Films of the First Annual Petaluma International Film Festival: October 16-17-18, 2009
Red Hot Chili Peppers: Untitled Documentary
Director: David Hausen ~ 74 minutes ~ 2008/US ~ Cast: Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante, Chad Smith, Tony Kaye, Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton, Chris Rock
A documentary film chronicling the artistic collaboration between one of the biggest rock bands of all time the Red Hot Chili Peppers and their music video directors Tony Kaye (American History X), Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton (Little Miss Sunshine) and Chris Rock (I Think I Love My Wife).
David Hausen
David Hausen has been making documentaries, commercials, feature films and music videos for sixteen years. Surreel, his award winning production company, has produced over three-dozen long form documentaries chronicling the fight against AIDS and Breast Cancer. After earning a B.S. in business administration David was accepted to NYU Film School, but instead, chose to work at Panavision NY. Two years later, he left his position as manager of the feature department to DP his first 35mm feature in Tennessee, “Prisoners of Iffen,” produced by and starring Howard Klausner, “Space Cowboys” co-writer. David collaborated with British director Barny Stoppard on his directorial debut “Happy M’Gee” starring Jude Law and Ewan McGregor. Additionally, he produced and DP’ed the live shoot of “The Vagina Monologues” starring Glenn Close, Whoopi Goldberg and Susan Sarandon. He has also produced and DP’ed numerous documentaries, live concert shoots and music videos for Metallica, Stone Temple Pilots, Public Enemy and Shania Twain. He is currently directing an upcoming feature documentary about the work of artist Keith Haring.
Three in Love
Director: Peter Lindholm ~ 94 minutes ~ Fiction ~ 2008/Finland ~ Cast: Kari-Pekka Toivonen, Liisa Kuoppamäki, Matleena Kuusniemi
Tomi Laakso, a happily married man, falls in love with another woman. Instead of going behind his wife´s back, Tomi shares his feelings with her and finds himself in love with two women at the same time. Tomi´s wife Maria has to face the facts and realise that Tomi is still the love of her life. A love story between three adults.
Peter Lindholm
Peter Lindholm (born 1960) is a film director and producer. His latest works include the documentary Borgå Year (Ett år i Borgå, 2002–2005), feature film Kites Over Helsinki (Drakarna över Helsingfors, 2001) and a television series called Sincerely Yours in Cold Blood (Kylmäverisesti sinun, 2000). He has directed six feature films. Filmography: 1985 Killing Seconds / 1986 Kill City / 1994 Anita / 1996 From Father to Son / 2001 Kites over Helsinki / 2008 Three in Love
Frankie Is a Womanizer
Director: Jan Prušinovský ~ 83 minutes ~ Comedy ~ 2008/Czech Republic ~ Cast: Josef Polášek, Ela Lehotská, Martin Pechlát, Zdena Hadrbolcová
As a psychiatrist, Frankie would like to have his private life under perfect control, except that he’s too fond of women. In addition to his wife Eliška, he’s in several other relationships, a problem which one day gets out of hand. Now aged forty with an established, lucrative practice and a new dream house, he suddenly doesn’t know where to turn and what to save first. His secret life as a womanizer has come out into the open and he sees only too well how fast his “perfect” life, envied by everyone around him, comes to an unexpected and total end: one day he loses his job, the roof over his head and his wife.
Jan Prušinovský
Jan Prušinovský (b. 1979, Horovice) studied script editing and screenwriting at Prague’s FAMU. He was involved in the script for Karel Janák’s summer comedy The Rafters (Raftáci, 2006) and the short television film Taxi (2006). He also wrote the screenplays for his college shorts The Lesson of God (Boží lekce, 2003), Ládík Is the Best in the County (Ládík je nejlepší v okrese, 2004), Bubble Bath Is the Best (Nejlepší je penivá, 2005) and Gallery (Galerie, 2006), all of which he directed. He also worked on music clips and was assistant director on the set of Jan Hrebejk’s tragicomedy Teddy Bear (Medvídek, 2007). The comedy Frankie Is a Womanizer (2008) is his feature debut.
