Lexington's 2007 One World Film Festival series opens on February 11, and during the months of February and March will show eleven films in its series.
This is the Ninth year for the film festival which has at its objective to show documentaries, feature films and sponsor speakers chosen to stimulate discussion and increase understanding of issues of race, culture, and ethnicity.
All associated with the series are volunteers, and all film showings are free and open to the public. The following films have been selected for this year's festival:
1. The World According to Sesame Street
USA, 2006 (Not Rated)
(Not recommended for children under 13)
Linda Goldstein Knowlton and Linda Hawkins Costigan, Directors/Producers
English (99 min.)
Sunday, February 11: 2:00 & 4:30 p.m.
Central Library Theater
Reception at 3:45 p.m.
Feature-length documentary that shows the drama and challenges of producing international versions of the world’s most watched children’s television program in Kosovo, Bangladesh, and South Africa.
Premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival Documentary Competition. A brief TV clip from CBS Sunday Morning featuring the making of the documentary will open the program.
Shown in conjunction with Arts Showcase Weekend.
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2.Cape of Good Hope
South Africa, 2004 (PG13)
Mark Bamford, Writer and Director
English (107 min.)
Thursday, February 15 @ 7:30 p.m.
Central Library Theater
Reception after the film
A witty as well as sensitive exploration of race, class and faith in contemporary South Africa,
“Cape of Good Hope” interweaves several storylines linked to an animal shelter in Cape Town run by emotionally-guarded Kate. Her employee, Jean-Claude, a scientist-refugee from the Congo with a talent for taming vicious dogs and rebellious kids, dreams of a brighter future in the West, but does shelter chores to make ends meet. Widowed Lindiwe deftly copes with her carping mother and juggles her duties as housekeeper to a rich household with her ambitions to finish her education. A Muslim couple face difficult choices that test both their faith and love for each other in their yearning to start a family.
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3.Been Rich All My Life Featuring The Silver Belles
USA, 2006 (Not Rated)
Heather Lyn MacDonald, Director/Producer
English (80 min.), Color & B&W.
Sunday, February 18, 2:00 & 4:30 p.m.
Central Library Theater
Reception at 3:45 p.m.
This documentary is an admiring portrait of the Silver Belles, a troupe of veteran Harlem tap dancers now between the ages of 84 and 96. It is valuable as a historical document as well as a how-to movie about making the most of “the older years.” The film includes clips of the women’s glory days, dancing at the Apollo Theater and the Cotton Club, and working with band-leaders like Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. The New York Magazine said of the film, “charming subjects and a fine sense of history. Recommended.”
Shown in celebration of Black History Month.
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4.Paradise Now
Palestinian Territories/Palestine, 2005 (PG 13)
Hany Abou-Assad, Director
Arabic with English Subtitles (91 min.)
Thursday, February 22 @ 7:30 p.m.
Central Library Theater
“Paradise Now” follows two Palestinian childhood friends, Saïd and Kaled, who have been recruited as suicide bombers for a strike on Tel Aviv, and focuses on their last days together. When they are intercepted at the Israeli border and separated from their handlers, a young woman who discovers their plan causes them to reconsider their actions. Nominee, 2006 Academy Awards, Best Foreign Film.
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5.Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion
USA, 2003 (Not Rated)
Tom Peosay, Director & Photographer
English (104 min.)
Sunday, February 25, 3:30 p.m.
Worsham Theater, UK Student Center
Ten years in the making, this award-winning documentary was filmed during nine journeys throughout Tibet, India and Nepal. The dark secrets of Tibet’s recent past are powerfully chronicled through personal stories, interviews, and a collection of undercover and archival images never before assembled in film. A definitive exploration of a legendary subject, “Cry of the Snow Lion” is an epic story of courage and compassion.
Sponsored by UK International Hospitality Program.
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6.The Clay Bird
Bangladesh, 2004 (Not Rated)
(Contains some violent scenes and rough treatment of children.)
Tareque and Catherine Masud, Writers, Directors/Producers
Bengali with English subtitles. (98 min.)
Thursday, March 1, 5:30 and 7:30 p.m.
