2011 Mendocino Film Festival Program Book by Mendocino Film Festival

Mendocino

FILM

FESTIVAL June 3-5, 2011

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Sponsored by Kemgas.

Mendocino Film Festival 2011

SPECIAL EVENTS FRIDAY NIGHT SILENTS Produced by George Russell, MFF Program Director, 2008

This program made possible by the generous support of the The Coast KOZT Radio.

Silent films produced in the first three and a half decades of cinema were rarely silent. From the neighborhood nickelodeons with their pianists and violinists to the picture palaces with their Wurlitzer organs and pit orchestras, silent films were meant to be accompanied by music. Silent films with live music were a cinematic Esperanto, a true universal language, lost with the coming of sound-on-film and dialogue. In the last thirty years, contemporary composers and musicians, both solo and in ensembles, have discovered the deathless visual language of silent cinema and have given it a new musical voice. This voice has an astonishing range. All manner of instrumentation as well as compositional and improvisational styles, from the traditional to the decidedly un-, have “set” silent films which are eighty, ninety and more than a hundred years old. In skilled hands, these new settings are both complementary and exciting.

Special Event

Silent Movies with Live Music Return to the Mendocino Film Festival! Friday, June 3, 8:00 pm, Crown Hall, $10

Our program of Friday Night Silents is performed by the wonderful and adept Eggplant Cinema Ensemble 2011 from San Francisco. They are: Michael Cavaseno, guitar and effects; Todd Grady, trumpet; Dave Mihaly, marimba and percussion; Bill Noertker, bass; Sanjay Pardanani, percussion and cajon; Annelise Zamula, saxophone and flute. Eggplant Cinema Ensemble 2011 has chosen this program and has set it to music especially prepared for this evening. In this day, as in their day, these silent films with live musical accompaniment are intended for audiences of all ages. We invite all of you to join us at Friday Night Silents!

WOMEN BEHIND THE CAMERA: COFFEE AND CONVERSATION Saturday, June 4, 11:00 am, Little River Inn Abalone Room, $10

This program made possible by the generous support of Little River Inn.

Join us for an intimate conversation with three women directors, Dayna Goldfine, Nancy Kelly, and Jen McGowan, all of whom have brought films to this year’s Festival. They will discuss the role of documentary and narrative women directors in the industry and entertain questions posed by the audience. For over twenty years, Emmy Award-winning director/producer DAYNA GOLDFINE, together with her partner, Dan Geller, has created critically-acclaimed multi-character documentary narratives including Ballets Russes, Now and Then: From Frosh to Seniors, Isadora Duncan: Movement From the Soul, Something Ventured (screening in Mendocino) and more. NANCY KELLY is a multi-award winning producer/director who has directed the documentaries Smitten, Downside Up, Cowgirls, Sweeping Ocean Views, A Cowhand’s Song, Trust (screening in Mendocino) and the critically-acclaimed dramatic feature film Thousand Pieces of Gold. Kelly collaborates with her husband, Kenji Yamamoto, as a co-director on Trust. JEN McGOWAN (pictured left) began her career studying acting at NYU and then directing at USC. Her thesis film, Confessions of a Late Bloomer, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Touch, which screens in Mendocino’s Short Films program, premiered and won at the Oscarqualifying Florida Film Festival. Jen is currently prepping her first feature film.

Where’s Aggie? Mendocino local Rich “Aggie” Aguilar, a veteran Hollywood lighting designer and gaffer on more than 80 feature films including Paper Moon, Easy Rider, and On Golden Pond, often worked with famed cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs. Aggie is now working on a screenplay, “Hold Your Horses,” a family comedy that he’d like to shoot in Mendocino. Say hello when you see him at the Festival!

Mendocino Film Festival 2011

Aggie Aguilar (left) with Laszlo Kovacs at the inaugural Mendocino Film Festival in 2006.

SHORT FILMS ON THE MOVE: TEN SHORT FILMS Friday, June 3, 3:00 pm, Crown Hall, $10 Sunday, June 5, 4:30 pm, Crown Hall, $10

Whether on the move or moving on, these characters and stories warmly illuminate our interconnections. GLENN OWEN DODDS

Short Films

(Q&A with filmmakers after screening)

Glenn Owen Dodds Directed by Frazer Bailey You want the meaning of life? You’ve got 5 minutes. (5 min.)

Paul Rondin is…Paul Rondin Directed by Frederick Vin Paul Rondin, the man behind that movie trailer voice, seeks love but can’t separate himself from his work. (10 min.) Audience Award, Canadian Film Center’s Worldwide Short Film Festival.

The Lost Thing Directed by Shaun Tan A boy finds a strange creature on a beach, and decides to find a home for it in a world where everyone believes there are far more important things to pay attention to. (15 min.) Academy Award® Winner, Best Animated Short. GOD OF LOVE

Table 7 Directed by Marko Slavnic A couple has an intimate conversation in a restaurant, unaware that their every word is being closely monitored. (5 min.)

