2012 - Page 2 of 4 - BIFF - Beloit International Film Festival

Posted – Feb. 5, 2012

A film that always makes it onto the lists of favorites, most suspenseful, and best Hitchcock and Gregory Peck films, will provide a memorable closing film experience for this year’s 2012 Beloit International Film Festival.

Date: Sunday Feb. 19, 2012
Time: 2:30 pm
Location: Eclipse Center
Price: FREE

North by Northwest, the 1959 adventure of a hapless New York advertising executive mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies and with all the signature twists of an Alfred Hitchcock film, will be presented on the big screen at the Eclipse Center on Sunday, Feb. 19 at 2:30 p.m. The free film will celebrate the start of a new annual BIFF event, The Beloit First National Bank and Trust Company BIFF Closing Party. The film is presented in affiliation with Turner Classic Movies and Charter Communications.

North by Northwest will replace Casablanca which was originally scheduled for that time slot but was withdrawn by distributors in anticipation of its upcoming 70th anniversary re-release.

The iconic film scenes of a crop duster pursuing Gregory Peck throug
h cornfields as the tension builds, and the final dramatic chase across the façade of Mt. Rushmore, have provided anxious moments for moviegoers for more than a half century. Eva Marie Saint joins Peck, James Mason and Martin Landau in this cross-country adventure that never seems to get old and leaves one wondering how many of today’s adventures will have this kind of staying power.

“Today the film is seldom seen on a big screen which is why we chose it from among a list of great classic films made available to us by Turner Classic Movies,”, “This will be a great treat both for fans and for a new generation that has yet to experience the music, acting and the script that won it three Oscar nominations and a place in the National Film Registry.”

This new addition to BIFF will permit the showing each year of a major classic motion picture in its original theatre format.

Tickets for this event are free of charge.

The 2012 Beloit International Film Festival is sponsored by the Hendricks Group in association with Beloit College and with funding from Visit Beloit. It is supported and underwritten by many local businesses, organizations and individuals.

Volunteer Operational Instructional Video

in Uncategorized

Joel Mark Harris | Book signing during BIFF

Posted – Jan 25, 2012

Joel Mark Harris is very excited to be returning to this year’s Beloit International Film Festival. Joel is an award-winning journalist, producer and novelist. His film Neutral Territory, which screened in last year’s festival, has been shown in 22 festivals, nominated for 21 awards and won 7 including best picture and best cinematography. Last year, it was sold to Shaw Cable network and played across Canada.

Book Signing:

Date: Saturday, Feb. 18th.
Time: Noon – 2:00 p.m.
Location: BIFF Ticket Office (Visit Beloit offices, 500 Public Ave.)

Joel is now working on turning his critically-acclaimed novel, A Thousand Bayonets, into a film. Winner of the publisher’s editors’ choice award, A Thousand Bayonets is about a war correspondent who comes back from Afghanistan after being injured only to find a drug war brewing in his own back yard.

For details on the film and novel please check out the website www.thousandbayonets-movie.com.

Joel is also planning on filming his next product Witches of Whitewater in the surrounding area which will be directed by David Castillo. The Witches of Whitewater is about two university students who find some truth in the legends of witches haunting the town of Whitewater.

For all of Joel’s upcoming events and book signings please visit www.joelmarkharris.com or visit his Facebook page.

A Day Of Film for BIFF Volunteers (time change)

Posted – Jan 25, 2012

On Saturday, January 28 we will be hosting a day of film for our volunteers at La Casa Grande from 9 am – 9 pm. We will be running ‘tastes’ of some of the films to be shown at BIFF. The ‘tastes’ are longer than a trailer, but short of showing the entire film. It’s a tease of what’s in store for festival attendees, as well as a way for volunteers to select volunteer slots that include a film they will enjoy seeing.

NOTE TIME CHANGE
Date: Saturday January 28th
Time: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Location: La Casa Grande (618 4th Street, Beloit)
Admission: A commitment to at least one volunteer slot.

BIFF volunteer coordinators will be on hand for ambassadors to choose their date/time/location to serve.

BIFF student filmmakers | photo credit - Hillary Gaving, Beloit Daily News

Film Fest adds showcase for students’ work

Posted – Jan 21, 2012

by HILLARY GAVAN • JAN. 21, 2012
Beloit Daily News

Student filmmakers: From left McNeel Middle Schoolers Kyal Christianson, Tanner Castle, Braedon Churches, Tre Robinson and Keegan Meiers are thrilled with a film of basketball trick shots they are producing for submission in the Beloit International Film Festival's Student Film Makers Showcase. Several student groups are using technology at McNeel to produce short films.

