2010 Series
The 5th Annual Big Sur International
Short Film Screening Series
Screening Series June 10 – August 19, 2010
2010 Screening Series Schedule
(Note: films marked with ** are all part of the series “Stories on Human Rights.”)
Thursday, June 10
 Kavi
Gregg Helvey, USA/India
Kavi, is about a boy in India who wants to play cricket and go to school, but instead he is forced to work in a brick kiln as a modern-day slave. Unsatisfied with his fate, Kavi must choose to either accept what he’s always been told, or fight for a different life even if he’s unsure of the ultimate outcome.
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 On the Road To Tel Aviv
Khen Shalem, USA
On the Road to Tel-Aviv” is a drama (with comedy elements) that shows how, under the tense reality of war and terror, enemies can sometimes find themselves in the same boat (or in the same bus).
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 The Incident at Tower 37 /
Chris Perry, USA
Tower 37, a shimmering water processing station, siphons every drop of water from a once-pristine lake. The station’s steward monitors the tower’s activities, never realizing that it is slowly destroying an entire ecosystem. But when two unexpected guests arrive, the tower’s operator learns the high cost of his ignorance.
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 Trust **
Runa Islam, U.K./Bangladesh
If a young man falls in the forest…. Who is there to catch us if we can trust no one?
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 Sobras **
Pablo Trapero, Argentina
They could be images of apocalyptic science fiction, could be dissonant sounds or notes, could be Kafkaesque labyrinthine sentences; could be a portrait of our society dumbly celebrating inequality. The bureaucracy of waste.
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 Kus
Joost van Ginkel, Netherlands
Bruno (8) finds it very interesting that his father, Daan (35), routinely wants to shave his beard and head before he leaves on a dangerous military mission in a desert country far away. When Daan offers his son to shave him, Bruno finds it an offer he cannot refuse. |
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Thursday, June 17
 Ella
Hanne Larsen, Norway
A burlesque drama about old, boozed-up Ella, 73, who refuses to take a bath. Ella’s hobby is to drive her home helpers crazy. Neither the municipality nor the home helpers know the real reason Ella won’t take a bath, or that Ella generally does not want to do anything at all that others do.
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 the attack of the robots from nebula-5 /
Chema Garcia Ibarra, Spain
”Almost” everybody is going to die very soon.
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 Diplomacy
Jon Goldman, USA
A wry narrative short film about US-Iran relations.
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 Impasse ** /
Bram Schouw, Netherlands
A young man with a bald, shaved head is staring out the window when an African woman enters the train. He looks at her, but when she looks back, he turns his head away.His heart is bouncing so loud he can almost hear it. Can a new attraction change your persuasion?
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 N’Dimagou ** /
Abderrahmane Sissako, Mauritania
Women, men and children, young and elderly people from modest social background, partly unemployed and sick, are asked to answer the question “What does dignity mean to you?” Sometimes words are not enough.
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 Julie and Her Guys / Fanny Jean-Noël, France
Once upon a time, there was a young woman who believed to have found her prince charming.
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Thursday, June 24
 Don’t Be Afraid of The Dark Room
Kuba Czekaj, Poland
a story of an endless love of an eleven-year-old girl, Lata, to her father. Lata is preparing a song for a school play, organized to celebrate the forthcoming Father’s Day. It makes the girl look more closely at her father than usual.
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 Kunjo
Terrie Samundra, USA/India
Kunjo, a 12-year-old Rajasthani refugee spends her days begging in the streets of a rural Punjab village in North India. When an unlikely friendship blossoms between Kunjo and Preeta, an educated schoolgirl from a higher caste, Kunjo reveals her secret passion for storytelling.
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 Mobile Men **
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand
Two young men in a pickup truck are filming themselves. Belonging to different parts of the world, through the use of a camera they are discovering each other.
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 Glass Ceiling **
Teresa Serrano, Mexico
A man and a woman, both middle-aged & dressed in casual business clothes, climb a wide & high open staircase. At the top of the stairs there is a large glass door leading to the building’s floor of offices. How do you smash the glass ceiling?
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 Heap of Trouble
Steve Sullivan, U.K.
A calm suburban street rudely disturbed by nudity.
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Thursday, July 1
 A Film About Bathing Men
Bengt Bok, Sweden
This is a film about a lot of men and a public bath. A film about the taxi drivers longing for love, the inventor talking about death and about everybody’s need to be surrounded by water.
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 Stanley
Patrick McMahill, USA
What kind of man are you, a family man a lonely man or a Family man?’ Stanley had his answer, he found it quite easily in fact, and was determined to make it a reality. ‘I’m not trying anymore, I’m doing.’ Starring Bill Sage, (Simple Men, American Psycho ) Stanley is released from an institution and attempts to rejoin society with a list of goals he is determined to see through.
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 The Final Match **
Saman Salour, Iran
In a stifling world where soccer isn’t considered ladylike, two enterprising young girls defy oppression and plan a soccer match.
