Local 'old time' musicisans, The Moonshiners,
play the street
RRFF Director, Alan Webber welcomes
Winnipeg
filmmaker, Walter Forsberg, to America
Nisha Inalsing ("Huldufólk 102") &
Helen Watkins
("The Clearing")
5 Years of Rural
Route came to a magnificent culmination this July at Anthology Film
Archives in New York City. Another bang-up East Village
festival featured the ever-lovable luxury of free PBR, along
with the delightful new surprise of milk and award-winning cheese
from top notch
food-conscious Organic Valley (another Wisconsin original)!
Filmmaker guests from as far away as Texas, London, and Winnipeg were
relieved
to have a virtually unlimited supply of beer and dairy upon
their arrival. Many also got to take in the live ‘old time’ Appalachian
music of the Moonshiners, who jammed out on their banjos and
fiddles right on the 2nd St. sidewalk before the Appalshop Archival
Hoedown
program.
Global diversity
played a major role in this year’s festival,
with Scandanavia taking center stage. With so many top notch rural films
coming out of this section of the world, how could we resist playing “Popular
Music from Vittula”, set in the northern Lappland section of Sweden
where Rural Route toured earlier in the year, as our opening night feature?
Our special guests from the Consulate General of Sweden (Elisabeth Halvarsson-Stapen,
Amelie Heinsjö, and Ulf Hjertonsson - the Swedish Ambassador himself)
seemed to agree that this poetic coming of age story was a perfect choice.
Other international festival highlights included our Raindance Presents
program via our new friends in England, who put us in touch with the
lovely Nisha Inalsingh (director of Icelandic elf and fairy flick, “Huldufólk
102”) and Helen Watkins (director of Scottish short, “The
Clearing”), both of whom were on hand for Sunday night’s
over-capacity screening. Viewers were also treated to the Post-Peasant
International program, two award-winning films from India and Hungary
curated by (who else?) Rural Route’s Canadian Correspondent, Don
Goodes.
Our “Go Organic!” shorts
program was also a huge hit, and due to a slew of emails already coming
in from all over the place, it
will be an added portion of our touring program this year.
It appears that people are starting to understand that the current
state of agricultural
has gone beyond bad, and they are ready for change. These films
are prime examples to lead the way for something better. Both a refreshing
education in the underhanded ways of unethical farming, and
a role model
by positive sustainable practices through CSAs, Cuban community
efforts, and women in farming, this program is something Rural Route
is truly
proud to have put together.
Of course what would
the RRFF be without some down home entertainment from places
like Texas, Georgia, and the Appalachians? Eric McCowan
was on-hand to receive honors for Best Documentary for “Ruby’s
Town”, his terrific first film about turkey racing in Cuero, Texas.
Another instant classic was Charlene Gilbert’s personal doc, “Homecoming”,
about the history of black land ownership and farming. Time
Out NY’s
pick of the fest was the Appalshop Archival Hoedown, featuring
rare and preserved film and tape footage of legendary old time
musicians playing in personal settings (like Ralph Stanley
and Ricky Skaggs getting’ down
in the back of a pick-up truck).
Our shorts programs
were something else this year as well. Hats off to the state of Montana,
which dominated opening night’s “Montana
and More” shorts program. Then we had some of our most original
themed programs ever – a rural kids show, “Stories of the
Young ‘Uns”, an adrenaline-pumped program featuring tractor
pulls, lawnmower races, and lady truck drivers (“Motor Away”),
and a section about light pollution and sense of home (“Lights
are On, but Nobody’s Home”). All of these intriguing and
highly crafted works have left us with the most high-class
documentary/art film fueled tour line-up ever.
We’re so happy to be doing this and putting together a very special
independent film community. Hats off to this year’s sponsors who
allowed us to keep at it: The Iowa Film Office, New York State Council
on the Arts, Consulate General of Sweden, The National Development Council,
The Nevada Film Office, Experimental Television Center, Post Logic Studios,
the Montana Film Office, Organic Valley, and Pabst Blue Ribbon. And
special thanks to Rooftop Films for our ‘sneak peak’ night
in Williamsburg!
2007 WINNERS Best Documentary – Eric McCowan’s “Ruby’s
Town”
Best Experimental – Miso and Lida Suchý’s “Pictograph”
Best Narrative – Benjamin Gray’s “The Hunter”
Popular
Music from Vittula – NEW YORK PREMIERE! – 35MM
PRINT!
Reza Bagher, 2004, 105 min., narr
Vittula, Lappland, Sweden
Popular Music from Vittula is an eye-opening and drastic story
about two close friends Matti and Niila, growing up in the
mid sixties in a Finnish-speaking part of Tornedalen in Swedish
Laponia, close to the Finnish border. Their big dream is to
become rock stars.
They come of age in an isolated region North of the Arctic
Circle that feels less worthy and has no real national identity,
since they speak neither perfect Swedish nor perfect Finnish
they do not feel like real Swedes or Finns. When they first
hear the Beatles single, Rock and Roll Music, their lives change
forever. The music intoxicates them and becomes a weapon with
which Niila fights for independence from his tyrannically religious
father and reaches for the idea of tangible freedom (climbing
the Himalayas one day). In Vittula, playing music is not considered
masculine, but finally when they are fifteen a new music teacher
helps with their struggle.
An energetic, poetic narrative about growing up, and ultimately
growing apart, in a beautiful, unique rural region in Scandanavia,
Popular Music from Vittula, delivers on dramatic, comedic,
and heartwarming levels. www.sfi.se
The feature presentation will be preceded by Biegga Savkala
Ahte Duoddariid Duohken Lea Soames (The Wind Whispers There
is Someone Behind the Tundra).
Post-Peasant International: the Roots of Rural and Back Again
Program Curated by Rural Route Canadian Correspondent, Don
Goodes
Milk
and Opium – 35mm print!
Joel Palombo, 2006, 83 min., narr
Jaisalmer & Surrounding Villages, Great Thar desert,
India
The Angelmakers
Astrid Bussink, 2005, 34 min., doc
Nagyrev, Hungary Directors
Astrid Bussink and Joel Palombo have brought to life subjects
that make compelling connections between our
contemporary post-modern culture and seemingly distant peasant
worlds. For Palombo the connection is literal. Milk and Opium’s
protagonist, 14-year-old Swaroop, travels from his desert village
in India through the increasingly technologized landscape eventually
ending up in a large urban center. As the landscape changes,
Swaroop’s origins remain constant. His modest material
needs, his sense of time, his sociability, his strength of
character and above all his enchanting traditional Sufi music
help us discern the differences between the two worlds, and
realize there are many things that we desire from his reality.
Milk and Opium ends with a compelling and emblematic image
of how multiple identities can co-exist, creating a hybrid
that honours both the traditional and the contemporary.
