2012

FESTIVAL

SCHEDULE

   

    THUR, March 8 • NEXT Theatre at Noyes Cultural Arts Center • 7:30 PM


PINK RIBBONS, INC.

CANADA I 97 min I Director: Léa Pool

Breast cancer has become the poster child of corporate cause-related marketing campaigns. Countless women and men walk, bike, climb and shop for the cure. But despite the millions of dollars raised each year, breast cancer rates are rising and prevention is vastly under-funded. The recent spotlight on Susan G. Komen For the Cure lends even more urgency to the question: where does this money go and what does it actually achieve?


Veteran documentarian Léa Pool’s hard-hitting and timely PINK RIBBONS, INC traces the evolution of the breast cancer movement from something that encouraged meaningful civic participation to something that drives people to purchase products. Who really benefits, the cause or the company?


Discussion facilitated by Robyn Stoetzel, Breast Cancer Action and "Think Before You Pink” project.


The Talking Pictures Festival is proud to present this important film

in honor of International Women’s Day. 

Screening sponsored by the Mammel Foundation.




   FRI, March 9 • NEXT Theatre at Noyes Cultural Arts Center • 7 PM


2012 OSCAR SHORTS – LIVE ACTION

Time, space and love know no bounds in this program of Oscar-nominated short fiction films. In Peter McDonald’s PENTECOST (English, 11 min), sports analogies shed light on an altar boy’s dilemma concerning an important Mass in his community. In RAJU (German, 24 min), Max Zähle tells of a couple’s travels to India to adopt an orphaned boy and the recognition of their role in his sudden disappearance.


Terry George’s THE SHORE (English/Gaelic, 31 min) reunites two boyhood friends from Northern Ireland and uncovers a secret 25-year-old love triangle. Andrew Bowler’s TIME FREAK (English, 11 min) depicts an obsessed inventor who creates a time machine and hopes to ‘do over’ past missteps. TUBA ATLANTIC (Norwegian, 25 min) by Hallvar Witzø stars 70-year-old Oskar, who has only six days left to live, but wants to cross the Atlantic in a giant tuba to put things right with his brother. Program length: 110 min.


Screening sponsored by Downtown Evanston


 


    FRI, March 9 • NEXT Theatre at Noyes Cultural Arts Center • 9:15 PM               SOLD OUT


ANDREW BIRD: FEVER YEAR  

USA I 81 min. I Director: Xan Aranda                  

With his stirring vocals and distinctive musical sound, acclaimed singer-songwriter Andrew Bird has built an impressive international fan base. Filmed during Bird’s most rigorous year of touring, FEVER YEAR offers a look into the creative process of this remarkable contemporary musician and is the first to capture his complex multi-instrumental looping techniques.

Directed by Chicago filmmaker Xan Aranda, this highly engaging concert documentary has taken the film festival circuit by storm and features live performances with collaborators Martin Dosh, Jeremy Ylvisaker, Michael
Lewis, and Annie Clark of St. Vincent. Don’t miss this limited

opportunity to witness Andrew Bird’s unique musical style in action! 

With filmmaker Xan Aranda in person!


TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE FOR ENCORE  SCREENING: SAT, March 10, 4:30PM • NEXT THEATRE at NOYES CULTURAL ARTS CENTER



 

    FRI, March 9 • Northwestern University – Medill School of Journalism/McCormick Tribune Center • 6 PM



FAMBUL TOK

USA/Sierra Leone | 82 min. | Director: Sara Terry

Filmmaker Sara Terry tells a harrowing tale about post-conflict Sierra Leone through the intimate stories of perpetrators and victims. The ancient practice of fambul tok (family talk) is revived to set in motion an unprecedented program of tradition-based truth-telling and forgiveness ceremonies. Through this process, the Sierra Leoneans build a sustainable peace at the grass-roots level and achieve success where international efforts have failed. Cooperative farms have sprung up as a result, reflecting the community’s desire to find ways to continue working together. FAMBUL TOK challenges the neo-colonial concept that Africa needs to be “saved” by the West. Can individuals and communities in other parts of Africa and the world learn from these customs that lead to peace?