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 Lily and Ra **
Armagan Ballantyne, New Zealand
Ten-year-old mates, Ra and Lily, are playing outside an abandoned factory. When angry young Ra hits a bird with his slingshot, Lily bravely rescues it and enlists it in Ra’s care.
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 Hombre Sencillo
Britt Govea & Brian Ziffer, USA
Hombre Sencillo was shot in full HD in a historic mission town and finds the Hombre Sencillo lost and haunted by his past but ultimately lead towards a new path of redemption. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy stars in this music video produced in association with the new recording: “Be Yourself: A Tribute To Graham Nash’s Songs For Beginners,” released on May 25, 2010.
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Thursday, July 8
 Janek
Piotr J.Lewandowski, Germany
Eleven-year-old Janek is raised under difficult conditions by his single mother. His mother loves him deeply, yet her alcohol addiction and her frequently changing boyfriends are not the ideal preconditions for rearing a child. But Janek doesn’t resign.
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 End of the Rainbow
Laszlo Papas, USA
A bittersweet musical drama set in London centers around a dejected jazz musician who is on the edge.
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 I Drink Your Bathwater **
Pipilotti Rist, Switzerland
“There is a belly lying under the desert / The artery is the earthquake / The wind is my voice / The oil comes from deep inside / I fly over the apple tree / Innocent with a ton of apples in the stomach / I will shit some oil / & swim away through rotten plants.”
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 La Victoire Sur les Sachets **
Sarkis, France/Turkey
Ingenuity is at work in an African community where plastic bags are transformed from garbage into musical instruments.
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 Born Sweet
Cynthia Wade, USA/Cambodia
Arsenic-laced water has poisoned a 15 year old boy from a small, rural village in Cambodia. Selected as the second best film of the year by our Jury
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Thursday, July 15
 Just a Pitch
Eric Raynaud, France
Sanjay, an Indian screenwriter, arrives at Orly Airport in Paris, on his way to sign his first production contract. But Robert, a customs controller, notices that Sanjay’s passport isn’t in order. Robert is not the kind of man to be taken in by tall tales.
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 Madagascar, carnet de voyage
Bastien Dubois, France
Discover Madagascar through the glance of a carnetist. Pages turn and drawings liven up to for us to discover the extraordinary variety of the Red Island, in particular Famadihana, the cult of the reversal of the dead.
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 This Is Alaska
Gunilla Heilborn, Sweden
A play with the need of extreme individualists to belong to a group.
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 A Water Tale **
Francesco Jodice, Italy
An old fisherman tells his young helper magic stories about the sea. The fisher’s net is thrown overboard, but is there really any truth in the old saying about there being plenty of fish in the sea?
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 Black Breakfast **
Jia Zhang-Ke, China
A tourist arrives hoping to see a city full of cultural relics and historic sites. Instead, an endless stream of heavy lorries carrying coal means she has a “black breakfast”, her face as black as those of the locals.
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 True Beauty This Night
Peter Besson, USA
Last night, Rhett Somers met the love of his life. Now all he has to do is convince her she’s the one. Not an easy feat considering how they met…
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Thursday, July 22
 Wagah
Supriyo Sen, Germany/Pakistan/India
Each night the only bordercrossing between India and Pakistan on a 3000km stretch becomes the sight of an extraordinary event. Thousands of people gather to witness the ritual closing of the border, after which the masses get as close as possible to the gate to greet their former neighbours.
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 The Macabre World of Lavender Williams Nick Delgado, USA
Eight year-old Lavender Williams, who recently lost her mother to cancer, sets off on an epic journey to find her Dad, whom she’s never met. Her only companion is Lester, her late pet who’s returned from the grave to help her.
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 Participation **
Jasmila Zbanic, Bosnia
Synopsis: In a silent room three old ladies take their coffee. On their coffee cups there are baroque pictures of young couples chasing each other. Time goes slow when you get older.
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 A Boy a Wall and a Donkey **
Hanu Abu-Assad, Palestine
Three boys want to make a film, but have no camera, so film their scenes in front of a surveillance camera. When an army jeep approaches, they wonder if these are the people who bring them the tape of their movie?
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 A Piece Of Sound Advice
Gilles Charmant, France
Marie and Pierre are an young couple and they’re truly in love. However, in her latest dreams, Mary sees her self in love with other man, a man with an extraordinary flexibility.
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 Fliegen/Fly
Piotr J.lewandowski, Germany
Dima, a petty criminal, is going to be deported from Germany. Meeting young student Sarah who is working on a documentary about young foreigners. He becomes the main subject of the film. Soon enough, Dima and Sarah get emotionally tied up.
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 Las Manos De Abel
Victor Barcena, Spain
Abel, a very little child, arrives to Madrid after his father’s death with his only brother, Mario. The loneliness he is going to experience will force him to make decisions whose traumatic consequences he would have never suspected.
