Tampa Film Fan

This eclectic film festival explores the cinematic world of independent filmmakers, offering a spectrum of features, documentaries and personal films, plus live performances, workshops and lectures.

This year’s theme, Global Snapshots, presents innovative films exploring the culturally diverse realms of our lives while challenging pre-existing notions of our world. Due to this being a presidential election year, many of the feature documentaries were selected to illuminate political and cultural issues certain to be topics of discussion in the presidential debates.

Opening the festival’s feature documentary line-up is Taxi to the Dark Side, winner of the 2008 Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. The film investigates the consequences of the use of extreme rendition and possible torture in the ‘war on terrorism’ and discusses related U.S. Constitutional issues. The screening is scheduled Friday, April 18, 7:30 p.m. at the HCC Performing Arts Building. $5.00. R Rated. Viewer discretion advised. Age 17 and up.

Director Bari Pearlman will present her feature documentary, Daughters of Wisdom, about the only women Buddhist monastery in Tibet. The screening is scheduled Saturday, April 19, 4:30 p.m. at the HCC Performing Arts Building. $5.00.

The premiere of Tampa’s Guzzo Brothers’ newest docudrama, Ghosts of Ybor:Charlie Wall, about the notorious Ybor gangster, is scheduled Saturday, April 19, 6:30 p.m. at the HCC Performing Arts Building. $10.00.

The fest will screen War/Dance, a 2008 Academy Award nominee for Best Feature Doc. The film follows a group of ex-child soldiers in Uganda as they rediscover their humanity through a dance competition. The screening is scheduled Sunday, April 20, 1:30 p.m. at the HCC Performing Arts Building. $5.00. Viewer discretion advised.

Other feature documentaries to be screened include The New Samaritians, Nice Bombs, El Enmigrante, and Saint Death. Synopses for these titles are on the website www.yborfilmfestival.com. The complete schedule will be announced April 1.

Thursday Night, April 17:
Opening Night Celebration: So Real
Experimental shorts and animations projected on/in and around the new HCC Performing Arts Building. Various live performances by HCC dance and theater departments. Performing Arts Building, 7–10 p.m. Free and open to public.

Opening Night Lecture:
Illumined Pleasures:Dali and Film
Performing Arts Building, 7:00 p.m. Free and open to the public.

Salvador Dalí is celebrated as many things – surrealist, painter, author, theoretician, celebrity, prankster and agitator. But what is less known is that he had a lifelong involvement in film, and it is in the world of film where all of these aspects of his identity come into play. In conjunction with the current ground-breaking Dalí Museum exhibit, Dalí and Film, this talk by curator Peter Tush (with film clips) focuses on Dalí’s involvement with film - as a fan, a screenwriter, a filmmaker, and an art director - examining his remarkable collaborations with such film greats as Luis Buñuel, the Marx Brothers, Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney.

Peter Tush is the Curator of Education at the Salvador Dalí Museum and the instructor of “Dalí and Film” at the University of South Florida.

All screenings will be held at Hillsborough Community College-Ybor, in the HCC Performing Arts Building at the corner of Palm Ave and 14th Street.

All screenings are $5.00 unless noted. Tickets are available at the box office located in the Performing Arts Building. All opening night events, workshops, panels and live performances are free.

The second annual event, coordinated by UT’s International Programs Office, will include screenings of three films in the Vaughn Center’s Reeves Theater. The films are selected from a list of 15 that are a part of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival.

“Film is a universal language and students can pick up a lot from these stories and maybe influence public policy and opinion,” said Brooke Pawlak, coordinator of International Programs. “It’s another way for us to add an international element to the UT experience. We hope that it will stimulate discussion among the UT student body.”

White Light/Black Rain features interviews with 14 survivors of the U.S. atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, some of whom have never spoken publicly before, as well as four Americans intimately involved in the bombings. The film will be screened on Monday, March 31, at 6 p.m. and Wednesday, April 2, at 8 p.m.

Sundance Film Festival winner Enemies of Happiness is about Malalai Joya, who became one of Afghanistan’s most famous and infamous women in 2003 when she challenged the power of warlords in the country’s new government. Two years later, the 28-year-old ran in her country’s first democratic parliamentary election in more than 30 years. A survivor of repeated assassination attempts, she campaigned surrounded by armed guards. The film will be shown Wednesday, April 2, at 6 p.m. and Thursday, April 3, at 8 p.m.

