ALPHABETICAL DESCRIPTION OF FILMS

The following alphabetical listing gives a brief description and presentation time of each offering included in this year's Film Festival. All films will be shown in the Oak Creek Room. All information provided in the listing is for DVDs and does not include shipping charges, if any. All presentations will be shown in groups according to content area as indicated in the film schedule for each day (given at the beginning of each day's activities within the daily program). Notably, a special Encore! Presentation of last year's Film Festival winners will take place Thursday evening. Last year's winning films are so noted in the alphabetical listing below. A more complete description of each film will be available for your inspection in the screening room, and free brochures also will be available for most of the films. The names and addresses of participating film distributors are provided immediately following the present listing.

...SILENCED (15 mins)
Thursday 11:35 a.m.
Through the devastating recollections of a victim, Tsimong boldly ventures into the subject of male rape that continues to be shrouded in taboo and stigma in African society. Available for purchase only as part of a compilation entitled "4 More: Out in Af
Frameline    (2005, DVD)
Rental Price: Contact Frameline for rental rates
Purchase Price: $150 (entire compilation)

A DEATHLY SILENCE: A TEEN'S SUICIDE (43 mins)
Friday 10:30 a.m.
This powerful film examines the intellectual attraction of suicide to a vulnerable teen and the catastrophic impact on his family.
Filmakers Library    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $85
Purchase Price: $295

AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR (20 mins)
Thursday 12:30 p.m.
The incidence of grandparents raising their grandchildren as primary caregivers has increased 30 percent since 2000. This film depicts such a situation as we see the daily life of a frail 77-year-old grandmother who is raising four grandsons aged 5-8.
Filmakers Library    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $50
Purchase Price: $195

ANGELA'S JOURNEY (49 mins)
Saturday 11:30 a.m.
Angela is a bright, attractive young mother with two small children, and terminal breast cancer. This candid, compelling documentary follows Angela as she visits her physician and explores treatment options, while dealing with issues of body image, loneli
Fanlight Productions    (2005, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $60/day
Purchase Price: $199 DVD or VHS

BEAUTY DOES LIE: THE UNTOLD STORIES OF AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES (46 mins)
Saturday 4:30 p.m.
Approximately 15 million Americans live with chronic, debilitating autoimmune diseases; about 75 percent are women. In this film seven African American women who are living with lupus, multiple sclerosis, Sjšgren's syndrome, pernicious anemia, and myasthe
Fanlight Productions    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $60/day
Purchase Price: $229 DVD, $199 VHS

BLACK DAWN: THE NEXT PANDEMIC (52 mins)
Saturday 5:15 p.m.
We seem to have escaped the threat of a global bird flu pandemic, but what about next time? This gripping docudrama, based on scientific reality, imagines what it would be like if it actually happens. Many experts predict that such a pandemic will occur,
Fanlight Productions    (2006, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $60/day
Purchase Price: $199 DVD or VHS

BODY & SOUL: DIANA & KATHY (40 mins)
Saturday 6:30 p.m.
Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy is a rare look at an unusual, intimate, and funny relationship between two people some would call profoundly disabled. They are two of the country's most remarkable advocates for all people with disabilities, and have modeled a
Welcome Change Productions    (2007, DVD)
Rental Price: n/a
Purchase Price: $200 (universities & large non-profits), $100 (small non-profits, high schools, or public libraries), $25 (personal use only)

CARING FOR DYING - THE ART OF BEING PRESENT (26 mins)
Saturday 11:00 a.m.
Up against her own sense of failure with caring for her dying parents, Dr. Peticolas, sociologist, teacher, and long-time student of Sufism, takes us on her search for people who might have found success. Marcia and Rick struggle through their new relatio
On the Edge Productions    (2008, DVD)
Rental Price: n/a
Purchase Price: $110

CASTING PEARLS (7 mins)
Saturday 1:15 p.m.
Transsexual actress Cassandra endures a series of Hollywood auditions, each one humorously spotlighting a different prejudice or misconception that transwomen encounter as actors and subjects.
Frameline    (2007, DVD)
Rental Price: $60
Purchase Price: $50

CHANGING IDENTITIES (57 min)
Thursday 3:30 p.m.
Each year, approximately 1.5 million people have their lives suddenly changed by brain and spinal cord injury or stroke. Bill Richards has developed a studio program that doesn't see art just as a form of therapy, but as a means for participants to redefi
Fanlight Productions    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $60/day
Purchase Price: $229 DVD, $199 VHS

