1-19,22-40 PTFF 2012.indd

6 how to fest 2012 PTFF
FIRST
THINGS FIRST
HOW TO SEE THE
FILM OF YOUR CHOICE
Check in at the
Hospitality Center,
Cotton Building,
607 Water Street.
Sixty minutes before show time go to the
venue and pick up a numbered ticket. A
ticket in your hand guarantees you a seat.
Venues distribute numbered tickets on a
first-come, first-served basis. Once you
have picked up your ticket, you may leave
the line until 30 minutes before show time,
at which time you line up with other moviegoers according to your ticket number.
Thirty minutes before show time come
back to the venue and find your numbered place in line before the line starts to
move into the theatre.
If you have a numbered ticket and the line
has started to move when you return to
the venue, you’re still guaranteed a seat.
If you can’t find your numbered place, you
simply join the back of the line. Directors
and Moguls should look for the theatre
manager, who will direct you to your
preferred entry.
Latecomers: If you show up after the
30-minute mark with any kind of pass
and you don’t have a ticket, or you are
a Director or Mogul pass holder who
has not checked in with the concierge,
go immediately to the theatre manager
for available tickets. If the house is sold
out, there will be time to get to a different
venue and still get a seat for another great
film.
Hours:
Thursday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Friday, 8
a.m.–6 p.m., Saturday, 8 a.m.–6 p.m.,
Sunday, 8 a.m.–4 p.m.
At Hospitality, you can:
Get passes
Upgrade your pass
Have a cocktail at Area 51 Cocktail
Lounge
Buy merchandise from the PTFF Store
Get info and daily newsletters for awards
and updates
Buy DVDs and swag from filmmakers
Meet your friends between films
Check-in with LOST & FOUND
FESTIVAL PASSES
One-up $35 includes one film
Four-up $85 includes four films;
pass can be shared with a friend
Festival $185 unlimited films
Director $650 ($450 tax deductible)
unlimited films
Mogul $1,250 ($1,000 tax deductible) unlimited films
All passes come with one-year
PTFI membership. Members get
invitations to year-round events,
library privileges, and discounts
at the Rose Theatre and Pane d’
Amore. Visit our website at www.
ptfilmfest.com/Festival/Passes
details.
Rush tickets are sold at theatres
when pass-holder attendance has
not reached capacity for $10 per
seat, per film. Rush tickets for “Wish
Me Away” and “Smile” are $20.
CONCIERGE SERVICE
Our incredible concierge service is a
benefit for all Director and Mogul pass
holders. Meet your concierge when you
pick up your pass at Hospitality. You can
set up your whole schedule immediately
or call throughout the weekend for personal service.
See the back of your pass for a phone
number to connect you to our desk,
headed by Amanda Steurer. Just let the
concierge know what film you want to
see and the number of tickets you require. If there is no answer, leave a message with ticket request details and the
concierge will call you back to confirm.
Your concierge takes care of all of the
reservation details. All you have to do
is go to the theatre 20 minutes prior to
show time, look for a manager wearing
a black baseball hat and collect your
ticket(s) from him or her. The manager
will guide you to the preferred seating
entrance.
If you’re unable to call the concierge
ahead of time, feel free to go to the film
venue up to an hour before show time
and pick up tickets from the theatre
manager wearing a black baseball hat.
Once you have your tickets, you are free
to wander off; but please be back 20
minutes before show time.
RUSH TICKETS $10, $20
When a theatre doesn’t fill up with pass
holders, we sell tickets for that film.
Rush-ticket buyers gather in the rushticket line. Once the pass holder line
starts moving, the theatre managers know
exactly how many seats are available.
Rush tickets for the special screenings of
“Wish Me Away” with Chely Wright and
“Smile” with Bruce Dern are $20; all other
film rush tickets cost $10. Rush tickets
are sold 15 minutes before the movie
begins until the lights go down.
QUESTIONS?
Every venue line has one or two CROWD
LIAISONS who can answer your festival questions. Those wearing a yellow
volunteer hat or a venue manager wearing
a black baseball hat can assist you. You
can find information booth locations on
the festival map.
8 special events openi ng night event:
Single screening of Yasujiro Ozu’s silent film “Woman of Tokyo,”
accompanied by a live performance of the original score by
composer Wayne Horvitz
Tokyo No Onna (Woman of Tokyo)
Japanese with English subtitles
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024676/
Japan/1933/47 min.
2012 PTFF
“Reverberations” and
installation “55: Music
and Dance in Concrete”
Presented by Centrum,
Fort Worden State Park
Saturday and Sunday –
Free Admission
Live dance performances daily:
11 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Self-guided tour of the installation
11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Friday, 6:15 p.m., Rose Theatre
This classic film will be accompanied live
with an original jazz score played on piano
by composer Wayne Horvitz and accompanied by Geoff Harper, bass; Eric Eagle,
drums; Jacques Willis, vibraphone; and
Greg Sinabaldi, tenor sax and bass clarinet.
Ozu’s sizzling melodrama is the story of
Chikako, the dutiful woman of the title, who
does everything she can, both at home and
at work, to support the university education
of her younger brother Ryoichi. It emerges
that Chikako, a typist by day, is not in fact
spending her evenings assisting a professor with translation, but instead is earning
money on the side as an entertainer and
prostitute. Ryoichi fails to comprehend his
sister’s self-sacrificing motives with harrowing consequences.
Completed in just nine days, the film is
a treasure among Yasujiro Ozu’s lifetime
study of the rhythms and tensions of a country trying to reconcile modern and traditional values. Watch for his signature style: Static shots from the vantage point of
someone sitting low on a tatami mat, patiently pacing the isolated beauty of everyday
objects.
Originally commissioned by the NW Film Forum, the “Woman of Tokyo” jazz project
has been performed in Seattle, Syracuse and at the Winter Garden Theater in New
York City. This performance is generously underwritten by Centrum, in collaboration
with The Reverberations Festival (see sidebar).
Sponsored by
Centrum, Washington’s Home for Creative
Arts and Education, in partnership with the
Port Townsend Film Festival, inaugurates
“Reverberations” with the world premiere
of a self-guided multi-media installation
titled “55: Music and Dance in Concrete.”
These works were created by Centrum Artists in Residence, including Seattle-based
composer Wayne Horvitz, Portland-based
audio engineer Tucker Martine, Japanese
dancer/choreographer Yukio Suzuki, and
Japanese video artist Yohei Saito. A portion of the music, which features 55 short
improvised and 55 composed works, was
recorded in the Dan Harpole Cistern at Fort
Worden State Park, world-renowned for
its 45-second reverberation time. Thirty
minute dance performances by Yukio
Suzuki and his dance troupe from Japan
take place on top of the gun emplacement
platforms on Saturday and Sunday. A
Discover Pass is not required for entry into
the Park. Walking attire is recommended.
Limited shuttle service is available for
mobility-impaired patrons. For directions
and more information, log onto centrum.
org/reverberations or call (360) 385-3102,
ext. 110.
“55: Music and Dance in Concrete” received initial funding from
the MAP Fund and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, as
well as support from the Arizona State University Art Museum
where it presents following its premiere in Port Townsend.
The project also receives support from the Japan Foundation
through the PerformingArtsJAPAN program. The Centrum
artist residency program is made possible by support from the
Washington State Arts Commission and the Washington State
Parks and Recreation Commission.
9 2012 PTFF
Wish Me Away
Chely Wright appears with this film on
Friday night only!
Directors: Bobbie Birleffi, Beverly Kopf
http://www.firstrunfeatures.com
USA/2011/96 min.
Friday, 6:30 p.m., Uptown Theatre
Saturday, 12:15 p.m.,
Maritime Center Theatre
rry
photo by Michael Grange
“Wish Me
Away” has
left audiences
cheering! We
share the
journey of a
young girl
from Kansas
who makes
the decision
that a life
of integrity is worth
risking her
career. This
documentary is a personal and intimate
look at Chely Wright, who, after a lifetime
of hiding, becomes the first commercially
successful country music singer to come
out as a lesbian. With unprecedented access over three years that includes private
video diaries, this film chronicles Chely’s
rise to fame and beyond the moment she
steps into the media glare and shatters
the cultural and religious stereotypes
of Nashville. “Wish Me Away” shows
both the devastation caused by Chely’s
internalized homophobia and the transformational power of living an authentic life.
