Plagued with guilt over lives lost under his command in Vietnam, Jake Neeley (Danny Glover) lives alone in a remote cabin in the Pacific Northwest. His only brushes with society are picking up supplies from widowed storekeeper Kate (Linda Hamilton), Jake’s isolation ends when an old army buddy Henry (David Strathairn) arrives on his doorstep with his young half Vietnamese daughter, Lenny (Zoë Weizenbaum). Henry, dying of lung cancer, slips away in the night, leaving his daughter behind. Jake has no choice but to look after the girl. She persuades him to reach out to other vet living in the deep woods. One is Red (Ron Perlman), a mute, disturbed man who lost half his face to a grenade tossed by a little Vietnamese girl. Lenny becomes a catalyst for healing for these forgotten vets, and for Kate, who faces her own demons.

"This cult chestnut is more intelligent, scary, humorous and effective than hyped recent genre efforts by Coppola, Jordan and Carpenter."
- FILM THREAT

A young girl who returns to her hometown to see her dying father is drawn into a web of vampirism and witchcraft.

uncut version on superb 35mm print!

Scene Not Heard:
Philadelphia is often referred to as the mecca for American soul music, but right from the beginning of the hip hop movement, its artists have made major contributions as emcees, graf artists, dancers, and especially as deejays. Native talents such as Will Smith, The Roots and Eve have made great strides domestically and internationally, but somehow Philly still doesn’t get the kind of props of a city like Los Angeles or even Atlanta. However, one of the most unique aspects to the Philadelphia hip hop scene is the proliferation of women that it has produced as emcees, vocalists, poets and deejays. Scene Not Heard seeks to tell the story of these women—the legends, the famed, and the ingénues—as they struggle to succeed in a male-dominated industry.

Reflections on Women of Color and Hip Hop: A Student Documentary
Through honest and at times humorous dialogue as well as personal testimony, young people challenge each other and speak critically about something they love: Hip Hop. In particular, they explore the controversial relationship between women of color and hip hop music, and try to justify or refute causes, effects and solutions while still embracing the culture they admire.

Just Say It: A Revolution in the Making
This is the story of two novice filmmakers in pursuit of artistic beauty at a time when politics is turning ugly. Inspired by Bay Area artists' creative resistance to the current political system, the filmmakers document activist artists, including Michael Franti, Boots Riley (The Coup), Susan Appe, Diskarte Namin, Favianna Rodriguez, and Nelli Wong.

Sometimes silence is the most frightening sound

Janet (co-director Juliana Brafa) is a college drop-out who finds herself in a disturbing mixture of isolation, confusion, and murder when she takes a job as a house-sitter in an Appalachian mountain home to escape from her sadistic boyfriend.

featuring Linda Blair (THE EXORCIST)

Through intimate testimonies from Black women victim/survivors, commentaries from acclaimed African-American scholars and community leaders including Johnnetta B. Cole, Ulester Douglas, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Sulaiman Nuriddin, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, and Elaine Brown, impacting archival footage, spirited music, dance, and performance poetry, NO! unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual violence, and healing in African-American communities. Eleven years in the making this ground-breaking feature length documentary explores how the collective silence about acts of rape and other forms of sexual assault adversely affects African-Americans, while simultaneously encouraging dialogue to bring about healing and reconciliation between all men and women.

Filmmaker Q&A after the film.

Filmmakers and film programmers often find themselves at odds. Filmmakers often think that programmers - like critics - don't appreciate the challenges and nuances of film production, and that film programmers assess films from an out of touch, Olympian point of view. Meanwhile, film programmers often think filmmakers don't appreciate their responsibilities to audiences, and to maintaining or developing taste and standards.

But then there are the filmmakers who are also programmers.

This panel features some remarkable women who have worked on both sides of the table. We expect to discuss topics including:

Panelists are some of the wonderful women featured during the Female Film program. They will include: Louise Fleming, Nancy Schwartzman, and Yhane Washington.

- Louise Fleming, Former Screening Series Dir/Co-Prez of CWNY is a staunch advocate for women independent filmmakers. Ms. Fleming curated programs of the work of women filmmakers at the Pioneer, Anthology Film Archives, The Rehoboth Int'l Film Festival. Most recently she was a judge for the 48Hour Film Festival/Best Of Atlanta Project. She co-founded Visionary Network, a group that in the 90s produced a popular screenplay reading series that showcased the works of writers of color and has directed several screenplay readings for the Harlem Screenwriters Workshop. She has also written a narrative short, "Askance;" on racial profiling in a post 9/11 environment. Currently she is at work on a documentary about the musician/bass player Bruce Woody.