Students will launch basketballs off trampolines and drip ketchup from their vampire mouths during the upcoming Beloit International Film Festival’s (BIFF) Student Filmmakers Showcase.

“We are going to keep going until we are old and can’t do anything,” said McNeel Middle School sixth grader Tre Robinson. “We love what we do.”

Tre, Team Captain Braedon Churches and friends Keegan Meiers, Tanner Castle and Kyal Christianson have been shooting basketballs off many stray surfaces. They’ve bounced off trampolines, climbed in trees and whacked at balls with hockey sticks to produce the ultimate trick-shooting film.

The boys trimmed their endless footage with special software to include only their best moves, and will submit “Kid Amazing” as part of the BIFF competition. Their footage is also available in four various editions on YouTube by typing in “Kid Amazing.”

“I drove my parents crazy watching it over and over,” Braedon said.

The Student Filmmakers Showcase is a new BIFF event in 2012, and is being put on thanks to a partnership with the Beloit Public Library. Melissa Hawks, an associate librarian and BIFF’s director of educational programming, said the showcase is for 6th – 12th grade students. Entries can be of any genre and must be between three and five minutes long.

The student films will be screened as part of BIFF Feb. 18 at the Beloit Public Library and will be free to the public. The grand prize winner, however, will receive an award at the annual Launch and Laurels party on Feb. 16 at the Eclipse Center.

At McNeel Middle School Media Specialist Lydia Bertram has been helping students utilize the proper filming tools. She said students are allowed to check out flip-phone recorders at the school and other technologies to edit footage. Students often meet after school to work on the projects.

McNeel sixth graders Rachel Goff, Savanna Hemmerling and Mikayla Hoey created a film about a scary dented-head monster. They call their flick “The Haunted Truth,” and said it’s both a comedy and horror film.

“We kept giggling a lot,” Rachel said.

“There are like 89 bloopers,” said Savanna.

McNeel seventh graders Abby Miller, Alyssa Reitan and Sydney Turner wrote “Epic Attack,” an elaborate screenplay about a girl on a computer reading a scary Facebook chain letter. A zombie, played by Alyssa, scares Abby before reappearing in her bathroom mirror and then bedroom. The scared girl then takes cover in her room, covering her face with a pair of pants.

“She (the zombie) goes to the door, pops out and bites her,” Abby said.

Alyssa said the biggest challenge of filming was keeping her zombie mouth full of ketchup for five minutes. She later spurts the bloody goo on Sydney during the biting incident.

“It’s so un-scary, it’s funny,” Abby said.

Abby said she hopes her experience will help her goal of performing with a band and debut in Phantom of the Opera. Alyssa said she hopes to become an actress and singer.

Sixth graders Mya Montalvo, Micah Lytle and Justin Hall are producing “The Stupids” about a stupid person who talks randomly to his patient and long-suffering pit bull.

Eighth graders Ana Pemberton, Makaela Tyler, Ja’ Lexus Hamilton, Porshalya Jones and sixth grader Marcus Range are producing a music film titled “B City Kids.”

The girls will be rapping and singing while Marcus breaks out his dance moves. Lyrics include “Get out of my space, get out of my face.”

Sixth graders Trinity Wright and Breanna Reitan are creating “The Haunted Room” where a girl is haunted by a she-spirit who died in the home. Breanna will be performing ghostly antics from the girl’s closet. Breanna noted she hopes to be a chef or filmmaker, while Breanna hopes to take her talents using cameras far in her future career.

Both girls hope they win and get the chance to attend the BIFF Launch & Laurels party. However, Trinity said her mother has plans to take her out to eat and to give her ice cream, whether she wins or not.

Students will be able to get more help with their films on Saturday at the Beloit Public Library at a prep day held from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Students will be able to bring in their projects for feedback or help with technical issues in the film making process. The submission deadline is Saturday, Jan. 28.

Hawks said the Student Filmmakers Showcase gives young people the opportunity to experience the film making process without having to commit to a huge project. The Student Filmmakers Showcase web page will links to help students get started, as well as links to copyright-free music and sound effects.

For more information visit the BIFF website at www.beloitfilmfest.org
BIFF Student Filmmakers Page

Kill Me Now

in Feature Films 2012

Friday: 7:30 pm – La Casa Grande
Saturday: 5:00 pm – Bushel & Peck’s

Genre: Comedy
Country: USA
Rating: PG-17
Runtime: 80 minutes
Director: Travis Long
Producer: Travis Long, Michael Swaim, Gareth West,Vahan Yepremyan

A serial killer attacks a party of teenage morons in a cabin in the woods. Hilarity ensues.

