With his newest feature Little Children, director Todd Field — who moved audiences with his 2005 film In The Bedroom (starring Charlottesville’s own Stacey Spacek) — returns with a provocative examination of modern suburban life, marriage, fidelity, and the loneliness of secret dreams. Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly and Patrick Wilson star in this multi-layered romantic satire co-written by Field and Tom Perrotta from Perrota’s acclaimed novel of the same name.

In East Wyndam, Massachusetts, the enviable lives of young married couples intersect in the playgrounds, community pools, and streets of their small town in hidden and potentially dangerous ways. Sarah (Winslet) has a PhD in English literature and is still coming to terms with living in the suburbs and raising children. She hangs out with, but does not connect to, the other suburban moms (women who can declare a spa treatment “an intense spiritual experience”) and views her shallow neighbors as sociological specimens instead of peers.

Those moms, in turn, are more interested in Brad (Wilson), a stay-at-home dad and former athlete whom they refer to as “the Prom King”. Brad, married to Kathy (Connelly), a striking PBS documentary filmmaker, is unenthusiastically anticipating taking the bar exam for the third time. Partly out of intrigue, and partly just to shake up her neighborhood, Sarah begins a flirtation with Brad that unexpectedly leads to steamy sexual trysts during their children’s “nap time”.

The genuine peccadilloes happening in their neighborhood remain largely unnoticed by the community members more focused on the imagined deeds of a sexual predator who has been released from prison and now lives nearby with his mother. As the story unravels, so do the lives of these reckless characters, only to slowly intertwine again. Even Brad’s wife finds herself in a book club with Sarah, her husband’s secret lover, who feels compelled to defend the title character of Madame Bovary.

Strong performances from all the actors, crisp cinematography, and sure-handed direction create an involving and eccentric tale. Little Children is an intriguing study of morality, small town paranoia, and the hunger for passion and meaning in uncontrolled lives.

Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman maintains one of Hollywood’s most prolific careers, coupling integrity with elegance. Freeman enjoys a level of respect and admiration within the entertainment industry for his talent, business acumen and integrity. His work has transcended type and redefined variety, with roles ranging from the pimp Fast Black in Street Smart, Sergeant Major John Rawlins in Glory, to a celestial being in Bruce Almighty. One of the most sought after talents in the entertainment industry, Morgan is a four-time Academy Award nominee for his roles in Street Smart (Best Supporting Actor), Driving Miss Daisy (Best Actor), The Shawshank Redemption (Best Actor) and most recently winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in Million Dollar Baby. Diversified and passionate, he also directed the 1993 film of Bopha!, hailed by Variety as “a film of tremendous emotional power and integrity.”

In 1996, with producer Lori McCreary, Freeman formed his own production company, Revelations Entertainment, with the express aim to “develop and produce projects that enlighten, express heart and glorify the human experience”. Not content with just producing Hollywood hits such as Along Came a Spider and Under Suspicion, Freeman recently formed a second production company, ClickStar, in partnership with high tech chip maker Intel, to offer original films for direct download. The first offering from that company, 10 Items or Less, starring Freeman and directed by Brad Silberling, will screen at this year’s Virginia Film Festival.

Paul Wagner, Charlottesville’s first and only Emmy- and Oscar-winning documentary film director, still gives serious meaning to the self-styled guerrilla filmmaker. In 1996, he led a small film crew into Tibet and secretly filmed scenes with a digital video camera in order to produce Windhorse, a gritty and evocative film about the horrors Tibetans still face today.

Angels, his first feature film shot in and around Charlottesville and featuring many local talents, previewed to great acclaim at the 2004 Virginia Film Festival.

The Stone Carvers, his 1984 portrait of the Italian American artisans who carved the gargoyles and statues of the Washington Cathedral, received both Emmy and Oscar awards; in 1998, he earned another Emmy for A Paralyzing Fear: the Story of Polio in America, a documentary he produced about America’s scientific and cultural conquest of polio; and Out of Ireland earned a Sundance Documentary Grand Jury Prize in 1995.

Since the 1980s, Wagner has directed documentary films for the Smithsonian Institution about old-time medicine shows, museum education, family traditions, fishmongers, Southern pottery, the U.S. Postal Service, the Columbian Quincentenary, and anthropological rituals around the world. He served as executive producer for films on the history of insane asylums and on the French novelist Marcel Proust, both broadcast nationally on PBS. He has co-authored two books, both companion volumes to his documentary films, Out of Ireland and A Paralyzing Fear: the Triumph Over Polio in America.

Paul Wagner has been awarded many grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the D.C. Humanities Council, the D.C. Commission on the Arts and from the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic Media Fellowship Programs. In addition to the Oscar and the Emmy, his films have won many regional Emmy Awards, CINE Golden Eagles, the Irish Silver Harp Award, Blue and Red Ribbons from the American Film Festival and the Grand Prize from the National Educational Film Festival.

The 2006 Virginia Film Festival is honored to welcome back Paul Wagner and to premier The God of a Second Chance, his latest feature documentary about religion, race, poverty, drugs and sensuality in an inner city neighborhood of Washington DC.

After a year at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, Liev Schreiber embarked on his professional career at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. The tall (6′2″), brooding actor with the youthful face and resonant voice originally wanted to be a writer, but was drawn to performing. In the early nineties, he first drew critical acclaim with parts in both On- and Off-Broadway productions. By the middle of that decade, he had moved to film, drawing notice for quirky and colorful characters that combined both menace and compassion such as the British bouncer with a thing for a librarian in the genial comedy Party Girl (1994), a drag queen seeking assistance on Christmas Eve from a suicide prevention center in Nora Ephron’s Mixed Nuts, or the semi-agoraphobic iconoclast looking for a way to meet girls in Denise Calls Up (1995).

The indie wunderkind (with a reputation for playing off-beat characters) graduated to big-time studio releases as one of the kidnappers in Ron Howard’s Ransom (1996) and later that year, essayed the role of accused killer Cotton Weary whose mere look inspired fear in Wes Craven’s blockbuster Scream (a role he reprised twice in Scream 2 and 3). The end of that decade found the actor even more in demand as he took roles in higher profile features alongside such Hollywood heavyweights as Dustin Hoffman and Sharon Stone in Sphere; Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon, and Paul Newman in Twilight; Alan Arkin and Robin Williams in Jakob the Liar, and Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen in A Walk on the Moon.

The succeeding years have found the actor very much in demand both on screen and on stage. In 1998, he was again onstage in Central Park in the dual role of the god Jupiter and the villain Iachimo in Cymbeline, for which he received a 1999 Obie Award. while the following year saw him star as Hamlet at the New York Shakespeare Festival. In 1999, Schreiber’s deft performance in RKO 281 as Orson Welles, the similarly brilliant young actor and filmmaker who gave us Citizen Kane, earned him an Emmy nomination. In 2000, he made a compelling Laertes in Michael Almereyda’s modern-day film version of Hamlet and supported Oscar-winners Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt in Pay It Forward.

Every year since then has seen the actor in a successful Hollywood feature or returning with acclaim to the stage. In 2005, Schreiber secured a Tony for his performance in Glengarry Glen Ross, Joe Mantello’s high-octane revival of David Mamet’s play. Later that year, the actor made his feature screenwriting and directing debut with Everything Is Illuminated (screening at this year’s Virginia Film Festival), adapted from the critically-acclaimed novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, about a young American Jew’s journey to Ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II.

With growing demand for his sonorous voice in documentaries, Schreiber continues to offer his talents to successful stage and screen productions. In the summer of 2006, he played the title role in Macbeth opposite Jennifer Ehle at the New York Central Park’s Delacorte Theater. A film version of W. Somerset Maugham’s The Painted Veil, in which Schreiber co-stars with his real-life romantic companion Naomi Watts (King Kong), is currently in production for release later this year.

Director: Bruce Beresford
Writer: Horton Foote
Cinematrographer: Russell Boyd
Cast: Robert Duvall, Tess Harper, Betty Buckley, Wilford Brimley
Running Time: 100 min.

