2009 Films

AIDS Chronicles: Here to Represent
94m | documentary | directed by Bailey Barash | Regional Premiere

Saturday | April 4 | 9:15pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Filmmaker present

The "AIDS Chronicles: Here to Represent" is a feature-length documentary about the social and cultural impact of HIV/AIDS on the urban African American population, addressing why the disease continues to have such a death grip on the Black community.

Black churches are split on how to react to their HIV positive members; U.S. HIV/AIDS infection rates are highest in African American men who have sex with men; African American women are dying of AIDS in alarming numbers. The AIDS Chronicles: Here to Represent goes inside the lives of African American AIDS activists, victims, and experts to reveal the current state of the disease and the fight against it.


American Violet
102m | fiction | directed by Tim Disney | Regional Premiere.

Thursday | March 26 | 7pm | Canal Place Cinemas | Filmmaker present

Based on true events in the midst of the 2000 election, American Violet tells the astonishing story of Dee Roberts (critically hailed newcomer Nicole Beharie), a 24-year-old African American single mother of four young girls living in a small Texas town who is barely making ends meet. On an early November morning, the powerful local district attorney (Academy Award nominee Michael O'Keefe) leads an extensive drug bust, sweeping Dee's Arlington Springs housing project. Indicted based on the uncorroborated word of a single and dubious police informant, Dee soon discovers she has been charged as a drug dealer. Dee is offered a hellish choice: plead guilty and go home as a convicted felon or remain in prison and fight the charges. Despite the urgings of her mother (Academy Award nominee Alfre Woodard), and with her freedom at stake, she chooses to fight the district attorney and the unyielding criminal justice system he represents. Joined in an unlikely alliance with an ACLU attorney (Tim Blake Nelson) and former local narcotics officer (Will Patton), Dee risks everything in a battle that forever changes her life and the Texas justice system. American Violet also stars Emmy Award winner Charles S. Dutton and Xzibit.


Arafat & I
15m | comedy | directed by Mahdi Fleifel | Regional Premiere

Sunday | March 29 | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

A young Palestinian man believes he's found the woman he wants to marry, a British soulmate who shares her birthday with Chairman Arafat. 15m, comedy, directed by Mahdi Fleifel

Ard As-Sawad
9m | documentary | directed by Tish Stringer | Regional Premiere

Friday | March 27 | 8pm | Cafe Lazziza | Filmmaker present

A beautiful film about the life of an Iraqi artist living in exile.


Beyond the Wall: Inside the Sadr Movement in Iraq
22m | documentary | directed by Big Noise Films | Regional Premiere.

Friday | March 27 | 8pm | Cafe Lazziza | Filmmaker present

Moqtada al Sadr and his militia, the Mehdi Army, have been America's most intractable opponents in Iraq. But after recent attacks launched by the US and Iraqi military against Sadr strongholds, cease-fires were negotiated and the Mehdi Army melted away from the streets. Has the Mehdi Army finally been defeated, and is this the end of the armed Shiite resistance to the occupation?


Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy
56m | documentary | directed by Alice Elliot | Regional Premiere

Saturday | April 4 | 3pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Two of the country's most remarkable advocates for people with disabilities, Diana Braun, who has Down Syndrome, and Kathy Conour, who has cerebral palsy, met three decades ago and vowed to fight to live independent lives. Told in an intimate, vérité style, the film is a story of a compelling, creative friendship, as Diana and Kathy model a grand experiment in independent living.


The Cajun New Wave
13m | documentary | directed by Philip Cartelli | World Premiere

Sunday | April 5 | 9pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Amid the hurricanes that devastated Louisiana's coastline and the simultaneous commercialization of local cultures, a new generation of young Cajun musicians have been defending and re-popularizing their unique identity.

Featuring performances and interviews with Feufollet, the Lost Bayou Ramblers, the Pine Leaf Boys, Cedric Watson, and Steve Riley, The Cajun New Wave interrogates musicians' perspectives on the current cultural climate in Acadiana. With an emphasis on the constant physical threat posed to this environmentally fragile region, The Cajun New Wave provides an apt introduction to recent creative efforts at safeguarding Southern Louisiana's historic cultures.


Corazón del Tiempo (Heart of Time)
90m | fiction | directed by Alberto Cortéz | Regional Premiere

Friday | April 3 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

It is a time of revolution and Sonia's rebellious heart causes further commotion in her village. Recently betrothed to a young community leader, Miguel, she is walking along a path in the Selva Lacandona one day when she locks eyes with those of Julio, a rebel fighter; their passion puts the security of her community and the Zapatista rebels in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Alicia, Sonia's youngest sister, learns to interpret reality (as government forces surround the rebels on land and in the air) through a mirror in her game-playing. Her grandmother Zoraida is the one to bring the girls' visions back down to the earth. Together, Zoraida and Alicia discover in Sonia's decision a test of wills and traditions. In a world where everything changes, in a land of free Indians who have decided to take a stand and resist, Sonia takes on the struggles of love in the Heart of Time.


Crips and Bloods: Made in America
93m | documentary | directed by Stacy Peralta | Regional Premiere

Sunday | March 29 |7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | This event is a benefit for Black Men United

Directed by critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker Stacy Peralta and Executive Produced by New Orleans Hornets star Baron Davis and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Stephen Luczo, Crips and Bloods: Made in America tells the story of South Los Angeles' two most infamous African American gangs. Combining unprecedented access into the worlds of active gangs, Crips and Bloods: Made in America offers a compelling, character-driven documentary narrative which chronicles the decades-long cycle of destruction and despair that defines modern gang culture.