The Translator Directed by Sonya Di Rienzo While riding the subway with her boyfriend, a foreign film translator comes to an unexpected stop. (8 min.)

The Wednesdays

TOUCH

Directed by Conor Ferguson Sometimes, when you’re in the autumn of your days, you’ll try anything just to put a smile on your face again. (13 min.) Winner of 15 international awards, including Audience Award, ClermontFerrand Short Film Festival; Best Narrative Short, Oxford Film Festival.

Flawed Directed by Andrea Dorfman. What is beauty? A fresh take on a universal story. (5 min.)

Tourist Directed by Matej Subieta A short story proving that sunshine and the human smile remain unchanged in time. (10 min.)

Touch Directed by Jen McGowan Sometimes the most important connection in your life happens with a complete stranger. (10 min.) Winner Grand Jury Award Best Short Film, Florida Film Festival; Best of the Fest, Palm Springs ShortFest; Best Short Film, San Diego Film Festival. TOURIST

This program is made possible by the generous support of Mel & Susan McKinney.

God of Love Directed by Luke Matheny A lovestruck, lounge-singing darts champion finds his prayers are answered—literally—when he mysteriously receives a box of love-inducing darts. (18 min.) Academy Award Winner®, Best LiveAction Short.

Mendocino Film Festival 2011

SHORT FILMS for KIDS Sunday, June 5, 11:00 am, Matheson Performing Arts Center, $5

THE LOST THING

Since the early 1900’s, animated stories have brought delight to young and old. Join us as we present four of the most charming examples of animated film, including the 2011 Academy Award® winner, The Lost Thing. These offerings are appropriate for kids from 7 to 107. Parent/guardian advisory: Higglety Pigglety Pop includes some material that may be scary for a child aged 6 or under. (88 minutes)

short films for kids

ANIMATED SHORT FILMS FOR KIDS OF ALL AGES

MOLLY IN SPRINGTIME

Molly in Springtime Directed by Pierre-Luc Granjon It’s carnival in Balthasarville and the scoundrel Bonifacio is scheming to overthrow Léon and become King Quack. But he’s outsmarted by Molly Gingerbread and her friend Hedgehog, who manage to save the townspeople Bonifacio has poisoned. This puppet animation by Pierre-Luc Granjon tells a medieval tale of treachery and love. (26 minutes) Winner Best in Show in all Genres, World Media Festival, Canada; Grand Prize in Excellence, Alliance for Children and Television Awards, Canada.

Higglety Pigglety Pop! Directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski HIGGLETY PIGGLETY POP!

Once Jennie had everything. She had two bowls to eat from, two pillows, and for cold weather, a red wool sweater. She even had a master who loved her. But Jennie didn’t care. In the middle of the night she packed everything she had in a black leather bag with gold buckles and looked out of her favorite window for the last time. Based on the book by Maurice Sendak. With the voices of Meryl Streep and Forest Whitaker. (23 minutes)

Lost and Found Directed by Philip Hunt

LOST AND FOUND

This program is made possible by the generous support of Dr. James Mattson, DDS.

Lost and Found is a charming animated tale based on the best-selling children’s book by Oliver Jeffers. Academy Award winner Jim Broadbent narrates the story of a little boy who finds a lost penguin on his doorstep. Sensing the penguin is unhappy to be so far from home, the boy decides to row him all the way back to the South Pole. (24 minutes) Winner of BAFTA for Best Children’s Animation and a total of 58 International Awards.

Mendocino Film Festival 2011

FEATURE PROGRAMS The Athlete Directed by Davey Frankel & Rasselas Lakew

“A visually ravishing, revelatory mixed-medium narrative of the great Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila. A global indie film that could have been made by David Lean – it’s that quietly epic in scope and ambition.” – Montreal Gazette

This program is made possible by the generous support of Dharma Cloud Foundation.

Narrative

Showing: Friday, June 3, 8:00 pm, Matheson Performing Arts Center, $10

Running the streets of Rome in 1960, an unknown, barefoot Ethiopian man stunned the world by winning Olympic gold in the marathon. Overnight, Abebe Bikila became a sports legend. A hero in his own country and to the continent, Bikila was the first African to win a gold medal and, four years later in Tokyo, the first person in history to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in the marathon. This soldier and quiet son of a shepherd is considered by many the greatest long-distance runner in history. But his life story only began with Olympic medals. One evening while returning to his home in Addis Ababa after training in the Ethiopian countryside, fate would present this remarkable champion with his greatest challenge; to dig deep within, not just to run the next mile, but to find the will to live. The race of his life had a new beginning and would lead him to places he could never have imagined. (93 minutes) Best of Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival; Best of Festival, Minneapolis International Film Festival; Audience Award, Berkshires International Film Festival; Audience Award, Tarifa Spain Film Festival; Lions Award Rotterdam Film Festival.

