18 minutes, 2007 DVCAM, USA By Rod Bradley World Premiere Big Sky Award Competition

Since childhood, artist Jacqueline Rieder Hud has viewed animals as kindred creatures who teach us about ourselves and our surrounding world. Painting the Wild not only portrays the artist as she grapples with painting the wild spirits of the horse and the wolf but also reveals her creative methods of spiritual healing and self-understanding.

www.boydogmovie.com

59 minutes, 2004 DVCAM, USA By Renee Bergan

Paul Soldner: Playing with Fire, explores the life and art of Paul Soldner – a revolutionary ceramic artist who transformed a three thousand year old craft into a new way of expressing modern art. While earning an MFA at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angles during the mid-1950s, Paul Soldner challenged the established ceramic aesthetic – much like the New York school painters, like Jackson Pollack, did by creating the Abstract Expressionist Movement. It was during this Otis movement that ceramic art graduated from function to fine art. Paul Soldner was at the forefront of this revolutionary period, pushing the boundaries of what the clay and the kiln could do. Today, at 84 and after decades of teaching his skills to younger generations, Paul is still on the cutting edge of modern ceramic sculpture. He pushes no one harder than himself, understanding that one’s only limitation is one’s own imagination.

Renegade Pictures, Inc.
275 Rosario Park Rd.
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
805.967.4679-ph
805.967.5248-f
www.renegadepix.net
www.playingwithfirethemovie.com

6 minutes, 2006 DV, USA By Hilari Scarl World Premiere MiniDocs Competition

Laws and physical obstacles prohibiting skateboards in public spaces roused an ambitious bunch of skaters to build their own skate park under a freeway and embrace the poetry and freedom of the sport. Made in just five days as part of the International Documentary Challenge.

www.documentarychallenge.org
www.HilariScarl.com

Peaceable Kingdom
70 minutes, 2004 DVCAM, USA By Jenny Stein & James LaVeck

Imagine awakening one day to realize that the work you were trained to do since birth, and the values that had been taught in your family for generations, went against the deepest part of your being. In Peaceable Kingdom, we hear from a Montana cattleman whose angst about the treatment of farm animals has alienated him from his community, a Michigan farmer whose life is turned upside down by the affection of a rescued sanctuary cow, and a young couple who stumble upon a massive injustice hidden away by the factory farming industry. An inspiring story of personal redemption, compassion, healing and hope.

Tribe of Heart
PO Box 149
Ithaca, NY 14851
(607) 275-0806 x111
mail@tribeofheart.org
www.tribeofheart.org

87 minutes, 2003 DVCAM, USA By John Cadigan

During his senior year of college, artist John Cadigan had a psychotic break. He dropped out, cycled through a number of doctors and medications, then decided to film his agonizing struggle with mental illness. People Say I’m Crazy is the first-ever documentary photographed and directed by someone with schizophrenia. John invites audiences to tour the world inside his “beautiful mind” - a chaotic, paranoid and creative universe, where he struggles to know what is real. Over the decade-long course of his illness, he films his meltdowns and triumphs, his family and friends - shattering cultural notions of “madness.”

Zena Wyss
1330 N. Gardener St. #210
Los Angeles, CA 90046
323-969-8500
ZENALEIGH3@YAHOO.COM
www.peoplesayimcrazy.org

87 minutes, 2003 DV, Germany/Switzerland By Lukas Schmid & Tom Streuber

Robert "Rappa," is an 18 year old addicted criminal.   After getting caught in one crime, he is sentenced to three months in a monastery - a sort of "work education institution". Together with seven other addicted delinquents, he has to learn that   a "normal life" should be a goal. Rappa has three months to prove his attitude changed or he has to stay for at least two more years.   This   observational documentary accompanies Rappa and the other inhabitants during these three months.

  "...a brilliant filmed opus", Filmwoche

Tom Streuber
+49 163 6386512
luxor@flo.to

40 minutes, 2005 miniDV, Iran By Kamal Bahar

Using a series of interviews with everyday Iranians, PHASE, Iran 2005 documents common perceptions of drug use in Iran. During recent years, traditional opium use is gradually replaced by the proliferation of synthetic drugs including Ecstasy. Young people have their own personal and social motives and reasoning to take X.   Escaping present political and cultural realities seems to be a common theme. PHASE, Iran 2005 is a journey into the spirit of a society with scarcity of happiness and hope.

