SANTA ROSA FILM FESTIVAL - Santa Rosa International Film Festival

Third Street Cinema 1, 5:30 pm
DIR: Elizabeth
Pepin
Silva
27
Minutes,
2010,
USA,
Slow the Flow
Eco Cinema
A prime example of Eco Cinema from California,
which covers multiple water-related
issues, including: urbanization’s effect on
stormwater runoff, water-friendly landscaping,
water conservation and pesticide use.
Featuring smart, beautiful landscaping and
statistics, this documentary from the Water
Board Training Academy is entertaining, informative
and to-the-point.
Roxy 1, 6:00 pm
DIR: Bruce
McDonald
PROD:
Erin Faith
Young,
Jennifer St.
John
ED:
Eamonn
O’Connor
MUS: Rita
Chiarelli,
Christopher
Guglick,
John Hazen,
Léah
Lazonick
FEATUR-
ING: Rita
Chiarelli
87
Minutes,
2010,
Canada
Monday, September 19 Monday, September 19
Music from the Big House
Arts in Film
Angola Prison in Louisiana has had a colorful
history since its establishment in the
early days of Reconstruction.
Canadian-born singer-songwriter Rita Chiarelli
opens the door to Angola Prison in
Music From The Big House. She discovered
Angola Prison while on a pilgrimage down
Highway 61 in search of the birthplace of
the blues and encountered whole new
generations of musicians confined behind
those four walls and songs that were raw,
real and moving in their truthfulness. Initially,
Chiarelli had planned to perform a
concert at Angola, but after jamming with
several of the inmates, she realized that
they, too, should perform.
We learn about some of the legendary
musical inmates of Angola Prison, such as
Robert P. Williams, Hogman Maxie, Freddie
Fender and Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter,
who earned a gubernatorial pardon with
his music. There were talented female inmates,
too, like Odea Matthews.
Music is the main focus of this documentary,
and as we see Chiarelli jamming with
some very talented convicted felons, little
about the specific reasons for their incarceration
is given or necessary, especially
since it is pointed out that many of them
will spend the rest of their natural lives
behind bars. Instead, these musicians talk
about their heroes, and how music has
given them something to keep themselves
going.
Deerfield Ranch Cave, 6:15 pm
DIR: Alysa
Nahmias
& Ben
Murray
PROD:
Benjamin
Murray,
Alysa
Nahmias
ED: Alex
Minnick,
Kristen
Nutile
FEATUR-
ING:
Vittorio
Garatti,
Roberto
Gottardi,
Ricardo
Porro
86
Minutes,
2011,
USA
Unfinished Spaces
Arts in Film
In 1961, shortly after the revolution, Fidel
Castro embarked on turning a country club
outside of Havana into, “...the most beautiful
academy of art in the world.” We learn
what went wrong in this documentary.
Three visionary architects were commissioned
and given freedom to create. Roberto
Gottardi, Ricardo Porro and Vittorio
Garatti (all in the film) produced a surreal
plan; a complex of buildings, some with
subterranean paths, some resembling gigantic
domed breasts, one with a fountain
resembling a vagina.
Because of the U.S. embargo on steel and
other materials, the compound was constructed
mostly using native terra cotta
and the Catalonian arch. The structures
were organic, undulating, breathtaking
and represented more than just brick and
mortar. They embodied the freedom, and
exuberance of the new order. Before they
were completed however, Soviet ideology
forced a wedge between artistic freedom
and functionality. The National Art Schools
fell into disrepair, overgrown and neglected…
nonetheless they continued as viable
schools for all the arts which launched Cuban
arts into world renown.
The fate of the buildings even today, make
for a dynamic real-life drama that offers
surprises.
Co-Director Alysa Nahmias In Person for
Q & A.
56 57
ALSO PLAYING: Tuesday, Sept. 20 4:30 pm
Summerfield Cinemas 2
Happening at Deerfield Ranch Mon.!
Food: Doce Lunas 6:30pm - 8pm
Summerfield Cinemas 3, 6:30 pm
DIR: Claus
Wischmann,
Martin
Baer
PROD:
Stefan
Pannen,
Holger
Preuße
ED:
Peter Klum
MUS: Jan
Tilman
Schade
FEATUR-
ING:
Joseph
Masunda
Lutete,
Albert
Nlanzu
Matubanza,
Nathalie
Angwanguilo
Bahati
98
Minutes,
2010,
Germany
Kinshasa Symphony
Northern California Premiere
Arts in Film
A Perfect “Arts In Film,” “Cinema of Conscience”
and “World Cinema” Nexus.
Kinshasa Symphony shows how people living
in one of the most chaotic cities in the
world have managed to forge one of the
most complex systems of human cooperation
ever invented: a symphony orchestra.
It is a film about the Congo, about the people
of Kinshasa and about music.
Claus Wischmann and Martin Baer have
fashioned one of those very special films
that take you into worlds unknown–inspiring
in the face of completely unexpected
beauty and at the same time ravaged by
war and poverty.
Kinshasa Symphony sings the praises for
L’Orchestre Symphonique Kimbangusite
and the indomitable resilience of its conductor
and members—two hundred strong.
In spite of the Congo’s atrocious war, 10
years of bloodshed and displacement (the
most devastating since WWII with over 5
million deaths) Armand Diangienda, the
conductor and founder has managed to
create a viable orchestra. Overcoming enormous
obstacles, the symphony has continued
for fifteen years, providing classical
music for audiences in the Congo that have
almost no awareness that such music exists.
This film exemplifies the power of art to
heal and transform.