Thursday April 3th 7:30 pm - Doors Open 7:00

Moving Midway - Godfrey Cheshire (98 min)

Award-winning Southern film critic Godfrey Cheshire uses the relocation of his family’s North Carolina plantation as the occasion to examine the Southern plantation in American history and culture, including its impact on areas as diverse as music, movies and contemporary race relations. Part present-tense family drama, part cultural essay, the film also involves an ongoing dialogue between Cheshire and Dr. Robert Hinton, an African-American history professor whose grandfather was born a slave at Midway Plantation.

9:00pm Q & A with the filmmakers

Friday April 4th 7:30 pm - Doors Open 6:00 pm

Fundraiser for KDRT Radio
 
music by: Aesthetic Cling,
Roger Kunkel, & Rusi Gustafson.

Torn Asunder - Bob Barancik (5 min)

 This video creatively explores the increasingly frayed American national psyche. The young urban voices are two of Tampa Bay's most popular performance poets. The art and post-production were handled by two baby boomers.

Pirate Radio USA - Jeff Pearson (85 min)

 DJ’s Him and Her, from their live Pirate Radio USA Studio, take you on a rock -n-roll journey inside rogue radio stations across the country to see why Americans defy Federal Law to free the radio airwaves.
 On the way see the rise of Big Media, the growth of Citizen Media to encounter it, and witness their showdown over the truth during the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle.

Intermission

7 Minutes - Shannon O'Rourke (10 min)

 An intimate, provocative documentary about a women-owned cooperative that happens to be the oldest profession in the world. This documentary short takes a new look at prostitution through the eyes of several women in Southern California who continue their lucrative jobs in spite of danger. Business is done in 7 minutes.

The Traveler - William Olsson (60 min)

 When confronted by his longtime girlfriend, telling him that he is unable to love and is more dead than alive, Albin's life falls apart. He gets fired from his job at a bank and cannot push himself to take the final exam for a prestigious M.B.A. degree. Albin flees home in desperation and ends up at a seedy hostel in former East Berlin.

Saturday Shorts April 5th 12:30pm - Doors Open 12:00 Noon

First film Saturday is a new feature for 2008,
Focus on Student Films

A Day Like Any Other - Alex Kravitz (7 min)

 After the death of their mother, a fourteen year-old girl and her mildly mentally challenged sixteen year-old brother have been living with their aunt. Disagreements between aunt and niece lead to petty choices that somehow result in an extraordinary day that they thought would be a day like any other.

Primates of Uganda and Rwanda - Fred Heiman (40 min)

 "We traveled to Uganda and Rwanda to film the endangered mountain gorilla and other primates. There are only 720 mountain gorillas in the world, located at the junction of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, in Volcanoes National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. From there we went to Kibale National Park where we also filmed chimpanzees, baboons and a variety of monkeys."

68° and Clear - Dawn Westlake (15 min)

 An eleven year-old African American mugger saves the life of a 40-something suicidal white woman. Just another day in L.A. where it's always 68° and clear.

Soldiers of Sisyphus - Bob Barancik (5 min)

 A mute meditation on the futility of war.

Lanesplitting - Chet Patterson (5 min)

 California is the only state in the US that allows lane splitting -- when motorcycles weave between lanes in congested traffic. "Lanesplitting" explores some commonly-held beliefs about the subject, and offers some surprising statistics.

Islands at Risk - Na Maka o ka Aina (30 min)

 Hawai`i has been called the GMO testing capitol of the world because it is the site of more experimental genetically engineered crops than any other place in the world.

Intermission

Diary of Niclas Gheiler - George Aguilar (32 min)

 Many of the combatents of The First World War recorded their daily events of their experiences in the form of a diary. Some were subsequently published after the war and have become celebrated. Many more, however, remained tucked away in cupboard drawers for years, unpublished & unseen.
  This short film modernizes the old-time diary format through the elemental use of text, sound effects, music & mashed together old film footage taking advantage of the web 2.0 philosophy.

Worlds Within Worlds - Marlene Sinicki (5 min)

 While working in a law firm in San Francisco in 1989, copying photographs for a legal brief, Neil Levine unintentionally dropped a Kleenex tissue on the glass surface of the copy machine. To his surprise, out came an image of the tissue transformed,reminiscient of an engraving or aquatic etching. Inspired by this happy accident, Neil Seth Levine's work--mandala-like images of flowers and shells--are the focus of this documentary.

Leftovers - Chelsea Walton (2 min)

Cutouts of meat illustrate a farm girl’s reason to avoid eating four-legged animals.

A Trip to Prague - Neil Ira Needleman (5 min)

 “There aren’t enough happy endings in the world, so this nice Jewish boy had to create his own.”

Maybe Baby - Shannon O'Rourke (60 min)

 "While making a documentary for the past three years about single women in their thirties and forties trying to get pregnant called MAYBE BABY, I learned a lot about the challenges of getting pregnant, staying pregnant, sperm banks, RE's, fertility drugs, having a baby, and miscarriage. I also worked for two years as a field producer on a TV show about high-risk pregnancy for the Discovery Health Channel called BABIES: SPECIAL DELIVERY, filming in over 20 high-risk maternity wards across the country."

The Davis Film Festival Party
4 - 6 pm Saturday April 5th at:
The Davis Art Center 1919 F Street Davis.
Food, drink, and music.

Saturday Night April 5th 7:30 pm - Doors Open 7:00

Listen to Iran's People: A Call for Peace - Margot Smith (30 min)

 ...was filmed in Iran in March, 2007 during a particularly volatile political time. President Bush was rattling his saber, and Iran's President Ahmadinajad was posturing in response.This video tells about their trip, and of their welcome by Iran's Vice President, as well as the thoughts of people on the street, students, professors and imams, who all sent a message to the United States desiring peace.

Intermission

For the Bible tells me so - Daniel Karslake (99 mins)

 Does God really condemn loving homosexual relationships? Is the chasm separating Christianity from gays and lesbians too wide to cross? Is the Bible an excuse to hate? These questions and more are answered in this award-winning documentary, which brilliantly reconciles homosexuality and Biblical scripture – and reveals that religious anti-gay bias is based almost solely upon a misinterpretation of the Bible.