- Nancy Schwartzman (director, BETWEEN US; past programmer for events at the Pioneer and elsewhere; Associate Program Director for Media Arts, Performing Arts, and Visual Arts at the National Foundation for Jewish Culture).

- Yhane Washington (programmer, Chicks with Flicks)

Moderated by Ray Privett, Programmer, Pioneer Theater

ROSITA
ROSITA traces a young girl's journey from innocent victim to unwitting victor. When a nine-year-old Nicaraguan girl becomes pregnant as a result of a rape, her parents — illiterate campesinos working in Costa Rica — seek a legal "therapeutic" abortion to save their only child's life. Their quest pits them against the governments of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, the medical establishment, and the Catholic Church. When their story gains international media attention the repercussions ripple across Latin America and Europe.

THE ABORTION DIARIES
THE ABORTION DIARIES is a documentary featuring 12 women who speak candidly about their experiences with abortion. The women are doctors, subway workers, artists, activists, military personnel, teachers and students; they are Black, Latina , Jewish and White; they are mothers or child-free; they range in age from 19 to 54. Their stories weave together with the filmmaker's diary entries to present a compelling, moving and at times surprisingly funny "dinner party" where the audience is invited to hear what women say behind closed doors about motherhood, medical technology, sex, spirituality, love, work and their own bodies.

Knospen wollen explodieren "Exploding Buds"
Petra Schroder, 20 mins, 2006
The young girls Kate and Echo live in their own land of make believe. When one of them stumbles across the real world, their friendship faces a serious challenge.

On The Cliffs
Lisa Perry, 15 mins, 2004
Best friends Penelope and Dora are the producers and stars of a local cable access show devoted to staging classics such as Macbeth and Moby Dick, only the productions are based on the Cliffs Notes version of the novels rather than the classics themselves. Problems arise, however, when Penelope and Dora attempt their interpretation of George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Sliding Flora
Talia Lavie, 12 mins, 2003
Flora was born in a field, at least that is what she tells everyone. She's a waitress in a Café that requires an unusual skills of its workers: complex acrobatic proficiency. When all seems very wrong, despair dominant and dismissal probable, Flora has no choice but to save herself using her superb verbal and dramatic talents.

The Black Plum
Meredyth Wilson, 16 mins, 2005
The Black Plum utilizes the tropes of fairy tales to tell a queer coming of age story. Andy, a young girl raised by her father, goes on an ill-advised adventure with a magical guardian. The woman lulls her to sleep and when Andy wakes up, she finds herself in a foreign place and must discover a way home.

Twitch
Leah Meyerhoff, (10 mins), 2004 Nominated for a Student Academy Award, Twitch portrays a young girl's irrational fear that her mother's disability is contagious. Her boyfriend, oblivious to her increasing hypochondria, only seems interested in her physically. Ultimately, she must learn to confront her fears and take care of herself.

I WAS A TEENAGE FEMINIST
When did feminism become a bad word? Why is it that young independent, progressive women in today's society feel uncomfortable identifying with the F-word? Join filmmaker Therese Shechter as she takes a funny, moving and very personal journey into the heart of Feminism, circa 2005. Armed with a video camera and an irreverent sense of humor, Therese talks with Feminist superstars, rowdy frat boys, liberated Cosmo girls and Radical Cheerleaders, all in her quest to find out whether Feminism can still be a source of personal and political power. With music by Ani DiFranco, Lavababy, Gina Young, Moxie Starpark and the legendary Helen Reddy, I WAS A TEENAGE FEMINIST "I Was a Teenage Feminist" redefines the F Word for a new generation.

HOW I LEARNED TO SPEAK TURKISH
Last summer, filmmaker Therese Shechter headed to Turkey for a much-needed vacation. She also planned to interview young Turkish women for a documentary on feminism. Instead, she became fascinated with the men. And they were fascinated with her. How I Learned to Speak Turkish chronicles one woman's obsession with Turkish men. Her attempts to understand their language, culture and psyche leads to a revealing exploration of cultural cliches, the 'exotic other' and the aphrodisiacal properties of a potential US visa.

BRINGING BACK VENEZUELA
On August 7-15th MNN Youth Channel participated in the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students in Caracas, Venezuela. Over 15, 000 youth people from 144 countries came together under the banner of "for peace and solidarity, we struggle against imperialism and war." Youth Channel attended, documented and presented at the festival. Experience the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students as Youth Channel brings back Venezuela.

a program of short films presented by the Cinewomen, NY filmmaker group

A woman making music is a beautiful thing, but women making music videos are all too rare. In light of the industry's overwhelming male status, celebrating the accomplishments of women in the field becomes even more urgent. Refracted Lens turns the spotlight on the women behind the camera, often in collaboration with their colleagues - or themselves - squarely in front of it.