Port Townsend Film Festival welcomes
Chely Wright to the Uptown Theatre on
Friday, September 21 at 6:30 p.m. for
the screening of the film, followed by a
conversation with film critic and author
Rebecca Redshaw.
Sponsored by
What Does a Producer
Do, Anyway?
Saturday, 3:30 p.m.,
Uptown Theatre
Welcome producer Jeffery Kusama Hinte
as he shares behind the scenes tales
about introducing the concepts of this
remarkable film “The Kids Are All Right” to
an industry that had never before presented non-traditional family issues in the
context of a major motion picture. Writes
Kusama Hinte: “‘The Kids Are All Right’
serves as a good example of the good,
the bad, the ugly … and the really terribleawful-horrible. It started off wonderfully
well. And then…” Join the producer for
an interview and the rest of the conversation following the screening of this ground
breaking film.
Featuring:
The Kids Are All Right
Director: Lisa Cholodenko
USA/2011/106 min.
Starring: Julianne Moore,
Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo.
The set-up: The son of a same-sex
couple enlists his sister in seeking out
their sperm donor dad. The complication: Thrilled to meet his long lost children
whom he never expected to see, sperm
donor reaches out, challenging the
couple’s mothering. Further complications: Sparks fly between sperm donor
and mom who had the pregnancies, and
who might be persuaded to switch sides.
And the kids love him at first sight.
Sponsored by
Saturday, 10 a.m.,
Upstage Theatre & Restaurant
With host
Sedge
Thomson
This lively, entertaining and
informative
National Public
Radio program is
returning to Port
Townsend once
again! WCL is a
live two hour radio
variety show that
has been a Saturday morning Bay
Area staple and
is often (when not touring)
broadcast from the Ferry Building in San
Francisco or the Freight & Salvage in
Berkeley. What makes this radio program
so special is the likeable and ever-curious
personality of Sedge Thomson. He and
his droll, literate troupers seek the cultural
variety that is widely available in Port
Townsend. The show broadcasts from 10
a.m. – noon at The Upstage Restaurant.
Check http://www.WCL.org for the latest
details on guests. Come join the theater
audience! This popular show sells out,
so if you want a ticket, buy in advance
for $15 at http://www.brownpapertickets.
com/event/264650. Doors open at 9:30
a.m. Tickets are $20 at the door, if there
are any left. You can find affiliate radio
stations to tune in at (http://wcl.org/
where-to-hear-us) or listen online (and for
a week after) via KALW at http://kalw.org/
local-music-player.
10 special events 2012 PTFF
Smile
a special eveni ng
Director: Michael Ritchie
USA/1975/113 min.
w i th
BRUce DeRn
B
Saturday, 6:30 p.m., Uptown Theatre
ruce Dern, this
year’s Special
Guest, knows a
lot about getting shot
and/or killed.
In the movies, that is.
He’s played plenty of
villains, like the psychopath pilot who tries to
blow up the Super Bowl
in 1977s “Black Sunday.” He’s also known
as ‘The Man who shot
John Wayne’ a dubious,
though distinctive, claim
to movie fame. He shot
The Duke in the back, as a matter of fact,
in the 1972 western, “The Cowboys.”
Dern confirms a well-known story that
Wayne leaned over and whispered,
“America’s gonna hate you for this”
before the shoot. And that he replied to
The Duke, “Yea, but they’ll love me in
Berkeley.”
Dern, who recently turned 76, was
nominated for Best Supporting Actor for
1978’s “Coming Home.” He’s often played
oddball – if not always villainous – characters throughout his movie career, which
started in the early 1960s and includes
such classics as 1972’s dark sci-fi film
“Silent Running” in which he played the
caretaker of earth’s last forests. (He may
feel right at home here on the woodsy
Olympic Peninsula.) He also co-starred
with Jack Nicholson in “The King of Marvin Gardens.” Last year, he won an Emmy
for his scary polygamist role on HBO’s
acclaimed Utah-based series “Big Love.”
Asked about a rare comedy in which he
starred, “Smile,” this year’s Festival selection, Dern reacts warmly, calling it “one of
my five favorite films. Michael Ritchie was
a terrific director and he had a great script
to work with,” he says of “Smile,” arguably one of the funniest (and most cynical)
films ever – an underrated and overlooked
comedy gem.
Before Dern broke into
film, he paid his bills by
doing lots of episodic
TV, including “Sea
Hunt,” “Route 66,” and
“Gunsmoke,” usually playing villains. “I
learned that you could
do one ‘Gunsmoke’ a
year if you got killed,”
he chuckles.
The blunt-spoken Dern,
a graduate of the prestigious Actors’ Studio,
repeatedly says he
was lucky to work with
“people who were truly larger than life”
like John Wayne and Bette Davis.
The Chicago-born actor says one day
early in his career, he showed up on the
set of “Gunsmoke” at CBS and was
surprised to see Davis “chain-smoking
four or five packs a day as usual. I asked
Miss Davis respectfully why she was doing TV, and she snapped back, ‘How else
am I gonna pay for these f---ing Chesterfields?’” Dern chuckles.
The rail-thin Dern stays in shape the way
he always has, by running. He says he
once ran 72 miles in a single day. “I’ve
run countless marathons,” he says, “and I
figure I’ve run the equivalent of four times
around the world.” Dern, the father of actress Laura Dern (from his first marriage to
actress Diane Ladd), still runs 10-15 miles
a week. When I ask if he’ll be running
when he’s here at the Film Festival, Dern
replies, “I sure as hell don’t see why not.”
The beauty pageant’s about to get ugly.
The Santa Rosa Jaycees are organizing
a Californian version of the American
Junior Miss pageant. With 30 young
women raised on hamburgers and soda
pop striving to be everyman’s girl-nextdoor and a host of self-centered behindthe-scenes flawed characters, we have
plot, setting, screwball comedy and a cult
following ensured.
Starring Bruce Dern and Barbara Feldon, “contestants” include future stars:
Coleen Camp, Denise Nickerson, Annette
O’Toole and Melanie Griffith.
Bringing together dozens of vignettes,
the one-liners are great, especially the
disingenuous “Santa Rosa is so beautiful. I mean, I thought the shopping mall
in Anaheim was great until I saw yours.
It’s… a credit to the vision of your business community.”
Vincent Canby, reviewing for the New
York Times, called “Smile” “a rollicking
satire that misses few of the obvious targets, but without dehumanizing the victims… about a society in which optimism
and positive thinking virtually amount
to a political system, a guide to making
choices, the principal goal of which is to
have fun.”
Join us for a conversation with Dern
as he spins yarns of his remarkable career
following the screening of “Smile.”
Interviewed by Bill Mann
Sponsored by
12 oUtDooR Movi es E.T.
the Extra-Terrestrial
The Empire
Strikes Back
Friday, 7:30 p.m., Taylor Street
Outdoor Cinema
Saturday, 7:30 p.m., Taylor Street
Outdoor Cinema
Director: Steven Spielberg
When “E.T.” was released in 1982, Steven
Spielberg already had an impressive
track record for directing some of the
top grossing movies of the era: “Jaws,”
“Close Encounters of the Third Kind”
and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” With “E.T.”
though, something sparked a nerve with
moviegoers. It is the story of a young boy
who befriends a gentle alien accidentally
left behind on Earth. The spirit and magic
of the story moved audiences, swept the
Academy Awards, and has endured for 30
years. The theme of yearning for love and
connection was drawn from Spielberg’s
own childhood and his first-hand sense
of being an outsider, being bullied on the
playground, and finding comfort from an
imaginary friend. In Elliott, we see a lonely
boy who discovers and befriends E.T.,
protects him from the strange world in
which he is stranded, and helps him find
his way back home.
