Documentaries 2014

Vets Roll

60 Yrs. Symphony / Vets Roll

Thu Feb 20, 2014 –  7:30 pm — Rotary River Center  Tickets

Sun Feb 23, 2014 –  2:00 pm — Rotary River Center  Tickets

Sixty Years of SymphonySixty Years of Symphony


Category:  Community, Music
Country:  U.S.
Language:  English
Rating:  G
Runtime:  30 min.
Director:  Beloit Janesville Symphony
Producer:  Beloit Janesville Symphony

Synopsis:

This retrospective film looks at the 60 year history of the Beloit Janesville Symphony, with a focus on the three conductors experience throughout each of their tenure in the Beloit Janesville Area.

Vets Roll Movie Poster

Vets Roll

Category:  Documentary
Country:  U.S.
Language:  English
Rating:  G
Runtime:  18 min.
Director:  Stephen Pickering
Producer:  Stephen Pickering

Synopsis:

200 WWII and Korean War Veterans and Rosie the Riveters.  100 Assistants. 10 Badger Buses.

4 days that will change their lives!  Follow along as we travel from Beloit, WI to Washington, D.C. as VetsRoll takes these men and women on a trip of a lifetime to visit the memorials that were erected in honor of their service to our country!

Learn how much this trip means to them because it gives these men and women the respect they deserve, which they often never got.

NOTE:  Synopsis are typically provided directly by the filmmaker themselves. Often English is not their first language. We ask reader’s understanding for less-than-perfect language and grammar

Irish in Janesville

Where Nature Seems to Smile

Irish in Janesville

Sat Feb 22, 2014 –  2:00 pm — Rotary River Center  Tickets

Irish in JanesvilleWhere Nature Seems to Smile:
The Irish in Janesville


Category:  Irish, Historical
Country:  U.S.
Language:  English
Rating:  G
Runtime:  48 min.
Director:  Dave Haldiman
Producer:  Dan Frediricks, Mike Reuter

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Synopsis:

Irish immigrants arrived at the perfect time for Janesville, Wisconsin. They helped to make this small town on the western frontier into a vibrant, successful city. Where Nature Seems to Smile shows us the quintessential American immigration experience, told in stories and family histories by the descendants of those immigrants.
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Corey's *asteRISKS

Corey’s *asteRISKS

Corey asterisks

Fri Feb 21, 2014 –  7:30 pm — Café Fromage #2  Tickets

Sat Feb 22, 2014 –  2:00 pm — Bagels & More  Tickets

Corey’s *asteRISKS

Corey's *asteRISKS Category:  Documentary

Country:  U.S.

Language:  English

Rating:  PG-13

Runtime:  70 min.

Director:  Deborah J. McDonald

Producer:  Deborah J. McDonald

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  • On IMDb: N/A
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Synopsis:

They are the Bad News Bears of women’s college basketball. A diabetic coach with a jerry-curl mullet and a potty mouth transforms a group of underdogs, including a 6 foot 6 transexual, a deaf player, Read more

Sign Painter movie poster

Sign Painters

Fri Feb 14, 2014 –  7:30 pm — Café Fromage #2  Tickets
Sat Feb 15, 2014 –  7:30 pm — Café Fromage #2  Tickets
Thu Feb 20, 2014 –  7:30 pm — Domenico’s  Tickets
Sun Feb 23, 2014 –  2:00 pm — Bagels & More  Tickets

Community Partners:  Century 21 Real Estate, Grinnell Hall

Sign Painters
Always hand paint


Sign Painter movie poster
Category:  Documentary / Culture
Country:  U.S.
Language:  English
Rating:  G
Runtime:  81 min.
Director:  Sam Macon, Faythe Levine
Producer:  Timm Gable, Jonah Mueller

Synopsis:

As recently as the 1980s, storefronts, murals, banners, barn signs, billboards and even street signs were hand lettered with brush and paint. But, like many skilled trades, the sign industry has been overrun by the techno-fueled promise of quicker and cheaper. The resulting proliferation of computer-designed, die-cut vinyl lettering and ink-jet printers has ushered a creeping sameness into our landscape. Read more

Great Chicken Wing Hunt

Great Chicken Wing Hunt

Tue Feb 18, 2014 – 7:30 pm — Domenico’s  Tickets
Sat Feb 22, 2014 –  5:00 pm — Bagels & More  Tickets
Sun Feb 23, 2014 –  2:00 pm — Domenico’s  Tickets

Community Partners:  Liberty Tax Service

Great Chicken Wing Hunt
A man on a quest for perfection. The woman who stood by him. The misfits who made history.