From the genesis of LA's gang culture to the shocking, war-zone reality of daily life in South L.A., the film chronicles the rise of the Crips and Bloods, tracing the origins of their bloody four-decades long feud. Contemporary and former gang members offer their street-level testimony that provides the film with a stark portrait of modern-day gang life: the turf wars and territorialism, the inter-gang hierarchy and family structure, the rules of behavior, the culture of guns, death and dishonor. Throughout the film ex-gang members, gang intervention experts, writers, activists and academics analyze many of the issues that contribute to South LA's malaise: the erosion of identity that fuels the self-perpetuating legacy of black self-hatred, the disappearance of the African-American father and an almost pervasive prison culture in which today one out of every four black men will be imprisoned at some point in his life. Finally the gang members themselves articulate their enduring dream of a better life. They provide Crips and Bloods: Made in America with its ultimate statement: A message of hope and a cautionary tale of redemption aimed at saving the lives of a new generation of kids, not just in South LA but anywhere in the world that gang violence exists.


A Day in Palestine
6m | experimental | directed by Mary-Ellen Davis | Regional Premiere

Sunday | March 29 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Scenes of everyday life in Occupied Palestine, with a dream-like feeling, reminiscent of home movies of the 1960s. But instead of a day at the beach, or in the backyard: an olive tree, a wall, a bulldozer, soldiers harassing grandmothers. Filmed in Super 8 Kodachrome in Occupied Palestine. Locations: Jayyus, Abu Dis, Beit Duqqu


The Detention Imperative: An Inside Look at the US Detention System in Iraq
22m | documentary | directed by Big Noise Films | Regional Premiere

Friday | March 27 | 8pm | Cafe Lazziza | Filmmaker present

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been detained by the US, one and a half million Iraqis have had an immediate family-member detained, and almost every Iraqi knows someone who has been through the US detention system. Few American institutions affect the lives of ordinary Iraqis more directly and profoundly than the US detention system. But once Iraqis are swept up in the system, there is no clear way out.


Differences & Disabilities
7m | documentary | directed Gabrielle Turner | Festival Premiere

Friday | March 27 | 6pm | Cafe Lazziza

Students discuss the discrimination they face because people perceive them as disabled.


Divided We Fall: Americans in the Aftermath
90m | documentary | directed by Sharat Raju & Valarie Kaur

Saturday | April 4 | 1pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Valarie Kaur was a 20-year-old Sikh college student when she set out across America in the aftermath of 9/11, camera in hand, to document hate violence against her community. From the still-shocked streets of Ground Zero to the desert towns of the American west, her epic journey confronts the forces unleashed in a time of national crisis - racism and religion, fear and forgiveness - until she finds the heart of America… halfway around the world.



Dos Americas: The Reconstruction of New Orleans
47m | documentary | directed by David Zlutnick

Sunday | April 5 | 4:30pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Post-Katrina reconstruction is still in progress throughout the Gulf Coast while much of the city of New Orleans remains in ruins. This documentary focuses on those rebuilding this city through interviews with some of the estimated 100,000 Latino migrant laborers who have converged in this area over the past three and a half years. Despite terrible working conditions, massive fraud, a housing crisis, severe harassment by law enforcement, and very limited resources, New Orleans' Latino community has mushroomed since the storm and is establishing an infrastructure proportional to its size. Take a look at how this community is organizing to defend itself against numerous injustices and the attempts to bridge the gap between themselves as new residents and the pre-Katrina population, all within the unique and tragic context of post-Katrina New Orleans. Presentado en inglés y español.


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Exodus
110m | science fiction | directed by Penny Woolcock | Regional Premiere

Tuesday | March 31 | 9pm | Canal Place Cinemas

In this nightmare vision of the future, a neo-fascist politician (Bernard Hill) clears the streets of immigrants, confining them to a ghetto called Dreamland. But when his adopted son (Daniel Percival) discovers that his real parents are imprisoned refugees, his attempts to help them escape result in a catastrophic war in which the brutally oppressed resort to brutal means to win their freedom.

Leading actor Bernard Hill (Lord of the Rings, Titanic) takes the part of Pharoah and Ger Ryan (Queer as Folk, Fat Friends, and The Street) plays Pharoah's wife, Batya. RADA-trained actor Daniel Percival (Vital Signs, Sinchronicity) plays Moses and rising newcomer Clare-Hope Ashitey (Children of Men, Shooting Dogs) plays Zipporah, Dreamland resident and eventual wife of Moses. Moses' brother Aaron is played by first-time actor Anthony Johnson and Delroy Moore, a foster care giver plays wise school teacher Jethro. Other speaking parts and the several hundred extras are all non-actors from Margate and the Isle of Thanet.

Penny Woolcock's films are generally informed by a strong social conscience, much of it concerned with the social, cultural and political life on Britain's toughest housing estates. From her first film When the Dog Bites, and continuing with her other works Shakespeare on the Estate and the features Tina Goes Shopping and Tina Takes a Break, Woolcock has been fascinated with the humor, invention and resourcefulness required to survive on the margin.


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Free Stylaz
8m | documentary | directed by Hasina B. Ashé | Festival Premiere

Friday | March 27 | 6pm | Cafe Lazziza

Students and teachers show off their lyrical skills and talk about the art of freestyle.


