The Rochester Teen Film Fest 2010 screening took place at the Little Theatre on August 4.  Congratulations to all the participants!

Best Comedy (Erich Fiederer):
Great Butt Race

Best Investigative Documentary (Amanda Ghysel, Molly Snell-Larch, Mary Rice, Meredith Jeffers, and Nahoma Presberg): 
Post Mortem

Best Special Effects (Taryn Ward):
Computer Chaos

Multicultural Awareness Award (Kadisha Phillips):
Teens Around the World

Strongest Emotional Impact (Khari Thompson):
Scars & Eyes

Best Animation (Davey Jarrell):
Typical Day at Work

Best Social Commentary (Joshua Matusak):
Addiction Crisis

Best Experimental Film (Dan Slaughter):
Moondance

Best Event Documentary (Evan Humphris):
Books Never Die

Best Music Video (Katie Epner):
Mouthwash

Best of Fest (In Control Program):
Unwanted

Presented by:



Waiting for “Superman” – playing at 9:15 pm at the Little Theatre (Monday, May 10).

Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim reminds us that education “statistics” have names: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, whose stories make up the engrossing foundation of WAITING FOR SUPERMAN. As he follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying “drop-out factories” and “academic sinkholes,” methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems.

WELCOME – will screen at 7pm at The Little tonight (Monday, May 10).

Thanks to everyone who voted!

Philippe Lioret, France 2009, 110 min., French with subtitles

A powerful drama with enormous contemporary relevance, Welcome follows Simon (the ruggedly handsome Vincent Lindon), a middle-aged swim instructor and former Olympic gold medalist living in Calais who reluctantly befriends Bilal (Firat Ayverdi), a Kurdish refugee and illegal alien. Hoping to swim the English Channel and be reunited with his true love in London, Bilal takes lessons from Simon, who is himself trying to patch up his own troubled marriage while facing increasing pressure from immigration authorities for sheltering Bilal. Moving and filled with engaging performances, director Lioret, who formerly served as a sound technician for Robert Altman, focuses on the frustrating and often humiliating experiences of immigrants, who travel enormous distances hoping to find work in wealthier countries, only to experience setbacks at the very end of their backbreaking voyages.

How many of the egg movie parodies have you seen so far?

Go behind the scenes on the Crystal Pix blog.

Saturday, May 8 • 7:15 pm • Little 1 • Debra Granik, US 2010, 100 min.

Winner of the U.S. Dramatic Competition’s Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Winter’s Bone is an undeniably compelling and decidedly offbeat amalgam of several traditional genres: the mystery-thriller, the southern gothic, and the western. In an isolated Missouri county
devastated by poverty and methamphetamine, teenaged Ree (Jennifer Lawrence) is a dropout and caretaker for her younger siblings and catatonic mother. Ree’s family faces foreclosure when the father who long-ago abandoned them skips bail on drug charges. Determined to keep her immediate family together, Ree heroically sets out to find out what happened to her father by confronting a terrifying and violent community that is not interested in discussing its dark side. With a vivid, detailed, and authentic sense of place, director Granik, along with her co-writer and co-producer Anne Rosellini, have created a unique American masterwork, and a worthy follow-up to their debut feature, Down to the Bone. Lawrence, as Ree, provides a star-making performance that is matched by a powerful turn from John Hawkes (Deadwood, Me and You and Everyone We Know) as Ree’s shadowy uncle, Teardrop.

Co-writer/Co-producer Anne Rosellini will be in attendance.

Sunday, May 9 • 7:45 pm • Little 5 | LOS VIAJES DEL VIENTO, Ciro Guerra, Colombia 2009, 117 min., Spanish with subtitles
The remote, rural and beautiful landscapes of Colombia serve as the backdrop for this spellbinding “road” movie with lots of wonderful, exhilarating music. Ignacio, a master accordion player who has recently suffered the loss of his wife, makes a journey through Northern Colombia to return his instrument to his mentor. At first accompanied only by his donkey, along the way Ignacio reluctantly accepts the company of Fermín, a young man determined to be a musician.The tension between the two travelers grows until it eventually finds release in the revelation of Ignacio’s troubled past. Exquisitely photographed and dramatically unsentimental, the film’s undeniable highlight is a “duel” between the older
protagonist and one region’s top accordion players, all of whom improvise their lyrics
and music.