Director: Irvin Kershner
It was America’s fascination with space
and its race with the Soviet Union that
ultimately led to the cultural phenomenon
known as Star Wars. The epic space opera film series created by George Lucas
began in 1977, 20 years after the Soviets’
Sputnik was launched. In “The Empire
Strikes Back,” the second entry of Lucas’
Star Wars Trilogy, Luke Skywalker (Mark
Hamill) has grown from a naïve boy to
a seasoned warrior. Skywalker and his
Rebel Alliance friends, Han Solo (Harrison
Ford) and Princess Leia Organa (Carrie
Fisher), battle the terrifying authority of
the Galactic Empire. Darth Vader is the
brooding, robotic villain who pursues our
hero with his technologically advanced
space warriors. Skywalker, studies the
Force under Jedi Master Yoda, and
adheres to his sage advice: “Fear is the
path to the dark side.” Hope for clear
skies, stars and planets, as we sit outside
on hay bales, bundled up for this most
popular of the Star Wars trilogy!
USA/1980/124 min.
USA/1982/115 min.
Shown with Luminaris, see page 26
Sponsored by
2012 PTFF
Tootsie
Director: Sydney Pollack
Sunday, 7:30 p.m.,
Taylor Street Outdoor Cinema
After playing major roles in films such as
“Death of a Salesman,” “Marathon Man,”
“Rain Man,” and “Little Big Man,” Dustin
Hoffman shows us that he is “more than
just a woman” when he dons the wigs,
clothing and eyeglasses of the 1980s and
gives us his “Miss Dorothy Michaels.”
We watch the transformation of Hoffman,
portraying Michael Dorsey, unemployed
actor who covertly dresses up as a
woman to land a role in a soap opera.
He falls in love with his co-star, Jessica
Lange (Julie), but can’t step out of his role
as Dorothy and risk losing his job. Geena
Davis makes her screen debut as a daytime drama queen, and supporting actors
Bill Murray, Teri Garr, George Gaynes and
Dabney Coleman play their comic roles
perfectly off of Hoffman’s high camp,
highly conflicted prance.
USA/1982/110 min.
Sponsored by
Sponsored by
14 naRRative featURes Dreamworld
Foreign Letters
Director: Ryan Darst
www.imdb.com/title/tt1853548
Director: Ela Thier
www.foreignlettersthemovie.com
Friday, 12:30 p.m., Uptown Theatre
Friday, 9 a.m., Rosebud Cinema
Saturday, 3 p.m., Rosebud Cinema
Saturday, 9 p.m., Rosebud Cinema
2012 PTFF
Les Hommes Libres
(Free Men)
Director: Ismael Ferroukhi
www.imdb.com/title/tt1699185
Friday, noon, Rosebud Cinema
Sunday, 9 a.m., Rosebud Cinema
Two dreamers of epic proportions meet in
this quirky but quiet road film which explores the nature of a relationship based
on vulnerability, and we want them to
succeed in spite of what they do to each
other and themselves.
Oliver Hayes, an aspiring animator whose
confidence is at a low point, meets
the captivating and impulsive Lily, who
encourages him to drop everything and
go with her to Northern California in the
hopes of fulfilling his fantasy of working
for Pixar Studios. Along the way our hero
learns disturbing things about his companion and has to decide whether to face
reality or stay in ‘dreamworld.’
A riff on Jonathan Demme’s 1986 farce
“Something Wild,” this “roguemantic”
comedy employs French New Wave
cinema verité.
Rated QCWG, for quirky characters
wearing glasses.
USA/2012/93 min.
Harking back into ancient history, we now
have films set in the pre-e-mail era of the
1980s.
Schoolgirl Ellie, newly arrived to Connecticut from Israel, is homesick, lonely,
alienated and waits anxiously for letters
from her best friend back home—a lifeline to who she was before she became
so lost in America.
She meets Thuy, a Vietnamese refugee
her age who becomes her new best
friend. The girls share commonality of
war-torn childhoods and adjustment to
new territory but neither is prepared for
the treachery of junior high school. They
share being different, bullying, shame,
friendship and the love of family, in markedly different cultural styles.
The film score is a mélange of international music, including songs by iconic
Israeli folk artist Chava Alberstein.
Friendship has a way of taking a person
down unexpected paths, in this case,
an apolitical Algerian immigrant who
joins the resistance during World War II
because of a new friendship with a Jewish man.
This is a fact-based thriller set in Paris’
Muslim community and in the city’s principal mosque where Jews and members
of the resistance were kept safe in the
basement while Nazi occupiers paused in
their hunt for Jews to admire the Islamic
art upstairs. In French with English subtitles.
France/2011/99 min.
USA/2012/100 min.
Best Director: Abu Dhabi Film Festival,
Official Selection: Cannes Film Festival &
Toronto Film Festival
Special Jury Prize: Nashville Film Festival
Shown with North Atlantic, see page 26
Shown with Los Gritones
(The Screamers), see page 26
Sponsored by
Sponsored by
Sponsored by
15 2012 PTFF
Director: Jonathan Lisecki
www.thefilmcollaborative.org/films
Gayby
Kinyarwanda
Director: Alrick Brown
www.kinyarwandamovie.com
Not That Funny
Friday, 9:30 p.m., Uptown Theatre
Friday, 9:15 p.m., Rose Theatre
Sunday, 3:15 p.m.,
Maritime Center Theatre
Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Uptown Theatre
Friday, 6:30 p.m.,
Peter Simpson Free Cinema
Jenn and Matt are best friends who
met in college before Matt realized he
was gay. She teaches hot yoga; he is a
blocked comic-book writer and grieving
his ex-boyfriend.
Sure she’ll never find a worthy man in all
of New York, she asks Matt to father her
child – the old-fashioned way.
A deft and irreverent comedy with zingy
one-liners about friendship, loneliness,
growing older, sex and the family you
choose.
USA/2012/88 min.
Narrative Feature, Best Acting Ensemble
Jury Prize: Ashland Audience Award,
Narrative Feature Special Jury Prize:
IFFBoston, Best Feature Audience
Award, Best Director Award: Connecticut
Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Audience
Award for Best Feature: Kansas City Gay
and Lesbian Film Festival, Best Film: Fort
Worth Gay & Lesbian International Film
Festival
Shown with Clean, see page 34
Director: Lauralee Farrer
www.notthatfunnymovie.com
Sunday, 9:15 a.m., Rose Theatre
“I thought I knew something about
Rwanda, but I didn’t really know very
much. I was moved by “Hotel Rwanda,”
but not really shaken this deeply,” says
film reviewer Roger Ebert.
Like the film “Crash,” “Kinyarwanda” tells
six survival stories of apparently unrelated
characters whose lives eventually intertwine, centering around documented acts
of cruelty and courage during the 100
days of 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Unlike “Hotel Rwanda,” this film is produced by Rwandans and addresses the
way some crossed the lines of hatred to
protect each other, including an Islamic
imam and Christian priest.
These stories are true accounts from
survivors who took refuge at the Grand
Mosque of Kigali and the madrassa of
Nyanza.
Rwandan filmmaker Ishmael Ntihabose
received a grant from the European Commission on Human Rights to produce the
film in collaboration with writer/director
Alrick Brown, who joins us as an honored
guest of PTFF.
USA/2011/100 min.
With English subtitles
Audience Award World Cinema:
Sundance Film Festival, Audience Award:
AFI Film Festival, Best Narrative Feature
Audience Award: Denver Film Festival
This is a simple story of just how far a
serious man will go for love. By his own
admission, Stefan is alone but not lonely.
But this changes when Hayley, weary
from a high-pressure job with a selfabsorbed boss/boyfriend, returns to her
hometown to visit her aging grandmother.
When Stefan overhears Hayley tell her
grandmother that all she wants is a guy
who makes her laugh, Stefan sets out to
become funny and win her heart. Unfortunately, Stefan is not that funny, but his
attempt leads to important transformations for both of them.
Tony Hale (Buster on Arrested Development) portrays the affable, 40-ish Stefan
with insight and charm, both as the clueless wannabe suitor to Hayley, and the
compassionate caretaker for her grandmother. This sweet, humble film is both
humorous and smart, and touches on the
importance of family, friendship and truth.
USA/2011/105 min.
