An Unreasonable Man
122 minutes, 2006 DVCAM, USA By Henriette Mantel and Steve Skrovan Montana Premiere Special Presentation

During the past forty years, Ralph Nader has built a legislative record that rivals any contemporary president. Seat belts, airbags, product labeling, and scores of other important consumer protections are largely due to the efforts of Ralph Nader and his citizen groups. Yet today, when most people hear the name Ralph Nader, they think of the man who gave the country George W. Bush. Is he really to blame for George W. Bush? An Unreasonable Man traces the life and career one of the most unique, important, and controversial political figures of the past half century.

www.anunreasonableman.com

82 minutes, 2006 miniDV, USA /Afghanistan/Philippines By Adrian Belic Montana Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

Ed Artis, James Laws and Walt Ratterman are three middle-aged men whose idea of adventure is taking desperately needed food and medicine into the world's most forbidding yet beautiful places on Earth, the front lines of war. The three men are self-styled Knights of Malta, and in 1995, they formed Knightsbridge International, a unique humanitarian aid organization, whose motto is 'High Adventure and Service to Humanity.' Artis explains: 'We're not there to change anybody's politics, we're not in the God business, and we pay our own way.'  

www.wadrirum.com

165 minutes, 2006 Mixed Formats, USA By Hart Perry and Dana Heinz Perry Special Presentation

The Drug Years chronicles the rise of illicit drug use in America and its cultural impact in the second half of the twentieth century. This epic recounting of American drug culture is told through dozens of exclusive interviews with actors, musicians, journalists, policy advocates, former drug smugglers, and former drug enforcement agents help to weave the complex tapestry of the American drug culture. The Drug Years explores how popular culture shaped and reflected public perceptions of illicit drugs and how they became part of the nation's political landscape.

www.perryfilms.com

F*ck
93 minutes, 2006 DVCAM, USA by Steve Anderson

Featuring interviews with Pat Boone, Drew Carey, Sam Donaldson, Ice-T, Ron Jeremy, Bill Maher, Michael Medved, Alanis Morrisette, Kevin Smith and Hunter S. Thompson, F*ck is a definitive look at the infamous expletive. The film explores how this word, still widely seen as obscene, somehow permeates every aspect of our culture - from Hollywood, to the schoolyard, to the Senate floor. Scholars, linguists, comics, writers, and even people who do “it” for a living are interviewed, all in an effort to discover what it is about this one syllable that both unites and polarizes people.

www.thinkfilmcompany.com

Grace
80 minutes, 2005 Beta SP, Israel By Ilan Yagoda United States Premiere Special Presentation

As the final stop for terminal patients beyond the reach of medical treatment, hospices provide palliative care to patients determined to die with dignity. Filmmaker Ilan Yagoda takes us inside the stories playing out at an Israeli hospice, where the average stay is a modest 14 days. Alternately inspiring and heartbreaking, this poignant verite style documentary follows six families as they attempt to say goodbye to their loved ones. In Grace, we find that the search for solace and the yearning for reconciliation can be quiet, beautiful, haunting and common to us all.

www.ruthfilms.com

If It Fits
58 minutes, 1978 16mm, USA by John Marshall Montana Premiere Special Presentation

Haverhill, Massachusetts sits on the banks of the Merrimack River. Once a thriving industrial area, by the late 1970s Haverhill resembled a ghost town. A masterpiece of direct cinema, If It Fits examines this dying town and its relevant politics. Touching on issues such as municipal spending, heightened taxation, and neighborhood revitalization, the film centers around the pivotal 1976 Mayoral election. Intercutting election scenes with comments from town residents, If It Fits presents an oral history that addresses Haverhill's political issues and socio-economic conditions.

www.der.org

Inside Outside Station 9
90 minutes, 1970 16mm, USA by John Marshall Montana Premiere Special Presentation

In this powerful early masterpiece of direct cinema, director John Marshall documents the people and events in the lives of several policemen, including a domestic quarrel intervention, a hit-and-run case, a drunk and disorderly charge in Magistrate's Court, and an interrogation of a burglary suspect. Inside Outside Station 9 also portrays police force candidates, interviewed by policemen, discussing their professional goals and personal world views, thereby placing the film in the context of the community from which the police department draws its personnel.

www.der.org

In the Tall Grass
57 minutes, 2006 miniDV, Rwanda/USA by J. Coll Metcalfe Northwest Premiere Special Presentation

In the Tall Grass tells the story of Rwanda's search for redemption as the country sits down to reckon with genocide. The film follows Joanita Mukarusanga, a genocide survivor, through this historic process as she confronts both the neighbor she accuses of killing her family and the community that sanctioned the murders. With unprecedented access, In the Tall Grass not only explores pertinent themes of justice in post-conflict societies but also presents the challenges that these countries face in their attempts to transition from violence to peace.

www.inthetallgrass.com

Jesus Camp
84 minutes, 2006 miniDV, USA By Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady Montana Premiere Special Presentation

