New Orleans Film Society by Publication Printer

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Welcome About the Film Society / Festival Theme Sponsors New Orleans Film Society Staff Venues Map How to Fest FAQ Ticketing & Passes Producers Circle Membership Parties and Events Awards / Screener Thank Yous Jurors Celluloid Hero / Gala Thank Yous Panels

Special Presentations

Free Screenings Film Grid

33 34 35 37 39 41 42 43 44-45 46-95 96-106

107 109-112

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Education Opening Night Closing Night keeping {SCORE} OUTakes Outdoor Screenings NOLAbound I Love Louisiana Day Cinema Reset Features Listings Shorts Listings

2 3 4-6 9 11 12 13 14 15 18-19 22-23 24-25 27 28-31

PHOTO CREDIT: Rusty Costanza

WELCOME

Jolene Pinder

NOFS Executive Director

Welcome to our 23rd annual New Orleans Film Festival! 2012 marks a banner year for the the New Orleans Film Festival (NOFF). In April, MovieMaker Magazine named NOFF one of the “Top 25 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee.” Apparently, filmmakers listened—we received more submissions than ever before, a staggering 1,250 films from around the world (up 40% over 2011). In planning your festival schedule, make sure to include a visit to the Cinema Reset (pages 44-45) exhibit created in partnership with the Contemporary Arts Center and check out one of our “Gather ‘Round” conversations in the VIP Lounge. In closing, I just want to thank our generous community of sponsors, filmmakers, grantors, partners, advertisers, and city agencies for working so closely with us to make the New Orleans Film Festival a not-to-miss event on the Film Festival calendar. And of course, I am forever grateful to our Board of Directors and Advisory Board for all they do to help create an exciting, inclusive, and spirited organization all year long. Thank you! Jolene Pinder Executive Director, New Orleans Film Society

Dear movie lovers, The New Orleans Film Society has been offering high-quality cinema to our community throughout the year. On behalf of all our members, I would like to thank our incredibly dedicated and competent staff, wonderful interns, and many volunteers for making the film society better than ever. I would also like to thank our sponsors, grantors, and community partners. Now that we finally arrive at our main event, I suggest that the best way we can show our appreciation for everyone’s hard work and talent is to enjoy this 23rd Annual New Orleans Film Festival in a manner most befitting local custom and tradition. Enjoy it in abundance and to excess. You deserve it. Yours when the house-lights dim,

Steve Armbruster NOFS Board President

Steve Armbruster Board President, New Orleans Film Society

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Welcome!

It is my pleasure to welcome back the New Orleans Film Festival for its 23rd celebration. The New Orleans Film Festival (NOFF) is continuing its tradition as Louisiana’s preeminent film event, having drawn more than 13,000 attendees in 2011. Not only is the festival an important economic investment for New Orleans, it is also a major showcase of our local filmmakers, who are a part of our growing film industry. During the festival, I hope that many attendees will take some time to visit our historic French Quarter, dine in our fine restaurants and entertainment venues and enjoy the rich culture that makes New Orleans the most authentic and culturally rich destination in America. I extend my best wishes for a successful and entertaining festival.

Mitchell J. Landrieu Mayor, City of New Orleans

Sincerely, Mitchell J. Landrieu Mayor, City of New Orleans

ABOUT THE FILM SOCIETY This year marks the 23 anniversary of the New Orleans Film Festival (NOFF). Since its inception in 1989, it has grown into a prominent and crucial component of the New Orleans cultural landscape. The New Orleans Film Society, a non-profit 501(c)3 cultural organization, presents the Festival each year. rd

The mission of the Film Society is to engage, educate, and inspire through the art of film. The New Orleans Film Society welcomes your participation in any and all of its programs and events, and hope you will become a regular visitor to the website, www.neworleansfimsociety.org The Society presents a diverse range of yearround screenings and film-related events, in addition to the annual NOFF in October: the French Film Festival, the New Orleans International Children’s Film Festival, filmOrama and monthly screenings at the CAC, Ashé Cultural Arts Center, Chalmette Movies, NOMA, and more. The Society is New Orleans’ preeminent vehicle for the exhibition of independent local, national, and international films.

ABOUT THE 2012 FESTIVAL THEME This year’s New Orleans Film Festival concept is meant to depict Louisiana as a new frontier on the cinema landscape, a land bursting at the seams with innovation, creativity, and vision. So here’s the pitch: it’s like Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera meets Robert Flaherty’s Louisiana Story. Both films are early experimentations in cinema: Vertov’s 1929 film played with the idea that cameras had the potential to go anywhere and everywhere (lofty in the late ‘20, eerily real 80+ years later) while Flaherty’s work tested the limits of what became known as “docufiction.” Louisiana’s status as a hub of film activity is indisputable but this year brought much-needed attention to Louisiana’s position as an incubator of original voices and wholly unique storytelling. Jonathan Kieran’s “Bayou Fantasia” video series, Kelli Binnings’ Program Guide cover design, and Meg Turner’s NOFF poster artwork all shine a spotlight on this idea: that Louisiana filmmakers are charting new territory and that there is still so much talent here that the rest of the world has yet to discover.

Jonathan Kieran’s “Bayou Fantasia” video series

Kelli Binnings’ Program Guide cover design

Meg Turner’s NOFF poster artwork

2012 Sponsors MARQUEE

PRODUCING

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

PREMIERE

PREMIERE TRADE

FEATURE

SUPPORTING

CONTRIBUTING

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

PROMO PARTNERS

GRANTORS

This program is supported in part by a Community Arts Grant made possible by the City of New Orleans. The grant is administered through the Arts Council of New Orleans. This program is supported by a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council. The grant is administered through the Arts Council of New Orleans.

WIFT LOGO

Main logo mark:

Supported in part by a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency.

Without tagline:

MEDIA SPONSORS 100%

PARTNERS 75%

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

50%

IN-KIND DONATIONS American Cinematographer Beaucoup Juice Chef Susan Spicer and Bayona Crescent City Technologies Docurama Doerr Furniture Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps Emergen-C Film Comment Glee Gum

Guayaki K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen Limousine Livery Lomography Mardi Gras Productions Mar-GO-Rita / Cordina McAlister’s Naked Pizza New Orleans Movie Tours Newman’s Own Popcorn

Oxford American Magazine Pralines by Jean Raw Revolution Rosebud Perfume Co. Smith Micro Software Southern Costume Company Southern Foodways Alliance Sucré Ye Olde Kettle Cooker Zevia

is proud to sponsor the 2012 New Orleans Film Festival & Congratulates The Paperboy & The Iceman Bradley Greer - DI Consultant

Bradley Greer - DI Color Grader

New Orleans • Elmwood • Baton Rouge • Shreveport Hollywood • Santa Monica • Miami 504.733.8353 • 877.908.FILM www.Cineworks.com

John Desplas

Clint Bowie

Artistic Director

Program Director

STAFF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Jolene Pinder ARTISTIC DIRECTOR John Desplas PROGRAM DIRECTOR Clint Bowie

Clint Bowie serves as the Film Society’s Program Director and manages the Film Festival’s competitive division. He previously worked for the Portland International Film Festival, and, before that, was a journalist for five years. Some of his favorite films include Paris Is Burning, Sherman’s March, and the Seven Up series.

John Desplas is a founding member of the New Orleans Film Society. After graduating from UNO, he wrote film reviews for FIGARO, a New Orleans weekly. In 1995, he was made “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the Ministry of Culture of the French Government in recognition of his efforts to widen the domestic audience for films from throughout the world. His favorite film remains Jean Renoir’s Rules of the Game.

FESTIVAL CREDITS DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

TECHNICAL ASSOCIATES

Monika Baudoin

Andre Caillouet Alexander Garcia Trey Ledford Ted Moree Jonathan Taube Scott Varnado

FESTIVAL & EDUCATION COORDINATOR

Skye Macdonald FESTIVAL ASSISTANTS

Danielle Calle Elisabeth Sanders

VIP LOUNGE COORDINATOR

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

FESTIVAL/PROGRAM DESIGN

Sergio Lobo-Navia VOLUNTEER COORDINATORS

EVENT PLANNER

Sue Grazer TRANSPORTATION COORDINATOR

Jessica Mizell CINEMA RESET

Blake Bertuccelli Lindsey Phillips Trevor Alan Taylor

Kelli Binnings - KB Digital Imaging & Design FESTIVAL BUMPER DIRECTOR

Jonathan Kieran POSTER DESIGN

Meg Turner PUBLICIST

Bond PR and Brand Stategy

OFFICE INTERNS Sarah deVeer Ileana Feoli Alyson Gaharan Caroline Kain Jonathan Kieran John Williams TECHNICAL TEAM Andre Caillouet Alexander Garcia Sergio Lobo-Navia

ADVISORY BOARD

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mike Adler Tracie Ashe Laticia Barthe Lonnie Bewley Carol Bidault Brantley Bissette Mary Blue Chris Brown Jason Buch Katherine Cecil Karen Celestan Anne Chaisson Andre Champagne Ashley Charbonnet Luisa Dantas Jann Darsie Sharon Donovan Liz Dunnebacke Sayde Finkel Lyn Fischbach Anne Giselson Lesli Harris Geoffrey A. Hartnett

PRESIDENT

Ellen Johnson Karen Kern Johnny King Brian Knighten Rita Benson LeBlanc Jarret Lofstead Kimaree Long Don Marshall Jacky Lee Morgan Carroll Morton Julian Mutter Hamp Overton Josh Penn Alfred Richard Aaron Rushin Pamela Senatore James Shade Jen Sharp Mark Sindler E. Alexandra Stafford Wayne Troyer Tim Watson Melissa Weber

HONORARY BOARD Susan Brennan Stephanie Durant John Goodman Taylor Hackford Wendell Pierce T.G. “Teddy” Solomon

Steve Armbruster VICE-PRESIDENT

Henry Griffin SECRETARY

Maryann Miller TREASURER

Adam Marcus BOARD MEMBERS

Constance J. Balides Jane Booth James Gelarden Alexa Georges Jean-Paul Gisclair Alex Glaser Christopher Jeansonne Nomita Joshi-Gupta Sandie McNamara Gayle Seybert Gish Raelynn Tammariello Loop Ivan B. Watkins Cristina Wollenberg Karen Solomon

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Lisa Diegelman Bill Rainey

Lauren Domino

MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR Monika Baudoin

2012 FESTIVAL VENUE MAP

Theatres at Canal Place 1

The Theatres at Canal Place 333 Canal Street, Third Floor, New Orleans

Theatres at Canal Place 2

The Theatres at Canal Place 333 Canal Street, Third Floor, New Orleans

Prytania Theatre

CAC Panels FreeportMcMoRan Theater Chalmette Movies

5339 Prytania Street, New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center Second Floor Rehearsal Hall 900 Camp Street, New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center Freeport McMoRan Theater 900 Camp Street, New Orleans Chalmette Movies 8700 West Judge Perez Drive, Suite D, Chalmette

Old US Mint US Mint

Zeitgeist

Ashé Cultural Arts Center

NOMA

Joy Theater 1200 Canal Street, New Orleans Zeitgeist 1618 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd, New Orleans Ashé Cultural Arts Center 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd, New Orleans New Orleans Museum of Art 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Prytania Theatre

Joy Theater

400 Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans 11

HOW TO FEST FAQ’s

I PURCHASED A PASS ONLINE. WHERE DO I PICK IT UP? All passes purchased online must be picked up at our Festival Headquarters Box Office at the Contemporary Arts Center (900 Camp Street). Box office hours are as follows: October 1-11: 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. October 12-18: 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. I HAVE AN ALL-ACCESS PASS. CAN I SIMPLY FLASH MY BADGE AND GET INTO A MOVIE? No. All screenings are ticketed and even AllAccess Passholders must show a ticket to get in. The pass simply allows you to secure a ticket for any screening. Physical tickets can be secured in advance, but you must also present your All-Access Pass when showing your ticket. (If your ticket indicates that you used an All-Access Pass to reserve it, you must present your pass when handing your ticket over or you will not be allowed entry to the theatre.) CAN I SHARE MY FESTIVAL PASS? No. All passes (All-Access, Deluxe Six-Film, and Six-Film) are non-transferable. Your name will be written on your pass, and ID may be required when securing tickets.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

WHAT METHODS OF PAYMENT ARE ACCEPTED AT FESTIVAL BOX OFFICES? All Festival Box Offices accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and cash. Checks are not accepted.

WHY CAN’T I PURCHASE AN INDIVIDUAL TICKET ONLINE FOR OPENING NIGHT? We are excited about holding our Opening Night screening at the Joy Theater, a venue that can accommodate 550+ people. However, the Joy has an exclusive contract with Ticketmaster. Per the venue’s contractual obligation, we are only allowed to sell a limited number of Deluxe Six-Film passes (which include Opening Night) on the New Orleans Film Festival website. All-Access Passholders may claim a ticket for Opening Night in advance at the NOFF Box Office at the CAC. (However, if you do not check in to the screening ten minutes prior to the start time, your ticket becomes invalid and your seat will be sold.) At noon on the day of the screening, we will open the box office at the Joy to sell individual tickets only. If pass holders have not yet claimed their physical tickets in advance at the CAC, they must check in at the Joy’s will-call table up to ten minutes prior to showtime. We

*Passes purchased online MUST be picked up at the Festival headquarters (the Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp Street) beginning October 1. You do not need to have your physical pass to reserve tickets online, but you must have your pass (All-Access, Six-Film, or Deluxe Six-Film) when you secure tickets at the box office and when you enter the screening venue.* highly recommend that All-Access Passholders claim their Opening Night tickets in advance, to avoid waiting in line the night of the show or arriving too late to secure a ticket. These tickets are available on a first-come firstserve basis to All-Access Passholders. I BOUGHT MY TICKET ONLINE, BUT I DIDN’T PRINT IT OUT. WILL MY NAME BE ON A WILL-CALL LIST? No. There is NO Will-Call list this year (except for the Opening Night screening). If you secure a ticket online, you must either print the ticket at home and bring to the theater to be scanned when entering the venue OR show the ticket (with barcode) on a mobile device. There will not be a list of individuals who purchased tickets online for a given film. I WAS TOLD THAT NO MORE TICKETS WERE BEING SOLD TO A MOVIE I REALLY WANT TO SEE. IS THERE ANY WAY TO STILL GET TICKETS? Usually, the answer is yes. Even though all tickets in a given theatre may be reserved, there are usually tickets that go unclaimed. We strongly recommend that you show up for the screening and inquire at the box office for a waitlist number—these will start being handed out 30 minutes before the start of the film and will be numbered (the first person requesting one will have a “1” on their card, the second person a “2” and so on). Five minutes before the start of the film, we will begin selling unclaimed tickets to waitlist number holders in sequential order. (If you are not there when waitlist numbers are called, you forfeit your place in line to purchase an unclaimed ticket.) In general, never give up hope until the venue manager / box office coordinator announces that the screening is at capacity and turns away those with waitlist numbers. I WANT TO PURCHASE TICKETS IN ADVANCE, BUT I DON’T HAVE A PRINTER AT HOME. WHAT DO I DO? The box office at our Festival headquarters (the Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp Street) will start selling tickets to members on October 1, and to the general public on October 8. Box office hours are 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. every day of the week October 1-11 and 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. October 12-18. You can secure physical tickets in advance this way. WHAT IF I AM LATE TO THE SCREENING? To guarantee seating, you must be at the

venue five minutes before the start of the film, even if you have an actual ticket. If you are not at the venue five minutes beforehand, there is no guarantee that you will be able to get in the theatre. We will start to sell all unclaimed seats in the venue starting five minutes before the start of the film. I PURCHASED A FESTIVAL PASS, BUT I LOST IT. CAN I GET A NEW ONE? No. There are no replacements for lost passes or tickets. ARE VENUES ACCESSIBLE? All venues are wheelchair accessible. CAN I GET A REFUND OR EXCHANGE FOR A TICKET THAT I’VE PURCHASED? No, all ticket and pass sales are final. There are no refunds or exchanges. I DON’T HAVE AN ALL-ACCESS PASS BUT I WOULD LIKE TO ATTEND NOFF PARTIES. CAN I PURCHASE TICKETS TO GET INTO FESTIVAL PARTIES? Please read on for information about access to the nightly parties and receptions. OPENING NIGHT (THURSDAY) All Opening Night ticketholders are invited to an After-Party at the Saint Hotel following the screening. Only All-Access Passholders will have access to a VIP area at the party with complimentary food and drink. There will be a cash bar for the general public. WELCOME TO BAYOUWOOD FILMMAKER WELCOME PARTY (FRIDAY) Only All-Access Passholders will be admitted to this event. “A FILM FEST AFFAIR” (SATURDAY) All-Access Passholders, Deluxe Six-Film Passholders and Six-Film Passholders are all granted FREE admission to this event. The general public may purchase tickets at: scenelouisiana.com/tickets. General admission is $10 and the VIP lounge is $50. I LOVE LOUISIANA DAY PARTY Open to the general public (there is limited capacity at the venue so arrive early). CLOSING NIGHT PARTY Open to the general public (there is limited capacity at the venue so arrive early). All other weekday receptions are open to the public.

Tickets and Passes All tickets secured online must be either printed at home or saved on a mobile device (which will be Tickets for individual film screenings are available scanned at the festival venue). Passholder tickets for purchase at any Festival Box Office for $8 for can be reserved starting October 1 for NOFS memNOFS members and $10 for non-members (adbers and on October 8 for non-members both online ditionally, CAC members will receive the member price and at our Festival Headquarters at the Contempofor any film screening at the CAC; NOMA members rary Arts Center (900 Camp Street). will receive the member price for any film screening at During the festival, the Festival Headquarters Box NOMA during the Festival). Office will be open every day 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Box The one exception is the Opening Night Film, which offices at each screening venue will open one hour is $12 for NOFS members and $15 for non-members. prior to the first screening at that venue that day. Individual tickets are only available the day of the There will be a line designated for All-Access Passscreening, at the Joy box office beginning at noon. holders, who receive priority access to theatre seating.

INDIVIDUAL FILM TICKETS

DELUXE SIX-FILM PASS Provides entry to Opening Night Film and an additional five screenings—only one ticket per film per pass. (This pass only guarantees admission to Opening Night Film—for the remaining five films, tickets must be secured before the screening.)

To attend the Opening Night Film, all Deluxe Six-Film Passholders will have tickets waiting at the Will Call table at the Joy Theater the evening of the screening. (It is also possible to get your physical ticket for Opening Night at the Festival Headquarters Box Office at the CAC starting October 1). However, you MUST check-in at the Will Call table at least 10 minutes before SAVE WITH A FESTIVAL PASS the scheduled screening time to guarantee a seat. All SIX-FILM PASS unclaimed Deluxe Six-Film Pass tickets will be released NOFF passes give you the freedom to enjoy all the fesProvides entry to any six screenings—only one ticket to the general public beyond this point. tival has to offer, including exclusive access to special per film per pass. (This pass alone does not guaranparties, events and the VIP Lounge, while providing For the remaining five films, tickets can be reserved tee admission—all tickets must be secured before considerable savings off à la carte ticket prices. either online or in person at any Film Festival Box Office. the screening.) Tickets can be reserved with the Six For tickets secured at a Film Festival Box Office, your Film Pass either online or in person at any Film FestiALL-ACCESS PASS Deluxe Six-Film Pass will be punched at the box office val Box Office. For tickets secured at a Film Festival The All-Access Pass allows you to secure tickets to for each ticket you redeem. Box Office, your Six Film Pass will be punched at the all Festival screenings and allows entry to all parties, All tickets secured online must be either printed at box office for each ticket you redeem. receptions, and events. For all films, tickets MUST home or saved on a mobile device (which will be All tickets secured online must be either printed at be secured before the screening, either online or at scanned at the festival venue). When your print-athome or saved on a mobile device (which will be a physical box office. (All-Access Passholders may home ticket or mobile device is scanned at the venue, reserve tickets up to five minutes before the start of the scanned at the festival venue). When your printyour Deluxe Six-Film Pass will then be punched. Passat-home ticket or mobile device is scanned at the film if seats are available). holder tickets can be reserved starting October 1 for venue, your Six-Film Pass will then be punched. NOFS members and on October 8 for non-members, To attend the Opening Night Film, All-Access Passholder tickets can be reserved starting October both online and at our Festival Headquarters at the Passholders can pick up their ticket in advance at 1 for NOFS members and on October 8 for nonCAC (900 Camp Street). the Festival Headquarters Box Office at the CAC or members, both online and at our Festival Headquarthe day of the screening at the Joy Theater starting at ters at the CAC (900 Camp Street). noon.

The New Orleans Film Society is proud to introduce a new donor group: the Producers Circle. Are you in it? Founded as a way to support NOFS’ year-round programming efforts, the Producers Circle is crucial in establishing a sustainable base of support for the Film Society. As New Orleans continues to thrive as a center for film production, it is increasingly important to bring dynamic and diverse screening experiences to every corner of the city. The last year proved to be an exciting and unprecedented one for the New Orleans Film Society. We saw a 57% increase in attendance at the 2011 Film Festival and our membership rolls reached an all-time high, close to 1,000 NOFS members strong. In 2011, NOFS doubled overall attendance at all programming, reaching 25,000 people in every pocket of the city over the course of the year. In 2012, we strengthened and expanded existing partnerships with the Contemporary Arts Center, the Consulat Général de France à La Nouvelle-Orléans, Ashé Cultural Arts Center and NOMA while dramatically expanding our reach to include new partners throughout the city. In 2012, NOFS co-presented the first-ever Spanish Language Film Festival and High School Film Festival, both in collaboration with the University of New Orleans. NOFS formed a partnership with the Louisiana State Museum to stage special outdoor screenings on the ground of the Old U.S. Mint. Without support from our Producers Circle, we could not continue to offer these highquality film experiences to New Orleans audiences.

For an annual contribution of $1500, Producers Circle members receive an exciting slate of benefits: Two All-Access passes for the annual New Orleans Film Festival (which grants you admission to all Festival events and allows you to secure advance tickets) Two tickets to the Patron Party/Gala ($450 value) Invitations for you and a guest to special Producers Circle-only events (private screenings, red carpet premieres, etc.) Free admission and reserved seating for you and a guest to ALL NOFS-sponsored screenings Free admission for you and a guest to a select screening at Chalmette Movies every Thursday Visibility on the Producers Circle Page on NOFS loop that will run before all NOFS programming Visibility on Producers Circle page in the 2013 New Orleans Film Festival Program Guide Visibility on Producers Circle section on the website Visibility on monthly e-newsletters sent by NOFS

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

We invite you to help us bring the best of independent cinema to New Orleans. Join the Producers Circle today!

Thank You

to our 2012 Producers Circle Members

Walda & Sydney Besthoff Jane Ettinger Booth & Vincent Booth Helen P. Boutte Susan Gore Brennan Cathy & Rivie Cary Teresa Cole & Wayne Troyer George ‘o’ Dumun III Jill Dupre and Josh Mayer Stephanie & Ludovico Feoli Lyn & John Fischbach

Alexa Georges & Jerry Armatis Dathel & John Georges Melissa Gray & Emma Boyce Richard Green Matt Greenbaum Debbie & Corky Harkins Tamarin Hennebury & Steve Armbruster Allison Kendrick & Charles Fenet Barbara Marcus Valerie & Adam Marcus

Lee McDonough Linda Novak Tag Purvis & Pablo Mirabal Staci Rosenberg Parker Roy SPRUCE Eco-Studio Alexandra Stafford & Raymond Rathle, Jr. Felicia Beebe Stallard & Cole Sullivan Frank & Margaret Walker Nicole Wright

MEMBERSHIP

Moviegoer

Free admission to a special screening every Thursday at Chalmette Movies

There are membership levels for everyone—become part of one of New Orleans’ most exciting organizations! Support independent cinema in New Orleans and join the New Orleans Film Society today. Your membership dollars ensure that the finest in independent film finds a home in New Orleans. And we mean a home. Each year, the Film Society brings hundreds of films and filmmakers to the city, providing countless opportunities for audiences to engage with visionary directors, film scholars and other film lovers. From outdoor screenings at NOMA’s Besthoff Sculpture Garden to community screenings at Ashe in Central City, NOFS brings diverse programming to every corner of the city.

So step away from your flat screen television and step into a community of cinephiles who appreciate what it means to share in the communal, transformative experience of cinema. The New Orleans Film Society is a 501(c)3 organization and a portion of all membership dues are tax deductible.

Engage. Educate. Inspire. Through the art of film.

60+

Free Movies each year for members only

Ability to purchase advance tickets for screenings during the New Orleans Film Festival (NOFF)

$60

Members-only discount on tickets to all NOFS events (including NOFF) & on NOFS merchandise Free sneak preview tickets to new films Your donation at this level is $31 tax deductible

Special Discounts: All the benefits of the Moviegoer level, at a special discounted price Cinephilia (ages 18-29) – $25 Your donation at this level is $13 tax deductible

Film Professional – $35

Your donation at this level is $18 tax deductible

Take Two

Seniors (over 65) – $35

Your donation at this level is $18 tax deductible

$100

All the benefits of a Moviegoer membership but for two people (You each receive a member card) Your donation at this level is $52 tax deductible

Scene Stealer

$300

All the benefits of the Take Two level plus:

Access to the VIP Lounge at the NOFF

Two Six-Film Passes, each good for six screenings at the NOFF

Your donation at this level is $156 tax deductible

Screen Idol All the benefits of the Take Two level plus: Two All-Access Passes to the NOFF, good for all festival screenings and access to the VIP Lounge

$700 Reserved seating for all year-round programming Recognition as Film Society benefactor in the NOFF Program Guide

Your donation at this level is $364 tax deductible

Movie Mogul All the benefits of the Take Two level plus: Two All-Access Passes for the entire year, which are good for all NOFF screenings, the French Film Festival, filmOrama and to all year-round screenings at the CAC, Prytania, and NOMA

Producers Circle All the benefits of the Movie Mogul level plus: Two tickets to the annual Film Society Patron Party and Gala Invitations for you and a guest to special Producers Circle-only events. This year, Producers Circle donors enjoyed VIP tickets to the Beasts of the Southern Wild premiere and a sneak preview screening in a private home theater.

$1000 Reserved seating for all year-round programming Recognition as Film Society benefactor in the NOFF Program Guide Your donation at this level is $520 tax deductible

$1500 Visibility on monthly e-newsletters sent by NOFS Visibility on Producers Circle Page on NOFS loop that will run before all NOFS programming Visibility on Producers Circle page in the NOFF Program Guide and on the website Your donation at this level is $780 tax deductible

NOFF Corporate Sponsor $2500 * Higher levels of membership Recognition on prescreening loop before all Film Festival screenings Recognition in NOFF Program Guide (45,000 copies distributed)

Recognition on NOFF website Two All-Access Passes (good for all film screenings throughout the Festival)

HOLLYWOOD

NEW ORLEANS . BATON ROUGE . LAFAYETTE . SOFIA, BULGARIA . BUCHAREST, ROMANIA

225.308.9990

DIVISIONCAMERA.COM

VIP Lounge

PARTIES

Sponsored by:

Opening Night Party

Parties & Events

Thursday, October 11 | 9:30 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.

Saint Hotel | 931 Canal Street

After watching Nicole Kidman sweat it out in Lee Daniels’ new Florida noir, stroll or pedi-cab two blocks down to the Saint Hotel to celebrate the kickoff of the 2012 NOFF. All-Access Passholders enjoy access to a VIP area with complimentary food and drink all night long. Tempt Executive Chef Marcus Woodham (formerly of Patois) offers up a menu of decadent Southern classics with a twist. There will be a cash bar (Burgundy Bar) for the general public. So come mix and mingle with filmmakers, film industry folk and cinephiles at this Opening Night bash! Sponsored by:

Open to All-Access Passholders every day 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. (Lounge may stay open later on the evenings of special NOFF events at the CAC) The New Orleans Film Festival VIP Lounge is the ultimate location for All-Access Passholders to rest and refuel in between screenings throughout the festival. The Lounge will play host to Gather Round conversations, receptions and special happy hours (see below and right). The VIP Lounge is open only to All-Access Passholders except during film receptions and happy hours.

Friday, October 12 at 4:30 - 6:00 p.m. Louisiana Film & Video Magazine VIP Happy Hour

Welcome to Bayouwood Filmmaker Welcome Party Friday, October 12 | 9:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m. * Open to All-Access Passholders ONLY

Musée Conti | 917 Conti Street

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Take a stroll back in time—300 years to be exact—and follow along the meandering path of Louisiana’s history, discovering a waxy Napoleon in his bathtub and voodoo legend Marie Laveau along the way. Don’t get too lost in time, though. You won’t want to miss a very special performance by Cajun French band Feufollet, based out of Lafayette. In their own words, Feufollet is: “Deathbed ballads meet glockenspiels and omnichords. Cajun French choruses are written on iPhones. Indie-rock vibes invade Acadian archives.” Make some memories in our own bayou fantasia photo booth and get ready for an evening of complimentary food (from Hanna Brothers and Bayona), drink (from LA-31 and Republic National Distributing Company), music (Feufollet and NOLA Mix) and more. Sponsored by: Food and drink provided by Bayona, Bayou Teche Biere, Hanna Brothers, Pralines by Jean, Republic National Distribution Company and Sucré.

Feufollet

Join the staff of Louisiana Film & Video Magazine as they host a networking event/mixer for members of the local film production community. Come eat, drink, mingle, and celebrate Louisiana film! Don’t miss the introduction of new executive editor Andrew Vogel by associate editor Shanna Forrestall. This event is open to the public, but please RSVP to ksauro@media-inc.com or 1-800-332-1736.

Scene Magazine presents: A Film Fest Affair Saturday, October 13 | 8:00 p.m. - ‘til Second Line Stages | 800 Richard Street The single largest event of the 2012 New Orleans Film Festival, “A Film Fest Affair” is an epic celebration at Second Line Stages, the film studio built inside of a historic warehouse in New Orleans’ Lower Garden District. Featuring live music, an open bar and complimentary food from ten of the best restaurants in New Orleans, “A Film Fest Affair” is your chance to mingle with film professionals and famous faces. General admission is $10 and the VIP lounge is $50. Tickets are available at scenelouisiana.com/tickets. (NOFF AllAccess Passes and all Six-Film Passes include general admission to “A Film Fest Affair.”)

The Hotel Modern presents the I Love Louisiana Day Party Sunday, October 14 | 9:30 - 11:00 p.m. at Bellocq in The Hotel Modern | 936 St. Charles Avenue As Opening Weekend comes to a close, celebrate “I Love Louisiana Day” in style at Bellocq at The Hotel Modern. A bar full of

Saturday, October 13 at 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. Women in Film & Television (WIFT) Louisiana Happy Hour

Saturday, October 13 at 6:45 - 7:45 p.m. Bubbly + Sprinkles LGBT Meet-Up Connect with other LGBT filmmakers and film professionals during this special happy hour replete with champagne and cupcakes (with sprinkles, of course). What’s not to love? Take a saccharine break and celebrate OUTakes in the VIP Lounge with us.

Closing Night Cocktail Party

Special Installation of NOVAC’s 3RD THURSDAYS for NOFF

Parties & Events

Did you know that 10 of the 15 directors in competition at NOFF this year are women? Now that’s something to celebrate! Enjoy a glass of wine with visiting filmmakers, women in film and television and WIFT Board Members at this special Happy Hour in the VIP Lounge. Learn more about upcoming WIFT programs and membership. Open to all women at every level of the industry.