Audience Award & Best U.S. Feature:
Newport Beach Film Fest, Audience
Award Winner: Rainier Independent Film
Festival
Shown with Luminaris, see page 26
Sponsored by
Sponsored by
Sponsored by
16 naRRative featURes QWERTY
Director: Bill Sebastian
www.qwertythemovie.com
Io Sono Li
(Shun Li and the Poet)
2012 PTFF
Starbuck
Director: Ken Scott
www.imdb.com/title/tt1756750
Saturday, 12:30 p.m.,
Peter Simpson Free Cinema
Director: Andrea Segre
www.iosonoli.com
Friday, 3:15 p.m.,
Maritime Center Theatre
Sunday, 6 p.m., Rosebud Cinema
Friday, 6 p.m., Rosebud Cinema
Sunday, 12:15 p.m., Rose Theatre
Saturday, 9:15 a.m.,
Maritime Center Theatre
“QWERTY” is a comedy about Scrabble,
featuring sock monkeys with a 20-something cast including Dana Pupkin, Eric
Hailey and Bill Redding.
Zoe, a word geek who works for the
Chicago Department of Motor Vehicles,
checks every vanity plate request for
hidden dirty meanings. This is her JOB.
She’s the black sheep of her own family
and possesses few social skills, coworkers also think she’s WEIRD, (maybe
because she dreams of competing in the
national Scrabble contest).
Zoe finds a love interest, Marty, who’s
lost his will to live after being fired from
his job selling underwear in a retail store
and whose friend is a homeless person
who talks with Jesus.
A quirky, romantic comedy that will give
you some winning Scrabble words!
USA/2012/91 min.
Best Film Music: Nashville Film Festival
Shown with TXT, see page 29
Romance between an older man and
younger woman is common, but between
an old Slavic fisherman and a young Chinese immigrant on a provincial island off
the coast of Venice, Italy – is scandalous.
Shun Li works in a textile factory in Rome
when she is suddenly transferred to Chioggia to work as a bartender in a pub.
A handsome fisherman, Slavic Bepi,
nicknamed ‘The Poet’ by his friends, is
a regular at the inn. These two lonely
people find a tender and delicate poetic
escape in their meeting; but their friendship and romance stirs both the Chinese
and local communities’ deepest fears
about ‘the other.’
This film is described as “rapturous,
exquisite, delicate and atmospheric” by
Guy Lodge in Variety and “an aesthetic
gem” in Sight and Sound, British Film Institute’s magazine. In Italian with English
subtitles.
USA/2011/100 min.
Perpetual adolescent and deliveryman for
a butcher shop, 42-year-old sperm donor
David Wozniak discovers he has fathered
533 children.
Thugs are chasing him because he
owes them money, and 142 of his children are trying to force the fertility clinic
to reveal the true identity of ‘Starbuck,’
the pseudonym he gives himself when
donating sperm, and the name of a
Canadian Holstein bull famous for fathering thousands of calves by artificial
insemination in the 1980s and 1990s.
Wozniak’s girlfriend Valerie is also
pregnant with his child and has choice
opinions on whether or not he’s mature enough to be a dad, unaware he’s
already fathered many.
Canada/2011/109 min.
French with English subtitles
Best Narrative Feature & Best of the
Fest: Palm Springs International Film
Festival, Audience Choice Awards: Santa
Barbara Film Festival, Audience Favorite
World Feature & Best Narrative Feature:
Sonoma Film Festival, Best Of: SIFF
Shown with Den Forste Anders
(The First Anders), see page 26
Sponsored by
Sponsored by
Sponsored by
18 DocUMentaRY featURes Beauty Is
Embarrassing
Director: Neil Berkeley
www.brkly.tv
Saturday, 9:15 p.m.,
Rose Theatre
Sunday, 12:15 p.m.,
Maritime Center Theatre
“It’s beautiful out here; it’s so beautiful it
hurts my feelings,” says Wayne White,
who, along with other artistic pursuits,
was the set designer of “Pee-wee’s
Playhouse.” “I learned art could be a 24/7
lifestyle,” says White, also a banjo player.
“Do what you love – it’s going to lead to
where you want to go.”
Surreal, provocative and subversive,
White may be best known for his grotesque sculptures of famous people’s
heads – whose eyes blink and jaws open
and shut. After a decade-long stall in
his career, White’s paintings caught the
attention of the Los Angeles art world.
Director Neil Berkeley chronicles White’s
roller coaster career from his youth as a
Tennessee farm boy, a truncated run in
television and his emergence as a fine
artist. The film is spliced with White narrating his own slide show.
USA/2012/88 min.
Best Doc: Cleveland Int’l Film:
DeadCENTER Film Fest & Crossroads
Int’l Film Fest, Audience Award:
Nashville Film Fest, Best Doc Screenplay
(Nonimated): WGA East
Shown with
Mr. Smith’s Peach Seeds, see page 28
Sponsored by
Big Boys
Gone Bananas!*
Director: Fredrik Gertten
www.wgfilm.com
Saturday, noon, Rosebud Cinema
2012 PTFF
Big in Bollywood
Director: Kenny Meehan
www.kennymeehan.com
Friday, 9:30 p.m.,
Peter Simpson Free Cinema
Sunday, 6:30 p.m., Uptown Theatre
Sunday, 6:15 p.m.,
Maritime Center Theatre
If the multi-national corporation Dole
Food Co. thought they could get away
with lawsuits, manipulation and squelching free speech when they sued a documentary filmmaker, they misunderstood
the genre. The documentary, “Bananas!*,”
follows million-dollar personal injury attorney Juan ‘Accidentes’ Dominguez on
his biggest case ever. Suing Dole Food
and Dow Chemical in a groundbreaking
legal battle, Dominguez goes after the
multinationals for their use of a banned
pesticide that exposed 10,000 field workers to known sterility and death. With the
release of the documentary, Dole turns
its wrath on Swedish filmmaker Fredrik
Gertten. “Big Boys Gone Bananas!*” tells
the story of how Gertten’s “Bananas” is in
effect censored: Initially selected for competition by the Los Angeles Film Festival,
the director gets a message that it’s been
pulled from the competition and instead is
the subject of a scathing article in the LA
Business Journal. He also receives a letter from corporate attorneys threatening
him with legal action. Eventually the Los
Angeles Superior Court and the Swedish
Parliament get involved.
Omi Vaidya, an American-born Indian
who grew up in Palm Springs, is forever
changed after landing a part in Bollywood’s “3 Idiots.”
Long before Omi and his filmmaker
friends realized “3 Idiots” would be an
unanticipated hit in India, they packed up
and went to India to document Omi’s premiere. They could never have anticipated
the hilarious events that transpired.
“Big in Bollywood” was filmed on five
cameras by five filmmakers in five different video formats. Even the filmmakers
themselves are in front of the camera, a
transparency that allows the audience
intimacy with this group of best friends.
USA/2011/69 min.
Best Foreign Film: Las Vegas Film Festival
2012, Best of Fest at International: Film
Festival Manhattan Best Comedy Doc:
Docufest Atlanta 2011
Shown with
The Love Competition, see page 29
Sweden/2012/88 min.
For multiple award listings, go to wgfilm.
com
Shown with Among Giants, see page 28
Sponsored by
Sponsored by
19 2012 PTFF
Bitter Seeds
Brooklyn Castle
Director: Katie Dellamaggiore
www.brooklyncastle.com
Director: Jeff Orlowski
www.extremeicesurvey.org
Friday, 12:15 p.m., Rose Theatre
Saturday, 3:15 p.m.,
Maritime Center Theatre
Saturday, 9:30 a.m., Uptown Theatre
Director: Micha X. Peled
www.teddybearfilms.com
Saturday, 6:15 p.m.,
Maritime Center Theatre
Follow the journey of a young Indian
student, intent on becoming a journalist
in a country where girls are rarely allowed
an independent voice. Her story? Indian
farmers, driven to despair by inescapable
debt, are committing suicide.
Determined to document why this is happening in her village, she also exposes
how international industrial agriculture
(such as Monsanto Co.) is determining
the fate of farming in India.
A number of stories are told here, but
especially the collapse of one cotton
farmer’s life and farm as all his hard work
comes to nothing.
“Bitter Seeds” is the final film of Micha X.
Peled’s Globalization Trilogy that includes
“Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to
Town” and “China Blue.”