Thursday, May 6 • 7 pm • Little 5 | Philippe Lioret, France 2009, 110 min., French with subtitles

A powerful drama with enormous contemporary relevance, Welcome follows Simon (the ruggedly handsome Vincent Lindon), a middle-aged swim instructor and former Olympic gold medalist living in Calais who reluctantly befriends Bilal (Firat Ayverdi), a Kurdish refugee and illegal alien. Hoping to swim the English Channel and be reunited with his true love in London, Bilal takes lessons from Simon, who is himself trying to patch up his own troubled marriage while facing increasing pressure from immigration authorities for sheltering Bilal. Moving and filled with engaging performances, director Lioret, who formerly served as a sound technician for Robert Altman, focuses on the frustrating and often humiliating experiences of immigrants, who travel enormous distances hoping to find work in wealthier countries, only to experience setbacks at the very end of their backbreaking voyages.

See the article about Adrian in this morning’s Democrat & Chronicle.

Sunday, May 9 • 3 pm • Curtis Theatre at George Eastman House | Adrian Esposito, 2010, US, 57 min.

In his search to understand his own disability, Asperger’s Syndrome, 21 year-old Rochester filmmaker Adrian Esposito explores what it would have been like for him, had he been born in 1944. The documentary interlaces the agonizing footage reporter Geraldo Rivera captured in 1972 at Willowbrook State School with contemporary interviews with survivors and self-advocates. It culminates with sequences of the achievements of modern-day people with developmental disabilities.

Prior to the film there will be a musical performance by local singer/songwriter Connie Deming, who is often inspired by her own son, who is diagnosed with autism.

Director Adrian Esposito will be in attendance.

Saturday, May 8 • 2:45 pm • Little 5 • Sunday, May 9 • 5 pm • Dryden • Lucy Walker, United Kingdom/Brazil 2010, 98 min.

Sure, art has the power to transform the human spirit, but in this vivid and inspiring documentary, it also creates dignity. Top-selling contemporary artist, Vik Muniz, who in fact has two works within George Eastman House’s permanent collection, fashions a new project in Jardim Gramacho, the world’s largest landfill, just outside Rio de Janeiro. By photographing the radiant catadores, the pickers of the recyclable materials, and then collaborating with them on the finished work, Muniz shows us that perhaps the most important thing to recycle is oneself. Director Lucy Walker (Devil’s Playground, Blindsight) focuses her keen eyes on the essence of humanity and sculpts a heart-opening film that you won’t soon forget.

Saturday, May 8 • 11 am • Dryden • Ted Kotcheff, Australia 1971, 109, min.

One of the most unforgettably intense movies ever made, Canadian director Ted Kotcheff’s journey into the Australian outback’s heart of darkness has returned to the screen after nearly forty years in a new 35mm restoration. John Grant (Gary Bond), a young school teacher in a remote outpost, travels to Sydney for his summer holidays, but enroute, he gets waylaid in a rough mining town. “Befriended” by the locals, including a debauched doctor (the mesmerizing Donald Pleasence), John embarks on an extended lost weekend of gambling, kangaroo hunting, and lots of drinking. A sometimes savage tale of self-destruction, Wake in Fright, which was titled Outback for its U.S. release, was recently re-released to great success and critical acclaim in Australia, and has been making its way around the North American film festival circuit, finding renewed enthusiasm from audiences and critics like Roger Ebert, who proclaimed that “It’s not dated. It is powerful, genuinely shocking, and rather amazing.”

Director Kotcheff, whose later films included “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz”, “North Dallas Forty”,
and “First Blood” will be with us in person to talk about the movie that certified him as a significant filmmaker.