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Grissi Siknis: The Magic Sickness of the Jungle
94m | documentary | directed by Enrique Ruiz-Skipey | US Premiere

Tuesday | March 31 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Filmmaker present

Winner, Best Feature: Stone Center Latin American Environmental Media Festival

A film about a mysterious sickness among the Miskito people, a large tribal group of linguistically similar people inhabiting eastern Central America between Rio Tinto in Honduras and Pearl Lagoon in Nicaragua. The Miskito are descended from a mix of European, Creole, Chinese, African and Native American peoples, making them racially diverse. Symptoms of grissi siknis vary, but the condition has a distinct set of central characteristics. Most of the victims are young girls from 15 to 18 years old. The attacks are prefaced by headaches, dizziness, anxiety, nausea, irrational anger and/or fear. During the attack the victim loses consciousness and falls to the ground, subsequently running away. The victim may view other people as devils, feel no pain from bodily injuries and have absolute amnesia regarding their physical circumstances. Some grab machetes or broken bottles to wave off unseen assailants. Miskito tradition holds that grissi siknis is caused by possession by evil spirits, believed to be caused by an evil sorcerer. According to western medicine these trance-like disturbances occur with unusual frequencies in certain societies. Grissi siknis is related to emotional upset, worry, fear and general anxiety, and has become a local way for expressing misfortune.


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Hartos Evos Aquí Hay: The Coca Growers of Chaparé
52m | documentary | directed by Manueal Ruiz Montealegre and Héctor Ulloque | Regional Premiere

Monday | March 30 | 8pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

This documentary was filmed during the last presidential elections in Bolivia. The film offers a picture of the coca growers' labor union organization and gives a panoramic of the symbolic and cultural value of the coca leaf, contemporary social movements, traditional Indian organizations and political participation in Bolivia.

On December 18, 2005, an indigenous man was elected president of Bolivia for the first time in history. Evo Morales Ayma was supported by 36 native groups; social movements; academic and intellectual circles; and a massive popular backing. The coca growers from the Tropic of Cochabamba, better known as Chaparé, played a leading role in this process. In defense of the coca leaf, which is a sacred plant and of great importance in cultural and economic terms, the coca growers of the Cochabamba Tropic have consolidated a solid labor union organization. It was in this process that Evo Morales became a leader. Ever since the creation of their own political party (the Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the People (IPSP)) in 1995, the coca growers have actively participated in the national political scope, and they bring together the values of the traditional indigenous culture and the demands and necessities of the native peasants before the State.


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Homeless Power
12m | documentary | directed by Big Noise Films | Regional Premiere | This screening is a benefit for Welfare Rights Organization

Friday | March 27 | 6pm | Cafe Lazziza | Filmmaker present

As the economy unravels and the gap widens between rich and poor, Homeless Power looks at the rise of a new poor people's movement in the US.

A homeless mother when she was in her teens, Cheri Honkala is the founder of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, an organization dedicated to empowering the poor and homeless in Philadelphia. Cheri argues that the poor are being made invisible by the urban redevelopment programs of the last 20 years and that the prosperity of shiny new urban centers is an illusion that simply forces hunger and homelessness out of site.

With the erosion of US manufacturing jobs, Americans are filing for bankruptcy in record numbers and credit card debt is soaring - leaving more workers just a paycheck away from homelessness.

"In this country there is no safety net and there is no security. You can be okay for one minute and the next day you can be living out on the street and nobody will give a damn about you," Cheri says.

Homeless POWER is the story of a true American rebel.


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The House that Herman Built (trailer)
5m | documentary trailer | directed by Angad Bhalla | Regional Premiere

Sunday | April 5 | 6pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Artist Jackie Summel has dedicated her life to building a home for imprisoned New Orleans Black Panther Herman Wallace.


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Hunger

96m | fiction | directed by Steve McQueen | Regional Premiere

Tuesday | March 31 | 7pm | Canal Place Cinemas

Hunger follows life in the Maze Prison, Northern Ireland, with an interpretation of the highly emotive events surrounding the 1981 IRA Hunger Strike led by Bobby Sands. With an epic eye for detail, the film provides a timely exploration of what happens when body and mind are pushed to the uttermost limit. This highly acclaimed film was winner of the Camera D'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.


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I am Sean Bell: Black Boys Speak
11m | documentary | directed by Stacey Muhammad | Regional Premiere


Sunday | March 29 | 1pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Filmmaker present

"I am Sean Bell: Black Boys Speak" is a short-form documentary in honor of the life of Sean Bell, an unarmed 23 year old African American man gunned down on the night before his wedding by New York Police Department Officers - all of whom were found not guilty - in a hail of 50 bullets. This film features the candid voices of young black men who share their hopes and fears as they approach manhood in a city where the lives of young black men are often cut short, too often and too soon.


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Independent America: Rising from Ruins
70m | documentary | directed by Hanson Hosein | US Premiere

Wednesday | April 1 | 6pm | New Orleans Museum of Art | Filmmaker Present

"Independent America: Rising from Ruins" is a feature documentary that takes a hard yet hopeful look at the risks and rewards of small business ownership in post-Katrina New Orleans. The film depicts the locals coming home to resurrect their businesses and neighborhoods and the challenges they now face from all sides, including their own city government and big box retail.

More than three years after Hurricane Katrina's onslaught, New Orleans is at a tipping point. Parts of the city still look like a war zone, the recovery further slowed by a bad economy and high energy prices. Some neighborhoods remain half-populated, former residents scared away by a lack of essential services - particularly retail. As Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, told us, "New Orleans is still being destroyed." However, even as chain retailers are reluctant to return to the city in the aftermath of the storm, independent Mom & Pop stores immediately stepped into the breach. Independent America: Rising from Ruins, from Emmy Award winning director Hanson Hosein and Executive Producer/Producer Tom Powers, is the inspirational story of the small businesses that have risked everything to resurrect their neighborhoods and their homes. From the city's top chef (and former marine) John Besh who manned a soup kitchen to the hardware store owner who provided vital supplies, this documentary shows how neighborhood Mom & Pops are crucial to community vitality - especially during times of disaster.


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Intensive Care Unit
4m | experimental | directed by youth of Voices Beyond Walls

Friday | March 27 | 6pm | Cafe Lazziza

An artistic interpretation of the poem by the same title by the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.


