In 1997, Tony Blair's New Labor government took steps to improve standards in education. Ironically, this would threaten the existence of an unusual little school in Suffolk called Summerhill. This famous coed alternative boarding school was threatened with closure because it refused to compromise its educational and social philosophy. Attendance in classes is voluntary, and children can play all day if they feel like it. The school runs as a free and completely democratic society. Rules are developed and adopted in weekly meetings, in which every member of the school community, from a five-year old child to the headmistress, has an equal vote. At Summerhill, the emotional development of children comes first, lessons second. So begins an extraordinary documentary in which the students, the staff and a few formidable barristers take on OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education) and Tony Blair's Labor Government to fight for its existence and the lifeblood of alternative education throughout the world. It was a fight that not only saved the prestigious institution, but also proved the very educational principals on which the school was founded.
– Our Gala Opening Night Reception will be hosted by Judi Franco Chalme presenting William Tyler Smith, director of Imagine a School... Summerhill as our keynote speaker. Filmmaker awards will be presented followed by a screening of Imagine a School...Summerhill. Doors open at 7:00pm serving cocktails, light dinner and dessert. Program begins at 8:00pm.
Evening to Benefit Sephardic Food Fund.
– A Sci-Fi Fantasy journey of a little girl with a special pet friend, a huge toad. This is a full 3D animation music video for the song 'Hey' by Eatliz band.
– A clever, finely crafted unique short film narrating ten minutes, as well as forty years of Francesco's life, through the elaborate suffering throughout a family’s violent tendencies which dominated his life.
– Ten for Grandpa is a fast paced, introspective look at the enigmatic life of David Karr, a most influential father. Structured by a list of unanswered questions, the film takes an analytical and often comedic look at the life of this complex character and the events surrounding his untimely demise.
– This eye-opening documentary explores the new frontier that is Newark. Besides being the transportation hub to many people in New Jersey, this film highlights the many cultural and artistic centers filtering creative talent to the nearby local communities, to afford a residence for emerging artists.
– In a comedy for all ages, a lonely young boy avoids dealing with his life problems by escaping to his own world of paper airplanes. When he rescues an oddball girl from the clutches of two school bullies, he is forced to realize that sometimes the real world isn’t made of fairy tale endings. (Student Film)
– In the village of Snowyville, Sir Evil, a power-hungry knight charges in atop his dim-witted sidekick, the Dragosaurus, whose sole request is to be “The Head of Intelligence.”
– In a comedy for all ages, a lonely young boy avoids dealing with his life problems by escaping to his own world of paper airplanes. When he rescues an oddball girl from the clutches of two school bullies, he is forced to realize that sometimes the real world isn’t made of fairy tale endings. (Student Film)
– After discovering the majority of her friends have chosen the same path as her – to leave Romania – the filmmaker returns to her homeland for healing, for answers, and for the truth of what she left behind. She travels throughout the country interviewing family, colleagues, and teachers to understand what’s happening in a country struggling to shrug off the debilitating impact of decades of Communism rule, and to confront the emotions of returning to the family and friends she left behind.
For at least a generation American public schools have been growing progressively worse. According to the U.S. Department of Education, only 35% of American high school seniors are proficient in reading, and a mere 23% proficient in math. On the global stage, America ranks last in educational effectiveness among large industrialized countries despite the highest spending per student.
If higher spending is the answer to public education, the logic goes, why not study the U.S. state that spends the most per student: New Jersey. The film not only shows how little money reaches the classroom in the Garden State, but the human toll as well: Only 39% of NJ 8th graders test proficient in reading.
Like no documentary before it, "The Cartel" investigates both the troubles in American public education, as well as ways to turn things around.
– A Sci-Fi Fantasy journey of a little girl with a special pet friend, a huge toad. This is a full 3D animation music video for the song 'Hey' by Eatliz band.
– At the age of 16, Hashim Garrett was shot six times, partially paralyzed and left for dead on a Brooklyn street. A victim of senseless gang violence, it tells the story of his near-death experience.
– After saving for more than 20 years, Buck (Terry Ray) is finally able to move into his own place – sort of. He and two strangers, Bill (Jim Bullock) & Penny (Molly Hagan), experience their first day as roommates in their very tiny government assigned middle class housing unit. The future ain’t pretty … but it is funny.
– Trapped inside on a rainy day, a young girl discovers a family secret which unleashes her devilish imagination upon her house. Rain Rain is a fun, magical & reminiscent story of what could have been just an ordinary afternoon.
– An animation experimenting with various techniques to convey a sad and emotional story. A piano player plays a moving, melancholic song on stage, accompanied by three eccentric musicians. (Student Film)
– Struggling to come to terms with her life and marriage after breast cancer, Julia gets more than she bargained for when she attends a bridal shower and finds herself locked in a bathroom with a stranger. Open Your Eyes is a poignant and humorous look at our complex relationship with breasts, each other and what it really means to be whole. (Student Film)
A late night talk show host concocts an elaborate scheme to save his cancelled show, entangling a diverse collection of tinsel town characters in the process. With the plug about to be pulled on his late night talk show, and his wife tangled up in an affair with a professional baseball star, host Jack West (played by Saturday Night Live star Kevin Nealon), desperate to keep his star status, creates a media stunt, killing two birds with one plot. The scheme includes an assorted collection of colorful locals navigating their way through unpredictable twists and turns, including a plump private eye (Tom Arnold) teaming up with a macabre web-mistress (Nora Zehetner).
– A darkly comic account of a fateful night the mob’s least talented assassin took on a most formidable foe and found himself out-foxed, out-witted and out-gunned at every turn.