The program features music videos by women working all over the map and across a variety of genres, including: Sadie Benning for ubiquitous feminist rocker Kathleen Hanna's solo project, Julie Ruin; Gina Birch, filmmaker and bassist of the seminal post-punk band The Raincoats; Birgit Rathsmann (with Bruce Alcock) for Dutch solo female artist Solex; Julia Feyrer (Canada) for Canuck indie rockers They Shoot Horses Don't They; Rosa Barba (Germany/NL), for experimental electronic artists Mouse on Mars and Microstoria; Valerie Toumayan (France) for the all-female Vancouver quintet The Organ; Meredith Danluck (US) for the unclassifiable Japanese electronic artist Mu; performance/video artists Angie Reed (Germany) and Planningtorock (UK/Germany); and others.

Capping off the lineup is Deborah Schamoni's (Germany) 2005 short film, “Visitors,” featuring art-rockers extraordinaire and role models for record label-owning aspirants everywhere, Chicks on Speed, reimagined as aliens exploring New York City.

Refracted Lens is by no means an exhaustive survey of women music video makers, but it's an earnest attempt to capture some of the magic that happens when a woman and her camera meet some of the most exciting music around.

Program details

Sadie Benning/Julie Ruin, “Aerobicide.” (4:00, video, 1998)
Birgit Rathsmann and Bruce Alcock/Solex, “Solex All Licketysplit.” (2:26, DV, 1999)
Gina Birch/The Raincoats, TBD.
Julia Feyrer/They Shoot Horses Don't They, “Sunlight.” (2:50. animation, 2006)
Rosa Barba/Mouse on Mars, “Cache Coeur Naif.” (3:30, 16mm projected as video, 1998)
Rosa Barba/Microstoria, “Kontra.” (3:00, Beta, 2000)
Valerie Toumayan/The Organ, “Let the Bells Ring.” (3:13, video, 2006)
Meredith Danluck/Mu, “Paris Hilton.” (4:10, video, 2005)
Angie Reed, “Cosmo Ho.” (3:46, video, 2001)
Planningtorock, “Have It All.” (3:24, video, 2006)

WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT
To be or not to be…a mom; this is the question of the weekend as eleven female participants, a two-woman film crew and one male captain set sail on a houseboat. But what floats one person's boat can easily capsize another's. Assumptions are challenged, myths shattered and truths revealed about the reality of what the term motherhood really means for the contemporary woman.

ROSA
Adventures of a young mom in the search of a nanny to make keep her baby.

MOTHER'S DANCE
Since the death of her mother, Lisa has been the mother of her three brothers. At night, the only time she has to herself, she writes. When she wins a student scholarship in Jerusalem, she has to face the difficult dilemma: to leave or to remain at home taking care of the problematic family.

THE RIGHT TO BE WRONG
THE RIGHT TO BE WRONG provides a glimpse of modern Israel through the stories of ordinary Israelis and Palestinians, Jewish and Arab, Muslim and Christian, all in search of peace. The story of David and Samir is about coexistence and friendship. It begins in David's car as he drives to Samir's restaurant in Ramla, a local Arab village. Over humus and falafel, Samir talks about his ties to Ramla stemming back to before 1948. His son, Jalil expresses his torn identity as an Israeli Palestinian Arab. Interwoven with David and Samir's stories, are even more compelling stories about everyday life in Israel. Finally, the passion for peace is exemplified in a journey to Kansas City with David, and Samir to assist the in hosting a "hafla" or party.

DON'T FENCE ME IN: Major Mary and The Karen Refugees from Burma
DON'T FENCE ME IN is the captivating portrait of 70-year-old freedom fighter Major Mary. Her charismatic storytelling is accompanied by rare clandestine footage smuggled out of the refugee camps along the border of Burma and Thailand. The film reveals the Karen refugee's spirit and determination to survive as political and historical forces conspire again them.

SOUNDZ OF SPIRIT
This award-winning documentary explores the relationship between the creative process and spirituality in hip-hop culture. It features powerful performances and in-depth interviews with KRS-1, Andre 3000 of Outkast, Common, Cee-Lo, Talib Kweli, Mystic, Medusa, Dilated Peoples, Zion I, Aceyalone, DJ Q-bert, Living Legends, Saul Williams, Michael Franti and more.