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Justice for All: The Documentary
98m | documentary | directed by Sherry Dorsey | World Premiere

Sunday | April 5 | 6pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Filmmaker present

The purpose of Justice For All is to delve into the minds of juvenile offenders who commit minor crimes and then endure abuse from those charged with their care. Some youth matriculate from the juvenile justice system into adult prisons. An adolescent who could be given community service for violation of probation may find him/herself thrown into a juvenile detention center for four years or more because s/he could not afford adequate legal counsel. In one instance, a minor school-yard fight landed a young person in the system for four years, where he was beaten severely by prison guards. Some youth are unable to vote or get financial aid to further their education due to the charges they acquired as juveniles. Additionally, this film makes a concerted effort to find programs that actually rehabilitate young people who are placed in the juvenile justice system, which proves to be a daunting task.


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Katrina: Man-Made Disaster
28m | documentary | directed by Big Noise Films | Regional Premiere | This screening is a benefit for Welfare Rights Organization

Saturday | March 28 | 5pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Filmmaker present

Katrina was called the worst natural disaster in America in 100 years, but the thousands who died here were not killed by the storm - they were left for days to drown as flood waters rose around them.

And today, the storm isn't what's keeping most of the city's former residents from returning home. A richer, whiter New Orleans is being built in which the city's poor and black majority have no place. While the city moves ahead with its plans to destroy public housing, scattered former residents fight a desperate battle for their right to return home. The outcome will have far-reaching consequences. New Orleans is the front line of a national struggle to save public housing and to end the privatization of government services. New Orleans is a model that, if successful, will be reproduced across the country.


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The Least of These
62m | documentary | directed by Clark Lyda and Jesse Lyda | Regional Premiere

Saturday | March 28 | 3pm |Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Filmmakers present

"The Least of These" explores one of the most controversial aspects of American immigration policy: family detention. As part of the Bush administration policy to end what they termed the "catch and release" of undocumented immigrants, the U.S. government opened the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in May 2006 as a prototype family detention facility. The facility is a former medium-security prison in central Texas operated by CCA, the largest private prison operator in the country. It houses immigrant children and their parents from all over the world who are awaiting asylum hearings or deportation proceedings. The facility was initially activated with little media attention or public knowledge. Soon, however, immigration attorney Barbara Hines was contacted by detainees seeking representation and she became increasingly concerned about the troubling conditions there. She joined forces with Vanita Gupta of the ACLU and Michelle Brané of the Women's Refugee Commission to investigate conditions and seek changes. Their efforts were initially hampered by a lack of openness and oversight within Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE). Undeterred, the three attorneys attempted to bring about changes in both policy and conditions by making their findings public, encouraging involvement by activists and the media, and ultimately by filing a historic lawsuit. As these events unfold, the film explores the government rationale for family detention, conditions at the facility, collateral damage, and the role (and limits) of community activism in bringing change. The film leads viewers to consider how core American rights and values - due process, presumption of innocence, upholding the family structure as the basic unit of civil society, and America as a refuge of last resort - should apply to immigrants, particularly children.


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Locusts
11m | documusicvideo | directed by Iqaa the Olivetone | Regional Premiere

Saturday | April 4 | 5pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Detroit-based Hip Hop artists Invincible and Finale rhyme about how short-term profit-driven urban development schemes displace communities in their city. Through music, lyrics, and interviews with youth and community activists; including Grace Lee Boggs, Jessica Care Moore, and others; this groundbreaking documusicvideo offers alternative forms of economic development that engage communities and prioritize the health and well-being of inner city neighborhoods.


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Made in L.A.
70m | documentary | directed by Almudena Carracedo | Regional Premiere

Sunday | March 29 | 4pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center


María, Lupe and Maura are three Latina immigrants struggling to survive in Los Angeles sweatshops. Determined to win basic labor protections, they embark on a three-year odyssey that will transform their lives forever. Compelling, humorous, and deeply human, Made in L.A. is a story about immigration, the power of unity, and the courage it takes to find your voice.


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Media Advocates for Prevention Series: Stressin'
5m | documentary | directed by Media Advocates for Prevention | World Premiere

Friday | March 27 | 6pm | Cafe Lazziza | Filmmakers present

"The Media Advocates for Prevention (MAP)" Series is a set of three films created by New Orleans youth to spread the word about HIV & AIDS and safer sex decision-making in our community. We encourage our peers to talk about and practice safer sex and to get tested for HIV. Stressin' is a piece about a young woman in a new relationship who finds out an ex has been infected with HIV.


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Media Advocates for Prevention Series: What is MAP?
11m | documentary | directed by Media Advocates for Prevention | World Premiere

Friday | March 27 | 6pm | Cafe Lazziza | Filmmaker present

"The Media Advocates for Prevention (MAP)" Series is a set of three films created by New Orleans youth to spread the word about HIV & AIDS and safer sex decision-making in our community. We encourage our peers to talk about and practice safer sex, and to get tested for HIV. This film is an introduction to the MAP youth and our work.


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Medicine for Melancholy
88m | fiction | directed by Barry Jenkins | Regional Premiere

Saturday | March 28 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Filmmaker Present

A love story of bikes and one-night stands told through two African American twenty-somethings dealing with issues of class, identity, and the evolving conundrum of being a minority in rapidly gentrifying San Francisco-a city with the smallest proportional black population of any other major American city.


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Mofetas (Skunks)
10m | comedy | directed by Inés Enciso | Regional Premiere

Monday | March 30 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Night falls at Tangier's port. Karim and Aziz wait in silence. Or at least they try to…


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Moral Panic: More Heat Than Light

32m | documentary | directed by Akintola Hanif | Regional Premiere

Sunday | March 29 | 1pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Filmmaker present

An inside look into the minds of gang members and ex-prisoners in the hope of creating some genuine understanding about the choices made by the film's subjects. A well-rounded mix of the voices of gang members, policy makers, social scientists and law enforcement.

