In 1964, after spending a one year protracted legal battle, co-club owners, Howard and Elly Solomon were finally granted a 'unique' cabaret license and the Cafe Au Go Go opened its doors on February 7. Six weeks later with mounting legal bills and depleting funds the couple were quickly going out of business. With few options, Howard and Elly made a desperate, late minute attempt to keep the club open and reached out to popular comedian, Lenny Bruce. Two days into Lenny's performance he was arrested and booked for obscenity charges, alone with Howard and Elly. THat historic arrest, and the international press it garnered would put the Cafe Au Go Go on the tnertainment world map.
2011
Best Documentary Feature
Documentary Feature
United States
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
27 minutes
Director:
Jason M. Solomon
REIFF 2011
Best Experimental Film
Experimental
Germany
Runtime:
14 minutes
50 seconds
Director:
Florian Krautkramer
REIFF 2011
Everything seemed to go wrong from within and without. The never-ending official arbitrariness was oppressing, the examining glance outside. But lately, resistance has formed here. With excuses and blinders, the protagonist achieved in building his own world without reacting to the events taking place. But when fate tried to force him into making a decision, he chooses again a facade constructed of lies and spectacle. Breaking legs is a silent movie. It makes room for the linguistic incapability of the protagonist, but the inter-titles try to explore this format.
Narrative Feature
United States
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
12 minutes
Director:
Matthew Gordon
REIFF 2011
All fourteen-year-old Robbie Hendrick ever wanted was a family. Yet as another Mississippi summer begins, his wayward mother has run off again fearing a breakdown and he's left to burn the days caring for his half brother, Fess. As the deep days and nights pass without her return and with older brother Lucas dangerously in their lives again, Robbie must face the fact that his dream of a family may only be a dream and he might just lose the only family he's ever had: Fess. Filmed on location in the Mississippi Delta town of Glen Allan, MS with all non-actors from the region, The Dynamiter is a story of family in the forgotten America, uncompromisingly told by the very people who live it everyday.
Animation
United States
Runtime:
17 minutes
38 seconds
Director:
Heather Freeman
REIFF 2011
Pennipotens' is based on the Flemish fairytale 'White Caroline and Black Caroline', first recorded by Edmund Dulac in 1916. Out of spite, a mother repeatedly tries to kill her 'beautiful' daughter, although her attempts are always secretly foiled by her beloved 'ugly' daughter.
Experimental
United States
Runtime:
3 minutes
10 seconds
Director:
Robert Dohrmann
REIFF 2011
A mysterious oblong television set is your personal guide through outer space as it guides us through a series of animated scenes. Along the way, this guide presents a number of downsized robots whose purpose and functions are unknown.
Experimental
United States
Runtime:
13 minutes
Director:
Max Weinman
REIFF 2011
I approach the editing process as a means of reflection through the reinterpretation of what I have lensed. Looking through my footage, I distance myself from my initial attachment to the material and use the people and places as symbols of the sentiment I want to explore. 'Portiragnes' is a lyrical portrait of a small working-class town in the south of France where I spent a month every summer for fifteen years. I consider it a parting film from my childhood haven. It was shot over the summer and winter of 2010-2011, using a Bolex.
Narrative Feature
United Kingdom
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
36 minutes
Director:
Alan Butterworth
REIFF 2011
A black comedy set in decaying rural England, a collision between old and new.
It follows estranged brothers Marcus and Danny Drummond as they find themselves on a surprisingly dangerous undertaking to unravel the mystery surrounding their fathers very unlikely wealth.
A deeply affectionate modern retelling of the classic comedies and murder mysteries from the Ealing era of British cinema, The Drummond Will imagines what it would be like to be stuck in a world where the strange rules of Ealing cinema apply. A world where life continues quite as normal in the face of escalating body counts, where sleepy English villages invariably harbour any number of dark secrets, and where you only really know who the murderer is when everybody else has been killed. The thoroughly modern Danny and Marcus are trapped in just such a world, and are quickly swept out of their depth. As they realise theyll need to rely on each other if they are to survive, and modern ideas like forensics, cell phones and common sense wont help them, it quickly becomes clear that, inevitably, nothing is what it seems.
Documentary Short
United States
Runtime:
11 minutes
28 seconds
Director:
Paul Gallasch
REIFF 2011
In 2008 my friend Michael and I hitchhiked from San Fransisco to New York. That trip forced me to challenge many of my perceptions of this country. This film follows me as I decide to go hitchhiking again, to help work out exactly what it is about hitchhiking that I found so useful and enjoyable in 2008.
Documentary Short
United States
Runtime:
12 minutes
47 seconds
Director:
Erik D. Demaine
REIFF 2011
This film documents the creative process of maestro Lino Tagliapietra, widely considered to be the world's best glass blower, through a playful nonlinear narrative.
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
17 minutes
40 seconds
Director:
Dianne Bellino
REIFF 2011
After losing a series of menial jobs, Danny, 39, a sometimes artist, launches himself as BOBO, a children's birthday clown, and gets a gig at a large house in the suburbs where he has a moment of unexpected self-reckoning.