– Ten for Grandpa is a fast paced, introspective look at the enigmatic life of David Karr, a most influential father. Structured by a list of unanswered questions, the film takes an analytical and often comedic look at the life of this complex character and the events surrounding his untimely demise.
– An intimate look at Chew the Cud, the greatest British band ever to be born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Indeed, the greatest band that never was. A colonoscope with the ability to go deep inside the cow, in order to find out what drives the CTC phenomenon sweeping the Americas and the more rural and remote areas of Bengali.
– A darkly comic account of a fateful night the mob’s least talented assassin took on a most formidable foe and found himself out-foxed, out-witted and out-gunned at every turn.
– An animation experimenting with various techniques to convey a sad and emotional story. A piano player plays a moving, melancholic song on stage, accompanied by three eccentric musicians. (Student Film)
– A young man who falls in love with a woman he thinks is his co-worker, discovers that his own computer may offer him more than any human ever could.
Feature Film:
Remarkable Power! at 10:27pm
Don McKay Director: Jake Goldberger
Drama/Thriller, USA, 100 min
Don McKay is a quiet, unassuming high school janitor, who visits Sonny, a terminally ill childhood sweetheart back in his hometown. Haunted by a terrible tragedy, which forced him to flee his hometown twenty-five years earlier, Don is forced to revisit the ghosts of his past. Having been required to deal with Sonny’s condition, and the people who surround her, Don realizes the world he has entered back into is not what he recalled. It is instead a labyrinth, revealing a world of deceit, murder and illumination.
Starring Sideway’s Thomas Hayden Church as Don McKay, and NJ actress Elisabeth Shue as Sonny.
– A Sci-Fi Fantasy journey of a little girl with a special pet friend, a huge toad. This is a full 3D animation music video for the song 'Hey' by Eatliz band.
– An intimate look at Chew the Cud, the greatest British band ever to be born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Indeed, the greatest band that never was. A colonoscope with the ability to go deep inside the cow, in order to find out what drives the CTC phenomenon sweeping the Americas and the more rural and remote areas of Bengali.
– An animation experimenting with various techniques to convey a sad and emotional story. A piano player plays a moving, melancholic song on stage, accompanied by three eccentric musicians. (Student Film)
– When a young girl awakens one morning, something dark and strange goes on in the house, and it seems certain that her childhood will never be the same... (Student Film)
– Three people are taking their lunch break. In just a few minutes their lives will be torn into pieces.
Feature Film:
Don McKay at 7:49pm
The Debt Director: Assaf Bernstein
Drama, Israel, 93 min German and Hebrew w/ English subtitles View Trailer
Nominated for four awards at the Israel Film Academy
Based on the Nazi hunts of the 1960s. The Debt is a cat and mouse thriller that follows two threads simultaneously: the 1964 mission of three young Israeli Mossad agents credited with capturing a war criminal known as the Surgeon of Birkenau, and the reprise of the mission 30 years later, when the Nazi, who wasn't apprehended successfully the first time, is found at a nursing home in Kiev. The parallel plot lines complement one another and add suspense without confusing the point. The agents are presented in varying degrees of heroism and dishonor, adding a fine divergence to the arch of the main character.
– Ten for Grandpa is a fast paced, introspective look at the enigmatic life of David Karr, a most influential father. Structured by a list of unanswered questions, the film takes an analytical and often comedic look at the life of this complex character and the events surrounding his untimely demise.
– A Sci-Fi Fantasy journey of a little girl with a special pet friend, a huge toad. This is a full 3D animation music video for the song 'Hey' by Eatliz band.
– A Sci-Fi Fantasy journey of a little girl with a special pet friend, a huge toad. This is a full 3D animation music video for the song 'Hey' by Eatliz band.
– A clever, finely crafted unique short film narrating ten minutes, as well as forty years of Francesco's life, through the elaborate suffering throughout a family’s violent tendencies which dominated his life.
Winner of the 2007 Camera d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival
Poignant, often witty and exceedingly cinematic Jellyfish tells the story of three women in Tel Aviv whose intersecting lives paint a portrait of Israeli life. Batya, a waitress at weddings, comes across a mute child who seemingly emerges out of the sea. Keren, a bride whose wedding Batya worked at, breaks her leg climbing out of bathroom stall and ruins her dream honeymoon in the process. And Joy, a Filipino domestic, attends to her employer with whom she struggles to communicate. Poetic imagery draws connections between the lives of these women, all of whom find solace in the sea. The film stars Sarah Adler and Gera Sandler; in addition, the director Etgar Keret has a small cameo.
– A coming-of-age tale about a young girl’s unusual babysitting experience, and the unexpected life lesson she learns along the way. This film is based on the flash-fiction story by acclaimed author Katharine Weber.
– When a young girl awakens one morning, something dark and strange goes on in the house, and it seems certain that her childhood will never be the same... (Student Film)
– A young woman, who was molested as a child, returns home after being away for ten years to confront her past and the person who robbed her of her innocence...her uncle. An intense and emotional drama based on a true story about a young girl who harbors a family secret.
– A mock animated documentary about the ecological plight of penguins in the
Antarctic, possibly foretelling cataclysmic results for the rest of the world.
– The different aspects of ‘Kalaripayat’, the Indian style martial arts form is said to be the source of all Eastern martial arts. On location in Kerala, South India ‘Kalaripayat’ features the different aspects of the art, such as the connection with Ayurveda and massage therapy, the four levels of the style, the weaponry, and the place of women within Kalaripayat.