EVENTS

Thursday, October 18 Starts at 7:00 p.m. Loa Bar | 221 Camp Street

Join NOVAC and NOFS as we celebrate the culmination of our 23rd Annual New Orleans Film Festival with a Closing Event Cocktail Party / 3RD THURSDAY at Loa Bar in the International House Hotel. Our guests will enjoy some light-hearted libation, including a signature Sailor Jerry Rum drink crafted by master mixologist, Alan Walters. NOVAC’s 3RD THURSDAYS, are monthly film industry nights designed to connect NOVAC friends and members to other local filmmakers, future collaborators, likeminded artists, potential mentors and maybe even your next gig. Sponsored by:

Donations from:

Sunday, October 14 at 4:15 - 5:45 p.m. CANOPENER: A Reception/Tailgate Party (Following I Love Louisiana Day panel “From Script to Screen”) Join the Creative Alliance of New Orleans and Invade Nola for some Louisiana treats and a call out of guests. Find out how to work for and with the Louisiana film industry. Special guests will include Will French, Co-Founder and President of Film Production Capital, and Dwight Henry from Beasts of the Southern Wild as well as other industry leaders.

old-world charm, Bellocq is home to New Orleans’ “craft cocktail movement” (just ask The New York Times). Nosh on delectable French-Vietnamese hors d’ouevres from Chef Dominique Macquet’s Tamarind. Let’s give a proper New Orleans send-off to visiting filmmakers, jurors, the NOLAbound crew and more! Sponsored by:

Movies to Geaux Outdoor Event | Old U.S. Mint Spend an evening in the Quarter taking in live music and an outdoor screening of the new documentary about Meschiya Lake,True Family (dir. Tao Nørager). See page 41 for full description. Come early for a special installation of the People Say Project inside the Old U.S. Mint. The conversation will include Meschiya and Louis Michot of the Lost Bayou Ramblers and will tackle the topic of music and film. See page 37 for full description. Screening presented in partnership with:

VIP Lounge at the Contemporary Arts Center Join us for rum and burlesque as the New Orleans Film Festival hosts a post-film reception for the documentary v. Enjoy a Sailor Jerry Rum cocktail and live Bettie Page-inspired burlesque performance. Don’t miss this soirée to pay homage to the notorious “Queen of Pinups.” Complimentary Drinks provided by Sailor Jerry Rum.

Cine Latino Night Wednesday, October 17 Film Screening at 7:45 p.m. Reception at 9:30 - 10:30 p.m. VIP Lounge at the Contemporary Arts Center Cine Latino shines a spotlight on Cuban cinema this year. Join us for a screening of two narrative films that explore contemporary Cuban life. The short “Reinaldo Arenas” and feature Una Noche offer subtle and intimate portraits of both life in exile and the experience of those who still call Castro’s Cuba home. Complimentary mar-GO-ritas provided by Cordina.

Musée Conti Wax Museum

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

keeping{SCORE} Screening of True Family Monday, October 15 | 7:30 p.m. (or sundown)

Bettie Page Reveals All Screening and Reception Tuesday, October 16 Film Screening at 8:00 p.m. Reception at 9:45 - 10:30 p.m.

Awards JURY AWARD FINALIST

LOOK FOR THIS ICON IN THE GUIDE FOR FINALISTS!

Every year, from January to June, the New Orleans Film Festival receives submissions from filmmakers around the world. In the past several years, the numbers of submissions have grown tremendously. This year’s number set another record: we received 1250 films, roughly 300 more than last year. In deciding which of these films get programmed in the festival, we involve more than 60 community screeners who review submissions and offer their feedback. Our programming staff use this input to help shape the lineup.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

COMPETING FOR GRAND JURY PRIZES

A small number of selected films compete for grand jury awards in eight different categories: Narrative Feature, Documentary Feature, Narrative Short, Documentary Short, Animated Short, Experimental Short, and two categories for films made by Louisiana filmmakers, one for Features and one for Shorts. The Film Festival chooses jurors who represent leaders in the film industry: accomplished filmmakers, curators, critics, industry professionals, and educators. This year’s final jurors are listed on pages 24-25.

NARRATIVE FEATURES

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS

* Winning filmmaker receives $10,000 camera package, sponsored by Panavision. • Dead Dad (dir. Ken J. Adachi) • Four (dir. Joshua Sanchez) • Francine (dir. Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky) • It’s a Disaster (dir. Todd Berger) • Leave Me Like You Found Me (dir. Adele Romanski) • Now, Forager (dir. Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin) • Pilgrim Song (dir. Martha Stephens)

* Winning filmmaker receives a $250 cash prize sponsored by the New Orleans Film Society and a budgeting & scheduling software package sponsored by MovieMagic. • In Search of Avery Willard (dir. Cary Kehayan) • Life in Black & White (dir. Regina Rivard) • Mrs. Buck in Her Prime (dir. Erick Yates Green) • Reborning (dir. Helen Hood Scheer and Yael Bridge) • Slab City Prom (dir. Jordan Blady) • Solo, Piano–NYC (dir. Anthony Sherin) • A Story for the Modlins (dir. Sergio Oksman

* Winning filmmaker receives a $500 cash prize sponsored by the New Orleans Film Society. • Light Plate (dir. Josh Gibson) • Organ (dir. Jin Kyu Ahn) • Two Seconds After Laughter (dir. David Roussève) • HyperLightness ad absurdum (dir. Margarida Sardinha) • Tuesday (dir. Jon Simmons) • Decision Making (A Triptych) (dir. E. Aaron Ross) • The Hungry Boy (dir. Cem Kurtulus) • Ghost of Yesterday (dir. Tony Gault)

ANIMATED SHORTS

LOUISIANA SHORTS

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES * Winning filmmaker receives $10,000 camera package, sponsored by Panavision. • Bayou Blue (dir. Alix Lambert & David McMahon) • Call Me Kuchu (dir. Malika Zouhali-Worrall and Katherine Fairfax Wright) • Captive Beauty (dir. Jared Goodman) • A Girl Like Her (dir. Ann Fessler) • Informant (dir. Jamie Meltzer) • The Mechanical Bride (dir. Allison de Fren) • Trash Dance (dir. Andrew Garrison) • Ultimate Christian Wrestling (dir. Jae-Ho Chang and Tara Autovino)

* Winning filmmaker receives a $9000 * Winning filmmaker receives a $500 cash camera rental package, sponsored by prize, sponsored by Bayou FX, and three animation software packages sponsored by Division Camera. Smith-Micro Software, Inc. • The Woodshed (dir. Kd Amond) • A Tooth Tale (dir. Ron Fleischer) • Madchen (dir. Ji Choi) • Being Bradford Dillman (dir. Emma • What Happens When Robert Leaves Burch) the Room (dir. Zack Godshall) • Cadaver (dir. Jonah D. Ansell) • The Clock (dir. Zac Manuel) • Choreography for Plastic Army Men • The Total Human Experience (dir. Evan (dir. David B. Fain) Falbaum) • Dark Vessel (dir. Rocky Curby) • A Most Complex Form of VentriloNARRATIVE SHORTS • Lionfish Delusion (El deliro del pez quism (dir. Ashley Brett Chipman) * Winning filmmaker receives $2,500 in film león) (dir. Quique Rivera Rivera) • Blood in the Grass (dir. Trent Davis) stock, sponsored by Kodak. • Green Acres (dir. James Beck) LOUISIANA FEATURES • Reunion (dir. Benjamin Kruger) • Pareidolia (dir. Maya Erdelyi) * Winning filmmaker receives a $9000 • Reinaldo Arenas (dir. Lucas Leyva) • Sympathy for the Fish (dir. Richard camera rental package, sponsored by • 92 Alonzo Mourning Skybox Rookie O’Connor) Division Camera. Card (dir. Todd Sklar) • The Hopper (dir. Alex Brüel Flagstad) • Trailer Park Jesus (dir. Sean Gerowin) • This Vacuum Is Too Loud (dir. Gus Pewe) • The Hunter (dir. Marieka Walsh) • T-Galop: A Louisiana Horse Story (dir. • Spark (dir. Annie Silverstein) • Thumb Snatchers from the Moon Conni Castille) • My Name Is Your First Love (dir. Rob Cocoon (dir. Bradley Schaffer) • Varla Jean and the Mushroomheads (dir. Richert) • Troy: Naked Boys Behind Bars, Sing! Michael Schrialli) • Fat Camp (dir. Adam Jordan Isaacs) (dir. Michael Derry) • Face 2 Face (dir. Katherine Brooks) • Homebody (dir. Kate Marks) • Wiggle Room (dir. Joey Shanks) • The Somnambulist (dir. Rachel Grissom) • I Am John Wayne (dir. Christina Choe) THANK YOU TO OUR 2012 AWARD SPONSORS • Asad (dir. Matt Lefebvre) • Fresh Skweezed (dir. Ryan Parker) • The Chair (dir. Grainger David) • Amos (dir. Taylor Maxwell) • Kids With Guns (dir. Logan Rees) • Sepulte (The Buried) (dir. Jonathan Pope Evans) • Queen (dir. Adam Rose)

OTHER AWARDS WILL BE PRESENTED IN THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES: BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A LOUISIANA FILM

Screeners 2012 FESTIVAL SUBMISSION

PRIZE: $10,000 rental package, sponsored by Fletcher Louisiana

PROGRAMMERâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S AWARD FOR ARTISTIC VISION PRIZE: $500 cash prize from Tectus Security

CINEMA RESET AWARD PRIZE: $2000 camera rental package, sponsored by Division Camera

AUDIENCE AWARDS WILL BE PRESENTED IN THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES:

* Winners will be announced on our website at the close of the festival AUDIENCE AWARD FOR BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE PRIZE: Lomokino 35mm movie camera, sponsored by Lomography

AUDIENCE AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE PRIZE: Lomokino 35mm movie camera, sponsored by Lomography

AUDIENCE AWARD FOR BEST LOUISIANAFEATURE PRIZE: $10,000 post-production package from Digital FX

AUDIENCE AWARD FOR BEST LOUISIANA SHORT PRIZE: $10,000 post-production package from Digital FX

All winning filmmakers will receive a pair of Urban Ears.

** New Orleans Film Festival will hand out more than $75,000 in cash and prizes to winning filmmakers **

Sherry Alexander Steve Armbruster Tracie Ashe Paula Aston Jenn Barkley Laticia Barthe Thomas Baumgardner Norton Berman Blake BertuccellI Mary Blue Bob Boeckelman Anne Borchardt Linda Bordelon Clint Bowie Andrea Caldwell Danielle Calle Clark Castle Ashley Brett Chipman Jessica Coalter Jason Curole Lauren Delery Natan Diacon-Furtado Jeanne Dumestre Tripp Faia

Lauren Delery Natan Diacon-Furtado Jeanne Dumestre Tripp Faia Ileana Feoli Alyson Gaharan Alex Garcia Jane Geisler Chris Henson Brooke Iglesias Eleanor Jardine Warren Johnson Caroline Kain Kathy Keane Jonathan Kieran Leonard Lewis Kevin Lovelace Skye Macdonald Lee McDonough Vitrice McMurray Andrew Mendez Denise Moore Haley Nenadal Matthew Newman

William Nunnery Denise Moore Haley Nenadal Matthew Newman William Nunnery Chris Patureau Aura Lee Petzko Jolene Pinder Wendy Redfield Brett Richman Elisabeth Sanders Michele Smith Melinda Smith Diana Smith Miguel Solarzano Jean Stickney Tom Strider Abbie Sumners Trevor Taylor Libby Vieira da Cunha Benjamin Whaley Frank Lee Wills Elena Wolf

Jurors NARRATIVE FEATURES JURY

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES JURY

Neal Block is Head of Distribution at Magnolia Pic-

Tia Lessin is the director and producer, with Carl Deal,

tures, and has released, over the last couple of years, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Melancholia, and The Queen of Versailles, among many others. Additionally, Neal handles the theatrical release every February of the much-loved Oscar-nominated Short Films program. Prior to Magnolia, he worked for Palm Pictures and Samuel Goldwyn Films. He has never been to New Orleans before.

Michelle Satter is the founding director of the

Michael Lumpkin joined the International

Angela Tucker is director of the feature-length

Lois Vossen is the founding and Senior Series Pro-

NARRATIVE SHORTS JURY

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS JURY

Opeyemi Olukemi has helped to organize the

Chris Boeckmann is a programmer and docu-

Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program. As part of the Leadership Team, Satter has been one of the chief architects of the Institute’s programs since 1981. In 2008, Satter spearheaded the Creative Producing Fellowship, and, more recently, she spearheaded the creation of the New Frontier Story Lab, which is now an annual program supporting artists developing groundbreaking work at the intersection of storytelling and technology.

documentary (A)sexual and the documentary web series Black Folk Don’t…, featured in Time Magazine’s “10 Ideas That Are Changing Your Life.” She is a Co-Producer on The New Black, a feature length documentary currently in production about the complicated histories of the African American and LGBT civil rights movements. She received her MFA in Film from Columbia University where she was awarded a Dean’s Fellowship. She Tweets as @tuckergurl.

Tribeca Film Institute’s New Media Fund in its inaugural year. Previously, she has worked with and overseen teams of designers, programmers, and third party vendors in the production of new media applications for clients wishing to extend their products into the digital world. Trained in both the arts and sciences, Opeyemi constantly seeks to expand upon and integrate technology along various art mediums.

Documentary Association in 2009 as Executive Director. He previously served as both Executive Director of Frameline and Festival Director for the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, and co-produced the highly acclaimed HBO documentary The Celluloid Closet. Michael has also participated as a juror for the Sundance Film Festival, the Los Angeles Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival, and the Seattle International Film Festival.

ducer of Independent Lens, which, in its first 10 seasons, has won 9 Peabody Awards, 6 Emmy Awards, a Primetime Emmy, and been nominated for 5 Academy Awards. Previously, she was the director of broadcast, distribution, & communications at ITVS and oversaw the television launch of more than 250 documentaries. Prior to ITVS, Vossen was Associate Managing Director of the Sundance Institute, Manager of Sundance Labs, and programmed Sundance Cinematheque.

mentary enthusiast based out of Columbia, Missouri. He works for the True/False Film Fest and the Ragtag Cinema. In 2011, he created the Homebrewed Film Series to celebrate low-budget American narratives. He is currently developing a documentary website.

Josh Penn is a New Orleans–based producer with

Sean Flynn is Director of the Points North Documen-

Tim Rhys wrote and directed the award-winning

Nancy Schwartzman, named one of the “10

Court 13 whose films have won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and Cannes’ Camera D’or as well as prizes at over 20 other festivals worldwide. For his first feature Beasts of the Southern Wild, Josh was given the Sundance Producers Award. He’s also produced the short “Glory at Sea” (15 festival awards), Tchoupitoulas (Hotdocs-HBO Emerging Filmmaker award), and music videos for bands such as MGMT.

of Academy Award-nominated Trouble the Water, winner of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize, the Gotham Independent Film Award, and the Full Frame Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize. She was a producer of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, winner of the Palme d’Or; Academy Award-winning Bowling for Columbine; and a co-producer of Capitalism: A Love Story. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

feature film Men in Scoring Position and the feature doc No Limit, and has directed and produced many shorts. He began making movies after graduating from the Vancouver Film School and served on the editorial staff of several national magazines before creating MovieMaker Magazine in 1993. Tim remains Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of MovieMaker, which enjoys the largest readership of any independent film magazine in the world.

tary Forum, a two-day conference at the Camden International Film Festival. He also co-founded the popular DocYard screening series in Cambridge, Mass. During eight years at Boston-based production company Principle Pictures, he was an Associate Producer and Co-Director of Photography on award-winning Beyond Belief (Tribeca 2007, Sundance Channel) and a Producer of the ITVS-funded feature The List (Tribeca 2012). He recently relocated to New Orleans.

Filmmakers to Watch in 2011” by Independent Magazine, directed the films “The Line” and “xoxosms,” exploring sexuality, new media, and the complexities of modern relationships. Currently, she spearheads the online and advocacy campaign for the documentary Girl Model, and she created the outreach campaign for Sundance winner The Invisible War. She also developed the ‘Circle of 6’ mobile app, which won the White House / HHS Apps Against Abuse technology challenge.

ANIMATED SHORTS JURY

EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS JURY

John Durbin is grateful to have landed at Moonbot

Penny Lane was selected by Filmmaker Magazine

Studios. This is a special place where his eclectic talents in character animation, special FX simulations, and story telling can flourish. John has a strong passion for making all of these skills harmonize with the ultra creative team at Moonbot.

as one of “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2012. Her films have shown at Rotterdam, AFI FEST, and Rooftop Films. She’s received grants from Creative Capital, Cinereach, IFP, and Jerome Foundation, and was a 2010 Yaddo artist in residence. She has taught art and film at Hampshire, Bard, and Williams College, and is currently working on a series of feature-length, adventurous documentary films with her husband and collaborator Brian L. Frye. photo by Les Stone

Rachel Morgan is the Lead Programmer for the

Mary Magsamen has been the Curator at the

Huck Wirtz formerly worked at George Lucas’

Kidlat Tahimik (born Eric de Guia) is a film director,

LOUISIANA FEATURES JURY

LOUISIANA SHORTS JURY

Luisa Dantas has worked in film and television

Ken Korman is the film critic at Gambit, New

Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, Alabama. She is also a film educator and is currently the Director (and Instructor) of the Media Production Department at Lawson State College, as well as a Co-Instructor of documentary film at the University of Alabama. She received a BA in Film and Video from the Savannah College of Art and Design and a MA in Film, Critical Studies from the University of Alabama.

Industrial Light and Magic where he became highly skilled in the field of visual effects. For over 11 years, Huck has earned credits on over 20 films including the Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Harry Potter franchises. After nearly 16 years in California, Huck is now launching Bayou FX, a Louisiana-based effects company with a commitment to both high-quality digital production and contributing to the economic rebuilding of his beloved home state.

production in the U.S. and Brazil for over a decade. Her most recent endeavor, Land of Opportunity, is a transmedia documentary project that chronicles the rebuilding of New Orleans through the eyes of those on the frontlines. In 2005, she co-produced the acclaimed documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. She is currently adapting the nonfiction book Desire Street, by Pulitzer-prize winning author Jed Horne, into a screenplay.

Aurora Picture Show in Houston since 2008. Aurora Picture Show is a media arts center that presents artist-made, noncommercial film and video. Prior to that, Magsamen curated independently, founded an artist-run space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and taught in university programs. Magsamen also collaborates on video and installation work with her husband as Hillerbrand+Magsamen and exhibits internationally in galleries, museums, and festivals.

writer, and actor whose films are commonly associated with the Third Cinema movement through their critiques of neocolonialism. One of the most prominent names in the Filipino film industry, he has garnered various accolades locally and internationally.

Orleans’ weekly newspaper. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, The Austin Chronicle, Sound & Vision, and many other publications. He is a Texas native and graduate of the University of Texas at Austin who moved to New Orleans in 2009 after 20 years in New York City. Ken also works as grant writer for the Contemporary Arts Center, and spent much of the last year playing guitar at music venues and dive bars across New Orleans with his band, The Lushingtons.

George Ingmire holds a B.A. in Anthropology and

Lisa Lucas is an assistant publisher at Guernica

Mike Scott is a native New Orleanian and an award-

Jay Thames wrote and produced the critically ac-

a M.F.A. in film production, both from the University of New Orleans. He produces “New Orleans All the Way Live,” an internationally syndicated radio program about music, food, and culture. His film work includes the short documentary “Think of Me First as a Person,” originally filmed by his grandfather in the 1960s but completed by George years later. In 2006, the film was one of 25 films to be recognized by the National Film Registry (Library of Congress).

winning ink-stained wretch who entered the newspaper industry 19 years ago as a cub reporter. Currently he is the movie critic and film reporter for his hometown newspaper, The Times-Picayune, and its affiliated website, Nola.com. He is a lifelong fan of movies and has been an avid New Orleans Saints fan since long before it was cool.

Magazine and a non-fiction programmer for the Brooklyn Book Festival. For six years, she served as the Director of Education at Tribeca Film Institute, expanding it to include year-round programming, youth development, and in-school arts education. In 2009, Lucas worked with the Dept of Education and the NYC Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting to develop the curriculum guide for Teaching and Learning in the Arts: The Moving Image. She tweets as @likaluca.

claimed Automatic, produced and directed the documentary Carpet Racers, produced The Power of Few with Christopher Walken, and executive produced 2nd Serve starring Josh Hopkins, as well as The Tell Tale Heart starring Rose McGowan.

CELLULOID HERO Defiance, exuberant defiance—that, perhaps more than anything else, typifies the inhabitants of The Bathtub, the swampy wilderness of Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild. Both Man and Nature conspire to tamp down the spirits of its denizens, folk whose names themselves evoke a flavorful singularity: Hushpuppy, her wild-eyed dad, Wink, Walrus, Jean-Baptiste, and Little Jo. And though at times, humdrum considerations, like “is this really a good idea, living amidst the floating detritus of a nearby civilization,” creep in, such banal thoughts quickly dissolve as you find yourself cheering on Hushpuppy and her cohorts as their ramshackle world morphs into a truly magical landscape. PHOTO CREDIT: Kelli Binnings

Benh Zeitlin

Director, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

Much like the characters in his debut feature, director Benh Zeitlin defied convention and set out to fashion his “Beasts” as his fertile imagination dictated. That his film has, somewhat against the odds, found success at the box office, is gratifying, but it’s his steadfast adherence to his peculiar vision that made Mr. Zeitlin the easy choice for this year’s Celluloid Hero. Of course, we’re especially pleased that Mr. Zeitlin—and all the gang at Court 13—have found our local environs to be a rich breeding ground for nourishing their cinematic emanations and, rather than “going Hollywood” have pledged to stay faithful to “Hollywood South” with forthcoming projects. Stay defiant, Mr. Zeitlin!

Gala Thank Yous!

Lead Sponsor

In-Kind Donors

Peter Calamari

Special Thanks

Jann Darsie

chiba

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

’s GRalatoire estaurant

Feature Sponsors

chiba Rita Benson LeBlanc, Margo DuBos, Juli Miller Hart, Klaus Ortlieb, David Torkanowsky

All Panels + Conversations are FR Panels + Conversations

Pitch Perfect Student Pitch Competition Saturday, October 13 Freeport-McMoRan Theater at the Contemporary Arts Center

10:00am-11:30am

Documentary Pitch Session

11:30am-1:00pm

Narrative Pitch Session In its second year, Pitch Perfect is a rare opportunity for Southern film students to practice the art of pitching to a panel of industry insiders. See page 33 for full description. Sponsored by:

tubes and we will have to decide where to take delivery. Some films will still have the glitzy Hollywood premiere with the red carpet and the Kleig lights and the screaming fans; some are now premiering in the home, with the shag carpet and the track lights and the screaming kids; and some continue to reach us through the multiplex with the stained carpet and the tivoli lights and, yes, the screaming kids. Our distinguished panel, privy to the inner workings of the hydra-headed digital film distribution network, will reveal all.

JOHN DESPLAS is the Artistic Director of the

NEAL BLOCK is Head of Distribution at

2:00pm - 3:30pm

Magnolia Pictures, and has released, over the last couple years, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Melancholia and The Queen of Versailles, among many others. Additionally, Neal handles the theatrical release every February of the muchloved Oscar-nominated Short Films program. Prior to Magnolia, he worked for Palm Pictures and Samuel Goldwyn Films. He has never been to New Orleans before.

S. LEO CHIANG is a Taiwan-born, San Fran-

Taking Delivery:

Film Distribution in The Age of Ones and Zeros Saturday, October 13 Rehearsal Hall at the Contemporary Arts Center (Second Floor)

11:45am - 12:45pm Panelists:

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Neal Block (Magnolia Pictures) S. Leo Chiang (New Day Films and 2012 NOFF Filmmaker) Michelle Satter (Sundance Institute) Lois Vossen (Independent Lens) Moderated by John Desplas (NOFS / NOFF)

When asked if film school was worth the money, director Todd Phillips (The Hangover), in a SXSW conversation, was quick to reply “not anymore”—technology had made access to equipment, once the raison d’etre for attending Film U, not much of a “barrier to entry.” Now, “getting butts into seats,” (to invoke an industry vulgarism), that remains Not-So-Easy. And with the relentlessly proliferating number of “platforms,” seats may or may not be in a traditional movie theatre—or at least, not right away: in addition to Magnolia Pictures and IFC Films premiering their wares VOD (video-on-demand) weeks before their theatrical release, Sony recently debuted the Kirsten Dunst ha-ha comedy, Bachelorette, exclusively as an iTunes download (Mr. Jobs smiling approvingly from the great digital beyond, no doubt) weeks before appearing on the Big Screen. It seems film (we can’t bring ourselves to say “content”) will be coming down all kinds of

cisco-based filmmaker. His current documentary, Mr. Cao Goes To Washington, won the Inspiration Award at the 2012 Full Frame Film Festival. His previous film, the Emmy Award-nominated A Village Called Versailles, about the rebuilding of the Vietnamese community in post-Katrina New Orleans, picked up eight film festival awards and was broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens (2010). His other films include To You Sweetheard, Aloha (PBS broadcast 2006), One + One (CINE Golden Eagle Award 2002), and Safe Journey. Leo is a lecturer in the Social Documentation program at University of California, Santa Cruz.

MICHELLE SATTER is the founding

director of the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program, the inaugural program of the Institute. As part of the Leadership Team, Satter has been one of the chief architects of the Institute’s programs since 1981. In 2008, Satter spearheaded the Creative Producing Fellowship, a year-round program supporting the development of a next generation of creative producers. In 1989, Satter co-produced the Academy Award nominated documentary Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter’s Journey.

LOIS VOSSEN is the founding and Senior

Series Producer of Independent Lens, which, in its first 10 seasons, has won 9 Peabody Awards, 6 Emmy Awards, a Primetime Emmy, and been nominated for 5 Academy Awards. Previously, she was the director of broadcast, distribution & communications at ITVS and oversaw the television launch of more than 250 documentaries. Prior to ITVS, Vossen was Associate Managing Director of the Sundance Institute, Manager of Sundance Labs, and programmed Sundance Cinematheque.

New Orleans Film Society.

From Princesses to Pixels: Animation in the Modern Age Saturday, October 13 Rehearsal Hall at the Contemporary Arts Center (Second Floor)

Presented in partnership with:

Panelists:

David Burton (Pixomondo) John Durbin (Moonbot Studios) Ray McIntyre, Jr. (Pixel Magic) Joey Shanks, Director of “Wiggle Room” (2012 NOFF selection) Huck Wirtz (Bayou FX) Moderated by Henry Griffin (UNO) John Lasseter (Pixar/Disney) said, “The art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art.” As image-based technology continues to shift and moviegoers are witness to animation’s transition from cell-animated cartoons to the 3D animation of Pixar and the animated visual effects utilized in live action motion pictures, opinions about the future of animation continue to stir. And when “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” took home the Academy Award last February, the animation industry suddenly took centerstage here in Louisiana. Join the New Orleans Film Festival and NOVAC (New Orleans Video Access Center) to learn more about trends and shifts in animation and about working in the animation genre, both in Louisiana and beyond.

DAVID BURTON’s most recent filmography

includes Water for Elephants, Hugo, Alice in Wonderland, and The Amazing Spiderman. Celebrating his 25th year in Visual Effects, David is currently a Visual Effects Supervisor at Pixomondo. He has also worked at facilities including Digital Domain, Imageworks, Prime Focus and his own VFX Facility With A Twist. With more than 20 features under his belt, he is also an Academy Finalist for his work on Cast Away. Most recently he has been working on location in Louisiana for Beautiful Creatures.

JOHN DURBIN is grateful to have landed

at Moonbot Studios, a special place where his eclectic talents in character animation, special FX simulations, and story telling can flourish. Prior to Moonbot, John was an animator at Demway Productions.

re FREE and open to the public RAY McINTYRE, JR. is a partner in Pixel

JOEY SHANKS has been making films for

over a decade now with his small production crew in North Carolina. With over 50 short films completed, rarely were any of them submitted to film festivals. Always setting aside newly completed films and looking ahead to the next cinematic endeavor has been the overlying theme since day one. A blessing and a curse this has been. Getting a little burnt-out with “live-action” shorts Joey Shanks decided to tackle the cinematic medium of “stop-motion animation.” The result, “Wiggle Room,” was an official selection at Atlanta, Athens, Arizona, Blue Plum, Cape Fear, Carrboro, DC, Indie Grits, Myrtle Beach, Savannah and The USA Film Festival. It won best animated short at the Carrboro Film Festival, Indie Grits Film Festival, Cape Fear Film Festival and 42nd annual USA Film Festival.

HENRY GRIFFIN is an Artist-in-Residence at

Beasts of the Southern Wild Saturday, October 13 Rehearsal Hall at the Contemporary Arts Center (Second Floor)

3:45pm - 4:45pm Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild sprung from the hearts and minds of a largely New Orleans-based collective “of madcap artists and animators of junk that seek to tell huge stories out of small parts” (AKA Court 13). A huge story indeed. Beasts became an instant sensation at Sundance, inspiring a fierce bidding war at the A-list festival and subsequent speculation about how the ultimate victor, Fox Searchlight, would market a film so outside the trappings of both indie and Hollywood conventions. Fast forward six months later to find Oprah interviewing Benh, along with Beasts stars Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry for an episode of “Super Soul Sunday.” How did the film get on Oprah’s radar? President Obama told her to watch it, of course. Cast with mostly non-actors and fueled by the zeal of a committed band of twenty-something storytellers, Beasts of the Southern Wild has grossed three times its budget at the box office. Come learn about the team’s inspiration, process, and strategy from Producer Josh Penn, during this case study facilitated by Michelle Satter of the Sundance Institute.

JOSH PENN is a New Orleans–based

producer with Court 13 whose films have won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and Cannes’ Camera D’or as well as prizes at over 20 other festivals worldwide.

New Frontiers in PostProduction: Louisiana + Beyond Sunday, October 14 Rehearsal Hall at the Contemporary Arts Center (Second Floor)

1:30pm - 2:30pm Panelists:

Bradley Greer (Cineworks) Greg Milneck (Digital FX) Tom Vice (Fotokem) Peter Cioni (Light Iron) Sergio Lopez (Storyville Post) Moderated by Chris Stelly (Louisiana Entertainment)

BRADLEY GREER has worked in post-pro-

duction for over 15 years, including a countless number of commercials, music videos, feature films, & television episodes. He began his postproduction career studying the photochemical film process and has continued to phase in digital technologies as they have become available, granting him an unusual perspective on both film and digital technologies. Currently, he serves as the VP of post and senior colorist at Cineworks Digital Studios. Over the past couple of years he has worked with such celebrated cinematographers as Roberto Schaefer, Bobby Bukowski, Greig Fraser, Andrew Dunn, & Oliver Wood. He was the Digital Intermediate Consultant on The Paperboy and the Digital Intermediate Colorist on The Iceman.

GREG MILNECK’s first love is not TV or film

production. He was destined for stardom as a local street performer re-enacting battles from the Spanish-American War with interludes of Vanilla Ice songs played on the bassoon. But, in 1999, YouTube ended his career. He was caught on camera sipping a venti pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks, ruining his street cred. Given that, he now devotes all his time to continuing to build the post house Digital FX. (He refuses to even utter the word “YouTube.”)