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo Showing: Saturday, June 4, 11:00 am, Matheson Performing Arts Center, $10 “Bewitching…an entrancing take on the world in miniature.” – The Village Voice

This program is made possible by the generous support of KZYX & Z Radio.

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo explores the mystery of the development of Japan’s love affair with bugs. Like a great detective story, the film untangles the web of influences behind Japan’s captivation with insects. It opens in modern-day Tokyo where a single beetle recently sold for $90,000 then slips back to the early 1800s, to the first cricket-selling business and the development of haiku and other forms of insect literature and art. Through history and adventure, Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo travels all the way back in time to stories of the fabled first emperor who named Japan the “Isle of the Dragonflies.” Using insects like an anthropologist’s toolkit, the film uncovers Japanese philosophies that will shift Westerners’ perspectives on nature, beauty, life, and even the seemingly mundane realities of their day-to-day routines. (52 minutes) Cinema Eye Spotlight Award; CineVegas Special Jury Award for Artistic Vision

Documentary

Directed by Jessica Oreck

Preceded by: The Walk

A film by William Farley and Hyeyon Moon. Written by William Farley with poems read by John O’Keefe (Q&A with filmmakers after screening). A visual poem celebrating a walk which is always the same and always different. (9 minutes)

Preceded by: Water and Dust

Directed by Nicholas Berger (Q&A with filmmaker after screening). Milton Hebald, an accomplished sculptor in the latter years of his life, reflects on the connections between art and immortality as he creates one of his final works: a self-portrait. But this is no ordinary self-portrait: in the spirit of his belief that the artist can live on his work, Hebald makes plans to have his remains literally incorporated into the sculpture after his death. (4 minutes)

Preceded by: Art:21 – Hiroshi Sugimoto WATER AND DUST

Produced & directed by Susan Sollins. “To me photography functions as a fossilization of time,” says Tokyo-born Hiroshi Sugimoto, who uses traditional photographic techniques to produce images that preserve memory and time. “I start feeling that this is the creation of the universe and I am witnessing it,” he says of his black-and-white seascapes. (13 minutes)

Mendocino Film Festival 2011

FEATURE PROGRAMS Burden of Dreams Showing: Sunday, June 5, 4:30 pm, Matheson Performing Arts Center, FREE “One of the best 100 films of the 20th century.” – Derek Malcolm, The Guardian, London

This program made possible by the generous support of Maurice Kanbar.

An extraordinary feature-length documentary about the messianic German director Werner Herzog struggling against desperate odds in the Amazon basin to make his epic feature, Fitzcarraldo. Roger Ebert declared, “Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams is one of the most remarkable documentaries ever made about the making of a movie. There are at least two reasons for that. One is that the movie being made involved some of the most torturous and dangerous on-location shooting experiences in film history. The other is that the documentary is by Les Blank, himself a brilliant filmmaker, who is unafraid to ask difficult questions and portray Herzog, warts and all.” (95 minutes) British Academy Award for Best Documentary of 1982.

Documentary

Directed by Les Blank. Edited by Maureen Gosling. (Q&A with filmmaker & editor after screening)

Desert of Forbidden Art Showing: Sunday, June 5, 2:00 pm, Matheson Performing Arts Center, $10 “Stranger than fiction several times over…a remarkable documentary.” – Kenneth Turan, LA Times

This program made possible by the generous support of Kemgas.

How does art survive in a time of oppression? During the Soviet rule, artists who stay true to their vision are executed, or sent to mental hospitals or Gulags. Their plight inspires young Igor Savitsky. He pretends to buy state-approved art but instead daringly rescues 40,000 forbidden fellow artists’ works and creates a museum in the desert of Uzbekistan, far from the watchful eyes of the KGB. Though a penniless artist himself, he cajoles the cash to pay for the art from the same authorities who are banning it. Savitsky amasses an eclectic mix of Russian Avant-Garde art. But his greatest discovery is an unknown school of artists who settle in Uzbekistan after the Russian revolution of 1917, encountering a unique Islamic culture, as exotic to them as Tahiti was for Gauguin. They develop a startlingly original style, fusing European modernism with centuries-old Eastern traditions. (80 minutes) Audience Award, Beijing International Film Festival; Cine Golden Eagle Award; Best Documentery, Palm Beach International Film Festival

Films on the Arts

Directed by Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev.

Preceded by: Fu-De (The Brush) Directed by Charlie Corriea (Q&A with filmmaker after screening). A Japanese artist fights to control his creation from within in this hand drawn and painted short animated film. (6 minutes)

Art:21 Art:21 – Art in the Twenty-First Century Produced and directed by Susan Sollins Art:21 is a series of films on international artists now in its sixth year. The films introduce us to today’s most accomplished artists as they create works reflecting timely global issues. Through indepth profiles and dynamic behind-the-scenes footage, these powerful short films reveal a broad range of artistic practice, technical innovation and experimentation, from artists tackling largescale collaborative projects in hangar-like studios to those working in more intimate studio settings. Art:21 travels the world to film artists in their own environments, and in their own words. Featured artists selected for this year’s Mendocino Film Festival include: Hiroshi Sugimoto, Cai Guo-Qiang and Krzysztof Wodiczko. We have woven these short films throughout the festival by programming each of them with a feature film that resonates with similar issues or themes. Showing times for Art:21 films are listed with the Feature Programs.