The connections between peasant reality and our post-modern
world that Bussink makes in The Angelmakers are more subtle
but equally as powerful. As the elderly residents of a Hungarian
peasant village reveal their stories, there is a transformation
in our perception. Our first reaction is to dismiss these fossilized
babushka-wearing grandmas and bent-over farm-labourer old men,
thinking they might offer us, at best picturesque, at worst
hackneyed stories of their rural existence. But a drama emerges
from these unlikely narrators, one that is both compelling
and troubling to even the most urban savvy viewer. Bussink
succeeds in taking us deep into the intimate world of the rural
peasant, while at the same time connecting us to our own political,
social and cultural interests.
Ruby’s Town – NEW
YORK PREMIERE!
Erik McCowan, 2007, 90 min., doc
Cuero, TX & Worthington, MN When the towns of Worthington, Minnesota and Cuero, Texas
meet each year for the Great Gobbler Gallop, bragging rights
to be called 'Turkey Capital of the World' are on the line.
The annual race rests the pride of both cities on the feathered
wings of its competitors: Paycheck and Ruby Begonia. A history
rooted in turkey farming for both towns have led the communities
to find a natural bond over the some 1100 miles that separate
them. But in Cuero, turkey production may not rule the roost
anymore in this South-Central Texas town, but its lore and
legend has incorporated itself into everything from the annual
festival called Turkeyfest to its championship high school
football team known as the Gobblers. Ruby's Town explores the
current state of turkey affairs, and goes back to the origins
of it all with an event called the Turkey Trot where thousands
of the Thanksgiving birds were herded to town every Fall in
what was the most fun and spectacular live turkey market ever.
www.myspace.com/rubystown
The
feature presentation will be preceded by Little Salsa
on the Prairie trailer & Bright
Eyes’ “Four
Winds” music video.
Q&A
with Texan Erik McCowan following the screening!
Homecoming
Charlene Gilbert, 1999, 57 min., doc
Montezuma, GA In
1920 there were nearly one million black farmers in America;
in
1999 there were less than 18,000. Traveling to her cousin’s
farm in rural Georgia, filmmaker Charlene Gilbert investigates
the social and political implications of African American
land loss in the South. Both an historical examination
and an intimate
look at one rural family, Homecoming documents the tradition
and decline of black farming, and explores the bittersweet
legacy of the land, a symbol of both struggle and survival.
The
feature presentation will be preceded by Rain in the Mountains
trailer & Eric Bachmann’s “Lonesome Warrior” music
video.
Q&A
with filmmakers following the screening.
London’s
Raindance Film Festival Co-Presents Huldufólk 102 & short
film, The Clearing
Huldufólk
102 – NEW YORK PREMIERE!
Nisha Inalsingh, 2006, 74 min., doc
Iceland Set
against the backdrop of Iceland’s breathtaking rural
landscapes, Huldufolk 102 explores the country’s incredible
attitude towards a supernatural phenomenon most of us associate
with Walt Disney, JRR Tolkien and five-year-olds. Entitled,
quite literally, ‘Hidden People 102’, Nisha Inalsingh’s
film debut tackles parallel universes, fairies, elves and all
things three feet tall. Interviews with farmers and academics,
politicians and priests, the young, the old, the superstitious
and the rational, bear testament to the survival of ancient
folkloric traditions in all segments of Icelandic society.
Men in suits talk very seriously about the huldufolk’s
invisible houses inside rocks and stones. The matter is taken
so seriously, in fact, that parliamentarians agree to divert
roads around potentially ‘inhabited’ rocks! It’s
not, the interviewed invariably stress, that everybody believes
in these invisible beings (though 10% of the population do
admit to it), but rather that most refuse to deny the possibility
(80% to be sure). www.huldufolk102.com
The
Clearing – U.S.
Premiere
Helen Watkins, 2006, 10 min., narr
The Argyll Forest, Loch Lomond, Scotland Based on a true story this poetic story follows the journey
of a woman dealing with the break down of a relationship. Photographer
Beth embarks on a long drive back to her hometown in the north
of Scotland. Travelling through the dramatic autumnal landscape
she veers off the beaten track and into the woodlands where
she happens upon a man in a clearing. Beth becomes aware that
he has journeyed there with the intention of taking his own
life. Their chance encounter gives Beth's life a new perspective.
www.myspace.com/helenwatkins
Q&A with both Nisha Inalsingh & Helen
Watkins following the screening!
MONTANA
AND MORE
Is
Montana as rural as it gets? They’ve got the most
entries, owls, and water finders in this top notch shorts program… But
the deep sea divers of Nicaragua, folk artists of the Ukraine,
plastic lawn deer of New York City, techno bunnies of Germany,
and hunting buddies of New York state look to give them a run
for the rural best.
Montana – World
Premiere
Ron Crawford, 2005, 6 min., doc
Central Montana An
easy-going visit with the grandeur and sweep of this vast
spectacular
landscape and its inhabitants large and small as
they start a day, with side looks at history, relics and fauna,
a small town and an afternoon "big sky" rain storm
which results in a delightful visual treat. Director Ron Crawford
also stars in Dancing Ground as the coyote-hunting grandpa
(also in this program) which he was acting in when he made
Montana in the Big Sky State back in ’05.
Master Dowser
Alison Koch and Stefanie Misztal, 2006, 8 min., doc
Bozeman, MT Described by his wife as having an M.D. or 'Master of Dowsing',
Vern Bandy helps local Montanans find water for their houses
and farms. Requiring equal amounts of science and faith, the
ancient practice of dowsing with a forked stick lives on today
in the talents of Vern and his grandchildren.
The Games of These Divers
Moez Solis and Clint Humphrey, 2006, 10 min. segment, doc
Corn Island, Nicaragua Games of These Divers is a fascinating, and often heart-wrenching,
glimpse at the lives of lobster divers in Corn Island, Nicaragua.
Economic necessity requires these men to risk their health,
safety, sometimes their lives, diving to profound depths without
appropriate gear, rest between dives, or medical attention.
I found myself drawn into and moved by the lives and experiences
of these simple, open-hearted people whose existance and culture
is so different from my own. I recommend this film. For more
info. on the 54 min. full length film, see www.thesedivers.com.
Snowies
Elliott Kennerson, 2006, 12 min., doc
Flathead Lake, MT 'Snowies' concerns two young filmmakers' trip to northern
Montana to see an unusually big winter congregation of Snowy
Owls near Flathead Lake.
Dear
Deer – World
Premiere
Alan Webber, 2007, 4.5 min., narrative
New York, NY It’s an alternate take on nature vs. urbanity when a
plastic lawn doe finds itself lost on the gritty streets of
Brooklyn, NY. Survival story, and a folktale of newfound love
- the bewildered deer gets “caught in the headlights” and
hit by an oncoming car while trying to scamper across the street,
but is found by a magical street faerie who nurses it, making
bandages, food and water appear with a magic wand. The doe
regains its health, and wanders back onto sunnier streets,
and can’t believe its eyes when it happens upon something
truly special under the Queensborough Bridge.