“This documentary echoes the recent grassroots revolutions in the Middle East, and it teaches

international communities that real hope for peace comes from the strength of local community and forgiveness.”

– SXSW Film Preview, The Austinist

Also playing will be a short video about restorative justice: MESSAGE MATTERS (5 min) by Chicago’s youth media organization Free Spirit Media.

Discussion facilitated by Charletta Erb, Restorative Justice Evanston


                                                                                     


     FRI, March 9 • Northwestern University – Medill School of Journalism/McCormick Tribune Center • 8:15 PM


JOFFREY: MAVERICKS OF AMERICAN DANCE

USA | 82 min. | Director: Bob Hercules

Since Joffrey Ballet’s early tours in a borrowed station wagon, its co-founders Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino revolutionized American ballet by daringly combining modern dance with traditional ballet technique, merging art with social statement and setting ballets to pop and rock music scores.


Directed by Evanston filmmaker Bob Hercules and executive produced by Jay Alix and Harold Ramis, JOFFREY skillfully interweaves a wealth of archival footage and photographs with interviews featuring former and current Joffrey star dancers. Showing the full history of the Company from its founding to the present, this film is an extraordinary chance for ballet fans to see rare passages from Joffrey works such as Astarte, Trinity and Billboards, and ground-breaking collaborations with choreographers Twyla Tharp (Deuce Coupe), Kurt Jooss (The Green Table) and Leonide Massine (Parade).


With filmmaker Bob Hercules and former Joffrey Ballet dancer and ballet master Charthel Arthur in person!




    SAT, March 10 • NEXT Theatre at Noyes Cultural Arts Center • 2:30 PM



ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE

USA I 65 min.I Director: Kelly Luchtman

In a time of foreclosures and mounting financial pressures, everybody is looking for innovative housing solutions. In her deft case study ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE, Chicago filmmaker Kelly Luchtman tells the story of a group of spirited Chicago artists who pool their resources and build a communal work/living space for like-minded creatives. With city approval and Mayor Daley at the ribbon cutting ceremony, the Acme Artists’ Community seemed an idealistic dream come true. But once these artists-turned-home-owners settled into their new building, the tremendous fall-out from continuous construction problems threatened the unity of the group. Will the realities of home ownership trump their dreams for an artistic community? 

Followed by a discussion with Director Kelly Luchtman, Co-Producer Thomas Gaunt

and artists and developers featured in the film.


Preceded by the painterly short animation FIUMANA (Italy) by Julia Gromskaya.




    SAT, March 10 • NEXT Theatre at Noyes Cultural Arts Center • 4:30 PM



ENCORE SCREENING:

ANDREW BIRD: FEVER YEAR




    SAT, March 10 • NEXT Theatre at Noyes Cultural Arts Center • 7:15 PM


FULLY LOADED

USA | 76 min. | Director: Shira Piven

Shira Piven, of Evanston’s renowned theatre family, returns to her hometown with FULLY LOADED, a wonderfully raunchy ride through night-time Los Angeles, chronicling the misadventures of two feisty single moms (former Chicagoan Paula Killen and Lisa Orkin) on a rare evening out. When a sexy hook-up with a total stranger (Dweezil Zappa) becomes a sketchy confrontation with reality, the women hit the road a little drunk, but high on love/lust and what might have been.
This dark comedy allows viewers to eavesdrop on the way women really feel about men and what they talk about when no one else is around. Hurtling through the night in a mini van, Killen and Orkin deliver a sassy, edgy take on what it means to be a single woman of a certain age. 

With Director Shira Piven and Writer/Producer Paula Killen in person!  

Attendees are invited to a reception hosted by the Piven Theatre Workshop after the Q&A.





    SAT, March 10 • NEXT Theatre at Noyes Cultural Arts Center • 9:15 PM


THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD OF SHORTS

Join us for a trip around the world with this diverse collection of shorts! Told with deadpan Finnish humor, Henri Savolainen’s 2B (Finland) depicts an elderly couple who eavesdrop on their neighbors, while James Cunningham’s witty animated FIRST CONTACT (New Zealand) explores why there’ve been fewer alien sightings lately. Karin longs to interrupt her daily routine as a metal factory worker in Anna Linke’s beautifully observed WORKERS LEAVING THE FACTORY (Germany). 