CRYSTAL FEAR, CRYSTAL CLEAR (45 mins)
Friday 3:30 p.m.
Methamphetamine, or "crystal meth," has become the drug of choice for teenagers in small towns across North America. Highly addictive, cheap, and easy to get, it can cause psychosis, permanent brain damage, and even death. This program documents a year in
Fanlight Productions    (2005, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $60/day
Purchase Price: $229 DVD, $199 VHS

DO COMMUNISTS HAVE BETTER SEX? (52 mins)
Friday 7:30 p.m.
In divided Germany, studies showed that East Germans enjoyed their sexual lives more than their West German counterparts. What could account for the difference? Do Communists Have Better Sex? reveals an up-to-now unknown and curious chapter of political
First Run/Icarus Films    (2006, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $125
Purchase Price: $390

EDGES OF PERCEPTION (14 mins)
Saturday 6:15 p.m.
Eleven-year-old Jessica has Stargardt's, an inherited eye disease. She is legally blind, but with the calm, determined support of her parents and teachers she attends a regular classroom, plays, and is a serious runner. She wants to meet her inspiration,
Fanlight Productions    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $60/day
Purchase Price: $169 DVD, $149 VHS

EVERYTHING'S COOL (89 mins)
Sunday 9:30 a.m.
Everything's Cool is a "toxic comedy" about the most dangerous chasm ever to emerge between scientific understanding and political action-Global Warming. The good news: America finally gets global warming; the chasm is closing and the debate is over. The
Bullfrog Films    (2006, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $95
Purchase Price: $295

EZRA (110 mins)
Thursday 9:45 a.m.
EZRA is the first film to give an African perspective on the disturbing phenomenon of abducting child soldiers into the continent's recent civil wars. EZRA stands out among other African films because it is a complex psychological study, not just of bruta
California Newsreel    (2007, DVD)
Rental Price: n/a
Purchase Price: $195 (colleges & universities)

FACING DEATH...WITH OPEN EYES (26 mins)
Saturday 10:30 a.m.
An unflinching look at life on the edge of death. Stunned by the loss of both her parents and the lack of cultural dialogue, the filmmaker turns the camera on herself and a few wise souls to understand what it is like to face death with awareness. Writer
On the Edge Productions    (2008, DVD)
Rental Price: n/a
Purchase Price: $110

FINAL CALL (45 mins)
Friday 12:45 p.m.
Many of the active, healthy, elderly people in this film are organizing for the right to end their lives before they are overtaken by frailty, illness, or dependence.
Filmakers Library    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $85
Purchase Price: $295

FRONT WARDS, BACK WARDS (57 mins)
Saturday 9:30 a.m.
They are called idiots, simpletons, and fools, and for 160 years Fernald State School, America's first institution for people who were then labeled mentally retarded, was where they could stay. Through the recollections of staff, residents, and families,
Fanlight Productions    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $60/day
Purchase Price: $249 DVD, $219 VHS

HIDDEN WOUNDS (57 mins)
Thursday 7:00 p.m.

IT'S STILL ELEMENTARY (51 mins)
Saturday 1:30 p.m.
It's STILL Elementary looks at the effects on children who learned about gay and lesbian (LGBT) acceptance and inclusivity in elementary school curriculum. It is a follow-up to the 1996 groundbreaking film It's Elementary- Talking About Gay Issues in Scho
GroundSpark    (2008, DVD)
Rental Price: $75
Purchase Price: $250 (institutions), $99 (K-12), $45 (individuals)

JACKSON SANDWICH (30 mins)
Friday 9:00 a.m.
Jackson was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at age 4. Now, at age 9, thanks to early intervention, he is an accomplished second-grader, charming and gregarious.
Filmakers Library    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $55
Purchase Price: $195

MADE OVER IN AMERICA (65 mins)
Friday 1:30 p.m.
In a culture where bodies seem customizable, how do we perceive body image, and how are desires for a better self influenced by reality television and the makeover industry? Made Over in America includes archival material on child development, actual pla
First Run/Icarus Films    (2007, DVD)
Rental Price: $125
Purchase Price: $398

MEDS (29 mins)
Saturday 3:30 p.m.
People with mental illnesses discuss the positive and negative impact of their psychiatric medications. For some, these drugs may cause such debilitating side effects that they stop taking their meds-sometimes with tragic consequences. Others find medicat
Fanlight Productions    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $60/day
Purchase Price: $229 DVD, $199 VHS

