapshot.
by Rob VanAlkemade
The recent sermons and exploits of activist Reverend Billy who, along with his Gospel Choir conduct divine theatrical performances, flagrantly illegal parking lot revivals, and chilling cash register exorcisms across California before returning to their hometown to greet the Republican National Convention.
by Monica Bigler and Sarah Prior
All across the United States, citizens are bunkering down and building bomb shelters, in case they may come in handy
Thursday, March 3, 8PM Interfaith Center
by Walter Brock
An archetypal cast of preservationists, dirt farmers and land developers fight land issues and sprawl in Woodford County, Kentucky over the course of a decade.
by Bernadine Mellis
The arrest and legal battle of Earth First! activist Judi Bari, a union organizer who brought a civil suit against the FBI after her wrongful arrest for carrying explosives in her car.
Thursday, March 3, 9PM Longbranch Coffeehouse
by Phil Hastings
Questions about destiny plague a lonely soulmaker who, while toiling away at his job, discovers a key that awakens his desire for a new life.
by Jen Heck
This film about the final days of 'the world's most famous female filmmaker' is shot in a documentary style.
by Jared Varava
A Wes Anderson inspired story about three runners who are in desperate need of a fourth to run with them in a track meet.
by Everett Aponte
A troubled young man finds his place in the world by attempting to leave it in this dark comedy. His new friend, Death, accompanies him on a surreal adventure in a journey to reach the afterlife.
by Hugues Dalton and Jeff Garton
How far would you go to win the woman of your dreams? You're a lift operator. She's afraid of elevators. Starring Dominique Pinon of Amelie.
Friday, March 4, 5PM Student Center Auditorium
by Jerry Blumenthal and Gordon Quinn
A portrait of late American artist Leon Golub, and a profile of his work, ranging from the nightmarish interrogations and scenes of torture of his early art to the darkly humorous erotica and meditations on mortality of his later work.
Friday, March 4, Harbaughs Café
by Clive Holden
Made with a camera the size of a deck of cards carried in the artist's pants-pocket for a period of a year, the "white-city" beckons, repulses, and quakes with portent.
by Everett Aponte
A troubled young man finds his place in the world by attempting to leave it in this dark comedy. His new friend, Death, accompanies him on a surreal adventure in a journey to reach the afterlife.
by Joanna Priestley
A Macromedia Flash animation that focuses on the lines and shapes created by condensation and the line of Distant Early Warning (DEW) radar stations constructed in Alaska during the Cold War.
by Ariana Gerstein
A combination of experimental and documentary styles, this film also combines the use of a voice over narration taken from a phone interview in which an older woman's regrets clash with the visuals of a found photograph featuring a younger woman.
by Josh Hyde
The title is in reference to the Spanish word for chewing gum, and the film deals with the innocence of a young boy attempting to maintain his morality in a third-world environment surrounded by depravity.
Friday, March 4 9:30PM Student Center Auditorium
Written & Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
The protagonist of Taste of Cherry, Mr. Badii, is a man who wants to die. He searches the outskirts of Tehran in his Range Rover for an accomplice, someone to bury his body or, should he fail in taking his own life, someone to pull him from the grave he's dug himself. Each man he asks is disturbed by Badii's request; some attempt to dissuade him, and one reluctantly agrees to help.
Kiarostami stands with Bergman, Tarkovsky, and Ozu as one of cinema's great poets of the human condition. This masterpiece, the first Iranian film to capture the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, made Iran's flourishing cinematic renaissance famous worldwide.
Friday, March 4, Midnight University 8 Theatre
Famous for his off-beat humor and stark stick-figure style, Academy Award© nominated director Don Hertzfeldt's animated short films have collected 108 awards, four Grand Prizes, and a worldwide cult following. His films have been featured at the Cannes Film Festival, Sundance, MTV, IFC, Bravo, Comedy Central, and over a thousand other venues in between.
Ah, L'Amour (1995)Saturday, March 5, 11AM Student Center Auditorium
In the course of making nearly 400 films over the past 50 years, Stan Brakhage became synonymous with experimental American cinema. As one of the most influential and innovative experimental filmmakers, Stan's work has been described as "poems of light" aimed at "teaching the viewer how to see."
Join us as we honor the late filmmaker in this chronological retrospective. This showcase includes both his canonical work, as well as lesser-known "b-sides." To provide insight into Brakhage's extraordinary life and work, award winning writer/lecturer Fred Camper will speak before and after the screening.
Saturday, March 5 2:00 PM Student Center Auditorium
The California Institute of the Arts has had a strong showing in the Big Muddy Film Festival for several years. Films that spawn from the school's experimental animation program consistently break new ground with their unique style and insightful content, each with a voice all their own. The Big Muddy Film Festival is proud to screen a showcase of experimental animations hand-picked by Cal Arts to showcase their over-whelming talent and vision.
Saturday, March 5 5:00 PM Wham Auditorium
Written & Directed by Jeff Springer
In the middle of a harsh desert valley in California's southeast corner, lies a glimmering blue jewel - the Salton Sea. Along its desolate shores stand boarded-up motels, dusty rural towns, half-flooded vacation homes, and miles of sun-crisped fish carcasses. Amid this surreal and apocalyptic landscape survives a most unusual and unexpected group of eccentrics, who have carved out their own slice of paradise on the shores of this ecological disaster. Through their perceptions and misperceptions, the strange history and unexpected beauty of the Salton Sea is revealed.
Saturday, March 5 4:00PM Student Center Auditorium
Written & Directed by Clay Liford
Easily the best Zombie film in this year's festival, A Four Course Meal is a funny, but also genuinely creepy, tribute to the likes of Creepshow, The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crypt, and the Romero zombie films; one segment is even a homage to silent impressionist films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. There's also a satirical edge, as in a tale in which zombies become legally protected citizens. A Four Course Meal is a clever, low budget horror-comedy with both quality special-effects and... you know... brains... brraaaains....
Saturday, March 5 9:30 PM Student Center Auditorium
Directed by Karen Goodman & Kirk Simon
Best remembered as the architect and creator of the Geodesic Dome, R. Buckminster Fuller made an equally dramatic mark as an engineer, inventor, poet, visionary, philosopher and iconoclast. In this retrospective look at his remarkable life and work, archival footage of Fuller's lectures and interviews are inter-cut with commentary from major creative thinkers and artists, and readings from Fuller's writings by Spalding Gray.
Sunday, March 6, 7:00 PM Student Center Auditorium
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