Films of the 2012 Arizona International Film Festival
Narrative Feature
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Below Zero Justin Thomas Ostensen Canada Website |
9:30 pm Crossroads Festival 10:00 pm Screening Room |
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Desperate for creative inspiration after his first and only film, horror screenwriter 'Jack the Hack' (Edward Furlong) makes a deal with his agent to sequester himself inside a meat locker in order to avoid worldly distractions and to induce ideas for his next big project.
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Bucksville Chel White USA Website |
7:00 pm Crossroads Festival |
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Following the path of his father and uncle, Presley reluctantly remains a loyal follower of his smalltown civilian militia, the Brotherhood of the Lodge. But when the group's lawless activities become increasingly violent, he risks his own life by challenging their vigilante methods.
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Fray Geoff Ryan USA Website |
6:00 pm Screening Room |
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Justin, a young war veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, finds that coming back home is filled with many unforeseen challenges. As a financial crisis and inadequate post-war veteran services conspire against Justin healing his physical and emotional scars, he maintains complicated relationships with his employer and teacher, at once accepting and rejecting their help.
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Il Cacciatore Di Anatre Egidio Veronesi Italy Website |
6:00 pm Screening Room |
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Duck season comes to a small, provincial Italian village celebrating it with a festival of wine, song, and dance. But the onset of World War II threatens the simple dreams of its various denizens.
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Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy Rob Heydon Canada Website |
9:00 pm Crossroads Festival 9:00 pm Screening Room |
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Based on a short story by Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting), director Rob Heydon revisits the gritty realism of the Scottish drug scene through the seemingly carefree life of Lloyd (Adam Sinclair), a raver, dealer, and user who escapes life's responsibilities while being bullied and coerced by the local kingpin.
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It's In the Blood Scooter Downey USA Website |
8:00 pm Screening Room |
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Two men (Lance Henriksen and Sean Elliot) with conflicting personalities find themselves stranded in an unforgiving wilderness with nothing but their instincts and the emotional baggage they carry. Through a set of strange and terrifying events, their past is slowly uncovered layer by layer.
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Meherjaan Rubaiyat Hossain Bangladesh Website |
7:00 pm Crossroads Festival 7:00 pm Crossroads Festival |
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Meher prefers to bury the memory of war in the soft forms of her sculpture. But when her young niece wants to hear about the past, Meher must face the truth head-on and finally mourn the love she lost.
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More Than Frybread Travis Hamilton Arizona/USA Website |
4:00 pm Crossroads Festival 4:30 pm Screening Room |
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Arizona's 22 federally recognized tribes convene in Flagstaff for the annual, regional state Frybread Championship. The prize: $10,000 and the spot to represent Arizona in the National Frybread Championship!
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Pariah Dee Rees USA |
7:00 pm Crossroads Festival |
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As if the ups-and-downs of everyday life aren't enough, Alike (Adepero Oduye) has to be contending with her dysfunctional family, keeping her sexuality a secret from them, and honing a passion for writing poetry that they don't necessarily agree with. What's a typical teenager girl to do?
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Ser Caro Duarte Mexico Website |
8:00 pm Screening Room |
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A young man is torn between those he loves in his small town and his passion for writing. Should he face his fears and go to big city? What would his dad have done?
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Shouting Secrets Korinna Sehringer Switzerland Website |
7:00 pm Crossroads Festival 1:00 pm Crossroads Festival 7:00 pm Desert View Theater 7:00 pm Screening Room |
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When successful novelist Wesley's mother suffers a stroke and falls into a coma, he returns to the San Carlos Apache Reservation to be with his family. There, he learns that they have not forgiven him for leaving them and using their likenesses in his novel.
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Spinning Kite Satoshi Kase Japan |
8:00 pm Screening Room |
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Fun-loving punk rockers Jun, Bunji, Maki, and Kido hope to never grow up. But one by one, the band mates face some very adult decisions. Will they be able to keep each other from spinning out of control?
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Welcoming Departure Scott Ballard USA Website |
6:00 pm Screening Room |
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Hank O'Shea lives a quiet life as a librarian who does nothing but go to work, do crosswords at the local diner, and bring home vinyl records for a simple night at home. When he suddenly inherits an estate that includes a sick, old, Norwegian woman he can't communicate with, Hank's world is turned upside-down.
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Documentary Feature
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#whilewewatch Kevin Breslin USA Website |
6:00 pm Screening Room |
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When mainstream media downplay Occupy Wall Street, the messengers become the Media - changing the relationship between citizens and their democracy.
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A Sister's Call Rebecca Schaper & Kyle Tekiela USA Website |
3:00 pm Crossroads Festival |
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After two decades of searching, Rebecca found her missing brother. He is homeless and mentally ill. Determined to help him, she and her family must confront some painful secrets.
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Ballybrando Brendan J. Byrne Ireland |
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Set in the Irish fishing village of Ballycotton, and starring Marlon Brando, Johnny Depp, Debra Winger, John Hurt, and Angelina Ball, Divine Rapture should have hit theaters in the mid-1990's. However, it was never completed, and Ballycotton residents can only reminisce about what might have been.
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Ballymun Lullaby Frank Berry Ireland Website |
8:00 pm Screening Room |
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Ron Coney has been teaching music in Ireland's only high-rise housing project for fifteen years. During this time, he has seen the area undergo a dramatic transformation, and he sets out to produce a collection of music to help the area's young people share their story.
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Bringing King to China Kevin McKiernan China/USA Website |
3:00 pm Crossroads Festival |
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A young American teacher decides to produce a play in China about Dr. Martin Luther King. She enlists China's most prestigious modern theatre and initiates a provocative cross-cultural dialogue.