When her best friend pushes Cass to get over her ex-boyfriend, unexpected new directions open up in Becca Roth’s RAIN IN SUMMER (USA), while Rachel Mersky‘s MARTA (Czech Republic) takes us to 1980s Prague, where Marta just wants her activist dad and more cautious mom to stop quarreling. Plus other great animated and fiction films from Italy and the UK.




    SAT, March 10 • Northwestern University – Medill School of Journalism/McCormick Tribune Center • 1 PM     FREE EVENT


CHICAGO: UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Follow the next generation of filmmakers from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism as they navigate the gritty streets of the Second City. Capturing glimpses of the lives of everyday Chicagoans, these short films present us with stories we rarely hear. Filmmakers Yoonie Yang, Dan Tham and Ashley Gates etch an intimate portrait of a long-term AIDS survivor and activist battling against stereotypes in DIVA.


SHAPE OF SPACE by Ronnie Reese, Justin Eure and Leslie Magraw is a thoughtful exploration of the proposed razing of the Bertrand Goldberg-designed Prentice Women’s Hospital. From filmmakers Chris Bentley, Kris Husted and Matt O'Connor comes ANGELA’S GARDEN, a portrait of Angela Taylor who struggles with daily hardships while trying to maintain a community garden on the West Side. Ronnie Reese’s LOVE, DAD is the story of a reformed career burglar’s attempts to reconcile with his family after 30 years in prison. Also showing: BETHANY AND BUSTER and BREAK POINT.  Program length: 96 min.

Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers. Program curated by Medill Assistant Professor Brent Huffman.




    SAT, March 10 • Northwestern University – Medill School of Journalism/McCormick Tribune Center • 3:15 PM   


MISS REPRESENTATION

USA | 90 min. | Director: Jennifer Siebel Newsom

What is a woman’s worth? To the media, a woman’s worth is based on her youth, beauty and sexuality, and not her capacity as a leader. Filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom exposes how mainstream media contributes to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America. Using compelling stories from teenage girls and provocative interviews with prominent women leaders, MISS REPRESENTATION challenges the media’s limited and often disparaging portrayals of women.


“The film's message is unequivocal: The mainstream media has a double standard for women leaders." – Politico

A post-screening discussion will be facilitated by Gloria Woods and Professor Michael Armato, Northeastern Illinois University.

Co-presented with the YWCA Evanston/North Shore




    SAT, March 10 • Northwestern University – Medill School of Journalism/McCormick Tribune Center • 5:30 PM   FREE EVENT


REFUGEE LIVES

In our rapidly changing world, countless refugees are displaced from their homes on a daily basis. In December 2011, students from Medill School of Journalism’s RefugeeLives project traveled to Jordan, a locus of Palestinian, Syrian and Iraqi refugees. The students came back with an impressive slate of short documentaries that strive to faithfully capture the refugee experience. Also screening are works by young Jordan-based Palestinian filmmakers documenting their own refugee stories.


Followed by a discussion with Medill students and visiting Palestinian filmmakers. Program curated by Medill Assistant Professor Brent Huffman.


Please note: due to a scheduling conflict, Tim Sorel’s THE TRAP OF SAVING CAMBODIA which was previously part of this program will now play as part of SHORT FILM SPOTLIGHT, Sat, March 10, Evanston Public Library, 4pm, free event.




    SAT, March 10 • Northwestern University – Medill School of Journalism/McCormick Tribune Center • 8 PM


THE CITY DARK

USA I 84 min. I Director: Ian Cheney

Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered where all the stars have gone? This is the central premise of filmmaker Ian Cheney’s examination of light pollution in modern cities. After moving to New York City from rural Maine, Cheney became fascinated with the effect of unnatural light on our natural
environment.


With a subtle poetic touch, THE CITY DARK unravels the myriad implications of a globe glittering with lights — from the impact on hatching turtles along the Florida coast and injured birds on Chicago streets, increased breast cancer rates from exposure to light at night, to a generation of kids growing up without a glimpse of the universe above. Featuring stunning astrophotography and a cast of eclectic scientists, philosophers, historians, and lighting designers, THE CITY DARK is an enlightening story about light pollution and the disappearing stars.

