SANTA ROSA FILM FESTIVAL - Santa Rosa International Film Festival

Roxy 2, 7:00 pm
DIR:
Massimo
Amici
ED:
Francesca
Montana
MUS: Mak
Sfrenz
CAST:
Gianpiero
Cognoli,
Harriet
MacMasters-Green
65
Minutes,
USA
The Jailmate
World Cinema
Director Massimo Amici is a SRIFF/WCFF
alumnus. Massimo taught himself how
to direct and produce movies by making
shorts. He draws much of his inspiration
from Italian neorealist films.
John Vanzotti is a frustrated young man
who has isolated himself from a cruel world
that doesn’t understand him. He doesn’t
know how to connect with others, especially
Samantha the girl he tutors and is secretly
in love with, and spends all his time alone
trying to finish a sitcom for a second-rate
writing contest. As he immerses himself in
his writing, an arrogant alter ego appears
in his TV set to challenge John’s withdrawn
lifestyle.
At times the audience is left in doubt as
to who is the real personality, although
the “other self” conceit runs throughout
the ten episodes the film is divided
into, each can be considered separately.
-Diane McCurdy
Friday, September 16
3rd Street Cinemas 1, 7:30 pm
DIR:
Walther
Grotenhuis
PROD:
Wouter
Snip
FEATUR-
ING:
Narr. by
Jos Van
der Steen
90
Minutes,
2010,
Netherlands
Enjoy Your Meal!
How Food Changes the World
Eco Cinema
How often do we think about where food
comes from, who is benefiting from our
consumption and who and what are being
harmed by what we eat?
In this compelling and creative documentary,
the preparation of a gourmet meal is
juxtaposed with the harsh reality behind
each major component of the meal. Accompanied
by the soundtrack of Mozart’s Don
Giovanni, the meal includes shrimp, the
product of a farm which has destroyed hundreds
of mangrove trees and taken property
away from local farmers; a suckling
pig who is fed soya beans harvested from
South America where thousands of acres of
land are burned to plant more beans; and
sugar peas exported from Kenya where
drought and dried-out rivers have resulted
in a struggle over the water rights.
The choice is ours to make: we must become
conscious consumers who will clear
a path through a minefield of moral choices
and dilemmas. Are we up to this task?
Luther Burbank and His
Experimental Farm
USA, 10 Minutes
Director Lisa Edey Pierce In Person
This film is an intimate look at famed plant
breeder and local hero Luther Burbank and
his farm in Sebastopol, CA. He developed
many plants and today the farm is a living
museum to his legacy
Friday September 16
Summerfield Cinemas 3, 7:30 pm
DIR:
Minh Duc
Nguyen
PROD:
Mellissa
Tong
MUS:
Marcell De
Francisci
CAST: Porter
Lynn,
John Ruby,
Melinda
Bennett,
Tony
LaThanh,
Long
Nguyen,
Hiep Thi
Le, Trisha
Nguyen
28 29
109
Minutes,
2011,
USA
ALSO PLAYING: Sunday, Sept. 18 4:10 pm
Roxy 1
Touch
World Cinema
Porter Lynn makes her motion picture debut
in this moving and romantic dramatic
comedy about the tactile aspect of love.
Lynn stars as Tam, an accomplished but
painfully shy and isolated Vietnamese-
American manicurist who takes a job at a
salon in Los Angeles. Among her first customers
is Brendan (John Ruby), a mechanic
whose marriage to his corporate lawyer
wife is suffering on account of his hands being
smutted from his job.
In a desperate move to keep his wife, he
visits a nail salon every day for a manicure,
preferring Tam’s personal touch as she and
he brave the gossip of her colleagues. Before
long, Brendan leans on Tam for further
advice to bring himself and his wife closer
together. But he and Tam find themselves
caught up in an increasingly irresistible mutual
attraction.
Other aspects of the emotional impact of
touch are explored in this heartwarming
and thought-provoking film. It is sure to jar
your synapses. With director Minh Duc
Nguyen in person.
Deerfield Ranch Al Fresco, 8:00 pm
DIR:
Joaquín
Oristrell
PROD:
Marta
Esteban,
Sandra
Hermida,
Gerardo
Herrero
ED:
Aixalà,
Domi
Parra
MUS:
Josep Mas,
Salvador
Niebla
CAST:
Olivia
Molina,
Paco León,
Alfonso
Bassave
97
Minutes,
Spain
Mediterranean Food
Food on Film
One is reminded with fondness of how
food is used as an allegory, a metaphor, a
code and a symbol for all that is most fundamental
to us in films previously screened
at our Film Festival, including Eat, Drink,
Man, Woman (WCFF 1994), Mostly Martha
(WCFF 2001 ) and Catherine Zeta-Jones’ No
Reservation (WCFF 2007).
SRIFF’s director Stephen Ashton fell in love
with Mediterranean Food several years ago.
His perseverance in bringing it here finally
paid off! The film is a romantic ménage à
trois tale where the bedroom rather than
the kitchen is at the center of the movie. It
tells the story of Sofia (Olivia Molina), from
her childhood at a small seaside cantina to
becoming a famous chef, a journey she accomplishes
not just through her passion for
food, but also through her passion for the
two men in her life: the steady Toni (Paco
Leon) and the adventurous Frank (Alfonso
Bassave). Both men appeal to different aspects
of her personality and her ambition,
and she is not really prepared to give up
either of them.
Director Joaquin Oristrell’s Unconscious,
a humorous take on the world of psychoanalysis,
won Best World Cinema Award at
the 2004 WCFF.
Happening at Deerfield Ranch Fri.!
Food Truck: Max Porter- Elliott’s Bistro
Airstream