2010-2011 Screenings

 

Feature Documentary | 2010 | 99 min.

Winner of the Best of the Fest and juried Best Documentary award at WHFF 2010, Louder Than a Bomb tells the story of four Chicago high school poetry teams as they prepare for the world's largest youth slam. By turns hopeful and heartbreaking, the film captures the tempestuous lives of these unforgettable kids, exploring the ways writing shapes their world, and vice versa. Louder Than a Bomb is not about "high school poetry" as we often think of it. It's about language as a joyful release, irrepressibly talented teenagers obsessed with making words dance. While the topics they tackle are often deeply personal, what they put into their poems - and what they get out of them is universal: the defining work of finding one's voice.

 

Director: Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel
Producer: Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel
Cinematographer: Stephan Mazurek
Editor: John Farbrother
Country of Origin: U S A
Film Website: http://www.siskeljacobs.com/louder-than-a-bomb.php

 

 

Feature Drama | 2009 | 90 min.

Joe Peterson is a burned-out kids book writer who's approaching his mid-life crisis. With his career at a standstill and his relationship in shambles, he leaves town with his best buddy to do the Polar Bear Plunge in the dead of winter in northern Wisconsin in an attempt to reignite his fire. On his quest he meets: Axel, an inspirational mentor; The Sheriff, obsessed law enforcement professional; and Sif, his muse and a hockey player. Good thing they're all related!  Joe finds his lost passion, survives an assault by his obsessed ex-girlfriend, and tries to stay out of the way of the law. He pulls it together and finally gets the girl, and thank goodness, publishes again. But not before testing the icy waters of Lake Michigan on a snowy winter day.  Director's Choice Award, Best Cinematography, 2010 WHFF.

 

Director: Michael Matzdorff
Screenwriter: Michael Matzdorff
Cast: Tony Shalhoub, Ross Partridge, Kate Aselton
Country of Origin: USA  Film Website: feedthefishmovie.com

 

 

 

Feature Documentary | 2010 | 52:26 min.

Tracking Patagonia portrays the rivers, the people, and the spirit of Chilean Patagonia as it faces the potential construction of five hydroelectric dams. Told through the eyes of a young American film crew traveling by bicycle and raft, the film explores the relationship between the people and the landscape, concluding that the very essence of Patagonia depends upon the freedom of its rivers.

 

Director: Sarah Athanas
Producer: Sarah Athanas and Robert Jackson
Editor: Sarah Athanas
Composer: Cody Westheimer
Country of Origin: Chile, USA
Film Website: www.TrackingPatagonia.com

 

 

Feature Documentary | 2010 | 85 min.

A movie about extreme fandom, mid-life crisis, the joy of making music, and the madness of the Davies brothers. 'Do It Again' is about one man's quest to reunite the '60s rock band, The Kinks. But it's more, as we follow Geoff Edgers, a Boston Globe staff writer, driven by both his desire to create something special before he becomes 40 and his longing to reclaim his teenage, garage band past. Along this journey he encounters Sting, Zooey Deschanel, Clive Davis, Peter Buck, Paul Weller, Robyn Hitchcock and, of course, members of the Kinks.

Director: Robert Patton-Spruill
Producer: Geoff Edgers
Screenwriter: Geoff Edgers
Editor: Brad Allen Wilde
Cast: Sting, Zooey Deschanel, Robyn Hitchcock, Clive Davis, Peter Buck, Warren Zanes.
Country of Origin: U S A
Film Website: doitagainthemovie.com

 

   

 

Feature Documentary | 2009 | 57 min.

Painter Hyman Bloom is one of the forefathers of abstract art in America, but he's been forgotten. In the 1940s and 50s his career flourished with high praise from both art and popular press. A painter's painter. But his decision to continue exploring figurative work when the art world was celebrating total abstraction and his disdain for the public eye brought him from being one of the infamous Bad Boys from Boston to a man little known in the mainstream. Struggling to make ends meet Hyman Bloom has continued to work as an artist on his own terms well into his nineties, owing to his tenacious nature, masterful hand and loyal patrons. Perhaps his day has come again.

Director: Angelica Brisk
Producer: Angelica Brisk
Screenwriter: Angelica Brisk
Cinematographer: Austin DeBesche and others
Editor: Alexandra de Gonzalez
Country of Origin: USA
 

 

Feature Comedy | 2010 | 81 min.