Dancing Ground
Tobin Addington, 2006, 14.5 min., narr
Judith Gap, MT Dancing Ground is the story of Tom, a small town sheriff,
who hauls his punk teenage son out across the Montana prairie
in search of the kid's grandfather...who's wandered off on
what used to be their ranch land with a gun. On a day like
today, when anything could happen, Tom might get a chance to
learn what it means to be a father...and a son.
Pictograph – NY
Premiere - 35mm print!
Mišo and Lida Suchý, 2006, 21 min., exp
Kryvorivnya, Ukraine Images
by two artists – color folk drawings and b&w
photography stills – are animated to create a tapestry
weaving together vignettes of life in the village Kryvorivnya
in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine.
Dominik
Eulberg’s Rave Rabbit
Yvette Klein, 2005, 3.5 min., music video
forestry region of Westerwald, Germany A
strange trend is sweeping through the world of minimal techno
music:
an appreciation of nature. For Dominik Eulberg nature
and bird watching take precedence over music, despite his success
in the new critically acclaimed German techno scene that’s
drawing attention from a hip, intellectual crowd world wide. "I
only see myself doing music for a few more years," says
Dominik. "Then I'm going to be a full-time park ranger." www.dominik-eulberg.de
Blood
Ties – World
Premiere
Eugene Lehnert, 2007, 6 min., narr
Sharon Springs, NY A convict on death row turns to his twin brother for help to
clear his name. This experimental narrative puts the convict’s
pieces together in a fascinating way, showing the extremes
he will go to in order to reunited with his one true love.
The
Hunter – 35mm
print!
Benjamin Gray, 2007, 20 min., narr
Highland Forest Park, in Fabius, NY Every
winter Tub hunts with childhood friends Frank and Kenny.
He struggles
to stay by Frank while Kenny calls him every fat-name
in the book: Same as always. But this year something is wrong.
Years’ worth of names burn into his ears. A gunshot rings
out from deep inside a forest, rolling across snow-swept fields,
filling valleys with its rumble. Based on the Tobias Wolff
short story Hunters in the Snow.
STORIES
OF THE YOUNG ‘UNS
The
spotlight’s on rural kids, young folk - riding bikes
and setting up lemonade stands in small towns, lost at the
state fair, a girl searching for her ‘mermaid’ lost
mother, mystic folklore, curses, and adventures with a magic
book. Capping it all off is the heartwarming true story of
a volunteer orphanage in a village in India.
Porch Stories
Marta Renzi, 2006, 7 min. segment, exp
North Adams, MA Porch Stories is a tale told without dialogue; instead, characters
and their relationships are revealed through movement and music.
The action takes place during an afternoon-into-evening in
a neighborhood of adjacent and sometimes intersecting lives,
lived mostly outdoors on porches and stairs. The camera lingers
on everyday movements: the hanging up of clothes, running back
upstairs for a forgotten item, welcoming guests to the party
that includes the whole neighborhood. With a multi-generational
cast of performers, including the ubiquitous boys on bikes
that populate any neighborhood in America, the Scrabble-playing
gay guys from upstairs, and the next door neighbor who has
more than the usual touch of poetry in her soul. For more info.
on the full length 17 min. film, see http://martarenzi.blogspot.com.
Lemonade Stand
John Moore, 2005, 10 min., narr
Wilmington, NC Every
morning is the same. A little boy sets up his lemonade stand
hoping
for business from thirsty passers-by. The only
person to ever pass his way is an old barfly on his way to
the saloon. Despite smiles and fresh juice, he can never break
the old man’s stride.
However, fortune smiles on the kid when one day the old man
finds his beloved watering hole suddenly closed. Witnessing
this new misfortune, the kid quickly concocts a plan to finally
get his first sale. Lemonade Stand is a heartwarming tale of
life’s little lemons and what we make of them.
The
Incredible dissappearing Book– 16mm print! - World
Premiere
Jacob Burckhardt, 1999, 15 min., narr
Washington County, NY This
whimsical 16mm piece features non-professional kid actors
- who keep
turning invisible! Out frog hunting, some kids find
a magic book on a floating raft. The powers of the book are
amazing, but no one can seem to figure out how to control them… Adapted
from a late 1940s Pogo Comics story by obscure but well-loved
writer, Alfrred Darfler, with original music by Marc Ribot.
Agora
Chris Newberry, 2001, 8 min., narr
Minnesota State Fair Separated from her mother, a young girl must find the courage
to help a stranger despite daunting circumstances and bizarre
surroundings. Shot on location at the Minnesota State Fair.
For
a Swim with the Fish – NY Premiere
Tara Autovino, 2006, 9.5 min., narr
Weeki Wachee, FL A
girl, who believes that her ex-‘professional’ mermaid
mother is alive, well, and living 'in the Gulf of Mexico,'
skips school to pay her a birthday visit.
Aurora
and the Sea – NY Premiere
Charlotte Taylor, 2006, 1 min., animation
Iowa City, IA A
girl’s stop motion animation journey to the sea, complete
with paper maché and 3-D rain.
Pandora
Bruce Johnson Jr., 2007, 3.5 min., exp
Covesville, VA Three children embark on a journey to explore a chicken farm
and discover unnoticed treasures. Iowa native Bruce Johnson
teaches in the Media Studies Department at the University of
Virginia.
Iris
Moon – NY
Premiere
Iskra Valtcheva, 2006, 13 min., narr
Austin, TX Iris
Moon is the coming-of-age tale of a young girl raised by
her authoritative
grandmother Maka. The old woman, a spinner
and a weaver, has spun a dark secret around the disappearing
of Iris’s parents. The mystery will be undone at the
annual shadow puppet show that the two women put on for their
gypsy neighbors. Its unraveling has the power to destroy or
liberate. Dream symbols, myth, magic, and archetypal energies
unite to tell a surreal, visually captivating story that will
haunt you like a lucid dream.
Jewel in the Jungle
Barbara Malmet, 2006, 32 min., doc
Uttaranchal, India Profiles an international volunteer project in rural Northern
India that provides a loving home, a thriving school, and a
vital medical clinic to orphans and villagers in an attempt
to give a second chance to those whose fates would be unthinkable
without this nurturing, unique environment. The project was
inspired by a silent yogi named Sri Baba Hari Dass.
GO
ORGANIC!
You
are what you eat…so you’d better start paying
attention to what exactly that is. These films provide a refreshing
education on the current state of agriculture, and point out
positive sustainable and organic practices that you can take
part in. The Meatrix and Frankensteer expose the ways of unethical
farming, while others provide us with role models through CSAs,
Cuban community, sustainable lemon farms, organic choices,
and a new wave of female farmers leading the way.
The
Meatrix I, II, & II 1/2
Louis Fox, 2006, 10 min., animation
New York, NY Our
heroes Moopheus, Leo, and Chickity take the red pill, enabling
them
to see the horrific truth of what’s really
going on with the food we eat today. They wage war on industrial
agriculture, indecent dairy conditions, factory farm pollution,
animal cruelty, and the horrors of meat processing, exposing
the lies our society tells itself, vowing to turn things around.