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(2006) with Chris Hansen
7:15 pm, Regal 3
Director: Christopher J. Hansen
Writers: Christopher J. Hansen and D.M. Lovic
Cinematographer: Damon Crump
Cast: Anne Dennis, Ellen Dolan, Joseph Frost, Heather Henry, Dustin Olson
Running Time: 95 min

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w/ Randy Olson
7:15 pm, Regal 3
Director: Randy Olson
Cinematographer: Peter LoGreco, Shane Seley, Joseph Trinh
Cast: Michael Behe, John Calvert, Jack Cashill, Tom Givnish, Randy Olson
Running Time: 84 min

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with Carl Colpaert and Lee Caplin
7:15 pm, Regal 3
Director: Carl Colpaert
Writer: Carl Colpaert, Deborah Setele
Cinematographer: Fred Goodich
Cast: Joe Arquette, Patricia Mota, Telana Lynum, Maurizio Farhad, Mark Cameron Wystrach
Running Time: 100 min

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African-American Christianity on Film
Regal Film Workshop with Terry Lindvall
10:30 AM, Regal Downtown #2

Terry Lindvall’s interactive presentation looks at the energy and spectacle of religious fervor in African-American church life as portrayed in film. Less of a lecture and more of a dialogue, Dr. Lindvall (C. S. Lewis Chair of Communication and Christian Thought at Virginia Wesleyan College) will present film clips while fielding questions from and interacting with the audience. How do these films tease out the particular practices of various Church traditions? How do they capture both the practice of true Christian faith and its hypocritical shadows in the communities of saints who are also sinners? How do these films stereotype religious rituals and embalm them in the understanding of audiences? Where do these films fail to represent vital aspects of various religious believers?

Stylistic moments of excess, passion, justice, and music lead to a rich portrayal of the abundant expression of African-American Christianity throughout film history. From King Vidor’s first all-black melodrama, Hallelujah (1931), through Tyler Perry’s hilarious but devout Medea series (Diary of a Mad Housewife, 2005), Dr. Lindvall leads us on a tour through the charismatic black spirituality of the “invisible Christianity” as portrayed on the silver screen.

Regal Film Workshop with Terry Lindvall
10:30 AM, Regal Downtown #2

Terry Lindvall, a great scholar of silent comedies, animated films, and religious cinema, has long been one of the VFF’s most popular and entertaining speakers. As C.S. Lewis Chair of Communication and Christian Thought at Virginia Wesleyan College, Dr. Lindvall is uniquely qualified to offer shrewd analysis of the treatment of Christianity in film and the interaction of film and religion generally. He may be best known for his studies of humor in both film and religion, and for his own lively sense of humor in his books and lectures.

Hollywood, Teach Us to Pray examines how Hollywood teaches the Cinematic Arts to fold hands and pray. Dr. Lindvall’s clip lecture provides both an overview of the portrayals of this sacred ritual as well as a romp through some favorite and obscure films that illustrate what Hollywood filmmakers have seen as both pious and hypocritical practices of a segment of their audience that they don’t completely understand. This interactive presentation encompasses a broad visual history of images of prayer in over 40 films, from the silent classics of Chaplin, Keaton, Pickford and Fairbanks to Bride of Frankenstein, Nightmare on Elm Street, Cold Mountain, and Million Dollar Baby. Cinematic representations of prayer, in drama, comedies, westerns, and horror films, have constructed their own ways and words of praying to a culture given to prayer.

with Robert Duvall and David Edelstein
6pm, Paramount
Director: Robert Duvall
Writer: Robert Duvall
Cinematographer: Barry Markowitz
Cast: Robert Duvall, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Bob Thornton, Miranda Richardson, June Carter Cash
Running Time: 134 min

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EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED with Liev Schreiber
Director: Liev Schreiber
Writer: Jonathan Safran Foer (novel), Liev Schreiber (screenplay)
Cinematographer: Matthew Libatique
Cast: Elijah Wood, Eugene Hutz, Boris Leskin
Running Time: 106 min

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Novelist, screenwriter, producer and director, Michael Tolkin has solidified his reputation as a “feeling intellectual”in the jaded milieu of show business. His father, Mel, was screenwriter and his mother, Edith, a VP at Paramount. His brother, Stephen, is also in active in the movie and television industry.

Tolkin’s early childhood was spent in New York City before moving to Los Angeles, the customary setting for his stories. He is best known for the screenplay of his novel The Player, a highly-acclaimed satire of the movie business that was directed by Robert Altman in 1992. The film won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Picture and a Golden Globe Award for Best Comedy or Musical.

Tolkin’s works are known for their complicated and absorbing examination of meaning and morality in modern life. As critic Gavin Smith noted in Film Comment: “All his characters abandon or fall from the social mainstream and enact dramas of self-redefinition.”

Tolkin wrote and directed The Rapture in 1991, scheduled to show at this year’s Virginia Film Festival, featuring Mimi Rogers in a star turn as a woman born again into both an acceptance and examination of faith. The New Age followed in 1994, a dark comedy starring Peter Weller and Judy Davis as a financially overextended couple who opens a boutique. Other screenwriting credits include Changing Lanes, Deep Impact, and The Burning Season.

His novel The Return of the Player was just published by Grove Press, continuing the story of the conniving studio executive, Griffin Mill.

Tolkin graduated from Middlebury College, Vermont in 1974. He lives in New York City with his wife.

Now one of the most sought-after directors in Hollywood, Brad Silberling launched his career in television and film as a production assistant on a CBS Schoolbreak Special even before he completed his MFA at the UCLA Film School in 1987. In terms of his knowledge and understanding of the entertainment industry, however, he was even then almost a veteran, having grown up around the business, thanks to his father, producer and network executive Robert Silberling. His student film, Repairs, for which his advisor was acclaimed director Martin Ritt, won him a contract with Universal, but it also impressed powerhouse television producer Steven Bochco, who, over the next several years, brought in Silberling to direct episodes of L. A. Law, Cop Rock, Doogie Howser, MD, and NYPD Blue. His work on television continued into the nineties, when an award-winning episode of Brooklyn Bridge directed by Silberling brought him to the attention of Steven Spielberg, who hired him to direct Caspar (1995). Remarkably, his debut feature became a colossal hit, leading to his assignment to helm City of Angels (1998), with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan, another top-grossing and well-reviewed picture. Parlaying this success into the freedom to write, produce, and direct more personal films, Silberling’s next project was Moonlight Mile (2002), with Jake Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, and Susan Sarandon, based upon his own experiences after the 1989 murder of his girlfriend, actress Rebecca Schaeffer. Having scored another commercial success with the imaginative 2004 film Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Silberling returns to smaller films with this year’s 10 Items or Less, with Morgan Freeman. Married for over 10 years to actress Amy Brenneman, his recent television credits include directing the pilot episode of her long-running series Judging Amy.

Former president of Pat Robertson’s Regent University, Terry Lindvall assumes this year a new position, the C. S. Lewis Chair of Communication and Christian Thought at Virginia Wesleyan College, an entirely appropriate title, given not only his broad interests, but also his nationally recognized expertise in the writings and thought of C. S. Lewis. With a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary and a PhD from the University of Southern California, Lindvall is uniquely qualified to offer shrewd analysis of the treatment of Christianity in film, especially in the silent era, and the interaction of film and religion generally, and yet he may be best known for his studies of humor in both film and religion, and for his own lively sense of humor in his books and lectures. His books include Surprise by Laughter: the Comic World of C. S. Lewis, The Mother of All Laughter: Sarah and the Genesis of Comedy, and The Silents of God: Silent American Film and Religion, along with the forthcoming Sanctuary Cinema: Origins of the Christian Film Industry. Himself a producer of numerous films, Lindvall is a frequent and popular guest at film festivals around the country. His Virginia Film Festival appearances include 1999’s presentation of Technotoons: Technology and the Animated Film, a collection of international cartoons, including Warner Brothers classics.

w/ music by Haverim, Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton
1 pm, Paramount
Director: Edward Sloman
Writer: Isadore Bernstein, Alfred A. Cohn, Charles E. Whittaker
Cinematographer: Max Dupont
Cast: Rudolph Schildkraut, Rosa Rosanova, Robert Gordon, George J. Lewis
Running Time: 93 min

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4:30 pm, Regal 2
Director: Mark Dornford-May
Writers: Mark Dornford-May, Andiswa Kedama, Pauline Malefane
Cinematographer: Guilio Biccari
Running Time: 86 min

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10:15 pm, Regal 3
Director: James Longley
Cinematographer: James Longley
Cast: Mohammed Haithem, Suleiman Mahmoud
Running Time: 94 min

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Director: Zackary Adler
Writer: Reed Fish
Cinematographer: Doug Chamberlain
Cast: Jay Baruchel, Alexis Bledel, Schuyler Fisk, Chris Parnell, Katey Sagal
Running Time: 93 min

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4pm, Regal 4
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writers: Paul Anthelme (playwright), George Tabori, William Archibald
Cinematographer: Robert Burks
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden, Brian Aherne, Anne Baxter
Running Time: 95 min

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10:15 am, Regal 3
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Writer: Ingmar Bergman
Cinematographer: Gunnar Fischer
Cast: Gunnar Bjornstrand, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe, Max von Sydow, Bibi Anderson
Running Time: 92 min