View Trailer for Moral Panic: More Heat Than Light


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The New Orleans Tea Party
56m | documentary | directed by Marline Otte and Laszlo Fulop | World Premiere

Thursday | April 2 | 6pm | New Orleans Museum of Art | Filmmakers present

This documentary sheds light on the challenging reconstruction of post-Katrina New Orleans. Interviews with volunteers and civic leaders probe the limitations of a recovery process built entirely upon the shoulders of individuals. The film examines larger themes relevant to American society today: individual versus government, civic responsibility, and trust in democratic processes.


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New Videos from the Grassroots
Films | Discussion | Performance | This Event is a Benefit for Positive Image Entertainment

Sunday | March 29 | 5:30pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

2-Cent Entertainment presents a collection of some of their best work, featuring award-winning shorts, grassroots reporting on important local and global social justice issues, interviews with award winning actors and musicians, music videos, and more. Featuring a performance by Slangston Hughes.


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Nerakhoon (The Betrayal)
96m | documentary | directed by Ellen Kuras | co-directed by Thavisouk Phrasavath | Regional Premiere

Friday | April 3 | 9pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Filmed over 23 years, "Nerakhoon" is the directorial debut of renowned cinematographer Ellen Kuras in a remarkable collaboration with the film's subject and co-director Thavisouk Phrasavath.

During the Vietnam War, the United States government waged its own secret war in the neighboring country of Laos. When the US withdrew, thousands of Laotians who fought alongside American forces were left behind to face imprisonment or execution. One family, the Phrasavaths, made the courageous decision to escape to America. Hoping to find safety, they discovered a different kind of war.

Epic in scope yet devastatingly intimate, featuring an exquisite score by Academy Award winning composer Howard Shore, Nerakhoon is a testament to the resilient bonds of family and an astonishing tale of survival.


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NO Cross, NO Crown

53m | documentary | directed by AMPeters | Regional Premiere

Sunday | April 5 | 9pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

NO Cross, NO Crown documents how New Orleans has been a fundamental element of American music since its inception, embracing the unique artists and underdogs that make up her inhabitants. And while New Orleans was entrenched in a rich history of struggle and the blending of European and African cultural streams, America's identity and culture flourished to the soundtracks of Blues, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Rock n' Roll, Gospel and R&B-all of which have their origins in New Orleans. Featuring DJ Soul Sister, Kermit Ruffins, author Tom Piazza, and Mardi Gras Indian Chief Alfred Doucette.

NO Cross, NO Crown dissects the cultural significance of Hurricane Katrina and the resultant flood through the voices of musicians and other artists and shows that if we let New Orleans wither on the vine post-Katrina we'll be lesser of a country for it.


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People Not Places
11m | documusicmentary | Regional Premiere

Friday | March 27 | 9pm | Cafe Lazziza

Saturday | April 4 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Featuring Abeer, Suhell Nafar (DAM), and Shadia Mansour, People Not Places takes the listener on an Israeli "birthright" tour where the buried Palestinian significance of each location comes to light. Along the route the video exposes the process of historic and continued colonization as being even deeper than land seizure and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, but one that is invested in erasing the indigenous language, culture, and memory. Intertwined between verses are interviews from various perspectives exposing the myth of a "Jewish birthright" to a land to which Palestinians are denied the Right of Return. These insightful voices break down the importance of Palestinian Right of Return, how it can be actualized, and how it connects to the resistance of displaced communities from Iraq to New Orleans.


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PitStop
3m | animated blaxploitation parody | LaRon Williams | World Premiere

Saturday | April 4 | 3pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

PitStop is a crude parody of Dr. Seuss and the 1970s blaxploitation film genre. Despite the ticklers' and sticklers' hostile coexistence, one female tickler desperately attempts to sneak into a stickler-exclusive gas station to use the restroom.


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Promise vs Practice

28m | documentary | directed by Pandwe Gibson | Festival Premiere

Saturday | April 4 | 3pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Filmmaker present

"Promise vs Practice" is a documentary about the perceptions and experience of students receiving special education services in a Los Angeles public high school. For special education teachers in an urban context, the use of media is extremely important because these students often experience a lack agency, feel voiceless, lack social responsibility, feel ostracized, and lack experiences of success. Students participated in the making of this documentary to confront these issues. The title Promise vs. Practice was developed with the students to highlight the recurring misconceptions held by educators, administrators, and students alike. This project aims to address both external and internal perceptions about behavior and how these factors inform discipline and academic achievement. The film aims to attach actual student voices to the powerful data collected on these same issues and from these same students the previous year.



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Re-awakening Saddam's Tribal Strategy

22m | documentary | directed by Big Noise Films | Regional Premiere

Friday | March 27 | 8pm | Cafe Lazziza | Filmmaker present

After four years of bloody insurgency, the war in Iraq changed abruptly when America began allying with Sunni militias called ‘The Awakening movement.' The US is reconstituting the tribal elite Saddam used to control the country, but it is a delicate balance between the Sunni Awakening militias and the Shiite central government. Will this balance hold, or is the United States arming both sides of future sectarian battles?


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Roaming Around
53m | documentary | directed by Brigitte Maria Bertele | US Premiere

Monday | March 30 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

A documentary portraying the lives of street children trying to make their way in the Ghanaian capital. These children each have their own story as to how they've ended up living in Accra and scavenging the waste dumps. Through the director's watchful eye, we see them playing football on the beach, going to school, laughing and desperately trying to be children. We also meet Amma Darko, an older woman who has written a book comparing the children's situation in Accra to the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorra. The faces of these children are astounding and the camera captures their innocence, their desperation, their suffering and their beauty. Members of the community try to help them and help salvage what they can to give these children a decent life. This is a strong, sincere and emotionally charged film about survival and childhood not to be missed.