TOM VICE is Vice President and General Man-

ager of nextLAB, a division of FotoKem where he has been instrumental in developing new software and technology solutions for file-based acquisition cameras. Since 1999, Vice has worked with the industry’s leading professionals in digital post production. nextLAB provides onset and near-location production strategies with customized dailies software developed in house. His work with nextLAB has gained industry accolades, winning the 2010 Hollywood Post Alliance Award for Creativity and Innovation. Having supported over 300 productions worldwide, nextLAB’s continued success is a testament to the commitment he and FotoKem have to the motion picture industry.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

the University of New Orleans in the Department of Film, Theatre & Communication Arts and is Vice President of the Board of Directors of the New Orleans Film Society. Henry is a screenwriter and filmmaker from New Orleans. His first screenplay Rock Scissors Paper was optioned by Fox 2000 in 1996, which began an illustrious career as a professional screenwriter and script doctor. He has worked for Fox, DreamWorks, New Regency, and New Line Cinema. He wrote, directed, produced and acted in the 1999 short film, “Mutiny,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. “Mutiny” went on to win awards at SXSW, the Seattle International Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival, and the Messageto-Man Film Festival (St. Petersburg, Russia). Two of his forthcoming films (the feature Flip Mavens and the short “The Flavor of Plaid,” a 2012 NOFF selection) are the result of student production exercises at UNO.

Case Study:

The movie industry is undeniably visible in Louisiana—on city streets, in small towns, on country roads, film crews set up shop and capture Louisiana landscapes for the big screen. The less visible and potentially more permanent side to the industry is also booming in Louisiana: post-production. Join post veterans and newcomers alike for a conversation about trends and opportunities in this industry. How much of the term “post-production” is anachronistic given new workflows and on-site systems that allow post-production to begin the second the director yells “Cut!”? Will big budget pictures put down roots and stay in Louisiana for their postproduction? And will a growing post-production business in the state create sustainable jobs for Louisiana residents?

Panels + Conversations

Magic and oversees all creative operations at their facilities in Hollywood, CA, and Lafayette, LA. He is hired by movie studios as an on-set visual effects supervisor to design, shoot and execute the director’s vision. Since opening the office in Louisiana in 2009, Ray and Pixel Magic Lafayette have worked on movies such as Gangster Squad, Secretariat, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Parts 1 & 2, Oscarnominated The Help and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1. Ray was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1996 for HBO’s acclaimed Tuskegee Airmen. In 2004 he won the Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects for his work in Warner Bros. The Last Samurai. He also won an International Monitor Award in 1998 for his work in Casper Meets Wendy.

All Panels + Conversations are FR Panels + Conversations

PETER CIONI manages all of Light Iron’s

financial, legal, and personnel decisions. He is actively involved in the company’s corporate strategy initiatives, offering a unique analytical perspective on creative services. Before moving to Los Angeles, Peter worked in JPMorgan’s Investment Banking Division in New York, where he developed a strong understanding of corporate finance practices, valuation, transaction execution, and quantitative analysis.

SERGIO LOPEZ is an executive producer

dent of Film Production Capital. FPC provides tax incentive-based financing and financial services to the domestic motion picture industry. The company has provided more than $300,000,000 in financing to over 100 motion picture productions with aggregate production budgets far exceeding $1 billion. Such films include: The Expendables, Killing Them Softly, Bullet to the Head, Killer Joe, and The Host. Mr. French serves as Treasurer on the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Film & Entertainment Association, an industry association whose mission is to grow the entertainment industry of Louisiana.

CHRIS STELLY is the Executive Director of

ANDREW LARIMER runs FatHappy Media,

From Script to Screen: Funding Your Indie Project THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

WILL FRENCH is the co-founder and Presi-

and post supervisor with over 25 years of experience. As a native of New Orleans, he produces exceptional results after compiling years of experience in Los Angeles, California, and New Orleans, Louisiana. He stresses four basic elements for success; talent, technology, quality & service. As CEO & Founder of Storyville Post and Storyville Films, Sergio has overseen projects from clients like Louisiana Tourism, New Orleans Tourism & Marketing, Whitney Bank, Century Link, Budweiser, Pepsi, Zatarains, HBO, Fox Sports, Walt Disney, Sony, Paramount, 2oth Century Fox & Warner Bros.

Louisiana Entertainment, officially the Louisiana Office of Entertainment Industry Development. Christopher joined Louisiana’s fledgling entertainment office in 2004. He quickly established a leading role in the film industry’s exponential growth over the next seven years. When Christopher was appointed Director of Film and Television in 2007, Louisiana’s motion picture tax incentive program was showing signs of growth. Under his relentless efforts, the motion picture landscape has grown to be a major economic player in the state. In 2010 alone, motion picture productions contributed approximately $674 million and 6,000 jobs in economic impact to Louisiana.

It’s the thing that every independent filmmaker wants to know – How do I get my project funded? Join us for a lively conversation with a panel of independent filmmakers, producers and financiers who will share their insight and answer your questions. Whether your goal is to produce a feature film, short or webisode, come join the conversation. Sponsored by the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Economy.

Sunday, October 14 Rehearsal Hall at the Contemporary Arts Center (Second Floor)

3:00pm - 4:00pm

Sponsored by:

Panelists:

Will French (Film Production Capital) Andrew Larimer (“The Drink Show” web series) Glen Pitre (Independent Filmmaker) Jay Thames (Producer, The Tell Tale Heart, The Power of One) Lisa Valencia-Svensson (Producer, Herman’s House) Moderated by Carroll Morton (Entertainment Industry Development, City of New Orleans)

a web video production company, and serves as Digital Media Consultant for GNO Inc.’s economic development efforts. He is a co-organizer of BizCamp, an entrepreneurship unconference, and the official New Orleans party at SXSW Interactive. He is a former co-organizer of the Net2NO tech meetup group and former Artistic Director of The NOLA Project theatre company. Most recently, he is the creator of TheDrinkShow.tv, a comedy webseries about serious drinking.

GLEN PITRE is best known for directing Loui-

siana-set, internationally-acclaimed features, but Glen, a veteran independent filmmaker, has also produced award-winning documentaries, slaved as a Hollywood screenwriter, and gigged from Montreal to Mumbai. Accolades include beaucoup film festival prizes; a Sundance Director’s Lab fellowship; AFI, NEA, and NEH grants; an honorary doctorate; an LEH Lifetime Achievement award; and a knighthood from France. In a 2006 book, film critic Roger Ebert acclaimed Pitre “a legendary American regional director.”

JAY THAMES, a Texas native, gradu-

ated from TCU in Fort Worth, Texas with film production and psychology degrees. Jay is a Producer, Writer and Director. He co-produced the independent feature Yesterday Was a Lie which went on to win five best of fest awards on the 2008 festival circuit. In 2009, he produced and directed the documentary Carpet Racers. He also wrote and produced the critically acclaimed independent film Automatic, which played and won awards at film festivals around

the world and was released in 2010. The same year, Jay produced The Power of Few with Christopher Walken and Christian Slater. Recently, he served as Executive Producer of The Tell Tale Heart, a producer on the horror film Halfs, and the thriller Deadsand.

LISA VALENCIA-SVENSSON is a

documentary film producer based in Toronto. Lisa’s credits include Producer on Resilience: Stories of Single Black Mothers (OMNI TV 2010) and Associate Producer on The World Before Her (Tribeca 2012), The Market (IDFA 2010) and The Real MASH (History TV 2010). Lisa has just completed the feature length documentary, the Louisiana-based Herman’s House, which had its sneak preview at the 2012 True/ False Film Festival, had its World Premiere at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and is a selection at the 2012 NOFF.

CARROLL MORTON is the Manager of

Entertainment Industry Development for the City of New Orleans. She previously held the position of Deputy Director of Film New Orleans. In her work for the City she has facilitated production for commercials, independent films and feature films. In her current role she is working to further develop the growing entertainment industry in New Orleans including business and workforce development in the film industry.

People Say Project Monday, October 15 Old U.S. Mint 400 Esplanade Avenue

Reception at 5:30pm Conversation begins at 6:00pm Presented by:

For the second year, the festival partners with The People Say Project for a conversation on music in film. This year’s event takes place on Monday, October 15, at 6:00pm, at the Old U.S. Mint. New Orleans singer/songwriter Meschiya Lake, subject of the 2012 NOFF documentary selection True Family, will join Louis Michot, lead singer and fiddler for Lost Bayou Ramblers, whose songs filled the smash hit Beasts of the Southern Wild. Hosted by Brian Boyles and produced by Jarret Lofstead for NolaFugees Press/Productions, the People Say Project is an ongoing talk show focused on the intersections of money and culture in Louisiana. Visit www. thepeoplesayproject.org to learn more.

re FREE and open to the public LOUIS MICHOT, a native of Lafayette, Loui-

Queer Film Lecture

MESCHIYA LAKE began her singing career

The word “queer” has been used since the 1990s to describe the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender identity and experience,

at the age of nine, earning a regular gig and winning $500 upon winning an adults only singing contest in a South Dakota Steakhouse. In the Spring of 2007, Meschiya began singing with the traditional jazz outfit the Loose Marbles on the French Quarters Royal Street. Joined by jazz dancers Chance Bushman and Amy Johnson, a new revival of traditional jazz and dance consequently blossomed. She formed The Little Big Horns Jazz Band in the Spring of 2009 and, saving pennies from the street, she produced the first Little Big Horns album Lucky Devil to national acclaim.

Saturday, October 13 Freeport-McMoRan Theater at the Contemporary Arts Center

Lecture at 7:45pm, Film program begins at 8:00pm

(Note: there is no charge for the lecture, but the film screening is ticketed.)

Gather ‘Round Conversation Series Get to Know the Sundance Institute with Michelle Satter

(founding director of the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program)

Friday, October 12 3:30 – 4:30pm

Haven’t made a January pilgrimage to snowy Park City lately? Well, don’t miss this opportunity to ask questions of Sundance veteran and visionary Michelle Satter (see full bio on page 24).

In the Contemporary Arts Center’s SPUN Café, open to the public

Transmedia 101

with Nancy Schwartzman and Opeyemi Olukemi Saturday, October 13 1:00 – 2:00pm

What the hell is transmedia and why all the fuss? Join director/producer Nancy Schwartzman and Tribeca Film Institute’s Opeyemi Olukemi (see full bios on page 24) as they delve into the world of all things new media. Do filmmakers need to use Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Youtube, Podcasts, and Storify? What platform is right for you and your audience? Find out how and why the film landscape is changing, how you have the power to harness your audience and create conversation, and how you can join the ever-increasing numbers of transmedia makers.

Insider / Outsider Filmmaking moderated by Angela Tucker Saturday, October 13 2:30 – 3:30pm Many filmmakers struggle to figure out the best stories to tell. But how do you tell a story about a community that you are not a part of? Is it easier to tell a story if you are part of a community whose images are seen less on the screen? Or does the pressure of being sensitive to the kinds of images brought into the world make these issues difficult? Race, class and gender—all play roles in this complicated and candid discussion with filmmakers who have grappled with these very questions.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Take time out to learn more about the Sundance Institute and all they have to offer filmmakers—from championing the role of the independent producer in their producing labs to offering top-notch exposure at a Festival known the world over, from helping to facilitate director-composer collaborations to nurturing fiercely talented storytellers in their screenwriting labs.

and also defining a form of sexuality that was fluid and subversive of traditional understandings of sexuality. Film professor, activist, and filmmaker Jonathan Pope Evans offers a brief introduction to queer film, before the screening of the shorts program “American Dreams, American Nightmares: A Queer Perspective,” a highly charged and eclectic collection of short works. Evans will contextualize the queer films shown by discussing the artists that inspired him—Todd Haynes, Greg Araki, and Rose Troche, among others.

Panels + Conversations

siana, is primarily known as the singer and fiddle player for Lost Bayou Ramblers, a Cajun French band known “for a high-energy, raucous brand of traditional Cajun music that… infuses “old” sounds with fresh, rock-influenced life.” (Laura McNight, Times-Picayune). Louis and his brother, Andre, started the band in 1999, and have since earned a Grammy nomination in 2008, multiple Big Easy Awards for best Cajun band, and were featured in the sound track of Sundance and Cannes awardwinning film, Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Bleeding edge beyond the final cut.

DI: Two letters which together, symbolize a level of precision, speed and control in post-production that goes way beyond cutting edge. Digital Intermediate (DI) describes a truly remarkable suite of tools, capable of real-time work flow, with unlimited flexibility for visual effects creation and color timing. Each customizable to meet the individual filmmaker’s unique production needs. Combine this full-service, state-of-the-art DI studio with the largest inventory of digital cameras and equipment in Louisiana, plus creative talent with the chops to deliver, and you have more than an ultra powerful set of production tools in your pocket—you’ve got Digital FX. To discover more, visit us at www.digitalfx.tv/di

Digital FX 6010 Perkins Rd (Suite B) Baton Rouge, LA 70808

www.digitalfx.tv twitter.com/digitalfx linkedin.com/in/digitalfx

Toll Free 888.898.6010 Phone 225.763.6010 Fax 225.763.6059

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Let’s Geaux to the Movies! OCTOBER 15-18

Funding provided by

Freeport-McMoRan Theatre at the Contemporary Arts Center This year, NOFF launches Let’s Geaux to the Movies!, a youth-focused film series for high school students from New Orleans public schools that affords local students the opportunity to interact with film. Students will view and analyze three documentaries: Stepping: Beyond the Line; From Nothing, Something; and Eating Alabama, broadening their knowledge of digital media while learning about important issues like food sustainability and empowerment. Filmmakers will be there for an in-depth Q+A after the film, focusing on the production process, and offering an educational experience beyond the classroom. Students will further benefit from visiting the New Orleans Film Festival / CAC exhibit, Cinema Reset. Screenings will occur in the CAC FreeportMcMoRan Theatre. (All listed screenings are open only to All-Access pass holders.)

Pitch Perfect

Watch a film. Learn. Question. Repeat.

Sponsored by:

Presented in partnership with NOLA Drive-In and Broad Community Connections:

keeping {SCORE}: Outdoor Movie

In partnership with:

MONDAY OCTOBER, 15

Outdoor Screening at the Old U.S. Mint 400 Esplanade Avenue

True Family DIRECTOR: Tao Norager

A film about the power of music over adversity. Free-spirited singer Meschiya Lake returns to New Orleans, a shadow of the city she once knew, expressing her own re-birth through jazz. The rebuildGates open at 6:00 p.m. ing of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and Screening at 7:30 p.m. (or sundown) Meschiya’s journey unfold in parallel. Come enjoy this documentary about a beloved New Orleans Meschiya and The Little Big Horns musician—under the stars in the Vieux Carre, a are scheduled to play before the corner of the city where Meschiya and her band, screening. The Little Big Horns, have often belted out original songs as street performers in the Quarter.

events for the modern age

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

n.com

Outdoor Movies

clandestinenola.com

* The project was made possible with generous funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration.

New Orleans was recently named America’s “#1 Brain Magnet” by Forbes and the “Coolest Startup City in America” by Inc. Magazine. With a unique opportunity to revitalize its economy in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is embracing new industries that rely on highly committed, enthusiastic thinkers.

and insights about New Orleans and its business community.

Don’t miss your chance to see their unfiltered impressions and vicariously live the NOLAbound experience at the New Orleans Film Festival! Join us for a FREE screening of Director Crista Rock’s documentary NOLAbound (for full description of the film, go to page 73).

Enter NOLAbound, a unique opportunity that invited 27 individuals from across the country to visit New Orleans and assess the city’s NOLABound Partner Organizations: business climate and entrepreneurial movement. The NOLAbounders all work within four targeted sectors—arts-based businesses, biosciences, digital media, and sustainable industries—and were charged with evaluating the status of New Orleans as a model of new business progress and thinking. NOLAbound participants spent five days Learn more about the NOLAbound Project at benolabound.com exploring the city and sharing their observations

“In New Orleans, I’ve experienced the difference in people showing interest and people wanting to help you move one step forward. For this I am immensely grateful.” - Marianne Angeli Rodriguez, NOLAbound participant

What:

FREE screening of NOLAbound documentary

Where:

Joy Theater, 1200 Canal Street

When:

Sunday, October 14 at 7 PM

he U.S. ration.

I Louisiana Day

Sponsored by:

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14

with Funding from:

I Love Louisiana Day turns five! Since 2008, the New Orleans Film Festival has dedicated

Festival Sunday to exploring, promoting and celebrating film and filmmaking in Louisiana. Each year, audiences flock to see the latest work from indigenous filmmakers along with new films from non-native directors passionate about telling Louisiana stories. Look for the “Made in Louisiana” flag on films throughout the Program Guide and support home-grown talent.

Screenings of Louisiana Films: Made by Louisiana

Louisiana Film by Numbers

Shorts

It’s undeniable that we’ve experienced a banner year for filmmaking in Louisiana. Just look at the numbers for the 2012 NOFF…

Filmmakers or filmed in the state The Adventures of Keith Flippin Blood In the Grass Breaking Night The Clock Fleshlight Five Minutes Late The Flavor of Plaid Fragments A Good Night Grand Fugue on the Art of Gumbo The Illuminaphonist Impressionable In the Morning Inanition Indian Santa La Tresor de la Langue

K-Jeff Kermit Ruffins Machine Wash Cold Madchen A Most Complex Form of Ventriloquism New Orleans Spirits The Only Way Out Rex Butterfly Shattered Summer Light Tomorrow The Total Human Experience The Woodshed Under the Gun What Happens When Robert Leaves the Room The Woodshed You Are Here

Features Bayou Blue Face 2 Face Herman’s House The Iceman Liquid Land Mr. Cao Goes to Washington NOLAbound The Paperboy The Somnambulist T-Galop: A Louisiana Horse Story Thelema: The Equinox Diaries Trailer Park Jesus True Family Varla Jean and the Mushroomheads

Welcome Home!

Each year, we receive many submissions from filmmakers or starring actors born and bred in Louisiana but now living in the other L.A. (and occasionally they migrate to other cities and towns in the U.S. and abroad!). We’d like to welcome home people like Todd Berger (dir. It’s a Disaster), Juliet Snowden (dir. Hollywood Hair), Regina Rivard (dir. “Life in Black and White”), Paul Soileau (one of the lead actors in the film Fourplay) and Heather Hollingsworth (actress, co-writer, and co-producer of the short film “Us. A Family Album”)—all 2012 NOFF filmmakers, producers, writers and actors coming home!

Rehearsal Hall at the Contemporary Arts Center (Second Floor)

Sunday, October 14 at 1:30pm - 2:30pm Panelists:

Bradley Greer (Cineworks) Greg Milneck Digital FX) Tom Vice (Fotokem) Peter Cioni (Light Iron) Sergio Lopez (Storyville Post) Moderated by Chris Stelly (Louisiana Entertainment) The movie industry is undeniably visible in Louisiana—on city streets, in small towns, on country roads, film crews set up shop and capture Louisiana landscapes for the big screen. The less visible and potentially more permanent side to the industry is booming in Louisiana: postproduction. Join post veterans and newcomers alike for a conversation about trends and opportunities in this industry. How much of the term “post-production” is anachronistic given new workflows and on-site systems that allow post-production to begin the second the director yells “Cut!”? Will big budget pictures put down roots and stay in Louisiana for their post-production? And will a growing post-production business in the state create sustainable jobs for Louisiana residents?

From Script to Screen: Funding Your Indie Project

Rehearsal Hall at the Contemporary Arts Center (Second Floor)

Sunday, October 14 3:00pm - 4:00pm Sponsored by:

Panelists:

Will French (Film Production Capital) Andrew Larimer (“The Drink Show” web series) Glen Pitre (Independent Documentary Filmmaker) Jay Thames (Producer, The Tell Tale Heart, The Power of One) Lisa Valencia-Svensson (Producer, Herman’s House) Moderated by Carroll Morton It’s the thing that every independent filmmaker wants to know – How do I get my project funded? Join us for a lively conversation with a panel of independent filmmakers, producers and financiers who will share their insight and answer your questions. Whether your goal is to produce a feature film, short or webisode, come join the conversation. Sponsored by the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Economy.

Filmmaker Brunch + Awards Ceremony Sponsored by: To honor all filmmakers attending this year’s Festival, NOFF will host a private Filmmaker Brunch and Awards Ceremony on I Love Louisiana Day, sponsored by Hollywood Trucks. At the Awards Ceremony, NOFF will hand out ten awards to films selected by NOFF jurors to be honored.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

New Frontiers in Post-Production: Louisiana + Beyond

$48,000 dollars in prizes awarded to Louisiana films and filmmakers 36 films made by filmmakers currently living and working in Louisiana 17 films about Louisiana 42 films made in Louisiana

CINEMA RESET An Exhibition of Experimental Film and Multimedia Works Presented by the New Orleans Film Festival and the Contemporary Arts Center Curated by Blake Bertuccelli and Trevor Alan Taylor October 6 through December 2, 2012 The Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans // CinemaReset.com

Selected “Cinema Stream” Programs Online and in Gallery (cinemareset.com) + 900 Camp Street

The New Orleans Film Festival and the Contemporary Arts Center present Cinema Reset, a three month exhibition of experimental film and multimedia work. Through the Film Festival, Cinema Reset’s multimedia artists and filmmakers offer a constantly evolving stream of cinematically-inspired work—online, in theater, and in the Press Play gallery of the Contemporary Arts Center. For more information on Cinema Reset’s programs and to submit your own video work, please visit cinemareset. com. Selected submissions will be included in “The Cinema Stream,” an in-gallery and online broadcast of video content.

OCTOBER 11 - 18 Light From Los Angeles, curated by The Dublab Light From Los Angeles is a document of vibrant creativity from an inspiring city. The Dublab presents an audio/visual snapshot of artists making bright waves. They have invited their favorite LA musicians to each contribute an original song with an accompanying film shot exclusively on Digital Harinezumi cameras. These compact devices perfectly capture the magic light of Los Angeles. The resulting music videos are a modular film experience that can be reshuffled for each viewing.

Work by The Masses A selection of material from the Masses–a collaboration of directors and artists united by a passion for music and driven by unique and diverse cinematic visions.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

NewFilmmakers New York

NewFilmmakers presents a wide range of films including animation, documentaries, shorts, and features from a spectrum of New York Filmmakers; many overlooked by traditional film festivals.

Civic Statues Unfrozen for One Half Hour by Anne Bray

Sixteen recent short international videos presented as a diptych for Los Angeles. This video diptych asks viewers to watch two videos at once. Each side evolves at its own rate, always aware of its neighbor. Over a turbulent half hour, the total sequence rides like a rollercoaster.

Cinema Reset Presents “Sleepless Nights Stories” film by Experimental Film Iconoclast Jonas Mekas

Cinema Stream Public Stream Works submitted to cinemareset.com will be displayed online and in gallery through the run of the exhibit.

Kidlat Tahimik Retrospective

Kidlat Tahimik paved the way for Filipino cinema and stands as an iconoclast within the Third World Cinema movement. In 1977, Kidlat debuted his own brand of guerilla, do-with-what-you-can filmmaking with “Perfumed Nightmare”—a noted favorite film of the likes of Francis Ford Coppola and Werner Herzog. Kidlat has since created a spectrum of cinematic work that continues to challenge traditions of filmmaking. In collaboration with the Anthology Film Archives in New York, Cinema Reset presents a retrospective of Kidlat’s work in the CAC’s “Press Play” Gallery and at cinemareset. com. In addition, Kidlat will also host an open cinema-making workshop at the Contemporary Arts Center.

Cinema Reset Cinema Competition

Cinema Makers, Submit Cinema!

Cinema Reset presents the CINEMA RESET CINEMA COMPETITION. We want your cinema—whatever you know as Cinema. One grand prize winner will receive a $2000 gift certificate for camera rentals from Division Camera. Presented by: Sponsored by:

Media Sponsor: Partner:

Kidlat Tahimik Cinema Making Workshop October 13, 1-5 PM at the CAC

The workshop is open to the public, and attendees are invited to bring their own filmmaking equipment (cell phone cameras, dv cameras, webcams encouraged) but filmmaking equipment is not required. Will teach students the KT process how to awaken their creative duwende (inner sprit who frames the world uniquely)

from Matt Amato’s “Uranus”

Sleepless Nights Stories, the latest movie from Jonas Mekas—founder of the Anthology Film Archives and legendary experimental filmmaker—will be screened as part of the 2012 New Orleans Film Festival on Saturday, October 13 at 1:45pm, at the CAC. * See film listing later in program guide for full film details.

A e now will

SELECTED CINEMA RESET ARTIST BIOS Matt Amato

collective in St. Claude neighborhood of New

Director of “Shapeshift Of Uranus”: Matt Amato is co-founder of “The Masses” and music video director for artists such as Beach House, We Are Augustines, Bon Iver and many more. More recently, his work with the Harinezumi camera has been featured in exhibits at the New Museum in NYC. He is working on his first feature film he intends to direct called The Makings Of You. Next up is a collaboration with actress Michelle Williams and the band Wild Nothing.

Orleans.

Nina Schwanse Artist of “Live Report”: Nina Schwanse (born Los Angeles, Calif.) is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working in New Orleans. She holds a BFA from Cooper Union, New York, and an MFA in digital media from the University of New Orleans. Schwanse has been included in screenings and exhibitions internationally, and is a member of Good Children Gallery, an artist

Giorgio Bertuccelli Co-artist of the Cinema Reset sound installation: Giorgio’s creative background began in his father’s New Orleans Mardi Gras papier-mâché studios. In the early 1990s Giorgio moved to Los Angeles, where he cofounded Sublime Music, a successful boutique commercial music house where he composed music for several award-winning spots including Levi’s 501, Diet Coke, MCI, and AT&T. He and composer Michael Skloff provided the music for the TV series “Friends” and other television shows.

aftermath in southeast Louisiana. He moved back to New Orleans after a year and has trained under water for the past 5-6 years. He now goes by GoodtimeFrancis and

footage ranges from the human body, landscapes, and oil paint, to food items.

that reflect his personal experience of thought and feeling of the past

Dave Greber

dublab

Dr.Wong.

Artist of “You Can’t Rip the Skin off of a Snake”: After an unfulfilling stint as a filmmaker/ freelance commercial video producer, Dave found his calling in the contemporary art resurgence of postKatrina New Orleans, creating video loops and site-specific multimedia installations, featured in Prospect 1.5, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Contemporary Arts Center, and others. He is a member of the artist-run collective, The Front, where he is both a curator and exhibitor.

Curators of the “Light from LA” Cinema Stream program: dublab is a non-profit web radio collective devoted to the growth of positive music, arts and culture. They have been broadcasting independently since 1999. dublab’s mission is to share beautiful music via the world’s best djs but have extended their creative action to include art exhibits, film projects, event production and record releases.

Dean Hovey Co-artist of the Cinema Reset sound installation: Dean’s work can be found in Cinema, Art Installations, Theme Parks, Gaming, Digital, Environmental Designs and Advertising projects around the globe. His feature work can be found in David Lynch’s Lost Highway, Wim Wender’s The End Of Violence, Darren Stein’s Jawbreaker and Tony Kaye’s American History X, among others.

Jawshing Arthur Liou

Francis Wong Artist of “fallwinter2011”: Francis Wong grew up in southeastern Louisiana. He attended NOCCA for the summer program and during his senior year in high school. He attended the University of New Orleans pre Katrina and experienced the

Jawshing Arthur Liou creates video installations that depict spaces often not probable in reality. Working with both lensbased representation and digital post-production, he aims to transform recognizable imagery into realms of otherworldly experience. His source

Matt Starr Matt’s memories of his childhood limitations (he could not walk or talk until the age of four) have colored his approach to art-making, and, now, through the use of video projection and sculptural objects, he creates environments

and present.

Betsy Weiss Director of “Labor”: Betsy Weiss has directed many award-winning short films which have screened at venues around the country, including the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She is a media educator, currently teaching at Tulane University.

CINEMA RESET STAFF

Blake Bertuccelli Director, Curator

Curator

(trevoralantaylor.com): Arriving at the world of art and aesthetics almost by accident, Trevor’s first experiences with photography were of distant images of another continent made by his grandfather while a flight engineer and photographer in the Navy. Those stimulated Trevor to produce countless short films before the age of 12, mostly involving trains and airplanes. Trevor has worked in independent film as a photographer, director, and most things in between. For the past five years he has worked at the Sundance Film Festival as a docent and facilitating artist interactions. After living on the outskirts of society for many years, New Orleans is a worthy long-term stop, where he works with nonprofit and community organizations.

Lindsey Phillips

Education Coordinator Lindsey has always followed her passions. Through her work in nonprofit organizations and film, she has furthered her belief in social justice and made a meaningful impact in the film and arts community. Presently, she operates her production company with her passions of community and education in mind. She is currently working with HIV prevention peer educators on an interactive film and has also been a facilitator and mentor in her community, as well as a Box Office Coordinator for the Sundance Film Festival and Venue Manager for the New Orleans Film Festival. In her free time she loves sewing, coffee, podcasts and adventurous road trips with friends.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

(blakebertuccelli.com): Reared in the heart of Los Angeles by a mother who was a actress and a father who was a sound designer, Blake was exposed to the workings of the entertainment industry at an early age. He began working professionally with cinemamakers when he joined “The Masses” video collective in 2003, working with the likes of the music video director Matt Amato, wildlife cinematographer Tristan Bayer, and actorturned-director Heath Ledger. In 2007, he left L.A. to pursue personal cinematic endeavors and gain a greater understanding of his ancestral home, New Orleans. Currently, Blake Bertuccelli is the Director of Content for NolaVie, a local nonprofit arts and culture organization.

Trevor Alan Taylor

Feature Films A - Z

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2012 | 102 min

CANADA, USA | 2012 | 99 min

DOCUMENTARY FILM

About Cherry

AKA Doc Pomus

DIR: Stephen Elliott WRITERS: Lorelei Lee, Stephen Elliott PROD: Gordon Bijelonic, Elizabeth Destro, Rick Dugdale, Jordan Kessler, Elana Krausz, Taylor Phillips, Datari Turner DP: Darren Genet ED: Michelle Botticelli

DIR: Peter Miller, Will Hechter PROD: Will Hechter, Peter Miller, Sharyn Felder CAM: Antonio Rossi ED: Amy Linton

This bold debut film by author Stephen Elliott, a visual love letter to San Francisco, is the story of high school student Angelina whose choices lead her from a depressing home life and dead-end job in Los Angeles to the fetish-filled Bay Area adult film world. A stepfather with dark motives lurks in the background, as Angelina watches over her younger sister and questions her options. In memorable supporting roles are indie film favorite Lili Taylor as Angelina’s manic and opportunistic mother, Jonny Weston as her sexy but sleazy boyfriend, and Dev Patel as best friend and much-needed nonsexual support. The vibrant cast also includes James Franco as a coke-addicted attorney who spots Angelina in a strip club, and Heather Graham as a female porn director who launches “Cherry’s” adult film career with mixed feelings. A gritty and defiantly voyeuristic look at the life of a youth who never loses her innocence, even as she gyrates for the camera, Cherry captures a rare point of view, urging us to consider the delicate tension between body and self by focusing on society’s most sought after objects of desire.