The Meatrix has been created and produced by Sustainable Table
(www.sustainabletable.org) and Free Range Studios (www.freerangestudios.com).
Frankensteer
Ted Remerowski and Marrin Canell, 2005, 10 min. segment., doc
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada & U.S.A. Frankensteer is a disturbing yet compelling documentary that
reveals how the ordinary cow is being transformed into an antibiotic
dependent, hormone-laced potential carrier of toxic bacteria,
all in the name of cheaper food. Frankensteer reveals some
startling facts. Every year 50% of the total tonnage of antibiotics
used in Canada ends up in livestock. And every year cattle
raised in massive feedlots are routinely dosed with antibiotics
even if they are not sick. For more info. on the full length
48 min. film, see www.bullfrogfilms.com.
Back
to the Land…Again
Gretta Wing Miller, 2006, 20 min., doc
Wisconsin Back
To The Land…Again presents the state of the art
of organic agriculture today by highlighting the work and dedication
of a collection of Wisconsin farmers.
With their beautiful farms as its canvas, and their sustainable
practices as its palette, Back To The Land…Again explores
the emergence of the organic industry and its rising market
share and the implications of the National Organic Standard
for an audience that agrees that eating organically is 'better
for you', but doesn't have full understanding of, or trust
in, the organic label, and demonstrates that organic agriculture
is a means of reversing the decades-long disappearance of the
family farm. For more info. on full length 57 min film, see
http://web.mac.com/milhug/iWeb/BacktotheLand/Again.html.
Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
Faith Morgan, 2006, 20 min. segment, doc
Cuba When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba's economy went
into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half
and food by 80 percent - people were desperate. This film tells
of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and
creativity of the Cuban people. They share how they transitioned
from highly mechanized agriculture to using organic farming
and urban gardens. Cuba, the only country that has faced such
a crisis, is an example of options and hope. For more info.
on full length 54 min. film, see www.communitysolution.org.
Good
Stewarts – NY
Premiere
Dulanie Ellis, 2006, 19 min., doc
Ventura County, CA What is sustainable agriculture? Are strawberries that are
grown organically but shipped 1,500 miles sustainable? Beyond
assuming that it's the farmer's duty to be a good steward of
the land, what role does the consumer or the governmental official
play in ensuring that agriculture remains viable and we maintain
our food security in this country? How can we help our farmers
survive in the global marketplace? Many communities are asking
these questions. Nowhere are these issues more critical than
in Ventura County, California, with some of the richest topsoil
in the world, with the urban pressure of Los Angeles knocking
next door. Good Stewards is a call to action for us all. www.walkyourtalkproductions.com
Ladies
of the Land – WORLD PREMIERE
Megan Thompson, 2006, 29 min., doc
Minnesota, Pennsylvania, NYC Women
are the fastest growing demographic in American agriculture,
and they are doing things differently. While the average
farm
size in the U.S. has grown dramatically over the last 50 years,
women tend to run smaller operations. Many choose organic and
natural methods, in contrast to the highly mechanized and chemically-dependent
farming that dominates the rest of the agricultural industry.
And many women strongly value their relationships with the
community, from selling their products at local markets, to
using their farms as “de facto community centers.” Ladies
of the Land takes us on a journey through America’s new
heartland. www.ladiesofthelandmovie.com
MOTOR AWAY
This
year’s wild ‘n crazy film program w/a little
glitz and a touch of grit. Tractor pulls, lawnmower races,
truck drivin’ ladies, and the lowdown on a Pueblo Indian
casino, plus a girl who dresses her boyfriend up in country
boy farm clothes and drags him through the fields of Minnesota
to fulfill her fantasies…
Sendas Huastecas: Huapangos
John Orentheher, 2005, 3 min. segment, doc
Huasteca Region, Mexico An exploration of the music in the Huasteca region of the
northern Gulf Mountains of Mexico as a form of expression and
economic liberation of its players from traditional field work.
For more info on the 33 min. full length version, email jorentli@syr.edu.
. Horsepower! Tractor Pulling in the American Heartland – NY
Premiere
Cory Byers and Justin Francese, 2005, 7.5 min., doc
Hoyleton, IL On one level, tractor pulling is the most basic of contests
- a rivalry to determine who has the most powerful machine.
However, over 12 classes of vehicles define tractor pulling,
some using thousands of horsepower and multiple jet-fuel driven
engines. They have one purpose - to pull thousands of pounds
300 feet. The pullers that run them are motivated by a love
of adrenaline and a commitment to their rural community. Many
have devoted years and limitless personal funds to the sport.
In this documentary short, one uncle and nephew pulling team,
Dennis and Rodney Schnitker, of Hoyleton, Illinois, describe
the thrill of the pull, explain their thirty-year involvement,
and reveal how they have consistently dominated the Midwest
in their class. www.justinfrancese.com
Feathers and Coins
Ashley Tindall, 2006, 22.5 min., doc
Pojoaque Valley, NM In the rural Pojoaque Valley in northern New Mexico, the Pojoaque
Pueblo Indian casino is one of a dozen casinos stacked along
the interstate between Albuquerque and Taos. The casino is
at once a symbol to the Pueblo of its recent climb out of poverty
and a symbol to its non-Indian neighbors of the devastating
effects of gambling on the social and natural environment.
From the dim, smoke-filled casino to the Pueblo's expanding
resort and golf course in the high desert, Feathers and Coins
examines the complicated landscape of Indian gaming in one
community, leaving us to wonder what has been traded to develop
gaming as a 'quick fix' in the poorest parts of America. www.ashleytindall.com
Long Haul
Erin Hudson, 2006, 22 min., doc
Interstate 40 (MO, KS, NM), Interstate 15 (NV), and Interstate
80 (CA) Barreling along American freeways from behind the wheel of
their big rigs, three women truck drivers share their experience,
humor and insight of driving eighteen-wheelers for a living.
This short documentary enriches and challenges every preconceived
notion of truck driving, while it seeks to understand what
is gained and what is lost as a woman, a mother, and a trucker
on the open road. www.rotationfilms.com
Oxymandias – NY
Premiere
John Cantine, 2003, 4.5 min., exp
Apollo, PA “Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!” The
conception of this piece – equating the Shelley poem
on time as the great leveler with the effects of a lawn tractor – is
exactly the kind of thing that happens when you have 4 acres
of lawn and a 42” mower. Too much time to think, too
many exhaust fumes.
Wanderlust
2: Thunder on the Track – NY Premiere
Walter Forsberg, 2004, 5 min., doc
Creelman, Saskatchewan, Canada Inspired by 1990s stock car crash videos, this micro-documentary
gives a glance into the sensational Saskatchewan Lawnmower
Racing Circuit. In the hallowed Winnipeg tradition of image
degradation, this work demeans cinematic imagery into a bygone
videoscopic era of the movies. www.winnipegfilmgroup.com
The Spawn of Pickerel Ron
Mike Maryniuk, 2003, 6 min., exp
Red River, Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada Trouble
is on the menu at the Selkirk spring buffet when giant pickerel
caviar is the main course. Hand-processed and tinted.
www.winnipegfilmgroup.com
Mr.