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Robot + Girl

5m | animated science fiction | directed by Erin K. Wilson | World Premiere

Saturday | April 4 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Filmmaker present

After accidentally leaving her heart behind her, a tardy librarian revives a defective and damaged robot. The robot finds himself on a journey to find his librarian, bringing her heart back with him. Animated completely in Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Final Cut Express on a personal desktop Apple computer, this short piece about love between woman and machine explores the relevance of what lies beneath the color of our skin (or our hard metal casing).


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Shadi in the Beautiful Well
10m | fiction | directed by Mahdi Fleifel | Regional Premiere

Saturday | April 4 | 3pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center


An autistic Palestinian youth living in a refugee camp struggles with the cruelty of a local bully.


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Some Place Like Home: The Fight Against Gentrification in Downtown Brooklyn
40m | documentary | directed by Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) | Regional Premiere

Sunday | April 4 | 5pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Filmmakers present

Narrated by writer and activist Kevin Powell, Some Place Like Home depicts the fight against the exclusion of low-income families and small businesses from the "new vision" for developing Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn.

Real estate developers close down supermarkets and low-income housing while construction for housing that the current residents cannot afford begins almost overnight. Eviction notices are distributed to businesses and residents that were rooted in the community for over three decades. A few blocks down, the city announces that Albee Square Mall, what residents consider the epicenter of young Brooklyn culture, will be torn down to build 800 units of almost all luxury housing. Also threatened are 19th century homes documented to house fugitive slaves as part of the Underground Railroad movement. Their fate: to be turned into an underground parking lot to serve a luxury hotel being constructed across the street.

Some Place Like Home goes through the charged monologue of the affected members of the community to the passive, sometimes smug and ultimately useless empathy of the public officials and developers. It reveals the linear relationship between government and real estate developers in the effort to remove a people from their home. Long-time residents give oral histories of the area. Small business owners bring you into a world with rapidly closing mom and pop business in the name of development. Experts reveal the coding behind language and policies used in what is termed "the economic phase of the Civil Rights movement."

Some Place Like Home does not hide the emotionally infused appeal for action that is necessary for all uphill battles. This fight is a fight to preserve the rich diversity of a community, a history, and the vitality of a culture that has survived and thrives on struggle.

View Trailer for Some Place Like Home: The Fight Against Gentrification in Downtown Brooklyn


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St. Joe
10m | experimental | directed by Luisa Dantas

Saturday | April 4 | 5pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Filmmaker present

St. Joe is visual dirge for "the bricks," the new deal-era public housing buildings that were at the center of a two-year contentious battle over the right of return for those displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

St. Joe is a memorial tribute to the architectural achievement that the structures represented and the families and communities that occupied them. In ten minutes it traces the buildings in their silent waiting period until Spring 2008, when bulldozers arrived to reduce them to rubble. Former residents and housing advocates alike acknowledge that life in the bricks was not perfect, but as is the case for any community, it was home.


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A Summer Not to Forget
27m | documentary | directed by Carol Mansour | Regional Premiere

Sunday | April 5 | 2:30pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

For 33 days beginning in July of 2006, Lebanon witnessed continuous Israeli bombardment. This documentary takes you beyond the news headlines into the harsh realities of war. It explores the devastation of a nation and a people caught under siege. A Summer Not to Forget is an important and revealing chronicle of the brutalities of war and the plight of people as they deal with loss and destruction.


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Una Vida Mejor
13m | fiction | directed by Luis Fernández Reneo | Regional Premiere

Saturday | March 28 | 3:30pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Based on a true story, "A Better Life" is the faithful account of three Mexican children who got lost in the Sonoran desert while trying to cross the U.S. border. This fictional film highlights a history that repeats itself every week in the border towns of Mexico, feeding one of the most profitable illegal businesses: Immigrant smuggling. Based on the true story of three Mexican children: Lucia (5), Angela (17), and Fabian (15). The children took a trip that many Mexican kids are taking every day, into the desert in the hands of a stranger who promise to take them to across the border to a better life. When the expedition is attacked by a gang of border thieves, Lucia, Angela, and Fabian run away and get lost in the night. Alone and disoriented, they wander in the Sonoran desert for three days without water or food with the sole support of their vision of life in America. A realistic view of what has become a profitable business, through the eyes of three children with a dream.


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Under the Bombs
98m | fiction | directed by Philippe Aractingi | Regional Premiere

Saturday | March 28 | 9:30pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Lebanon's official selection for best foreign film for the 2008 Academy Awards, Under The Bombs begins during a cease-fire in the Lebanon-Israel conflict of 2006. A Christian taxi driver brings a Shiite woman from Beirut to the heart of the conflict in the country's south. While they scour the rubble of local towns for her son, who was sent to live with her family while she was staying with her husband in Dubai, they discover that despite their very different backgrounds, they have much in common. And during their trip through the desolate countryside, the two travelers develop a deep bond as a response to the death striking all around them. The film was shot entirely on location during the summer of 2006, in the middle of the ruins of war-torn Lebanon. Aractingi only hired two professional actors; the rest are refugees, journalists, soldiers, and others, playing themselves.


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The Untold Story: Slavery in the 20th Century

30m | documentary | directed by Josh Johnston and Antoinette Harrell

Friday | April 3 | 7pm | Craige Cultural Center

This documentary is based on research conducted by Antoinette Harrell, including documents located in the National Archives in Washington, DC, FBI reports, NAACP reports, newspaper articles, and letters written to five US Presidents and complaints from American citizens. This documentary clearly outlines that slavery didn't end for hundreds of African Americans in sixteen counties throughout Mississippi. Former slave Mae Louis Miller shares her life experience as a slave in Mississippi during the 20th century.

