53^rd Rochester International Film Festival

Thursday, April 14^th, 2011  8:00pm

 

Special Presentation

Jim Lindner,Media Matters, LLC 1976 MOAS Trophy recipient

 

Jim Lindner is an internationally respected authority on the preservation and migration of electronic media. Jim pioneered many of the techniques now commonly used for videotape restoration and migration to file workflows. He has lectured widely on and written about media preservation for the past twenty-five years and has served on a variety of international media-associated boards and organizations for many years. While Jim's first award was right here with Movies on a Shoestring, he went on to receive many awards, first for his pioneering work in computer animation and later for his work in media preservation. Most recently Jim received a patent for his invention called SAMMA which is used around the world to preserve video recordings, and has become an Emmy Nominee for the same invention.

Jim received the Movies on a Shoestring trophy for his film 'Ma Bell's  Delinquent Children' in 1976. This was a documentary approach to one of the lesser known problems of our time.

 

Le Négociant (The Negotiator)

Joachim Weissmann, Brussels, Belgium, narr., 20 min., 

When a calm and collected bomb squad negotiator is sent into a convenience store holdup, neither he, nor the hapless clerk he tries to counsel, are prepared for the blowout in this high-stakes yellow comedy.

 

Butterflies of Trip City

Nika Belianina, Toronto, Russian-Canadian, exp., 15 min.

In the post-apocalyptic world of Trip City, any contact with nature is against the law, with one exception: you may keep the butterflies in cages…

 

Sae

Christopher Oroza, FSU, Tallahassee, FL, USA, narr., 8 min.

In a quiet hospital, a little girl, Sae, waits for her father to die. In her sadness a dark world emerges…

 

Defying Deletion: The Fight Over Iraq's Nineveh Plains

Andre Anton, West Bloomfield, MI, USA, doc., 21 min.

Since the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Christian Assyrians have experienced tremendous persecution and suffering; hundreds of thousands of them have been forced to flee and take refuge in unwelcoming countries like Syria, Jordan and Turkey.

 

Once More

Hiroo Takaoka, Brooklyn, NY, USA, narr., 24 min.

Jay Park will soon welcome back his dead wife as the world's first human clone, while TV reporter Linda Martin discovers there's more to this grieving widower than meets the eye.

 

Holdup

 Aprile Ruha, Seaford, NY, USA, comedy, 8 min.

An unusually cheery criminal engages in a battle of the wits with the convenience store cashier he's trying to rob, when the entrance of a feisty old woman spoils his plans.

 

 

 

 

Friday, April 15^th, 2011  8:00pm

 

Lest We Forget

Chris Godfrey, Sydney, Australia, comedy, 13 min.

When two Australian war vets take on a town bully, the situation becomes quite explosive.

 

Extinción II - La cuadratura de los círculos

Fernando Usón, Zaragoza, Spain, other, 11 min.

 

Life is too brief to be wasted in quarreling.

 

 

Altarcations

Ron Leach, Toronto, Canada, comedy, 6 min.

 

When controlling Linda is overwhelmed by her wedding plans and uncompromising fiancé, Larry seeks couple counseling from a remarkable priest.

 

 

St. Christophorus: Roadkill

Gregor Erler, Berlin, Germany, narr. horr., 26 min.

 

Chris, a young lawyer, drives on a road at night heading towards Hamburg, Germany, but his ride takes an unexpected turn as he witnesses a tragic accident. He then realizes that this horrifying night won’t be over soon.

 

 

Touch

Jen McGowan, Venice, CA, narr., 11 min.

           

Two women, one subway station and one vital connection.

 

 

Equestrian Sexual Response

Zeke Hawkins, Los Angeles, CA, narr. , 19 min.

 

Alice must reckon with her emerging sexuality through the worlds of middle school and racehorse breeding.

 

 

Na Wewe (You Too)

Ivan Goldschmidt, Brussels, Belgium/Burundi, narr., 19 min.

 

In 1994, as the Rwandan genocide spills over into neighboring Burundi, a minibus transporting ordinary citizens is attacked by a group of rebels. The passengers are ordered to get off, and the rebels try to separate the Hutus and Tutsis. But who is a Hutu and who is a Tutsi?

 

 

 

Saturday, April 16^th, 2011, 4:00pm

 

Bad Influences

Kate Emery, FSU, Tallahassee, FL , comedy, 16 min.

Jillian, a shy teenager with a vivid imagination, is about to abandon her “sickening” imaginary buddies to make a real friend.

 

Gear School Plug & Play

Luis Calvo Llacer, Madrid, Spain, narr./anim., 9 min.

After 'borrowing' a Gear (spaceship), three Gear Pilot students are summoned to the director's office, where they offer an unpersuasive excuse.

 

Mozambique

  Alcides Soares, Mozambique/Universal City, AL, doc., 14 min.

Alcides  Soares is a resilient 16-year-old AIDS orphan living in Mozambique today.  After an American television writer (Neil Baer) and a movie director (Chris Zalla) gave Alcides a camera and taught him how to shoot, he filmed his journey to reunite his family…

 

Cliquetastrophe

Michael Felker, FSU, Tallahassee, FL , narr., 6 min.

In a 1999 high school lunch room, geeky Clarke Averbush, is dying to ask pretty Becky Lauderdale, cheerleader, to the Star Wars: Phantom Menace premiere…

 

The Gift of the Magi

Chiba. Pref., Japan, claymation, 13 min., Toshikazu Ishii

Jim, a poor apprentice magician and his wife, Della, are determined not to forget one another for Christmas.

 

Maya Anderson and the Gem of the West

Joseph Rechtman, Cambridge, MA, narr. , 22 min.

Maya Anderson, a courageous housewife on the western frontier, wants nothing more than a child of her own…

 

The Squash

Bobby Young, San Ramón, CA, narr. , 16 min.

In this tale of magic, mystery and greed, a simple farmer, without much to call his own but a broken-down tractor and a jar of seeds sets out to make the best of it to save his farm.

 

 

 

Saturday, April 16^th, 2011  8:00pm

 

The Perfect Gentleman

Michael Rohrbaugh, Los Angeles, CA, narr., 25 min.

1950’s: Jonathan, a charming, handsome suitor, is engaged to the daughter of a wealthy tycoon. The couple seems picture perfect, until the eve of their engagement party, when Jonathan's hidden past starts bubbling to the surface.

 

Melt

Noémie Lafrance, Canada/Brooklyn, NY, exp., 10 min.

Eight dancers perched on a wall and wrapped in sculptural beeswax and lanolin costumes are slowly melting away, progressing in euphoria and exhaustion as if approaching the sun, melting until their souls escape their ephemeral bodies and disintegrate into light.

 

The Quartering Act

Stephen Bell, FSU, Tallahassee, FL , narr., 18 min.

France. 1944. A grieving mother confronts the enemy when three desperate German deserters guarding a dangerous secret invade her home in the dead of night.

 

La Murette (The Wall)

Steed Cavalieri, Venissieux, France, narr., 17 min.

Local authorities must convince young people to leave a place that is sacred to them, “The Wall”.

 

Motel

William Peters, Essex Jct., VT, comedy, 13 min.

After a long day of driving, all that Brad and Roger wanted was a room…

 

Zlatá Rybka (The Goldfish)

Jacob Mendel, Ann Arbor, MI /Czech Republic, narr. , 9 min.

Set in Prague at an indeterminate time, the lives of a man, a cat, and a goldfish intersect in unexpected ways.

 

 

All Birds Whistle

Roy Khalil, Lebanon, narr., 14 min.

An elderly couple living an unexciting routine has their lives changed when their neighbor puts his pet canary in their care.