THIS IS PART OF CRACKED.COM EVENT

Short Slot 8

in Shorts 2012, BIFF Rockford 2012

Friday: 7:30 pm – Richardson Theater – Beloit College
(Note Location Change)
Saturday: 7:30 pm – Sullivan Theater

The Planting
Goldenbox
Remy
Int. Bedroom-day
CUTEeGRL
Fade in
In Her Eyes

The Planting

Genre: Drama
Country: Canada
Rating: R
Runtime: 5 minutes
Director: Jason R. Goode
Producer: Dylan Jenkinson

After a wasted life of digging holes and filling them back in, Chris is faced with the task of digging his last hole.

Goldenbox

Genre: Comedy, Action
Country: USA
Rating: R
Runtime: 16 minutes
Director: Matt MacDonald
Producer: Matt MacDonald, Damian Horan, Camila Ohara Tanabe

Best friends Jeff and Tucker have grown up like most boys: playing video games and causing mischief. Now, late into their 20s, Jeff’s new job promotion is moving him out of the country and away from Tucker’s irresponsibility forever. With one last night together, they have to break into the UP-Ex shipping facility to steal back a package – a mysterious golden box – and hope their friendship can survive the adventure

Remy

Genre: Drama
Country: Spain, USA
Rating: R
Runtime: 11 minutes
Director: Roi Fernandez
Producer: Roi Fernandez

A wig-seller with a secret life. A tango singer with a dark obsession. Both are bond by the night and tango.

Int. Bedroom-day

Genre: Comedy
Country: Canada
Rating: R
Runtime: 5 minutes
Director: Murray Stiller
Producer: Dean Emerick

A short film proving that in the bedroom performance is everything.

CUTEeGRL

Filmmaker at screening:

Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Rating: PG-17
Runtime: 20 minutes
Director: Jeton Murtishi, Doug McDade
Producer: Jeton Murtishi

An online chat room conversation with a child predator leads to a meeting with a loving family’s 14 year old daughter and an unexpected visitor.

Fade in

Genre: Drama, Comedy
Country: Singapore
Rating: R
Runtime: 8 minutes
Director: Derrick Lui
Producer: Derrick Lui

A beautiful woman examines her features for signs of fading fortune and looks. She wonders about change and aging and feels somehow that it is who she is.

In Her Eyes

Genre: Drama,Thriller
Country: Australia
Rating: R
Runtime: 19 minutes
Director: Robert Smellin, Chris Smellin
Producer: Lori Young

Short Slot 5

WINNER OF THE BIFF 2012 BEST ANIMATION AWARD…
Advanced Cybernetics

WINNER OF THE BIFF 2012 BEST WISCONSIN FILM AWARD…
Spare Change

Friday: 5:00 pm – Bagels & More
Saturday: 12:00 pm – Bagels & More

Advanced Cybernetics – WINNER BEST ANIMATION AWARD
Spare Change – WINNER BEST WISCONSIN FILM AWARD
Green Bangles
5 Minutes Each
Left Alone
This Too Shall Pass
Anima Mundi
Tinker
Wrigley and King
The Okra Planter
Late

Advanced Cybernetics

WINNER
BEST ANIMATION AWARD

Note: This film included in “Bundled Bests”
Sunday: noon – Angel Museum

Sunday: 2:30 pm – La Casa Grande

Genre: Animation
Country: USA
Rating: G
Runtime: 4 minutes
Director: Steven Day
Producer: Steven Day

Isolated on a wandering spacecraft, a sentient super-computer uses the ship’s nanotech assembler to experience the memories of its long-extinct crew.

Spare Change

WINNER
BEST WISCONSIN FILM AWARD

Note: This film included in “Bundled Bests”
Sunday: noon – Angel Museum

Sunday: 2:30 pm – La Casa Grande

Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Rating: G
Runtime: 13 minutes
Director: Aaron Greer
Producer: Mark Metcalf, Blyth Meier, Susan Santha Kerns, Lilly Czarnecki

A light-hearted, urban fable about a homeless man’s attempt to connect to the busy world around him.

Green Bangles

Genre: Drama
Country: USA, India
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 12 minutes
Director: Archana Shinde
Producer: Archana Shinde, Anjali Patil

When the efforts of a young girl to save her mother from her abusive father fail, she grows up with that guilt but as a grown woman, she can get rid of the burden by standing up for herself against a bullying husband.