A Lesson of Belarusian follows the story of Franek Viacorka, who studies at an elite school established by his father to promote the Belarusian language. The school has been banned and operating underground since 2003, a victim of anti-democratic rule. Franek and his classmates express their critical attitude to the government by issuing an underground newspaper, recording music with activist lyrics, organizing an opposition concert and participating in a mass demonstration in Minsk’s main square. The film will be screened Monday, March 31, at 8 p.m. and Thursday, April 3, at 6 p.m.

In 1936, Lillian Smith was the first white woman in the South to write and speak openly against racism and segregation. Miss Lil’s Camp focuses on an aspect of Smith’s life as the founder and director of Laurel Falls Camp (Miss Lil’s Camp), an exclusive summer camp in Clayton, Georgia, for girls from upper middle class Southern homes. During the time when traditional Southern leadership was committed to a racially segregated society, some of young campers rejected Smith’s radical ideas, while others embraced them. Sixty years after the close of camp, Miss Lil’s Camp reunites three former campers and a former camp employee at the original campgrounds, bringing Miss Lil and Laurel Falls Camp back to life using rare archival footage woven into interviews of these women.

According to Niedland, who produced, edited and co-directed the film with Anberin Pasha, “The theme of this documentary is the timeless issues of racial, social and gender intolerance and the courage of one woman to confront them.” What pleases Niedland most is that when the 26-minute film ends, the dialogue about the relevancy of these issues continues among viewers of the film.

Attending the screening with Niedland will be Bunny Timmerman, a camper at Laurel Falls Camp for eleven years. “Aside from my parents, Miss Lil had the greatest influence on my life. Miss Lil taught campers about tolerance and to love our neighbors and leave the judging to God.”

Niedland, who has family in the Tampa Bay area, received her BA and MA in Documentary Filmmaking from the University of Florida. While living in St. Petersburg, as an actor, she performed at both the Tampa Theatre and the Golden Apple Dinner Theater. Niedland lives and works in Jupiter, Florida where she produces and directs film projects through her company, BusEye Films, LLC.

Well I have to start off with a loud cheer in that MARK KEIM IS BACK !!!! and feeling better. As the Executive Producer for our film project The Electric Picasso, we missed his recent absence but now he advises the THE SHOW MUST GO ON…..and so be it.

Of course the big local news is that this week, St. Petersburg hosts the 2008 ANNUAL SUNSCREEN FILM FESTIVAL and the agenda of activities is packed from the opening day - Wednesday 3/19 through and including Saturday 3/22. You are all encouraged to go to the web site (www.sunscreenfilmfestival.com) and view the daily schedule of films, auditions, demonstrations, concerts, panel discussions and gatherings. Event locations vary which include the Vinoy Resort, Muvico Baywalk 20, Push Ultra Lounge (opening night party) and State Theatre. Let’s get out there and support as many events as possible as participation helps us all.

I also want to include in our newsletter a special Thank You to Dave Walker and the students at the International Academy of Design and Technology for allowing us to show their films at last month’s meeting. The audience was very impressed with the professionalism of your work..CONGRATULATIONS !! ….and stay involved with our group as Mark and Lisa have several needs upcoming to accomplish the production of our short. This means great experience and your name included in the credits, so great exposure when distributed to film festivals and contests.

This Friday evening we have three more SHOWCASE entries from Jennifer Sloane, more discussion and updates by our writers headed by Barbara Harrington, the head of The Florida Screenwriters Actors Connection, and continued constructive discussion about our own film project. All are encouraged to bring with them film submissions for next month’s SHOWCASE certainly as well. Additionally, anyone wanting to promote their projects, business, other club meetings, etc., are always welcome to grab the mic and make whatever announcements you so wish. We all want to be in the know and possibly use each others’ services whenever possible.

Finally, for now I want to, as done in the past, encourage our members to attend the monthly film lovers’ meeting held by our neighbors (TAMPA FILM REVIEW) across the bay. Once again, their monthly gathering is held the second Friday of each month at the International Bazaar in Ybor City, is absolutely free, and is always chuck filled with industry news, so put it on your calendar.

The HCC-Ybor film festival, in its 6th year of presenting exciting cinema and related events to Tampa Bay audiences, continues its tradition of screening unique features, documentaries and personal films from around the world.

The 2008 Festival highlights American filmmaker Charles Burnett, and showcases numerous films, including Killer of Sheep, one of the first fifty films inducted into the National Film Registry, and called a “national treasure” by the Library of Congress. The National Society of Film critics selected it as one of the “100 Essential Films” of all time. (Note: Mr. Burnett cannot attend due to film in progress)

All venues are located at the Hillsborough Community College in Ybor City, a designated National Historic Landmark District. All screenings are $5.00. Special events are $10.00.