“Entertaining and thought-provoking... this film makes you want to go find a

starry sky to camp under quickly, before it’s all gone.”– The New York Time

Screening sponsored by the ROC Group.

Discussion facilitated by Annette Prince, Chicago Bird Collision Monitors




    SAT, March 10 • Evanston Public Library • 1:30 PM    FREE EVENT


MY SO-CALLED ENEMY

USA | 89 min. | Director: Lisa Gossels

What happens when your enemy becomes your friend? The non-profit “Building Bridges for Peace” brought together 22 Palestinian and Israeli teenage girls to participate in a women’s leadership program.  Many had lost family and friends in a long-lasting conflict that shapes their world and touches their daily lives. MY SO-CALLED ENEMY follows six of the girls over the next seven years and records how their experience in the program has affected them. Director Lisa Gossels creates a rare kind of film proving the transformative power of knowing “the other,” finding the good in one’s enemy, and how those bonds can be tested by events beyond
anyone's control.

“A provocative, balanced film that offers unexpected hope for resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

–  Washington City Paper


Preceded by the short animated HOUSE (Jordan/Germany) by Ahmad Saleh.  

Discussion facilitated by Maham Kahn, Interfaith Youth Core, Alumni Speakers Bureau




    SAT, March 10 • Evanston Public Library • 4  PM   FREE EVENT


SHORT FILM SPOTLIGHT

Enjoy an afternoon of international shorts at the Talking Pictures Festival!  Black humor reigns in Keri Burrows’ AIR (UK), where the air on the planet all of a sudden becomes unbreathable and two unlikely heroes find each other as they struggle to survive. Kyra Buschor and Cynthia Collins’ animated ZING (Germany) shows the grim reaper in a battle of wills with a smart little girl.


Stephen Sues’ animated ADAIR (USA) begins with simple car trouble in Iowa before turning into a twisted Midwestern fever dream. Terrence Heuston’s MADDOGGIN’ (USA) takes us to the harsh streets of East L.A., where Pedro and Ernesto are pressured to join the local gang. The choices the boys make over a single day will alter their lives forever. Also playing are MIJO (USA), Chitra Jeyaram’s evocative portrayal of a mother-and-child relationship in the midst of life altering medical events; and David M. Lorenz and Darja Pilz’ dark comedy IN THE NICK OF TIME (Germany).


Recently added: The plight of internally displaced Cambodians represents just one of the harrowing moments in filmmaker Tim Sorel’s THE TRAP OF SAVING CAMBODIA. The film examines the struggles of NGO workers as they try to help the poor while facing a resistant government that annually receives more than a billion dollars in foreign aid from a host of countries like the United States and China.






    SUN, March 11 • NEXT Theatre at Noyes Cultural Arts Center • 1:30 PM


2012 OSCAR SHORTS – ANIMATION

A Talking Pictures Festival favorite: bring your family to see this year’s Oscar-nominated animated shorts!


Included are:  Patrick Doyon’s SUNDAY/DIMANCHE (Canada, 10 min) examines a dull Sunday afternoon through a young boy’s eyes. In THE FANTASTIC FLYING BOOKS OF MR. MORRIS LESSMORE (USA, 15 min), William Joyce blends animation styles and draws inspiration from hurricanes, tornadoes and books…oh my!


Pixar filmmaker Enrico Casaroasa’s LA LUNA (USA, 7 min) uses a fascination with the moon for this story of a boy, who learns about his father and grandfather’s strange profession. In Grant Orchard’s A MORNING STROLL (UK, 7 min) viewers speculate who is the real city slicker when a New Yorker passes a chicken on his morning walk. A young man’s move from England to Alberta to try ranching leads to a WILD LIFE (Canada, 13 min) in this Amanda Forbis film. Program length: 80 min.

Screening sponsored by Hilton Orrington Hotel.




   SUN, March 11 • NEXT Theatre at Noyes Cultural Arts Center • 3 PM 


MARIA MY LOVE

USA | 99 min. | Director: Jasmine McGlade Chazelle

Adrift after her mother's death and resentful of her father's past mistakes, twenty-something Ana (Judy Marte, Raising Victor Vargas) is searching for solid ground. Inspired by her new boyfriend and in an effort to feel better by helping others, Ana decides to lend a hand to Maria, a reclusive hoarder.


