RIIFF 2002 Film Schedule

Documentaries A-D

Sunday August 11th URI 4:20PM
Aftershocks
US Premiere
Director/ Writer : Rakesh Sharma
Camera : Tanmay Agarwal
Sound: Rakesh Sharma/Tanmay Agarwal/Sreekumar S.
Editor : Rakesh Sharma/ Sunita Dighe
Runtime: 68min Country: India
Format: BETA SP
On January 26, 2001, Kutch (Gujarat, India) was devastated by a massive earthquake. Over 20,000 people died and tens of thousands of homes were destroyed. Bhuj, Anjar, Rapar and Bhachau, the most severely affected areas, received attention from many international relief agencies, national and international media, even personal visits from Prime Minister Vajpayee and Citizen Clinton. Eight weeks after the quake, on March 26, 2001, our camera accidentally bumps into the GMDC acquisition survey team in Umarasar. Over the next few months, the film moves in and out of Julrai, Umarsar and the GMDC's existing lignite mines and probes the processes of displacement and resettlement. Kutchi, Gujarati, Hindi with English subtitles

Sunday August 11th URI 2:10PM
Amuse Bouche (A Chef's Tale)
Company: MG Productions
Director: Maryanne Galvin
Country: USA
Format: BETA SP
The intimate documentary explores the many layers of Chef Barbara Lynch, nationally recognized chef / owner of No. 9 PARK, Boston, who rose from the rough and tumble projects of South Boston to culinary success, and who continues to give back to the community that supported her all the way.

Saturday August 10th URI 5:30PM
New England Premiere
Blue Vinyl
Company: Toxic Comedy Pictures
Directors: Judith Helfand & Dan B. Gold
Producers: Daniel B. Gold, Judith Helfand & Julia D.Parker
Editor: Sari Gilman
Director of Photography: Daniel B. Gold
Music: Marty Ehrlich, Sam Broussard, Stephen Thomas Cavit, Terry Dame, Four Piece Suit Runtime: 96 min
Country: USA, Italy
Format: Beta Sp
Blue Vinyl literally picks up where Judith Helfand's 1997 Peabody award-winning film A Healthy Baby Girl left off: in front of her parent's modest suburban house. Newly re-sided with blue vinyl, PVC is America's most popular and second fastest selling plastic. The odyssey to find an alternative building material that doesn't harm anyone at any step of its life cycle is the narrative line that connects the dots between the consumer, the PVC worker, and the residents who live across the street from the vinyl factory. This circuitous and ever-surprising journey always leads Helfand back home to her parents who, perhaps reluctantly, concede to join her in reinventing their role as consumers and citizens. Over the course of the film -- which took four years to make -- the Helfand family is challenged to learn from Judith's own experience with cancer and hysterectomy at age 25 caused by DES, the "popular" anti-miscarriage drug her mother was prescribed when she was pregnant with Judith. Together the Helfand family found meaning from the irreparable damage and far-reaching implications of toxic chemical exposure. Ultimately they agree to let Judith take the vinyl off the house -- to do something radical, fun and useful with it! English / Italian with English subtitles

Thursday August 8th URI 4:30PM
New England Premiere
BUFFALO COMMON
Director: Bill Brown
Producer: Ron Tibbett
Runtime: 23min
Format: 16mm
Country: USA
A droll visit of discovery to desolate North Dakota and its active, inactive, and being decommissioned (blown-up) missile silos. With a mordant commentary about the military industrial complexes, missile defense, nuclear deterrence, a missile museum, peace activists, churches, Scandinavians, and buffaloes.

Sunday August 11th Columbus Cinemateque 1:10PM
US Premiere
Conflict
Company: Wink Films
Director: Elad Winkler
Runtime: 36min
Country: Israel / USA
Format: BETA SP
The film follows 22-year-old director Elad Winkler as he returns to his homeland of Israel. Beginning and ending with a recording of the director which was shot during the first Intifada, the film portrays the problems of the times through a child's point of view over ten years ago. Through interviews with Jewish survivors, Palestinian and Israeli government officials, settlers and artists, and startlingly beautiful cinematography, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is examined in a very modern way.

Saturday August 11th URI 1:05PM
Cowgirls
New England Premiere
Company: Cowgirl Productions Inc
Director / Producer: Sally Clark
Runtime: 29min
Country: Canada / USA
Format: BETA SP
Move over, cowboy. Here the women in rodeo steal the show. With their sequined silhouettes, daredevil stunts and executive skills, the gender outlaws of "Cowgirls" push the frontiers of femininity, freedom and equality. Yet tell these ™frightfully independentš Annie Oakleys they're North America's first feminists and watch them buck. Set in the province of Alberta, Canada's Texas, "Cowgirls" showcases the modern day gladiators and the revered rodeo queens of the corral. In this high stakes arena of glamour, sweat and danger, the Wild West meets the beauty pageant and womanhood finds its most inspiring role model in the unsung stars who possess the gumption and guts of a cowboy and the sass of a Calamity Jane.

Thursday August 8th Columbus Cinemateque 9:45PM
World Premiere
A Day in the Hype of America
Company: Global Griot Productions
Directors / Producers: TJ Martin / Brian Quist
Runtime: 85min
Country: USA
Format: BETA SP
"A Day in the Hype of America" is a feature length documentary film about four unique Americans and how they experienced the last 24 hours of 1999. Filmed simultaneously in New York, New Orleans, South Dakota and Arizona this humorous and at times disturbing documentary brings us back to America on the brink of the new millennium, terrorism, and one big anticlimax. Through the diverse stories of four very different individuals "A Day in the Hype of America" re-captures the fears and festivities of one of the most anticipated days in history and shows the many ways Americans reacted to the millennial hype.

Sunday August 12th URI 2:10PM
Divining Mom
Company: 62 KNOTS
Productions Director / Producer: George Kachadorian
Runtime: 70min
Country: USA
Format: BETA SP
What do you do if your mother's a witch-- a water witch? Lea Kachadorian is a dowser, a.k.a. diviner, who claims to be able to find underground water supplies-- or most anything else-- using her dowsing rods: a forked stick, a pendulum, and her "extended" senses. Her husband, Jim, is a civil engineer who, after more than 20 years of heated debate, has yet to embrace his wife' s involvement with dowsing -- to put it mildly. Determined to get to the bottom of the family debate once and for all, their son, George Kachadorian, brings us on an eye-opening journey into the grey area between what is believed and what is real. "Divining Mom" is a film about love, magic, and a water well in Vermont.

Saturday August 10th Columbus Theatre 5:00PM
Drive in Movie Memories
Company: Outdoor Productions
Director: Kurt Kuenne
Producer: Don and Susan Sanders
Runtime: 57min
Country: USA
Format: 35MM
Drive-In Movie Memories is a film celebration of America's greatest icon of youth, freedom and the automobile. What started as an auto part owner's business venture to make some easy money accidentally became a magical place where romance, fun and a sense of community flourished. This film documents the drive-in movie theatre's birth, development, phenomenal popularity, unfortunate decline and optimistic future in a uniquely entertaining way.

Thursday August 8th URI 4:30PM
Dust to Dust
Director/Producer: Michael Brown
Runtime: 93min
Country: USA
Format: BETA SP
In a small town in N.W. Montana, hundreds of people face a grave and uncertain future. In recent years, more than 200 people have already died from the effects of exposure to asbestos-laden dust from a former mine outside of town. The company denies they knew they were placing citizens at risk. Those dying of lung disease say there's no question the company knew.