Great Chicken Wing Hunt
Category:  Comedy / Road Trip
Country:  Czech Republic / U.S.
Language:  English
Rating:  PG
Runtime:  70 min.
Director:  Matt Reynolds
Producer:  Elizabeth Mandel

Filmmaker Attending

Synopsis:

The year is 1964 in Buffalo, New York, and Teressa Bellissimo, co-owner of a family-run restaurant called the Anchor Bar, is asked to whip up a midnight snack for her son and his gang of friends.  Luckily, this gives her the perfect excuse to use a box of chicken scraps—all wings—mistakenly sent to the bar that morning.  Improvising, she concocts a special sauce she knows her spice-loving boy will like.  A few minutes later, the Buffalo chicken wing is born, and the world would never be the same. Read more

We Will Be Back movie poster

We Will Be Back

Fri Feb 21, 2014 – 2:00 pm — Domenico’s  Tickets
Sun Feb 23, 2014 – 2:00 pm — Hendricks Center for the Arts  Tickets

We Will Be Back
The Lake Delhi Story


We Will Be Back movie poster
Category:  Independent / Documentary
Country:  U.S.
Language:  English
Rating:  PG-13
Runtime:  73 min.
Director:  Charles Cunliffe
Producer:  Mary Cunliffe

Synopsis:

Filmmaker AttendingFrom the early days before there was a lake Delhi, when one of the first hydro electric dams in Iowa was built to provide energy, it would provide much more. It would become a place where families would gather for generations, sharing traditions and memories of family time on the lake together. From the early cabins of Campo Delhi and Freddy’s beach, to her beautiful 18 miles of shoreline, they will remember these days until the day the die and little else will mean as much to them. Read more

Tales of the Organ Trade movie poster

Tales From the Organ Trade

Fri Feb 21, 2014 –  2:00 pm — Hendricks Center for the Arts  Tickets
Sat Feb 22, 2014 – 12:00 pm — Hendricks Center for the Arts  Tickets
Sun Feb 23, 2014 –  12:00 pm — My Apartment  Tickets

Community Partner:  Beloit College Tau Kappa Epsilon

Tales From the Organ Trade
Every sixty minutes a human organ is sold on the black market. What would you do if your life depended on it?


Tales of the Organ Trade movie poster
Category:  Third World / Crime
Country:  Canada
Language:  English
Rating:  R
Runtime:  82
Director:  Ric Esther Bienstock
Producer:  Ric Esther Bienstock, Felix Golubev, Simcha Jacobovici, Nancy Abraham

Synopsis:

TALES FROM THE ORGAN TRADE is a gritty and unflinching descent into the shadowy world of black-market organ trafficking: the street-level brokers, the rogue surgeons, the impoverished men and women in who are willing to sacrifice a slice of their own bodies for a quick payday, and the desperate patients who face the agonizing choice of obeying the law or saving their lives. Read more

Der Untermensch

Man Behind the Throne / Der Untermensch

Fri Feb 21, 2014 – 2:00 pm — Bagels & More  Tickets
Sat Feb 22, 2104 –   12:00 pm — Club Impulse  Tickets
Sun Feb 23, 2014 –  2:00 pm — La Casa Grande  Tickets

(Der Untermensch – short film preceding feature, see detail below)

Community Partners:  Evolve Dance Company, Miss. Andrea’s Dance Company

The Man Behind the Throne
Defining the moves of Michael Jackson, Madonna and Lars Von Trier


The Man Behind the Throne
Category:  Dance / Culture
Country:  Sweden
Language:  English
Rating:  PG
Runtime:  58 min.
Director:  Kersti Grunditz
Producer:  Anita Oxburgh

Synopsis:

Vincent Paterson went from poor kid who knew how to cha-cha, to star choreographer in Hollywood. His career is a journey through twenty years of pop-culture. The story is told through clips from his work with Madonna, Michael Jackson, Bjork/Dancer in the Dark, through his personal rehearsal footage dating back from Smooth Criminal, his very witty and revealing email journals and super-8 footage from his childhood. He lets the camera into his private life among friends, family and people who work with him. Read more

Trans movie poster

Trans

Thu Feb 20, 2014 –  7:30 pm — La Casa Grande  Tickets
Fri Feb 21, 2014 –  5:00 pm — Domenico’s  Tickets
Sun Feb 23, 2014 –  12:00 pm — Club Impulse  Tickets

Community Partner:  SAGA | Beloit College

Trans
It takes a special kind of courage to be who you really are.


Trans movie poster
Category:  Family / Gay, Lesbian, BiSexual, Transgender
Country:  U.S.
Language:  English
Rating:  R
Runtime:  104
Director:  Chris Arnold
Producer:  Mark Schoen

Synopsis:

TRANS is an extraordinary documentary feature film about men and women and all the variations in between. It is an up-close and very personal journey into the transgender world through the memorable stories and the unusual lives of a remarkable cast of characters. Read more

Date America Movie Poster

Date America

Date America
8 Dates, 8 States, 1 Road Trip.


Date America Movie Poster
Category:  Comedy / Documentary
Country:  U.S.
Language:  English
Rating:  PG-13
Runtime:  86 min.
Director:  Bob Murray
Producer:  Bob Murray

Filmmaker Attending

Synopsis:

Wisconsinite Bob Murray finds himself in the awkward position of being a bachelor at 34 while all of his peers are settling down and starting families. Read more

Circle the Wagen movie poster

Circle the Wagen

Circle the Wegen
a buddy / roadtrip / docu-dramedy


Circle the Wagen movie poster
Category:  Comedy / Documentary
Country:  U.S.
Language:  English
Rating:  PG
Runtime:  87 min.
Director:  Ryan Steven Green
Producer:  Charles Pecoraro, David Torstenson

Synopsis:

Tired of being beat down, discouraged & scared by day-time talk shows & nightly news, the filmmakers of Circle the Wagen were fascinated & uplifted when they learned about the A.I.R.S. List; the Aircooled Interstate Rescue Squad. In addition to being the only way Dave could think of to save his 1972, baby blue Volkswagen bus, (stuck half-way cross the country after the first failed attempt); it was by FAR the most intriguing. Read more

Lion Ark movie poster

Lion Ark

Lion Ark
They lifted the curtain. Freedom Roared.


Lion Ark movie poster
Category:  Documentary / Wildlife
Country:  U.S. / United Kingdom
Language:  English
Rating:  PG
Runtime:  97 min.
Director:  Tim Phillips
Producer:  Jan Creamer, Tim Phillips

Filmmaker Attending

Synopsis:

More action adventure than traditional documentary, Lion Ark follows the world’s most ambitious and daring animal rescue with a narrative meticulously compiled from film, interviews, conversations and the reactions of participants as events actually unfold. The real stars are twenty-five lions saved from appalling conditions all over Bolivia and airlifted 5,000 miles to safety and freedom in Colorado. Read more

Lost in Living movie poster

Lost in Living

Lost in Living


Lost in Living movie poster
Category:  Documentary / Biography
Country:  U.S.
Language:  English
Rating:  PG-13
Runtime:  110 min.
Director:  Mary Trunk
Producer:  Mary Trunk

Filmmaker Attending

Synopsis:

Lost In Living is a documentary feature that explores the lives of four women over a seven-year period. Four women who share identities as mothers and the creative impulse that governs their very existence. Read more

The Institute movie poster

The Institute

The Institute
Is it a cult? Is it a game? Or is it a life changing adventure…


The Institute movie poster
Category:  Sci-Fi / Mockumentary
Country:  U.S.
Language:  English
Rating:  PG-13
Runtime:  91 min.
Director:  Spencer McCall
Producer:  Spencer McCall

Filmmaker Attending

Synopsis:

‘The Institute’ is a feature-length documentary that examines a San Francisco-based Alternate Reality Game, where thousands of participants got more than they bargained for. Read more