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UTL Confessions

2m | trailer | directed by Quentin Coleman

Sunday | March 29 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

"UTL Confessions", a film by new documentary filmmaker Quentin Coleman, follows the life of kids in New Orleans post-Katrina 8th Ward-arguably one of the roughest and hardest-hit neighborhoods in the city. Written and directed by Quentin Coleman, edited by Brian Perales, produced by Nola Media.


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Welcome to Batey 6

20m | documentary | directed by Emmanuel "Mano" Alexandre | Regional Premiere

Friday | April 3 | 7pm | Craige Cultural Center

A rare look into the lives of the Haitian sugarcane cutters of the Dominican Republic.


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White Lies Black Sheep

88m | fictional documentary | directed by James Spooner | Regional Premiere

Saturday | April 4 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Filmmaker Present

A.J.'s real name is Ajamu Talib. His dislike for his African name is the least of his problems, but it says a lot about him. Brooklyn born and bred, yet outcast by his peers, his only escape was music. A.J. found freedom in rock n roll.

Tight clothes, straightened hair, popular with girls and partying every night, he is fully entrenched in the debaucherous New York rock n roll scene. For once he feels like everyone else. Well, almost.

He begins to find that his chosen community, the white rock world, only seems to run smoothly for white rockers. A series of events force him to recognize that his friends both exotify him and are in denial of his Blackness. Black, but not "really" Black. What's a young Black rocker to do?


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William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
90m | documentary | directed by Sarah Kunstler and Emily Kunstler | Regional Premiere

Sunday | March 29 | 9pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

In "William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe", filmmakers Emily and Sarah Kunstler explore the life of their father, the late radical civil rights lawyer. In the 1960s and 70s, Kunstler fought for civil rights with Martin Luther King Jr., and represented activists protesting the Vietnam War. When inmates took over Attica prison, or Native Americans stood up to the federal government at Wounded Knee, they asked Kunstler to be their lawyer.

To his daughters, it seemed that he was at the center of everything important that had ever happened. But while they were growing up, Kunstler represented some of the most unpopular members of society: people accused of rape, terrorism, organized crime and cop killing. Who was William Kunstler? Why did he choose the life he did? And where do his daughters fit into that choice?


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Young Freud in Gaza

58m | documentary | directed by PeÅ Holmquist and Suzanne Khardalian | Regional Premiere

Sunday | April 5 | 2:30pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Life has been difficult for Palestinians under Israeli Occupation in the Gaza Strip since the Six Day War in 1967. Since the January 2006 blockade of Gaza's border by the Israelis, with unemployment soaring to 60% and food, water and medicine in short supply, the psychological needs of its traumatized population have never been greater. Professional psychologists, however, are in desperately short supply. Young Freud in Gaza profiles Ayed, a young psychotherapist for the Palestinian Authority's Clinic for Mental Health, and shows his consultations with a variety of patients, both male and female, adults and children, in his office and during house calls, providing therapy or prescribing medication for depression, stress, anxiety attacks and suicidal tendencies. Filmed during 2006-2008 against the violent backdrop of armed clashes between Hamas and Fatah factions, Israeli missile attacks, and the constant overhead presence of a surveillance dirigible, the film shows Ayed training young wives and mothers in deep-breathing exercises to calm anxiety, counseling maimed Hamas and Fatah militants in meditation techniques, and leading children in group therapy sessions in which they discuss their reaction to the death of siblings and draw pictures to cope with their emotions. Young Freud in Gaza also shows Ayed at home, relating to his parents and other family members and friends, in the process revealing that this young mental health doctor is struggling with some personal issues of his own, including serious doubts that he is able to help his patients. As he acknowledges, "Gaza needs a million psychologists."


About

We are a festival with a mission. Founded by New Orleans artists and activists, we are dedicated to nurturing our city's human rights community, supporting the work of local organizers and organizations involved in these struggles, and providing a forum for artistic expression of local and international issues.

Although we operate on a shoestring budget, we host a wide variety of films, workshops, and other events. We premiere powerful new films from around the world, while also highlighting brilliant local filmmakers and vital local grassroots organizations.

We have always prioritized community accountability, preparing our festival in consultation with a range of New Orleans' grassroots; from veterans of the civil rights movement, to high school students, along with advocates, teachers, and organizers.

We also give direct support to grassroots efforts, often hosting fundraisers and always providing outreach opportunities. Local organizations we have organized benefits and other events for in the past include the New Orleans Women's Health Clinic; INCITE! Women Of Color Against Violence; Critical Resistance; Neighborhood Gallery; and Safe Streets, Strong Communities.

In our five years, almost every film we have shown has been a local- or regional premiere. In addition, we have presented several world premieres, including powerful new films by both local and international filmmakers.

We support and feature local talent, from New Orleans high school students to world-class filmmakers based in New Orleans.

We are a community festival, hosting screenings around the city, from Chalmette to Central City, and Gentilly to the French Quarter.

We have also supported access to the festival by a wide range of communities - especially communities that have historically been excluded by many festivals - by offering free or reduced admission to many high school students and members of grassroots organizations like the Congress of Day Laborers.

We are more than just a New Orleans festival. We have hosted satellite screenings in Natchitoches and Shreveport, Louisiana, as well as in Detroit and New York City.

In addition to hosting our festival in the spring, we are active throughout the year, organizing screenings, presentations, and workshops across the city.

With your support, we will continue to amplify local voices, raise important issues, and build community.