USA/India/2011/88 min.
Official Selection: Telluride Film Festival,
Oxfam Global Justice Award & IDFA
Green Screen Competition Award:
IDFA (Int’l Documentary Film Festival
Amsterdam)
Shown with Water, see page 29
Over the last decade, students in a New
York inner-city school have learned to
play chess, one of the world’s oldest
and most complicated games. Their
achievements include winning over 26
national chess titles and producing the
first female, African-American Grand
Chess Master.
Now threatened with a million-dollar
budget cut, the after-school program is
at risk.
Say the teachers defending the program:
The kids “play chess in a theatre of hard
work and determination, where they
negotiate larger conflicts by maneuvering
their armies of rooks, knights, pawns and
bishops—and where they can become
queens and kings, far beyond the tabletop battlefield.”
USA/2012/101 min.
Shown with TXT, see page 29
Sponsored by
Chasing Ice
Sunday, 3:15 p.m., Rose Theatre
“I’m fascinated with the beauty of it, the
mutability of it, the malleability and the
fabulous shapes in which it can carve
itself,” says filmmaker James Balog in a
2009 TedTalk about Greenland’s shrinking glaciers and ice fields. “But,” he
says, “Ice is the canary in the global coal
mine.” Twenty-seven cameras deployed
at 18 glaciers in Greenland, Iceland,
the Nepalese Himalaya, Alaska and the
Rocky Mountains, record changes every
half hour, year round during daylight
hours. Over 8,000 frames, taken by
each camera over a year’s time, have
been edited into spectacular time- lapse
sequences that reveal exactly how fast
vast regions of the planet are transforming. We share Balog’s struggle to capture
astonishing change in impossible conditions.
USA/2012/74 min.
People’s Choice Award: Hot Docs,
Norman Vaughan Indomitable Spirit
Award: Mountainfilm, Audience Award
Winner: South By Southwest, Excellence
in Cinematography: Sundance, Best
Adventure Film: Boulder International
Film Festival, Best Feature Film: Big Sky
Shown with
Song of the Spindle, see page 26
Sponsored by
Sponsored by
22 documentary FeatureS Go Ganges!
High Ground
2012 PTFF
Mulberry Child
Director: JJ Kelley and Josh Thomas
www.dudesonmedia.com
Director: Michael Brown
www.highgroundmovie.com
Director: Susan Morgan Cooper
www.mulberrychildmovie.com
Saturday, 6:00 p.m., Rosebud Cinema
Friday, 9:15 p.m.,
Maritime Center Theatre
Saturday, 3:15 p.m., Rose Theatre
Sunday, 12:30 p.m.,
Peter Simpson Free Cinema
Two seasoned Alaska wilderness adventurers attempt to travel 1,500 miles down
India’s River Ganges, by whatever means
possible, encountering both the unspeakable and the divine.
Josh Thomas and JJ Kelley, (PTFF
alums 2009) the comic pair of “Dudes on
Media,” and makers of the Emmy Awardwinning “Paddle to Seattle,” ask the
question of “How could a river regarded
as a god, be so polluted?”
The Ganges begins under the ice as a
trickle from melting Himalayan glaciers
and snakes across India’s subcontinent
of 400 million people to the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean.
USA/2012/83 min.
Sponsored by
Sunday, 3:30 p.m., uptown Theatre
With minds and bodies ravaged by
war, 11 soldiers returning from Iraq and
Afghanistan join an expedition to climb
the 20,075-foot Himalayan giant Mount
Lobuche, eight miles from Everest. Led
by blind adventurer Erik Weihenmayer
and a team of Everest climbers as their
guides, they set out on an emotional
and gripping climb to reach the top. The
mountain itself is a metaphor for one of
the basic concepts of military action – the
highest ground is the safest, most defensible place with the greatest perspective.
Something to listen for: The film was
scored by composer Chris Bacon, beginning with conventional American guitars
and instrumentation, and as the journey
progresses, to more spiritual and exotic
music as the wounded climbers overcome emotional and physical challenges
to reach their goal. Vertigo-inducing
cinematography through the villages of
Nepal, over raging rivers and up terrifyingly steep terrain by three-time Emmywinning director Michael Brown.
USA/2012/92 min.
People’s Choice & Best Call to Action
Film: BIFF, Audience Choice: Vail,
Audience Award Best Documentary:
Newport Beach
Shown with
The Freedom Chair, see page 29
Sponsored by
Sunday, 9:30 a.m., uptown Theatre
Jian Ping’s
family is
subjected to
shame and
brutality during China’s
Cultural
Revolution.
Her parents
undergo humiliation and
imprisonment
at the hands
of the Red Guard, and the older children
are sent to brutal “re-education camps.”
Born premature and sickly in 1960, Jian
is emotionally abandoned by her mother.
She and her grandmother are banished
to a remote mud hut to endure sub-zero
temperatures and primitive conditions.
Her earliest memories are of villagers
throwing rocks at her as she tries to visit
her father in prison. After Mao Zedong’s
death, China moves forward. Jian earns
a bachelor’s degree in English and immigrates to the United States, where she
must assimilate into a capitalist world.
Following her move to America as a
young adult, Jian’s privileged Americanborn daughter doesn’t understand her
mother’s emotional distance. They
attempt to reconcile with a trip to the
2008 Olympics. Travel can open many
doors, even the doors of the heart.
USA/2011/85 min.
Best of Fest: Palm Springs International
Film Fest, Best Editing: Madrid Film
Festival, Best Writer: Nashville Film
Festival
Sponsored by
23 2012 PTFF
Director: Bob Talbot
www.otter501.com
Otter 501
Director: Luke Griswold-Tergis
www.smokin’fishmovie.com
Smokin’ Fish
The Eyes of Thailand
Saturday, 9:30 a.m.,
Peter Simpson Free Cinema
Friday, 3:30 p.m., uptown Theatre
Saturday, 6:15 p.m., Rose Theatre
Sunday, 9:15 a.m.,
Maritime Center Theatre
Sunday, 12:30 p.m., uptown Theatre
Sunday, 3 p.m., Rosebud Cinema
The saga of an orphaned pup rescued by
a sea kayaker could very well be one of
our own sea otters living in the bull kelp
beds on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
This 3-day-old baby otter was found on
one of the beaches of Northern California, nursed on a baby bottle, taught how
to survive at the Monterey Bay Aquarium
with a surrogate mom and released back
into the wild. The score alone will have
you in tears.
Instead of the usual dry documentary,
filmmakers introduced another character,
a young biologist, into the story hoping
traditional storytelling would better engage
younger viewers’ empathy for the plight of
otters and other marine life.
USA/2011/85 min.
Best Theatrical Award: International
Wildlife Film Festival, Official Opening
Film at the BLUE Ocean Film Festival
Shown with
The Majestic Plastic Bag, see page 29
Cory Mann is a harried native businessman caught up in mass-producing,
importing, exporting and wholesaling traditional art to tourists in Juneau, Alaska.
Like many Tlingit people, his mother left
Juneau, where discrimination against
Alaska Natives was as common as it was
against African Americans in the south.
She raised him in San Diego until two
aunts decided to bring him back into the
family and back into Tlingit culture. Terrified of Alaska and not comfortable with
his heritage, Cory works hard to become
a successful capitalist. Cory succumbs
to his hunger for smoked salmon, a favorite food from childhood, and decides
to spend the summer catching and
smoking fish at his family’s fish camp.
Raised by seven women, including his
great-grandmother, who attempts to negotiate the clash of cultures themselves,
Cory tries to keep the IRS off his back
and his business afloat while dipping into
traditional waters.
Director: Windy Borman
www.eyesofthailand.com
The true story of Soraida Salwala, a passionate Thai woman who has dedicated
10 years of her life to saving victims of
land mines. Her patients are endangered
Asian elephants, survivors whose grievous wounds she nurses. She is determined to build elephant-sized prostheses
so they can walk again. Elephants Mosha
and Matala are unforgettable recipients
of Salwala’s love and compassion in the
world’s first elephant hospital, meeting
the challenges caretakers face in caring
for a patient weighing 9,000-12,000 lbs.