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w/ Jay Bakker

10pm, Regal 4
Director:
Writer:
Cinematographer:
Cast:
Running Time: min

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w/ Derek Sieg and Lucas Haas
7pm, Paramount
Director: Derek Sieg
Writer: Derek Sieg
Cinematographer: Richard V. Lopez
Cast: Lucas Haas, January Jones, Lee Weaver, Chris Williams, Mary Mara, Tim De Zarn, Brianne Davis
Running Time: 97 min

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w/ the Williamson Brothers

4:30 pm, Regal 2
Director: Kent and Brad Williamson
Writer: Kent and Brad Williamson
Cinematographer: Kent and Brad Williamson
Cast: Skip Burzumato, Drew Cotter, Gene Edward Veith, Jr.
Running Time: 90 min

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w/ Paul Fitzgerald and Kelly Miller
10:15 pm, Regal 3
Director: Paul Fitzgerald
Writer: Paul Fitzgerald
Cinematographer: Vanja Cernjul
Cast: Paul Fitzgerald, Susan Floyd, Kate Grant, Russell Hornsby
Running Time: 81 min

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7pm, Regal 4
Director: Graham Coleman
Writer: Graham Coleman
Cinematographer: David Lascelles
Running Time: 134 min

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4:30 pm, Regal 2
(in Danish with English subtitles)
Director: Annette K. Olesen
Writers: Kim Fupz Aakeson, Annette K. Olesen
Cinematography: Bøje Lomholdt
Cast: Ann Eleonora Jørgensen, Trine Dyrholm, Sonja Richter
Running Time: 101 min.

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10pm, Regal 4
Director: Stanley Nelson
Writer: Marcia Smith
Cinematographer: Michael Chin
Cast:
Running Time: 85 min

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7pm, Regal 4
Directors: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Writer:
Cinematographer: Mira Chang, Jenna Rosher
Cast: Becky Fischer, Levi, Mike Papantonio, Rachel, Tory
Running Time: 86 min

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w/ Governor’s Screenwriting Award
7pm, Regal 4
Director: Paul Wagner
Writer:
Cinematographer:
Cast:
Running Time: 80 min

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10am, Regal Downtown #4

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Writer: Carl Theodor Dreyer (based on a play by Kaj Munk)
Cinematographer: Henning Bendtsen
Cast: Emil Hass Christensen, Henrik Malberg, Birgitte Federspiel, Ejner Federspiel, Kay Kristiansen, Preben Lerdorff Rye
Running Time: 126 min

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4 pm, Regal 4
Director: Julia Kwan
Writer: Julia Kwan
Cinematographer: Nicolas Bolduc
Cast: Vivian Wu, Lester Chit-Man Chan, Hollie Lo, Phoebe Kut
Running Time: 92 min

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10 am, Regal 4
Director: Andrew Adamson
Writers: Ann Peacock, Andrew Adamson, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Cinematographer: Donald McAlpine
Cast: William Moseley, Tilda Swinton, James McAvoy, Georgie Henley, Liam Neeson
Running Time: 223 min

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10pm, Newcomb
Director: Terry Jones
Writers: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
Cinematographer: Peter Biziou
Cast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
Running Time: 94 min

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4pm, Regal 4

Director: Michael Tolkin
Writer: Michael Tolkin
Cinematographer: Bojan Bazeli
Cast: Mimi Rogers, Darwyn Carson, Patrick Bauchau, Marvin Elkins, David Duchovny, Will Patton
Running Time: 100 min

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Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman produced and stars in this comedy written and directed by Brad Silberling (A Series Of Unfortunate Events, Moonlight Mile). Freeman plays an aging actor, once the center of Hollywood, now forced to consider a role in a small independent movie. Abandoned by his driver while researching for his role, the world famous actor must rely on Scarlet, a spitfire check out clerk at a Latino community market, to lead him back to his side of the tracks. Their trek through Los Angeles features comic twists, chance encounters, and personal revelations that bind both characters in surprising ways. Mr. Freeman will take questions after the film via live video feed.

The story of Jesus reclaimed as an African fable and shot against the backdrop of a violence-riddled township and with text updated to modern times, Son of Man delivers one indelible impression after another. Mary conceives the Christ child during a militia attack on a grade school, Jesus asks for the surrender of handguns from his apostles, and the angel Gabriel is a precocious child marked with simple white feathers. Equally intriguing is the melding of the crucifixion and resurrection — alluding to the fact that in today’s Africa, political dissidents, as Jesus was, are conveniently made to disappear. Roger Ebert described Son of Man as “continuing the South African film renaissance…one of the most extraordinary and powerful films at Sundance.”Â?

Ten Canoes was shot on location in the breathtaking Arnhem land of Northern Australia and recounts an aboriginal myth as told by one brother to another. Inspired by the black-and-white photos of anthropologist Donald Thompson taken in the 1930’s, the “recent past” of the storyteller intermingles with the lush and colorful dreamtime past of ancient myth, depicting a story of wrong love, kidnapping, sorcery, bungling mayhem and revenge gone wrong.

Dutch-born director Rolf de Heer, who has been chronicling Aboriginal life for over twenty years, used an indigenous cast consisting entirely of native peoples who speak only Ganalbingu. That cast also served as crew, creating most of the traditional artifacts used in the film, such as the bark canoes, the weapononry, and the dwellings. The film is sub-titled in English, and English narration is provided by the great David Gulpilil. (Festival patrons may remember Gulpilil’s visit to Charlottesville in 2002 to accompany the release of Rabbit-Proof Fence.)

Ten Canoes reveres nature and the land in the same way the Aboriginals do: not as backdrop or resource, but as a living entity. Framed by glorious aerial shots of unspoiled landscape, this story and story-within-a-story eloquently depicts the deep spiritual connection between a land and its people and shows us the forgotten wisdom and humor of a lost culture.

Out Of Faith examines the complex and emotionally charged issues surrounding assimilation and interfaith marriage in a Jewish-American family. The family’s matriarch, Leah Welbel, and her husband Eliezer, both survived nearly three years in Auschwitz; however, in their minds, their grandchildren marrying non-Jews represents a posthumous victory for Hitler.

The film began as an attempt to recount Leah Welbel’s incredible story of survival in Auschwitz and Birkenau, across Europe to Italy and Palestine and eventually to Chicago. While exploring her remarkable journey, another story began to emerge. Leah laments that by allowing her grandchildren to marry non-Jews, “I feel like a traitor … we’re finishing the job Hitler started.”Â?

This feature-length documentary explores several themes — conflicting loyalties within families; family estrangement and how it can or cannot be resolved; conflicting loyalties between one’s own tribe and society; issues of cultural continuity; and finally, the trajectory of assimilation in this country that seems to cause an inevitable loss of culture over generations.

Both the Producer L. Mark DeAngelis and Director Lisa Leeman bring their own varied backgrounds to the film and so create an even-handed exploration of the balance between living one’s life independently yet keeping proper reverence for the obligations of the past.

Abel Ferrara is not Mel Gibson. Ferrara was raised in the Bronx and worked his way up to features through small budget films with titles like The Driller Killer and Ms. 45. After The King of New York in 1990, however, critics and viewers alike began to take serious notice of this anarchic and conflicted filmmaker.

Mary picks up where the The Passion of the Christ left off. Jesus has been resurrected and walks into a cave to be among his followers. There, he finds Mary Magdalene and comforts her. A tearful Mary cowers in his presence until Jesus shouts “Cut!“Â?.

Jesus of Nazareth is revealed to be Tony Childress of New York City (Matthew Modine), a film director, sometimes actor, and profound egoist, filming his own version of the Christ story titled “This Is my Blood“Â?. Mary is Marie Palesi (Juliette Binoche), and unlike her director, she is completely caught up in her role, so much so that she abandons the film set and follows her visions to Jerusalem.

Back in New York, Childress makes a Faustian bargain with Christian talk show host Ted Younger (Forest Whitaker) to promote his film, even as the director begins to doubt the sincerity of his own vision. Childress is clearly a thinly-veiled Ferrara: severly focused and outlandishly rude, yet his character achieves a kind of redemption as we witness his humble and thoughtful portrayal of Jesus.

Unlike Gibson’s stark portrayal of historical figures who march resolutely to their destiny, all of Ferrara’s characters are torn and struggle to resolve their relationship to and with the Almighty. Like the people who inhabit the story, the movie itself is multi-layered; in addition to the film-within-a-film that is being constructed and deconstructed before our eyes, much of the main story is also told through newsreel footage and talk show chatter. What is left may reveal more questions than it answers, but in that way the story is much like faith itself.