Paralyzed with polio as a child, Brooklyn-born Jerome Felder reinvented himself first as a blues singer, renaming himself Doc Pomus, then emerged as one of the most brilliant songwriters of the early rock and roll era, writing Save the Last Dance for Me, This Magic Moment, A Teenager in Love, Viva Las Vegas, and dozens of other hits. For most of his life Doc was confined to crutches and a wheelchair, but he lived more during his sixty-five years than others could experience in several lifetimes. A.K.A. Doc Pomus brings to life Doc’s joyous, romantic, heartbreaking, and extraordinarily eventful journey. In his later years, Doc was a mentor to generations of younger songwriters, and a fierce advocate for downtrodden rhythm and blues musicians. He wrote a thousand songs – including some of the most recorded songs in the history of popular music – but his most lasting gift may have been his uniquely generous spirit. Scheduled to attend: director Will Hechter Preceded by “The Illuminaphonist” (3 min)

Saturday, October 13, 8:30 p.m. Chalmette Movies Monday, October 15, 6:30 p.m. Chalmette Movies

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Tuesday, October 16, 8:45 p.m. Chalmette Movies

Sunday, October 14, 4:30 p.m. New Orleans Museum of Art

Wednesday, October 17, 8:30 p.m. Chalmette Movies

Stephen Elliot Stephen Elliott is the author of seven books, including the memoir The Adderall Diaries and the novel Happy Baby. He is the founding editor of The Rumpus. About Cherry is his feature film debut.

Peter Miller and Will Hechter Peter Miller is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. He has been a producer on numerous documentaries by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, including the The War and Jazz, as well as the Peabody Award-winning Frank Lloyd Wright. Will received his Masters of Law from Harvard. He collaborated with Andy Warhol, and together, published an art series of the prima ballerina of the National Ballet, Karen Kain. Will is the founder of Clear Lake Historical Productions, a not-for-profit documentary film production company.

FRANCE, GERMANY | 2012 | 96 min

NARRATIVE FILM

All Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert

All Together (Et si on vivait tous ensemble?)

DIRECTOR: Vivan Ducat PROD: Vivan Ducat, Mark Urman DP: David Gaynes ED: Michael Culyba

DIR/WRITER: Stephane Robelin PROD: Christophe Bruncher, Peter Rommel, Philippe Gompel, Aurélia Grossmann DP: Dominique Colin ED: Patrick Wilfert

With his intensely autobiographical paintings depicting the day-to-day existence of African Americans in the segregated South, Winfred Rembert has preserved an important, if often disturbing, chapter of American history. His indelible images of toiling in the cotton fields, singing in church, dancing in juke joints, or working on a chain gang are especially powerful, not just because he lived every moment, but because he experienced so much of the injustice and bigotry they show as recently as the 1960s and 70s. In All Me, the artist relives his turbulent life, abundantly visualized by his extensive paintings, and, in a series of intimate reminiscences, shows us how even the most painful memories can be transformed into something meaningful and beautiful. Scheduled to attend: director Vivian Ducat

Feature Films A - Z

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA | 2011 | 78 min

Five aging friends decide to move in together in Stéphane Robelin’s crowd-pleasing comedy, starring Jane Fonda (in her first French-language film since Godard’s 1972 Tout Va Bien), Geraldine Chaplin, and Claude Rich. When womanizer Claude (Rich) has a heart attack, five comfortably retired, long-time friends choose to move into a house together with their ailing friend instead of moving into more traditional senior housing. They hire a handsome ethnology graduate student who is researching the French elderly as a live-in caretaker and rediscover the joys of “communal” living. But when old secrets and long-simmering jealousies emerge, and each character grapples with their own aging, discord among the group begins to grow. All Together was the closing-night selection at the 2011 Locarno International Film Festival.

Tuesday, October 16, 5:30 p.m. Prytania Theatre Monday, October 15, 5:45 p.m. Contemporary Arts Center

Wednesday, October 17, 1:45 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Vivian Ducat All Me is director Vivian Ducat’s first feature-length documentary. A native New Yorker, Ducat has directed, produced, and written more than twenty long-format documentaries for broadcast. Ducat, who graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard, has a master’s degree from Columbia University. She studied film directing at the Film Director’s Training Course, an internal program of the BBC offered to promising young staff members. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, Ray Segal, and their two sons, Oscar and Hugo.

Stéphane Robelin Stéphane Robelin started filmmaking in the 1990s, writing and directing short films. Later he began working in the field of TV documentaries mainly for the national French TV station, France 2. His feature debut Real Movie (2004) premiered at the Dashanzi Underground French Film Festival in Peking. All Together is his second feature film.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Thursday, October 18, at noon Prytania Theatre

Feature Films A - Z

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA | 2011 | 80 min

NARRATIVE FILM

JAPAN | 2012 | 75 min

Andrew Bird: Fever Year

Asura

DIRECTOR: Xan Aranda WRITER: Xan Aranda PRODUCER: Xan Aranda DP: Peter Gilbert, Aaron Wickenden EDITORS: Liz Kaar, Angelo Valencia

DIRECTOR: Keiichi Sato WRITER: Ikuko Takahashi PRODUCER: Yoshi Ikezawa

Filmed during culminating months of the acclaimed singer-songwriter’s most rigorous year of touring, Andrew Bird crosses the December finish line in his hometown of Chicago–feverish and on crutches from an onstage injury. Is he suffering hazards from chasing the ghost of inspiration? Or merely transforming into a different kind of animal “perfectly adapted to the music hall?” Fever Year is the first to capture Bird’s precarious multi-instrumental looping technique and features live performances at Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater with collaborators Martin Dosh, Jeremy Ylvisaker, Michael Lewis, and Annie Clark of St. Vincent.

Mid-fifteenth century Japan. Flood, drought and famine have transformed the landscape of the capital of Kyoto into a barren wasteland. More than 80,000 have perished in the three years between 1459 and 1461. This desolate state served as the backdrop to the beginning of the country’s greatest civil war. The victims of this dark period in Japan’s history were too great in number to include in the pages of history. Asura–a savage, enraged orphan who does whatever it takes to survive in the wild. When he crosses paths with civilization, he must learn to tame the beast within.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Preceded by “Otto and the Electric Eel” (5 min)

Sunday, October 14, 2:00 p.m. New Orleans Museum of Art

Xan Aranda An award-winning filmmaker affiliated with documentary powerhouse Kartemquin Films, Xan is currently directing her next project, Mormon Movie, inspired by religious educational films her mother starred in as a student at Brigham Young University during the 1960s. She’s a Producer of Milking the Rhino and Outreach Director for Prisoner of Her Past, having handled PBS broadcast of both films. Fever Year is her fourth collaboration with Mr. Bird.

Monday, October 15, 9:45 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Keiichi Sato Keiichi Sato is a mecha and character designer born in the Kagawa Prefecture of Japan in 1965. In 1996, Sato met with Kazuyoshi Katayama to begin work on The Big O. Until then, Sato’s work consisted mainly of designing characters and supervising animation for anime series. The Big O is his first film based on a concept of his creation and he considers it his magnum opus. Sato’s style is influenced by his love of all things nostalgic.

US PREMIERE

USA | 2012 | 74 min

USA | 2011 | 78 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

DOCUMENTARY FILM

Bay of All Saints

Bayou Blue

DIRECTOR: Annie Eastman PRODUCERS: Diane Markrow, Davis Coombe DP: Annie Eastman, Gustavo Gelmini, Marcela Bourseau EDITOR: Annie Eastman

DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS: Alix Lambert and David McMahon DP: Shane Sigler EDITOR: Hannah Neufeld

In Bahia, Brazil, generations of impoverished families live in palafitasâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; shacks built on stilts over the ocean bay. When the government threatens to reclaim the bay in the name of ecological restoration, hundreds of families are about to lose their homes. Bay of All Saints is a lyrical portrait of three single mothers living in the water slums during this crisis. Their individual stories of poverty unfold through visits from Norato, their big-hearted refrigerator repairman, born and raised in the palafitas. As these women rise to fight for their future, they begin to see the bay in a whole new light. Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival.

Feature Films A - Z

DOCUMENTARY FILM

In a poverty-stricken area of southeastern Louisiana, 23 men were murdered between 1997 and 2006. Local police departments had great difficulty finding the serial killer responsible for the muders, at least in part because of the great demands put on them by Hurricane Katrina. This documentary reconstructs the events around these murders and reveals some of the least attractive aspects of this mysterious swamp region: the poverty, the racism, the drug problems, the ever-present environmental pollution, a lack of coordination between the various agencies involved, and the reasons behind this monster remaining at large for so long. The case was dismissed as a regional issue and not picked up by the national media, whcih raised complex questions about homosexuality and the homeless (both targets of the killings) and what makes a good news story for the general public. Beautifully shot, the documentary is as much about the environs where the murders took place as it is about the hunt for the killer. Both make for incredibly compelling stories.

Scheduled to attend: directors Alix Lambert and David McMahon

Saturday, October 13, 5:454 p.m. Contemporary Arts Center

Annie Eastman Annie first came to the water slums of Bahia, Brazil in 1999 to work with a grassroots arts and education organization called GRUCON. She worked and resided in this neighborhood for 18 months, learned Portuguese, and co-directed a short documentary to support GRUCONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work. Her work has garnered her Academy Award and Emmy nominations.

Monday, October 15, 1:30 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Alix Lambert and David McMahon Lambert is a filmmaker, writer, photographer, and artist. As an artist Lambert has exhibited her work in The Venice Biennale, The Museum of Modern Art, The Georges Pompidou Center, and the Kwangju Biennnale. McMahon has an MFA from UC-San Diego and co-founded Apparition Productions. He is working on a feature length documentary, Skanks, about the production of an original drag musical at an Alabama community theatre.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Sunday, October 14, 11:30 a.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 1

Feature Films A - Z

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA | 2012 | 101 min

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA | 2012 | 75 min

Bettie Page Reveals All

Brooklyn Boheme

DIR/PROD: Mark Mori WRITER: Douglas Miller DP: Douglas Miller, Jay Miracle, Grant Barbeito EDITORS: Julie Chabot, Douglas Miller, Jay Miracle

DIRECTORS: Diane Paragas, Nelson George WRITER: Nelson George PRODUCER: Diane Paragas and Nelson George DP: Diane Paragas, Francisco Aliwales EDITOR: Diane Paragas, Emir Lewis, Trevor Bayack

Bettie Page is an intimate look at the rise, fall, and rise again of one of the world’s most recognized and controversial sex symbols. Page’s unabashed sexual expression and sexually provocative fetish poses set the stage for the 1960s sexual revolution and ushered in a modern era in fashion and pop culture. With her razor sharp wit and Tennessee twang Page emerges from decades of seclusion to reveal her secret past.

Brooklyn Boheme looks at back at the 1980s and 1990s in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene and Clinton Hill neighborhoods where a community of young black and Latino creatives thrived. Spike Lee, Chris Rick, Rosie Perez, Saul Williams, Lorna Simpson, Mos Def, Vernon Reid, and Toure are among the many artists profiled in the film. Scheduled to attend: Nelson George and hosted by DJ Soul Sister

Continually knocked down throughout her life, her strength of character allowed Bettie to overcome tremendous obstacles and to become a hero to women and an international icon. Bettie Page’s life embodies the American conflict between sexual freedom and sexual repression, between censorship and freedom of expression, between the unacceptable and the celebrated. Followed by a Bettie Page-inspired burlesque performance and a reception featuring complimentary rum.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Tuesday, October 16, 8:00 p.m. Contemporary Arts Center

Thursday, October 18, 8:30 p.m. Chalmette Movies

Mark Mori Mark Mori is an Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker and Emmy Award winning TV producer. His films have garnered awards, film festival screenings, theatrical distribution and television broadcast worldwide. Mori’s most notable projects include: Building Bombs, Blood Ties the Life and Work of Sally Mann, The Fire This Time, and Kent State: The Day the War Came Home, to name a few.

FREE SCREENING Sunday, October 14, 4:00 p.m. Ashé Cultural Arts Center

Diane Paragas and Nelson George Diane Paragas has had a long career in documentaries and commercials. Her projects have appeared in PBS, Discovery, and BET. Her multi-media company, Civilian Studios, is based out of Brooklyn. Nelson George is an author and filmmaker who directed the HBO feature Life Support and the ESPN documentary The Announcement.

SHERWIN-WILLIAMS IS PROUD TO SUPPORT THE NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL Join our

PREFERRED CUSTOMER PROGRAM to save every time you shop.

Visit sherwin-williams.com/preferred to sign up or see store for program details.

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Feature Films A - Z

USA-UGANDA | 2012 | 90 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA-COLOMBIA | 2012 | 73 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

DOCUMENTARY FILM

Call Me Kuchu

Captive Beauty

DIRECTORS: Katherine Fairfax Wright, Malika Zouhali-Worrall PROD: Ariana Garfinkel, Keith Aumont

DIRECTOR: Jared Goodman PRODUCER: Joe Berlinger, Robert Friedman, Jared Goodman, Spencer Kehe DP: Jared Goodman EDITOR: Daniel Rezende

In an unmarked office at the end of a dirt track, veteran activist David Kato labors to repeal Uganda’s homophobic laws and liberate his fellow lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender men and women, or “kuchus.” But David’s formidable task just became much more difficult. A new Anti-Homosexuality Bill proposes death for HIV-positive gay men, and prison for anyone who fails to turn in a known homosexual. Inspired by American evangelicals who have christened Uganda ground zero in their war on the homosexual agenda, the Bill awaits debate in Uganda’s Parliament. Meanwhile, local newspapers have begun outing kuchus with vicious fervor under headlines such as: “HOMO TERROR! We Name and Shame Top Gays in the City.” Scheduled to attend: director Katherine F. Wright

In Medellín, Colombia, a bizarre beauty pageant takes place in El Buen Pastor–the city’s only female prison. Four inmates–Catalina, Leidy, Diana, and Maria–are chosen to represent their respective cell blocks, and with the help of a fashion-savvy guard, soon grace the halls of the prison in a parade of glitter and tulle. As the week-long festivities commence, we learn of the inmates’ trajectories. Jailed for murder, kidnapping, tyranny, and con-artistry, they retell their crimes with a self-awareness that comes with the long, brooding hours of prison life. While some of the women regret their decisions and the families and friends they left behind, others stand by their crimes as acts of justice in their painfully broken lives. Captive Beauty is a film about these women as they come to terms with themselves, and where the criminal, for a day, is crowned beauty queen. – Danielle Calle Scheduled to attend: director Jared Goodman and producer Spencer Kehe

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Preceded by “Slab City Prom” (8 min)

Friday, October 12, 6:00 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 2

Saturday, October 13, 5:15 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 2

Sunday, October 14, 8:45 p.m. The Theaters at Canal Place 2

Thursday, October 18, 6:00 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 1

Katherine F. Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall Wright graduated from Columbia University with a double major in Film Studies and Anthropology. She produced Gabi On the Roof In July, which premiered at Cinequest 2010, and won Best Narrative Feature and Best Actress at the Brooklyn Film Festival. Malika Zouhali-Worrall’s work as a print and video journalist has been published in The Financial Times and at CNN.com. She has reported from India, Uganda, China and the U.S. on politics, technology and LGBT rights.

Jared Goodman Jared Goodman is a Boston-born documentary, narrative, and commercial director. His first documentary, Road to the Big Leagues, chronicles the journey to the major leagues for Dominican-born baseball players. He studied film with experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage at the University of ColoradoBoulder, and spent two years in Spain where he became fluent in Spanish. Jared currently resides in Brooklyn, NY and is working on his first feature length narrative film.

USA | 2012 | 82 min

NARRATIVE FILM

Compliance

Dead Dad

DIR/WRITER: Craig Zobel PROD: Sophia Lin, Lisa Muskat,Tyler Davidson, Theo Sena, Craig Zobel DP: Adam Stone ED: Jane Rizzo

DIRECTOR: Ken J. Adachi WRITERS: Ken J. Adachi and Kyle Arrington PRODUCERS: Kelly Calligan and Ben Hethcoat DP: Eric Bader ED: Eric Ekman

Inspired by true events, Compliance tells the chilling story of just how far one might go to obey a figure of authority. On a particularly busy day at a suburban Ohio fast food joint, high-strung manager Sandra receives a phone call from a police officer saying that an employee, a pretty, young blonde named Becky has stolen money from a customer. Convinced she’s only doing what’s right, Sandra commences the investigation, following step-by-step instructions from the officer at the other end of the line, no matter how invasive they become. As we watch, we ask ourselves two questions: “Why don’t they just say no?” and the more troubling, “Am I certain I wouldn’t do the same?”

Feature Films A - Z

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2012 | 90 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

When their dad dies unexpectedly, estranged siblings Russell, Jane and their adopted brother, Alex, come home to tend to his remains. Though a stubborn and proud bunch, they are able to agree on one thing: nobody wants to keep the ashes. With little guidance and mounds of resentment among them, the three must work together to achieve a proper goodbye. The man who split them apart brings them closer together as the siblings learn what it means to be a family without their dad.

Scheduled to attend: director Ken J. Adachi and producer Kelly Calligan Compliance recounts this riveting nightmare in which the line between legality and reason is hauntingly blurred.

Friday, October 12, 7:30 p.m. Chalmette Movies Sunday, October 14, 6:30 p.m. Chalmette Movies Monday, October 15, 8:30 p.m. Chalmette Movies

Craig Zobel Zobel was born in New York and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, later studying film at the North Carolina School of the Arts alongside David Gordon Green and other future collaborators. After graduation, Zobel worked on Green’s first three films — George Washington (2000), All the Real Girls (2003) and Undertow (2003), as either co-producer, production manager or second unit director. He currently lives in New York.

Sunday, October 14, 7:00 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place, Theatre 1

Ken J. Adachi Director and writer Ken J. Adachi’s projects have screened across the country, and his short film, Picture Day, won a College Television Award in 2010. While working primarily in short formats, Adachi developed an urge to complete a feature length film. New to Los Angeles and with limited funds, he and his collaborators embraced a grassroots approach and worked nights and weekends to make it happen. The result is Dead Dad, Adachi’s feature film debut.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Thursday, October 18, 6:30 p.m. Chalmette Movies

Preceded by ‘92 Skybox Alonzo Mourning Rookie Card” (12 min)

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Feature Films A - Z

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2011 | 93 min

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA | 2012 | 62 min

Dead Man’s Burden

Eating Alabama

DIR/WRITER: Jared Moshé PRODUCER: Veronica Nickel DP: Rob Hauer EDITOR: Jeff Israel

DIR/PROD/DP: Andrew Beck Grace ED: Andrew Beck Grace, Bartley Powers

The year is 1870, and a fragmented America still strains to pick up the pieces from a savage Civil War. Martha and her husband Heck are living on a homestead Martha’s father purchased on the rural New Mexico frontier and struggle to make ends meet. When a mining company expresses interest in buying their land, Martha and Heck see their ticket to a better life.

In search of a simpler life, a young couple returns home to Alabama where they set out to eat the way their grandparents did– locally and seasonally. But as they navigate the agro-industrial gastronomical complex, they soon realize that nearly everything about the food system has changed since farmers once populated their family histories. A thoughtful and often funny essay on community, the South, and sustainability, Eating Alabama is a story about why food matters.

Their hopeful plans are soon complicated when Martha’s oldest brother Wade—whom she had thought killed during the war—returns to the family homestead after learning of their father’s death. A defector to the Union Army, Wade soon discovers that Martha is hiding secrets of her own. As the two siblings become reacquainted, torn between a desire to reconcile with the only family they have left and their clashing convictions, tension and suspicion continue to mount.

Wednesday, October 17, 8:15 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 2

Jared Moshé Writer-director Jared Moshé marks his transition from producer to the director’s chair with his debut feature, Dead Man’s Burden. Among his notable production credits are: Kurt Cobain About A Son, Low and Behold, and Beautiful Losers. Recently, Moshé produced Silver Tongues, nominated for a 2012 Independent Spirit Award, and Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, official selection at the 2011 Festival de Cannes and the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Wednesday, October 17, 2:00 p.m. Contemporary Arts Center *Only open to All-Access passholders.

Andrew Beck Grace Andrew Beck Grace is a documentary filmmaker and native of Alabama. He’s a past fellow at the CPB/ PBS Producers Academy and directs the Documenting Justice program at the University of Alabama.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Thursday, October 18, 2:00 p.m. Prytania Theatre

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA | 2011 | 75 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

NARRATIVE FILM

Face 2 Face

Four

DIRECTOR: Katherine Brooks PRODUCERS: Katherine Brooks, Cynthi Stefenoni, Beth Hohlier DP: Maria T. Senger EDITOR: Maria T. Senger

DIRECTOR: Joshua Sanchez (based on the play by Christopher Shinn) WRITER: Joshua Sanchez PRODUCER: Christine Giorgio DP: Gregg Conde EDITOR: David Gutnik

Face 2 Face is a feature-length documentary that follows the 11,000-mile cross-country voyage of Emmy-winning director, Katherine Brooks. After major surgery, Katherine was feeling isolated and alone. Spending her days on Facebook, Katherine noticed she had 5,000 virtual friends, but had not had a hug in over a month. Struck with the idea that it takes more than a friend request to be a friend, she posted the following status update: the first 50 people who say YES...I’m coming to your city to meet you face to face. Within nine minutes, Katherine had her fifty friends. Scheduled to attend: director Katherine Brooks, cinematographer and editor Maria T. Senger, and producer Beth Hohlier

Feature Films A - Z

USA | 2012 | 107 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

A steamy July 4th night brings four people together in two tales of seduction and conflicted desire. Joe is a black, middle-aged, married man out on an Internet date with June, a white teenage boy. Abigayle is Joe’s precocious daughter, out herself with a hot, wisecracking, Latino basketball player named Dexter. As the two couples get to know each other intimately, their realities are tested, and the outcome is bracing. Based on the play by Pulitzer Prize finalist and Obie-winning playwright, Christopher Shinn, Four stars Wendell Pierce, acclaimed for his roles in the HBO series The Wire and Treme and Emory Cohen from NBC’s Smash. Scheduled to attend: director Joshua Sanchez and actress Yolonda Ross

Preceded by “Breaking Night” (8 min)

Sunday, October 14, 6:45 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Tuesday, October 16, 6:15 p.m. Chalmette Movies

Wednesday, October 17, 5:30 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Katherine Brooks At 16, Katherine Brooks ran away from her small town home in Louisiana to pursue a career in Hollywood. With only $150 to her name, she slept in her car in a motel parking lot. Today, with over 15 years of experience in film and TV (The Osbournes, The Real World, The Simple Life) Brooks is running her own production company, Big Easy Pictures, taking her experience in reality television and applying it to documentary feature films. She was recently awarded the prestigious Power Up Award for her activism in the LGBT community.

Joshua Sanchez A native of Houston, Joshua Sanchez graduated from Columbia University’s MFA Film Program. Joshua won the HBO Films Young Producer’s Development Award, and has also participated in Tribeca All Access at the Tribeca Film Festival. Four, his debut feature film was recently awarded the Jerome Foundation’s Film and Video grant. The film also recently won the Best Performance in a Narrative award at the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival. His ongoing experimental film project Screentests premiered at PS122 Gallery in New York City in February 2010.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Sunday, October 14, 8:30 p.m. Chalmette Movies

Feature Films A - Z

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THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

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USA | 2012 | 80 min

USA-CANADA | 2012 | 74 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

NARRATIVE FILM

Fourplay

Francine

DIRECTOR: Kyle Henry WRITERS: Carlos Treviño, Jessica Hedrick PRODUCERS: Michael Stipe, Jim McKay, Jason Wehling DP: PJ Raval EDITORS: David Fabelo, Rita K Sanders

DIR/WRITERS: Brian M. Cassidy, Melanie Shatzky DP: Brian M. Cassidy ED: Brian M. Cassidy, Benjamin Gray, Melanie Shatzky

Fourplay is an anthology of four tales of sexual triumph and travail. In Skokie, a closeted woman’s infatuation with her minister’s wife is sublimated during a weekend of dog sitting; in Austin, a young couple struggle with opposing desires regarding conception and arrive at a startling compromise; in Tampa, a queer man plagued with self-doubt finds a surreal nirvana in a public mall restroom; and in San Francisco, a cross-dressing prostitute (played by Louisiana native Paul Soileau) aces a challenging assignment with a quadriplegic man, arranged by the man’s wife.

Feature Films A - Z

1:07 PM

NARRATIVE FILM

Academy Award winner Melissa Leo gives a fierce and restrained performance as Francine, a woman struggling to find her place in a downtrodden lakeside town after leaving behind a life in prison. Taking a series of jobs working with animals, Francine turns away others and instead seeks intimacy in the most unlikely of places. Gritty, elliptical, and voyeuristic, Francine is a portrait of a near-silent misfit and her fragile first steps in an unfamiliar world. Scheduled to attend: director Melanie Shatzky

Note: This film is not suggested for those under 18. Scheduled to attend: director Kyle Henry

Preceded by “Pass the Salt” (12 min)

Preceded by “Reunion” (12 min)

Friday, October 12, 7:45 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Kyle Henry Kyle Henry’s feature film debut, Room, premiered at both the Sundance and Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight film festivals in 2005. Sections from Fourplay have screened at Sundance and Directors’ Fortnight. His feature docs include University Inc., about the corporatization of higher education, and American Cowboy, about a gay rodeo cowboy. He’s also the editor of the Sundance award-winning feature narrative Manito and eight feature documentaries.

Wednesday, October 17, noon Prytania Theatre

Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky Brian M. Cassidy & Melanie Shatzky founded Pigeon Projects in 2005 as a means of producing their uncompromising fiction and non-fiction films. Living comfortably at the margins of documentary and narrative cinema, works created by Pigeon Projects forgo conventional storytelling methods in order to accommodate stark imagery, elusive characters, and a deadpan realism. They have shown their films at the Sundance, Toronto, Rotterdam, and Edinburgh film festivals. In 2007, Filmmaker Magazine named them as one of “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Saturday, October 13, 9:30 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 2

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USA | 2011 | 48 min

Gimme the Loot

A Girl Like Her

DIR/WRITER: Adam Leon PROD: Natalie Difford, Dominic Buchanan, Jamund Washington DP: Jonathan Miller EDITOR: Morgan Faust

DIR/ED: Ann Fessler DP: Dennis Goulden

It’s a hot summer day in the Bronx and best friends Malcom and Sophia have a plan. The two, an ambitious graffiti-writing team, want to achieve the ultimate, and most elusive, victory: tagging the giant apple that emerges from beneath Citi Field every time the Mets hit a home run. Following a lead, the two end up on an adventure that takes them all over the city and throws them together with a wildly varied cast of characters. A realistic-yet-optimistic love letter to both New York City and the misadventures of youth, Gimme the Loot is a refreshing adventure narrative set against a backdrop usually reserved for tales of strife or hardship, a reminder of the universality of youthful aspirations—and fun. Tashiana Washington’s portrayal of Sofia is magnetic, and Ty Hickson, as the somewhat-bumbling Malcom, brims with irrepressible charm. The deep friendship between this pair, as we glimpse it over the course of a few hectic summer days, is perhaps the best part of this smartly-written, engaging drama. – Elisabeth Sanders

Feature Films A - Z

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2012 | 81 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

DOCUMENTARY FILM

A Girl Like Her reveals the hidden history of over a million young women who became pregnant in the 1950s and 60s and were banished to maternity homes to give birth, surrender their children, and return home alone. They were told to keep their secret, move on, and forget. But, does a woman forget her child? The film combines footage from educational films and newsreels of the time period about dating, sex, “illegitimate” pregnancy, and adoption— that both reflected and shaped the public’s understanding of single pregnancy during that time—with the voices of these mothers as they speak today, with hindsight, about the long-term impact of surrender and silence on their lives. Scheduled to attend: director Ann Fessler

Winner of the Best Narrative Feature Prize at the South by Southwest Film Festival and an official selection at Cannes. Preceded by “AM/FM” (5 min)

Adam Leon Adam Leon was born and raised in NYC. Since graduating from the University of Pennsylvania he has worked extensively in the New York film industry. Adam apprenticed for Woody Allen on set and in post-production for two years. Under the alias SkinnySlim, he was a founder of the BadmintonStamps collective, whose members continue to thrive in the fine art, photography, film and music fields, and are best known for their “Found Your Stuff” street art project.

Saturday, October 13, 3:30 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 2

Ann Fessler Fessler turned to the subject of adoption after being approached by a woman who thought she might be the daughter she had surrendered forty years earlier. Though the woman was not her mother, Ann, an adoptee, was profoundly moved by the experience. She has produced two previous films on adoption, Cliff and Hazel, about her adoptive parents, and Along the Pale Blue River about the search for her mother. She has also written a non-fiction book The Girls Who Went Away (Penguin, 2006), based on the interviews she conduced with surrendering mothers.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Monday, October 15, 5:30 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Preceded by “Reborning” (8 min)

Feature Films A - Z

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA | 2012 | 83 min

NARRATIVE FILM

FRANCE | 1937 | 114 min

The Girls in the Band

La Grande Illusion (Grand Illusion)

DIRECTOR: Judy Chaikin PRODUCER: Michael Greene ED: Edward Osei-Gyimah

DIRECTOR: Jean Renoir WRITER: Jean Renoir, Charles Spaak

The Girls in the Band tells the poignant, untold stories of female jazz and big band instrumentalists and their fascinating, groundbreaking journeys from the late 30s to the present day. These incredibly talented women endured sexism, racism, and diminished opportunities for decades, yet continued to persevere, inspire, and elevate their talents in a field that seldom welcomed them.Today a new breed of gifted young women are taking their rightful place in the world of jazz which can no longer deny their talents. Scheduled to attend: director Judy Chaikin, with special introduction by Irvin Mayfield

One of the very first prison escape movies. WWI, and it’s a POW camp for French man-of-the-people flyboy Jean Gabin and aristocratic staff observer Pierre Fresnay after they’re shot down by the equally-aristocratic German Erich von Stroheim. There are escapes—one by tunnel—to be planned; fellowship with Jewish Marcel Dalio, music hall cut-up Carette, and engineer Gaston Modot; a necessarily all-male musical revue, interrupted by a dramatic announcement; and a reunion with Stroheim at an escape-proof castle keep. Partly inspired by stories of the air ace who had saved Renoir’s life in the war, this was, on the brink of another one, a celebration of the brotherhood of man, across class, across frontiers, as well a kind of elegy for an international aristocracy (Fresnay and Stroheim, going monocle to monocle, speak much of the time in English, a language no one else understands). Grand Illusion has been hailed as one of the greatest films ever made and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture—the first ever for a foreign film. Starring Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, and Erich von Stroheim, Grand Illusion will be presented in a spectacular new 4K restoration in honor of its 75th anniversary.

Preceded by “Mrs. Buck in Her Prime” (11 min)

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Sunday, October 14, noon Prytania Theater

Sunday, October 14, 8:00 p.m. New Orleans Museum of Art

Judy Chaikin Judy Chaikin is a graduate of AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women and is best known for writing, producing, and directing the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary, Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist. In 2004 she received her second Emmy nomination for the documentary Building on a Dream: The NoHo Art Project. Recently she directed and co-wrote the short romantic-comedy film, Cotillion ‘65, which has appeared in 40 film festivals winning Best Short, Best Comedy, Best Director, and Audience Choice Awards.