5 Minutes Each

Genre: Drama, Animation
Country: Canada, Serbia/Montenegro
Rating: G
Runtime: 10 minutes
Director: Vojin Vasovic
Producer: Vojin Vasovic, Stevan Mitrovic

A metaphorical story about the constant struggle of the artist to reach those five minutes of limelight. A tale about an upswing and downfall, with the climax appearing concurrently and unexpectedly. The hermetical life of artists, who are enclosed into their own world of ideas, striving to create the epochal masterpiece.

Even if they succeed, the image they create is the reflection of themselves. And with the same fervor, they repeat the process in endless cycles.

Left Alone

Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 15 minutes
Director: Seth Boggess
Producer: Natasha Warloe, Terri Boggess, David Wahrer

Ian is a Chicago cab driver searching for someone who will listen. As he grieves the death of his son, Ian is compelled to reach out to the strangers he encounters one night on the job. Based on the Anton Chekhov short story Misery, Left Alone is a short film that explores our need for compassionate listening when we’re in pain, and the obstacles we face in that pursuit.

This Too Shall Pass

Genre: Family
Country: USA
Rating: G
Runtime: 3 minutes
Director: Marc Wiskemann
Producer: Marc Wiskemann

A brief glimpse into the effects of time and our place on this earth.

Anima Mundi

Genre: Experimental
Country: USA
Rating: G
Runtime: 4 minutes
Director: Katherine Balsley
Producer: Katherine Balsley

‘Anima mundi,’ a latin phrase meaning ‘spirit of the world,’ Filmmaker, animator, video artist and UW-Milwaukee instructor Kate Balsley, combines thousands of individual images of flowers, both with and cultivated, to create a unique, fluid aesthetic, celebrating the beauty of the natural.

Tinker

Genre: Comedy
Country: USA
Rating: PG
Runtime: 7 minutes
Director: Dylan Damian
Producer: Eric Mittan, Rebecca Connor

With the help of his family, Noah Flowers discovers he really can do anything.

Wrigley and King

Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 9 minutes
Director: Cornelius Murphy
Producer: Robert Giordani, Jessica Shurber

A man attends his brother’s funeral and reflects on a childhood memory when his brother took revenge against a neighbor for killing the family dog.

The Okra Planter

Genre: Comedy
Country: Brazil
Rating: G
Runtime: 15 minutes
Director: Jair Molina Jr
Producer: Andrei Moyssiadis

An okra farmer must choose which bicycle to purchase: a utilitarian model or the pink one desired by his daughter.

Late

Genre: Drama
Country: Canada
Rating: (n/a)
Runtime: 8 min.
Director: Jason Goode
Producer: Chris Hanson, Dylan Jenkinson

Two strangers struggle for a completely honest connection in a chance, and brief, encounter at a café.

Short Slot 7

WINNER OF THE BIFF 2012 BEST STUDENT FILM AWARD…
CYCLICITY

Friday: 10:00 pm – La Casa Grande
Saturday: 12:00 pm – Bushel & Pecks

Arthur
Cyclicity – WINNER BEST STUDENT FILM AWARD
Us
A Comic Author X-Ray
Sunday
Sated
Kwik Fix
Naia And The Moon

Arthur

Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 10 minutes
Director: John Jacobsen
Producer: Chris Oliver

Arthur is the story of a young boy just learning to take a stand for what is right. When his mother goes out for a run, he must use his imagination to travel through the darkness to overcome the dangerous beast that threatens his family.

Cyclicity
WINNER
BEST STUDENT FILM

Note: This film included in “Bundled Bests”
Sunday: noon – Angel Museum

Sunday: 2:30 pm – La Casa Grande

Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Rating: PG-17
Runtime: 11 minutes
Director: Jason Knade
Producer: Jason Knade

Cyclicity is a girl meets girl love story that explores philosophical themes and contemporary romance while showing the life of a relationship, from beginning to end, from the first hopeful spark of attraction to the painful final goodbyes.

Us

Genre: Drama
Country: Spain, USA
Rating: PG-17
Runtime: 5 minutes
Director: Àlex Lora
Producer: Carlota Royuela

A girl with different boys thinks… a boy with different girls thinks… meanwhile the same question divide them…

A Comic Author X-Ray

Genre: Drama
Country: Spain
Rating: PG-17
Runtime: 20 minutes
Director: Marcos Nine
Producer: Marcos Nine, Alicia Veira, Alfredo Alemparte

David Rubin makes a comic book about his feelings while his private life is being filmed for a documentary. A journey through the imagination of one of the most important comic authors of the moment.

Sunday

Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Rating: PG-17
Runtime: 13 minutes
Director: Dominic López
Producer: Dominic López, James D. Schumacher III, Isaac Brooks

Cassie and Mamet have great news to share with one another. Each disclosure will take their relationship to an amazing next step. However, an unexpected reaction threatens to ruin their whole world.