Kentucky Theater
“The Clay Bird” is set in East Pakistan during the late 1960s. The country would be reborn in 1971 as the secular democratic state of Bangladesh after a bloody uprising against an Islamic military junta installed by West Pakistan. The film poses a single overriding question: should religious faith be based on fear or on love? “The Clay Bird” touches upon the themes of religious tolerance, cultural diversity, and the complexity of Islam.
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7.Powwow Highway
USA, 1989 (R)
Jonathan Wacks, Director
English (88 min.)
Sunday, March 4 @ 2 & 4:30 p.m.
Central Library Theater
Two men of the Northern Cheyenne tribe go on a complex quest. Buddy Red Bow is a Vietnam veteran and social activist whose sister has been framed and jailed in New Mexico. Buddy and his friend Philbert Bono take Philbert’s decrepit old Buick “war pony” on a long road trip that makes some unexpected stops along the way. In this acclaimed comedy/drama about Native Americans, the two friends come to understand their past, fight for their future, and come to appreciate their differing styles as warriors on the Powwow Highway.
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8.Only Human
(Seres Queridos)
United Kingdom/Spain, 2004 (R)
Dominic Harari & Teresa De Pelegrí, Directors
Spanish with English subtitles (85 min.)
Thursday, March 8 @ 5:30 & 7:30 p.m.
Kentucky Theater
When Leni comes home to introduce her fiancé Rafi to her idiosyncratic Jewish family, everything goes smoothly until the lovers reveal that Rafi is Palestinian. Starring Oscar-nominated Norma Aleandro, this irreverent family comedy fuses brilliant characterization and unrelenting humor to rework the age-old story of meeting the parents with a modern twist. “Only Human” warmly addresses some of today’s most salient issues: the meaning of family and community in an ever-shrinking world and the challenges and consequences at stake when cultures clash within our very homes.
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9.Normal
USA, 2003 (Not Rated)
Jane Anderson, Writer/Director
English (108 min)
Sunday, March 11 @ 2:00 & 4:30 p.m.
Central Library Theater
After being married to Irma for 25 years, Roy tells his wife and their pastor that he is a woman and plans to pursue a sex reassignment surgery. Irma struggles to understand her husband as he begins to change his appearance at home and then at work. Their two children are also affected by their father’s transformation. This film does a good job of portraying some of the reactions of people who are confronted with gender transformation in a friend or loved one. Tom Wilkinson and Jessica Lange star.
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10.My Brother. . .Nikhil
India, 2005 (PG)
Onir, Director
Hindi, English subtitles (120 min.)
Thursday, March 15 @ 5:30 & 7:30 p.m.
Kentucky Theater
In Goa, India in the early 1990s, Nikhil Kapoor is the state swimming champion and a hero. His father Navin Kapoor has raised his son to be a sportsman. . .a dream that he never achieved for himself. His elder sister Anamika teaches primary school and loves him dearly. His mother adores him and from her he inherited the artistic side to his personality. Then the unthinkable happens: Nikhil is arrested by the authorities for being HIV-positive. The drama unfolds as the family falls apart, friends desert him and Nikhil is cast out by society. Only Anamika and friend Nigel remain to stand by him and support him in his fight for dignity and acceptance. Winner of Audience Choice Award, Milan Film Festival 2006.
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11.Hidden Warriors: Women on the Ho Chi Minh Trail
USA/Vietnam, 2003 (Not Rated)
Karen Turner & Phan Thanh Hao, Directors
(46 min.)
Thursday, March 29 @ 7:00 p.m.
Kentucky Theater
“Hidden Warriors,” a collaboration of American and Vietnamese film makers, tells the stories of North Vietnamese women who maintained and defended the strategic Ho Chi Minh Trail after 1965. Their military service in a heavily bombarded area of Vietnam, and their experiences after the “American War” are revealed through interviews and archival footage. The UK Women’s Studies Program sponsors this film and brings Producer/Director Karen Turner, a specialist in Vietnamese history, to speak at the screening.
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For a flyer on the 2007 One World Film Festival, feel free to contact Annette Mayer at 859-266-6073, or e-mail your name and address to annette@the-mayers.com.