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Circus Dreams Signe Taylor USA Website |
12:00 pm Crossroads Festival 1:00 pm Crossroads Festival |
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Where do circus performers come from? Meet Circus Smirkus, the only traveling youth circus in America. Packed under its Big Top tent are jugglers and acrobats, gymnasts and red-nosed clowns, performers between ten and eighteen, some of whom are in their first season, others veteran performers.
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Dislecksia: The Movie Harvey Hubbell V USA Website |
6:00 pm Crossroads Festival 7:00 pm Desert View Theater |
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Filmmaker Harvey Hubbell V is one of 35 million Americans who have dyslexia. Hubbell journeys across the USA to learn more about the condition, and discovers that scientists are close to unlocking the secrets of dyslexia, which is the key to teaching everyone how to read, and stamping out illiteracy.
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Girl Model Ashley Sabin & David Redmon USA Website |
6:00 pm Screening Room |
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Slender and blond, Nadya is only 13-years-old when she is discovered by Ashley, a model scout. This is Nadya's chance to leave her farming community in Siberia and make money to help her family. Promised jobs and thousands of dollars, she sets off alone for Tokyo to become a model.
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Inocente Susan MacLaury USA |
2:00 pm Screening Room |
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Fifteen year old Inocente is homeless. But she is also an artist whose vivid canvasses reach out to the world.
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Kinderblock 66: Return to Buchenwald Rob Cohen USA Website |
3:00 pm Crossroads Festival |
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On April 11, 1945, Buchenwald was liberated. Nearly 1000 young boys were alive in the camp. Sixty-five years later, several of these survivors return to Weimar and to Buchenwald. This is their story.
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Love Free or Die Macky Alston USA Website |
5:00 pm Crossroads Festival 8:00 pm Screening Room |
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Gene Robinson is the first openly gay partnered Episcopal bishop. Passionate about both love and justice, he challenges and inspires his colleagues and parishioners to live their faith.
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Money and Medicine Roger Weisberg USA Website |
2:00 pm Crossroads Festival 2:15 pm Desert View Theater |
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Weisberg's penetrating exploration of US healthcare reveals an unnerving statistic: unnecessary services account for 30% of healthcare costs, and the US spends 2 1/2 times more per capita than the average Western European country. Even worse, more healthcare does not guarantee better patient health, and on the contrary can be detrimental.
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Roadmap to Apartheid Ana Nogueira USA Website |
8:00 pm Screening Room |
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Two filmmakers, a white South African and a Jewish Israeli, explore the comparison of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict to South African apartheid.
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Signing On Barbara Allen USA Website |
7:00 pm Berger Theater |
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Anita Buel is a 24-year survivor and founder of the Pink Deafies, the only breast cancer support group for deaf women in the country. Shortly after a brief television interview on a local station, Buel became a magnet for deaf women across the US desperate for information about breast cancer.
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Smokin' Fish Luke Griswold-Tergis Canada/USA Website |
4:00 pm Screening Room |
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n Juneau, Alaska, Cory Mann is a half-Tlingit, half-white, hustling entrepreneur, always on the move. Yet, for a couple months each year, he leaves the dollar concept behind. Instead, he heads north to smoke salmon in his home village.
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Tales of the Waria Kathy Huang USA |
6:00 pm Screening Room |
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Waria are biological men who dress and live openly as women. They have long been a recognized group within Indonesia's predominantly Muslim culture. Three members of the waria and a former waria share their lives and unique circumstances.
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The Skin I'm In Broderick Fox Australia/USA Website |
8:00 pm Screening Room |
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A brush with death propels a young filmmaker to navigate an epic and transformational journey marked by the creation of his full back tattoo.
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Two Americans Daniel DeVivo and Valeria Fernández Arizona/USA Website |
7:00 pm Crossroads Festival 5:00 pm Crossroads Festival 6:00 pm Screening Room |
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Nine year old Kathy and Sheriff Arpaio have different ideas about immigration law enforcement and justice. The wrong decision risks devastating consequences for affected individuals, local government and Arizona.
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Under Arpaio Jason Aragon Arizona/USA Website |
2:00 pm Screening Room |
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He bills himself as tough on crime, but what is really happening in the Maricopa County communities where Sheriff Arpaio is conducting his crusade to enforce immigration laws?
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Up Heartbreak Hill Erica Scharf USA Website |
6:00 pm Screening Room |
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Three best friends live on the Navajo Indian Reservation in a town without running water, and where the high school graduation rate is 56%. Seniors in high school, they face a big decision about leaving their community for college.
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Veins in the Gulf Elizabeth Coffman & Ted Hardin USA Website |
4:00 pm Screening Room |
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Beside the hurricanes and oil spills, southern Louisiana is also the fastest disappearing land mass on the planet. Every 45 minutes, a football-field's worth of land is lost. Celebrated and beloved by residents, the wetlands of Louisiana are a striking victim of human choices made over decades.
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War Zone/Comfort Zone Lizzie Warren USA |
2:00 pm Oro Valley Library 12:00 pm Screening Room |
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Like the men in their units, women soldiers work long hours, face serious injury, and are at risk for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Transitioning back to civilian life is especially difficult as female veterans lack many of the services and much of the support available for their male counterparts.
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Where Did the Horny Toad Go? Stefanie Leland USA Website |
2:00 pm Screening Room 6:00 pm Oro Valley Library |
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Children used to play with horny toads when the strange looking creatures were everywhere and could be caught easily. These days, though, they're not so simple to find. In fact, many folks have never seen one. Where have these iconic reptiles gone?
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