Sated

Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 7 minutes
Director: Tyler Breitbach, Charles Cunliffe
Producer: Mary Cunliffe

Living in a “pressure cooker”, a young man survives only through his fantasies of revenge until finally hies is free, he is sated.

Kwik Fix

Genre: Comedy
Country: Australia
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 11 minutes
Director: Kelly Hucker
Producer: Fiona Leally

A portrayal of people we all know but hardly ever acknowledge, and a man with a dream no one else shares.

Naia And The Moon

Genre: Drama
Country: Brazil
Rating: PG
Runtime: 13 minutes
Director: Leandro Tadashi
Producer: Leandro Tadashi

Based on an indigenous tale from the Amazon Rainforest, a girl falls in love with the moon after learing how the stars were created

Short Slot 6

Friday: 12:00 pm – Bushel & Pecks
Saturday: 5:00 pm – Nikki’s Cafe

Voice
Love and War
Momento
Think Big-Think Small-Scale
In The Cooler
Misserable Peace
That’s Showbiz
Alienware Industries
Community
Mister Atse in the Pursuit of an ascending career

Voice

Genre: Animation
Country: USA
Rated: G
Runtime: 5 minutes
Director: Hedy Yudaw
Producer: Hedy Yudaw

An experimental animated poem that reflects a sad loss.

Love and War

Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 15 minutes
Director: Lautaro Gabriel Gonda
Producer: Lautaro Gabriel Gonda

In a muddy hole in war-torn Europe our hero suffers a wound and laments a lost love, and back stateside in a swanky ’20s lounge he battles back and forth with various women. He’s a lover and a fighter, damaged but determined. With the help of a beautiful young nurse he heals and returns to the front to face his fate.

The Momento

Genre: Horror, Thriller
Country: USA
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 7 minutes
Director: Stephen Pickering
Producer: Stephen Pickering

On his way home late at night, a friendly driver stops to offer a ride to a hitchhiker. Their drive pauses at the driver’s home where they go inside and warm up with a cup of coffee and a shocking revelation.

Think Big-Think Small-Scale

Genre: Documentary
Country: Brazil
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 7 minutes
Director: Luana Lobo
Producer: Luana Lobo

A short documentary about Sergio Cezar’s art and its power of transformation. Sergio is also known as “Cardboard Architect”. He uses micro-trash to recreate facades, slums and whole cities. His work is an invitation for recycling the way we look at things

In The Cooler

Genre: Drama, Comedy
Country: USA
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 12 minutes
Director: Brad Binning
Producer: Brad Binning

In a heater-less car on a frozen day, stuck between his boss’s funeral and funeral procession, a man ponders life, loss, pigeons, urinals, and what might happen when he talks to the boss’s wife.

Misserable Peace

Genre: Drama, Crime
Country: USA
Rated: PG
Runtime: 10 minutes
Director: Evan Trout, Nick Tucco
Producer: Evan Trout, Nick Tucco

A young man reflects on past events that led up to a fatal tragedy. The story begins with simple love that soon crumbles into a nightmare. He is faced with a moral dilemma that will not only change the course of his life, but many others. Miserable Peace is a riddle that remains unresolved until the final seconds of the film.

That’s Showbiz

Genre: Comedy
Country: USA
Rated: G
Runtime: 2 minutes
Director: Robert Jarzen
Producer: Robert Jarzen, Jim Lyke

Follow the creative process in show business from the blank page to the critic… in one minute.

Alienware Industries

Genre: Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Rated: G
Runtime: 7 minutes
Director: Johnny Wittnebel
Producer: Jody Wittnebell, John Wittnebell

2 aliens are sent to earth disguised as humans to study the way of the “earthlings”.

Community

Genre: Documentary
Country: USA
Rated: G
Runtime: 10 minutes
Director: Marc Kornblatt
Producer: Marc Kornblatt

Community’ is’ a short documentary about co-operative learning in and beyond a diverse third grade Wisconsin classroom. The film features narration by students explaining what they think of their work as they jump rope together, sing, solve math problems, read to kindergartners, learn about Martin Luther King’ with senior citizens and persevere on a six-mile round-trip hike to their state capitol. As the children reveal the importance of forging positive relationships, they are wise, charming and a pleasure to watch.

Mister Atse in the Pursuit of an ascending career

Genre: Animation
Country: Netherlands
Rated: G
Runtime: 6 minutes
Director: Hein van Dijk
Producer: Hein van Dijk

Mr.Atse in pursuit of an ascending career.