MILIND SOMAN MADE ME GAY (27 mins)
Saturday 12:45 p.m.
Milind Soman Made Me Gay is a conceptual documentary about desire and notions of "home" and "belonging." The film employs a unique mix of visual elements along with voice-over narration to juxtapose memories of the filmmaker's past against stories of thre
Frameline    (2007, DVD)
Rental Price: $65
Purchase Price: $75

MISTER SPAZZMAN (47 mins)
Thursday 2:30 p.m.
At 40, Robert Goldsborough fell out of a tree and broke his neck, becoming a quadriplegic. A professional musician before the accident, he expresses his frustrations and passions through the songs he writes using a voice-activated computer. While his fait
Fanlight Productions    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $60/day
Purchase Price: $219 DVD, $189 VHS

MULTIPLE (29 mins)
Saturday 8:45 p.m.
For six years, actor and director Alison Peebles has been keeping a secret; she has multiple sclerosis. Now, in the midst of working on an important TV series, she finds she can no longer hide her symptoms. She's afraid this revelation may destroy her car
Fanlight Productions    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $60/day
Purchase Price: $229 DVD or VHS

NO BIGGER THAN A MINUTE (53 mins)
Thursday 5:00 p.m.
My name is Steven. I am 48 years old and I'm a dwarf. So begins Steven Delano's unusual new documentary, No Bigger Than A Minute. What follows is neither an academic discourse on the life and times of America's "little people," nor a project in self-affi
Bullfrog Films    (2006, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $85
Purchase Price: $250

ONE IN 2000 (26 mins)
Friday 7:00 p.m.
Each year an estimated one in two thousand babies are born with anatomy that doesn't clearly mark them as either male or female. This provocative documentary demystifies the issue through intimate and sympathetic profiles of people born with intersex cond
Fanlight Productions    (2006, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $60/day
Purchase Price: $229 DVD, $199 VHS

PASSION AND FURY: THE EMOTIONAL BRAIN: ANGER (43 mins)
Thursday 11:50 a.m.
Anger is one episode in the four-part series that looks at the primal emotions that are generated in the brain, and how nature and nurture combine to make us feel the way we do. The parts are Anger, Fear, Love, and Happiness.
Filmakers Library    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $85
Purchase Price: $295

PICTURE PERFECT (40 mins)
Friday 2:45 p.m.
We are barraged by media images that unrealistically glamorize and sexualize women and girls. This lively and engaging film explores the impact these messages have on young women's physical, psychological, and emotional health, and offers tools to begin d
Fanlight Productions    (2002, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $60/day
Purchase Price: $229 DVD, $199 VHS

PRECIOUS LIVES, MEANINGFUL CHOICES (41 mins)
Saturday 8:00 p.m.
Among children with multiple special needs are some whose medical conditions will severely limit their potential lives. Their parents struggle to give them the best possible quality of life while knowing that the time they have is limited. The families em
Fanlight Productions    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $60/day
Purchase Price: $229 DVD or VHS

PRESCHOOLERS: COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT (24 mins)
Friday 8:00 a.m.
This program shows how the brain grows neural bridges and strengthens a child's intellect, widely studied developmental theories of cognitive development and how to encourage it, and characteristics of preoperational thought. Also covered are areas of lan
Magna Systems    (2008, DVD)
Rental Price: n/a
Purchase Price: $99

PRESCHOOLERS: SOCIAL & EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT (24 mins)
Friday 8:30 a.m.
Viewers will learn the skill set that makes up social and emotional development, the values of encouraging creativity and risk taking, activities that foster initiative and self esteem, how culture and gender affect development, levels of social participa
Magna Systems    (2008, DVD)
Rental Price: n/a
Purchase Price: $99

PUSHIN' FORWARD (39 mins)
Saturday 7:15 p.m.
Growing up poor and Latino, James Lilly was a gang member and drug dealer until at fifteen, he was shot in the back and paralyzed. Today, he shares his story with inner city kids, and tells then about one thing that helped him move on-wheelchair racing. I
Fanlight Productions    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $60/day
Purchase Price: $229 DVD or VHS

RUTH (31 mins)
Thursday 2:00 p.m.
Ruth endured the disabling physical and mental symptoms of Parkinson's disease for more than twelve years, until a procedure called Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) enabled her to switch off many of the symptoms that had kept her a prisoner in her own body. A
Fanlight Productions    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $60/day
Purchase Price: $229 DVD or VHS