Mendocino Film Festival 2011

FEATURE PROGRAMS Feathered Cocaine Directed by Örn Marino Arnarson and Thorkell S. Hardarson

“A fascinating provocation that disputes much of what we hear about the war on terror.” – International Documentary Film Association jury introduction.

This program made possible by the generous support of Leonard Moore Cooperative.

Narrative

Showing: Friday, June 3, 12:30 pm, Matheson Performing Arts Center, $10

Alan Howell Parrot is one of the world’s leading falcon trainers with powerful connections in the Middle East, where he trained hunting falcons for the Persian Gulf power elite, including the King of Saudi Arabia, the President of the United Arab Emirates and the Shah of Iran. After witnessing relentless falcon smuggling in the wake of the USSR’s collapse, he left the Middle East and formed a global nature conservation group with like-minded people to protect the falcons. Through his connections, Mr. Parrot learned of the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden, who is an obsessed falconer. He relayed this information to various agencies within the Bush administration from 2005-2008 (the FBI, CIA, NSA, and NCS) but only met silence or obstruction. None tried to speak to the one man that says he has gone falconry hunting with Osama Bin Laden six times since 2004. In 2009, Parrot submitted his findings to the Rewards for Justice program and to date has not heard back. Feathered Cocaine reveals geopolitics, terrorism, petrodollars, and nature conservation in an intriguing and unlikely cocktail that sheds light on how business is conducted in the global merry-go round of money and politics. The falcons link it all together. (80 minutes) Icelandic Academy Award, Best Documentary; Official selection: HotDocs, Tribeca Film Festival, Big Sky Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival

Preceded by: Art:21—Cai Guo-Qiang Produced and directed by Susan Sollins

CAI GUO-QIANG

“My work is sometimes like the poppy flower. It has this almost romantic side, but yet it also represents a poison,” says Cai Guo-Qiang, who harnesses the explosive power of gunpowder to create epic works that are born in violent on-site acts of performance. For his show “Inopportune” at MASS MoCA, Cai explores catastrophe, pain and the meaning of terrorism in the world since September 11th with an installation of tumbling cars that follow a path through the air. In neighboring galleries, a video imagines a car bomb in Times Square and a series of stuffed tigers pierced by arrows elicits a disturbing, visceral reaction. “Behind all this is a very earnest and frank look at our society today,” says Cai. (14 minutes)

Guilty Pleasures Showing: Sunday, June 5, 2:00 pm, Crown Hall, $10

This program made possible by the generous support of Understuff! and Gallery Bookshop & Bookwinkle’s Children’s Books..

Demure Japanese housewife Hiroko yearns to be swept off her feet by a dashing David Beckham look-alike. When she takes up ballroom dancing lessons with dishy Mr. Iijima, will fantasy become reality? Feisty Indian princess Shumita has grown tired of playing the victim since her debonair husband left her for a younger woman. Deep down she knows she’s a romance novel hero. But her knight in shining armor has his dark side: together they must find a way to hold onto their happy ending. Sexy romance cover model Stephen can get any woman he wants. But he won’t settle for anything less than his ‘eternal flame’ and he’s having trouble finding her. Glamorous author Gill Sanderson delivers five Harlequin Mills & Boon romance titles a year to her devoted readers across the world. Little do they know, Gill is in fact Roger, a pensioner writing from a small trailer in the Lake District. Five heroes, four continents, one dream of true love. Because real life begins where romance novels end. (86 minutes) Official selection Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

Mendocino Film Festival 2011

Documentary

Directed by Julie Moggan (Q&A with local author Jody Gehrman after screening)

FEATURE PROGRAMS Directed by Roko Belic (Q&A with filmmaker after screening)

Showing: Saturday, June 4, 11:00 am, Crown Hall, $10 “An uplifting study of that surprisingly elusive state of being.” – Transformational Media

This program made possible by the generous support of Mendocino Solar Service.

Yes, this is a movie about happiness. Does money make you happy? Kids and family? Your work? Do you live in a world that values and promotes happiness and well-being? Are we in the midst of a happiness revolution? Roko Belic, multi award-winning director of the Academy Award® nominated Genghis Blues, and Co-Producer of Beyond the Call, now brings us Happy, a film that sets out to answer these questions and more, taking us to over 14 countries, from the bayou of Louisiana to the desert of Namibia, from the beaches of Brazil to the villages of Okinawa. From a scientist scanning brains in his lab to a rickshaw puller in the streets of Kolkata, we learn amazing truths about happiness. (75 minutes) Official Selection: Arizona International Film Festival, Rincon International Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival.