Country: USA
Rated: G
Runtime: 5 minutes
Director: Hedy Yudaw
Producer: Hedy Yudaw

Short Slot 2

Thursday: 7:30 pm – Beloit Library
Friday: 2:30 pm – La Casa Grande

The Secret Friend
Out of Erasers
On the Beat – Soata
Negative
The 36
My Brother Greg
On Time
Art on the Bridge
Traces of Other

The Secret Friend

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Country: Brazil, USA
Rated: G
Runtime: 16 minutes
Director: Flavio Alves
Producer: Nicholas Eisenberg, Raina Oberlin, Flavio Alves, Fernando Pinheiro

A reclusive, elderly widow, Anna Marshall (Viola Harris), lives in quiet desperation until she begins receiving daily calls from a silent stranger. An odd and mysterious friendship evolves between the two, as Anna begins to share her life experiences with startling honesty. Empty days are given new hope, but when the calls abruptly end, a devastated Anna is compelled to surprising action to fill the unbearable void.

Out of Erasers

Genre: Animation, Drama Horror
Country: Denmark, Sweden
Rated: PG
Runtime: 14 minutes
Director: Erik Rosenlund
Producer: Daniel Wirtberg

A woman on her way home becomes a victim of a strange infection. She soon realizes that an epidemic is spreading and there are larger forces at work. While struggling to find a cure she also discovers that desperate times require hard choices.

http://vimeo.com/13482868

On the Beat – Soata

Country: Brazil
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 3 minutes

The joys of Brazilian music and dance are explored through a unique animation of natural elements.

Negative

Genre: Drama, Documentary
Country: Israel
Rated: PG
Runtime: 16 minutes
Director: Yoav Hornung
Producer: Yoav Hornung

Irit, a woman in her mid-sixties, is taking photographs in the park. when a young guy suspects that she took a picture of him he sits next to her and they start to talk. A short conversation and a dark room will lead to an intimate situation that Irit never expected. Things get more complicated when her beautiful young granddaughter shows up.

The 36

Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Rated: PG
Runtime: 7 minutes
Director: Keaton Manning
Producer: Keaton Manning

“The 36” follows an old Polish woman who encounters a Jewish teenage girl, on her journey home from the liberated concentration camps. Derived from Yiddish, The Lamed Vav Zaddikim: a theory that the fate of the world rests, at any given time, in the hands of 36 righteous people. They are put on earth to perform the healing of the world.

My Brother Greg

Genre: Animation Drama
Country: United Kingdom
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 10 minutes
Director: Philipp Enders
Producer: Philipp Enders

Greg hates flies. Morning after morning, those little brats bring him a new nightmare. Four short episodes, which change between humor and scare, tell us of the effect these wrong-headed day-breaks have on our protagonist. Mostly they end in one of Greg’s temper tantrums. Yet, his brother, the narrator of the film, plays a role as important as Greg himself. His voice is as tender as if he were telling us a bedtime story and the plot almost seems like episodes of a personal diary that are revised over and over again. The viewer cannot avoid assuming, that this ominous brother has made up the whole story.

On Time

Genre: Drama
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 18 minutes
Director: Robert W. Angell
Producer: Robert W. Angell

A man reflects on his life, before he decides to end it.

Art on the Bridge

Genre: Documentary
Country: United Kingdom, Czech Republic
Rated: G
Runtime: 11 minutes
Director: Jonas Zimmermann, Michelle Horn
Producer: Jonas Zimmermann, Michelle Horn

A portrayal of the lives of street artists and vendors on the Charles Bridge in Prague. The film looks at the tightrope walk between art and commerce..

Traces of Other

Genre: Animation
Rated: G
Runtime: 6 minutes
Director: Daisuke Nagaoka
Producer: Daisuke Nagaoka

Works of Jonn Herschend (The)
WINNER | Josh Burton Award

WINNER
The BIFF 2012 JOSH BURTON AWARD

Thur: 10:00 pm – Hendricks Art Center
Friday: 5:00 pm – Angel Museum

Sunday: Noon – Nikki’s Cafe
(Screening Added for Award Winners)

Genre: Various
Country: USA
Rating: PG
Runtime: 54 minutes
Director: Jonn Herschend
Producer: Jonn Herschend

Jonn Herschend is a publisher, filmmaker and visual artist. His films and installations have been exhibited in Museums, Galleries and Art centers internationally and nationally, including a recent exhibition at Den Frie Contemporary Art Center in Copenhagen, Denmark and an on-line film series with the Oakland Museum of California. His work has appeared at LKV Gallery, Norway; the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art; Diverse Works, Houston Texas; the Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and the San Francisco International Film Festival, where his short film, “Embrace of the Irrational,” won a 2010 Golden Gate award.