Mr. Massih Bahar
Bahar Doc Film
249, Karegar Shomali St, Bahar lab Bldg.
Tehran 14146 - Iran
T: + 98 21 88 96 95 45
M: +98912 1000 227
www.bahar-doc-film.com
massih@bahars.ir

27 minutes, 2007 miniDV, USA By Casey Hayward World Premiere Documentary Short Competition

Ed Marko lost sight of “Plan A”--literally. The story of this occupational-therapist-turned-auto-mechanic would be unremarkable except that, at the age of 20, Marko lost his eyesight to a degenerative disease. An avowed anti-hero, Marko’s modest and unassuming life is powerfully and humorously documented in Plan F, which follows his daily routine as the owner of an auto repair shop. Navigating piles of parts, uncooperative employees, a pesky cat, and customers’ unruly cars, Plan F is a visual demonstration of the power of reinvention when life unexpectedly changes the plan.

http://audience.withoutabox.com/films/planf

Platinum
54 minutes, 2005 miniDV/8mm/16mm, USA By Sean Pecknold

In 1985, they found the mountain... and dreamed of a contest... Hidden away in the remote mountains of the Pacific Northwest, the pioneers of snowboarding created a race, not for money or fame, but for the sake of pure riding. Since those early days The Mt. Baker Legendary Banked Slalom has remained true to the essence of snowboarding. Every year, pioneers and pros from around the world return to their roots and race side by side with the next generation of riders for a roll of duct tape. This film celebrates the past, present, and future of a race that defined the soul of a sport.

Sean Pecknold
Flying Spot Pictures
1008 Western Ave. Suite 201
Seattle, WA 98104
(206)464-0744
www.flyingspot.com
sean@flyingspot.com

75 minutes, 2003 miniDV, USA By Jane Gray

Playing House is a compelling and humorous verité documentary that presents a portrait of five seventh- and eighth-grade girls during their first year at Fay School, the oldest junior boarding school in America. The film takes place primarily in the dormitory the girls share, Webster House, where we watch their everyday lives unfold as they make friends and enemies, have their first dates, and sleep with stuffed animals. Through a series of intimate vignettes, Playing House follows the girls from September, when their parents kiss and hug them good-bye, to June, when their good-byes to each other are surprisingly teary given the rocky year they’ve shared.

People’s Choice Award, Seattle International Documentary Festival

Berkeley Media LLC
Saul Zaentz Film Center
2600 Tenth Street, Suite 626
Berkeley, CA 94710
Phone: (510) 486-9900
Fax: (510) 486-9944
e-mail: info@berkeleymedia.com
http:// www.berkeleymedia.com
www.purple-house.com

73 minutes, 2004 Digibeta, Israel By Danny Clinch

An intriguing and in-depth look at the life that is lived by contemporary roots rock icon Ben Harper. This documentary offers a rare glimpse into Ben's travels, performances, song writing, religion and life in general.   Along with a rare behind-the-scenes perspective of the lives that these enigmatic musicians live, it incorporates concert footage, backstage clips and what goes into producing Ben Harper's performances.   Not just another self-indulgent music documentary, Pleasure & Pain lives up to its name by showing the imperfect yet true humanity behind the performer on a pedestal.

Matt Henderson
Seventh Art Releasing
7551 Sunset Blvd., Suite 104
Los Angeles, CA   90046
(323)845-1455
www.7thart.com
matt@7thart.com

10 minutes, 2004 Digital Still Camera, USA By Tom Fullum

Bipolar Disorder is a stigmatized, misunderstood medical condition that affects millions of people. Whether genetic, environmental, or both, the brain’s ability to handle stress is compromised by unregulated releases of critical mood-controlling chemicals and faulty nerve synapses that handle their circulation. Long periods of depression bring isolation, guilt, and despair, while episodic bouts of mania can deliver destructive rages and anxiety, but also intense euphoria and creativity. Polaroid offers a glimpse through imagery, music, and self-reflection into the struggle to understand and manage a life channeled by the disorder

Tom Fullum
tfullum@wildrockies.org
phone 406-829-8999
406-360-4286 cell

52 minutes, 2005 Beta SP, Poland By Ireneusz Dobrowolski North American Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

The Portraitist is the story of pre-war photographer Wilhelm Brasse. Prior to World War II, photography was Brasse's life passion. However, after being imprisoned in Auschwitz and forced to take photos of not only prisoners and SS officers but also victims of medical experiments, this creative passion was permanently altered. When the war ended, Wilhelm Brasse rescued the camp's archives but never took a photo again.