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 Garish Sun **
Charles de Meaux, France
A woman walks through clumsy and cheaply remade buildings of the Renaissance in Italy, an attraction park with remade sights, reading from Romeo and Juliet. This young woman will never see the Italy of Romeo other than in a polyester decoration in this theme park.
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 The Voice **
Sergei Bodrov, Russia
This should be the happiest day of a young couple’s life as they take home a bouncing baby boy; that is until a little bureaucracy gets in the way.
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 5 Recuerdos
Oriana Alcaine and Alejandra Marquez, Spain
Irma walks through a market aisle. She keeps repeating a list of ingredients to herself. One, onion, two, half a kilo of tomatoes, three, a celery stalk, four, fish, and five? She recalls only four of them; the fifth one escapes her mind.
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Thursday, August 5
 Hranice
György Kristóf, Czech Republic
Selling your child.
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 Windows Vista: Predator Edition
Paul Kamuf, USA
A computer error brings together two cogs in the modern macroeconomic machine.
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 Vs.
Ben Bruhmuller, Canada
A stop-motion animated film evoking the sweep of a man’s life through the rounds of a boxing match. Family and personal moments are pulled into focus then disappear as the boxer advances from a young man to a lonely elder. The third place winner of this year’s series.
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 The Empress
Lyle Pisio, Canada
Synopsis: Loneliness, Desire, Love, Hesitation, Miscommunication, Fear, and Loss with a touch of alcoholism for comic relief.
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 The Crossing **
Murali Nair, India
In an Indian village set in a valley bordered by an express highway, a tribal lady on her way back from grazing fields, intends to cross the express way with her herd of cows, but instead ends up crossing over to the other side.
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 La Mangue **
Idrissa Ouédraogo, Burkina Faso
A little girl plants a mango seed and carefully tends her sapling. As a woman, she gives the same nurturing care and love to her child, in the shade of a beautiful mango tree.
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 Des Enfants Dans Les Arbres
Bania Medjbar, France
Karim, seven years old, and Coralie, aged eleven, live with their mother in a estate which overhangs Marseille. Every morning, through the wire netting, they observe far off the prison where their father is imprisoned.
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Thursday, August 12
 Danzak
Gabriela Yepes, Peru
Nina is a 10 year old girl whose life dramatically changes when her father and Scissor Dancer master asks her to fulfill his last wish.
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 Great Expectations
Alexei Gubenco, Romania
A drying handkerchief is tempted by the noble fly of cranes. After much struggle, it escapes and with great courage, it launches out on an adventure beyond its powers.
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 The Painter Of Skies
Jorge Morais Valle, Spain
From the darkness of the lost cliffs, a crazy painter and his faithful assistant try to find a solution for the perpetual storms that are destroying their home. A magic boiler and some tormented ghosts will help them to find the light.
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 What About Me? **
Etgar Keret & Shira Geffen, Israel
An absurd depiction of bureaucracy gone awry. A man and his donkey are separated at a checkpoint; the man doesn’t have the right to pass through… funnily enough, the donkey does.
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 Des Films a Faire **
Dominique Gonzales-Foerster and Ange Leccia, France
Inside one small white room in the “Ligue des Droits de l’Homme” building, a group of people are sit together around a large table to talk about cinema.
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 Porque Hay Cosas Que Nunca Se Olvidan Lucas Figueroa, Spain
Will four friends ever see their beloved soccer ball again when it is confiscated by the mean old lady across the street?
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Thursday, August 19
 Miracle Fish
Luke Doolan, Australia
Eight-year old Joe has a Birthday he will never forget. After friends tease him, he sneaks off to the sick bay, wishing everyone in the world would go away. He wakes up to find his dream may have become a reality.
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 Manon sur le bitume
Elizabeth Marre & Olivier Pont, France
Manon gains a new insight of life while she’s near death
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 Beast
Lars P. Arendt, Denmark
Ten year old Benjamin and his mother, live on an isolated farm, under the violent reign of his father. Mother takes the beating and tries to cover up and keep things normal. But when Benjamin one day witnesses this beating and his suspicions are turned into facts, Benjamin wants his father to apologize to mother for hitting her.The first place winner our of 2010 Big Sur International Short Film Screening Series.
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 Dangerous Games **
Marina Abramovic, Serbia/Netherlands
In a rice field in Asia, children play war, creating armies and using children’s toys, laser weapons, machine guns and helicopters as seen on TV, negotiations and death scenes. How do children succeed where great men have failed before in making peace?
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 Voyage **
Daniela Thomas, Brazil
At dawn a dark-skinned young man carries a long black case. Standing in a crowded bus he makes people uncomfortable, looking at the case, his skin, his concentrated look. The stereotypes we carry with us are not always as they seem.
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 Three-Fifty
Maurice Chauvet, USA
The story of a guy trying to weasel out of his late fees at the local video store. A tale of late fees, privacy rights and just how much information about you is available at the touch of a button.
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