A growing number of Evangelical Christians believe there is a revival underway in America whereby Christian youth must assume the leadership of the conservative Christian movement. Jesus Camp follows a number of young children to Pastor Becky Fischer's Kids on Fire summer camp in Devil's Lake, North Dakota, where kids as young as 6 years-old are taught to become dedicated Christian soldiers in God's army. The film is a first-ever look into an intense training ground that recruits born-again Christian children to become an active part of America's political future.

www.jesuscampthemovie.com

73 minutes, 2006 miniDV, Afghanistan/USA By Sedika Mojadidi Northwest Premiere Special Presentation

An Afghan-American filmmaker follows her father, who specializes in women's medicine, to Afghanistan where one in seven women dies during childbirth. Traveling to Kabul's Laura Bush Maternity Ward and to a rural provincial hospital in Ghazni province, filmmaker Sedika Mojadidi's father, equipped with limited medical supplies, attempts to bring both treatment and hope to deplorable situations.

www.aubinpictures.com

9 minutes, 2007 miniDV, USA By Matthew Testa World Premiere Special Presentation

As a comic and actor, Ahmed Ahmed has been using humor to challenge stereotypes and take on religious and political sacred cows. As an Arab- and Muslim-American, Ahmed is able to comment on post-9/11 tensions in ways that most comics cannot. He has been racially profiled, detained and arrested for no reason besides his appearance, ethnicity and name. In the tradition of great minority comics, Ahmed mixes stinging truths with self-deprecation to win crowds over. "There's a lot of fear and prejudice out there," he says, "But you can't hate someone when they're making you laugh."

mtesta@afifellows.org

Reel Paradise
113 minutes, 2005 Digital Betacam, Fiji/USA By Steve James and Gita Saedi Montana Premiere Special Presentation

Reel Paradise tells the story of John Pierson's family at the end of a year-long adventure on a remote island in Fiji. Here, they ran the 180 Meridian Cinema, showing free movies to the locals. John Pierson is a noted indie film maven, author of the widely celebrated book, Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes, who, together with his wife Janet, created the IFC cable show Split Screen. In one story for the show, John and family went to Fiji in search of the "world's most remote movie theater."

www.reelparadise.com

28 minutes, 2005 Beta SP, Poland By Maciej Cuske North American Premiere Special Presentation

A second-hand bookstore is often associated with the peace and the quiet dictated by the old dusty books. This particular one in Warsaw, however, is entirely different. Locals visit not only for the books but also for the atmosphere. The customers are mainly regulars, treating the bookstore as a place to meet, chat and vent their troubles. Krzysztof, the owner, watches over everything and, like a trained doctor, he seems to know what is ailing whom and how he might remedy his customers' afflictions.

www.international.tvp.pl

Vietnam, Long Time Coming
120 minutes, 1998 Beta SP, Vietnam/USA By Peter Gilbert, Gordon Quinn, Jerry Blumenthal and Adam Singer Special Presentation Asia Docs Series

The last American officials were airlifted out of Vietnam from the embassy roof in Saigon in 1975. Most have never returned. In 1998, World T.E.A.M. Sports organized a 1100-mile bicycle expedition through once war-torn Vietnam. The ride drew veterans from the U.S. and Vietnam, as well as riders like Greg La Monde and Senator John Kerry. What is immediately apparent on the veterans' arrival in Vietnam is that their biggest handicaps are the ghosts of their pasts. Past enemies ride as one team in peace across a landscape where they once killed to survive.

www.kartemquin.com

The War Tapes
96 minutes, 2006 miniDV, Iraq/USA By Deborah Scranton, Robert May, Steve James and Adam Singer Montana Premiere Special Presentation

The War Tapes is Operation Iraqi Freedom as filmed by Sergeant Steve Pink, Sergeant Zack Bazzi and Specialist Mike Moriarty. These and other soldiers captured over 800 hours of footage, providing a glimpse of their lives in the midst of war. The result is a raw portrait of three men as they face, and struggle to understand, their duties.

"Riveting! Compelling!... Gives a stronger taste of the Iraq war experience than any film I can remember."
- THE NEW YORK TIMES

www.thewartapes.com

Who the %$#! is Jackson Pollock?
74 minutes, 2006 HDCAM, USA By Harry Moses and Don Hewitt Northwest Premiere Special Presentation

When a 73-year-old former long-haul truck driver bought a painting in a thrift shop for five dollars, she didn't know that it would pit her against the highest and mightiest people in the art world and perhaps change forever the way art is authenticated. Working with a forensic scientist, Teri Horton learned that a fingerprint on the back of her canvas matched up with a fingerprint found on a can of paint in the studio of Jackson Pollock. Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock? is a rollicking adventure story that documents Horton's 15-year war with the art world.

www.picturehouse.com

W.I.S.O.R.
74 minutes, 2000 miniDV, USA By Michael Negroponte Northwest Premiere Special Presentation

For heat and energy, a city of millions depends uneasily on a vast, hundred-year-old steam system that seethes under its streets. In a lab on the Lower East Side, a team of scientists and engineers is creating a robot named W.I.S.O.R., which they hope will save their city by traveling through the buried pipe system and repairing it. Add to this story a robotic voice, archival footage, the ghost of a 19th century engineer and an evocative music score. Is this fact or science fiction? Or a prototype for a newfangled form of story telling in the new millennium?

michelneg@aol.com