Tuesday, October 16, noon Prytania Theater

Jean Renoir Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. His pictures Grand Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game (1939) are often cited by critics as among the greatest films ever made. As an author, he wrote the definitive biography of his father, the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Renoir, My Father (1962). Jean Renoir was ranked by the BFI’s Sight & Sound poll of critics as the fourth greatest director of all time.

CANADA | 2012 | 81 min

DOCUMENTARY FILM

Hara Kiri: Death of a Samurai

Herman’s House

DIR/CAM: Takashi Miike DP: Nobuyasu Kita

DIR/WRITER: Angad Singh Bhalla PRODUCER: Lisa Valencia-Svensson DP: Iris Ng, Angad Singh Bhalla ED: Ricardo Acosta

Revenge, honor, and disgrace collide when a samurai’s request to commit ritual suicide leads to a tense showdown with his feudal lord. From visionary auteur Takashi Miike (13 Assassins) comes the story of a mysterious samurai who arrives at the doorstep of his feudal lord, requesting an honorable death by ritual suicide in his courtyard. The lord threatens him with the brutal tale of Motome, a desperate young ronin who made a similar request with ulterior motives, only to meet a grisly end. Undaunted, the samurai begins to tell a story of his own, with an ending no one could see coming. With stunning cinematography and gripping performances, Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai is a thrilling exploration of revenge, honor, and individuality in the face of oppressive power. The Village Voice says this “may be Miike’s best film,” and for someone as prolific as Miike, that’s saying quite a bit. In Japanese with English subtitles.

Feature Films A - Z

NARRATIVE FILM

JAPAN | 2012 | 126 min

There are 2.2 million people in jail in the U.S. More than 80,000 of those are in solitary confinement. New Orleans native Herman Wallace has been there longer than anyone. In 1972, Herman was serving a 25-year sentence for bank robbery when he was accused of murdering an Angola Prison guard and immediately thrown into solitary. Many believed he was wrongfully convicted. Then in 2001 he received a letter from art student Jackie Sumell, who posed the provocative question: “What kind of house does a man who has lived in a six-foot-by-nine-foot cell for over 30 years dream of?” An inspired creative dialogue led to a collaborative art project: “The House That Herman Built.” The exhibition has brought thousands of gallery visitors around the world face-to face with the harsh realities of the American prison system. With compassion and meaningful artistry, Herman’s House takes us inside the lives and imaginations of two unforgettable characters--forging a friendship and building a dream in the struggle to end the “cruel and unusual punishment” of long-term solitary confinement. Scheduled to attend: director Angad Singh Bhalla, producer Lisa Valencia-Svensson, and subjects Jacki Sumell and Victory Wallace. Preceded by “Written in Ink” (11 min)

Sunday, October 14, 5:00 p.m. Contemporary Arts Center

Wednesday, October 17, 9:30 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Monday, October 15, 3:15 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Takashi Miike Takashi Miike was born on the outskirts of Osaka, Japan. He spent almost a decade working in television before becoming an assistant director in film to his old mentor Imamura. The “V-Cinema” (Direct to Video) boom of the early 90s was to be Miike’s break into directing his own films. His international breakthrough came with Audition, and since then he has had an ever-expanding cult following in the West. A prolific director, Miike has directed 60+ films in 13 years, his films being known for their explicit and taboo representations of violence and sex.

Angad Singh Bhalia Angad uses film to highlight voices we rarely hear. His first independent project was U.A.I.L. Go Back, widely used as a grassroots-organizing tool against an alumina project in India. He has worked as a community organizer for immigrant rights and contributed to the editing of several broadcast documentaries. His award-winning short, Writings on the Wall, was broadcast on PBS, Canada’s Bravo!, and Al Jazeera. He is currently in production with the National Film Board of Canada on the interactive documentary Inside Herman’s House.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Friday, October 12, 11:59 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Feature Films A - Z

WORLD PREMIERE

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA | 2012 | 50 min

USA | 2012 | 82 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

DOCUMENTARY FILM

Hollywood Hair

Informant

DIR/WRITER: Juliet Snowden PRODUCERS: Juliet Snowden, Stiles White DP: Stiles White EDITOR: Brad Grossman

DIR/WRITER: Jamie Meltzer PRODUCERS: George Rush, Steve Bannatyne DP: Frazer Bradshaw ED: John Kane, Jamie Meltzer, Summers Henderson

Thirty years ago, Tony Morales opened his hair salon on Hollywood Boulevard with dreams of catering to the rich and famous, instead he became a father figure to the many bit actors, outsiders, and runaways who had come to Los Angeles in hopes of a better life. Hollywood Hair tells the compelling story of an unlikely “family” that exists in the shadows of the world’s most famous boulevard– a place where dreams are born and die every day. Shot in stark black and white as a contrast to the typical glamorized images of Hollywood, this offbeat film shows a very real and unforgettable side of Tinseltown that most have never seen.

Scheduled to attend: director Juliet Snowden

Informant takes a spellbinding look at Brandon Darby, a radical activist turned FBI informant who has been both vilified and deified, but never fully understood. Impossibly charismatic, Darby was once a shining star of the radical left—until it was revealed that he was an informant for the FBI. Through (often conflicting) interview accounts and reenactments, this documentary tells the story of the rise, fall, and rise again of this radical-leftist-turned-radical-conservative. – Elisabeth Sanders

Scheduled to attend: Scott Crow, one of the subjects interviewed in the documentary

Preceded by “Life in Black and White” (13 min)

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Sunday, October 14, 3:15 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 1

Monday, October 15, noon Prytania Theatre

Juliet Snowden Director Juliet Snowden is the screenwriter of Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage; The Possession, starring Kyra Sedgwick; and Boogeyman, produced by Sam Raimi. Hollywood Hair, Snowden’s directorial debut, is a tribute to some of the very first people she met in Los Angeles after moving from her native Louisiana to pursue a career in film.

Sunday, October 14, 2:30 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Jamie Meltzer Jamie Meltzer’s feature documentary films have been broadcast nationally on PBS and have screened at numerous film festivals worldwide. They include Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story (Independent Lens, 2003), Welcome to Nollywood (PBS broadcast, 2008), and La Caminata (2009), a short film about a small town in Mexico that runs a simulated border crossing as a tourist attraction, which screened at Silverdocs and True/False, among others. Mr. Meltzer teaches in the Documentary Film and Video M.F.A. Program at Stanford University.

USA | 2012 | 96 min

NARRATIVE FILM

The Iran Job

It’s A Disaster

DIR/WRITER/DP: Till Schauder PROD: Sara Nodjoumi, Till Schauder ED: David Teague

DIR/WRITER: Todd Berger DP: Nancy Schreiber PROD: Kevin Brennan, Jeff Grace, Gordon Bijelonic, Datari Turner ED: Franklin Peterson

The Iran Job follows American basketball player Kevin Sheppard as he accepts a job to play in one of the world’s most feared countries: Iran.

A tense brunch is interrupted by a mysterious, catastrophic event that traps four couples inside a house. As the situation gets more dire, survival seems less and less likely—but more important are the interpersonal dynamics of the eight brunchers as they approach possible doom. Secrets come out, friendships shift, and relationships are tested as eight people suddenly find themselves in what may be the last few hours of their lives. America Ferrera shines as a high school chemistry teacher whose greater understanding of the situation drives her into shock and escapism. Julia Stiles and David Cross, as a couple on a tentative third date, beautifully carry the inherent awkwardness of near-strangers sharing a significant and terrifying life event. Hilariously astute and surprisingly dark, It’s a Disaster is a uniquely funny look at ordinary people trapped in a horrible situation. – Elisabeth Sanders

With tensions running high between Iran and the West, Kevin tries to separate sports from politics only to find that politics is impossible to escape in Iran. Along the way he forms an unlikely alliance with three outspoken Iranian women. Thanks to these women, his apartment turns into an oasis of free speech, where they discuss everything from politics to religion to gender roles. Kevin’s season in Iran culminates in something much bigger than basketball: the uprising and subsequent suppression of Iran’s reformist Green Movement – a powerful prelude to the sweeping changes across the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring.

Feature Films A - Z

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA | 2012 | 93 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

Scheduled to attend: director Till Schauder Scheduled to attend: director Todd Berger and editor Franklin Peterson Preceded by “Office Hours” (9 min)

FREE SCREENING

Till Schauder Till got his start in Germany where he wrote and directed the award winning films Strong Shit and City Bomber. After earning a government grant for the arts, he made his U.S. debut with the romantic comedy, Santa Smokes, which won several international awards, among them Best Director at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Till is a graduate of the University of Television and Film, Munich. He teaches film classes at NYU and has been a guest lecturer at several other campuses, and a panelist at various film festivals.

Tuesday, October 16, 2:30 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Todd Berger Berger hails from New Orleans and has been making movies since the age of eleven. His first feature, The Scenesters, played at over 30 film festivals in 2010 and took home Most Interesting Film from The Slamdance Film Festival. His documentary Don’t Eat The Baby: Adventures at post-Katrina Mardi Gras played on the final night of the 2007 NOFF. He works as a screenwriter and actor in Los Angeles, with scripts currently in development at MGM, DreamWorks Animation, Sony Pictures, Jim Henson Productions, and The Disney Channel.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Tuesday, October 16, 6:30 p.m. Ashé Cultural Arts Center

Saturday, October 13, 9:15 p.m. Prytania Theatre

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NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2012 | 105 min

Keep the Lights On

A Late Quartet

DIR: Ira Sachs WRITERS: Ira Sachs, Mauricio Zacharias PROD: Lucas Joaquin, Marie Therese Guirgis DP: Thimios Bakatakis

DIRECTOR: Yaron Zilberman WRITERS: Seth Grossman, Yaron Zilberman DP: Frederick Elmes ED: Yuval Shar

Keep the Lights On chronicles an emotionally and sexually charged journey of two men in New York City through love, friendship, and addiction. Documentary filmmaker, Erik, and closeted lawyer, Paul, meet through a casual encounter, but soon find a deeper connection and become a couple. Individually and together, they are risk takers – compulsive, and fueled by drugs and sex. In an almost decade-long relationship defined by highs, lows, and dysfunctional patterns, Erik struggles to negotiate his own boundaries and dignity while being true to himself. Director Ira Sachs’ fearlessly personal screenplay is anchored by Lindhardt, who embodies Erik’s isolation and vulnerability with a gentle presence.

The four members of a world-renowned string quartet struggle to stay together in the face of death, competing egos and insuppressible lust.

Harrowing and romantic, visceral and layered, Keep the Lights On is a film that looks at love and all of its manifestations, taking it to dark depths and bringing it back to a place of grace.

Feature Films A - Z

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2010 | 102 min

Set in iconic New York City, this is the story of four musicians, bound together by their passion for music and long years of working together. But when their patriarch Peter is diagnosed with a terminal illness, the repercussions hit the group deeper than they could imagine. First and second violinists Robert and Daniel row over first chair, Robert and violist Juliette’s marriage hits the rocks when he has an affair, and their headstrong daughter embarks on her own explosive affair—with Daniel. As their 25th anniversary performance looms, the musicians must either find a way to overcome their troubles, and preserve their legacy—or part ways forever. The film features an all-star cast including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, and Catherine Keener.

Monday, October 15, 8:30 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 2

Ira Sachs Ira Sachs is a writer/director based in NYC. His films include Married Life, The Delta, and the 2005 Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning Forty Shades of Blue. His most recent film, Last Address, a short work honoring a group of NYC artists who died of AIDS, has been added to the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and MoMA. Sachs teaches in the Graduate Film department at NYU and is a fellow at both the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo.

Wednesday, October 17, 7:30 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Yaron Zilberman Yaron Zilberman was born in Haifa, Israel. He graduated with a B.Sc. in physics from MIT before turning to filmmaking. He wrote, produced and directed the documentary feature Watermarks. A Late Quartet is his first fiction feature.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Tuesday, October 16, 8:30 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 2

Feature Films A - Z

WORLD PREMIERE

USA | 2012 | 80 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

NARRATIVE FILM

USA-SWITZERLAND | 2012 | 62 min

Leave Me Like You Found Me

Liquid Land

DIRECTOR: Adele Romanski WRITER: Adele Romanski PRODUCER: Taylor Feltner DP: James Laxton and Jay Keitel EDITORS: Nicole West and Adele Romanski

DIR/WRITER/DP/ED: Michelle Ettlin

After a year of heartbreak and loneliness, Erin and Cal have forgotten enough of each other’s flaws to get back together. They take what they hope will be a romantic camping trip in Sequoia National Park. Alone in the majestic landscape, they begin to revisit their past relationship. As cracks start to show each is left wondering whether the other has changed enough to make it work this time.

DOCUMENTARY FILM

In the fall of 2010, filmmaker Michelle Ettlin joined Swiss musician Simon Berz and Dutch artist Kaspar Koenig came to New Orleans for an art project: building instruments from trash and inviting local musicians to improvise with them. The film Liquid Land uses these concerts, interviews with the musicians and scenes of New Orleans street life, rituals and celebrations to explore the confluence of creative music, the creative process and the creative energy that draws these musicians and keeps them in New Orleans in the wake of disaster.

Scheduled to attend: director Michelle Ettlin

Preceded by “Hung Up” (10 min)

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Friday, October 12, 8:15 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 2

Thursday, October 18, 6:15 p.m. The Theaters at Canal Place 2

Adele Romanski Leave Me Like You Found Me is Adele’s first stab at directing. Her producing credits include David Robert Mitchell’s The Myth of the American Sleepover (SXSW ‘10, Cannes ‘10); Katie Aselton’s The Freebie (Sundance ‘10); Black Rock (Sundance ’10); and most recently Jacob Vaughan’s Milo. She is a Sundance Creative Producing Fellow and a 2010 Spirit Award nominee.

Tuesday, October 16, 7:30 p.m. Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Michelle Ettlin After a degree in animation from the University of Applied Sciences in Lucerne, Switzerland, Michelle Ettlin started working on short documentaries, animation films and video projections for theatre plays and concerts. Her graduation film, In Limbo, a short animation, was shown at numerous festivals around the world. Liquid Land is her first feature documentary.

USA | 2012 | 76 min

DOCUMENTARY FILM

Love Free or Die: How the Bishop of New Hampshire is Changing the World

The Mechanical Bride

DIR/WRITER: Macky Alston PRODUCER: Sandra Itkoff DP: Tom Hurwitz ED: Christopher White

DIR/WRITER: Allison de Fren PRODUCERS: Allison de Fren, C. Grant Mitchell DP: C. Grant Mitchell, Andrew Syder ED: Allison de Fren, P.J. Wolff

Love Free or Die (Special Jury Prize winner Sundance 2012) is a film about religion, homosexuality, and human rights; how tradition and scripture are used by many to reject a faithful minority and amid the growing calls in the US and beyond to adopt inclusion. The film follows Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay person to be elected bishop in the high church traditions of Christendom. Bishop Robinson’s elevation in the sleepy New Hampshire diocese in 2003 ignited a worldwide debate in the Anglican Communion, one that has become so heated that there is still a chance of a schism in the 80 million-member denomination. Taking on the church’s stance against homosexuality, Bishop Robinson has become a lightning rod, standing at the crossroads of religion and sexuality. One year after being muzzled by the Archbishop of Canterbury, he finds himself speaking from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at Barack Obama’s Inauguration. Gene Robinson confronts those who use religion as an instrument of oppression, and claims a place in the church and society, not just for LGBT people, but for all people.

Feature Films A - Z

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA | 2012 | 83 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

The desire to bring the perfect artificial woman to life is as old as Pygmalion, but new technologies are making its realization ever more likely. Limning the border between science fiction and fact, this provocative and eye-opening documentary journeys from the outer limits of fantasy— visiting classic scenes of fembots in film and television—to the state-ofthe-art reality of artificial companions—from life-sized silicone love dolls to humanoid robots. At its heart are the stories of men—builders, animators, and lovers—who keep the dream of artificial companionship alive: Slade, the “Realdoll Doctor” who runs a “hospital” for broken love dolls; Chris, the robot builder, whose business plans include offering replacement spouses to bereft widowers; Michael, a self-described German mad scientist attempting to create the most advanced sexual android in the world; Sorayama, the well-known Japanese artist whose “sexy robot and gynoid” pin-ups have graced numerous walls and rock album covers; and others, both strange and strangely familiar. Narrated by screen icon and former television android Julie Newmar. Scheduled to attend: director Allison de Fren

Preceded by “Shopping” (7 min)

Macky Alston Macky is an accomplished documentary filmmaker. Alston’s first film, Family Name premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997 where it won the Freedom of Expression Award and later aired on PBS’ POV. Since then he has directed Questioning Faith, The Killer Within, and Hard Road Home. His awards include the Gotham Open Palm Award and Emmy nominations for three of his films and he has appeared in press around the world, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, and The New York Times.

Sunday, October 14, 9:15 p.m. The Theaters at Canal Place 1

Allison de Fren Allison de Fren is a filmmaker and scholar based in Los Angeles, who divides her time between creating, writing, and teaching about media, gender, and technology. She holds a masters degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and a doctorate from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. She is an Assistant Professor of Media Arts & Culture at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Thursday, October 18, 6:00 p.m. Contemporary Arts Center

Preceded by “Fleshlight” (12 min)

Feature Films A - Z

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA | 2012 | 71 min

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA | 2012 | 71 min

Mendelsohn’s Incessant Visions

Mr. Cao Goes to Washington

DIR: Duki Dror WRITER: Celia Engelmeyer-Dror, Duki Dror PROD: Yael Shavit, Roni Izaak, Duki Dror DP: Philippe Bellaiche ED: Duki Dror

DIR/PRODUCER: S. Leo Chiang DP: S. Leo Chiang, Bao Nguyen ED: Matthew Martin

He drew sketches on tiny pieces of paper and sent them, from the trenches, to a young cellist, who was waiting for him in Berlin. She thought he was a genius and after WW1 she helped him become the busiest architect in Germany. When she planned to leave him, for a communist poet, he built a perfect house for her, entirely planned by him, from the lakeview living room, to the silverware and her evening-gowns. When the Nazis came to power, they escaped the house and Germany forever. Erich and Louise Mendelsohn have wandered between continents, between world wars, between success and failure. The buildings that Erich built around the world, scattered as a trail of their journey, have changed the history of architecture.

What happens when the naiveté of a political rookie clashes with the realities of racial and partisan politics of the South? Mr. Cao Goes to Washington is a fascinating character study of Congressman Joseph Cao, a Vietnamese American Republican elected by surprise in an African American Democratic district in New Orleans. Will Cao make it through his term with his idealism intact? Scheduled to attend: director S. Leo Chiang

Incessant Visions is a cinematic meditation about the untold story of Erich Mendelsohn, whose life and career were as enigmatic and tragic as the path of the century. Award-winning filmmaker Duki Dror has created a spectacular interpretation based on Erich and Louise’s relationship, for one of the most captivating chapters in the development of modern art.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

This screening is presented by AIA and Mathes Brierre Architects.

Thursday, October 18, 6:00 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Duki Dror Duki Dror was born in Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur 1963 as Zadok Salah Dror Darwish, and studied theater and classical studies in UCLA and graduated Colombia Collage film school in Chicago. He is the director of sixteen films.

Saturday, October 13, 2:30 p.m. Prytania Theatre

S. Leo Chiang S. Leo Chiang is a Taiwan-born, San Franciscobased filmmaker. His current documentary, Mr. Cao Goes to Washington, won the Inspiration Award at the 2012 Full Frame Film Festival. His previous film, the Emmy Award-nominated A Village Called Versailles, traced the rebuilding of the Vietnamese community in post-Katrina New Orleans. His other films include Aloha (PBS broadcast 2006), One + One (CINE Golden Eagle Award 2002), and Safe Journey. Leo is a lecturer in the Social Documentation program at University of California, Santa Cruz.

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2012 | 114 min

NOLAbound

Not Fade Away

DIR/PROD/ED: Crista Rock DP: Crista Rock, Don Lagarde, Leonel Mendez, Mark Moore ED: Keiran Watson-Bonnice

DIR/WRITER: David Chase PROD: David Chase, Mark Johnson, Kerry Orent, Steve Van Zandt DP: Eigil Bryld ED: Sidney Wolinsky

After a nationwide search, 27 of the most innovative minds from across the country arrive in New Orleans. With just five days to experience the city, the 27 discover a version of New Orleans they never knew existed. This eye-opening 50-minute documentary follows their journey through a city undergoing one of the greatest economic transformations in American history.

The Sopranos creator David Chase’s feature film debut is a rollicking blast from the past. It’s 1964 and three New Jersey teenagers are swept up in the music of the era and decide to start a rock band. Their parents, however, don’t take kindly to this, particularly the lead singer’s (John Magaro) father, played by The Sopranos’ James Gandolfini, who sees his son joining a world he doesn’t understand.

Scheduled to attend: director Crista Rock

A pitch-perfect coming-of-age story about, as Chase describes it, “a postwar, post-Depression era parent who has given his kid every advantage that he didn’t have growing up, but now can’t help feeling jealous of the liberated, more adventurous destiny his son is able to enjoy.” With music by the legendary Steven Van Zandt (of, among other things, Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band), Not Fade Away shows the culture clash that so defined the era captured within the microcosm of a family.

Sponsored by:

Feature Films A - Z

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA | 2012 | 50 min

Selected as the centerpiece film of the 2012 New York Film Festival, Not Fade Away is a rock and roll movie sure to make rock-and-roll-movie top-ten lists for decades to come. – Elisabeth Sanders

FREE SCREENING

Crista Rock Crista’s first interaction with a camera came when she was five and she hasn’t put a camera down since. By 7, she had started developing her own photos in her neighbor’s darkroom. Her first job in TV was at the college TV station as an editor/shooter. By the time she was 19, she had a job as Stage Manager at a Production house in Cleveland, Ohio. She moved to New Orleans about 10 years ago and became a multi-award winning Photojournalist for WDSU. She retired from news biz 3 years ago to start her own production company.

Saturday, October 13, 6:45 p.m. Prytania Theatre

David Chase David Chase is the creator of the HBO Series The Sopranos, and has won seven Emmy Awards over the course of his more than thirty years as a television producer, writer, and director. Not Fade Away is his feature film directorial debut.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Sunday, October 14, 7:00 p.m. The Joy Theatre

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To find out if you qualify and how to apply, email workforce@novacvideo.org or contact NOVAC at 504-940-5780. This program is a partnership between NOVAC, Film New Orleans and the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Economy

NARRATIVE FILM

Feature Films A - Z

USA-POLAND | 2012 | 93 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2012 | 79 min

Now, Forager

OK, Good

DIRECTORS: Jason Cortlund, Julia Halperin WRITER: Jason Cortlund PRODUCERS: Ariana Garfinkel, Keith Aumont DP: Jonathan Nastasi ED: Julia Halperin

DIRECTOR: Daniel Martinico WRITERS: Hugo Armstrong and Daniel Martinico PRODUCERS: Hugo Armstrong and Daniel Martinico DP: Daniel Martinico, James West EDITOR: Daniel Martinico

Married couple Lucien and Regina make their living—but only barely— foraging for mushrooms and selling them to New York restaurants. This unstable lifestyle leaves them constantly teetering on the brink of poverty at the mercy of the fungi. Regina wants more stability; Lucien wants to devote their lives even more to foraging, to pack up and move south with the growth patterns. When Regina takes a job as a prep cook, the disparity in their desires is driven to a head and their marriage is tested.

Meet Paul Kaplan, an unremarkable actor going nowhere on the treadmill of auditions for TV commercials in L.A. Attempting to stay positive in the face of what appears to be constant rejection, thirty-something Paul listens to motivational tapes and attends emotionally and physically confronting workshops with other acting hopefuls. Meticulously arranging snapshots of Paul’s soul-destroying daily routine of cattle calls and eating alone in his characterless apartment,

Now, Forager, directed by husband-and-wife team Julia Halperin and Jason Cortlund (who also plays Lucien), is peppered throughout with Lucien’s almost-poetic musings on the many species of fungi he so obsessively forages for, as well as some truly exquisite footage of the natural settings in which he does his seeking. This is a quiet indie flick that foodies will love. – Elisabeth Sanders

OK, Good is a riveting and suspenseful portrait of a performer whose growing inability to communicate in situations where there’s no script is turning him into a ticking time bomb of inner rage. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Slamdance Film Festival. Scheduled to attend: director Daniel Martinico

Scheduled to attend: director Julia Halperin Preceded by “HowardCantour.com” (10 min)

Saturday, October 13, 7:30 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 2

Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin Cortlund and Halperin have been collaborating since 1996. Their work has shown worldwide at festivals and arts institutions including Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center, International Film Festival Rotterdam, SXSW, and Royal Belgian Film Archive. They’ve received accolades from Texas Filmmakers Production Fund, Texas Commission on the Arts, San Francisco Film Society, US In Progress, The Journal of Short Film, and were named to The Independent’s “10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2012”.

Friday, October 12, 7:45 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 1

Daniel Martinico Daniel Martinico is a filmmaker and video artist based in Los Angeles, CA. His work has shown in galleries, film festivals, and museums internationally. Martinico is a graduate of Bard College and holds an MFA in Visual Arts from U.C. San Diego. OK, Good is his first feature film.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Thursday, October 18, 4:00 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Feature Films A - Z

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2011 | 90 min

USA-CANADA | 2011 | 72 min

DOCUMENTARY FILM

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty

The Patron Saints

DIR/WRITER/ED: Terence Nance PRODUCERS: Terence Nance, James Bartlett, Andrew Corkin DP: Matthew E. Bray, Shawn Peters

DIR/PROD/DP/EDITORS: Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky

You’ve just arrived home after a bad day. You’re broke and lonely, even though you live in the biggest and busiest city in America. You do, however, have one cause for mild optimism: you seem to have captured the attention of an intriguing young lady. You’ve rushed home to clean your apartment before she comes over. In your haste, you see that you’ve missed a call. There’s a voice mail; she tells you that she won’t be seeing you tonight.

The Patron Saints is a disquieting and hyperrealistic glimpse into life at a nursing home. Bound by the candid confessions of a recently disabled resident, the film weaves haunting images, scenes and stories from within the institution walls. Sidestepping conventional documentary methods for a heightened cinematic approach to storytelling, filmmakers Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky employ lyrical realism and black humour in this charged portrait of fading bodies and minds. Scheduled to attend: director Melanie Shatzky

With arresting insight, vulnerability, and a delightful sense of humor, Terence Nance’s explosively creative debut feature, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, documents the relationship between Nance and a lovely young woman as it teeters on the divide between platonic and romantic. Utilizing a tapestry of live action and various styles of animation, Nance explores the fantasies, emotions, and memories that race through his mind during a singular moment in time. Scheduled to attend: writer-director Terence Nance and associate producer Chanelle Aponte Pearson

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Preceded by “This Vacuum is Too Loud” (5 min)

Friday, October 12, 8:00 p.m. Contemporary Arts Center

Terrence Nance Terence Nance is an artist born and raised in Dallas, Texas. He comes from a family of actors, photographers, and musicians. Terence began drawing, acting, and writing music as a young child sitting in on his mother’s play rehearsals, and his uncles’ studio sessions. He studied visual art at NYU, and his art-making practice includes mixed-media installation, music, and film. Terence currently resides in Bedford‐Stuyvesant, Brooklyn along with the rest of The Swarm.

Saturday, October 13, 4:00 p.m. Contemporary Arts Center

Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky Brian M. Cassidy & Melanie Shatzky founded Pigeon Projects in 2005 as a means of producing their uncompromising fiction and non-fiction films. Living comfortably at the margins of documentary and narrative cinema, works created by Pigeon Projects forgo conventional storytelling methods in order to accommodate stark imagery, elusive characters, and a deadpan realism. In 2007, Filmmaker Magazine named them as one of “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” Their film Francine is also screening as part of 2012 NOFF.

NARRATIVE FILM

USA-UK | 2012 | 95 min

NARRATIVE FILM

Pilgrim Song

Quartet

DIRECTOR: Martha Stephens WRITER: Martha Stephens and Karrie Crouse PRODUCER: Martha Stephens, Adam Tate, Nick Case, Ryan Watt DP: Alex Sablow EDITOR: Nathan Whiteside

DIRECTOR: Dustin Hoffman WRITER: Ronald Harwood PROD: Finola Dwyer, Stewart MacKinnon, Nick O’ Hagan DP: John de Borman ED: Barney Pilling

Seeking escape from his stalled relationship and unhappy place in the world, a recently pink-slipped music teacher sets out to hike Kentucky’s Sheltowee Trace Trail. Among the verdant hills of Appalachia, he encounters various strange characters and becomes the reluctant companion of a gregarious father and son who ultimately help him rediscover what he’s been missing.

The directorial debut of Dustin Hoffman, Quartet is a comedy starring Maggie Smith (Harry Potter, Gosford Park), Billy Connolly (Gulliver’s Travels, The Last Samurai), Michael Gambon (Harry Potter, The King’s Speech) and Pauline Collins (Albert Nobbs, From Time to Time).

Scheduled to attend: producer Nick Case

Feature Films A - Z

USA | 2012 | 115 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

Quartet tells the story of Reggie (Courtenay), Wilf (Connolly) and Cissy (Collins) who reside in Beecham House, a home for retired opera singers. Each year they stage a concert to celebrate Verdi’s birthday, which also raises funds for the home. Reggie’s ex-wife Jean (Smith) arrives at the home and creates tension, playing the diva part but refusing to sing in the concert. Quartet was written by Sir Ronald Harwood.

Saturday, October 13, 1:00 p.m. New Orleans Museum of Art

Martha Stephens Raised in the hills of Appalachian Kentucky, Martha Stephens longed to create films celebrating and investigating her native land and people. A graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts School of Filmmaking, Martha’s first feature film, Passanger Pigeons, premiered at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival and won Chicken and Egg’s “We Believe In You” Award. Her second feature film, Pilgrim Song, recently premiered at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival in the Narrative Competition, and was named Best Southern Film of 2012 by Oxford American Magazine.

Sunday, October 14, 4:45 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Dustin Hoffman Dustin Hoffman was born in Los Angeles, California. He has starred in The Graduate, All the President’s Men, Marathon Man, Kramer vs. Kramer, Rain Man (both of which earned him the Academy Awards® for Best Actor) Sleepers, Stranger Than Fiction and Barney’s Version, which screened at the Festival. Quartet is his feature directing debut.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Monday, October 15, 6:15 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 2

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NARRATIVE FILM

PHIL | 2011 | 96 min

Rebirth of a Nation

Remington and the Curse of the Zombadings

DIRECTOR: Paul D. Miller WRITERS: Matthew Carpenter, Anthony James, Paul D. Miller PROD: Richter Hardig, Anthony James ED: Anthony James, Brad Schwartz

DIRECTOR: Jade Castro WRITERS: Raymond Lee, Michiko Yamamoto Jade Castro PRODUCER: Raymond Lee DP: Ike Avellana ED: JD Domingo, Lawrence Ang

Nearly one hundred years after the release of D. W. Griffith’s epic The Birth of a Nation, performance artist and musician Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid, has applied a “DJ mix” to one of the most revered and reviled films ever made. Miller’s reading of the overt racism depicted in a Reconstruction-era South hurtles Griffith’s images into the twenty-first century, a sociopolitical landscape that has evolved beyond all expectations. Originally commissioned as a live multimedia performance, this theatrical version features an original score by Miller, performed by Kronos Quartet.