Extion
Barry Battles and Griffin Hood, 2006, 11 min., narr
Jemison, AL Two life long friends and aspiring filmmakers find that developing
an original idea, with no budget, is hard to pull off...especially
down South. Through the span of a day, the two reveal their
true feelings on film, stereotypes, race, and each other. www.mrextionmovie.com
Country
Doll – WORLD PREMIERE!
Christopher Arcella, 2007, 30 min., narr
Minneapolis and Chaska, MN Country
Doll is a Minnesota story about young love and the confusion
thereof. A boy meets a girl in Minneapolis who dresses
him up in ‘hip’ trucker cap and rural clothes,
and drags him helplessly along a foggy path through the surrounding
farmlands in an attempt to fulfill her country boy fantasies.
www.christopherarcella.com
LIGHTS ARE ON, BUT NOBODY'S HOME...
A
reflection on home and light (or lack thereof). Filmmakers
take a closer
look at where they’re coming from in personal
docs “29 Places…”, “Cousin Kasyte”,
and “The Whisperer”. These journeys take us through
the Southeast U.S. to Lithuania and the Ukraine, and provide
us with some pretty surprising results. “In the Glow” and “Alice
Sees the Light” squint in on the topic of natural darkness
and the difficulty of finding it, even in a rural setting.
Where
You are is Not Where You are Going – NY Premiere
Jennifer Hardacker, 2006, 3 min., exp
Ann Arbor, MI This
short animation is a representation of the many places one
can
long for. Where You are… suggests a conflict
of the best place to be: the open roads of the country, or
the city vistas. The grass is truly always greener on the other
side….or is there no place like home?
29
Places I Once Called Home – NY Premiere
Shannon Silva, 2006, 20 min, exp
East Coast Motels & Trailer Parks, San Marcos, Texas This 20-minute, experimental documentary utilizes super 8mm
and 16mm footage along with family interviews to explore the
multi-layered connections between poverty, frequent relocation,
substance abuse, family violence and memory instability. Through
the well-intentioned, but still unreliable, voices of those
closest to her as a child, the filmmaker attempts to wrangle
a 'truth', any 'truth', out of their stories in hopes of supplementing
her spotty memories and thus finding a way to finally own the
elusive story of her childhood.
Cousin Kasyte
Stashu Kybartas, 2006, 28.5 min., doc
Ruškeliai, Lithuania Stashu
Kybartas visits Lithuania in search of the village where
his grandfather
was born. Although the fall of the Soviet
Union allows the filmmaker to cross borders and search for
origins, not having the usual guideposts of connections and
remembered clues from the family makes this a strange and alienating
odyssey. After it takes him months to access Lithuanian government
records, it is wildly surprising that he finds his father’s
cousin, Kasyte Pukevicine, someone who is not only related
by blood, but someone whose temperament and view of life strike
a chord within his own inner-self.
By Starlite
Antony Cherian, 2007, 13.5 min., doc
Beeville, TX Like many South Asians, J.R. Lal makes his living running
a roadside motel in rural America. In this documentary, J.R.,
the manager of the Starlite Motel in Beeville, near the Texas
Gulf Coast, forms an unlikely bond with Melissa Cueva, a guest
at the motel who has fallen on hard times. With Christmas around
the corner, J.R. and Melissa talk about family, the holidays
and the struggle to make ends meet.
In
The Glow – NY
Premiere
Stewart Copeland, 2006, 8 min., exp
Interstates and highways between St. Louis, MO and Tullahoma,
TN Part
personal film, part pseudo-scientific study and part observational
essay, Copeland’s brief film explores the
banal (yet strangely beautiful) world of blank billboards.
www.gohomefatboy.com
Alice Sees the Light
Ariana Gerstein, 2006, 6 min., exp
Owego and Barton, NY Alice
laments the loss of her view of the universe, one of her
initial
reasons for living in the country. The change in
her environment is the result of “security lighting” for
a large corporate storage facility.
The Whisperer
Andrea Odezynska, 2005, 30 min., doc
Utoropy, Ukraine Andrea,
a Ukrainian-American, hopes to escape the stresses of city
life by embarking on a journey to the land of her ancestors.
Accompanying a group of women on an excursion, she enters the
village of Utoropy. Sensitive cinematography reveals the magic
of a culture deeply connected to the earth that still exists
in rural Western Ukraine. Elderly women sing ancient songs
as a wedding procession follows the dirt path from the church.
Andrea meets Baba Anna, a traditional healer who uses natural
remedies and whispered incantations to cure ailments. Andrea
is skeptical at first, but astounded by Baba Anna’s insight
into her troubles. Wax is spilled onto water, negative energies
banished through the wall, and Andrea leaves with a gift that
transforms her life forever.
APPALSHOP ARCHIVES' OLD TIME HOEDOWN
Our
friends at Kentucky’s Appalshop have dug up a few
recently preserved musical gems from their collection. The
program will feature Nimrod Workman: To Fit My Own Category,
a documentary film about the "singing coalminer," as
well as the short video Whoa Mule with musician Lee Sexton,
and rare performance footage of mater banjoist Ralph Stanley
and his band (featuring Keith Whitley and Ricky Skaggs playing
with him in the back of a pick-up truck in the early 1970s
for the opening of a new department store). Live ‘old-time’ music
from Brooklyn’s Moonshiners before the program!
Whoa Mule
Herb E. Smith, 1989, 3 min., doc
Blackey, KY The title song of banjo master Lee Sexton's solo album is
featured in this music video--one of the first and only traditional
music videos to play on the country music cable channels. The
video features scenes of Sexton behind a mule-drawn plow, tending
to his three-acre garden in rural Linefork, Kentucky, and a
performance of the Lee Sexton Band (which includes the spectacular
fiddling of the late Marion Sumner) at a square dance at the
Blackey Senior Citizens Center.
Ralph
Stanley & the
Clinch Mountain Boys
Found Footage, 1972, 10 min., doc
Pound, VA This
footage is believed to be the only extant video of what many
consider
to be the best Clinch Mountain Boys line-up:
teenaged Keith Whitley and Ricky Scaggs, Curly Ray Cline, Jack
Cooke and Roy Lee Centers. Centers, whose vocals bore an uncanny
resemblance to those of Ralph's deceased brother Carter, was
shot to death by a woman's jealous husband two years after
this performance in 1974. This video, shot on now-obsolete ½-inch
open reel tape, was retrieved from a dumpster by an Appalshop
filmmaker in the early 1980s, and was recently preserved by
the Appalshop Archive through a grant from the National Television
and Video Preservation Foundation.
Nimrod
Workman: To Fit My Own Category – brand new 16mm
print!