Canada/2011/81 min.
USA/2012/63 min.
Best Documentary: Montreal People
First Film Fest, Official Selection: IDFAAmsterdam
Shown with julio Solis: a Moveshake
Story, see page 28
Shown with
Day in Our Bay, see page 28
Sponsored by
Sponsored by
Sponsored by
24 documentary FeatureS The Girls in the Band
Director: Judy Chaikin
www.thegirlsintheband.com
Friday, 9 p.m., Rosebud Cinema
Saturday, 3:30 p.m.,
Peter Simpson Free Cinema
The Revolutionary
Producer/Directors: Irv Drasnin, Lucy
Ostrander & Don Sellers
www.revolutionarymovie.com
Friday, 6:15 p.m.,
Maritime Center Theatre
Trash Dance
Director: Andrew Garrison
www.trashdancemovie.com
Friday, 9:15 a.m., Rose Theatre
Sunday, 6:15 p.m., Rose Theatre
Saturday, 12:15 p.m., Rose Theatre
Mao
Zedong’s
Cultural
Revolution
was embraced by
thousands
of Chinese
and one
American.
How did playing an instrument, particularly drums and horns, become so gender
specific that exceptional musicians are
routinely ignored and forgotten because
they’re women? Forgotten by most,
except by fans and musicians, such as
ebullient sax player Roz Cron whose
memories sparked director Judy Chaikin to make the film. “Girls in the Band”
contains footage from three generations
of all-women big bands, such as the
Ada Leonard Orchestra, the International
Sweethearts of Rhythm, the Melodears
and the Ingenues, as well as interviews
with players about their experiences and
frustrations of exclusion. Have you ever
heard of saxophonist Vi Redd or trombonist Melba Liston? Variety magazine
suggested this film might prompt a
“rewrite of jazz history.”
Brilliant and
engaging
Sidney Rittenberg, now 91-years-old,
was a Chinese language expert stationed in China at the end of World War
II. He first met Mao Zedong in the caves
of Yan’an, birthplace of the revolution.
Seeking friendly relations with the United
States, Mao recruited Rittenberg to
become his bridge to the western world.
This story chronicles Rittenberg’s journey
as the only American member of the Chinese Communist Party and his hopes for
positive change and his subsequent fall
from grace and into prison. In 1968, imprisoned in solitary confinement, the Red
Guard ran rampant, ransacking cultural
and historical sites and terrorizing their
own people. Rittenberg was released
in 1977, a year after Mao’s death and
returned to the US in 1980. Produced by
PTFF Alums, Lucy Ostrander and Don
Sellers, this film has been met with worldwide interest and acclaim.
USA/2011/92 min.
Sometimes inspiration is found in unexpected places. Choreographer Allison
Orr finds beauty and grace in garbage
trucks – and in the men and women who
pick up our trash. She joins city sanitation workers on their daily routes to listen,
learn and ultimately try to convince them
to collaborate in a unique dance performance. Hard-working people, often carrying a second job, their lives are already
full with work, family and dreams of their
own. But some step forward, and after
months of rehearsals, two dozen trash
collectors and their trucks perform an extraordinary spectacle. On an abandoned
airport runway, thousands of people
show up to see how in the world garbage
trucks can ‘dance.’ Filmmaker Andrew
Garrison illuminates the reality that all
work matters and has dignity.
USA/2012/68 min.
2012 Audience Award: Silverdocs & Full
Frame, 2012 Special Jury Recognition:
SXSW
Shown with
Driving William, see page 28
Shown with Ink & Paper, see page 28
USA/2011/87 min.
Shown with
The Way Home, see page 29
Sponsored by
2012 PTFF
Sponsored by
Sponsored by
26 Short narrativeS Curfew
Luminaris
2012 PTFF
Song of the Spindle
Director: Shawn Christensen
Director: Juan Pablo Zaramella
Director: Drew Christie
Friday, 3:30 p.m.,
Peter Simpson Free Cinema
Friday, 6:30 p.m.,
Peter Simpson Free Cinema
Saturday, 9:30 a.m., uptown Theatre
Sunday, noon, Rosebud Cinema
Friday, 7:30 p.m., Taylor Street
Outdoor Cinema
Oh, those cetaceans, especially
the great whales
we have come to
care so much about!
Who would have
guessed they share
spindle neurons
in their brains with
us humans. Why
on earth – or in the oceans – does that
matter? Wouldn’t it be great if we could
just sit down with a whale and have an
interesting chat about how whales spend
their time? Would we want to know what
they think of us?
Sunday, 9:15 a.m., Rose Theatre
Despair can drive us to consider very sad
choices. In the midst of despair, it can
be a drag to be asked to baby-sit your
pre-teen niece, especially if it interrupts
something very serious and personal!
Hope and inspiration can come from the
most unexpected places and in the most
unexpected forms. Suddenly the whole
world may be sharing your song, and life
can take a much different turn!
To say that this
film sheds new
light on fostering innovation in
the workplace
would divert
attention from how brightly it illuminates
faces in the audience. It is creative, unusual, and rare to see stop-action animation
of live actors handled in such an incandescent way. We’ll just say “Luminaris” is
a brilliant fantasy, and a very high-wattage
one at that!
Argentina/2011/7 min.
Shown with eT (see page 12)
& not That Funny (see page 15)
USA/2011/19 min.
Shown with The Dynamiter, see page 17
North Atlantic
Los Gritones
(The Screamers)
Director: Bernardo Nascimento
Friday, 12 noon, Rosebud Cinema
Director: Roberto Perez Toledo
Sunday, 9 a.m., Rosebud Cinema
Friday, 12:30 p.m., uptown Theatre
“Nature isn’t cruel, just
indifferent.” So, goes
the old adage. For
one air traffic controller
alone in his station in
the Azores, contacting the pilot of a small
plane lost over the
North Atlantic offers a
chance to provide critical human support in a time of distress.
For the pilot, facing nature in all its cruelty,
the controller’s voice may be the last
human voice he hears ... or perhaps not!
Based on a true story.
Saturday, 3 p.m., Rosebud Cinema
Can a filmmaker tell a
meaningful
in-depth story
about a boy/
girl relationship in only
one and a half
minutes? Some feature films have attempted to tell this kind of story in an hour
and a half or more, and done less well in
the process. We think you’ll agree, but be
sure to let us know!
Spain/2010/2 min.
Shown with Dreamworld, see page 14
Sponsored by
Portugal/2011/15 min.
Shown with
les Hommes libres (Free Men),
see page 14
Sunday, 3:15 p.m., Rose Theatre
USA/2011/4 min.
Shown with Chasing Ice, see page 19
Den Forste Anders
(The First Anders)
Director: Kristian Ussing Andersen
www.thefirstanders.com
Friday, 3:15 p.m.,
Maritime Center Theatre
Sunday, 12:15 p.m., Rose Theatre
Did you think being a Viking was only
about pillage and plunder? What if a
young man’s Viking ancestry isn’t sufficient to ward off his being bullied in
school? There are many things that can
torture a man’s soul, even as he contemplates his Viking heritage. Can young
Anders find empowerment in a family
saga shared by his father?
Denmark/2011/9 min.
Shown with Starbuck, see page 16
30 ShortS program how we play
(Adventure/Sports Program)
Saturday, 9:15 p.m., Maritime Center Theatre
Sunday, 9:30 a.m., Peter Simpson Free Cinema
Our physical play may evolve from childhood exploration and simple games to sports,
and then for many – extreme sports! How We Play explores the full range of the human physical play experience, with heartwarming stories, thrilling action and amazing
photography.
All.I.Can.,
JP Auclair St. Segment
Into the Middle of
Nowhere
Directors: Eric Crosland, Dave Mossop
www.sherpascinema.com
Cross-country
skiing is often
considered rather
tame, but what if
it were to include
cross-house,
cross-car, crossstair, and cross
everything else as
elements? Follow
one avid skier from
British Columbia
as he traverses his favorite urban course,
allowing no obstacle to hinder his delight
in the sport.