Played with great emotional resonance by Oscar-nominee Karen Black (5 Easy Pieces), Maria’s compulsive behavior has alienated her from her family and she only reluctantly lets Ana into her world. The two women become unlikely friends and confidantes, and Ana discovers their relationship to be more emotionally complex than expected, revealing more about herself than she might be ready for.


"Wonderfully played by Judy Marte… Her most compelling connection is to an elderly train wreck of a loner played by vet actor Karen Black in what is a genuine, even astonishing star turn… An incredible performance.”

–  Doris Toumarkine, Film Journal Internation
al




 

   SUN, March 11 • NEXT Theatre at Noyes Cultural Arts Center • 5 PM 


SHORTS FROM THE WINDY CITY

The arts soar in this great collection of Chicago-produced shorts: renowned documentarian Maria Finitzo directs a fictionalized account of her childhood ballet classes at Chicago’s legendary Stone Camryn School of Ballet in LIFE LESSONS; GIORGIO is Lisa Gildehaus’ humorous portrait of a showy Venetian street painter; and Mark Rogovin’s short BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT focuses on a cycle of late 1950s photographs of Black storefront churches by his father, noted photographer Milton Rogovin. Tom Palazzolo, who has been making films in Chicago since the 1960s, brings us VIVIAN MAIER PHOTOGRAPHER, a new short dedicated to the life, photography and mystery of street-photographer Vivian Maier. Also on the program are Julianne Hill’s lovely personal essay SO, MARY? and Mitch Apley’s hilarious take on magic realism and relationships in LIGHTER LIGHTNESS.


Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.




    SUN, March 11 • Northwestern University – Medill School of Journalism/McCormick Tribune Center • 2 PM


GRANITO: HOW TO NAIL A DICTATOR

USA I 103 min. I Director: Pamela Yates

Sometimes a film makes history; it doesn’t just document it. So it is with GRANITO: HOW TO NAIL A DICTATOR, the astonishing new film by Pamela Yates. Part political thriller, part memoir,
 Yates transports us back in time to 1982 and Guatemala’s genocide against the Mayan people, a story she documented at the time with her film When the Mountains Tremble. That film turned out to be the only documentary record of the Guatemalan civil war.


Fast-forward 28 years later and the earlier film becomes evidence in an international war-crimes case against the former commander of the army, while reuniting Yates with Rigoberta Menchú, now a Nobel laureate, and others who continue to contribute their granito (tiny grain of sand) in a continuing quest for the truth.



Followed by a discussion with Martha Pierce and Casa Guatemala’s Cesar Sanchez and Olegario Velasquez.




    SUN, March 11 • Northwestern University – Medill School of Journalism/McCormick Tribune Center • 5 PM


FAST TALK

USA | 56 min. | Director: Debra Tolchinsky

Can a breathless pace, gasps for air, and unintelligible arguments win another championship for Northwestern University’s debate team? Filmmaker and Northwestern University film professor Debra Tolchinsky spent a year following the team as they nervously prepare to defend their title under the tutelage of renowned coach Scott Deatherage. Infused with touches of whimsy, FAST TALK beautifully captures the intensity, drive and absurdity of the mile-a-minute world of college debate, while reflecting on the larger issue of our own accelerated lives.


“Fast Talk... is as confounding as it is fascinating. Following Northwestern University’s defending national champion debate team for a year, Tolchinsky reveals collegiate debate as a subculture that strikes outsiders as completely bizarre.” – A.V. Club Chicago

With filmmaker Debra Tolchinsky in person!  


Screening sponsored by Mt Everest Restaurant.




    SUN, March 11 •  Indigo Lounge, Hilton Orrington Hotel Evanston • 7 PM     FREE EVENT




IT’S A WRAP – FESTIVAL PARTY!


Gather with friends and visiting filmmakers, talk about the flicks you've seen and  join us for an end of the fest celebration in the Indigo Lounge of Hotel Hilton Orrington/Evanston, 1710 Orrington, Evanston. Free appetizers, cash bar.