Remington is in love with Hannah but she finds him lazy and uncouth. Then he starts to change. Suddenly he is becoming neater, nicer, more sensitive. Is he doing it for her? Or is something beyond his control changing him into someone he is not? He discovers that his gradual transformation is tied to something he did long ago, to childhood transgressions and curses uttered in graveyards. Hannah falls for the new and improved Remington. But he starts falling for someone else, because the curse of a vengeful drag queen is turning him gay overnight.

Scheduled to attend: DJ Spooky

Feature Films A - Z

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2008 | 100 min

When a serial killer begins stalking the town’s gay citizens with a homemade laser gun, Remington has to figure out a way to break the curse before he winds up dead! Let alone end up with Hannah! Did we mention the army of flesh-eating drag queen zombies? They’re just the tip of the iceberg in this hysterically funny and outrageous camp comedy that was a smash hit in the Philippines last year. Preceded by “The Post-Lifers” (14 min)

FREE SCREENING

Paul D. Miller Paul D. Miller/DJ Spooky has recorded a huge volume of music and collaborated with artists, writers, musicians and composers such as Robert Wilson, Iannis Xenakis, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mariko Mori, Kool Keith, Pierre Boulez, Saul Williams, Steve Reich, Yoko Ono, Thurston Moore, and Colson Whitehead among others. Miller is the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Artist-In-Residence for the 2012-2013 season – the first such designated artist in the Met’s long history.

Saturday, October 13, 11:59 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Jade Castro Jade Castro writes, directs, produces, and teaches at the Asia Pacific Film Institute. His screenwriting credits include D’Anothers, RPG: Metanoia, My Amnesia Girl, and Endo, his directorial debut.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Sunday, October 14, 6:30 p.m. Ashé Cultural Arts Center

Feature Films A - Z

AUS | 2012 | 99 min

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2012 | 98 min

The Sapphires

Save the Date

DIRECTOR: Wayne Blair WRITERS: Tony Briggs, Keith Thompson PROD: Rosemary Blight, Kylie Du Fresne, Belinda Mravicic DP: Warwick Thorton ED: Dany Cooper

DIRECTOR: Michael Mohan WRITERS: Jeffrey Brown, Michael Mohan, Egan Reich DP: Elisha Christian ED: Christian Masini

The Sapphires is an inspirational tale set in the heady days of the late ‘60s about a quartet of young, talented singers from a remote Aboriginal mission, discovered and guided by a kind-hearted, soul-loving manager. Plucked from obscurity, the four spirited women with powerhouse voices—called the Sapphires—are given the opportunity to entertain American troops in Vietnam. Catapulted onto the world stage as Australia’s answer to the Supremes, their journey of discovery offers them not only the chance to show off their musical skills, but find love and togetherness, experience loss, and grow as women. The Sapphires is an adaptation of the hugely successful Australian stage musical of the same name, and is inspired by the remarkable true story of writer Tony Briggs’ mother and three aunts.

After an ill-timed and very public marriage proposal, fiercely independent Sarah breaks up with her overeager boyfriend Kevin. Sarah turns to her sister Beth for support, but Beth is too busy obsessing over the details of her own wedding to Kevin’s bandmate, Andrew. When Sarah suddenly finds herself caught up in an intense rebound romance with the adorable Jonathan, she is forced to examine her own fears of commitment and vulnerability. With honesty, heart, and humor, all five struggle with the trials, happiness, and pain of modern love. In the end Sarah must decide—is it better to stay safely single or to risk it all on love? Scheduled to attend: actor Mark Webber

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Preceded by “Tiny, Miny Magic” (9 min)

Saturday, October 13, 4:30 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Wayne Blair Wayne Blair was born in Taree, New South Wales. He has written and directed numerous television series and award-winning short films, such as “Black Talk” and “The Djarn Djarns.” The Sapphires is his feature directorial debut.

Monday, October 15, 8:15 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 1

Michael Mohan Mohan is one of the few filmmakers whose work has shown at the Sundance Film Festival three consecutive years in a row. His first feature film, the microbudget, One Too Many Morning, premiered in 2010. His follow up, the short film “Ex-Sex” premiered in 2011. In between films, Michael directs music videos. Prior to becoming a full-time filmmaker, Michael worked at Fox Searchlight Pictures in their directors mentorship program, as well as the Sundance Feature Film Program in their Screenwriting and Directing Labs.

NOBA presents

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Pilobolus October 20, 8 p.m. Mahalia Jackson Theater

Ballet Hispanico & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra December 8, 7:30 p.m. Mahalia Jackson Theater

Jessica Lang Dance January 18 & 19, 8 p.m. | January 20, 2 p.m. Freda Lupin Memorial Hall, NOCCA Photos by John Kane, Eduardo Patino, Satoshi Motoda, Sharen Bradford, John Deane

Co-presented with The NOCCA Institute

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet February 23, 8 p.m. Mahalia Jackson Theater

Martha Graham Dance Company March 23, 8 p.m. Mahalia Jackson Theater

FOR SINGLE TICKETS ONLY, 800.745.3000 TICKETMASTER.COM

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Feature Films A - Z

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA | 2012 | 63 min

USA | 2012 | 98 min

DOCUMENTARY FILM

Showtime

Side By Side

DIR/WRI/PROD/EDITOR: Ben Guest DP: Ben Guest, Matthew Graves

DIRECTOR: Chris Kenneally PROD: Keanu Reeves, Justin Szlasa DP: Chris Cassidy ED: Mike Long, Malcolm Hearn

Showtime is an award-winning documentary about the friendships of four black girls from rural Mississippi as they try to win a state championship in basketball. It is about love, loss, friendship, and basketball. The Memphis Commercial-Appeal called it Hoop Dreams with hoop earrings. Winner of the Audience Award for Best Film at the 2012 Oxford Film Festival. Scheduled to attend: director Ben Guest

For almost one hundred years there was only one way to make a movie —with film. Movies were shot, edited, and projected using photochemical film. But over the last two decades a digital process has emerged to challenge photochemical filmmaking. Side by Side, a new documentary produced by Keanu Reeves, takes an in-depth look at this revolution. Through interviews with directors, cinematographers, film students, producers, technologists, editors, and exhibitors, Side by Side examines all aspects of filmmaking— from capture to edit, visual effects to color correction, distribution to archive. At this moment when digital and photochemical filmmaking coexist, Side by Side explores what has been gained, what is lost, and what the future might bring. Martin Scorsese, Lena Dunham, George Lucas, Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher, Christopher Nolan, David Lynch, and others weigh in on the film vs. digital divide in this documentary that critic Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) says “no true movie junkie is going to want to miss.”

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

FREE SCREENING

Saturday, October 13, 2:30 p.m. Ashé Cultural Arts Center

Ben Guest Ben Guest is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. He graduated from Amherst College, served in the Peace Corps, taught in the Mississippi Delta, and ran an alternate-route teaching program. Showtime is his third film.

Saturday, October 13, 6:30 p.m. Chalmette Movies Wednesday, October 17, 6:30 p.m. Chalmette Movies

Chris Kenneally Chris Kenneally lives in Brooklyn. He wrote, directed, and produced the documentary, Crazy Legs Conti: Zen and the Art of Competitive Eating (TFF 2003). He is currently in pre-production on a narrative feature about a teenage graffiti artist in Coney Island called Green Dolphin and is developing an episodic series called Chef.

EXPERIMENTAL FILM

USA | 2011 | 114 min

Silver Linings Playbook

Sleepless Nights Stories

DIR/WRITER: David O. Russell PROD: Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti, Jonathan Gordon DP: Masanobu Takayanagi ED: Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers

DIRECTOR/DP: Jonas Mekas ED: Elle Burchill

Life doesn’t always go according to plan. Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper) has lost everything— his house, his job, and his wife. He now finds himself living back with his mother (Jacki Weaver) and father (Robert DeNiro) after spending eight months in a state institution on a plea bargain. Pat is determined to rebuild his life, remain positive, and reunite with his wife despite the challenging circumstances of their separation. All Pat’s parents want is for him to get back on his feet– and to share their family’s obsession with the Philadelphia Eagles football team. When Pat meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a mysterious girl with problems of her own, things get complicated. Tiffany offers to help Pat reconnect with his wife, but only if he’ll do something very important for her in return. As their deal plays out, an unexpected bond begins to form between them, and silver linings appear in both of their lives. The film premiered at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival.

David O. Russell David O. Russell was born in New York City. He has written and directed the feature films Spanking the Monkey (94), Flirting with Disaster (96), Three Kings (99), I Heart Huckabees (04), The Fighter (10) and Silver Linings Playbook (12).

During the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, avant-garde director Jonas Mekas pioneered the “video diary” form of nonfiction filmmaking, which involved the impromptu, fly-on-the-wall documentation of various experiences in his life. This mode of observation was particularly interesting for audiences given Mekas’ constant immersion in celebrity circles: It provided the opportunity to see icons such as John Lennon and Yoko Ono outside of the limelight. Mekas returns to the form at age 88 with this outing; presented as a series of sketch-filled chapters, it may strike many viewers as more accessible than the director’s prior work. It constitutes a sequel to A Letter from Greenpoint and picks up where that opus left off: Mekas has just moved into a new Brooklyn apartment and suffers from chronic insomnia. Soon, however, he grows restless and undertakes a series of adventures at home and abroad, often accompanied by famous friends. These escapades include visits with Harmony Korine just before and after his son Lefty is born, a jam session with composer Pip Chodorov in Luxembourg, an encounter with French heartthrob Louis Garrel in Paris, and a ride to the airport with Bjork.

Saturday, October 13, 1:45 p.m. Contemporary Arts Center

Jonas Mekas Jonas Mekas is a Lithuanian-born, American filmmaker, writer, and curator who has often been called “the godfather of American avant-garde cinema.” His work has been exhibited in museums and festivals across Europe and America. Since 2000, Mekas has expanded his work into the area of film installations, exhibiting at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Moderna Museet (Stockholm), PS1 Contemporary Art Center MoMA, and the Venice Biennale. In 2007, the Jonas Mekas Center for the Visual Arts opened in Vilnius, Lithuania.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Monday, October 15, 7:15 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Feature Films A - Z

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2012 | 98 min

Feature Films A - Z

WORLD PREMIERE

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2012 | 85 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

USA | 2011 | 96 min

NARRATIVE FILM

Smashed

The Somnambulist

DIR: James Ponsoldt WRITERS: James Ponsoldt, Susan Burke PROD: Jennifer Cochis, Jonathan Schwartz, Andrea Sperling DP: Tobias Datum ED: Suzanne Spangler

DIRECTOR: Rachel Grissom WRITER: Rachel Grissom, Andy Sparaco PRODUCER: Debra Burke, Oak Porcelli, Andy Sparaco, RIP Odebralski, Rachel Grissom DP: Patrick McGinley, Andy Sparaco EDITOR: Fabienne Rawley

Kate and Charlie like to have a good time. Their marriage thrives on a shared fondness for music, laughter and getting smashed. When Kate’s partying spirals into hard-core asocial behavior, compromising her job as an elementary schoolteacher, something’s got to give. But change isn’t exactly a cakewalk. Sobriety means she will have to confront the lies she’s been spinning at work, her troubling relationship with her mother, and the nature of her bond with Charlie. Many films indulge the dramatic highs and lows of addiction. Refreshingly, Smashed is interested in the unglamorous middle path— what stumbling through recovery looks like. As Kate tests new boundaries and shoulders the consequences of her choices, this subtle story of imperfect transformation taps into truths about the challenges and losses intrinsic to living life honestly. Genuine performances and a grounded sense of place create an authentic, textured world where three-dimensional characters—neither all bad nor all good—occupy the uncomfortable grey zone of being human.

Waking up in the foggy aftermath of a traumatic assault, Rebekah hides in the home of her friend, Irene, trying to remember what happened to her. Struggling with the paranoia and confusion, Rebekah tries to go through the motions of normal life: attending therapy, taking on work assisting Irene, making coffee in the mornings. But even the smallest chore brings up anxiety and fragmented memories, and she begins to realize that not only does she need to remember the attack so she can move on, she needs to know if her attacker is coming after her again.

In Attendance: writer/director Rachel Grissom, producers Rip Odebralski, Debra Burke, and cinematographer Patrick McGinley

Preceded by “Record/play” (10 min)

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Friday, October 12, 10:00 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 1

Friday, October 12, 10:15 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 2

Tuesday, October 16, 9:30 p.m. Prytania Theatre

James Ponsoldt

Rachel Grissom

Ponsoldt received his bachelor’s degree from Yale University and graduated from Columbia University with a MFA in directing. Ponsoldt has written and directed two short films, Coming Down the Mountain and Junebug and Hurricane, and co-directed a documentary short called We Saw Such Things, about the mermaids of Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida. Ponsoldt’s first feature film, Off the Black, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006. Smashed is his second feature film.

Rachel Grissom is a filmmaker based in New Orleans, LA. Originally from Franklin, TN, Rachel moved to Boston and received her MFA from Emerson College. She has worked as a dramaturge for theatrical productions, a sponsor and tutor for at risk youth in academic and arts programs, and as a freelance writer. Currently, she is a production sound mixer for motion picture and television. This is her directorial debut.

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA | 2011 | 46 min

Starlet

Stepping: Beyond the Line

DIRECTOR: Sean Baker WRITER: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch PROD: Chris Maybach, Francesca Silvestri, Patrick Cunningham, Kevin Chinoy, Blake Ashman, Sean Baker ED: D.J. Devereux

DIR/WRITER: Dee Garceau PRODUCERS: Dee Garceau, Joann SelfSelvidge DP: Eric Brice Swartz and Trevor Campbell, Ryan J. Hill, Daniel Jacobs EDITORS: Joann Self-Selvidge, Dee Garceau, and Eric Swartz

Always with her Chihuahua Starlet by her side, the drop-dead gorgeous Jane (Dree Hemingway, daughter of Mariel) sports an array of short shorts, lives in a nondescript, carpeted manor with two pot-smoking, videogame-playing compadres, and doesn’t seem to hold a steady job. (Is she in show business?) Elderly Sadie, widowed and crotchety, has a constant chip on her shoulder. She dreams of Paris, and gets her kicks losing at Bingo.

A film that explores the rhythm and movements, history, and brotherhood of step dancing. From ancient roots to 21st century competitions, stepping bridges past and present with verve and precision. Dancers stomp out complex rhythms on the floor, drawing from folk traditions like the ring shout, playing the dozens, handclap games, and military jodies. The history of this dance form dates back to West African cultural roots, slavery in North America, survival in the Jim Crow South, black military service in World Wars I and II, and the Civil Rights movement. Interviews with steppers and historians, rare photographs, and live footage of step shows and practices reveal performance communities bonded by a deep sense of social responsibility.

The two have a run-in at Sadie’s yard sale, where Jane buys a thermos she thinks will work well as a vase; while cleaning it, she discovers a hidden stash of $10,000. When she goes back to return the money, Sadie pushes her away, brusquely, yet Jane—played by Hemingway with a blend of generosity, innocence, and emotional intelligence—feels the need to keep reaching out. Sean Baker’s rapturously shot, always enthralling feature observes these two women inhabit their spaces, and meditates on the true meaning of friendship.

Feature Films A - Z

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2012 | 104 min

Stepping features an original score composed and produced by Memphis musician Steve Selvidge, with Grammy-award winning blues artist Alvin “Youngblood” Hart, rock & soul diva Susan Marshall Powell, and veteran session players Sam Shoup on bass, Al Gamble on organ and keys, Ross Rice on piano, and Paul Taylor on drums, as well as a 90’sstyle hip hop track from DJ Elliot Ives of the band Free Sol. Scheduled to attend: director/producer Dee Garceau, DP/editor Eric Swartz, and head of media relations Sarah Bolton.

Monday, October 15, 1:00 p.m. Contemporary Arts Center Tuesday, October 16, 1:30 p.m. Contemporary Arts Center *Both screenings are open only to All-Access Pass-holders

Sean Baker Director Sean Baker continues in the naturalistic style of his previous films, the award-winning and Spirit Award nominees Prince of Broadway and Take Out, capturing the rhythms of everyday life with an authenticity rarely seen in cinema. He is also the cocreator of Greg the Bunny.

Dee Garceau Dee Garceau is a historian turned filmmaker who teaches at Rhodes College. “We tell stories so we can inhabit them, and these stories shape how we work and love, shape how we dance.” Currently she is working on a film about powwow dancing among the Salish-Kootenai and the Blackfeet tribes in Montana.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Tuesday, October 16, 7:30 p.m. Prytania Theater

Feature Films A - Z

USA, CAN | 2012 | 95 min

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2011 | 87 min

The Story of Luke

Supporting Characters

DIR/WRITER: Alonso Mayo PRODUCERS: Nina Leidersdorff, Julien Favre, Fred Roos DP: David Klein EDITOR: Vikash Patel

DIRECTOR: Daniel Schechter WRITER: Daniel Schechter & Tarik Lowe PRODUCER: Tim Duff & Adam Der Aris DP: Richard P Ulivella EDITOR: Daniel Schechter

Luke, 25, is autistic and has lived a sheltered life with his grandparents. But his world is turned upside down when his grandmother dies and he is forced to live with his dysfunctional relatives who have no patience for him or his senile grandfather, who they quickly force into a nursing home. Luke is left with his grandfather’s final semi-coherent words: “Get a job. Find a girl. Live your own life. Be a man!” For the first time in his life, Luke has a mission. He is about to embark on a quest. The film stars Lou Taylor Pucci in the title role, with Seth Green and Cary Elwes in supporting roles.

Best friends Nick and Darryl work as a team of film editors in New York City, and are currently absorbed in an attempt to rework a troubled indie film. Meanwhile, each man’s personal life grows increasingly complicated—Darryl’s girlfriend may not be as committed as he wants her to be, while Nick must balance his relationship with his interest in the beautiful star of the movie the two are editing. A naturalistic glimpse into the lives of two best friends as they grapple with the difficulties of both romance and bromance. – Elisabeth Sanders

Preceded by “French Quesadillas” (7 min)

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Friday, October 12, 5:45 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Sunday, October 14, 11:45 a.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 2

Alonso Mayo Alonso Mayo is an American Film Institute Directing graduate student from Lima, Peru. His thesis, Wednesday Afternoon, won the Student Academy Award. He’s directed the documentaries Viva La Causa, Just Like Anyone, and the unscripted web series Untitled Fiction Project. He teaches filmmaking at New York Film Academy. The Story of Luke is his first feature film.

Wednesday, October 17, 5:45 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 1

Daniel Schechter After attending Emerson College, Schechter wrote and produced his first feature, The Big Bad Swim, a comedy about an adult swim class. In 2007, he made his directorial debut with Goodbye Baby, starring Fred Armisen, Kevin Corrigan, and Alan Ruck, which premiered at the ‘08 Slamdance Film Festival. Schechter’s upcoming project, The Untitled Elmore Leonard Project, based on the Elmore Leonard novel, “The Switch,” is set to star Jennifer Aniston, Dennis Quaid, John Hawkes, and Ty Burrell.

DOCUMENTARY FILM

USA | 2012 | 55 min

DOCUMENTARY FILM

T-Galop: A Louisiana Horse Story

Terra Blight

DIR/WRITER/PROD: Conni Castille

DIR/WRITERS/DP/EDITORS: Isaac Brown, Ana Paula Habib PROD: Eric Flagg, Ana Paula Habib

Creole cowboys and Cajun jockeys, Cotton Knights and Mardi Gras revelers reveal the long history and blend between Creoles and Cajuns and the horses they love. This equine love affair began more than 250 years ago on the first ranches of South Louisiana. Creoles and Cajuns are some of America’s first cowboys. Not only essential to hard ranch work, horses were often the focus of French Louisiana’s renowned joie de vivre. T-Galop romps playfully across South Louisiana through professional sports to community rituals bearing witness to a modern horse culture that was born many centuries ago.

Feature Films A - Z

USA | 2012 | 75 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

Terra Blight is a documentary exploring America’s consumption of computers and the hazardous waste we create in pursuit of the latest technology. The film traces the life cycle of computers from creation to disposal and juxtaposes the disparate worlds that have computers as their center. From a 13-year-old Ghanaian who smashes obsolete monitors to salvage copper to a 3,000-person video game party in Texas, Terra Blight examines the unseen realities of one of the most ubiquitous toxic wastes on our planet. By the film’s end, the audience will never look at their computer the same way again.

Scheduled to attend: director Conni Castille Preceded by “La Trésor de la Langue” (9 min)

Preceded by “Spoils: An Extraordinary Harvest” (21 min)

Sunday, October 14, 1:45 p.m. Contemporary Arts Center

Conni Castille A UL Lafayette graduate, Conni Castille is the assistant director of UL Lafayette’s Center for Moving Image Arts and an instructor of English and film studies. Castille’s award-winning documentaries include I Always Do My Collars First (2007), Raised on Rice and Gravy (2009) and King Crawfish (2010).

Friday, October 12, 5:45 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 1

Isaac Brown Isaac is a filmmaker who is passionate about telling stories that might in some small way better the world we all call home. He is co-founder of Jellyfish Smack Productions, a documentary production house that specializes in environmental and social issue documentaries. He is preparing to embark upon a yearlong Caribbean sailing adventure in 2013 where he will be in production on his next film.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Wednesday, October 17, 3:45 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Feature Films A - Z

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2012 | 105 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

USA | 2011 | 79 min

NARRATIVE FILM

Thelema: The Equinox Diaries

Trailer Park Jesus

DIRECTOR: Zac Manuel WRITER/PROD: Cairo Kwame DP: Bruno Doria EDITOR: Zac Manuel

DIRECTOR/WRITER/PRODUCER: Sean Gerowin DP: Rob Davis EDITOR: Jerry McLaughlin

A psychotic Iraq War vet teaches his younger brother the art of being a calculated killer in this found-footage psychological thriller of two brother’s descent into madness in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Trailer Park Jesus is inspired by a true misadventure. Jessie deals with a bad breakup by purchasing a sheet of acid to share with his friends back home in Missouri. He hopes this will erase the bad memory of his college girlfriend leaving him in the middle of sex. Departing New Orleans, Jessie detours onto Route 61, seeking a change of routine from the monotony of the Interstate. Unexpectedly, his engine fails at a forgotten trailer park in Cleveland, Mississippi. Fearful he’s about to be harmed by bikers, Jessie exchanges hits of L.S.D. for a safe passage home. During the ebb and flow of the day, Jessie experiences the extraordinary in the pedestrian, whilst resurrecting the lives of many.

Scheduled to attend: director Zac Manuel, writer/producer Cairo Kwame

Scheduled to attend: director/writer/producer Sean Gerowin

Preceded by “Five Minutes Late” (3 min)

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Saturday, October 13, 9:30 p.m. Contemporary Arts Center

Zac Manuel Zac Manuel is a filmmaker from New Orleans, Louisiana, and co-owner of the audio and video production company, The GreenhouseCollective, LLC. In the past two years, after returning to his home from Chapman University in Orange, California, Zac directed two feature films and two short films. His short film In the Garden won Honorable Mention for Best Louisiana Short at the 2011 New Orleans Film Festival.

Sunday, October 14, 9:00 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Sean Gerowin Raised in Saint Louis, Sean Gerowin was often outed as daydreamer. He drew cartoons in textbooks and began experimenting with his family’s Betacam. At the 1984 World’s Fair, he found New Orleans to be better suited for daydreamers. He later returned to attend Tulane, married a local artist, Karoline Schleh, had two kids, taught high school, ran for political office, earned an M. Ed. at UNO, filmed two short documentaries, became a realtor, and wrote and directed two feature films, somewhat in that order.

WORLD PREMIERE

JURY AWARD FINALIST

DOCUMENTARY FILM

DENMARK | 2012 | 53 min

DOCUMENTARY FILM

Trash Dance

True Family

DIRECTOR/DP/PRODUCER: Andrew Garrison ED: Angela K. Pires

DIRECTOR: Tao Nørager PRODUCER: Wiebe Van der Vliet DP: Tao Norager EDITOR: Wiebe Van der Vliet

Sometimes inspiration can be found in unexpected places. Choreographer Allison Orr finds beauty and grace in garbage trucks, and in the men and women who pick up our trash. Filmmaker Andrew Garrison follows Orr as she joins city sanitation workers on their daily routes to listen, learn, and ultimately, to convince them to collaborate in a unique dance performance. Hard-working, often carrying a second job, their lives are already full with work, family, and dreams of their own. But some step forward and, after months of rehearsal, two dozen trash collectors and their trucks perform an extraordinary spectacle. On an abandoned airport runway, thousands of people show up to see how in the world a garbage truck can dance.

Feature Films A - Z

USA | 2012 | 67 min

From the ravages of a devastated post-Katrina New Orleans, a newfound hope emerges in the form of a free-spirited singer, Meschiya Lake. Seeking refuge from a drug addiction, Lake finds herself in a New Orleans much changed from the one she had fallen in love with years earlier. Along with Meschiya, we meet her new found family of young, jazz-loving, swing-dancing musicians who refuse to give up on the city so many others have abandoned. True Family shows us New Orleans and Meschiya healing and rebuilding in parallel, rising gracefully from the ashes of tragedy.

Preceded by the short film Choreography for Plastic Army Men

Preceded by “Choreography for Plastic Army Men” (5 min)

Preceded by “Solo Piano - NYC” (5 min)

Friday, October 12, 1:30 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Andrew Garrison Garrison lives in Austin, Texas, and directs documentary and fiction. He teaches production at the University of Texas. Previous films include Third Ward TX (2007) and the The Wilgus Stories (2000), both of which premiered at SXSW and aired on PBS.

Monday, October 15, 7:30 p.m. Outdoor Screening – Old U.S. Mint

Tao Nørager Tao Nørager is a Copenhagen-based Danish filmmaker. A graduate from The Danish Advertising school and The Short and Documentary Film School, Tao founded the creative collaborative, Roaddox, with editor/producer Wiebe Van der Vliet in 2008. Roaddox primarily produces films about creative people and processes, and uses new media as its platform. Among other projects, Tao has directed several shows for fashion designer Andrew Mackenzie in Milan and has taught film and photography.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Wednesday, October 17, 6:00 p.m. Contemporary Arts Center

Feature Films A - Z

USA | 2012 | 85 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

DOCUMENTARY FILM

NARRATIVE FILM

CUBA | 2012 | 100 min

Ultimate Christian Wrestling

Una Noche

DIR/WRITER/PROD/DP: Tara Autovino and Jae-Ho Chang EDITOR: Anita Gabrosek

DIRECTOR/WRITER: Lucy Mulloy DP: Shlomo Godder, Trevor Forrest ED: Cindy Lee PRODUCERS: Maite Artieda, Daniel Mulloy, Sandy Pérez Águila, Yunior Santiago

Rob Adonis tans five times a week, quotes Scripture effortlessly, and dresses in spandex to perform as part of the Christian wrestling troupe he founded in rural Georgia. His cohort, Billy Jack (who wrestles under the pseudonym “God’s Property”), is a four-time divorcee who sews his own Confederate-themed outfits and is a devoted father to son Kody Jack, a novice drummer who has 207 wrestling figurines (“counted by hand,” he says) and who emulates his dad’s attire and face paint. These personalities might seem to be ideal candidates for an exploitative documentary about Southern kooks and their weird hobbies—but filmmakers Tara Autovino and Jae-Ho Chang instead offer a tender, verite portrait (not unlike some of the films of the Maysles) of a group of men for whom this quirky ministry offers hope in an otherwise dismal landscape.

Fed up with living in poverty while catering to a privileged tourist class, Cuban teens Raul and Elio are tantalized by the idea of fleeing the confines of their broken-down country for a new life in Miami. When Raul is accused of assaulting a foreigner, he has no choice but to escape, but Elio must decide whether his desire for freedom and helping Raul are worth abandoning his beloved twin sister, Lila. Brimming with the nervous energy of Havana’s restless youth and the evocative cinematography of the sun-bleached capital, Una Noche follows one sweltering day, full of hope and fraught with tension, that burns to a shocking climax.

When financial constraints, disapproval from some in the community, and trouble with a venue threaten the troupe’s continuation, members are forced to consider alternate outlets—outside the UCW ring. –Clint Bowie In Attendance: directors Tara Autovino and Jae-Ho Chang

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Saturday, October 13, 7:00 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 1

Tuesday, October 16, 6:15 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 1

Tara Autovino and Jae-Ho Chang Tara Autovino holds an MFA in film production and a 2012 NY Foundation for the Arts Film/Video Fellowship. She plays in the band Common Prayer and dances with the Stanley Love Performance Group, which performed in collaboration with video artist Charles Atlas for the 2012 Whitney Biennial. Jae-Ho Chang, born in Korea and raised across the US, received his BFA in film/video/animation from RISD, &º his MFA in film from NYU. His short, The Last Vacation, has screened at fests worldwide and on PBS.

Preceded by “Reinaldo Arenas” (5 min)

Wednesday, October 17, 7:45 p.m. Contemporary Arts Center

Lucy Mulloy Lucy Mulloy graduated from NYU film school. She is an Oxford alum and has been nominated for a Student Academy Award. Her film Una Noche won the Spike Lee Production Grant, Hollywood Foreign Press Association Grant, TFI Creative Promise Emerging Narrative Award, and more. She is currently developing Una Noche Más.

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2012 | 80 min

Varla Jean and the Mushroomheads

Welcome to Pine Hill

DIRECTOR: Michael Schrialli WRITERS: Jeffery Roberson and Jacques Lamarre PRODUCERS: Mark Cortale and Jeffery Roberson DP: Andy Sparaco EDITOR: Ryan Dufrene

DIRECTOR/WRITER/EDITOR: Keith Miller PRODUCER: Elisabeth Holm DP: Alex Mallis, Lily Henderson, Begonia Colomar, Eric Philips-Horst

After years of performing in dive bars and bathhouses around New Orleans, semi-celebrity and loose chanteuse Varla Jean Merman (Jeffery Roberson) is watching her audience get older by the minute. In a last-ditch effort to prop up her sagging career, Varla decides to go after a younger crowd–kids. Varla Jean & The Mushroomheads is a mockumentary chronicling the daffy diva’s attempts to mount a low-budget children’s television show. Long on ambition and short on morals, Varla only has a few weeks to cobble together a show that will be educational, entertaining, and most importantly, launch her into stardom with the pre-pubescent set. A community college film crew adopts Varla as their class project and follow her as she pursues her dream. Varla’s first step is to recruit former child star and theatre director Donna Drake as her director and muse. Her second step is to lure composer-accompanist to the stars Seth Rudetsky to New Orleans to help her write the show (if she can get him off his cellphone). After being informed she will need co-stars, auditions are held and Varla is saddled with two unwilling co-stars, The Mushroomheads, a bitter actor and a former pageant coach with a shady past.

Preceded by “Troy: Naked Men Behind Bars, Sing!” (13 min)

Michael Schiralli Michael Schrialli is a long time collaborator with Jeff Roberson on many Varla Jean Merman shows and videos including: Enough About Me: An Unauthorized Autobiography, Under a Big Top, The Very Worst of Varla Jean Merman, to name a few. His films and shows have won him many awards, including the Time Out Award for The Kvetching Continues, and the GLAAD Award for Undaunted.