Director: Anna Ewert
Recent scholarly studies
have been
devoted to
examining
‘Nature Deficit
Disorder’
a term coined for the trend of children
spending less time outdoors. While this
may be true for some, it isn’t the case for
the kindergarteners in Scotland’s Secret
Garden Outdoor Nursery. For these children, a walk in the woods is occasion for
an exciting adventure and an opportunity
to stimulate their unbridled imaginations.
According to one little girl, “The lions like
prowling around, so I give them prowlingaround lessons!”
Canada/2011/5 min.
Unicorn Sashimi
Directors: Ben Knight, Travis Rummel
www.feltsoulmedia.com
Even within
the wide range
of skiing styles
out there, filmmakers Ben
Knight and
Travis Rummel
encountered a
new dimension with snow surfing in Hokkaido, Japan. Figments of the Hokkaido
unicorn could be sensed in the dense
mountainside forests where they filmed.
Though they caught no unicorns, they did
catch extraordinary snowboarders moving
at breakneck speed through powder so
dry, fine, and deep that the competitors
risked sinking below the surface on every
straightaway and turn.
USA/2012/5 min.
Scotland/Germany/2010/15 min.
Obe and Ashima
Directors: Nick Rosen, Peter Mortimer
www.senderfilms.com
Obe is a former rock-climbing star turned
coach. Ashima Shiraishi is his 9-year-old,
4-foot-tall protégé. Together they work
to develop Ashima’s skill and competitive
nature. She starts with indoor climbing
walls and then moves outdoors to attempt the advanced rock-climbing activity
2012 PTFF
known as bouldering. To compete in this
sport, Ashima learns to defy gravity by
starting her climbs upside down at the
base of a two-story boulder, finds holds
as she moves across the bottom and up
the curved side before nearing the top.
Under the tutelage of her passionate
coach, Ashima seriously raises the bar for
competitive climbing.
USA/2012/22 min.
Moonwalk
Director: Mikey Schaefer
www.mikeyschaeferphotography.com
Cathedral
Peak in
Yosemite is
the setting
for this
amazing
film of the
rising full moon. How this brilliantly photographed event was shot in real time and
synchronized with death-defying exploits
by celebrated climber Dean Potter reflects
the genius of the filmmaker. The results
are beautiful and breathtaking!
USA/2012/3 min.
Cold
Director: Skip Armstrong
“This is where
everyone
dies!” That’s
how Cory
Richards
describes
his team’s
descent from
a 27,000-foot
summit in
Pakistan’s Himalayan Mountains. Gasherbrum II, also known as K4, is the 13th
tallest mountain on Earth. After becoming
the only American to ever reach this summit in winter, Richards and his teammates
are forced to make their descent within
just a day and a half window of forecasted sunshine. Attempting the near-impossible, the team confronted temperatures
that dropped to -44F, a freak blizzard, an
avalanche, and an encounter with death.
USA/Pakistan/2011/19 min.
32 ShortS program regional
tapeStry
Friday, 9:30 a.m., Peter Simpson Free Cinema
Sunday, 6:30 p.m., Peter Simpson Free Cinema
Consider the Ant
The Chinese Gardens
Director: Ann Katsikapes
Consider
what busy
critters
ants can
be! We
find them
under
our feet,
at our picnics, and sometimes in our
food! Consider how physically fit they
are, compared to us! Consider how hard
they work! They pull much more than
their own weight. Have these dedicated
communal residents and diligent laborers
found an especially welcoming home in
Port Townsend?
Director: Valerie Soe
http://laapff.festpro.com/films/detail/
the_chinese_gardens_2012
USA/2012/9 min.
Compassion Connects
Director: Tristan Stoch
Can
traditional
Chinese
medicine
provide
healing
and comfort and
supplement traditional Western medicine in third-world
communities where medical care is
expensive and unavailable? Near Kathmandu, Nepal, a team of five Portlandarea acupuncturists have volunteered
to overcome “…tremendous obstacles
of poverty, in regions where the struggle
to survive often usurps basic medical
needs…Through the practice of healing, a
connection between patient and volunteer
emerges, transcending the physical and
leading both parties into a relationship of
human connection and compassion that
creates long-lasting effects within their
communities.”
USA/Nepal/2012/29 min.
In 1890, there were nearly 450 Chinese
people living in Port Townsend. By 1910,
they were gone! Despite expulsion, the
Chinese experience in Port Townsend may
have been less tragic than elsewhere. “The
Chinese Gardens looks at the lost Chinese
community in Port Townsend, Washington,
examining anti-Chinese violence – lynchings, beatings, and murders – in the Pacific
Northwest in the late 1800s and drawing
connections between past and present
race relations in the U.S.”
2012 PTFF
The Kawamotos
of Lake Leland
Director: Pamela Roberts
The Kawamoto family’s ongoing
farming
experience
in Jefferson
County
could hardly
be more
different
than the one
depicted
in Betty
MacDonald’s
local memoir “The Egg and I,” published
in 1945! Instead, this Japanese-American
pioneer family was welcomed into the
Quilcene community and its schools, only
to then suffer the indignity of the World
War II government-mandated expulsion.
How they escaped the oppressive and
stifling environment of the internment
camps provides an unusually positive
note to contrast with the sad endings of
these so-often anguished family stories.
USA/2012/29 min.
It’s a Ring Thing
Director: Alison Hiatt
USA/2012/15 min.
Sponsored by
Portland’s development ordinances require preservation of the original iron rings
imbedded in its sidewalks for securing
horse-drawn carriages. Typically the rings
go unnoticed and ignored, except by the
occasional child who tugs on one, curious to learn what it is for. Scott Wayne
Indiana is “an artist who builds community through experimental, collaborative
play.” You’ll be delighted in the way he
incites “people to notice what was always
around; what they had been missing –
now they had found.”
USA/2011/10 min.
34 ShortS program revi ewerS’ choice
This year’s Reviewers’ Choice program includes films with subject manner and
language not appropriate for children.
Saturday, 9:15 a.m., The Rose Theatre
Sunday, 3:30 p.m., Peter Simpson Free Cinema
The Miners
The Birthday Circle
Director: Toddy Burton
Against
the
unfolding radio
news
story
of the
trapped
Brazilian miners, a young teenage girl must find
a way to balance school, housekeeping,
her first attempts at a social life and caring
for her acutely depressed father who is
fascinated by the miners’ story. The girl is
taunted by a threatening male schoolmate
who calls her a freak, but as she struggles
to hold her life together, she is able to find
understanding and self-confidence through
a string of most unusual circumstances.
Director: Philip Lepherd
What appears to
be a simple story
of a childhood
birthday party
with two young
brothers gives you
pause as you listen closely to the dialog.
When two adults appear at the party, these
two preschoolers assume much different
roles. As you listen to the conversation
unfold, you find yourself reexamining how
young and older family members relate.
USA/2012/11 min.
Homecoming
Director: Gursimran Sandhu
United Kingdom/2010/5 min.
Little
Horses
Director:
Levi Abrino
Post-divorce, the
“ex” begins a new
life with a guy
who’s just moved
in. Dad is bitter
about the divorce, and tries to compete
for the attention of his son by buying the
boy a pony for his birthday. The father’s
resources are few, but …
USA/2012/17 min.
We can relate to the pain felt by a
14-year-old girl whose father tells her
that an “A” with a 96 score just isn’t
good enough. This well-off East IndianAmerican family struggles with the clash
of Indian and American values, and the
struggle is heightened when the girl is
invited to her first homecoming dance
and her father refuses to let her go. In the
process of seeking her father’s approval
and permission, the girl is forced for the
first time to confront adult values and the
difficult choices that adults may face.
USA/2011/26 min.
Bear
Director: Nash Edgerton
His ex-girlfriend
claims he took
things too far. Jack
means well and has
good intentions, but
at times his judgment falters. Poor
Jack, it looks like he may be in trouble
with his new girlfriend over her birthday,
so with all the best intentions he comes
up with a really creative way to surprise
her!
Australia/2011/11 min.
2012 PTFF
Clean
Director: Jonathan Browning
Someone
important is
coming, and
the house
is a mess!
This needs
to be picked
up; that needs to be hidden or put
away! How could we allow anyone to
be exposed to our sloppy habits? There
is so much at stake for this couple who
scramble to make things presentable.