Airplay
Directors: Carolyn Travis & Chris Fox Gilson ~ 90 minutes ~ Documentary ~ 2008/US ~ Cast: Graham Nash, David Crosby, Casey Kasem, Fabian, Lesley Gore, Raechel Donahue, Dan Ingram, Grace Slick, Stephen Stills, Jerry Blavat
If you want to see how America works, look at what happened to rock radio. 'Airplay: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio' documents its rise and fall from the AM jocks who blasted Black music to White America and named it 'Rock 'n Roll', to the FM pioneers who fanned the flames of the 60s, to the silencing of rock radio as we knew it by government meddling and big business mediocrity, to its promise of rebirth on satellite radio. 'Airplay' is a story of love and war -- a 50 year struggle for the soul of music radio, told by the deejays and the artists they made rock stars
Carolyn Travis
Carolyn began her media career in Miami with Sally Jessy Raphael, then in Washington, DC as a news producer and writer for Maury Povich at WTTG-TV. She was a TV reporter for the ABC affiliate in Richmond, Virginia, and covered the White House and Capitol Hill for ITNA. She returned to Miami as a newscaster/radio personality for 96X-FM. Carolyn’s documentaries have won critical acclaim from the New York Times and many industry awards. Rock Radio Revolution and Rock Jocks: The FM Revolution aired on PBS and were screened at seminars at the Museums of Television and Radio in both New York and Los Angeles. Her evocative Wildwood Days, (PBS 2004-06) about the summer resort that gave birth to rock ‘n roll was featured at eight film festivals.
Chris began his career on Madison Avenue, then founded an international production company with director Robert Gordon. He created award-winning campaigns for advertisers such as Citibank, Heineken, JVC, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Steinway, and authored textbooks used in universities worldwide. Chris was selected by Advertising Age as one of the “100 Best & Brightest Advertising People in the United States.” He also authored the bestselling Crazy for Cornelia (Warner Books) and The Devil’s Halo (Random House), and has sold his projects to New Line, Disney, and Alliance-Atlantis for film and television.
Chris Fox Gilson
Kisses
Director: Lance Daly ~ 72 minutes ~ Family ~ 2008/Ireland ~ Cast: Kelly O Neill. Shane Curry, Stephen Rea, Paul Roe, Neili Conroy, Elizabeth Suh
On the fringes of Dublin two kids, Kylie and Dylan, live in a suburban housing estate devoid of life, colour and the prospect of escape. Kylie lives with five other siblings and her overworked mother. Next door, Dylan lives in the shadow of an alcoholic father and the memory of an elder brother who ran away from home two years earlier. After a violent altercation with his father, Dylan runs away from home and Kylie decides to run away with him. Together they make their way to the magical night time lights of inner city Dublin, to search for Dylan’s brother in the hope of finding the possibility of a new life.
Lance Daly
Lance Daly was born and educated in Dublin and spent time as an actor, a musician, a photographer and editor before taking the leap into making films, something he had aspired to since childhood. Lance wrote and directed his first feature film, Last Days in Dublin, in 1999 with a shoestring budget on the streets of Dublin, with additional scenes filmed in Paris, New York and Cairo. It was enthusiastically received, described as "Fellini on a dollar a day", when it went on a limited but successful theatrical release in Ireland in 2002. Following the release of Last Days in Dublin, Lance immediately shot his second film, The Halo Effect, in the winter of 2002. This film, shot on 35mm, starred Stephen Rea, Grattan Smith, and Ger McSorley, amongst many other celebrated Irish actors. It was nominated for five Irish Film and Television Academy awards, including Best Script. After that he went to make a critical acclaimed film Kisses. The lead actors were found through auditions of thousands of young hopefuls.