“Another World. Another Time. In the Age of Wonder. A thousand years ago, this land was green and good…until the Crystal cracked. A single piece was lost, a shard of the Crystal. Then strife began and two new races appeared: the cruel Skeksis and the gentle Mystics…”

Thus begins the late Jim Henson’s first foray into elaborate, Tolkein-inspired myth making. It is a basic good vs. evil quest story — a young “gelfling” named Jen, the last survivor of an ancient elf race, must fight the forces of tyranny and restore harmony to his world — in a land where prophecies, saviors and mysticism can guide one’s destiny.

When this epic fantasy came out in 1982, there was no CGI and live actors did not stand in bare stages talking to blue tennis balls. To create the world of The Dark Crystal, every detail, every organism, every flora and fauna had to be built to move, to shift in the landscape, to evolve and respond naturally. The residents of this world are painstakingly crafted beings brought to life by skilled puppeteers, each creature with it’s own personality and mannerisms. The film is a visual feast of stunning, alien vistas and outlandish creations thrust into an utterly convincing environment.

Epic in both concept and technical artistry, The Dark Crystal showcases Henson at the top of his form, creating tangible worlds with conceptual designer Brian Froud, production designer Harry Lange, scenarist David Odell and co-director Frank Oz. Jason Lust, Senior VP of Feature Films at the Jim Henson Company, will introduce the film and preview its long-awaited sequel, The Power of the Dark Crystal, due in 2008.

“Music can save people, but it can’t in the commercial way it’s being used. It’s just too much. It’s pollution.” — Bob Dylan

With outstanding performances and sharp interviews, Before the Music Dies takes a critical and comedic look at the homogenization of popular music with commentary by some of the industry’s biggest talents: Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews, Elvis Costello, Erykah Badu, Branford Marsalis, Bonnie Raitt and more. Using historic footage, the film looks at the evolution of the American music industry and the artists who created it, documenting the stark truth behind the manufacture of music stardom. “The reality is that superficiality is in,” says Marsalis. “And depth and quality is kind of out.”

In addition to interviewing the artists, filmmakers Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen spoke to writers and critics from Indie 911, CNN, USA Today, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, NPR and others. Along the way, they uncover mega-talents without a major label, including one artist Eric Clapton believes is “the real thing.”

Wildly popular on the festival circuit, Before the Music Dies has inspired passionate support from musicians, standing ovations from audiences, and consistent acclaim from critics. The film’s historical perspective demonstrates clearly how the modern music business is more about business than music, while its production and musical performances provide fresh and exciting entertainment.

Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer made only 14 full-length feature films in a career spanning almost 50 years, from his classic silent The Passion of Joan of Arc to his penultimate masterpiece, Ordet (”The Word”) in 1955, based on the play of the same name by Lutheran minister (and Nazi victim) Kaj Munk.

Ordet tells the story of Morten Borgen, a prosperous farmer whose three sons tear at his religious teachings. The eldest has renounced the religious beliefs of his ancestors and claims that he no longer has even “faith in faith”Â?; the second is a theology student who suffered a mental breakdown while pondering the fundamental questions of faith and religion and now claims to be Jesus of Nazareth; and the youngest has disobeyed his father by pursuing the hand of a young woman whose religion puts her family at odds with his own.

Dreyer’s films are admired for their luminous beauty and a deep empathy for physical and emotional suffering. In Ordet, his cinematographic trademarks are all on display: slow, elegant tracking shots and pans; meticulously orchestrated movements and compositions; and stylized lighting used to subtly evoke distinct realities - the dark world of disbelief and insanity, and the transcendent light of human kindness and sexual passions. Religious intolerance and family tensions underlie this exploration of the clash between orthodoxy and true faith, quietly building towards a shattering and miraculous climax that expresses spiritual optimism that is neither too sentimental nor too pious.

Witness is full of stark contrasts –rural vs. city, pacifism vs. violence, simplicity vs. sophistication –wrapped in a thriller and a love story that explores the power of faith in a community living the principals of their beliefs.

In his first Hollywood film, Australian director Peter Weir (Gallipoli, The Year of Living Dangerously, Mosquito Coast) tells the story of Samuel Lapp (Lukas Haas, in a riveting performance), a young Amish boy who witnesses a brutal murder in a Philadelphia train station on his first trip to the world outside his community. John Book (Harrison Ford), the police detective investigating the murder, discovers police corruption that threatens him and the Amish boy’s life. Hiding out at the family farm, living the simple life of the Amish, Book is forced to examine his life of violence and its consequences on society. While Witness has its share of action and comedic scenes, it is the beautifully nuanced yet doomed relationship between Book and Samuel’s mother Rachel (Kelly McGillis) that’s the heart of the story.

Weir’s direction, John Seale’s cinematography, and Maurice Jarre’s music make for a memorable film, but it is the haunting performance of Lukas Haas as the dark-eyed witness that holds your attention throughout the harrowing tale. Haas, now an accomplished adult actor, continues to play sympathetic and troubled characters, most recently in Swedish Auto, shot two years ago in Charlottesville and having its Virginia premier at this year’s Film Festival.

Mary Pickford was the original “America’s Sweetheart”. Although she made a career of playing coquettish waifs on the silent screen, behind the scenes she was a savvy businesswoman and a driving force behind the original United Artists with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks (soon to be her husband), and the great director D.W. Griffith.

At 33 years of age, Sparrows would be the last time Mary played the golden-haired woman child, but her plucky and resourceful persona served her well in this Dickensian tale of kidnapping, cruelty, and attempted infanticide. Mary plays “Mama Molly” the oldest “child” at a baby farm hidden deep in a Southern swamp. She cares for all the children, bringing them hope with the story of baby jesus. (”He was born in a barn — just like this.”) When one of the children dies, Jesus himself makes an appearance to carry the innocent to his great reward.

After their cruel keeper kidnaps and then threatens a baby, Molly knows that their only chance is to escape through the harrowing swamp with its twisted trees, quicksand, and treacherous alligators. The stylized set design and atmospheric photography reflects the influence of German expressionist cinema on American film in the 1920s. Many, including Charlie Chaplin, considered this dark tale to be Pickford’s best.

Who better than Michael Apted to tell the story of famed abolitionist William Wilberforce? Apted is a prolific writer, director, and producer who has helmed such classics as Coal Miner’s Daughter, Gorillas in the Mist, and Thunderheart. Most notably, Apted is also the creative force behind the Up! documentary series that follows a group of British boys and girls as they become men and women and follow or subvert their class roles.

William Wilberforce (1759-1833) was another British citizen who defied the expectations of his class. The son of a wealthy merchant, Wilberforce attended prep schools and was elected a member of parliament at the age of twenty. Welsh actor Ioan Gruffud (of A&E’s Horatio Hornblower series) portrays the firebrand politician with charm, wit and zeal. Undaunted by the boys’ club atmosphere amongst his colleagues, Wilberforce is recognized early in his career as a man of great integrity and courage. A life-altering meeting with an ex-slave inspires the evangelical paliamentarian to confront the dehumanizing slave trade, an economic force so vital to the Establishment that it forces him into a fierce conflict with the most powerful people in the nation.

Director Apted fills the screen with period detail and tremendous performances, including Benedict Cumberbatch as Wilberforce’s friend and future British Prime Minister William Pitt, Rufus Sewell as the passionate abolitionist Thomas Clarkson, and the lovely Romola Garai as spirited political compatriot Barbara Spooner. Allied with Wilberforce is John Newton (Albert Finney), a former slave ship captain who witnessed the horrors of slavery first hand, became a minister, and dedicated his life to ending the slave trade in Britain. Newton wrote a hymnal about his own religious conversion which became the title of the film: Amazing Grace.

Rapture (rap’chur) 1. ecstatic joy or delight. 2. a state of extreme sexual ecstasy. 3. the feeling of being transported to another sphere of existence. 4. the experience of being spirited away to Heaven just before the Apocalypse.

Sharon is a phone information operator in Los Angeles. She holds impersonal phone conversations with strangers during the day, and after work she cruises “swingers” clubs with her boyfriend to have impersonal sex with strangers at night. When she sleeps, she is haunted by images of a pearl suspended in blackness. She finds herself drawn to a group of Christian co-workers and discovers that they share the same dream. They convince her that God is calling to her and the dream is a harbinger of the Apocalypse. Suddenly, the empty void of her life is filled with a purpose and Sharon becomes born-again. The film then jumps through time as she meets a man, gets married, has children, and finds herself on the shores of heaven at the End of Days. The abrupt change from a casual life filled with music and dancing and sensuality (if not intimacy) to a harsh and uncompromising confrontation with life after death is jarring both for Sharon and for the viewer, setting the scene for her defiant confrontation with the almighty.