Scott Faulkner and Anthony Slone, 1975, 35 min., doc
Chattaroy, Mingo County, WV Born
in 1895 in the hills of eastern Kentucky, Nimrod entered
the
mines at age 14 and in the early 1920s worked alongside
Mother Jones in West Virginia, and participated in the Battle
of Blair Mountain uprising. Forced to retire decades later
due to black lung disease, he continued to sing at folk festivals
and made appearances in the films Coal Miner's Daughter and
Harlan County U.S.A. In 1986 he received the National Endowment
for the Art's National Heritage Award in recognition of his
ballad singing and musical repertoire. To Fit My Own Category
is an intimate portrait of Nimrod and his wife Molly, who sang
and performed together in later years. Nimrod reminisces about
coalmining, union organizing, and his eighty-three years in
the mountains, inter-cut with impromptu performances of ballads,
including his own "Coal Black Mining Blues" and "Watergate
Boogie."
Popular Music from Vittula is an eye-opening and drastic story
about two close friends Matti and Niila, growing up in the
mid sixties in a Finnish-speaking part of Tornedalen in Swedish
Laponia, close to the Finnish border. Their big dream is to
become rock stars. 
Directors
Astrid Bussink and Joel Palombo have brought to life subjects
that make compelling connections between our
contemporary post-modern culture and seemingly distant peasant
worlds. For Palombo the connection is literal. Milk and Opium’s
protagonist, 14-year-old Swaroop, travels from his desert village
in India through the increasingly technologized landscape eventually
ending up in a large urban center. As the landscape changes,
Swaroop’s origins remain constant. His modest material
needs, his sense of time, his sociability, his strength of
character and above all his enchanting traditional Sufi music
help us discern the differences between the two worlds, and
realize there are many things that we desire from his reality.
Milk and Opium ends with a compelling and emblematic image
of how multiple identities can co-exist, creating a hybrid
that honours both the traditional and the contemporary.
The connections between peasant reality and our post-modern
world that Bussink makes in The Angelmakers are more subtle
but equally as powerful. As the elderly residents of a Hungarian
peasant village reveal their stories, there is a transformation
in our perception. Our first reaction is to dismiss these fossilized
babushka-wearing grandmas and bent-over farm-labourer old men,
thinking they might offer us, at best picturesque, at worst
hackneyed stories of their rural existence. But a drama emerges
from these unlikely narrators, one that is both compelling
and troubling to even the most urban savvy viewer. Bussink
succeeds in taking us deep into the intimate world of the rural
peasant, while at the same time connecting us to our own political,
social and cultural interests.
When the towns of Worthington, Minnesota and Cuero, Texas
meet each year for the Great Gobbler Gallop, bragging rights
to be called 'Turkey Capital of the World' are on the line.
The annual race rests the pride of both cities on the feathered
wings of its competitors: Paycheck and Ruby Begonia. A history
rooted in turkey farming for both towns have led the communities
to find a natural bond over the some 1100 miles that separate
them. But in Cuero, turkey production may not rule the roost
anymore in this South-Central Texas town, but its lore and
legend has incorporated itself into everything from the annual
festival called Turkeyfest to its championship high school
football team known as the Gobblers. Ruby's Town explores the
current state of turkey affairs, and goes back to the origins
of it all with an event called the Turkey Trot where thousands
of the Thanksgiving birds were herded to town every Fall in
what was the most fun and spectacular live turkey market ever.
www.myspace.com/rubystown
In
1920 there were nearly one million black farmers in America;
in
1999 there were less than 18,000. Traveling to her cousin’s
farm in rural Georgia, filmmaker Charlene Gilbert investigates
the social and political implications of African American
land loss in the South. Both an historical examination
and an intimate
look at one rural family, Homecoming documents the tradition
and decline of black farming, and explores the bittersweet
legacy of the land, a symbol of both struggle and survival.
Set
against the backdrop of Iceland’s breathtaking rural
landscapes, Huldufolk 102 explores the country’s incredible
attitude towards a supernatural phenomenon most of us associate
with Walt Disney, JRR Tolkien and five-year-olds. Entitled,
quite literally, ‘Hidden People 102’, Nisha Inalsingh’s
film debut tackles parallel universes, fairies, elves and all
things three feet tall. Interviews with farmers and academics,
politicians and priests, the young, the old, the superstitious
and the rational, bear testament to the survival of ancient
folkloric traditions in all segments of Icelandic society.
Men in suits talk very seriously about the huldufolk’s
invisible houses inside rocks and stones. The matter is taken
so seriously, in fact, that parliamentarians agree to divert
roads around potentially ‘inhabited’ rocks! It’s
not, the interviewed invariably stress, that everybody believes
in these invisible beings (though 10% of the population do
admit to it), but rather that most refuse to deny the possibility
(80% to be sure). www.huldufolk102.com
Based on a true story this poetic story follows the journey
of a woman dealing with the break down of a relationship. Photographer
Beth embarks on a long drive back to her hometown in the north
of Scotland. Travelling through the dramatic autumnal landscape
she veers off the beaten track and into the woodlands where
she happens upon a man in a clearing. Beth becomes aware that
he has journeyed there with the intention of taking his own
life. Their chance encounter gives Beth's life a new perspective.
www.myspace.com/helenwatkins
An
easy-going visit with the grandeur and sweep of this vast
spectacular
landscape and its inhabitants large and small as
they start a day, with side looks at history, relics and fauna,
a small town and an afternoon "big sky" rain storm
which results in a delightful visual treat. Director Ron Crawford
also stars in Dancing Ground as the coyote-hunting grandpa
(also in this program) which he was acting in when he made
Montana in the Big Sky State back in ’05.
Described by his wife as having an M.D. or 'Master of Dowsing',
Vern Bandy helps local Montanans find water for their houses
and farms. Requiring equal amounts of science and faith, the
ancient practice of dowsing with a forked stick lives on today
in the talents of Vern and his grandchildren.
Games of These Divers is a fascinating, and often heart-wrenching,
glimpse at the lives of lobster divers in Corn Island, Nicaragua.
Economic necessity requires these men to risk their health,
safety, sometimes their lives, diving to profound depths without
appropriate gear, rest between dives, or medical attention.
I found myself drawn into and moved by the lives and experiences
of these simple, open-hearted people whose existance and culture
is so different from my own. I recommend this film. For more
info. on the 54 min. full length film, see www.thesedivers.com.
'Snowies' concerns two young filmmakers' trip to northern
Montana to see an unusually big winter congregation of Snowy
Owls near Flathead Lake.
It’s an alternate take on nature vs. urbanity when a
plastic lawn doe finds itself lost on the gritty streets of
Brooklyn, NY. Survival story, and a folktale of newfound love
- the bewildered deer gets “caught in the headlights” and
hit by an oncoming car while trying to scamper across the street,
but is found by a magical street faerie who nurses it, making
bandages, food and water appear with a magic wand. The doe
regains its health, and wanders back onto sunnier streets,
and can’t believe its eyes when it happens upon something
truly special under the Queensborough Bridge.