SELLING SICKNESS: AN ILL FOR EVERY PILL (52 mins)
Saturday 2:30 p.m.
Selling Sickness explores the unhealthy relationships between society, medical science and the pharmaceutical industry, as it promotes not just drugs, but also the latest diseases that go with them. In a society where the techniques for selling diseases h
First Run/Icarus Films    (2004, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $75
Purchase Price: $390

SWIM SUIT (14 mins)
Saturday 12:30 p.m.
A powerful and evocative experimental documentary about a young person's conflict between the desire to transition, and passion for swimming on a women's college team. Sequences of self-reflection are inter-cut with stunning underwater images of Calvin, a
Frameline    (2006, DVD)
Rental Price: $55
Purchase Price: $60

TERROR AT HOME: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN AMERICA (60 mins)
Thursday 8:00 p.m.

THE 3 ROOMS OF MELANCHOLIA (104 mins)
Thursday 8:00 a.m.
The 3 Rooms of Melancholia reveals how the Chechen War has psychologically affected children in Russia and in Chechnya and illuminates the emotional devastation wrought on youngsters who have little or no understanding of the historical and political reas
First Run/Icarus Films    (2004, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $150
Purchase Price: $440

THE AMERICAN RULING CLASS (90 mins)
Sunday 8:00 a.m.
The American Ruling Class is one of the most unusual films to be made in America in recent years-both in terms of form and content. The form is a "dramatic-documentary-musical" and the content is our country's most taboo topic: class, power, and privilege
Bullfrog Films    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $95
Purchase Price: $295

THE FALL OF '55 (82 mins)
Saturday 8:00 a.m.
In 1955, the people of Boise, Idaho, tried to eliminate homosexuality from their town. Devastating consequences continue today for individuals, families, and the community.
Frameline    (2006, DVD)
Rental Price: Contact Frameline for rental rates
Purchase Price: $250

THE HEALING ARTS: A NEW PATHWAY TO HEALTH (28 mins)
Thursday 4:30 p.m.
This compelling and evocative documentary profiles a unique program that uses the arts in an innovative treatment approach for people living with chromic, disabling physical and emotional challenges. It integrates technology, writing, music, theater, danc
Fanlight Productions    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $60/day
Purchase Price: $229 DVD, $199 VHS

THE MOTHERHOOD MANIFESTO (58 mins)
Thursday 1:00 p.m.
Moving personal stories combined with humorous animation, expert commentary, and hilarious old film clips tell the tale of what happens to working mothers and families in America. See how enlightened employers and public policy can make paid family leave,
Bullfrog Films    (2006, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $85
Purchase Price: $250

TODAY'S MAN (55 mins)
Friday 9:30 a.m.
Director Lizzie Gottlieb began filming her brother Nicky when he was 21 and had been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, a high functioning form of autism.
Filmakers Library    (2007, DVD, VHS)
Rental Price: $85
Purchase Price: $295

TRANSLATION POSSIBLE (11 mins)
Friday 4:15 p.m.
In Translation Possible we see the process of overcoming cultural language barriers rendered in a surprising way, illustrated visually, without words. We marvel at the filmmaker's clever technique that so effectively illustrates people out-of-sync with th
Bullfrog Films    (2006, DVD)
Rental Price: $30
Purchase Price: $150

UNDERSTANDING AND PREVENTING SUICIDE (28 mins)
Friday 11:15 a.m.
How can you know if your family member or friend may be suicidal? The Glendon Association has produced a program to inform the public about suicide prevention, how to recognize the risk factors for suicide and how to get the person to the professional he
The Glendon Association    (2008, DVD)
Rental Price: n/a
Purchase Price: $25 Available for public and professional use.

UNDERSTANDING EMPLOYEES AND JOB APPLICANTS WITH PSYCHIATRIC DISABILITIES (28 mins)
Saturday 4:00 p.m.
This video features real-life work scenarios and experts focusing on the medical and vocational aspects associated with psychiatric disabilities in the workplace. Medical experts include a psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist explaining the diagnosis
Program Development Associates    (2008, DVD)
Rental Price: n/a
Purchase Price: $185

VOICES OF SUICIDE: LEARNING FROM THOSE WHO LIVED (60 mins)
Friday 11:45 a.m.
This compelling documentary explores what was going on in the minds of three people who narrowly survived highly lethal suicide attempts. Their usually articulate personal accounts reveal the contents of an insidious thought process or "inner voice," whic
The Glendon Association    (2008, DVD)
Rental Price: n/a
Purchase Price: $79. Film for mental health professionals.

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