Taka grew up in the countryside of Japan, always dreaming of living in America--the land of freedom and opportunities. But after living in the U.S. for more than a decade, he realizes Japan has its own unique qualities. When he traveled back home, he discovered that Japan is losing some of its culture due to outside influences. The film captures his journey in search of Japan's lost identity.
2010
Documentary Feature
Japan, United States
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
10 minutes
Director:
Takayuki Yamato
REIFF 2010
Experimental
United States
Runtime:
3 minutes
Director:
Kent Hayward
REIFF 2010
In a city known for its love of cars, one pedestrian with a Super 8 camera walks across Los Angeles, coming face to face with the metropolis instead of watching it blur by through a windshield. The day-long walk down culturally-diverse Santa Monica Boulevard, beginning at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard at sunrise and ending at Santa Monica Beach at sunset, inspires filmmaker Kent Hayward to contemplate the changing nature of the city, motion pictures and himself. Taking one frame of film every 20 steps, the filmmaker condenses a 12-hour walk into three minutes of film. As a result, the short experimental documentary ironically speeds by so quickly that the audience can only absorb snatches of the commentary subtitles, which linger on Haywards memories of certain street corners, focus on the people he passes and question what his future in the City of Angels may hold.
The film may also be watched frame by frame, so that viewers may fully examine the text elements, map and individual images. By stepping through each frame instead of watching it at full speed, the viewer experiences the film in a way that's akin to walking through a city instead of driving through it, echoing Haywards step-by-step pace and revealing all the details of his secret daydreams surrounding the city he calls home.
Narrative Short
Spain
Runtime:
12 minutes
Director:
REIFF 2010
A married couple dresses up to attend a ceremony.
Narrative Short
Spain
Runtime:
20 minutes
Director:
Tony Lopez, David Sanz
REIFF 2010
He arrives in a discotheque confused and without so much conviction. Suddenly, he sees Irene. He realizes that while he observes her he experiences unique and indescribable feelings. The young guy will predict a succession of events which will gradually become true, intriguing Irene more each time.
Narrative Feature
United States
Runtime:
Director:
Tina Mabry
REIFF 2010
Wanting to escape was the easy part. Taking place in 1986 and 1998 and based on a true story, three poor, Black kids in rural Mississippi reap the consequences of their family's cycle of abuse, addiction, and violence. They independently struggle to escape their circumstances and must decide whether to confront what's plagued their family for generations or succumb to the same crippling fate, forever damned in Mississippi.
Bitterly honest and profoundly subtle, writer/director Tina Mabry successfully captures growing up in a world where possibilities and opportunities seem to die in the face of the suffocating reality of physical and sexual abuse, obsession and a myriad of destructive compulsions.
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
15 minutes
Director:
Wenhwa Ts'ao
REIFF 2010
Arithmetic Lesson is a 15-minute dramatic film that illustrates the courage of the human spirit for survival through the eyes of a seven-year-old Chinese American girl, Gracie. Gracie's mother, Mei, is comatose in the hospital. Gracie's father, Yong, hires an au pair from Taiwan, Ah San, to take care of Gracie. Ah San provides the daily care for Gracie, which includes overseeing Gracie as she does her homework and taking care of all domestic chores. Unknown to Yong, Ah San becomes impatient with the care-taking of Gracie and becomes abusive to the young child. Throughout many events in the course of the film, Gracie finds the courage to tell her father that Ah San has hurt her physically, which results in the eviction of Ah San. Gracie learns to comfort herself instead of constantly seeking comforts from the emotionally unavailable adults around her.
Documentary Short
United States
Runtime:
43 minutes
Director:
Barbara Klutinis
REIFF 2010
Stepping into the Stream is not just about women and fly fishing. Intrinsically, it is about women connecting with nature and a deeper part of themselves. It's about our being willing to take risks to learn something new that will allow us to commune with rivers and wildlife. It's about finding an adventure all our own and relishing it. Six women are interviewed in the film, and the topics range from how we, as women, got into the sport, how fly fishing is different things for different people, how we found our way into the sport as women in a man's domain, how fly fishing helps us with life's challenges and the spiritual connections we make through this sport. There are also brief interludes in the film that celebrate rivers and how they teach us about life. The film is geared towards anyone who has ever had a passion for doing something that enriches the person inside. My hope is that Stepping into the Stream will also inspire other women to find the courage to do something new.
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
10 minutes
Director:
Peter Besson
REIFF 2010
Last night Rhett Somers, so far scraping by on good luck or just plain old ignorance, met the love of his life. He's sure of it. She doesn't know. Now the only thing left to do is convince her that she's the one. Not an easy feat considering how they met.
Documentary Feature
United States
Runtime:
Director:
J.D. Wilkes
REIFF 2010
Described as both dignified and disarming by author Bill Friskics-Warren, the new film Seven Signs focuses on the music, mythology and faith that persist, despite heavy modernization, in the American South.
The documentary also marks the directorial debut for J.D. Wilkes, the artist/musician lauded by Alarm magazine as the closest thing there is to the Ambassador of Genuine, Traditional Southern Culture. Wilkes also contributes to the chilling Seven Signs soundtrack... alongside the rawest talent The Delta and Appalachia have to offer.
With these strong southern roots, the filmmaker has made a profound, empathetic statement that celebrates the eccentricities and traditions of an increasingly marginalized area of America. Yet it is an area whose cultural identity stubbornly continues to thrive in the underground today. Fresh from a sold out premiere in Nashville, TN, Seven Signs is currently setting up new screenings across the country and is even being solicited to appear throughout the film festival circuit. Soliciting events include: The Raindance Film Festival (the UKs largest film festival), The FantastiaFest in Montreal, The Deep Blues Music/Film Fest in Wisconsin, and The Backseat Film Fest in Pennsylvania.
Experimental
United States
Runtime:
17 minutes
Director:
Michael Frost
REIFF 2010
Chi Sei? is an experimental film consisting of re-constructed and stylized images from Italian demonic possession and exploitation films of the 1970's. Its influences are the experimental films of Kenneth Anger, Ken Jacobs as well as European Trash Cinema.
The 17th Century... The Inquisition. A witch is about to be burned on a stake. She looks deep into the eyes of the hooded Inquisitor about to burn her...
Yesterday...Pregnant Jessica is in bed, possessed by the spirit of the Witch. Her son and daughter run around the house unsupervised, and their toys have a life of their own. The children run to check on their mother but...Mommy isn't home...