Dancing Ground is the story of Tom, a small town sheriff,
who hauls his punk teenage son out across the Montana prairie
in search of the kid's grandfather...who's wandered off on
what used to be their ranch land with a gun. On a day like
today, when anything could happen, Tom might get a chance to
learn what it means to be a father...and a son. 
Images
by two artists – color folk drawings and b&w
photography stills – are animated to create a tapestry
weaving together vignettes of life in the village Kryvorivnya
in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine. 
A
strange trend is sweeping through the world of minimal techno
music:
an appreciation of nature. For Dominik Eulberg nature
and bird watching take precedence over music, despite his success
in the new critically acclaimed German techno scene that’s
drawing attention from a hip, intellectual crowd world wide. "I
only see myself doing music for a few more years," says
Dominik. "Then I'm going to be a full-time park ranger." www.dominik-eulberg.de
A convict on death row turns to his twin brother for help to
clear his name. This experimental narrative puts the convict’s
pieces together in a fascinating way, showing the extremes
he will go to in order to reunited with his one true love.
Every
winter Tub hunts with childhood friends Frank and Kenny.
He struggles
to stay by Frank while Kenny calls him every fat-name
in the book: Same as always. But this year something is wrong.
Years’ worth of names burn into his ears. A gunshot rings
out from deep inside a forest, rolling across snow-swept fields,
filling valleys with its rumble. Based on the Tobias Wolff
short story Hunters in the Snow.
Porch Stories is a tale told without dialogue; instead, characters
and their relationships are revealed through movement and music.
The action takes place during an afternoon-into-evening in
a neighborhood of adjacent and sometimes intersecting lives,
lived mostly outdoors on porches and stairs. The camera lingers
on everyday movements: the hanging up of clothes, running back
upstairs for a forgotten item, welcoming guests to the party
that includes the whole neighborhood. With a multi-generational
cast of performers, including the ubiquitous boys on bikes
that populate any neighborhood in America, the Scrabble-playing
gay guys from upstairs, and the next door neighbor who has
more than the usual touch of poetry in her soul. For more info.
on the full length 17 min. film, see http://martarenzi.blogspot.com. 
Every
morning is the same. A little boy sets up his lemonade stand
hoping
for business from thirsty passers-by. The only
person to ever pass his way is an old barfly on his way to
the saloon. Despite smiles and fresh juice, he can never break
the old man’s stride. 
This
whimsical 16mm piece features non-professional kid actors
- who keep
turning invisible! Out frog hunting, some kids find
a magic book on a floating raft. The powers of the book are
amazing, but no one can seem to figure out how to control them… Adapted
from a late 1940s Pogo Comics story by obscure but well-loved
writer, Alfrred Darfler, with original music by Marc Ribot. 
Separated from her mother, a young girl must find the courage
to help a stranger despite daunting circumstances and bizarre
surroundings. Shot on location at the Minnesota State Fair.
A
girl, who believes that her ex-‘professional’ mermaid
mother is alive, well, and living 'in the Gulf of Mexico,'
skips school to pay her a birthday visit.
A
girl’s stop motion animation journey to the sea, complete
with paper maché and 3-D rain.
Three children embark on a journey to explore a chicken farm
and discover unnoticed treasures. Iowa native Bruce Johnson
teaches in the Media Studies Department at the University of
Virginia.
Iris
Moon is the coming-of-age tale of a young girl raised by
her authoritative
grandmother Maka. The old woman, a spinner
and a weaver, has spun a dark secret around the disappearing
of Iris’s parents. The mystery will be undone at the
annual shadow puppet show that the two women put on for their
gypsy neighbors. Its unraveling has the power to destroy or
liberate. Dream symbols, myth, magic, and archetypal energies
unite to tell a surreal, visually captivating story that will
haunt you like a lucid dream.
Profiles an international volunteer project in rural Northern
India that provides a loving home, a thriving school, and a
vital medical clinic to orphans and villagers in an attempt
to give a second chance to those whose fates would be unthinkable
without this nurturing, unique environment. The project was
inspired by a silent yogi named Sri Baba Hari Dass.
Our
heroes Moopheus, Leo, and Chickity take the red pill, enabling
them
to see the horrific truth of what’s really
going on with the food we eat today. They wage war on industrial
agriculture, indecent dairy conditions, factory farm pollution,
animal cruelty, and the horrors of meat processing, exposing
the lies our society tells itself, vowing to turn things around.
The Meatrix has been created and produced by Sustainable Table
(www.sustainabletable.org) and Free Range Studios (www.freerangestudios.com). 
Frankensteer is a disturbing yet compelling documentary that
reveals how the ordinary cow is being transformed into an antibiotic
dependent, hormone-laced potential carrier of toxic bacteria,
all in the name of cheaper food. Frankensteer reveals some
startling facts. Every year 50% of the total tonnage of antibiotics
used in Canada ends up in livestock. And every year cattle
raised in massive feedlots are routinely dosed with antibiotics
even if they are not sick. For more info. on the full length
48 min. film, see www.bullfrogfilms.com.
Back
To The Land…Again presents the state of the art
of organic agriculture today by highlighting the work and dedication
of a collection of Wisconsin farmers.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba's economy went
into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half
and food by 80 percent - people were desperate. This film tells
of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and
creativity of the Cuban people. They share how they transitioned
from highly mechanized agriculture to using organic farming
and urban gardens. Cuba, the only country that has faced such
a crisis, is an example of options and hope. For more info.
on full length 54 min. film, see www.communitysolution.org.
What is sustainable agriculture? Are strawberries that are
grown organically but shipped 1,500 miles sustainable? Beyond
assuming that it's the farmer's duty to be a good steward of
the land, what role does the consumer or the governmental official
play in ensuring that agriculture remains viable and we maintain
our food security in this country? How can we help our farmers
survive in the global marketplace? Many communities are asking
these questions. Nowhere are these issues more critical than
in Ventura County, California, with some of the richest topsoil
in the world, with the urban pressure of Los Angeles knocking
next door. Good Stewards is a call to action for us all. www.walkyourtalkproductions.com
Women
are the fastest growing demographic in American agriculture,
and they are doing things differently. While the average
farm
size in the U.S. has grown dramatically over the last 50 years,
women tend to run smaller operations. Many choose organic and
natural methods, in contrast to the highly mechanized and chemically-dependent
farming that dominates the rest of the agricultural industry.
And many women strongly value their relationships with the
community, from selling their products at local markets, to
using their farms as “de facto community centers.” Ladies
of the Land takes us on a journey through America’s new
heartland. www.ladiesofthelandmovie.com
An exploration of the music in the Huasteca region of the
northern Gulf Mountains of Mexico as a form of expression and
economic liberation of its players from traditional field work.
For more info on the 33 min. full length version, email 
On one level, tractor pulling is the most basic of contests
- a rivalry to determine who has the most powerful machine.