He is currently co-editor and publisher (along with visual artist Will Rogan) of THE THING Quarterly, an object based publication that has featured issues by the likes of Miranda July, James Franco, Jonathan Lethem, and Dave Eggers. He has been a visiting lecturer at the University of California Berkeley, and Stanford University and is currently a senior lecturer at San Francisco State University and California College of Art.

The Thing Quarterly

Sixty in 60

Thursday: 7:30 pm – Domenico’s
Friday: 2:30 pm – Nikki’s Cafe

Genre: Documentary
Country: USA
Rating: PG
Runtime: 60 minutes
Director: Ronnie Cramer
Producer: Ronnie Cramer

An experimental art film featuring sixty one-minute works of many types. Genres represented include abstract, animation, documentary, experimental, narrative, stop-motion, time-lapse and video art.

Hood to Coast

Thursday: 10:00 pm – Domenico’s
Friday: 2:30 pm – Bagels & More

Genre: Documentary
Country: USA
Rating: G
Runtime: 102 minutes
Director: Christoph Baaden, Marcie Hume
Producer: Christoph Baaden, Marcie Hume, Anna Campbell

The film 4 unlikely teams on their epic journey to conquer the world’s largest relay race. Winning isn’t everything in this documentary that takes a look at motivation and attempting the extraordinary

Hamesima X

in Feature Films 2012, BIFF Janesville 2012

Thursday: 7:30 pm – Hendricks Art Center
Saturday: 7:30 pm – Speakeasy I

Genre: Drama, Action
Country: Israel, USA
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 92 minutes
Director: Or Yashar, Yuval Ovadia
Producer: Yuval Ovadia

A man is sent to Earth on a mysterious mission and caught trying to infiltrate the Mossad’s most highly classified facility. During an intensive interrogation, instead of getting the information he was hoping for, the Mossad’s investigator is surprised to be given mystical information and Kabalistic secrets. The district psychiatrist, a Holocaust survivor who still carries with him a trauma from the past, joins the investigation, while, a strange beggar who speaks in rhyme, and an imaginary figure in black, who wages Kung fu battles, are trying to get the interrogee to abandon his mission. Meanwhile, the investigator finds himself in a compound situation, as the interrogee reveals details from his father’s past during the Holocaust and unfolds the secret of his father’s will.

Elevate

Thursday: 7:30 pm – Rotary Center
Saturday: 2:30 pm – Rotary Center

Genre: Documentary
Country: USA
Rating: PG
Runtime: 83 minutes
Director: Anne Buford
Producer: Anne Buford, Victoria Yoffie, Mark Becker

Elevate documents the extraordinary personal journeys of four particularly tall West African Muslim teenagers. Recruited for both their physical and academic skills they accept basketball scholarships to schools in the United States–and face the daunting challenges of alienation, a foreign language, American-style basketball and an unfamiliar American culture rife with African stereotypes. But with courage, humor, and remarkable resilience, they relentlessly pursue their dreams–to obtain an education and a shot at the NBA.

Will The Real Terrorist Please Stand Up?

Thursday: 7:30 pm – Wilson Theater
Saturday: 10:00 pm – Bagels & More

Genre: Documentary
Country: USA, Cuba
Rating: PG
Runtime: 65 minutes
Director: Saul Landau
Producer: Julia Landau, Saul Landau

Award-winning director Saul Landau embarks on an in-depth exploration of Miami-Havana politics through the story of the Cuban 5, a group of spies sent by the Castro government to infiltrate right-wing terrorist organizations in Miami. When the spies turned over evidence of US-based terrorism to the FBI, they themselves were arrested, tried, and convicted in Florida courts while the confessed anti-Castro terrorists live freely in Florida.

Go West Happy Cow

in Feature Films 2012, BIFF Janesville 2012

Thur: 10:00 pm – Bushel & Peck’s
Friday: 7:30 pm – Speakeasy II

Additional Screening Added:
Friday: 10:00 pm – Domenicos (NEW)

Genre: Adventure, Comedy
Country: USA
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 87 minutes
Director: Tyler Knowles
Producer: Derek Hildebrandt, Valerie Wulf, Jack Knowles

The ultimate road trip from Wisconsin to California hauling the highly sought after HAPPY COW products. Mike and Kurt, the Happy Cow, rumble through 2,200+ miles of countryside sharing their Wisconsin love with displaced Sconnies. Hilarity ensues.