B-GIRL
Angel (Jules Urich) is a b-girl struggling in the six-step, a fundamental move. Her coach, Carlos (Ogie Banks III) and her all-male crew doubt her skill and with a huge competition coming up, Angel has to prove her place among them.

TURNING A CORNER
TURNING A CORNER tells the story of people involved in sex work in Chicago and their efforts to raise public awareness of systemic injustice and promote needed reforms. Fifteen women use video cameras to conduct interviews, analyze the issues surrounding the sex trade, and tell their own stories. Shot on street corners across Chicago where the women once traded sex, the film features their survival and triumph over sexual abuse, homelessness, violence and injustice, and gives rare insights into Chicago's sex industry.

CHARISSE SHUMATE: FIGHTING FOR OUR LIVES
This film was created in collaboration with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and focuses on the life of Charisse Shumate and women in California state prisons. Charisse was a life term prisoner incarcerated for 16 years at the Central California Women's Facility. Charisse stepped forward to be the lead plaintiff and prisoner spokesperson in the class action lawsuit challenging the medical neglect and abuse of women prisoners. It was thanks to Charisse that many activists and advocates initially became involved in defending the right of women prisoners to medical care and adequate treatment.

Smoke the Pipe Dream
(dir. Marjorie Sturm, 40 mins, 2003)
Thelma and Louise meets Easy Rider in Smoke the Pipe Dream when two San Francisco hip chicks pick up more than they bargained for in an adventure of sex, drugs, music, and marginalization.

Never Rob a Bank With Someone You Love
(dir. Jill Maxcy, 11 mins, 2005)
Joan and Candy had the perfect life together. But Candy's flair for spending Joan's money forces these lovely ladies to risk losing it all.

Bethlehem Bandolero
(dir. Larissa Sansour, 6 mins, 2004)
Bethlehem Bandolero is a kitsch film featuring the artist herself as a Mexican gunslinger arriving in Bethlehem for a duel with the Segregation Wall. Wearing a big, red sombrero and a scarf, she walks the streets of Bethlehem and greets the people before taking off for her final showdown.

Sabbath Entertainment
(dir. Mihal Brezis & Oded Binnun, 21 mins, 2003)
It's Sabbath eve. Rachel sneaks out of her religious parents' house to go out with her secular friends. On their way to the party, the worst of all happens- an accident on Sabbath.

LET'S TALK ABOUT IT
Once the innocent and forgotten victims of domestic violence, children break the silence and secrecy of family abuse for the first time in LET'S TALK ABOUT IT, a new documentary directed by Deepa Mehta. A compelling and purposeful call to action, the documentary puts a voice and a face to the global epidemic that is breeding a new generation of abusers. Already, over one million Canadian families have experienced some form of domestic abuse this year, according to Statistics Canada. Fusing the structured first-person story-telling techniques of the documentary with the revealing and spontaneous tell-it-like-it-is conversations between parent and child, Mehta has created a chilling landscape with the cautionary tales of three immigrant women who share their stories of domestic violence and the resulting negative impact and influence on their children from their exposure to violence in the home.

SEE WHAT I GOT
SEE WHAT I GOT is a documentary that tells the story of 13 adolescent girls from diverse school districts across the Colorado front range who try out for and become teammates in the GirlSports International (GSI) program, a non-profit organization devoted to the development of strong girls - emotionally, socially, and physically - through multicultural sports experiences. Through the Through the use of interviews and cinema verite shooting, this documentary follows the girls throughout this year-long program.

NAZRAH: A MUSLIM WOMAN'S PERSPECTIVE
NAZRAH: A MUSLIM WOMAN'S PERSPECTIVE is an intimate look at a diverse group of Muslim women living in the Pacific Northwest in the USA. By creating a forum where Muslim women can freely engage in an open dialogue about complex issues, filmmaker Farah Nousheen exposes a vast and fascinating array of thoughts and ideas. The women discuss their views on Islam, current political events and how they reflect on the image of Islam in the West. The women also talk about the difficulty of achieving equality within the Muslim community while also fighting stereotypical portrayals of Muslim women in the US media. Nazrah (the Arabic word for "perspective") also includes director Farah Nousheen's own views on being a Muslim woman at a time when Islam is in the international spotlight.

ME AND THE MOSQUE
In ME AND THE MOSQUE, journalist and filmmaker Zarqa Nawaz visits mosques throughout Canada and talks to scholars, colleagues, friends and neighbours about equal access for women. Discussions about the historical role of women in the Islamic faith, the current state of mosques in Canada and personal stories of anger, fear, acceptance and defiance punctuate the film. And Nawaz herself speaks of the spiritual longing that comes from belonging to an institution that doesn't want you. With original animation, archival footage and deeply personal interviews, Me and the Mosque is a smart, self-aware and whimsical story that documents the debates and presents the personalities on all sides of the issue.