REVISION by Richard

Michael Tolkin is best known for his novel-turned-screenplay, The Player. But this is his wildest creation, a dramatization of the appeal and beliefs of fundamentalist Protestant evangelicalism, blended with New Age elements. Mimi Rogers gives an outstanding performance as telephone operator Sharon, bored with her life and seeking rapture through anonymous sex. She finds herself drawn to a group of Christian co-workers and discovers that they share the same dream, and a desire for a rapturous journey to heaven, ahead of the Apocalypse. They convince her that God is calling to her and, suddenly, Sharon is born-again. The abrupt change from a casual life filled with superficial pleasures to a harsh and uncompromising confrontation with life after death is jarring both for Sharon and for the viewer, setting the scene for her defiant confrontation with the Almighty, on the shores of heaven at the End of Days.

Cecil B. DeMille’s career as a director and producer spans five decades of motion pictures. He is best known as the creator of visually lush epics such as The Ten Commandments, The Crusades, Cleopatra, and reportedly his favorite, The King Of Kings, an elaborate yet reverent use of film to tell “the greatest story ever told”.

The story follows the last weeks of Jesus, the Christ (as the character is billed) with DeMille taking some literary license to aid his narrative, but mostly staying true to the gospel account. It opens in glorious two-strip Technicolor with Mary Magdalene running a decadent “house of pleasure” (which feels remarkably like a 1920’s speakeasy) and missing her paramour, Judas Iscariot (this being one example of DeMille’s “literary licenses”). Upon learning that Judas has fallen under the influence of a Nazarene carpenter, Mary sets off to confront the one called Jesus, only to find hundreds of the sick and lame waiting for a moment with the master.

We finally meet Him working miracles in the temple surrounded by His many disciples. When a little girl asks Jesus to heal her doll’s broken leg, He looks bemused and fixes the toy by hand. Judas encourages Jesus to work His mighty powers to become a great King over Israel and purge the Romans. Proud Mary is captured by the temple priests who want to stone her for her immorality. Jesus admonishes that he who is without sin should cast the first stone. As each man approaches, Jesus scrawls in the sand and the Hebrew words turn to English, revealing their sins.

After Jesus throws out the merchants and moneychangers from the temple, High Priest Caiaphas demands that Christ be arrested and Judas is pressured to betray Him. Pontius Pilate issues the death penalty and Jesus is forced to carry his own cross to the Cavalry. During the Resurrection, the film once again switches to color, just in time for the final spectacular scenes of the Lord’s wrath upon the wicked, with great flashes of lightning, earthquakes swallowing people whole, and of course, the temple veil being rent.

In light of several scandals that plagued Hollywood in the late 1920’s, DeMille had numerous clergy bless the production before the cameras even began rolling and, it is reported, insisted that his actors sign contracts promising that they would not engage in any “un-Christian”Â? behavior during the film’s production. The film is shot as a series of magnificent tableaus evoking nineteenth century Biblical paintings, with fantastic sets and (for their day) spectacular effects. As portrayed by actor H.B. Warner, Jesus appears not as a feminine creation of Renaissance painters, but as a strong and gentle man filled with righteous forboding.

A consummate showman who knew better than anyone how to promote both his films and himself, DeMille went on to make seventy features, including westerns, adventures, musical comedies and war pictures, before his death in 1959.

This print of The King of Kings is courtesy of Gordon’s Films, Inc.

“Religion without mystery is no religion at all! …Any heresy that attacks a mystery can easily seduce ignorant and superficial people, but heresies will never be able to hide the truth.” –(unnamed priest in Buñuel’s The Milky Way).

Luis Buñuel (1900-1983) had a long and complicated relationship with the Catholic church. Born to a wealthy family and trained as a Jesuit, Buñuel became a surrealist dedicated to countering bourgeois realism with shocking juxtapositions and subversively humorous images of middle class hypocrisy and injustice. Many hail Buñuel as the first Dadaist filmmaker. He teamed with Salvador Dali for his earliest success, Un Chien Andalou (1929), before moving on to realist portraits such as Los Olvidados (1950) and experimental works like The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972).

In The Milky Way (La Voie Lactée), Buñuel sets about debunking the pomposity and authoritarianism of organised religion in provocative and often hilarious scenes that careen through time, space, and philosophy. In the film, two pilgrims journey through France on their way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Along the way they encounter strange figures from different ages and time periods –a stigmatic child, a lunatic priest, theologian waiters, heretics, fanatics and blasphemers –and are witness to miracles, visions, revelations and discussions of religious mysticism. In his own words “the film is above all a journey through fanaticism, where each person obstinately clings to his own particle of truth, ready if need be to kill or to die for it. The road traveled by the two pilgrims can represent, finally, any political or even aesthetic ideology.” Buñuel reportedly enjoyed the dilemma felt by critics as they disagreed whether the film was for or against ecclesiastical thinking.

In the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, nestled deep in the Himalayas, two men seek to escape their mundane lives. Dondup, an educated government official, dreams of escaping to America. Tashi, a restless farm youth studying magic, cannot bear the thought of a life consigned to his village. The two men embark on parallel, if separate, journeys. Their yearning is a common one — for a better and different life.

Dondup, delayed by the timeless pace of his village, is forced to hitchhike through the beautiful wild countryside of Bhutan to reach his goal. He shares the road with a monk, an apple seller, a papermaker and his beautiful young daughter, Sonam. Throughout the journey the perceptive yet mischievous monk relates the story of Tashi. It is a mystical fable of lust, jealousy, and murder that holds up a mirror to the restless Dondup and his blossoming attraction to the innocent Sonam.

Travellers & Magicians is the first feature film ever shot in the tiny kingdom of Bhutan. One of Himalayan Buddhism’s most revered lamas, the director Khyentse Norbu weaves intertwined tales of men seeking to escape their lives in this magical mixture of rustic road movie and mystical tale, a potpourri of desire and its consequences, set in a breathtaking landscape.

“I know so many gay Christians who have such a guilt in their hearts, because they honestly think that the Bible may be right. It could be right. What if we are wrong, and we are sinners, and we are all going to Hell?”

So speaks Thomas, a charismatic 18 year old who has gathered together with other teenagers at an overnight camp for gay Christian youths. At an age when many of their peers are more worried about acne and adding to their MySpace Friends list, Thomas and other midwestern teenagers are confronting questions about personal sexual identity and their mortal souls.

Thomas and his new friends bond over campfires, participate in team-building, and pour out their hearts in intimate video interviews. Among the teens is Scancy, a purple-haired, bisexual Goth-girl, who comes to camp questioning her Christian identity; Christine, a hyperactive, Elvis-obsessed, home-schooled loner who relies on her strong Christian faith to cope; and Jesse, the attractive and popular boy who struggles with being the object of everyone’s affection.

Camp Out is a new feature documentary from reality TV producers Kirk Marcolina and Larry Grimaldi. In published interviews, the filmmakers talk of receiving letters from parents of gay children expressing gratitude for insight into their children’s experience.

For these six boys and four girls in this film, it’s just as hard to come out as Christian as it is to come out as gay. They’re caught in the battle between religion, politics and sexuality that’s raging in the United States today. These kids are outsiders — their straight classmates ostracize them and their churches reject them. But like all teens, they yearn to feel at home, somewhere. They narrate their own personal journeys as they struggle to find acceptance in a religion that preaches that their sexuality is sinful. Camp Out tackles the question of why, in spite of the climate of many churches, these kids yearn to be a part of the Christian faith.

The two sons of a poor Jewish pushcart peddler on New York’s Lower East Side are both causing their father grief. One, a selfish and ambitious student, wants to become a lawyer, and in doing so tries to hide his background from his friends. The other gets a job to help pay his brother’s college education and, to his father’s horror, becomes a prizefighter and plans to marry an Irish girl. As Morris and Sammy stray from traditions cherished by their parents, each generation learns to accept change in order to preserve the family as a source of love and respect.

Director Edward Sloman’s images of New York’s Lower East Side are so evocative that the viewer can almost hear the hustle and bustle of that thriving neighborhood during the 1920s. This silent classic will be accompanied by local Jewish singing group Haverim, with music by Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton.

Screening with His People is West Bank Story, a 22-minute musical comedy set in the fast-paced, fast-food world of competing falafel stands in the West Bank. David, an Israeli soldier, falls in love with the beautiful Palestinian cashier, Fatima, despite the animosity between their families’ dueling restaurants. Can the couple’s love withstand a 2000 year old conflict and their families’ desire to control the future of the chickpea in the Middle East? Director Ari Sendel sends up West Side Story with dancing, singing, and finger-snapping Israelis and Palestinians, demonstrating how laughter can lead us away from anger.