Berber Atlas
Director: Moises Salama ~ 82 minutes ~ Documentary ~ 2008/Spain/Morocco
The title of this documentary film is referred to the exploration of a world which coordinates are, in principle, easy to delimit: it is a film about Berber people (Imazighen) and it is centered in the impressive scenario of the High Atlas mountains, a territory where one of the more important cores of the amazigh culture is still surviving. Firstly, we propose to take a look to the closer South to Europe, which is obviously close by geographical and historical reasons and very distant and ignored in many ways. However, the exploration of this microcosmos, which we have tried to keep away from exotism’s temptations as well as from the prefabricated ideological discourses, unavoidably highlights subjects which largely overflow the limits of any community. When we look to Imazighen from the Atlas, we find an isolated South, where many ways of live already disappeared are still surviving in places sometimes very close, but they are also living in intolerable poverty and marginalization situations. Many people in the South are feeling (some people confused, other consciously) the wounding progress paradox, which produces the same factors that are contributing to improve their existence material conditions, they are also putting in danger of extinction their own world. Berber Atlas is the result of work through some years in the Eastern and Central High Atlas. The most part of images are related to filming carried out through in Morocco: Tounfite and Anefgou (Khenifra province), Imilchil (Errachidia province) and Zawiyat Ahansal (Azilal province).
Seventeen
Director: Joe Chow ~ 80 minutes ~ Drama ~ 2008/China ~ Cast: Joan Chen, Sam Chow, Anlian Yao, Songzi Xu
'Shi Qi' (Seventeen) tells the story of a seventeen-year-old child. He was abounded by his father when he was two and returned to his mother at the age of ten. He always thought it was his mother who abounded him and hated his mother deep in his heart. He wanted to get revenge from his mother, so he decides to leave his hometown at seventeen. The mother walks for two days from their hometown to be with him. They have a mutual understanding. The son knows his mother’s love and the mother knows to love one is to give what one’s want, but not hers. At last, whether the boy’s leaving is not important any more but the integrations of love between the boy and his mother.
Joe Chow
Joe Chow (real name is Zhou Zhengyu), born in 1982 in Shanghai. Joe graduated from The Central Academy of Drama . Joe is the first 1980s movie director in China. Shi Qi is his first Feature film and he is honoured to invite Joan Chen to act as Shi Qi’s mother.
All Roads Lead Home
Director: Dennis Fallon ~ 112 minutes ~ Family ~ 2008/US ~ Cast: Peter Coyote, Jason London, Vivien Cardone, Vanessa Branch, Patton Oswalt
In this inspirational film based on a true story, a young girl (EVERWOOD's Vivien Cardone) has difficulty adjusting after the death of her mother. When her father (Jason London) is unable to help her, he sends her to live with her grandfather (Peter Coyote) on a farm. Amidst the horses and dogs, she learns invaluable lessons in this drama. [A Kids First Choice]
Dennis Fallon
“Everybody sort of pushed me into directing it, and I’ve spent the last two years of my life working on it. I’ve done a lot of directorial things as a producer because I’m so hands-on. Producing is hard work, but with what we had to do to get what I wanted onscreen, I didn’t think there was anybody who would work harder than I would. But as the producer, was I hiring the right guy? My writer, director, and actor friends said, ‘Dennis, there’s no other person who can direct this film but you’. So I did it. And I loved it. I do want to do it again, but not on every film. You learn so much, and you want to take that experience to the next film.”
La Paloma - Longing Worldwide
Director: Sigrid Faltin ~ 86 minutes ~ Musical Doc ~ Germany/Cuba/Mexico/Romania/Zanzibar
The film is a journey on the wings of La Paloma, the most frequently played song in the world (La Paloma is Spanish for dove). 2000 versions are known. Some say, there are infinitely more. In Zanzibar it is played at the end of a wedding, in Romania it is performed at the end of a funeral. In Mexico it was the favourite song of the tragic Emperor Maximilian. Legend has it that as a last wish he requested La Paloma to be played, before he was executed. In Auschwitz, Coco Schumann, the German master of swing, was forced to perform the song at the ramp to the gas chambers. All these and many more moving stories are told in the film, which was shot on three continents.