Will they pull it off in time?
USA/2012/4 min.
The Photographs of Your
Junk (Will be Publicized)
Director: Ronnie Butler, Jr.
In 2010, the New
Statesman listed
the poetry/song by
Gil Scott-Heron,
The Revolution will
not be Televised, as
one of the “Top 20
Political Songs.” This performance video
pays homage to the original with new
insights that bring hard-hitting political l
commentary up-to-date in the context of
today’s social media world.
USA/2011/5 min.
Dik
Director:
Christopher Stollery
This film contains subject
manner and language not
appropriate for children.
We try very hard to raise our children with
appropriate gender orientation. We also
take our children’s art work very seriously!
When an 8-year old brings home a piece
of art that he did in school, with words
that worry his father, and the color pink in
all the wrong places, his father believes
that he has cause to worry.
Australia/2010/10 min.
Sponsored by
36 ptFF caSt and crew THANKS!
This Film Lovers’ Block Party could
never take place without the help and
support we get from a whole army
of people who step up whenever we
ask! We are amazed by our staff and
the capable volunteers who plan,
proofread, edit, review films, schlep
heavy stuff, clean, cook and gather
the troops! They do all of this and
more with great attitudes and community spirit!
We have to begin by thanking Steve
Goff, who took on the enormous job
of festival operations manager this
year. Kendra Golden, our volunteer
coordinator, is uber-organized and
makes our lives easier. Thanks to
Cherel Lopez, whose contributions are
too many to list and whose humorous
guidance has carried us through the
year; Chris Martin, who has taken us
into the digital world of film presentation this year; and Raman Stika, for
his patient herding of filmmakers and
us, too! Nearly 250 volunteers and 100
businesses support this effort and for
all of you: We are deeply grateful!
PTFF STaFF
Janette Force,
PTFI Executive
Director
Steve Goff,
Festival
Operations
Manager
Barbara Henthorn,
Sponsors &
Marketing
Jane Julian,
Festival
Programmer
Chris Martin,
Film Czar
Victoria O’Donnell,
Administrative
Manager
Deborah
Pedersen,
Bookkeeper
Raman Stika,
Film Wrangler
OFFICe
Cherel Lopez
Donna Bodkin
Jean Boyer
Lili Glast, Library
Nancy Johnson
Barbara Miles
JoAnne Zeller
COnCIeRge
Amanda Steurer
Lili Glast
Pamela Gould
FaRMeRS
MaRkeT
Carrie Rice
Terry Wagner
FeSTIval
BankIng
Genie Nastrie,
Miss Money
Penny
Aldryth O’Hara,
Gooding, O’Hara
& Mackey
FeSTIval
PRODuCTIOn
Bonnie
Christoffersen,
Festival Designer
Steve Emery,
Security
Ted Krysinski,
Lights & Grip
FeSTIval
neWSleTTeR
Luke Bogues
FIlM
RevIeWeRS
Pam Kolacy,
Captain
Narratives
Kris Mayer,
Captain
Documentaries
Jonathan
Altemose
Stevie Caddell
Phyllis Day
Dennis Daneau
Barbara Ewing
Jim Ewing
Bob Febos
Steve Gillard
Sue Gillard
Martina Haley
Jack Kopaid
Bill LeMaster
Lynn LeMaster
Lyman Leong
Asia Martin
Brian McLoughlin
Coltan Newton
Marcia Perlstein
Nora Petrich
Liz Quayle
Matt RoarkCatlett
Onyea Sholty
Ruth Stewart
Alma Taylor
Cody Thompson
Donn Trethewey
Henry Werch
Jeff Youde
Linda Yakush
gRanTS/
SuRveyS
Matt Rowe
Kathy Stafford
gRaPHIC
DeSIgn
Brian McLoughlin,
Festival Signs
Terry Tennesen,
Festival Art
Design
gueST
SeRvICeS
Cherel Lopez
HOSPITalITy
Sharon Wenzler,
Manager
Jewel Atwell
Kate Franco
Linnea Patrick
Jennifer Turney
InFORMaTIOn
kIOSkS
Karen Anderson
InTeRvIeWS aT
unDeRTOWn
Mara Lathrop
MaSTeR OF
CeReMOnIeS
Joey Pipia
PaSS
PRODuCTIOn
Tom Christopher
Jim Ewing
Patricia Girard
Cynthia Koan
Sue Raley
Victoria O’Donnell
PHOTOgRaPHy
Mark Saran,
Manager
Tom Christopher
PRInT
PROgRaM
Victoria O’Donnell,
Editor in Chief
Bonnie
McLaughlin
Henry Werch
Jan Halliday
Jennifer
James-Wilson
Sunny Parsons
Marian Roh,
program layout
& design
PROjeCTIOnISTS
Gary Engbrecht,
Manager
Andrew Burke
Amy Carlson
Erik Durfey
Renata Friedman
Chris Martin
Miles McRae
Everett Moran
Dan Sutton
Francesco
Tortorici
Rick Wiley
PuBlICITy
Monica Mick
Hager, Manager
Caroline Littlefield
Bill Mann
Marshall New
Rebecca
Redshaw
SOCIal MeDIa
Tom Christopher
Brian McLoughlin
SPeCIal
evenTS
Joanne Bussa
Marlies Egberding
Laura Tucker
Alana Karsch
Monica Mick
Hager
Amy Sousa
TeCH TeaM
Cynthia Koan
Chris Martin
Jeff Sabado
Victoria O’Donnell
Mark Westlund
TRanSPORTaTIOn
Cherel Lopez
Clyde McDade
venue
ManageRS
Terry Tennesen,
Theatre Czar
Kieran Henthorn
& Wayne Cossairt,
Taylor Street
Outdoor Cinema,
Upstage Panels
Baila Dworsky &
Mike Johnson,
Uptown Theatre
Robert Force,
Magic Lantern &
Liquor Czar
Steve & Sue
Gillard, Rose
Theatre
Misha & Luna
Meng, Maritime
Center Theatre
Gabe & Robin
Ornelas, Area 51
Cocktail Lounge
Nora Petrich &
Janine Kowack,
Rosebud Cinema
Susan Solley &
Kathleen Holt,
Filmmakers’
Lounge
Mark Welch &
Chris Pierson,
Peter Simpson
Free Cinema
vIDeOgRaPHy/
PROMOTIOnal
Jane Champion,
Champion Video
Productions
Michael Delagarza
Julie Philips
vOlunTeeR
COORDInaTIOn
Kendra Golden
WeB DeSIgn
Ann Welch
gRanTORS
Port Townsend
Arts Commission
Kitsap Bank
Community Grant
2012 juRORS
narrative
Features
Todd Elgin
Adam Reid
Cynthia Sears
Documentary
Features
Jim Bigham
Linda Hattendorf
Adam Sekuler
Short narratives
Jon Gann
Stephanie Argy
Alec Boehm
Short
Documentaries
Jill Orschel
Donovan Cook
JJ Kelley
PTFI BOaRD
OF DIReCTORS
Rocky Friedman,
President
Pam Dionne,
Vice President
Keven Elliff,
Secretary
Sarah Hadlock,
Treasurer
Kathleen Kler
Bob Rosen
Tina FloresMcCleese
Brad Mace
Jane Champion
2012 PTFF
PTFI BOaRD
eMeRITuS
Jim Westall
Linda Yakush
Toby Jordan
Pam Kolacy
Karen Gates Hildt
Marleis
Egberding
Linda Maguire
Cynthia Sears
Jim Grabicki
Ian Hinkle
Peter Simpson
Frank Ross
John Considine
John Begley
Glenda Hultman
Geerlofs
Brent Shirley
Carol McGough
Jim Marshall
Jim Ewing
POSTeR aRTIST
Max grover has
been passionate
about the Port
Townsend Film
Festival since
its inception.
This is the fourth
painting Max has
created for the
festival poster.
His love affair
with film, and
Port Townsend,
have inspired
this year’s image.
Max’s paintings
have delighted
fans throughout
the country and
can be seen
locally at the Max
Grover Gallery,
630 Water Street,
Port Townsend.
38 thankS to our SponSorS 2012 PTFF