Let’s Go To Prison is a new feature comedy by Bob Odenkirk (HBO’s Mr Show). Will Arnett (Arrested Development) stars as Nelson Biederman IV, spoiled son of the late judge who sent career felon John Lyshitski (Dax Shepard) to jail. When Beiderman also ends up in prison, Lyshitski is so bent on getting retribution against the judge that he cheerfully finds his way right back to the clink. He is just itching to get a chance to show Nelson the ropes, and when the two actually become cellmates, his most precious wish is granted. Nelson is so unaccustomed to the criminal lifestyle that his behavior immediately offends all the wrong people. Soon, John is making deals and selling Nelson to the powerful Barry (Chi McBride), who is looking for a companion on those lonely prison nights. But just as revenge starts tasting sweet, Nelson becomes Big Man in the Big House and turns the tables on John…changing the rules of his insane game.

One Punk Under God is an observational documentary series that follows Jay Bakker, an alternative Christian minister and the son of former Praise The Lord leaders Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Messner. The series takes a behind-the-scenes look at Bakker’s life as he face the emotional, spiritual, and professional struggles of running his Revolution Church in Atlanta, GA.

Bakker is a tattooed and pierced preacher who does not readily fit the image of an American evangelist. His resolutely maverick stance and open tolerance for alternative lifestyle choices challenge traditional religious leaders and makes it difficult to fund his Revolution church. Even if he can successfully balance his spiritual beliefs with the financial realities of his ministry, he still has to confront and manage emotional situations brewing in his family life, particularly with his mother and estranged father. But Bakker is determined to fuse alternative and Christian values to create a non-denominational and inclusive parish and he is working hard to show the world just how hip and welcoming today’s churches can be.

Many children watching this TV show in the early 1960s thought it was just a harmless and zany romp about a man with a gorgeous wife and a talking horse that only he can hear. The horse, Ed, was always getting Wilbur into trouble by phoning the neighbors, ordering take-out, and showing up in inappropriate places. In one particularly memorable episode, Wilbur and Carol Post go on a beach vacation and Wilbur spies Ed surfing on a surfboard.

Some twenty years later, fundamentalist investigators determined that by playing the Mister Ed theme song backwards while sticking your fingers in your ears and squinting, you can clearly hear the words “source of the devil” and “the source is so hot”.

Armed with that revelation, contemporary viewers now understand that Mister Ed was not a show about a man with a talking horse. Rather, it was about a man who thought he had a talking horse. Suddenly, all those devilish plots by Ed to get Wilbur into trouble make sense. The horse was merely a manifestation of Wilbur’s sub-conscious, which can clearly be seen by his name: “Mister Ed” … or rather, “Mister Id“!

Wilbur was an architect, a job which allowed him to stay home and talk to his horse, but internally he was busy deconstructing the lives of everyone around him. The show was cancelled after six seasons, but the astute viewer must ponder what fate would later befall the winsome Carol Post. And no one has successfully explained what happened to Wilburs’ neighbors, the Addisons, who disappeared in 1963.

Fatiha and her friend Jessica, embark on a journey through Morocco in search of answers to her questions about virginity, sex and Islam. This film is the story of their travels from ancient Islamic schools to the Saharan camel markets, from the offices of city doctors, to beachside resorts.

It all begins with a controversial kiss of the hand. Fatiha is on the verge of marrying the man her grandfather chose for her long ago. But her fiancé’s disturbing views (he claims that, in the eyes of Islam, even a kiss of the hand is forbidden before marriage) shock her. So Fatiha and her friend Jessica, an American researching Moroccan family law reforms, decide to embark on a journey through Morocco in search of answers to her questions about virginity, sex and Islam.

The Virgin Diaries is the story of their travels and their investigation, from ancient Islamic schools to the Saharan camel markets, from the offices of city doctors (the most common minor surgery in Morocco is the repair of the hymen) to beachside resorts. Inevitably, this defiant quest produces few answers and lots of trouble. And things definitively skid out of control when Fatiha does the unthinkable and falls in love for the first time. Fatiha’s random (or predestined?) encounter with a charming stranger suddenly pits duty against desire.

“We all know Mormons are evil, but, good God, THIS?!!”

Devout zealots use their mesmeric powers to ensnare young recruits into their pseudo-religious culture that blends science fiction and religious fervor. No, we’re not talking about Scientologists, but frenzied views of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wrongly but almost universally known as The Mormons. Almost since the church’s inception, lurid stories have abounded of hypnotic missionaries luring young virgins into polygamous retreats from which they cannot escape. Even Arthur Conan Doyle got into the act in his very first Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet by suggesting that Danites, the Avenging Angels of Mormondom, were steeped in the assassination of apostates and that polygamy was white slavery.

Hollywood also responded with a series of cautionary and exploitive films warning about the “dangers”Â? of “Mormonism”Â?. In 1922, the original Trapped By The Mormons was released and it has since acquired a cult status as –Mormonism’s answer to REEFER MADNESS”Â?. In 2005, a troupe of D.C.-based actors remade the film in all of its silent black-and-white glory (”Even your screams will be silent!”Â?), recasting it as a zombie horror movie.

Isoldi Keane, the top recruiter in all of Mormondom, is using his mesmeric powers to ensnare the young, delightful Nora Prescott into his evil web of passion, polygamy, and pamphlets. Can Nora withstand Isoldi’s wicked-sexy Mormon wiles? Will Isoldi marry Nora and take her to where the Great Salt Lake meets the Crystal Temple. . .or is something darker lurking in her future? Slavery! Polygamy! Death!! Cherry Red Productions and Jeff Goode Entertainment conspire to present this hauntingly hip and hilarious remake of the 1922 cult horror flick Trapped By The Mormons.

Four years in the making, Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy played to international acclaim following its initial release in 1979. Hailed as a masterpiece, the Trilogy brings you face to face with the unbroken continuity of Tibet’s ancient culture. The original version of the meditative documentary clocked in at nearly four hours. It returns in a digitally restored, re-cut edition that runs just over two hours. In three parts, the film patiently unwraps the details of daily monastic life. From a portrait of the Dalai Lama as a spiritual and temporal leader, to an unprecedented revelation of the mystical inner world of monastic life and an unflinching depiction of the moving response to a death in the community, the film takes you on an intimate journey deep into the heart of an ancient Buddhist culture.

It is reported that Andrei Tarkovsky did not yet know he was dying of cancer as he finished his last film, The Sacrifice. Nevertheless, it is hard not to read intimations of the great Russian filmmaker’s pending mortality in this apocalyptic parable.

Tarkovsky’ protagonist, Alexander, is a journalist, former actor, and philosopher. Family and friends have gathered in a Swedish beach house to help celebrate his 60th birthday when a TV newscaster announces that global nuclear war has broken out. In 1986, many in the world thought this inevitable; here, the nuclear threat is used to explore issues of spirituality and redemption. In despair, Alexander promises God that he will give up all his worldly possessions and live in solitude if only his family can survive. Under the advice of his postman (an allegorical messenger angel), Alexander spends the night with a mysterious local woman who he believes may be a witch. In the morning, the world and his family is still there, and so Alexander attempts to fulfill his promise to God. Unanswered is whether the almighty actually intervened and turned back the clock, or if all of this — the nuclear devastation, the survival of his family, the postman and the witch — may simply be the delusions of a shattered mind.

Tarkovsky was a peer and friend of Ingmar Bergman and used many of Bergman’s favorite actors as well as his masterful cinematographer, Sven Nykvist. The film is filled with long shots and single takes which lend to the sense of spiritual isolation and ominous transformations.

By day, Carter (Lukas Haas) repairs cars in a Charlottesville auto shop. He spends his nights outside the apartment of Ann Shelton, voyeuristically listening to her violin playing. Through Ann, he realizes an artistic dream that counters his mundane existence in the auto shop. That equilibrium is disrupted when he comes across an astronomy book outside his apartment and discovers that his routine is not solitary –that he is also being watched from the shadows. Slowly, Carter awakens to the world around him and discovers that the real love which had eluded him may be just around the corner.

UVA graduates Tyler Davidson (Producer) and Derek Seig (Writer/Director) brought cast and crew to Charlottesville for filming in Fall of 2005 where the film received much support from the local community. Swedish Auto will make its home-town debut at the Virginia Film Festival.

“Faith is a torment. It is like loving someone who is out there in the darkness but never appears, no matter how loudly you call.”

Black Death strikes Europe in the middle of the 12th century. Antonius Block went to the Holy Land as a faithful young warrior, but returns to Sweden tortured by doubt and uncertainty. The thought that there might not be a God is unbearable to him. When Death suddenly stands before him, he wants proof and challenges Death to a game of chess. Before he dies, the great warrior wants to do one last meaningful thing.

