12:00PM - Capawock Theatre (Encore Perf.)

Sita Sings the Blues: The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told

Cristal Grand Prix, Best Feature, Annecy International Animated Film Festival

With an introduction by Paul Karasik and post-screening Q&A by filmmaker Nina Paley

With vivid animation and accompanied by the unmatchable vocals of 1920s jazz singer Annette Hanshaw, Nina Paley offers her personal interpretation of the Indian epic, the Ramayana, with a focus on the relationship between Sita and Rama, gods incarnated as human beings. “And even they can’t make their marriage work,” is Paley’s wry conclusion.

Paley’s time in India and the end of her marriage to an Indian man inspired her first feature. A syndicated cartoonist, she began making short films in 1998 and created SITA on her home computer.

Click To Watch Trailer

12:00PM - Katharine Cornell Theatre

Men’s Group

Writer/Director: Michael Joy

Drama / Australia / 104 mins

Best Actor, Best Feature, Best Script, Inside Film Awards

Special Introduction by Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize winning author

Six men with emotional issues gather once a week just to talk. What results is a series of deep encounters and an exploration of what it means to be a man, to struggle, fail, try again. A raw and powerful film by a first-time director.

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12:00PM - VINEYARD PLAYHOUSE

Laila’s Birthday (Eid Milad Laila)

Writer/Director: Rashid Masharawi

Tragicomedy / Palestine / 71 mins

An unemployed judge in the West Bank ekes out a living as a cabbie; the film starts when he sets out to get a gift and cake for his little girl, not an easy task in a city riddled with corruption, not to mention the occasional missile.

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2:00PM - Capawock Theatre

Garbage Dreams

Writer/Director: Mai Iskander

Documentary / Egypt / 83 mins

Best Documentary, Bermuda International Film Festival; Audience Award and Best Director Award, World Cinema category, Phoenix Film Festival; Best Documentary, Vail Film Festival

Special Guest: join filmmaker Mai Iskander for a Q&A afterwards, introduction by Kate Feiffer, children's book author

Adham, Osama, and Nabil are three of the 60,000 residents of Mokattam who keep order in a garbage village on the outskirts of Cairo and manage to recycle 80 percent of the waste dumped here. But then Cairo's decision to partially privatize the garbage trade threatens their day job.

“GARBAGE DREAMS is a moving story of young men searching for ways to eke out a living for their families and facing tough choices as they try to do the right thing for the planet.” -Al Gore 

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2:00PM - Katharine Cornell Theatre

Moscow Belgium (Aanrijding in Moscou)

Director: Christophe Van Rompaey

Comedy / Belgium / 102 mins

Best Narrative Feature, Bermuda International Film Festival; Best Screenwriting (+ 2 add’l awards) Cannes Film Festival; New Talent Award, Zurich Film Festival

 

Introduction by Dawn Bellante, General Manager of MVOL.com

Set in the Moscow neighborhood of Ghent, Belgium, this urban romance wowed critics at Cannes with its tale of a woman in despair. Her husband has taken off with a 22-year-old and left her with three children. Things are bad, until her car collides with a huge truck driven by a young driver. But this is no meet-cute Hollywood tripe. As the LA Times puts it, “All the characters…come with warning labels attached.”

Click to Watch Trailer