Directed by Jeff Malmberg

Showing: Saturday, June 4, 8:00 pm, Matheson Performing Arts Center, $10 “Unpredictable and absorbing, Marwencol poses penetrating questions – about art, outsider status, the mysteries of the human brain and the possibility of second chances – all while circling, ever closer, an unforgettable individual and the unknowable creative impulse.” – Hollywood Reporter

This program made possible by the generous support of Kemgas.

Films on the Arts

Marwencol

Films For Our Future

Happy

Marwencol is a documentary about the fantasy world of Mark Hogancamp. After being beaten into a brain-damaging coma by five men outside a bar, Mark builds a 1/6th scale World War II-era town in his backyard. Mark populates the town he dubs “Marwencol” with dolls representing his friends and family and creates life-like photographs detailing the town’s many relationships and dramas. Playing in the town and photographing the action helps Mark to recover his hand-eye coordination and deal with the psychic wounds of the attack. When Mark and his photographs are discovered, a prestigious New York gallery sets up an art show. Suddenly Mark’s homemade therapy is deemed “art,” forcing him to choose between the safety of his fantasy life in Marwencol and the real world that he’s avoided since the attack. (83 minutes) Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary, South by Southwest Film Festival; Emerging Filmmaker Award, International Documentary Association; Independent Spirit Award, Truer Than Fiction; Cinematic Vision Award, SilverDocs; Best Overall Film, Comic-Con; Best Documentary, Rotten Tomatoes

Preceded by: Crooked Beauty Directed by Ken Paul Rosenthal (Q&A with filmmaker after screening)

CROOKED BEAUTY

Crooked Beauty is a poetic documentary that chronicles artist-activist Jacks McNamara’s transformative journey from childhood abuse to psych ward patient to pioneering mental health advocacy. It is an intimate portrait of her intense personal quest to live with courage and dignity, and a powerful critique of standard psychiatric treatments. Poignant testimonials connect the fissures and fault lines of human nature to the unstable topography and mercurial weather patterns of the San Francisco Bay Area. Crooked Beauty reshapes mental health stigmas through a new healing culture and political model for living with madness as a tool of creativity, inspiration and hope. (30 minutes)

Mendocino Film Festival 2011

FEATURE PROGRAMS My Perestroika Showing: Sunday, June 5, 11:00 am, Crown Hall, $10 “Hessman possesses an East-West street cred that pays off in spades with her honestly reflective and unselfconscious subjects. A Glasnost-worthy openness shines through every face.” – Slant Magazine

This program made possible by the generous support of an anonymous donor.

My Perestroika follows five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times — from their sheltered Soviet childhood, to the collapse of the Soviet Union during their teenage years, to the constantly shifting political landscape of post-Soviet Russia. Together, these childhood classmates paint a complex picture of the dreams and disillusionment of those raised behind the Iron Curtain. A Soviet style 42 Up and every bit as fascinating. (88 minutes) Special Jury Award AFI/Discovery Channel; Official selection: Sundance Film Festival, SilverDocs Documentary Film Festival, HotDocs, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

Documentary

Directed by Robin Hessman

Pianomania: In Search of the Perfect Sound Showing: Saturday, June 4, 5:00 pm, Crown Hall, $10 “A joyful, often funny look at a majestic instrument, and the men who have devoted their lives to it. Pianomania is full of surprises – prepare yourself for an emotional ride.” – Sheffield Doc/Fest

This program made possible by the generous support of Dr. Richard Louis Miller; Wilbur Hot Springs Health Sanctuary.

Pianomania takes you into the secret world of sounds — a place where passion and the pursuit of perfection collide with artistic obsession and a little bit of madness. As Steinway & Sons’ chief technician and Master Tuner in Vienna, Stefan Knüpfer is dedicated to the unusual task of pairing world-class instruments with world-famous pianists. Juggling the demands of the pianist, the piano, and the piece to find the perfect match requires boundless enthusiasm, but also endless patience and nerves of steel. No detail is too small or too inconsequential for Knüpfer, not even the tiniest speck of dust on a piano string. Pianomania is a humorous and surprisingly suspenseful peek into the heated clash of wills between a genius craftsman and the renowned pianists who rely on his talent – including Lang Lang, Alfred Brendel, Rudolf Buchbinder and Pierre-Laurent Aimand – as they search together for that elusive perfect tone. (93 minutes) Golden Gate Award for Best Documentary San Francisco International Film Festival; Nominated Best Documentary European Film Awards

Documentary

Directed by Robert Cibis and Lilian Franck (Q&A with Susan Waterfall after screening)

The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming Directed by Norman Jewison

“This is the perfect big screen classic for locals! Come join the fun created by masters of comedy, while enjoying both familiar and historical glimpses of Mendocino and Fort Bragg.” – Jone Lemos

This program made possible by the generous support of Maurice Kanbar.

Stop by the

Kelley House Museum

to see photographs and memorabilia of the 1965 filming of “The Russians Are Coming.” The Kelley House is open Friday - Monday from 11:00 am - 3:00 pm on Albion Street.