Staff

Festival Co-Director: Emily Ratner
Emily Ratner graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Latin American Studies from Tulane University in 2007 where she was awarded the singular distinction of Senior Scholar in Latin American Studies. Emily studied film production with the New York Film Academy and the Cleveland Film Society and has trained in social justice organizing and conflict resolution with a number of organizations, including Seeds of Peace and Witness for Peace. She has worked for the Galería Indigo in Oaxaca, where she led English- and Spanish-language tours of the gallery and researched gallery pieces for informational materials. In addition to her work with Patois, she also organizes with several New Orleans social justice organizations, including New Orleans Palestine Solidarity (NOLAPS) and the Organizers' Roundtable, and is a member of the curatorial and organizing committees of State of the Nation V, a city-wide art and performance festival in New Orleans.

Festival Co-Director: Jordan Flaherty

Jordan Flaherty is a writer and community organizer based in New Orleans. He was the first journalist with a national audience to write about the Jena Six case, and played an important role in bringing the story to national attention. He has worked extensively in film and journalism, editing several feature films, co-producing the award-winning independent feature Chocolate Babies, and working for producers including Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Stipe, Christine Vachon and Bill Cosby. He has reported on arts, culture and politics internationally, from covering the Tehran Film Festival for The Village Voice, to reporting on nightlife in Cuba.

Festival Managing Co-Director: Holly Hobbs
A musician and documentary filmmaker, Holly Hobbs completed her doctoral research in Folklore at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she served as the Managing Editor for the academic journal Oral Tradition and directed a youth media nonprofit organization called New Media Network. After completion of her latest film, Farming Was My Life: the Cost of Corporate Agriculture, she relocated to New Orleans to serve as Co-Director of the nonprofit organization, Hiphop for Hope. Hobbs interests include documentary filmmaking, musical activism, and digital media literacy.

Festival Managing Co-Director: Kellie Gleason
Kellie Gleason, originally from Texas, moved to New Orleans in August 2006 after graduating from the University of Texas in Arlington with a BBA in International Business, to attend the University of New Orleans. She recently graduated from UNO in December 2008, earning a MA in Art Administration. Since moving to New Orleans, Kellie has been, and is currently, very active in the art and performance community, both as a performer, in theatre and film, and in administration of New Orleans cultural organizations and events through her internship at the New Orleans Film Society and her work at the Department of Music at UNO. Kellie is constantly seeking new opportunities to work with New Orleans cultural organizations and is happy to be working with PATOIS: The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival as a Managing Director.

Outreach Coordinator: Thaddeus Delay
Thaddeus Paul Delay is currently the Unit Director for the Boys and Girls Club Iberville Unit. He attended the University of New Orleans where he received a B.A. in Sociology. After college I found myself working in the corporate environment for the better part of 15 years. Having exhausted both patience and tolerance in an atmosphere of virulent capitalism, I no longer wanted that career. The event that was ‘Hurricane Katrina' lead to an important and vital re-evaluation of my life's pursuits. I made the conscious decision to assist my community in achieving self-determination and self-respect with a specific focus on teaching and mentoring our youth. That's what I do.

Programming and Development Associate: Regina Sullivan
Regina Sullivan was born and raised in Southwest Louisiana and has lived in New Orleans for the past five years. She is currently completing a degree in International Relations and French at the University of New Orleans. Her interests include social justice activism, documentary film, and New Orleans community activism.

Associate Director: Rene Broussard
Rene Broussard is an award-winning, gay video artist whose Auto-biographical video series The Fatboy Chronicles has screened in over 100 film festivals internationally. He is also the Founder/Director of Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center, a non-profit, artist run, alternative arts center that has been presenting films, music and performances in New Orleans regularly for over 22 years. He is also the founder/Director of the New Orleans Middle East Film Festival and the International Rights of the Child Film Festival. Rene was the Film Curator for Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, NY for three years (1990 - 1993), taught in the Orleans Public School system for 8 years and was the recipient of the 2003 Mayor's Arts Award from the Arts Council of New Orleans. In 1995, Rene received an artist fellowship from the Goethe Institut in Berlin, where he was a guest curator for six months at Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art juror for the Teddy Awards at the Berlin Film Festival.


Board of Directors:

Abdul Aziz is a social justice activist, photographer, and filmmaker. He currently works with Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL) organizing among, and advocating for, youth in the criminal justice and juvenile incarceration systems. He is a founding member of the photography collective Monde Noir and recently produced the film Member of the Club, which is currently on the film festival circuit.

Melonee Griggs is an administrator and educator at the Southern University of New Orleans Center for African and African American Studies.

Corlita Mahrspreen is a long-time New Orleans activist and organizer in criminal justice reform and an active participant in the Katrina Information Network.

Brian Knighten is the founder and operator of Las Américas Film Network, a film distribution company that brings the best films of Latin America to US audiences, particularly on university campuses.

Tory Pegram is a longtime social justice and human rights organizer and activist. She is currently the organizer of the A3 Campaign to Free the Angola 3.

Shantrelle Lewis is the director and curator of the McKenna Museum of African American Art and the founder of the Young Friends Society of African Diaspora Institutions, a nonprofit organization that supports the work of cultural institutions globally through a collective of young artists, activists, scholars, entrepreneurs, and professionals.

Rebecca Snedeker is the Director of the award-winning film By Invitation Only. She is currently working on several film projects as a director and assistant director, and also works with Video Veracity, our 501c3 fiscal agent.

Broderick Webb is the Co-director of the award-winning film Cut Off: It's Not About the Buildings. It's About the People. Broderick is currently organizing social justice events around public housing in New Orleans and speaking at screenings of Cut Off around the country. He is also an adult advocate of New Orleans' Fyre Youth Squad.


LIEUX :

Canal Place Landmark Cinema
333 Canal Street

Craige Cultural Center
1800 Newton Street (Algiers)

New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA)
1 Collins Diboll Circle

Cafe Lazziza
2106 Chartres St

Southern University of New Orleans
6801 Press Drive

Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center
1618 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd