Films
American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein
84m | documentary | directed by David Ridgen and Nicolas Rossier | Regional Premiere
Sunday | March 21 | 9pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center
American Radical is the probing, definitive, documentary about American academic Norman Finkelstein. A devoted son of holocaust survivors, ardent critic of Israeli and US Middle East policy, and author of five provocative books, including The Holocaust Industry, Finkelstein has been steadfast at the center of many intractable controversies, including his recent denial of tenure at DePaul University. Called a lunatic and disgusting self-hating Jew by some, and an inspirational street-fighting revolutionary by others, Finkelstein is a deeply polarizing figure whose struggles arise from core questions about freedom, identity, and nationhood.
From Beirut to Kyoto, the filmmakers follow Finkelstein around the world as he attempts to negotiate a voice among both supporters and critics, providing an intimate portrait of the man behind the controversy while giving equal time to both his critics and supporters.
.
Burma VJ
85m | documentary | directed by Anders Østergaard | Academy Award Nominee | Regional Premiere
Tuesday | March 16 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center
Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, the acclaimed filmmaker, Anders Østergaard, brings us close to the video journalists who deliver the footage. Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens of Burma live the essence of journalism as they insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country. Armed with small handycams, the Burma VJs stop at nothing to make their reportages from the streets of Rangoon. Their material is smuggled out of the country and broadcast back into Burma via satellite and offered as free usage for international media. The whole world has witnessed single event clips made by the VJs, but for the very first time, their individual images have been carefully put together and at once, they tell a much bigger story. The film offers a unique insight into high-risk journalism and dissidence in a police state, while at the same time providing a thorough documentation of the historical and dramatic days of September 2007, when the Buddhist monks started marching. Co-Sponsored by New Orleans Film Society.
.
.
Coming Home: The Dry Storm
39m | documentary | directed by Michele Stephenson | Regional Premiere
Sunday | March 14 | 3pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center
Standing in front of hundreds of homes reduced to rubble by government contracted bulldozers, public housing resident and community leader Sam Jackson says, “it just hurts my heart.” Two years after the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans City Council has been demolishing public housing leaving thousands of people without homes. When they are locked out of the council meetings that will decide their fate, residents become activists, attract the attention of international human rights monitors, and take their cause all the way to the highest levels of HUD (Housing and Urban Development Agency) in Washington DC to fight for their basic human right to stay in their homes. Poor and abandoned, but resilient and determined, Sam and a group of ordinary people stage a courageous battle that reminds us of how much home means to us all, and what in life is truly worth fighting for.
.
Crepe Covered Sidewalks
60m | documentary | directed by Reneé Wilson | World Premiere
Thursday | March 18 | 7pm | New Orleans Museum of Art | Filmmaker Present
Crepe Covered Sidewalks is a riveting documentary of singer/actress Renee’ Wilson’s return home to the devastation and desolation of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and the effects the aftermath has on her and her family. Wilson’s feature documentary is a personal narrative – it is both a chronicle of the powerful forces that are shaping the city’s altered landscape, and an intimate memoir of the changes her family has endured and the adjustments they have been forced to make.
It is a story of love, loss and rebirth - a journey through the eyes of an insider, going home after the storm.
.
Daggit Gaza
8m | experimental | directed by Hadeel Assali and Iman Saqr | Regional Premiere
Sunday | March 21 | 4pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center
Daggah is a spicy tomato salad made in Gaza that is traditionally pounded in a mortar and pestle. This short, personal film juxtaposes the making of the salad with a phone conversation with the director’s uncle in Gaza. Literally translated, “Daggit Gazza” means “the pounding of Gaza.”
.
The Fence
35m | documentary | directed by Rory Kennedy | Regional Premiere.
Tuesday | March 16 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center
In October 2006, the United States government decided to build a 700-mile fence along its Mexican border. Three years and 3.1 billion dollars later, its stated goals—containing illegal immigration, cracking down on drug trafficking, and protecting America from terrorists—have unforeseen consequences.
.
.
Freedom Riders
113m | documentary | directed by Stanley Nelson | Regional Premiere
Friday | March 12 | 7pm | Warren Easton Senior High School | Benefit for Junebug Productions
The powerful, harrowing and ultimately inspirational story of eight months in 1961 that changed America forever. From May until December 1961, more than 400 Black and white Americans risked their lives—many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating the Jim Crow laws, the Freedom Riders’ belief in non-violent activism was sorely tested as mob violence and bitter racism greeted them along the way.
Freedom Riders features testimony from a fascinating cast of central characters: the Riders themselves, state and federal government officials, and journalists who witnessed the rides firsthand.
.
Freeing Silvia Baraldini
99m | documentary | directed by Margo Pelletier and Lisa Thomas | Regional Premiere
Saturday | March 20 | 4pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Filmmakers Presente
Freeing Silvia Baraldini records the life of former political prisoner, Silvia Baraldini, who after 15 years as a political activist in the U.S., was arrested by the FBI in 1982 and sentenced to 43 years in prison. Her story reaches into the intimate corners of a fragile alliance of U.S. revolutionaries, African-American, Puerto Rican and white who united in their respect for self-determination. Silvia’s story exemplifies the enduring, human spirit within the resistance movements as well as the repressive measures waged against them by the United States government.
.
Gul
9m | animated experimental | directed by Adnan Hussain | Regional Premiere
Sunday | March 14 | 2pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center
Gul, a young girl, is awakened by her mother’s dying breath. She struggles to recall her past. A child’s view illustrates conflicts between abuse, self determination, human rights, and the environment. Her world manifests through visual poetry. Raw, expressive, painted style computer animation is scored with masterful Sindhi Folk music from the villages of Pakistan. With all that she finds, can love create hope in the face of oppression?
Have You Heard From Johannesburg: The Bottom Line
86m | documentary | directed by Connie Field | Special Preview Screening
Monday | March | 15 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center
.
Housing is a Human Right
Excerpts | Created and produced by Rachel Falcone and Michael Premo | Filmmakers Present
Sunday | March 14 | 3pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center
Housing is a Human Right is an ongoing multimedia documentary portrait of the struggle for Home. The project creates a space for individuals and organizations to record stories, in your own words, of Home, community and ongoing efforts to obtain or maintain a place to call Home. Composed of stories in sound (no video) in the tradition of oral history, photographs and testimonies and memories of home, woven and remixed, this collection of viscerally honest, first-person narratives serves as a reminder that home is as tenuous a space as the shelter that sustains it.
Housing is a Human Right present stories and photographs in public exhibitions & broadcasts via traditional and new media outlets.
.
In Our Own Image: Sex Worker Made Media and the Story of $pread Magazine
19m | documentary | directed by Lisa Davis and J. Kirby | Regional Premiere
Sunday | March 21 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center
What happens when sex workers become not just the subjects of media gaze, but reporters and publishers of sex trade news? This documentary short looks at $pread Magazine, and example of sex worker-made media, and discusses its aim to change the way media itself approaches sex work. In the face of criminalization and stigmatization, sex workers are organizing for their rights, their safety, and their dignity; and creating expressive culture to capture their struggles and movements.
.
Intifada NYC
46m | documentary | directed by David Teague | Regional Premiere
Saturday | March 20 | 2pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center
The opening of the United States’ first Arabic language public school provoked a firestorm of allegations that the school would teach radical Islam or even produce terrorists. As critics and the mainstream media stoked the flames in the climate of post-9/11 America, the controversy forced the school’s Arab-American Muslim principal from her job. “Intifada NYC” follows the principal’s struggle to get her job back, the outcry against the school, and the debate provoked about tolerance and freedom of speech.
.
Land of Opportunity
Excerpts | Directed by Luisa Dantas | Filmmakers Present
Wednesday | March 17 | 8pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center
Six people, one city, our future. As the 5th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches on August 29th, 2010, communities all over the world are struggling to recover from disaster, whether economic, natural or man-made. “Land of Opportunity” a multi-platform documentary project, interweaves the stories of a diverse group of people as they struggle to rebuild New Orleans. From the urban planner to the immigrant worker to the public housing resident, these people hail from different walks of life but share a stake in the rebirth of this beloved city. Through their eyes, we experience the dramatic ups and downs of a massive and unprecedented urban reconstruction process. A brief excerpt of the work-in-progress will be screened; the project will launch in conjunction with the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Co-Sponsored by New Orleans Video Access Center.
.
Leader
35m | documentary | directed by David “Drizz” Rodriguez | Regional Premiere
Saturday | March 20 | 5pm | Warren Easton Senior High School | Filmmaker Present
The denial of civil rights, social problems, war, the prison system, police brutality, politics and the state of economics in communities of color demand an increased call to action. Since the election of the first Black president in America and the national economic recession, many believe that the problems affecting the Black community continue to be pushed aside. Leader examines the lives, legacies and messages of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X through the eyes of modern-day artists, activists, community leaders and elders, hoping to recharge the demand for change. Featuring: Hasan Salaam, Lah Tere of Rebel Diaz, M-1 of Dead Prez, Shaggy, Big Zoo of E.O.W., Immortal Technique, Amanda Diva, Inspectah Deck of Wu Tang Clan, and more.
.
The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg And The Pentagon Papers
92m | documentary | directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith | Academy Award Nominee | Regional Premiere
Sunday | March 14 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center
In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg shook America to its foundations when he smuggled a top-secret Pentagon study to the New York Times that showed how five Presidents consistently lied to the American people about the Vietnam War that was killing millions and tearing America apart. President Nixon’s National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger called Ellsberg “the most dangerous man in America,” who “had to be stopped at all costs.” But Ellsberg wouldn’t be stopped. Facing 115 years in prison on espionage and conspiracy charges, he fought back. Ensuing events surrounding the so-called Pentagon Papers led directly to Watergate and the downfall of President Nixon, and hastened the end of the Vietnam War. Ellsberg’s relentless telling of truth to power, which exposed the secret deeds of an “Imperial Presidency,” inspired Americans of all walks of life to forever question the previously unchallenged pronouncements of their leaders. “The Most Dangerous Man in America” tells the inside story, on film for the first time, of this pivotal event that changed history and transformed our nation’s political discourse. The story is largely told by the players of that dramatic episode—Ellsberg, his colleagues, family and critics; Pentagon Papers authors and government officials; Vietnam veterans and anti-war activists; Watergate principals, attorneys and the journalists who both covered the story and were an integral part of it; and finally—through White House audiotapes—President Nixon and his inner circle of advisors. Co-Sponsored by the ACLU of Louisiana.
.
The Music’s Gonna Get You Through
55m | documentary | directed by Gabrielle Mullem | Sneak Preview
Sunday | March 21 | 2pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Filmmaker Present
The Music’s Gonna Get You Through explores pianist Henry Butler’s impact on a group of blind and visually impaired teens who gather in New Orleans one summer to train with the master at his week long Creative Music and Jazz camp.
Sophisticated and funky, Henry Butler is not only a virtuoso jazz and blues artist, but also a passionate educator, photographer and advocate for disability rights. Drawing on his New Orleans heritage, extensive music study and experience making his way in the world as a blind black man, Henry crafts an eclectic curriculum that encourages his students to take themselves seriously and see the lessons in creating music/art as tools for survival against 60-70% unemployment rate in the visually-challenged community.
.
Operation Small Axe
71m | documentary | directed by Adimu Madyun | World Premiere
Sunday | March 21 | 4pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Filmmaker Present
Operation Small Axe is a documentary centered on Prisoners of Conscience Committee Minister of Information JR and, Block Report Radio show. This film gives an in-depth account of police terrorism and occupation in Oakland, California.
On New Years Day 2009, Oscar Grant was murdered by the police in front of dozens of people at the Fruitvale BART (subway) station in Oakland. Three months later, Lovelle Mixon was murdered after allegedly killing four members of the Oakland Police Department. Two more cases of police unjustifiably murdering citizens were documented in the following weeks. This time instead of the Gaza Strip in the Middle East we’re talking about the MacArthur strip in East Oakland, California. Instead of the occupation force of the Israelis in Palestine or the Americans in Iraq & Afghanistan, the low income Black communities in America are dealing with the police, CIA, FBI, ATF and DEA to name a few.
Operation Small Axe expresses the sentiments of the people regarding government-sanctioned terrorism. Showing the diversity in the resistance, the choice weapon of the operation is citizen journalism. In the words of the internationally renowned artist Bob Marley, ‘If you are a big tree, we are the small axe, sharpened to cut you down.’
.
Out of Our Right Minds: Trauma, Depression, & The Black Woman
20m | documentary | directed by Stacey Muhammad | Regional Premiere
Saturday | March 13 | 5pm | Warren Easton Senior High School | Filmmaker Present
Today, the black woman resiliently stands in the ashes of what appears to have been an African American community. However, the trauma of the slavery experience as well as racial and gender injustice in a racist, patriarchal society has resulted in African American women suffering from a host of emotional disorders that are often left unaddressed. This film explores the horrors of the middle passage and the slavery experience, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, male/female relationships, and a myriad of other issues that have contributed to the pain, suffering and emptiness suffered by black women worldwide.
.
SAIA Carleton Divestment Campaign
7m | campaign trailer | by SAIA-Carleton Divestment Campaign
Monday | March 15 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center
The trailer launching the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign against Apartheid Israel, from the campus of Carleton College in Ontario, Canada. By Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA)-Carleton.
.
Salt of this Sea
108m | fiction | directed by Annemarie Jacir | Regional Premiere
Friday | March 19 | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center | Introduced by Tony Award-winning actor and Def Jam poet Suheir Hammad
Soraya, born in Brooklyn in a working class community of Palestinian refugees, discovers that her grandfather’s savings were frozen in a bank account in Jaffa when he was exiled in 1948. Stubborn, passionate and determined to reclaim what is hers, she fulfills her life-long dream of “returning” to Palestine. Slowly she is taken apart by the reality around her and is forced to confront her own internal anger. She meets Emad, a young Palestinian whose ambition, contrary to hers, is to leave forever. Tired of the constraints that dictate their lives, they know in order to be free, they must take things into their own hands, even if it’s illegal.