Narrative

Showing: Saturday, June 4, 8:00 pm, Crown Hall, $10

A Russian submarine runs aground near a small New England town, and it’s up to Lt. Rozanov (Alan Arkin) as the Russians’ second-in-command to covertly secure a towboat to avoid an international confrontation. When he hooks up with residents such as Walt Whittaker (Carl Reiner) and the police chief (Brian Keith), all hell breaks loose. This classic 1966 comedy, directed by Norman Jewison, was released at the height of the Cold War. Although set on the fictional “Gloucester Island” off the coast of Massachusetts, the movie was filmed mainly in Mendocino. The harbor scenes were filmed in Fort Bragg’s Noyo Harbor. Because of the filming location on the West Coast, the dawn scene at the beginning of the film was actually filmed at dusk through a pink filter. First movie to be filmed in its entirety on the Mendocino Coast. (126 minutes) Nominated for 4 Academy Awards® including Best Picture, Best Actor Alan Arkin, Best Screenplay, Best Editing; Winner Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture, Comedy, and Best Actor, Alan Arkin. Winner Writer’s Guild of America award for Best Comedy.

Mendocino Film Festival 2011

FEATURE PROGRAMS Something Ventured Showing: Saturday, June 4, 2:00 pm, Matheson Performing Arts Center, $10 “Writing the check is the easy part...” – Arthur Rock, early investor in Apple “It became clear so quickly that there was such enthusiasm for bringing transformative technologies to the world. I wouldn’t say that money was incidental—money was important—but the overwhelming enthusiasm was for taking these brilliant ideas and these inchoate technologies and making something earth-shattering with them. That’s the energy, I think, that comes through in these stories.” – Dan Geller, Co-Director.

This program made possible by the generous support of Old Gold.

Documentary

Directed by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine (Q&A with filmmakers after screening)

Something Ventured tells the story of the creation of an industry that went on to become the single greatest engine of innovation and economic growth in the 20th century. It is told by the visionary risk-takers who dared to make it happen…Tom Perkins, Don Valentine, Arthur Rock, Dick Kramlich and others. The film also includes some of our finest entrepreneurs sharing how they worked with these venture capitalists to grow world-class companies like Intel, Apple, Cisco, Atari, Genentech, Tandem and others. Beginning in the late 1950’s, this small group of high rollers fostered a one-of-a-kind business culture that encouraged extraordinary risk and made possible unprecedented rewards. They laid the groundwork for America’s start-up economy, providing not just the working capital but the guidance to allow seedling companies to reach their full potential. Our lives would be dramatically different without the contributions that these venture capitalists made to the creation of PCs, the Internet and life-saving drugs. (84 minutes) Official selection South by Southwest Film Festival

Today’s Special Directed by David Kaplan (Q&A with filmmaker after screening)

“Smart, sexy, and delicious.” – Jan Wahl, KRON-TV

This program made possible by the generous support of Ravens’ Restaurant at the Stanford Inn.

Today’s Special is a heartwarming comedy with a culinary flavor. Samir (Aasif Mandvi of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Last Airbender) is a sous chef who dreams of becoming the head chef at an upscale Manhattan restaurant. When he is passed over for a promotion he impulsively quits and lets his co-worker Carrie (Jess Weixler, Teeth) know that he intends to go to Paris and apprentice under a master French chef. But fate has different plans, as Samir is forced to take over the Tandoori Palace, the nearly bankrupt family restaurant in Jackson Heights. The screenplay is based on the Obie-winning play by Aasif Mandvi, who also co-wrote and stars in the film. (99 minutes) London Film Festival World Premiere; Best of the Fest Palm Springs International Film Festival; Official Selection San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.

GREEN UP!

Narrative

Showing: Saturday, June 4, 5:00 pm, Matheson Performing Arts Center, $10

GEAR UP!

Join Us in the Greening of the Festival

Hemp Hats Only at the Mendocino Film Festival

Bring your own reusable coffee mug or water bottle and enjoy local organic popcorn and apples, Thanksgiving free-trade coffee, and Mendocino well water. Enjoy walking to our village venues and please help by recycling your programs. This program is printed with recycled This program is made possible by the generous paper helping to keep waste down and sustainability up. support of The Temple of Kwan Tai. The UV technology used to set the inks does not send CO2 or VOCs into the atmosphere.

Visit the Mendocino Film Festival Headquarters at Oddfellows Hall, at the corner of Kasten and Ukiah Streets, for Festival merchandise and memorabilia, including t-shirts, caps, wine-totes and more.

FILL UP!

Locally-Sourced Concessions at our Venues Thanks to our locally-sourced concession donors including Thanksgiving Coffee, Corners of the Mouth, Whispering Pines, the Apple Farm, and Fort Bragg Bakery for keeping our audiences fed and happy.

