2010

Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
15 minutes
Director:
Bryan Litt

REIFF 2010

A young man returns from his mother's funeral expecting to resume the daily high school routine only to have the direction of his life changed by learning lessons in the power of both love and truth.

Experimental
United States
Runtime:
2 minutes
Director:
Deron Williams

REIFF 2010

A young man is violently displeased when he is confronted by a mirrored image of himself while WTOP's Bill Diehl gives us the unabashed mid-morning news.

Documentary Short
United Kingdom
Runtime:
24 minutes
Director:
Adrienne Grierson

REIFF 2010

Imagine a Brazilian religious community numbering some 20,000 people where the inhabitants dress like a cross between characters in Star Trek and the Egyptians of 2,000 years ago. According to the doctrine, 32,000 years ago, a fleet of spacecraft arrived in South America from the planet Capela bearing an alien race. From this civilization came the spirit of Pai Seta Branca, who chose Tia Nieva, a female Brazilian truck driver to construct and complete a temple, lakes, shrines and, most importantly, an entire religion on 22 hectares of dusty ground in the middle of Brazil.

Adrienne leaves London to go and discover this outrageous community which manages to combine spirituality and glamour. Maybe she will be able to get a fabulous dress while she is there. She meets Genisvalda and Marlete. Marlete is the Queen of the Gypsy Group in the Valley. Genis is a seamstress. More than just the spectacle of pageantry and ritual that regularly fascinates Brazilians, Adrienne goes inside the religion, and through her blossoming friendships with these two women she learns about the extraordinary life of people who live in this Kingdom.

This is the story that will open your mind in a heartfelt and humorous way to the powerful, magical and unusual experiences that surround us daily. It is a beautifully shot film and opens us to the possibility that those things which we may perceive as too peculiar, outrageous and eccentric to understand may simply be wonderful.

Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
33 minutes
Director:
Ben Hur Sepehr

REIFF 2010

On a rainy night near a concentration camp being bombed during the waning years of WWII, the son of a top-ranking and fearsome Nazi General is mortally wounded. With the camp's doctor having been transferred to the eastern front, the only doctor who is available to perform the life-saving surgery is a condemned, elderly Jewish inmate at the camp.

Upon summoning the man, the General commands the Jewish doctor to perform the surgery, but the doctor refuses, saying that he will not help his enemy to continue to massacre his own people. The General threatens the doctor's life, and the camp's Commandant is only too happy to oblige, but the doctor still replies that his life will end soon in the camp's ovens anyway. The General then offers freedom to the doctor if he cooperates. The doctor still refuses. The General then begs the doctor to save his only son, but the doctor then objects that the Nazis did not save his only son but hanged him for smuggling food in to starving ghetto children. Then all the General's hopes are dashed as the distant sounds of a prison train can be heard approaching the camp.

With the General at an impasse, he discovers that he must connect with the underlying humanity that connects them both as fathers before there is to be any hope for his son.

Narrative Short
United Kingdom
Runtime:
10 minutes
Director:
Chiman Rahimi

REIFF 2010

Rojin is a maid at a chic hotel in London. When she overhears a hotel guest, memories of her past in Iran, a country she fled long ago, come rushing back. Finding herself In a position to wreak revenge on her torturer, Rojin must consider the ultimate question: Can she forgive if she can never forget? Kurdish women in Iran suffer abuse and a form of double-discrimination, due their ethnicity and their gender. Perpetrators of this abuse are rarely caught and even more rarely punished. Rojin is the latest short film from award-winning production company Poisson Rouge Pictures.

Documentary Feature
United States
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
26 minutes
Director:
Jesse Veverka, Jeremy Veverka

REIFF 2010

China's unprecedented growth has placed it on the verge of overtaking the United States as the world's preeminent power. Meanwhile, Chalmers Johnson, author of Blowback and The Sorrows of Empire, argues that America's preoccupation with militarism has all but sealed its fate as a nation in long-term decline. But if China surpasses the United States, what type of power will it become? In today's interconnected and globalized world, the answer affects each and every one of us.

In Pakistan and Afghanistan, China's humanitarian activities and investment in infrastructure have won it the hearts and minds of the people. Yet in Tibet and Xinjiang, China is reviled as an imperialistic abuser of human rights. Despite trumpeting its vision of an ethnic unity at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government has gone to great lengths to silence dissenting voices such as Rebiya Kadeer, de facto leader of the Uyghur people. Kadeer has replaced the Dalai Lama as Beijing's number one public adversary.

Will China follow in the footsteps of history's other great powers and use its strength to dominate its neighbors, trample ethnic and religious minorities, and become a 21st century empire? Or will a wealthy Chinese youth lead the country towards democracy, much like Taiwan? The international community shares responsibility in this outcome, but is it too dependent on Chinese trade to care? Whether it's a peaceful rise or potential threat, China's 21st century emergence as a great world power will change the lives of everyone.

Narrative Feature
United States
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
39 minutes
Director:
Mary Sweeney

REIFF 2010

Set in bountiful rural Wisconsin, Baraboo follows six people who have each carved a life out at Petersen's Cabins, a rundown motel/resort. Some are there by choice, others by circumstance. They circle one another with caution, desire, anger and compassion, inching their way toward understanding.

Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
25 minutes
Director:
Nathan Fisher

REIFF 2010

The world as we know it has ended, and Thomas survives each new day locked up alone inside his missing neighbor's fallout shelter. The oppressive boredom is occasionally punctuated by the pleas of survivors outside, but Thomas greets them with indifference and even hostility. In a brief moment of "weakness" he allows a young girl inside his world, but is his desire for companionship enough to overcome his instinct to survive?

In this followup to his successful 2009 release Beyond the Wall of Sleep, Nathan Fisher takes us into a world gone mad and into the mind of one survivor as he tries to determine what makes a life worth living.

Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
5 minutes
Director:
Tim Miller

REIFF 2010

Two tortured souls spend a leisurely afternoon lamenting life, cheese and their mere existence, unaware of the imminent danger of their predicament.

Narrative Feature
United States
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
40 minutes
Director:
Frank Pestarino

REIFF 2010

Heartwrenching coming of age film set in 1989 blue collar New York. Four teens meander through love and tragedy, bonded by a secret that would seal their fate. Outstanding performances from all drive the film that will engulf the audience in tension and the brutal reality of teenage life from the opening credits.

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