Ireneusz Dobrowolski
www.international.tvp.pl

57 minutes, 1992 16mm, USA By Clay Walker

Political heavy-weights populate this urgent and humorous documentary on the detonative mix of art and politics as embodied in the work of infamous 'guerilla' poster artist Robbie Conal, a professional painter who has splattered hundreds of thousands of his caricatured paintings-as-posters across the United States' urban streets. Photographed in the grainy nighttime streets and in the well-lit galleries of Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City, this award winning film documents Conal's efforts through a variety of perspectives, including interviews with gallery owners, city officials, Daryl Gates, actor Tim Robbins, the Reagans and even Oliver North

"Powerful and irreverent, thoroughly engaging and smartly done..." - Atlanta Journal Constitution

1st Place, 1992 Chicago Int'l Film Festival

Plan B Productions
www.planbproductions.com
info@planbproductions.com

Primary
53 minutes, 1960 16mm, USA By Robert Drew

Shot by Albert Maysles, Richard Leacock, D.A Pennebaker, Terry Filgate, and Terrence McCartney, Primary is the first American film in which the sync sound camera moved freely with characters through a breaking story – Senator John F. Kennedy running against Senator Hubert Humphrey in the 1960 Wisconsin presidential primary. “A new kind of reporting, a new form of history,” Robert Drew promised John F. Kennedy. He was proposing that a small camera and sync sound recorder follow Kennedy day and night for nearly a week during the climax of his Wisconsin run. Primary turned out to be a cinematic experience unique in the history of film, the first in the development of American “cinema verite.” Freewheeling photography by Leacock, Maysles, Pennebaker and Filgate captured Kennedy’s stellar presence and Jackie’s quiet radiance. Primary builds with dramatic tension as the candidates await the returns, capturing the flavor of campaign politics as never before seen on film.

“Long before K Street, before The War Room or The Candidate, and way before anyone had heard of ‘reality TV,’ there was Primary. ... the father of them all. ... a technical and stylistic breakthrough.... Drew captured Kennedy and Humphrey in ways that contemporary media-savvy candidates would never permit..... We see more now, but we learn less.”
 - The Washington Post, December 2003

Drew Associates, Inc
95 - 81st Street
Brooklyn, NY 11209, USA
718)238-7498
annedrew@aol.com
www.drewassociates.net

66 minutes, 2006 DVCPRO 50/16mm, USA By Shaun Conrad & David Raccuglia Northwest Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

Through Purvis Young, a self-taught artist who learned to paint in prison, we experience a world deeper than what social stature can define. Out of the ghetto where Purvis has always lived and into the galleries, museums, and mansions where his artwork hangs, we confront contrasting and universal expressions of despair and oppression, hope and freedom.

www.ruralstudios.net

Pushing Up Daisies
30 minutes, 2005 Beta SP/miniDV, USA By Doug Whyte

Pushing Up Daisies delves into the world of American funeral directors, revealing the rarely witnessed behind-the-scenes action of the death care industry. It takes an intimate look into the daily lives of two very different funeral directors: Ronald L. Jones, a flamboyant, philosophical man in urban St. Louis, lured into the business by the big cars, fancy suits and rumors of riches; and Peter Burla, an austere, down-to-earth man in Ironwood, Michigan, who views his one-man operation as a chance to earn a modest, respectable living. Pushing Up Daisies follows these men through their daily tasks of embalming and restorative artwork to their delicate interaction with the deceased's family during the funeral arrangement process.   Examining the lives and work of these professionals gives an insight into the heart of our culture-how celebrate lives that have been lived.

7th Art Releasing
7551 Sunset Blvd, Ste 104
Los Angeles, CA 90046,
www.7thart.com
www.fullmindfilms.com
seventhart@7thart.com