Long, improvised takes with an eclectic cast of both emerging talent and real people in a three-camera vérité style, Pine Hill, follows Shannon Harper in a breakthrough performance as himself — a recently-reformed drug dealer on an odyssey from the crack house backyards of Brooklyn to the mountains of Upstate, NY, seeking transformation, transcendence, and freedom. Harper is a Midtown claims adjuster by day and Williamsburg bouncer by night. He’s just begun to clean up his life when he learns earth-shattering news that compels him to return to the people and places of his past and experience life beyond the pavement. Whether settling old debts, reconnecting with his mother, or visiting former friends, Shannon is a quiet presence, and the film is an intimate window into the authentic cracks of light that fill his life. Longing to leave his concrete confines, Shannon travels upstate to Pine Hill where, alone in the unfettered wilderness, he finally experiences the freedom he seeks.

Preceded by “The Chair” (12 min)

Saturday, October 13, 9:00 p.m. The Theaters at Canal Place 1

Keith Miller Keith Miller is a filmmaker and painter living and working primarily in Brooklyn. Miller’s paintings and photographs have shown in galleries around the world. As a professor at New York University’s Gallatin School, he teaches at the intersection of social thought, visual culture, art theory, and practice. He is also the Curator of the Gallatin Galleries, encouraging work that engages the personal with the political. Keith is currently in production on FiveStar, a new blend of urban reality and fiction featuring Primo, the leader of the Bloods. He has a dog named (Prince) William.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Monday, October 15, 8:15 p.m. Contemporary Arts Center

Feature Films A - Z

USA | 2011 | 82 min

JURY AWARD FINALIST

Protecting You and Your Assets Executive Protection / Close Protection Set Containment / Static Security Tactical Drivers Risk Management 504-915-1340 David Burke 504-941-2292 OďŹ&#x192;ce

504-486-4819 Fax www.tectussecurity.com

USA | 2012 | 62 min

DOCUMENTARY FILM

Wolf

Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines

DIR/WRITER/EDITOR: Ya’Ke Smith PRODUCERS: Ralph Lopez, Derek Lee Nixon, Ya’Ke Smith DP: Yuta Yamaguchi

DIR/WRITER: Kristy Guevara-Flanagan PRODUCER: Kelcey Edwards DP: Gabriel Miller EDITORS: Carla Guttierez, Melanie Levy

A family is shaken to the core when they discover their son has been molested. As they struggle to deal with the betrayal, their son heads towards a total mental collapse because of his love for his abuser, while his abuser attempts to exorcise his own past demons.

This feature documentary traces the fascinating birth, evolution, and legacy of Wonder Woman. From the birth of the comic book superheroine in the 1940s to the blockbusters of today, WONDER WOMEN! looks at how popular representations of powerful women often reflect society’s anxieties about women’s liberation. WONDER WOMEN! goes behind the scenes with Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman), Lindsay Wagner (the Bionic Woman), comic writers and artists, and real-life superheroines such as Gloria Steinem, Kathleen Hanna and others, who offer an enlightening and entertaining counterpoint to the male-dominated superhero genre.

Scheduled to attend: writer/director Ya’Ke Smith

Feature Films A - Z

NARRATIVE FILM

USA | 2012 | 86 min

Scheduled to attend: execeutive producer Erin Prather Stafford

Friday, October 12, 12:00 p.m. Prytania Theatre

Ya’Ke Smith Ya’Ke’s films have screened and won awards at over 90 film festivals. He is the recipient of a Director’s Guild of America Student Film Award, a regional Student Academy Award and an HBO Short Film Award. His film, Katrina’s Son, was eligible for the 2012 Academy Award in short filmmaking. Wolf, his feature directorial debut, has won awards at the Dallas International and Little Rock Film Festivals. He is a film professor at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Saturday, October 13, 11:45 a.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 2

Kristy Guevara-Flanagan Kristy Guevara-Flanagan’s first feature-length film was an acclaimed documentary covering four years in the lives of four adolescent girls. Going on 13 was an official selection at Tribeca, Silverdocs, and many other international film festivals. An assistant professor at Diablo Valley College, in California, Kristy has a MFA in Film Production from San Francisco State University.

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Tuesday, October 16, 8:15 p.m. The Theatres at Canal Place 1

It’s Not You, It’s Me...

The Theaters at Canal Place 1

Saturday, October 13, 4:45 PM

...and it’s complicated. Narrative shorts about the travails of love. 77 min. 1. Little Horses

A divorced small town postal worker tries to win his family back with the best pony he can afford. USA / 2011 / 18 min. DIR: Levi Abrino

Narrative Shorts

2. My Name Is Your First Love

During a suburban summer in 1985, Christian, a listless thirteen-year-old boy, becomes obsessed with his beguiling twentysomething trashy neighbor Geena, and is made to prove his devotion through yard work. USA / 2012 / 14 min. DIR: Rob Richert

3. Fat Camp

Screw the real world. This is Fat Camp. Seth is tormented at school for being overweight. He is sent to Fat Camp to lose weight, gain confidence to be someone else. What he finds instead is a seedy, titillating paradise, raw, genuine teenagers, and the strangest thing of all: the chance to be normal. USA / 2011 / 18 min. DIR: Adam Jordan Isaacs in competition

4. Two Hearts

herself inextricably drawn back to a life, and in a love that’s forbidden. IRELAND / 2011 / 17 min. DIR: Darren Thornton

5. A Matter of Sex

Guy and Lior, both males, are about to bring a baby to the world with a female couple who are looking for the same thing. During this process Guy is going through a sexual identity crisis and betrays Lior. ISRAEL / 2012 / 28 min.

DIR: Michelle Rapoport

Lorna has worked hard to stay on the right track. But when a man from her past is released from prison, her emotions spiral out of control, and she finds

Magic Realism

The Theaters at Canal Place 2 Contemporary Arts Center

Sunday, October 14, 4:00 PM Tuesday, October 16, 6:00 PM

Or films that construct a reality out of life’s beautifully moving magic. 89 min. 1. Homebody

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Nell’s feet hang over her tiny bed, she can’t squeeze through her little front door, her miniature meals leave her hungry, and the tiny debt collector won’t go away. USA / 2010 / 12 min. DIR: Kate Marks

in competition

2. The Black Balloon

While moving 40 kids across six NYC blocks, a stressed man accidentally loses a bouquet of a hundred balloons. A lone black balloon in the bunch learns that humans are complicated creatures with extreme highs and and lows, but full of life nonetheless. USA / 2011 / 21 min. DIR: Benny & Josh Safdie

3. A House, A Home

The Lone Fir Cemetery is the resting place for many of the people who founded and influenced the history of Portland. When a benefit album, Dearly Departed, was commissioned by Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery, singer-songwriters from the Pacific Northwest were approached and asked to write a song about a specific person buried at Lone Fir. USA / 2012 / 7 min. DIR: Daniel Fickle

4. Pyskessa Following the death of her mother, a little girl soon ventures into her own fantasy world with her new acquaintance, a talking radio. As the two become

fast friends, they take each other on obscure voyages through her imagination. UK / 2011 / 10 min. DIR: Kirran Bruce, Duncan Bruce

5. I Am John Wayne

A young black cowboy struggles with the death of his best friend. USA / 2012 / 17 min. DIR: Christina Choe in competition

3 5

4 6

6. Till Death Do Us Part

Using a serum, George is able to reanimate his wife after her death. But he can only do it for a short period of time. Until he can solve the issue, life between death and resurrection becomes unbearable. GEORGIA / 2012 / 19 min. DIR: David Chabashvili

How to Dispose of a Body

Prytania Theater

Friday, October 12, 10:00 PM

In the desert, in pieces, with a meat grinder. Ice optional. Narrative shorts that will make you reconsider some of the people in your life. 68 min.

1. Mr. Bear

2. No Going Back

Three friends travel deep into the woods to bury a dead woman. But when a mistake is made and they need to go back and find her, some things don’t stay buried for long. USA / 2011 / 19 min. DIR: Ryan Geiger

3. Chilly

As the heat rises in a stuffy hotel room, a talking ice cube pitches the wonders of modern refrigeration to a strangely distracted man. USA / 2011 / 5 min. DIR: Dylan Kohler

4. A Good Thing

An elderly couple, isolated and alone at their desert service station, are confronted by a man fitting the description of a wanted serial killer. USA / 2011 / 22 min.

mercy killer in the form of an enigmatic teenage boy from Elko, Nevada. USA / 2011 / 14 min. DIR: Alexander Yan

6. Zion

A rural family picks up the pieces of a shattered world when tragedy strikes. Weary travelers seek refuge in this seemingly normal home only to discover its dark secrets. USA / 2012 / 33 min.

DIR: Glenn Payne

DIR: Mark Tobey

5. Elko

After posting a death request on an internet message board, a depressed young woman finds her

Learning to Lie

The Theaters at Canal Place 1 The Theaters at Canal Place 2

Narrative Shorts

It’s Christmas again; the worst time of the year for Steve. Driving through NYC for dinner, his car brakes down and he accidently stumbles upon a crime scene. Mistaken for the notorious cleaner, Mr. Bear, he has to face a difficult choice. USA / 2011 / 14 min. DIR: Andres Rosende

Sunday, October 14, 5:00 PM Wednesday, October 17, 6:00 PM

And other survival tools. Five short films about kids taking matters into their own hands. 90 min. 1. Spark

While a boy waits out his father’s tryst he is unexpectedly forced to deal with the lady-friend’s daughter. USA / 2012 / 9 min. DIR: Annie Silverstein in competition

2. Asad

DIR: Bryan Buckley in competition

Maggie is stifled by a shaky home life and torment from the neighborhood bully. With a fair share of moxie and a talent for the hustle, this little spitfire is fighting for more than just stability. USA / 2011 / 22 min. DIR: GB Shannon, Ryan Parker in competition

4. Kids With Guns

Trying to prove he’s got what it takes, Theo decides to tag along with his older brother for the day, unaware that his new friend is a juvenile delinquent intent on pushing them past their limit. USA / 2011 / 9 min. DIR: Logan Rees in competition

5. Amos

In South Central Los Angeles, a young 17 year-old tries to live up to the expectations of his gangster community. After a robbery goes horribly wrong, Amos seeks refuge at a well-todo college campus. Born into but not built for the gangster lifestyle, Amos is confronted with either following the pack or leading a life of his own. USA / 2012 / 29 min.

DIR: Taylor Maxwell in competition

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Set in a war-torn fishing village in Somalia, an all Somali refugee cast brings to life this coming-of-age fable of a Somali boy who is faced with falling into the pirate life, or rising above to choose the path of an honest fishing man. USA, SOUTH AFRICA / 2012 / 17 min.

3. Fresh Skweezed

Louisiana Stories

Contemporay Arts Center

Sunday, October 14, 3:00 PM

Non-fiction vignettes from the bayou. 74 min. works in the oilfield and presides as the chief of the United Houma Nation tribe of American Indians. But for two weekends a year, Thomas dons a magnificent headdress and becomes Indian Santa. With the help of his pickup truck as his sleigh, he delivers toys to children in oil spillravaged communities. USA / 2011 / 9 min.

5. Eat to the Beat: Kermit Ruffins’ New Orleans

DIR: Giorgio Bertuccelli

DIR: David Lee, Rex New

DIR: Bryan Myers

2. You Are Here

4. Grand Fugue on the Art of Gumbo

6. New Orleans Spirits

1. Rex Butterfly

Louisiana Shorts

The Krewe of Rex adds its first major parade float in decades for the 2012 Mardi Gras. The ‘Butterfly King’, Rex Butterfly, shows the process from clay to street through a surreal musical journey. Featuring music from artists Egg Yolk Jubilee, Rosemary Malign, and Ricky Sebastian. USA / 2012 / 8 min.

A woman on a spiritual quest of sorts who encounters signs all around her but doesn’t always heed them. USA / 2012 / 3 min. DIR: Tom Varisco

3. Indian Santa

By day, Thomas Dardar

Grand Fugue studies ‘the baroque complexity of the South through the musings of Mobile, AL native Eugene Walter; author, actor, artist, creator, and chef. USA / 2011 / 10 min. DIR: Isabel Machado, Gideon C. Kennedy

This short doc follows New Orleans’ most beloved son as he prepares for his weekly gig at Vaughan’s Lounge. For Kermit, that doesn’t just mean preparing a set list but deciding what to cook. USA / 2012 / 22 min.

4 3 Saturday, October 16th, 7:00PM 5 6 Monday, October 18th, 3:00PM

A film that attempts to capture some of that ineffable New Orleans spirit. At times a poem, at times a video essay, it is an exploration of the various forms of faith that keep the city thriving. USA / 2011 / 24 min.

DIR: Will Sampson

Louisiana Shorts 2

Contemporay Arts Center

Friday, October 12, 6:00 PM

Spotlight on Louisiana filmmakers. 80 min.

1. Machine Wash Cold

After losing her dead grandmother’s earring in the laundry, Rachel is haunted by a washing machine that is possessed by her grandmother’s ghost. USA / 2012 / 8 min. THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

DIR: Lee Garcia

2. The Only Way Out

A family man out of options reluctantly follows the orders of his wife to go through with a devious plan for the money they desperately need. Will he make it out in time? USA / 2012 / 10 min. DIR: Cecilia Carcamo

3. Impressionable Nine-year-old Matthew Hatch is visiting a new church with his mother, who is charmed by the

young pastor. When Matthew loses his ball, his search leads to discovering a secret that puts him at odds with the pastor. USA / 2012 / 6 min. DIR: Gwendolyn Granger

4. Tomorrow

Elisha, a career-driven government officer, has been dating her boyfriend, Chris, for almost a year. However, she’s been hiding a big secret from him–she’s actually a spy and assassin. USA / 2012 / 20 min. DIR: Alan Velasquez

5. The Flavor of Plaid

A comedy about a young neurologist who encounters the perfect storm of synesthesia, a condition in which the five senses are reordered.

USA / 2012 / 13 min. DIR: Henry Griffin

6. K-Jeff

Jeff, a man with unconventional views about society, is denied in his quest to become a radio DJ, so he takes to the air on pirate radio to finally connect with an audience and get the girl of his dreams. USA / 2012 / 13 min. DIR: Jonathan Frey

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4 6

7. The Adventures of Keith Flippin

In this installment, after crashing into hordes of Martian zombies, Keith finds himself with Colonel Victory as they try to save Victory’s secretary, Penelope, from the clutches of evil Queen Calamitous. USA / 2012 / 8 min. DIR: Shannon Kitchens

Louisiana Shorts 1

Prytania Theater Theaters at Canal Place 2

Saturday, October 13, 12:00 PM Tuesday, October 16, 6:00 PM

Spotlight on Louisiana filmmakers. 99 min. 1. A Most Complex Form of Ventriloquism

The year is 1923. The moon has fallen out of the sky and crashed into the ocean. As the human race stares at its collective death sentence, scores of competing psychic mediums rise to power to save Earth. USA / 2012 / 13 min.

2. The Total Human Experience

The Total Human Experience is the experience of your lifetime. It’s a new social network where you can share and purchase other people’s experiences. What would you share? USA / 2012 / 14 min.

3. The Clock

As Melissa boards a bus out of the city, John awakes sick in the morning, and decides to take the day off from work. As he places a mug in the microwave, a ghost from his past stares back at him from the open doorway. USA / 2012 / 11 min. DIR: Zac Manuel in competition

4. What Happens When Robert Leaves the Room

A disgruntled and lovesick writer takes out his frustration on a group of young actors. After two actresses perform a scene from his script, he flies off the

handle and shows them what it really means to perform. USA / 2011 / 18 min. DIR: Zachary Godshall in competition

5. Madchen

Over a long afternoon, a young diner waitress’ encounters with three everyday people shed harsh

Louisiana Shorts 3

light on the conflicting and 6. The Woodshed confining truths of her life. A young girl must return Set against the backto face “the family,” the drop of a country road, free-love religious cult from Madchen gives a window which she escaped. into the extraordinary inner USA / 2012 / 25 min. lives of seemingly ordinary DIR: Kd Admond in competition people. USA / 2011 / 18 min. DIR: Ji Un Choi in competition

Contemporay Arts Center

Louisiana Shorts

DIR: Ashley Brett Chipman in competition

DIR: Evan Falbaum in competition

Sunday, October 14, 1:00 PM

Spotlight on Louisiana filmmakers. 73 min.

1. In the Morning

As memories linger in her small military quarters, Mary must come to grips with her husband’s departure for war. USA / 2012 / 10 min. DIR: Dawn Spatz

2. Fragments

DIR: Rebeccah RodriguesMetlen

3. Inanition

In this post-apocalyptic action film, a starving young man must chase down a starving young woman to squire the one thing that will ensure his survival. USA / 2012 / 8 min.

4. A Good Night

An intelligent drama and action fantasy about a group of friends that battle with dark knights and inner demons as they make one last journey together. Caught between playing into Michael’s fantasy of a medieval world and wanting him to get the real medical help he desperately needs, they struggle with how to say goodbye to a dying friend. USA / 2011 / 24 min.

the death of their son. Set in the 1950’s, this film is a surreal metaphor for love drowned in domesticity. USA / 2012 / 13 min. DIR: Imraan Ismail

6. Under the Gun

Gang violence erupts in 1949 New Orleans when an Irish group of hooligans attempt to rob an African American syndicate of marijuana merchants. USA / 2012 / 9 min.

3 5

4 6

DIR: Edward Holub

DIR: Mike Mayhall

5. Shattered

In this horrific look at post-tragedy marriage, Laura and Harry struggle to maintain their love, their life, and their sanity after

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

A short film about the challenges a couple faces upon a female Marine’s return from Afghanistan. USA / 2011 / 9 min.

DIR: Sean McKinney

LOL

Theaters at Canal Place 1

Saturday, October 13, 2:15 PM

Comedic and light-hearted shorts that are sure to make you :) 104 min. 1. ‘92 Skybox Alonzo Mourning Rookie Card

Jim and Dave are brothers. They haven’t spoken in years and don’t like each other very much, but are forced to come together for a week when their dad dies in Kansas City. USA / 2012 / 12 min. DIR: Todd Sklar

Narrative Shorts

in competition

2. Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke

A modern adaptation of the 1962 French short film La Jetée, the film recounts Luke’s (Uncle Luke, rapper from the hip-hop group 2 Live Crew) rise to fame as he ushers Miami into a golden era of peace and prosperity as Mayor. USA

/ 2011 / 12 min. DIR: Jillian

min. DIR: Rebecca Pugh, Jen West

3. Thugs, the Musical!

6. Door to Door

Mayer, Lucas Leyva

A faux documentary about Michael Gardner; a mediocre, slightly delusional, ‘non-urban’ black actor in Hollywood. USA / 2012 / 25 min. DIR: Liam Sullivan

4. Bench Seat

A modern day musical about a young girl in love and the boy who wants to dump her. The best reason to stay in the relationship is her questionable sanity. USA / 2011 / 19 min. DIR: Anna Mastro

5. Crush

A dark comedy about two door-to-door solicitors—a devout missionary and a master con-artist—and what happens when they make a bet about who can persuade more people to believe in Jesus before the end of the day. USA / 2011 / 18 min. DIR: Daniel Brockley

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7. The Hiccup

Two friends desperately trying to skip town find that an overheated radiator is the least of their problems. USA / 2012 / 10 min. DIR: Matt Smukler

A woman’s quest to find the perfect chair. USA / 2011 / 7

Made in _______.

Theaters at Canal Place 2

Saturday, October 13, 1:15 PM

Six narrative shorts from around the world, duty free. 75 min. 1. Grandma Must Get Dry

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

In northern Italy, an old lady who owned a wine factory and fought the Nazis in her youth in 1943, dies. Her sons come back home to read the testament, but find bad news. ITALY / 2011 / 14 min.

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DIR: Alfredo Covelli

2. Throat Song

In the snowy and mystic landscape of Iqaluit, Nunavut, a small town in the Canadian Arctic, a young Inuk woman is lost in a community that’s been tragically separated from its past. Silently suffering in an abusive relationship with her alcoholic husband, she gets a job that connects her to others who are also suffering abuse,

and she seeks to reclaim her voice. CANADA / 2011 / 18 min. DIR: Miranda de Pencier

3. Taxi Karaoke

A young boy tries to impress his father any way that he can. His father favors the older brother who is more athletic and suave. THAILAND / 2012 / 13 min. DIR: Pete Pithai Smithsuth

4. Bona Nox

Since mommy died in a car accident, daddy is crying all the time. But I can fix everything: I have a time machine. So, I will save mommy in the past and fix my legs in the future. But I need something to succeed... and I found it! BELGIUM / 2012 / 14 min. DIR: Jean-Frédéric Eerdekens

5. Sigilo

Two women are taking care of a household full of children. There is no time to answer all their questions, only feeding their curiosity. ARG / 2011 / 10 min. DIR: Karla Gomez Keep in competition

6. A Chjána (The Plain)

ers the unexpected costs of his activism. USA,ITALY/ 2011 / 20 min. DIR: Jonas

True events inspired this Carpignano compelling tale of Ayiva, an African migrant worker and his best friend, Chico, in the wake of the most significant race riot in Italian history. A stirring story of rebellion, solidarity and, friendship, A Chjána follows Ayiva as he discov-

American Dreams, American Nightmares: A Queer Perspective

Contemporay Arts Center

Saturday, October 13, 7:45 PM

Queer shorts that push boundaries—and start conversations. 69 min.

The word queer has been used since the 1990s to describe the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender identity and experience, and also defining a form of sexuality that was fluid and subversive of traditional understandings of sexuality. This collection of shorts ranges from the personal and highly expressive documentary to the surreal and quiet narrative. Provocative, cinematic, and highly personal, these shorts promise to excite and inspire. Queer filmmaker, activist, and professor Jonathan Pope Evans will be in attendance to deliver an introduction to this highly charged and eclectic collection, including a short intro to queer history and the New Queer Cinema movement that began in the early 1990s. Evans will contextualize the queer films shown by discussing the artists that inspired him—Todd Haynes, Greg Araki, and Rose Troche, among others. Join us for an illuminating discussion and an exciting group of shorts.

In July 2004, a young, gay man named Scotty Joe Weaver was brutally murdered by his roommate and best friend in rural Alabama. Sepulte is an experimental, meditative, and spiritual investigation into the crime exploring the root of violence against

gay men. USA / 2012 / 13 min. DIR: Jonathan Pope Evans in competition

2. Us: A Family Album

Since their invention, amateur cameras have been used to document family life. In the shaky footage of candle-blowing, lawn-watering, a new car, or a family

OUTakes Shorts

vacation, we rediscover our lives, reach new conclusions about the way we live, and glimpse what is most intangible: time. USA / 2011 / 8 min. DIR: Natalia Babinski

3. Charlie

Charlie is a 40-year-old transsexual who lives alone in New York City. He has given up everything to

become his true self. As Charlie’s male-to-female operation is near, his neighbor starts a documentary about Charlie, who reveals his city-fueled doubts and tribulations, and his much regretted life choices. USA / 2011 / 15 min. DIR: Phillipe Thimel

4. In Search of Avery Willard

A portrait on one of queer art’s most fascinating and elusive innovators. New York City artist Avery Willard produced a lifetime of historically significant work that has remained widely unseen for decades. USA / 2012 / 23 min. DIR: Cary Kehayan in competition

Theaters at Canal Place 2

Narrative Shorts

1. Sepulte: The Buried

Sunday, October 14, 6:30 PM

Out and about and ready to shout. Four LGBT shorts decidedly political in nature. 93 min.

1. Queen

Nikki Holiday, a drag queen cabaret star, has plans to adopt a baby and start a family. But when those plans dissolve, she looks for other ways to fill the void in her life. USA / 2011 / 23 min. DIR. Adam Rose in competition

Widower Joseph Burr is granted the legal right to personally execute the convicted killer of his only son, who also happens to be one of the boy’s teenage peers and his best friend. Though craving revenge, Burr begins to doubt his ability to follow through as the date of execution nears. USA / 2011 / 13 min. DIR: Trent Davis Louisiana Short / in competition

In a small Texas town, Ali must lie and say she is her wife Sam’s sister to be by her side at the hospital. Reluctant to listen to the doctor’s opinions about Sam’s condition, Ali loses herself in the couple’s memories: their first meeting, their first date, and the day before Sam’s accident. Simultaneously, the hospital situation comes to a head when Nurse Lucy realizes their true relationship. Ali must confront those who would keep her from Sam as well her own fears of letting go. USA / 2011 / 31 min. DIR: Lauren Fash

4. Entry Denied

Under the current immigration law, an American citizen can sponsor their spouse or qualifying family member for immigration benefits. Because of the Defense

of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman, even samesex couples who legally married in U.S. states or foreign countries are not able to obtain immigration status based on their marriage. Entry Denied is a documentary about the struggles with U.S. immigration faced by gay and lesbian Americans in relationships with foreign citizens. USA / 2012 / 27 min. DIR: Machu Latorre

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

2. Blood in the Grass

3. Quiet

4 101

Experimental Shorts

Contemporay Arts Center

Sunday, October 14, 7:30 PM

Let steep for a few minutes. Add sugar if you want, it’s experimental. 97 min.

Experimental Shorts

1. Light Plate

Photographed in Arezzo, Italy, Light Plate is a black and white celluloid essay illustrating and conjuring vistas of the Italian countryside. Temperature is evoked by gossamer rays of warm light and cool swaths of shadow, time is suggested by the pastoral metronome of daily routine, and space is articulated by window framed intersections of near and far. ITALY / 2012 / 10 min. DIR. Josh Gibson in competition

2. Organ

The fragments of memories from the poem enter through the window. What makes us exist in this world? S. KOREA / 2011 / 24 min. DIR: Jin Kyu Ahn in competition

3. Two Seconds After Laughter

The heart longs most for the place called home to which it can never return. Inspired by dancer Sri Susilowati’s experience of returning to Indonesia after 20 years in America, Two Seconds is a meditation on the nature of memory and a fable-like tale of the joys and emotional dislocation experienced by contemporary immigrant peoples. USA-INDO / 2011 / 16 min. DIR: David Roussève

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

in competition

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4. HyperLightness ad absurdum

HyperLightness ad absurdum reveals the optical characteristics of hyperspace and hyper-time in a super-symmetric continuum by means of an optical illusion that is formed by a spatial overlapping that occurs in nature’s manifold illusion. Several relative dimensional spaces seem

to converge into successive fractions of one co-dimension visually evoked by the film’s frame rate format and torsion of the symbols. UKPORTUGAL / 2011 / 25 min. DIR: Margarida Sardinha in competition

5. Tuesday

On a Tuesday a woman experiences overwhelming emotion and struggles to maintain a connection to the one she has lost. Slow, surrealistic images of the woman in grief are juxtaposed with intense flashes of fragmented thoughts and memories to represent the contradictory and tumultuous state of being physically numb while at the same time feeling emotionally chaotic. Ultimately, Tuesday questions if it is possible to endure through such heartbreak and sudden change, and whether the pain ever truly diminishes or if it will continue to flood into our lives at the blink of an eye. USA / 2011 / 4 min. DIR: Jon Simmons in competition

next meal. In order to find his way to the family supper, he lives a whole life in seconds and overcomes challenges against his own existence. USA / 2011 / 5 min. DIR: Cem Kurtulus, Jake Nelson in competition

8. Ghost of Yesterday

A collage of rotoscoped home movies inspired by childhood memories of religion and altered consciousness. The film explores our collective abandonment of analog imagery and is a personal attempt to reconcile with 3 digital imagery. USA / 2012 / 6 min. DIR: Tony Gault in competition

6. Decision Making (A Triptych)

Decision Making (A Triptych) is part performance, part documentary, and part experimental narrative. Each section centers around the activity of jumping, and proposes a connection between the arc of a jump and the arc of a decision. The actions of each section are stretched to their limits as a means to dissect the psychology and emotions that accompany the daily struggle through the banal details of our lives. USA / 2011 / 8 min. DIR: Aaron E. Ross

in competition

7. The Hungry Boy

In a universe of brushstrokes, this animated short follows a stream of consciousness, ‘The Hungry Boy’ on a quest for his

Theaters at Canal Place 1 Coloring Outside the Lines The The Theaters at Canal Place 1

Saturday, October 13, 11:30 AM Monday, October 15, 6:00 PM

Not your Saturday morning cartoons. 89 min. 1. A Tooth Tale

2. Being Bradford Dillman

A dark and humorous tale of a mother-daughter relationship shadowed by alcohol, loneliness, and a dislike of boys. UK / 2011 / 10 min. DIR: Emma Burch in competition

3. Cadaver

A macabre nursery rhyme most definitely not for kids. Starring Back to the Future’s Christopher Lloyd, Rookie Magazine’s Tavi Gevinson, and Academy Award winner Kathy Bates. USA / 2012 / 7 min. DIR: Jonah D. Ansell in competition

4. Dark Vessel

in competition

Inspired by the Lionfish plague, this underwater neo-noir tells a story about greed and hierarchy in the Caribbean reefs. USA (PUERTO RICO) / 2012 / 4 min. DIR: Quique Rivera Rivera in competition

6. Green Acres

A parched tortoise wanders through a vast desert desperately in search of water. He comes across an oasis only to find that trespassers are unwelcome. Somehow he must slip past the defenses to quench his thirst. USA / 2012 / 6 min. DIR: James Beck in competition

7. Pareidolia

Pareidolia–or, making meaning from randomness–explores the landscape and architecture of the body as a container of memories. Layers of stories, dreams, and memory fragments are interconnected like muscle fibers. Through a re-imagining of family stories and life events, the film connects filmmaker Maya Erdelyi’s transformative experience of witnessing public cremations in India to her grandmother’s miraculous survival of a mass killing by Hungarian Nazis along the banks of the Danube in 1944. USA / 2012 / 8 min. DIR: Maya Erdelyi in competition

8. Sympathy for the Fish

A holiday gift leads to a hospital visit. USA / 2011 / 3 min. DIR: Richard O’Connor in competition

9. The Hopper

16 year-old Dexter lives with his grandmother in West Baltimore, Maryland. One night Dexter and his friend Kevin rob the local drug dealers, but things do not work out. DENMARK / 2012 / 19 min. DIR: Alex

Brüel Flagstad in competition

4 3 Saturday, October 16th, 7:00PM 5 6 Monday, October 18th, 3:00PM

10. The Hunter

A lone hunter undertakes the search for a missing boy. The journey will forever change his relationship with the wilderness he had always feared. AUSTRALIA / 2012 / 8 min. DIR: Marieka

9 5

10 6

Walsh in competition

11. Thumb Snatchers from the Moon Cocoon

A short tempered Texas Sheriff uses his cowboy logic to recklessly defeat a race of condescending, cocoon-dwelling critters. USA / 2011 / 7 min. DIR: Bradley Schaffer in competition

12. Wiggle Room

Many things happen around the kitchen when you’re not there. Watch as a slug ventures into a new world filled with vibrant colors and delicious treats. However, the soothing environment is only a disguise for the evil that is lurking nearby. USA / 2011 / 8 min. DIR: Joey Shanks in competition

Choreography for Plastic Army Men

A stop-motion animation starring a variety of plastic army men strutting their stuff to the instrumental track ‘Ohayoo Ohio’ by the band ‘Pink Martini’. Shot in the filmmaker’s garage during various bouts of unemployment. USA / 2011 / 5 min. DIR: David B. Fain SCREENING W/ TRASH DANCE in competition

Troy: Naked Men Behind Bars, Sing!