Barkleys of Broadway (The)

in Feature Films 2012

Friday: 7:30 pm – Angel Museum

Genre: Musical Comedy
Country: USA
Rating: G
Runtime: 59 minutes
Director: Charles Walters
Producer: Harry Strandling Sr.

Josh and Dinah Barkley are a successful (though argumentative) musical-comedy team, yet Dinah chafes as Galatea to her husband’s Pygmalion. When serious playwright Jacques Barredout envisions her as a great dramatic actress, Dinah is not hard to persuade.

Living River: The Ganges

Friday: 2:30 pm – Beloit Library
Saturday: 12:00 pm – Rotary Center

Genre: Adventure
Country: India, USA
Rating: G
Runtime: 59 minutes
Director: Vinit Parmar
Producer: Vinit Parmar

Living River is a groundbreaking and up-close look at the pollution that’s been an ecological scourge troubling the revered Ganges River in India.

The film delivers as yet an unexplored and authentic view of the river and the people struggling to compel change. With unprecedented access, the film brings to light an age-old industry of leather production in transition, bringing in USD$4 Billion to the Indian economy at a cost of degradation of the environment and the health of the residents. Does the end justify the means? This film illustrates the irony of Hindus profiting from the skin of “holy” cows while polluting the “sacred” Ganges River.

The exposed water pollution in India is a red flag for fresh water rivers around the world suffering from endemic problems of improper and inadequate treatment plants, illegal activities by chemical industries along riverbanks, improper oversight and weak implementation of government regulatory agencies, corruption, and lack of public awareness.

Inuk

in Feature Films 2012, BIFF Janesville 2012

Friday: 5:00 pm – Beloit Library
Saturday: 5:00 pm – Woman’s Club

Genre: Adventure
Country: France, Greenland
Rating: G
Runtime: 90 minutes
Director: Mike Magidson
Producer: Mike Magidson, Sylvie Barbe

In Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, sixteen year-old INUK lives a troubled life with his alcoholic mother and violent step-father. After finding Inuk half frozen in an abandoned car, the social services decide to send him to a children’s home on a tiny island in the middle of the arctic sea-ice. While roaming the island, Inuk meets the intimidating and mysterious polar bear hunter, IKUMA. When the children’s home’s warm-hearted director, AVIAAJA, convinces Ikuma to take Inuk on his annual hunting trip nobody realizes that the most difficult part of the journey will be the one they must make within themselves…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeGdC6g1oD0

Wisconsin Supper Clubs – An Old Fashioned Experience

Friday: 5:00 pm – Bushel & Peck’s
Saturday: 5:00 pm – Domenico’s

Additional Screening Added:
Friday: 10:00 pm – Domenicos (NEW)

Genre: Documentary
Country: USA
Rating: G
Runtime: 55 minutes
Director: Ron Faiola
Producer: Ron Faiola

Wisconsin supper clubs have been a dining tradition for generations, but as corporate chains increase, are these family owned establishments fading away or will they find a resurgence with their unique identities and scenic locations?

Wisconsin Supper Clubs ~ An Old Fashioned Experience shows why supper clubs are such a big part of Wisconsin’s food culture and the full experience of supper club dining: a brandy old fashioned sweet at the bar, relish trays at the table, huge portions of steaks, seafood and game, and the friendly, loyal customers who have been dining at their favorite places for so many years.

Life! Camera Action…

in Feature Films 2012

Friday: 2:30 pm – Bushel & Peck’s
Saturday: 7:30 pm – Bagels & More

Genre: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Rating: PG
Runtime: 90 minutes
Director: Rohit Gupta
Producer: Rohit Gupta

An inspiring story of Reina, a young girl, who sets off to pursue a career in filmmaking against the wishes of her family and as she tries to make ends meet, Reina begins to seen another dream – to prove to her parents that her drive for her dream is sincere and while being born with a personality may be an inherent gift from one’s parents, but to live as a personality is an achievement of our own and a return gift to one’s parents.

Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy

in Feature Films 2012, BIFF Rockford 2012

Friday: 7:30 pm – Bushel & Peck’s
Saturday: 10:00 pm – Sullivan Theater

Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Rating: MA
Runtime: 101 minutes
Director: Rob Heydon
Producer: Rob Heydon

ECSTASY is a dark romantic comedy, based on the controversial book, “Ecstasy”, by Irvine Welsh. “Ecstasy”, was translated into 20 languages and was a number one bestseller in over 20 countries. Mr. Welsh’s first book, “Trainspotting”, published in 1993, (and voted by Waterstone, Europe’s largest bookstore chain, as one of the Ten Best Books of the Century), sold over 1 million copies in the UK alone, and has its own Cinematic Cinderella success story.