Ingmar Bergman’s most memorable films deal with questions of love, memory, and faith. Fifty years later, more viewers may have seen parodies of the images that Bergman established here — most notably, Woody Allen’s hilarious Love and Death — but the original still stands as an existential exploration of intellect and humanity.

Rebellion of Thought is a critical look at the role of faith in a post-modern culture. What is post-Modernism? How has it affected our culture? How will it impact our future? What is the role of the church in a post-modern world? Does Man truly need God or is God merely a fairytale idea leftover from past cultural experiments.

These questions are the launching point for this new film by Charlottesville brothers Brad and Kent Williamson. They began work on a documentary exploration of post-modernity, but the film morphed into a critical look at the role of the Church in a post-modern world. Along the way, the filmmakers learn that living ones faith out in the culture is very different than living ones faith out within the walls of the Church. Rebellion of Thought examines the transition from modernity to post-modernity as well as the issues surrounding this drastic shift in cultural ideology.

Live from…the Hook is a small, compelling film about two local rock n’ roll guys who make music with their friends in and around a little Virginia college town with a big appetite for live music.  The film captures the history of the Charlottesville music scene through the eyes and voices of musicians from the Charlottesville Blues All-Stars all the way to the Dave Mathews Band.

Bob Girard and Charlie Pastorfield met at UVA many (many) moons ago and have since played together in five bands.  These two friends have flirted with stardom, taken the day jobs, nurtured families, loved and lost friends.  They have each made a good living playing rock n’ roll, sold a bunch of records, drove the girls crazy and played to packed houses of devoted fans up and down the East Coast. They inspired other local musicians who made it all the way to the top.  But Bob and Charlie never topped the Billboard charts and they didn’t win American Idol. They have experienced night after night onstage and day after day on the road, the agony of near death on the streets of Rome, and the ecstasy of resurrection back home … all for the music. For everyone who dreamed big back when our whole lives were ahead of us, who ever dreamed of being a rock n’ roll star, a painter, or a writer (in short, all of us) — Bob and Charlie’s story is an inspiration.  Their journey shows us the power of passion.

The Monty Python troupe struggled with desert heat, reluctant financial backers, and, eventually, the denunciation of various churches, evangelists, and politicians to produce what may be their most consistent and coherent film. Funded by George Harrison after the initial backers withdrew, Life of Brian is not, as its detractors assumed, a blasphemous satire of Jesus Christ and Christianity, but a smart and, of course, achingly funny take on religious belief in general, militant politics, empire, and, most interestingly, the muddled and uncertain origins of what eventually becomes “gospel truth”Â? –all wrapped up in a parody of bloated Biblical epics.

The story follows poor Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman), a Jewish anti-Roman activist mistaken for the Messiah through a series of coincidences (he was, for example, born in the manger next door to that more famous stable) and near-constant misunderstandings and exaggerations by his growing band of followers who blithely ignore his repeated efforts to clarify his identity. Instead, they craft a religion based on his every off-hand utterance. Brian tries to do as much good as possible, but his story does not end happily for him –nor perhaps for anyone easily offended by a musical crucifixion scene. Both intelligent and silly (familiar Python traits), Life of Brian is also warm-hearted and provocative. On its initial release in the UK, the film was banned by several town councils (some of which had no cinemas within their boundaries). The film was also banned for eight years in the Republic of Ireland and for a year in Norway (it was marketed in Sweden as ‘the movie that is so funny, it was banned in Norway!’). Life of Brian was reissued (marketed as a “Second Coming”) in 2004 to nip at the heels of Mel Gibson’s wildly successful depiction of the Christ story.

Winner of the Israeli Oscar for Best Documentary, as well as eight international awards, Keep Not Silent boldly documents the clandestine struggle of three women fighting for their right to love within their beloved Orthodox communities in Jerusalem. All three are pious, religiously committed women. All three are lesbians, and members of a secret support group called the “Ortho-Dykes.”Â?

Though their life choices exact a devastating price, these women are committed to confronting their duality, and accept the toll with a profound compassion toward their society. Ingenious cinematic techniques underscore the excruciating pain of constant self-suppression, and provide the anonymity necessary for these women to continue living in their communities. Their courageous fight for self-realization, honesty and acceptance is an extraordinary model for those who struggle with issues of religious and sexual identity.

Accompanying Ilil Alexander’s stunning debut film is In My Father’s Church by Charissa King, a poignant exploration of the intersection of homosexuality and religion from the perspective of someone who has much at stake. Charissa is a lesbian who wants a church wedding. Her dad is the pastor of the town’s United Methodist Church. While he has been quietly supportive of his daughter’s lesbian relationship, Charissa’s father knows he would put his career at risk if he chose to officiate at her marriage ceremony. This emotionally charged story of one woman’s attempt to reconcile her love, faith and family brings to life the deep conflicts that gay marriage has caused in many churches –and for many individuals trying to maintain their faith while preserving their own identities.

The 1970s were years of intense social and cultural tumult. To the followers of the charismatic and forceful Jim Jones, the “Peoples Temple” offered the perfect balance of spiritual fulfillment and political commitment. Jones not only preached about integration and equality, but also built an organization that provided food, clothing, and shelter to his congregation and his community. On the surface, Jim Jones and his multiracial congregation espoused the values of a model society. But in the summer of 1977 an article in New West magazine exposed the truth. Defectors and family members gave accounts of physical, sexual, and drug abuse, financial corruption,and members being held against their will.

On November 18, 1978, over 900 members of Peoples Temple died in the largest mass suicide/murder in history. Using never-before-seen archival footage and survivor interviews, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple focuses on the issues that defined the Peoples Temple — faith and zealotry, revolution and utopia, race and class, loyalty and coercion, charismatic leadership and demagoguery — while presenting the human story of the people who followed Jim Jones from Indiana to California and finally to the remote jungles of Guyana, South America in a misbegotten quest to build an ideal society.

Jesus Camp explores the revival in America of Christian youth taking up leadership of the conservative Christian movement. The documentary follows Levi, Rachael, Tory and a number of other young children to Pastor Becky Fischer’s “Kids on Fire” summer camp in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. There, kids as young as six are taught to become dedicated Christian soldiers in God’s army. These campers hone their prophetic gifts and are schooled in how to take back America for Christ. The film is a first-ever look into an intense training ground that recruits born-again Christian children to become an active part of America’s political future.

(in Danish with English subtitles)

“The opposite of faith is not doubt - the opposite of faith is knowledge.”

Anna (Ann Eleonora Jørgensen) a newly ordained minister is married to Frank (Lars Ranthe). For years they’ve desperately being trying to have a baby. Anna gets a temporary job as prison chaplain in the women’s wing. She meets Kate (Trine Dyrholm), an inmate who is believed to possess supernatural powers. When Kate spots that Anna is actually pregnant, Anna’s faith is severely tested, but Kate also conceals a terrible past which has disastrous consequences for them both.

In Your Hands is a story about what happens when trust is more fragile than mistrust, when knowledge is stronger than faith and when pain is more powerful than love. It is about daring - or not daring - to place one’s life in the hands of something or someone else.

G.I. Jesus is the story of a Mexican citizen who joins the Military to become a legal citizen of the United States. After returning from a tour of combat in Iraq, Jesus is shocked to find how much his Mexican wife and daughter have changed in his absence. He watches his American dream turn into a nightmare as he struggles to hold his family together in a country obsessed with materialism and conspicuous consumption. Jesus soon learns that the true battle begins after the fighting stops. Provocative and intelligent, often humorous, G.I. Jesus portrays one family’s struggle to find a better life by crossing the border — back into Mexico!

An “ambitious, topical satire” (Variety), G.I. Jesus targets the exploitation of immigrant soldiers and the psychological costs of the Iraq war, among other social issues. Jesus is a Mexican citizen who joins the Military to become a legal citizen of the United States. After returning from a tour of combat in Iraq, he watches his American dream turn into a nightmare as he struggles to hold his family together in a country obsessed with materialism and conspicuous consumption. Provocative, intelligent, and funny, G.I. Jesus makes a strong case for crossing the border in the opposite direction.

Kalikinkar Roy, patriarch of a Indian family in 1860 Bengal, is an aging widower, respected landlord, and a devotee of Kali. In a dream, he comes to the revelation that his daughter-in-law Doyamoyee is as an incarnation of the Hindu goddess. A dying child is placed at her feet and is miraculously cured. As the news spreads, the aged, sick and the poor come in hundreds, seeking cures and comfort. Her husband Umaprasad, who has received a western-based education at a Calcutta university, finds himself dispossessed of his wife who has become a “goddess.” Umaprasad unsuccessfully tries to reason with his father, but the cure seems a miracle which demonstrates the truth of the traditional beliefs. Soon, crowds of worshippers come to venerate Doyamoyee, until a child under her care dies for lack of medical treatment.