Based on the long-running, syndicated, gay comic strip, Troy: Naked Boy Behind Bars, Sing! follows nice guy Troy McDougall, a twenty-something, out-and-proud, gay actor, as he gets what he believes will be his big break into “The Business,” through a lead in the world premier of the musical “Naked Boys Behind Bars, Sing!” There he meets and is instantly smitten with his beefy, blond, baby-faced co-star Nick, who is, unfortunately for Troy, straight. Or is he? USA / 2011 / 13 min. DIR: Michael Derry SCREENING W/ VARLA JEAN AND THE MUSHROOMHEADS in competition

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

A hopeless romantic is caught trespassing while trying to woo a girl. Problems occur when the girl’s father forces him to remove a dead man’s shadow. Tragically, the romantic becomes a vessel of death. USA / 2012 / 6 min. DIR: Rocky Curby

5. Lionfish Delusion

Animation Shorts

This traditionally animated short tells the story of Tommy Malloy, a 6-year old boy who loses his first tooth. When he learns that the Tooth Fairy will give him money for it he hatches a plot to trap and shake her down for all her loot. The rhyming dialog and art direction pay homage to the cartoons of the 1950s and 1960s. USA / 2012 / 7 min. DIR: Ron Fleischer in competition

103

Narrative shorts screening with features

Narrative Shorts

1. The Illuminaphonist

In a town literally and figuratively devoid of color, a young man finds that his magical musical skills bring vibrant color back into the world. However, he soon discovers that he may need help if he doesn’t want to lose himself in the process. USA / 2012 / 3 min. DIR:

2. This Vacuum Is Too Loud

The story of a man who finds himself lost on Earth, determined to return home. USA / 2012 / 6 min. DIR: Gus Péwé SCREENING W/ AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY in competition THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

4 8

Michael Mclain, Luca Alessandrini SCREENING W/ AKA DOC POMUS

104

3. Otto and the Electric Eel

Otto Von Schirach battles to keep an inter-dimensional creature from ruining his dinner date. USA / 2012 / 5 min. DIR: Duncan Skiles,

Andrew Zuchero SCREENING W/ ASURA

4. Breaking Night

A girl flees a heavy situation at home with her boyfriend.

By circumstance, in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, she comes face-to-face with a vision of confidence and sophistication that she’s never seen before. This chance meeting changes her outlook of who she is, and more so, who she can become, transforming her life forever. As night gives way to morning, she abandons the young ‘lost girl’ she was, emerging as a young woman with purpose, into the light. USA / 2012 / 9 min. DIR: Yolanda Ross

taken out of her custody by Child Protective Services. USA / 2011 / 12 min. DIR:

5. Pass the Salt, Please

USA / 2011 / 5 min. DIR: Peter Davis SCREENING W/ GIMME THE LOOT

SCREENING W/ FOUR

A couple’s dinner repartee quickly morphs into a scene ripped straight from the script of an adult film. Who wins this battle of the sexes is anyone’s guess. Based on the award-winning play by Jeffrey James Ircink. USA / 2011 / 13 min. DIR:

Benjamin Kruger SCREENING W/ FRANCINE in competition

7. AM/FM

When two extortionists come for him, a poor beat poet must decide whether or not to sell his beloved radio in order to pay off his debts. After a close encounter with the gangsters, he takes to the airwaves. In an impassioned radio address, he chronicles his struggles and channels his frustrations through his music.

8. Office Hours

Professor Shelhouse holds weekly office hours during which students stop by to express concerns, make excuses, grouse, or whatever. USA / 2012 / 9 min. DIR:

Tatjana Najdanovic SCREENING W/ FOURPLAY

Hollie Lavenstein SCREENING W/ IT’S A DISASTER

6. Reunion

9. Hung Up

A documentary crew follows a young mother, Amy. After working to pull her life together and get sober, Amy is preparing to be reunited with her little boy who was

A story about the aftermath of lost love and the emotional gymnastics we go through in our struggle to move on. Alone in his NYC apartment, a

heartbroken Paul struggles to get over Molly, his ex, when suddenly she calls. What follows are a series of conversations between them revealing Paul’s greatest hopes, worst fears, and what his future with Molly actually holds. USA / 2012 / 10 min. DIR: Reed Van Dyk SCREENING W/ LEAVE ME LIKE YOU FOUND ME

10. Shopping

Narrated in forty lines, this meditation on the liquid state seeks to express the sense of disorientation, journey, and sheltering many New Orleanians experienced after the levees fell. and sheltering many New Orleanians experienced after the levees. AUS / 2011 / 6 min.

DIR: Will Kuether SCREENING W/ LOVE FREE OR DIE

11. HowardCantour. com

This is the story of Howard Cantour. A warrior, a film critic. He lives his live vicariously through movies and in movies. But Howard is no sell out, he’s says it like he sees it. This is a story of his life and struggle about reviewing his film hero’s movie. USA / 2012 / 13 min. DIR: Shia LaBeouf SCREENING W/ OK GOOD

12. Tiny, Miny Magic Narrated in forty lines, this meditation on the liquid state seeks to express the sense of disorientation, journey, and sheltering many New Orleanians experienced after the levees. USA / 2012 / 8 min. DIR: Danielle Lurie SCREENING W/ SAVE THE DATE

The story of a garbageman who falls in love with a trashy girl and accidentally throws it all away. CZECH / 2012 / 14 min. DIR: Michael Lukk Litwak SCREENING W/ SUPPORTING CHARACTERS

14. Fleshlight

This story is about Sam and his search for happiness.

DIR: JonGunnar Gylfason SCREENING W/ THE MECHANICAL BRIDE

15. Record/Play

War, fate, and a broken walkman transcend time and space in this sci-fi love story. USA / 2011 / 11 min.

DIR: Jesse Atlas SCREENING W/ THE SOMNAMBULIST

16. Five Minutes Late

It’s another slow day at Mimi’s in the upper 9th Ward of New Orleans with the usual assortment of dopes, dorks, debutantes, and dealers. But fates are going to change with a quickness. USA / 2012 / 4 min. DIR: Randy Mack SCREENING W/ TRAILER PARK JESUS

17. Reinaldo Arenas

Told from the point of view of a dying shark, Reinaldo Arenas metaphorically captures the current state of the aging Cuban-American exile community, many of whom have still not come to terms with the Communist Revolution that changed their lives forever. The film culls from various Cuban films and works of literature to create not a singular voice, but a feeling of a particular moment in time. USA / 2011 / 4 min. DIR: Lucas Leyva SCREENING W/ UNA NOCHE in competition

18. The Chair

The story of a mysterious outbreak of poisonous mold in a small town and one boy’s attempt to understand his mother’s death, his grandmother’s obsession with their discarded recliner, and the roots of this shortlived, strange, and inexplicable plague. USA / 2012 / 12 min. DIR: Grainger David SCREENING W/ WELCOME TO PINE HILL in competition

19. Summer Light

Summer Light explores a young boy’s vile existence imprisoned in a junkyard by his master, Glack. Travelers come and go, peruse

Glack’s wares, barter, and sometimes buy. When an aristocratic gentleman arrives with eyes for the boy, Glack’s greed overcomes him. For the boy, the opportunity is not about commodities, but about long-held visions of freedom and happiness. USA / 2001 / 16 min. DIR: Aaron Walker SCREENING W/ WOLF

20. The Post-Lifers

The dead have risen and want your brains! Or do they? This hard-hitting mockumentary chronicles a group of zombies during a worldwide infestation. Tremble with fear and laughter as you are taken along an exclusive journey into the unknown and undead. It’s zombies like you’ve never seen them before... articulate. CANADA / 2011 / 14 min. DIR: Greg Kovacs

SCREENING W/ REMINGTON AND THE CURSE OF THE ZOMBADINGS

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

13. French Quesadillas

He comes home drunk and wants to make out with his girlfriend. She has other ideas. Sam, a bit flustered, goes to watch some porn, and ends up buying a fleshlight on-line with her credit card. She moves out when the fleshlight is delivered. They exchange words and she leaves him with a spit. Sam sticks his finger in the toy and then there is no turning back. It’s about the ups and downs and the ins of love. USA / 2012 / 8 min.

Narrative Shorts

105

Curious Obsessions

Theaters at Canal Place 1

Sunday, October 14, 1:15 PM

7 documentary shorts, 7 personalities, 7 all-consuming passions. 77 min. 1. Reborning

Jean is an artist who creates incredibly life-like dolls, in part as a coping mechanism for dealing with grief. USA / 2012 / 8 min. DIR: Helen Hood Scheer, Yael Bridge ALSO SCREENING W/ A GIRL LIKE HER in competition

Documentary Shorts

2. Meaning of Robots

This short documentary film is a portrait of the benevolent Mike Sullivan who has been shooting a stop-motion robot sex film for the last 15 years. USA/ 2011 / 4 min. DIR: Matt Lenski

3. Sterling Hallard Bright Drake

Sterling parses the line between truth and memory in solving the mysteries surrounding one of the

world’s most notorious and talked about tombstones. USA / 2012 / 15 min. DIR: Robert Sickels

4. Brute Force

In 1967, Brute Force had just released his first album on Columbia Records and was on the brink of becoming a star. But dreams of fame and fortune quickly turned into nightmares. USA / 2012 / 15 min DIR: Ben Steinbauer

5. Full-Time Ministry

By day, a devout Christian man struggles to keep his religious faith out of the public high school classroom where he teaches; by night, he is an outsider artist who creates gospel-inspired ice sculptures. USA / 2011 / 5 min. DIR: Helen Hood Scheer

6. A Story for the Modlins

After appearing in the film Rosemary’s Baby, Elmer Modlin ran away with his family to a distant land, where they shut themselves inside a dark apartment for thirty years. SPAIN / 2012 / 27 min.

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DIR: Sergio Oksman in competition

7. Come on Down and Pick Me Up

Fred Kress is within weeks of dying from terminal liver disease, but he has turned his bedroom into a glowing work of art and a final resting place to escape the ultimate reality of his disease. USA / 2011 / 9 min. DIR: Jon Bougher, Nicholas Corrao

Documentary Shorts screening with features 1. Slab City Prom

Jean is an artist who creates incredibly life-like dolls, in part as a coping mechanism for dealing with grief. USA / 2011 / 8 min. DIR: Helen Hood

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Scheer, Yael Bridge SCREENING W/ A GIRL LIKE HER in competition

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2. Written In Ink

This short documentary film is a portrait of the benevolent Mike Sullivan who has been shooting a stop-motion robot sex film for the last 15 years. POLAND / 2011 / 12 min.

DIR: Matt Lenski SCREENING W/ HERMAN’S HOUSE

3. Life In Black and White Four interviews about people who have jobs in fields involving the colors black and white: A crossword constructor, a piano restorer, a penguin biolo-

gist, and the founder of an inner city domino league. USA / 2011 / 12 min. DIR: Robert Sickels SCREENING W/ HOLLYWOOD HAIR in competition

4. Spoils: An Extraordinary Harvest

5. Le Trésor de la Langue

Despite a history of adversity, the French language has continued to prosper in southern Louisiana. But the future of the language is uncertain. USA / 2011

/ 9 min. DIR: Joe Hackman SCREENING W/ T-GALOP

6. Mrs. Buck in Her Prime

A documentary film about Neva Buck, a spirited 104 y.o. church organist who despite her many infirmities insists on playing at several churches each month in rural Eastern North Carolina. USA / 2012/ 11 min. DIR: Erick Yates Green SCREENING W/ THE GIRLS IN THE BAND in competition

7. Solo Piano – NYC

On a cold winter morning, a lone piano stands curbside in New York City. Passersby slow, stop, and play. Some play well. All day long they collect and disperse, and into the night they measure and shove and deliberate. Plinking slightly out-of-

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tune over the white noise of Broadway’s cars, buses, trucks, and sirens, the piano awaits its fate. USA / 2011 / 5 min. DIR: Jon Bougher, Nicholas Corrao SCREENING W/ TRUE FAMILY in competition

FREE SCREENINGS!

No Ticket? No Problem.

Six FREE Screenings at the New Orleans Film Festival There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but at the New Orleans Film Festival, there are free screenings. And lots of ‘em! This year, we are serving up six films free of charge as part of the NOFF schedule, all with filmmakers in attendance to participate in Q+A’s and conversations. The five selections were handpicked because they tell important stories that we believe deserve to reach as wide an audience as possible. The goal of this program is to bring important films to New Orleans and make these screenings completely accessible and inclusive for all ages. Because screenings are not ticketed, seating is available only on a first-come, first-served basis. (There is no way to reserve seats.)

Brooklyn Boheme Sunday, October 14, at 4:00 p.m. at Ashé Cultural Arts Center Brooklyn Boheme looks at back at the 1980s and ’90s in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene and Clinton Hill neighborhoods where a community of young black and Latino creatives thrived. Director Nelson George in attendance. Hosted by DJ Soul Sister. Post-screening conversation with DJ Soul Sister, Nelson George, and other artists. From Nothing, Something Screens Friday, October 12, at 3:45 p.m. at the Prytania Theatre Where do ideas come from? This documentary profiles creative thinkers across a variety of disciplines and finds common methods, habits, mindsets, and neuroses that help bring breakthrough ideas into being. Director Tim Cawley in attendance. The Iran Job Screens Tuesday, October 16, at 6:30 p.m. at Ashé Cultural Arts Center This documentary follows American basketball player Kevin Sheppard as he accepts a job to play in one of the world’s most feared countries: Iran. Director Till Schauder in attendance. This screening is presented in partnership with AfroPop and the National Black Programming Consortium. NOLAbound Sunday, October 14, at 7:00 p.m. at The Joy Theater This eye-opening 50-minute documentary follows the “NOLAbounders” and their journey through a city undergoing one of the greatest economic transformations in American history.

Showtime Saturday, October 13, at 1:00 p.m. at Ashé Cultural Arts Center A high school girls’ basketball team in rural Mississippi endeavors to win a state championship. “Hoop Dreams with hoop earrings.” Director Ben Guest in attendance. Brooklyn Boheme, The Iran Job, Rebirth of a Nation and Showtime are all presented in partnership with the Ashé Cultural Arts Center.

These screenings are funded by NEA as part of the Challenge America Fast-Track program.

Please note: Access Accommodations are available for all films in this program. If you need audio description or a sign language interpreter, please notify the New Orleans Film Society office before October 8 and accommodations will be arranged. Please make this request by email to info@neworleansfilmsociety.org or by calling the office at 504.309.6633.

Rebirth of a Nation Sunday, October 14, at 6:30 p.m. at Ashé Cultural Arts Center A special screening of DJ Spooky’s Rebirth of a Nation, a film project based on a remix of D.W. Griffith’s infamous 1915 film Birth of a Nation. Director DJ Spooky in attendance. 107

LAGNIAPPE SCREENINGS The New Orleans Film Festival wants to give you a “lagniappe”—a little something extra—

once the curtain falls on this year’s edition of the largest and oldest film festival in Louisiana. Don’t let the movie madness stop on October 18—consider attending one of two Lagniappe Screenings (or both!) scheduled for October 19.

Movies to Geaux and Movies in the Garden bring you

The Birds

dir. Alfred Hitchcock FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19 Gates open at 5:00 p.m. Screening starts at 7:30 p.m. Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at NOMA Didn’t get your fill of Hitchcock at NOLA Drive-In 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. Food by Crepes a la Cart, with Psycho? Come on out for a screening to re- Green To Go NOLA (fresh salads - quantities member—The Birds on the big screen amidst the limited), & Woody’s Fish Tacos majestic oaks in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden. 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Music by Dave Jordan Admission: $6 for adults; Children (17 & under, must be accompanied by an adult), free: $3 for 5 – 7 p.m. Art Making Activity NOFS/NOMA/ Members (Members are allotted 6:00 p.m. Scary Sculptures in the Garden Tour 4 tickets at the discounted rate.) Guests who The film will begin at sundown (approximately purchase admission to the Museum will also 7:30 p.m.). have access to the Sculpture Garden and activities. Advance tickets available at nomabirds. Presented by: eventbrite.com. No refunds or exchanges. Due to the sculptures and the architecture, no outside food or beverages will be permitted. Multiple food vendors will be available for refreshments. No bug candles with an open flame allowed. Please bring a blanket or folding chair for seating. The Birds will be subtitled for the hearing impaired.

THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY dir. Anthony Minghella FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19 Midnight at the Prytania Theatre (5339 Prytania Street) In late 1950’s New York, Tom Ripley, a young underachiever, is sent to Europe to retrieve a rich and spoiled millionaire playboy, named Dickie Greenleaf. But when the errand fails, Ripley takes extreme measures. The film, which prominently features jazz in its score, will be screened as part of the NOJO 10—ten events designed to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the prominent New Orleans organization committed solely to the development of the Industry of Jazz in the city that created it. Admission: $10.50 for adults; $9.50 for students; and $8.50 for seniors. Tickets can be purchased at the Prytania Box Office or online at theprytania.com Hosted by Irvin Mayfield, with live performance. Presented in partnership with:

THE 23RD ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

New Orleans Film Festival

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CONGRATULATIONS

It takes visionaries like you.

panavision.com

Panavision congratulates all the filmmakers selected for this prestigious festival. We applaud your passion and commitment.

Friday, October 12 VENUE

10 A

Theatres at Canal Place 1

11 A

12 P

Thursday, October 11

Wonder Woman (63 min) @ 12:00

Prytania Theatre

Terra Blight (76 min) @ 5:45

The Paperboy at The Joy Theater @7:30 Opening Night Party at the Saint Hotel @9:30

Theatres at Canal Place 2

10 P

OK Good (89 min) @ 7:45

Call Me Kuchu (90 min) @ 6:00 Supporting Characters (96 min) @ 5:45

From Nothing, Something (76 min) @ 3:45

Trash Dance (72 min) @ 1:30

Chalmette Movies

12 A

Smashed (85 min) @ 10:00

Leave Me Like You Found Me (90 min) @ 8:15

Smashed (85 min) @ 10:15 How to Dispose Hara Kiri (80 min) (121 min) @ 10:00 @ 12:00

Francine (88 min) @ 7:45 Compliance (90 min) @ 7:30 An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (95 min) @ 8:00

Louisiana Shorts 2 (80 min) @ 6:00

CAC Theater

La. Film & Video Happy Hour @ CAC Cafe 4:30-6:30

Parties

Filmmaker Welcome Party @ Musee Conti 9:00 - midnight

Gather Round: Sundance @ 3:30

CAC Panels

Saturday, October 13 VENUE

10 A

11 A

12 P

Animated Shorts (89 min) @ 11:30

Theatres at Canal Place 1

Made in ___ Shorts (96 min) @ 1:15

LA Shorts 1 (99 min) @ 12:00

Prytania Theatre

LOL Shorts (104 min) @ 2:15

Wonder Women (63 min) @ 11:45

Theatres at Canal Place 2

10 P

Welcome to Pine Hill (80 min) @ 9:00 Fourplay (92 min) @ 9:30

Now, Forager (93 min) @ 7:30 Not Fade Away (112 min) @ 6:45

12 A

It’s a Disaster (97 min) @ 9:15

Remington & Zombadings (110 min) @ 12

Pilgrim Song (113 min) @ 1:00

NOMA

Side By Side (99 min) @ 6:30

Chalmette Movies Ashé Cultural Arts Center

Parties

Ultimate Christian Wrestling (83 min @ 7:00

Captive Beauty (80 min) @ 5:15

The Sapphires (103 min) @ 4:30

Gather Round Gather Distribution Animation Insider/Outsider Beasts Round (Cafe): Panel Panel Case Study (Cafe) Transmedia 11:45 - 12:45 2:00 - 3:30 2:30-3:30 3:45-4:45 1:00-2:00

CAC Panels

CAC Theater

It’s Not You... Shorts (95 min) @ 4:45

A Girl Like Her (56 min) @ 3:30 Mr. Cao... (72 min) @ 2:30

About Cherry (102 min) @ 8:30

Showtime (63 min) @ 2:30 Pitch Perfect DOC 10:00 - 11:30

Pitch Perfect NARR 11:30 - 1:00

Sleepless Nights Stories (114 min) @ 1:45

The Patron Saints (72 min) @ 4:00 WIFT Reception @ CAC Cafe 4:00-5:30

Bayou Blue (79 min) @ 5:45

Am. Dreams (Queer) Shorts (69 min) @ 7:45

LGBT Meet-up @ CAC Cafe 6:45-7:45

Thelema (105 min) @ 9:30

Scene Magazine Party @ Second Line Stages 8:00 - until

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Sunday, October 14 VENUE Theatres at Canal Place 1 Theatres at Canal Place 2 Prytania Theatre

10 A

11 A

12 P

Bay of All Saints (74 min) @ 11:30

Curious Obsessions Shorts (82 min) @ 1:15

The Story of Luke (95 min) @ 11:45

NOMA

Hollywood Hair (63 min) @ 3:15 T-Galop (84 min) @ 1:45

Grand Illusion (114 min) @ 12:00

CAC Panels

Learning to Lie Shorts (93 min) @ 5:00

Magical Realism Shorts (89 min) @ 4:00

Informant (80 min) @ 2:30

PostProduction Panel 1:30 - 2:30

Trailer Park Jesus (82 min) @ 9:00

Producing the Indie Panel 3:00 - 4:00

Andrew Bird: Fever Year (88 min) @ 2:00

AKA Doc Pomus (98 min) @ 4:30

The Girls in the Band (87 min) @ 8:00 Compliance (90 min) @ 6:30

Face 2 Face (107 min) @ 8:30

NOLA bound (50 min) @ 7:00

Ashé Cultural Arts Center

NOLA Drive-In

12 A

Call Me Kuchu (90 min) @ 8:45

Four (84 min) @ 6:45

Quartet (90 min) @ 4:45

10 P

The Mechanical Bride (76 min) @ 9:15

Dead Dad (93 min) @ 7:00

Joy Theater

Parties

OUTakes Shorts (93 min) @ 6:30

Chalmette Movies

CAC Theater

Brooklyn Boheme (74 min) @ 4:00 LA Shorts 3 (73 min) @ 1:00

LA Stories (74 min) @ 3:00

Rebirth of a Nation (74 min) @ 6:30 Herman’s House (91 min) @ 5:00

Experimental Shorts (97 min) @ 7:30

CANOpener Reception (CAC) 4:15-5:45

I Love LA Party @Bellocq 9:30-11:00 Psycho (109 min) @ 7:30

Thank You!

VENUES: Carol Bebelle, Luther Gray, Viola T. Johnson, Tammy Terrell, Drena S. Clay, and staff: AshéCultural Arts Center; Ellis Fortinberry, Wendeslaus Schulz, David Sardenga, and staff: Chalmette Movies; Jay Weigel, Merit Shalett, Lindsay Ross, Shelley Middleberg, Nanette Saucier, and staff: Contemporary Arts Center; Sandie McNamara, Alexa Poper, and Ace Ward: Joy Theater; George Solomon, Doug Whitford, Laura Becnel, Steven Marlin, and staff: The Theatres at Canal Place; Richard Read, Brian Hammel, Courtney Egan, Paul Werner, Anne Giselson, and staff: NOCCA; Susan Taylor, Brad Caldwell, and Ruthie Massey: NOMA; Rene Brunet, Robert Brunet, Eric Ramstead, and staff: The Prytania Theatre; Rene Broussard: Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center. SPONSORS: Jeanna Bonds, Peter Bunstein, and staff: 42 Entertainment; Katherine Williams, Carroll Morton, and Jenn Kessler: Film New Orleans; Mayor Mitch Landrieu and staff: City of New Orleans; Scott Hutcheson: Advisor to the Mayor for Cultural Economy; Andre Champagne: Hollywood Trucks / Scene Magazine; Chris Stelly, Katharina Spindler, and staff: Louisiana Entertainment; Susan Brennan, Diane Wheeler, Trey Burvant, and staff: Second Line Stages; Zoey Devall: Downtown Development District; Curry Smith: Greater New Orleans Inc.; Cameron Yancey: The Idea Village; Skipper Bond and Emily Reimsnyder: Bond PR; Greg Milneck: Digital FX; Eric MacIver: Division Camera; Klaus Ortlieb, Nikki Gilbert, Lauren Lagarde, James Stuart, and Michael Waters: The Hotel Modern; Jude Olinger, Dennis W. Gleiber, PhD, and Stacy Martinez: The Olinger Group; John Schrimpf, James Finn, and staff: Panavision; Matt Pelto and staff: VER; Tom Fletcher and Kelli Bingham: Fletcher Louisiana; Bill McCord, Phil LoCicero and Mike McHugh: IATSE Local 478; Bill Hines, Allen Frederic, and staff: Jones Walker; Christy Parker: Marriott; Diego Martinez: Millennium Studios; Fred Holly, Cheryl Toye, and staff: Republic National Distribution Company; Micah Haley: Scene Magazine; Gary Solomon, Jr., Jonathan Tessero, Whitney Hymel, and staff: Solomon Group; Dynette Burke: Tectus Security; Joseph Rosenfeld: Enterprise; Will French and Taylor Morgan: Film Production Capital; Peter Santoro and staff: Fotokem; Peter Cioni and Laura Pursley: Light Iron; Jim and Joe Hanna: Hanna Brothers Catering; Michael Brown: Kodak; Darrien Michele Gipson and Eliza Hajek: SAG Indie; Jennifer Mueller and staff: Shweiki Media; Sergio Lopez: Storyville Post; Kristina Bradford: Whole Foods; Kathy Tujague: Abita; Geoffrey Hartnett: AIA and Mathes-Brierre; Huck Wirtz: Bayou FX; Karlos Knott, Stephanie Knott and Louis Michot: Bayou Teche Biere; Megan Mouton: Event Rental; Jean-Claude Brunet, Philippe Aldon and Béatrice Germaine: French Consulate; John Evans, Jr.: Gold Medal Popcorn; Courtney McNair: Honest Tea; Amy Reimer and staff: Loa Bar; Martine Chaisson; Caroline Rosen: Mountain Valley Spring Water; Melissa Wiseman: Entertainment Partners; Stephanie Mayne and staff: NOJO; Danny Bigel and Roger Wilson: OIX; Jaclyn Vigeant: Pro 8mm; Michael Shoemaker and staff: Purple Monkey. PARTNERS: Mark Romig, Jeremy Cooker, JP Gisclair and staff: New Orleans Tourism Marketing; Corporation Jennifer Lotz and staff: New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau; Kelly McKenna: Weber Shandwick; Brantley and Keri Bissette: NOLA Drive-In; Ashley Charbonnet, Darcy McKinnon and staff: NOVAC; Brian Boyles and Jarret Lofstead: The People Say Project; Jeff Schwartz: Broad Community Connections; Kelley Troija: Clandestine Nola; Jeanne Nathan and Tori Bush: CANO; Christy Marino, Patrick Mulhearn and the Board of LFEA; Greg Lambousy: Louisiana State Museum; Ali Duffy, Carol Bidault and the Board of WIFT; Shelley Boles and staff: Joan Mitchell Center. AND: Blake Haney and Ben Hirsch: Canary Collective; Jerald White; Melissa Weber; Meg Turner and the Community Printshop; Sue Grazer; Luisa Brens: Blake Hotel; Buddy Newton, Dionne Boyce, and staff: ENTA; Paula Aston, Kelli Binnings, Jason Curole, Lee Kyle, Lauren Delery, Anna Faber, Alejandra Rosales, Alex Wiltz; Danielle Calle and Elisabeth Sanders, and the Jeff Metcalf Fellows program at the University of Chicago; Ken Korman; Mike Scott; Sally Tunmer of FSC Interactive; John Williams, Sidney Davis, and Thomas Baumgardner; Christina Landry; Jack Sullivan; and special thanks to Karen Kern, Liz Dunnebacke, Cristina Wollenberg, Adam Marcus, Steve Armbruster, Alex Glaser, and Jim Gelarden.

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Monday, October 15 VENUE

10 A

11 A

12 P

Animated Shorts (89 min) @ 6:00

Theatres at Canal Place 1

Hollywood Hair (63 min) @ 12:00

Prytania Theatre

Bayou Blue (78 min) @ 1:30

Herman’s House (91 min) @ 3:15

Gimme the Loot (81 min) @ 5:30

Keep the Lights On (101 min) @ 8:45

Silver Lining (120 min) @ 7:15

Asura (80 min) @ 9:45

Compliance (90 min) @ 8:30

About Cherry (102 min) @ 6:30

Chalmette Movies

12 A

Save the Date (98 min) @ 8:15

Pilgrim Song (113 min) @ 6:15

Theatres at Canal Place 2

10 P

True Family (54 min) @ 7:30

US Mint All Me...Life and Times (74 min) @ 5:45

Stepping (46 min) @ 1:00

CAC Theater

Varla Jean (82 min) @ 8:15

Tuesday, October 16 VENUE

10 A

11 A

12 P

Grand Illusion (114 min) @ 12:00

It’s a Disaster (97 min) @ 2:30

All Together (96 min) @ 5:30

10 P

12 A

Wolf (98 min) @ 8:15 Keep the Lights On (101 min) @ 8:30

Starlet (104 min) @ 7:30

Face 2 Face (107 min) @ 6:15

Chalmette Movies

The Somnambulist (90 min) @ 9:30

About Cherry (102 min) @ 8:45

Liquid Land (60 min) @ 7:30

Zeitgeist

Ashé Cultural Arts Center

Parties

LA Shorts 1 (99 min) @ 6:00

Theatres at Canal Place 2

CAC Theater

Ultimate Christian Wrestling (83 min) @ 6:15

Theatres at Canal Place 1

Prytania Theatre

The Iran Job (93 min) @ 6:30

Stepping (46 min) @ 1:30

Magical Realism Shorts (89 min) @ 6:00

Bettie Page (101 min) @ 8:00 Bettie Page Party @ CAC 9:45-10:30

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Wednesday, October 17 VENUE

10 A

11 A

12 P

Supporting Characters (89 min) @ 5:45

Theatres at Canal Place 1

Francine (74 min) @ 12:00

Prytania Theatre

All Together (96 min) @ 1:45

T-Galop (84 min) @ 3:45

Chalmette Movies

Side By Side (99 min) @ 6:30 Eating Alabama (62 min) @ 2:00

CAC Theater

Trash Dance (72 min) @ 6:00

12 A

Dead Man’s Burden (93 min) @ 8:15 A Late Quartet (105 min) @ 7:30

Four (76 min) @ 5:30

10 P

Gayby (89 minv) @ 7:45

Learning to Lie Shorts (93 min) @ 6:00

Theatres at Canal Place 2

Hara Kiri (126 min) @ 9:30

About Cherry (102 min) @ 8:30

Una Noche (100 min) @ 7:45 Cine Latino Reception (CAC) 9:30-10:30

Parties

Thursday, October 18 VENUE

10 A

11 A

12 P

CAC Theater

Parties

All Together (96 min) @ 12:00

Dead Man’s Burden (93 min) @ 2:00

Now, Forager (93 min) @ 4:00

Mendelsohn’s Incessant Visions (71 min) @ 6:00

10 P

TBA @ 8:15

The Sessions (94 min) @ 7:30

Compliance (90 min) @ 6:30 Love Free or Die (83 min) @ 6:15

Winning Shorts @ 7:45

Leave Me Like You Found Me (90 min) @ 6:15

Theatres at Canal Place 2

Chalmette Movies

Captive Beauty (80 min) @ 6:00

Theatres at Canal Place 1

Prytania Theatre

The Iceman (103 min) @ 9:30

Bettie Page (101 min) @ 8:30 TBA @ 8:00 Closing Night Party (loa bar) 7:00-9:00

12 A