Opening night – Legacies of the Past

COLD WAVES 
(Romania/Germany/Luxembourg - Doc; 108 min.US Premiere!)
(Razboi pe calea undelor)

Director: Alexandru Solomon / Romania
Prod: Elvira Geppert, Paul Thiltges

A snapshot of the cold war era in Europe, and the propaganda war between the Ceausescu regime and Radio Free Europe's Romanian program, this extraordinary film explores all facets of political propaganda, from the creative to the most lethal.

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WITH DEATH AS THE ONLY CERTAIN FATE
(Austria – Doc; 60 min. US Premiere!)
(Der Karntner spricht Deutsch)

Director: Andrina Mracnikar / Austria
Prod: Gregor Centner

Stories of Carinthian Slovenians, who were both in the resistance and in the Wehrmacht, fought underground with the partisans and were deported to labor and concentration camps. As they speak about the past they inevitably make the viewer ask contemporary questions.

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MINES TO VINES
(USA/Croatia – PSA 12 min, Special Screening! )

Dir/Prod: Diane Baker / USA

In the war-torn regions of Croatia the San Francisco-based Roots of Peace has funded clearance of nearly 500,000 square meters of land peppered with land mines.

HIPHOPISTAN
(Turkey – Doc 25min )

Dir/Prod: Cigdem Akbay / Turkey

Wanna dance?! Young Turkish rappers, DJs, break-dancers, and graffiti artists blend popular influences with their local cultural traditions in the predominantly Muslim and rapidly globalizing city of Istanbul. Featuring the last interview with music industry mogul and Atlantic Records co-founder, Ahmet Ertegun.
 

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8:00 pm

SCENT OF JAZZ  
(Slovenia – Doc) 52 min US Premiere! )
(Disalo je po jazzu)

Director: Katarina Sedlbauer /Slovenia
Prod: Ana Kajzer

An inspired journey through the 20th century Slovenian resistance-to-politics by way of playing jazz. Opting to show regime changes through their echoes in popular music the film cleverly lifts the weight of history from the viewer and makes you wish you learned that sax when you had the chance.

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TRUMPETS' REPUBLIC 
(Italy/Serbia – Doc, 48 min LA Premiere! )
(La Repubblica delle Trombe)
 

Director: Stefano Missio / Italy
Scrn: Alessandro Gori / Italy

Used to launch attacks in wartime, the trumpet has since become an emotional component in the lives of the Serbian people; irreverence and tradition go hand in hand at the largest brass competition in Europe.

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A FIELD OF BLACKBIRDS 
(USA/Kosovo - Trailer, 4 min First Look! )

Director: Matt Danciger / USA
Prod: Virtic Brown

Seen through the eyes of an old-country Texan who went to Kosovo to help rebuild its police force, the film explores the aftermath of the ’99 war and the complex reality of former enemies and foes living in changed circumstances where tables have turned…

MILAN
(Germany/Serbia - Short, 22 min LA Premiere! )

Dir: Mihaela Kezele / Germany
Prod: Daniela Ljubinkovic

It’s 1999 in Serbia, the aftermath of the regime’s brutal reprisals against Kosovo Albanians. During the NATO air raids of Belgrade a young boy from the suburbs finds a downed NATO pilot…

SOLDAT
(Croatia – Animated Short 4:20 min LA Premiere! )

Dir: David Peros-Bonnot / Croatia
Prod: Lado Skorin

A just-unveiled statue of a soldier is suffering from PTSD....The parable on the militarization of civil society feels chillingly close to reality.

JOHN (IVAN) FILCHICH,
LIFE IN THE CIRCLE DANCE
(USA/Croatia – Doc 29 min U.S.Premiere! )

Dir: Ankica Petrovic / Croatia
Prod: Ben Harbert, Elsie Ivancich Dunin, Vera Mijojlic, Ankica Petrovic, Timothy Rice

John (Ivan) Filcich devoted his life to the preservation of musical traditions and dances of many ethnic groups in California, especially Croats and other South Slavs, including Machvaya Gypsies.
 

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THE RULE OF LAW – JUSTICE IN KOSOVO
(Austria/Kosovo – Doc 99 min, U.S. Premiere! )

Dir: Susanne Brandstätter /Austria
Prod: Josef Aichholzer

Claudia Fenz is a judge for the UN Mission in Kosovo. In a case against young Albanians, where a whole group of villagers watched or participated in the killing of two Serbs, Judge Fenz learns about the council of village elders whose traditional justice is in contrast to the rule of law pursued by UN jurisdiction. From the producers of this year’s Oscar-winning Best Foreign Language Film, THE COUNTERFEITERS.
 

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Women of South East Europe

THE HOUSES OF HRISTINA
(Holland – Doc, 50 min U.S. Premiere! )

Dir: Suzanne Raes / Holland
Prod: Willemien van Aalst

Lovely and talented Bulgarian immigrant Hristina works as a cleaning lady in Amsterdam. As she starts photographing the interiors of “her” houses with herself as her own model, neither we nor the people whose houses she cleans can see her, or the job, quite the same way.

HUMORESQUE
(Romania – Doc, 16 min US Premiere! )

Dir: Diana Deleanu / Romania
Prod: Iulian Margu

Playful like Dvorak’s music of the same name, Humoresque uses the silent movie device of titles like chapters from a book with Romanian proverbs. This charmer of a film short-cuts through the life of a hard-working, 94-year old Maria and her common law beau, whom she finally marries …for love, and a little bit of money.

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BLISS
(Turkey 126 min U.S. Premiere! )
(Mutluluk)

Dir/Prod: Abdullah Oguz / Turkey

Based on Zülfü Livaneli’s international bestseller this is the first film about the taboo subject of honor killing. Rape victim Meriyem, sentenced to death to save her family’s "honor," and her unlikely executor-turned-savior Cemal are joined by a disillusioned intellectual from Istanbul as they search for path between tradition and modernity.

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HAVE YOU EVER HEARD ABOUT VUKOVAR?
(USA - Short 16 min )

Dir: Paolo Borraccetti / Italy
Prod: Annie Lukowski, Zak Mechanic

Decked in a dress uniform, an American soldier about to be redeployed struggles to keep the image of the Army’s poster boy…he almost has a fight with a jovial limo driver who turns out to be a Croatian refugee from another war, which destroyed his home town of Vukovar.

ENTER THE DRAGON
(Bosnia – Doc 50 min US Premiere! )
(U zmajevom gnijezdu)

Dir/Prod: Ozren Milharcic / Bosnia Herzegovina

Two unforgettable citizens of Mostar, writer Veselin Gatalo (a Serb) and scholar Nino Raspudic (a Croat) launched a project to build a monument to the one hero who still has his hero credentials intact – Bruce Lee. Like all humanists before them standing alone against the tide of dangerous banality, in a land laid to waste by extreme politics, they come at it with an artsy sting, and with great panache.

 

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Exclusive presentation of films about larger-than-life people and places that left an indelible mark on the filmmakers.
 

SNOWBOARD DAREDEVILS
(extreme sports / compilation, Slovenia)

ASTAKOS
(documentary vignettes, Greek village)
Dir: Teo Babouris

TRAFFICKING PSA (USA)
Dir: Michael Cory Davis


TURN BACK SOUTH (USA)
Dir: Igor Borovac

AFTER THE WAR (Serbia)
Dir: Srdjan Keca

MY BELGRADE (Serbia)
Dir: Masa Drndic

HARMONIKA (Kosovo)
Dir: Burbuqe Berisha