The film generated some controversy on its release in India. It was seen as an attack on Hinduism itself by a few protesters, who tried to prevent the film’s international release. Today, Devi is recognized as a thoughtful exploration of the cultural emergence of “modern woman” in the upper class of colonial India, showing with striking sensitivity the pressures this new ideal placed on individual women whose self-identities were also molded by traditional expectations.

C. S. Lewis was a contemporary and friend of J.R.R. Tolkien at Oxford. Tolkein is best known today for his Ring trilogy, recently made into a series of Academy Award-winning films. Whereas Tolkein based his novels on a fantasy land largely of his own making, Lewis poulated his Narnia series with human children, mythical creatures, and Christian allegory. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe follows the exploits of the four Pevensie siblings–Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter–who enter the world of Narnia through a magical wardrobe while playing a game of “hide-and-seek” in the rural country home of an elderly professor. There they discover an extraordinary land inhabited by talking beasts, dwarfs, fauns, centaurs, and giants. The evil White Witch has cursed the once-charming and peaceful land with eternal winter. Under the guidance of a noble and mystical ruler, the lion Aslan, the children fight to overcome the White Witch’s powerful hold over Narnia in a spectacular climactic battle that will free Narnia from her icy spell forever.

“I don’t believe in coincidence,” says Lila, a glamorous restaurateur in Latter Days. “These days, I believe in miracles.”

Christian (Wes Ramsey), a hunky, 20-something, West Hollywood party boy gets more than he bargains for when he tries to seduce 19-year-old Elder Aaron Davis (Steve Sandvoss), a sexually confused Mormon missionary who moves into his apartment complex. When Christian exposes Davis’ secret sexual desire, Davis’ rejects Christian for being shallow and empty, The encounter shatters each boy’s reality and draws the two into a passionate romance that risks destroying their lives. Latter Days is a charming and moving tale that will leave you believing in the transformational power of love.

One of Alfred Hitchcock’s lesser-known gems, I Confess casts the director’s keen eye on themes of guilt, secrecy, vows, and, of course, murder. Otto Kellar and his wife Alma work as caretaker and housekeeper at a Catholic church in Quebec, Canada. While robbing a house where he gardens, Otto is surprised by the owner and inadvertently murders him. Remorseful, he confesses to Father Michael William Logan (Montgomery Clift) at the church. But Father Logan has secrets of his own which tie him to the murder. Sworn to secrecy by the sanctity of confession, Father Logan finds himself a suspect.

On the eve of his campaign launch for the U.S. Senate, District Attorney Peter Miles receives word that the governor has exonerated Ronald Bradler, a death row inmate whom he prosecuted five years earlier for the murder of a local police officer. In the wake of Bradler’s release and through the lense of the media frenzy surrounding the high profile case, what unfolds is a public vetting of Peter’s record. When hard evidence of actual impropriety on Peter’s part finds it way into his possession, Bradler seeks out Peter for answers. The movie is a compelling and energetic political drama, focused on accountability, moral absolution and the consequences of political arrogance and racial inequality.

Words of My Perfect Teacher follows three students on a quest they hope will lead to wisdom, if only they can abide by their teacher. Soccer”“obsessed, charismatic filmmaker, and citizen of the world, Khyentse Norbu may be one of the world’s most eminent Buddhist teachers, but it’s a job description he slyly rejects at every turn.

The film’s point of view is inspired by Buddhist philosophy –which says that we can’t really change human behaviour until we learn to deal with our mind — and was made during the course of a year that included attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, months of tension as India and Pakistan went to the brink of nuclear war, multiple suicide bombings in Israel, a stock market drop that plunged the world to new depths of economic uncertainty, and the U.S. war on Iraq. If ever there was a time to inspire students to “wake up” and learn the wisdom necessary to engage in compassionate activity, this was that year. Featuring appearances by Bernardo Bertolucci and Steven Seagal, and set to a world beat with music by Sting, Tara Slone & Joy Drop, Steve Tibbets, U.Man.Tek, and Kunga 19, the film serves as a welcome reminder that change begins with the self.

Iraq In Fragments illuminates war-torn Iraq in three acts. First, we follow Mohammed Haithem, an 11-year-old auto mechanic in the mixed Sheik Omar neighborhood in the heart of old Baghdad. Several years behind in school and waylaid by war’s intervention, he’s torn between education and apprenticeship. Through Mohammed’s eyes we see a growing disenchantment with the U.S.-led occupation, as well as tensions between Shia and Sunni Iraqis. Shown in extreme close-up, Mohammed’s Bagdhad is a city caught between an idealized past, a dangerous present, and an uncertain future.

The second act is filmed inside the Shiite political/religious movement of Moqtada Sadr, traveling between Naseriyah and the holy city of Najaf. As tensions mount inside the country, we see the inner workings of Iraqi local politics as the Sadr movement pushes for regional elections and enforces their interpretation of Islamic law.

Act three follows Iraqi Kurds as they assert their bid for independence, rebelling against the past atrocities of Baghdad rule. We follow these developments through the eyes of brick makers and childhood friends on a farm south of Arbil.

Iraq in Fragments presents a vivid, intimate picture of a country pulled in different directions by religion and ethnicity. At this year’s Sundance Film Festival it won for Best Directing, Best Cinematographer and Best Editing.

(B&W in Italian with subtitles)

Director Pier Paolo Passolini, a gay Marxist atheist, produced The Gospel According to St. Matthew after his arrest on charges of blasphemy for his heretical portrayal of Jesus in his short satirical film, “La Ricotta.”Â? Four decades later, Gospel is now admired by many as a moving and powerful depiction of the life of Jesus Christ. The release of the film in the US was accompanied by a controversial change in the glowing dedication of the work to Pope John XXIII and in the removal of the scene portraying the investiture of Peter (now restored in this screening). The film won a special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival and earned three Oscar nominations. It is widely praised for applying documentary methods to a narrative story with stark and beautiful results.

Accompanying Passolini’s masterpiece is The Miracle, a 2003 film by Italian director Edoardo Winspeare about a boy who awakens from a coma and discovers that he may have the power to heal the sick.

Eve, a precocious nine year old with an overactive imagination, was born in the year of the Fire Horse, notorious among Chinese families for producing the most troublesome children. Caught between her 11-year-old authoritative sister’s fantasies of sainthood and cultural confusion and her own sense of right and wrong, Eve faces the challenges of childhood with fanciful humor and wide-eyed wonder. Sometimes the most troublesome children are the ones that touch our hearts most deeply.

Sundance Special Jury Prize; Vancouver Film Festival Audience Award; Toronto International Film Festival Official Selection.

Led by either God or an excessive amount of antacid, Brian believes he is a messiah…not the Messiah, just a local One chosen to represent those within a hundred mile radius. Chris Hansen’s “unlikely documentary”Â? begins with Brian preparing to announce himself and his “higher purpose”Â? to the public at his town’s civic center. You can’t be a Messiah, after all, if nobody knows about it. Brian explains why he’s a messiah and then, seeking to raise money to rent the civic center and to pay for t-shirts, he holds a baptism-for-fee service at a nearby swimming hole. Dustin Olson’s performance as Brian is spot-on and hilarious, and you may become a believer.

Academy Award-winning Charlottesville film producer/director Paul Wagner releases this fresh and raw new feature documentary about religion, race, poverty, drugs and sensuality in an inner city neighborhood of Washington DC. The film examines the spiritual lives of six individuals facing the toughest challenges of life in Washington’s poorest neighborhood. The characters are amazing; their stories are edgy portraits of spirit and struggle. The film received a work-in-progress screening at the Silverdocs Film Festival this past June, and is a featured premiere at the Virginia Film Festival.

A Flock of Dodos is the first feature-length animated documentary to present both sides of the intelligent design/evolution clash. Filmmaker and former evolutionary ecologist, Randy Olsen, tries to make sense of the issue by visiting his home state of Kansas. At first it seems the problem lies with intelligent design, a movement labeled recently as “breathtaking inanity,”Â? by a federal judge. The advocates for Intelligent Design have a hard time making a solid case for their view, so why are they gaining so much traction in America? Because, says Olsen, they’re much nicer people to hang out with than the starched, contentious and somewhat overbearing scientists taking on the ID crowd. When a group of evolutionists convene for a night of poker and discussion, they end up sounding like “¦ a flock of you-know-whats.