However, over 12 classes of vehicles define tractor pulling,
some using thousands of horsepower and multiple jet-fuel driven
engines. They have one purpose - to pull thousands of pounds
300 feet. The pullers that run them are motivated by a love
of adrenaline and a commitment to their rural community. Many
have devoted years and limitless personal funds to the sport.
In this documentary short, one uncle and nephew pulling team,
Dennis and Rodney Schnitker, of Hoyleton, Illinois, describe
the thrill of the pull, explain their thirty-year involvement,
and reveal how they have consistently dominated the Midwest
in their class. www.justinfrancese.com
In the rural Pojoaque Valley in northern New Mexico, the Pojoaque
Pueblo Indian casino is one of a dozen casinos stacked along
the interstate between Albuquerque and Taos. The casino is
at once a symbol to the Pueblo of its recent climb out of poverty
and a symbol to its non-Indian neighbors of the devastating
effects of gambling on the social and natural environment.
From the dim, smoke-filled casino to the Pueblo's expanding
resort and golf course in the high desert, Feathers and Coins
examines the complicated landscape of Indian gaming in one
community, leaving us to wonder what has been traded to develop
gaming as a 'quick fix' in the poorest parts of America. www.ashleytindall.com
Barreling along American freeways from behind the wheel of
their big rigs, three women truck drivers share their experience,
humor and insight of driving eighteen-wheelers for a living.
This short documentary enriches and challenges every preconceived
notion of truck driving, while it seeks to understand what
is gained and what is lost as a woman, a mother, and a trucker
on the open road. www.rotationfilms.com
“Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!” The
conception of this piece – equating the Shelley poem
on time as the great leveler with the effects of a lawn tractor – is
exactly the kind of thing that happens when you have 4 acres
of lawn and a 42” mower. Too much time to think, too
many exhaust fumes.
Trouble
is on the menu at the Selkirk spring buffet when giant pickerel
caviar is the main course. Hand-processed and tinted.
www.winnipegfilmgroup.com
Two life long friends and aspiring filmmakers find that developing
an original idea, with no budget, is hard to pull off...especially
down South. Through the span of a day, the two reveal their
true feelings on film, stereotypes, race, and each other. www.mrextionmovie.com
Country
Doll is a Minnesota story about young love and the confusion
thereof. A boy meets a girl in Minneapolis who dresses
him up in ‘hip’ trucker cap and rural clothes,
and drags him helplessly along a foggy path through the surrounding
farmlands in an attempt to fulfill her country boy fantasies.
www.christopherarcella.com
This
short animation is a representation of the many places one
can
long for. Where You are… suggests a conflict
of the best place to be: the open roads of the country, or
the city vistas. The grass is truly always greener on the other
side….or is there no place like home?
This 20-minute, experimental documentary utilizes super 8mm
and 16mm footage along with family interviews to explore the
multi-layered connections between poverty, frequent relocation,
substance abuse, family violence and memory instability. Through
the well-intentioned, but still unreliable, voices of those
closest to her as a child, the filmmaker attempts to wrangle
a 'truth', any 'truth', out of their stories in hopes of supplementing
her spotty memories and thus finding a way to finally own the
elusive story of her childhood.
Stashu
Kybartas visits Lithuania in search of the village where
his grandfather
was born. Although the fall of the Soviet
Union allows the filmmaker to cross borders and search for
origins, not having the usual guideposts of connections and
remembered clues from the family makes this a strange and alienating
odyssey. After it takes him months to access Lithuanian government
records, it is wildly surprising that he finds his father’s
cousin, Kasyte Pukevicine, someone who is not only related
by blood, but someone whose temperament and view of life strike
a chord within his own inner-self.
Like many South Asians, J.R. Lal makes his living running
a roadside motel in rural America. In this documentary, J.R.,
the manager of the Starlite Motel in Beeville, near the Texas
Gulf Coast, forms an unlikely bond with Melissa Cueva, a guest
at the motel who has fallen on hard times. With Christmas around
the corner, J.R. and Melissa talk about family, the holidays
and the struggle to make ends meet. 
Part
personal film, part pseudo-scientific study and part observational
essay, Copeland’s brief film explores the
banal (yet strangely beautiful) world of blank billboards.
www.gohomefatboy.com
Alice
laments the loss of her view of the universe, one of her
initial
reasons for living in the country. The change in
her environment is the result of “security lighting” for
a large corporate storage facility. 
Andrea,
a Ukrainian-American, hopes to escape the stresses of city
life by embarking on a journey to the land of her ancestors.
Accompanying a group of women on an excursion, she enters the
village of Utoropy. Sensitive cinematography reveals the magic
of a culture deeply connected to the earth that still exists
in rural Western Ukraine. Elderly women sing ancient songs
as a wedding procession follows the dirt path from the church.
Andrea meets Baba Anna, a traditional healer who uses natural
remedies and whispered incantations to cure ailments. Andrea
is skeptical at first, but astounded by Baba Anna’s insight
into her troubles. Wax is spilled onto water, negative energies
banished through the wall, and Andrea leaves with a gift that
transforms her life forever. 
The title song of banjo master Lee Sexton's solo album is
featured in this music video--one of the first and only traditional
music videos to play on the country music cable channels. The
video features scenes of Sexton behind a mule-drawn plow, tending
to his three-acre garden in rural Linefork, Kentucky, and a
performance of the Lee Sexton Band (which includes the spectacular
fiddling of the late Marion Sumner) at a square dance at the
Blackey Senior Citizens Center.
This
footage is believed to be the only extant video of what many
consider
to be the best Clinch Mountain Boys line-up:
teenaged Keith Whitley and Ricky Scaggs, Curly Ray Cline, Jack
Cooke and Roy Lee Centers. Centers, whose vocals bore an uncanny
resemblance to those of Ralph's deceased brother Carter, was
shot to death by a woman's jealous husband two years after
this performance in 1974. This video, shot on now-obsolete ½-inch
open reel tape, was retrieved from a dumpster by an Appalshop
filmmaker in the early 1980s, and was recently preserved by
the Appalshop Archive through a grant from the National Television
and Video Preservation Foundation.
Born
in 1895 in the hills of eastern Kentucky, Nimrod entered
the
mines at age 14 and in the early 1920s worked alongside
Mother Jones in West Virginia, and participated in the Battle
of Blair Mountain uprising. Forced to retire decades later
due to black lung disease, he continued to sing at folk festivals
and made appearances in the films Coal Miner's Daughter and
Harlan County U.S.A. In 1986 he received the National Endowment
for the Art's National Heritage Award in recognition of his
ballad singing and musical repertoire. To Fit My Own Category
is an intimate portrait of Nimrod and his wife Molly, who sang
and performed together in later years. Nimrod reminisces about
coalmining, union organizing, and his eighty-three years in
the mountains, inter-cut with impromptu performances of ballads,
including his own "Coal Black Mining Blues" and "Watergate
Boogie."