Salty Wet (9 mins)
Salty Wet is a collaboration with Vancouver artist Winston Xin that deciphers and mis-deciphers the interpretation of slang by Chinese immigrants in Canada and Chinese Canadians. The result is an irreverent, provocative yet funny piece of satire on sexual slang.

Dyke: Just Be It (2 mins)
Dyke: Just Be It is the an experimental short with a subversive spin on a Nike ad: Just Do it. Lim turned it into an experimental ad promoting lesbian visibility in Tokyo.

Disposable Lez (6 mins)
Disposable Lez is a naughty poke at the “incestuous” nature of the dating pool in the lesbian community. It encourages lesbians to “recycle” their dates, a universal phenomenon that can be seen internationally.

Eroticism (7 mins)
Eroticism is a video poem written by five queer women in Japanese. Lim visualized their poems with video.

Out For Bubble Tea (16 mins)
Out For Bubble Tea is a dramatic short that was broadcasted on Citytv across Canada. It is probably the first Asian drama to address the story and issues of a Chinese lesbian coming out to her family to be seen on primetime Canadian TV.

Women Breaking Boundaries (83 mins)
Women Breaking Boundaries is a feature-length documentary about the making of the art exhibition of the same name – the first of its kind in Japan, showcasing artwork by emerging to established women artists as a group exhibition.

Franco-American filmmaker, programmer, and goofball Marie Losier unleashes a torrent of portraiture and parody, featuring immortal studies of bathing rituals and food fights.

Titles will include, among others:

Richard Foreman The Ontological Cowboy
“The theater is about sex.” At least according to Richard Foreman, the father of the Ontological Hysterical Theater. The Ontological Cowboy documents Foreman's invocation of the “manifest destiny” of the avant-garde theater, King Cowboy Rufus strolling down off San Juan Hill with a sigh, waving his handkerchief. Foreman plays himself, and the cast pantomimes his preoccupations. If “the cast and crew suffer alike,” it's all for a good cause: the violent rebirth of the American theater, with Foreman as its midwife.

Electrocute Your Stars (George Kuchar)
"You always have to be careful, you always have to have the shower backward in order to see the water, which means you better watch out, or you might electrify or electrocute your stars. You know what I mean, by having the light falling into the tub" -GK

This is a dream-portrait of George Kuchar, traveling through snow confetti, strobe flashes and artificial wind as he describes his weather diaries. And then George joins Janet Leigh in the shower. Wearing a red raincoat and a shower cap, reading comic books and blowing bubbles, he laughingly describes his bathing rituals and the making of his film, "Hold Me While I'm Naked."

"The Touch" Retouched “Do you have any photos of your wife in the nude”

“Oh, I'm sorry, David to disappoint you. You will have to content yourself with my orchid”

In 1971, Ingmar Bergman made his only American film, THE TOUCH, starring ensemble regulars Max Von Syndow and Bibi Anderson, along with early 70s everyman Elliott Gould. In 2001, Marie Losier decided to recast herself in Gould's role, breathing new life into Bergman's most awkward, ill-conceived and dubious filmic endeavor.

Also: FLYING SAUCY and whatever else we can con Marie into showing!

an evening of short films directed by Katrina del Mar

Titles will include, among others:

SURF GANG: ROCKAWAY RUFFNECKS vs. THE UNGRATEFULS

think Goodfellas meets Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!
think Grey Gardens meets The Warriors.
think Mel Brooks meets Russ Meyer and bites off Dog Town and Zboys
think Blue Crush: lose the lame story, add hot cast from Gang Girls 2000

GANG GIRLS 2000:

Katrina del Mar presents the world of Cinema as You've Never seen it! In Glorious GlitterVision! In Luxurious Leatherama! What these girls do you will Not Believe! Bike riding ChicKettes! Truck driving Sluts! ! Yes, ladies and gentlemen this is IT! The Cinematic Triumph of Katrina del Mar's unfettered imagination! Shot in glorious super 8mm on the rough streets of New York City! A cast of 30 beautiful women driving fast cars, wearing tight pants, eating candy, fighting, kissing and riding horses!

GANG GIRLS 2000! READY NOW!.

The Sluts! Into Trucks and Dogs! Long Black Hair and NO Patience.

The Glitter Girls! Riding Bikes in tight Pants! So tuff and pretty!

The Blades! will cut your hair off! Redheads All.

The Ponies! the oldest Girl Gang in New York! So Catherine the Great!