Two prodigal brothers, Danny and Marcus, are reunited with each other and their uncle at their father's funeral in a remote English village. Marcus, a frustrated would-be businessman, is less than impressed when Danny, his mooching, partially-estranged dilettante of a brother cannot even manage to turn up on time. Their uncle, however, is simply very happy to see them both together, and insists that they stay the night before going their separate ways once more. At the very least, they should stay long enough to meet with the solicitor, and discuss the matter of their father’s will.

So it is that the brothers, hung-over from the wake and already grating on each other's nerves, find themselves the proud owners of their late father's dilapidated cottage. As expected, they initially discover precious little of any value inside. What they certainly did not expect to find was an enormous sum of cash hidden in a bag in a cupboard and more surprising still is the belligerent old man they find holding onto it. They have a predicament: knowing their father, the money is highly unlikely to be of legal providence, so simply going to the police presents a problem if they want to keep it. However, they also have the furious and pugilistic Malcolm the Bastard one of the disreputable gang of pensioners who resemble the closest thing their father had to friends to contend with. The Drummond Will is a black comedy set in decaying rural England, a collision between old and new. The film follows estranged brothers Marcus and Danny Drummond as they find themselves on a surprisingly dangerous undertaking to unravel the mystery surrounding their father's unlikely wealth.

Director: Alan Butterworth
Producer: Tobias Dobell
Screenwriter: Alan Butterworth and Sam Forster
Cinematographer: Adam Hetherington
Editor: Alex Ensile
Composer: Charles WebTop
Cast: Mark Oystermen, Phillip James, Jonathan Handler
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Film Website: www.thedrummondwill.com

 

 

Feature Documentary | 2009 | 89 min.

The sale of a generational summer home on Martha's Vineyard. The film is an honest, raw portrait of a family in the midst of grief after the sudden death of the matriarch and the inevitable sale of the family house. It shows the end of an era and paints a portrait of the ways of the WASP without judgment. It is also the story of a marriage (between the filmmaker's parents Bruce and Dolly) with all its imperfections, love and pain threaded through the history of the house.

"I loved the film. It's beautiful." -Albert Maysles (Grey Gardens)

Director: Victoria Campbell
Screenwriter: Victoria Campbell
Editor: Victoria Campbell
Country of Origin: U S A
 

Feature Drama | 2009 | 93 min.

'Earthwork' is the story of real-life crop artist Stan Herd. In 1994, Stan traveled from Kansas to New York City to create a massive environmental artwork on land owned by Donald Trump. The multi-acre piece was made from soil, rock, plants and vegetation near an underground railway tunnel. Stan recruited a number of homeless individuals living in the tunnel as his crew. Over the months it took to complete the earthwork, Stan dealt with the difficulties of bringing his unique, rural art form to an urban canvas and the many costs exacted upon his life. In an effort to show his unique perspective to a larger audience, Stan unexpectedly encountered the true meaning of his art and it's ultimate, lasting rewards.  Audience and Jury Award, Best Narrative Feature, WHFF 2010.

 

Director: Chris Ordal
Producer: Brendon Glad, Chris Ordal, Brad Roszell
Screenwriter: Chris Ordal
Cinematographer: Bruce Francis Cole
Editor: Brad Roszell
Composer: David Goodrich
Cast: John Hawkes, James McDaniel, Laura Kirk, Zach Grenier, Chris Bachand, Sam Greenlee, Brendon Glad, Bruce MacVittie
Country of Origin: U S A
Film Website: www.earthworkmovie.com

 

 

Feature Documentary | 2010 | 82 min.

26-year-old charmer Daniel Dembele is equal parts West African and European, and looking to make his mark on the world. Seizing the moment at a crossroads in his life, Daniel decides to return to his homeland in Mali and start a local business building solar panels - the first of its kind in the sun drenched nation. Daniel's goal is to electrify the households of rural communities, 99% of which live without power. BURNING IN THE SUN tells the story of Daniel's journey growing the budding idea into a viable company, and of the business' impact on Daniel's first customers in the tiny village of Banko. Taking controversial stances on climate change, poverty, and African self-sufficiency, the film explores what it means to grow up as a man, and what it takes to prosper as a nation.

Director: Cambria Matlow, Morgan Robinson
Producer: Cambria Matlow, Morgan Robinson and Claire Weingarten
Cinematographer: Cambria Matlow, Morgan Robinson
Editor: Emily Paine, Daniel Praid
Composer: Ronen Landa
Country of Origin: USA
Film Website: www.burninginthesun.wordpress.com