Mendocino Film Festival 2011

FEATURE PROGRAMS Trust: Second Acts in Young Lives Showing: Friday, June 3, 3:00 pm, Matheson Performing Arts Center, $10 “Trust captures a youth theater project at its most intimate and powerful moments, demonstrating the capacity of art to transform and inspire the lives of young people.” – The Huffington Post

This program made possible by the generous support of Dharma Cloud Foundation.

Documentary

Directed by Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto (Q&A with filmmakers after screening)

Trust: Second Acts in Young Lives is a feature-length verite documentary about 18-year old Marlin, a survivor of rape who shares her story and, in its transformation to theater, heals herself and finds a new community. Trust starts in a theater as a group of teenage actors receive a standing ovation, then takes us back to the beginning, when an 18- year-old woman from Honduras tells a story about her life to the company. An amazing thing unfolds as these kids, members of Chicago’s Albany Theater Project (APTP), transform the story into a daring, original play. Trust is about creativity and the unexpected resources inside people you might discount because they are poor or young. (78 minutes) Official selections: San Francisco International Women’s Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, Starz Denver Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival.

Preceded by: Art:21 – Krzysztof Wodiczko Produced and directed by Susan Sollins

KRZYSZTOF WODICZKO

Through grand scale audio-video projects in public spaces, Krzysztof Wodiczko transforms national monuments and architectural façades into “bodies” as he collaborates with communities to get people to “break the code of silence, to open up and speak about what’s unspeakable.” Born of a Jewish mother who escaped the ghetto in World War II Poland, Wodiczko has been deeply affected by the devastation of war and violence all his life. In Hiroshima, he works with tearful survivors of the atomic bomb, helping them “to open up and share with the world what is so painful” through a commemorative projection. In Tijuana, he projects the faces of women onto the spherical façade of the city’s cultural center as they tell detailed stories of being abused. (14 minutes)

Directed by Maryam Henein & George Langworthy (Q&A with local organic bee experts after screening. Hosted by Richard Heinberg, internationally-recognized ecological author and educator.)

Showing: Friday, June 3, 12:30 pm, Crown Hall, $10 “The most important documentary film since An Inconvenient Truth.” – Filmstar

This program made possible by the generous support of Mendocino Solar Service.

Honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing across the planet, literally vanishing from their hives. Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, this phenomenon has brought beekeepers to crisis in an industry responsible for producing apples, broccoli, watermelon, onions, cherries and a hundred other fruits and vegetables. Commercial honeybee operations pollinate crops that make up one out of every three bites of food on our tables. Vanishing of the Bees follows commercial beekeepers David Hackenberg and Dave Mendes as they strive to keep their bees healthy and fulfill pollination contracts across the U.S. The film explores the struggles they face as the two friends plead their case on Capital Hill and travel across the Pacific Ocean in the quest to protect their honeybees. Filming across the US, in Europe, Australia and Asia, this documentary examines the alarming disappearance of honeybees and the greater meaning it holds about the relationship between mankind and mother earth. As scientists puzzle over the cause, organic beekeepers indicate alternative reasons for this tragic loss. Conflicting opinions abound and after years of research, a definitive answer has not been found to this harrowing mystery, though there are helpful insights from abroad. (90 minutes) Best Documentary Idyllwild Film Festival; Official Selection: Colorado Environmental Film Festival; International Wildlife Film Festival; San Francisco Documentary Film Festival.

Mendocino Film Festival 2011

Films For Our Future

Vanishing of the Bees

MAP OF VENUES & ADVERTISERS 2

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South of Mendocino

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955 Ukiah St. Restaurant...................................................Page 6 Agate Cove Inn................................................................Page 20 Albion River Inn & Restaurant..........................................Page 6 Alegria Inn B&B..............................................................Page 38 Bayview Café....................................................................Page 12 Blackberry Inn.................................................................Page 16 Blue Angel Vodka.............................................................Page 11 Blue Door Group ~ Packard House & J.D. House...........Page 40 Café Beaujolais...................................................................Page 7 Coast Getaways Vacation Rentals.....................................Page 39 Corners of the Mouth ~ Natural Food Store.......................Page 8 DejaMuse ~ Custom Music Production............................Page 34 Frankie’s Pizza & Ice Cream.............................................Page 10 Gallery Bookshop.............................................................Page 24 Gallery of the Senses........................................................Page 14 Glendeven Inn & Wine Bar(n)...........................................Page 7 Harvest at Mendosa’s........................................................Page 10 Headlands Inn B&B........................................................Page 39 KMFB Radio Station.......................................................Page 20 Ledford House Restaurant..................................................Page 8 Little River Market & Deli...............................................Page 12 Lula Cellars......................................................................Page 32 Margaret Mary O’Rourke ~ Law Offices..........................Page 16 McNab Ridge Winery......................................................Page 32 Mendocino Beauty...........................................................Page 34 Mendocino Café................................................................Page 4 Mendocino Coast Hospital..............................................Page 28 Mendocino County Film Office.......................................Page 34 Mendocino GEMS...........................................................Page 34 Mendocino Massage.........................................................Page 22 Mendocino Music Festival Office.....................................Page 26 Mendocino Solar Service..................................................Page 26 Moosse Café.......................................................................Page 6 North Coast Brewing Company Tap Room & Grill.........Page 32 Old Gold ~ Fine Jewelry..................................................Page 30 Pamela Hudson Real Estate..............................................Page 30 Parducci Wine Cellars......................................................Page 12 Pat Carney, D.D.S............................................................Page 20 Raku House Inn...............................................................Page 38 Ravens’ Restaurant at the Stanford Inn...............................Page 8 Redwood Roofers.............................................................Page 18 Reflections ~ Kaleidoscopes..............................................Page 16 Rich Aguilar ~ Mendocino Lot For Sale ..........................Page 14 Ricochet Ridge Ranch ~ Horseback Riding......................Page 14 Sea Rock Inn B&B...........................................................Page 18 Silver’s at The Wharf..........................................................Page 7 Spark ~ Local Smoke Shop...............................................Page 22 Sweetwater Inn & Spa......................................................Page 22 Thanksgiving Coffee ~ Mendocino Bakery.......................Page 10 The Lodge at The Woods.................................................Page 38 Understuff! ~ Intimate Apparel.........................................Page 24 Village Veterinary.............................................................Page 24 Winesong ~ September 9 & 10, 2011..............................Page 18

A. ABALONE ROOM AT LITTLE RIVER INN 7751 N. Highway 1, Little River Discovered by Hollywood in 1939, the Little River Inn has drawn casts and crews of many films, including Frenchman’s Creek, The Russians Are Coming, and Johnny Belinda. Sponsored by Little River Inn. B. CROWN HALL 45285 Ukiah St. Built in 1901 by Portuguese settlers, Crown Hall continues to serve as a community meeting and performance hall. It may be seen in the James Dean classic East of Eden. Sponsored by North Coast Brewing Co., Lula Cellars & McNab Ridge Winery. C. HILL HOUSE INN 10701 Palette Dr. The Hill House Inn sign still reads The Hill House of Cabot Cove, a prop from the filming of the popular television series, Murder, She Wrote, in Mendocino. The village of Mendocino starred as the fictional town of Cabot Cove, Maine, in the series that ran from 1984-1996. Sponsored by Hill House Inn. D. MATHESON PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Mendocino High School Campus (corner of Ford & Cahto) Envisioned as a classic “little theater,” the Performing Arts Center provides an intimate experience where actors and audience are not separated by stage and proscenium. The building design, materials and colors are a reference to the site’s former use: a board-andbatten barn built in the late 1800s which is said to have been used for the famous “Ice House” scene in East of Eden. E. ODDFELLOWS HALL / FESTIVAL HEADQUARTERS 10480 Ukiah St. (at the corner of Kasten and Ukiah) Historic Odd Fellows Hall was built in 1878. Long known as the William Zimmer Gallery, it is now privately owned and loaned to community art groups for special shows and events. Sponsored by FLOCKWorks.

Did You Know? Ticket sales make up only 25% of the funds required to produce this annual event. Your support matters now more than ever. Join as a Friend of the Festival at Festival Headquarters or on our website. www.MendocinoFilmFestival.org

Mendocino Film Festival 2011

ur ly! o y y ear Bue ts pect s! k tic We ext show 6 ou 8-300 d l so 00-83 8

Matheson

Performing Arts Center

Crown Hall

12:30

3:00

8:00

Vanishing of the Bees

Short Films (99)

Friday NIght Silents

12:30

3:00

8:00

Feathered Cocaine

Trust

The Athlete

(78)

(93)

(90)

(80)

– ART:21

Cai GuoQuiang

– ART:21

Krzysztof Wodiczko (14)

(14)

5:00

Special Venues

who what when where

F R I D AY June 3

Opening Party at HILL HOUSE

S AT U R DAY June 4 10

11 12

S U N D AY June 5 4

11:00

2:00

5:00

8:00

11:00

2:00

4:30

Happy

Albert Maysles Award: Les Blank – Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins

Pianomania: The Search for the Perfect Sound

The Russians Are Coming

My Perestroika

Guilty Pleasures

Short Films

(88)

(86)

11:00

2:00

5:00

8:00

11:00

2:00

4:30

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo

Something Ventured

Today’s Special

Marwencol

(84)

(99)

– Crooked Beauty

Animated Short Films for Kids

Desert of Forbidden Art

FREE Burden of Dreams

(80)

(95)

(75)

(52)

(126)

(93)

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The Walk

(83)

(9)

(88)

(30)

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Water & Dust

– Fu-De (The Brush) (6)

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ART: 21 Hiroshi Sugimoto (12)

11:00 Women Behind the Camera: Coffee and Conversation at ABALONE ROOM Little River Inn

(99)

KEY:

Films for Our Future

( ) = Running Time

Films on the Arts

Narrative

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