La Paloma - a song for every color and creed, a hymn for a globalised world as we would want it. What is the secret of La Paloma? Why has it become a symbol for longing - worldwide?
Sigrid Faltin
Sigrid Faltin studied English, German and history in Bonn and Freiburg. Promotion from innovator history over "the emigration from the palatinate to North America in the 19. century." After a Volontariat with the southwest-radio SWF-Fernsehkorrespondentin in Freiburg. Since 1989 moderators and author for hearing-radio and TV stations under public law, author for magazines and newspapers, since also producer in 1995. Together with Peter Ohlendorf, she/it produces for Green Pepper film (slogan): Films with bite, films with the Themenschwerpunkt ecology and third world. White Pepper film concentrates on historic and cultural topics since 1998 - and we don't recoil even before football.
What’s the Economy for, Anyway?
Producer: John de Graaf [In Person] ~ 40 minutes ~ Documentary ~ 2009/US
WHAT'S THE ECONOMY FOR, ANYWAY? is an edgy, humorous and totally visual, monologue by economist Dave Batker, challenging old sacred cows, making sense of the mess we're in, comparing American economic policies with those of other wealthy countries in terms of quality of life, social justice and sustainability, and pointing a way toward a healthier, happier future for all of us. You'll LOL (laugh out loud) while LAL (learning a lot) and come away changed up to change things! Besides laughing, you'll shake your head and might ev<en end up shaking your fist at this newest film by producer John de Graaf (AFFLUENZA). Host Dave Batker is a true maverick, having worked as an economist for both the World Bank and Greenpeace.
John de Graff
Producer John de Graaf has been making documentaries for 32 years, primarily for PBS. His prime time specials included the popular AFFLUENZA and Running Out of Time. He has also taught filmmaking classes at the Evergreen State College and the University of Washington and is the co-author of the best-selling book, AFFLUENZA: THE ALL-CONSUMING EPIDEMIC.
Transfert
Director: Guillaume Paquin-Boutin ~ 6 minutes ~ Dance ~ 2008/Canada ~ Cast: Jo Dee Allen, Jennifer Casimir, Guy-Robert Jean, Milan Panet-Gigon, Helen Simard
Strangers erupt into spontaneous break-dance in a deserted subway station.
Directions
Director: Kasimir Burgess ~ 14 minutes ~ Fiction ~ 2008/Australia ~ Cast: Gregory Muller, Vivienne Benton, Lezleigh Green, Peggy O’Shea
DIRECTIONS begins with a man at a super market and a simple choice between two shopping trolleys. When the man’s mother fails to pick him up, he decides to walk home. What should have been a brief stroll, soon becomes a nightmarish battle with a faulty trolley. Our man becomes lost and embarks upon a journey of grand proportions.
Kasimir Burgess
Kasimir originally studied fine arts at the Victorian College of the Arts, however, by the third year of his degree, Kasimir began to animate his classmates sculpture and quickly developed a passion for film. He graduated from the VCA school of Film and Television in 2003 and has since built a body of work that includes short films, documentaries, music clips and installation film. Kasimir’s films have won a number of awards, including the Silver Medal at Bergamo film festival (in Italy 2004) for the short ‘Colour of Sound’, ‘Best Australian Music Video’ (Soundkilda music video awards 2006) and ‘Diesel Film of The Festival’ at Raindance film festival (UK 2006) for the short ‘Booth Story’. In 2007 Kasimir had two short films premier at the Melbourne International Film Festival (one, a co directed film called Remember My Name screened on opening night). He was also selected to participate in MIFF's Accelerator program, which fast-tracks the careers of young Australian film talent.
Gravity
Director: Nicolas Provost ~ 6 minutes ~ Belgium ~ Cast: Kim Novak, James Stewart, Steve McQueen, Fay Danaway, Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman
Gravity is a long passionate film kiss in which kissing scenes from different films are woven in each-other by switching every 3 frames between two scenes. Deep passion becomes a stranglehold as cinematographic high points pile up. The reassuring world of multiplied cinematographic kisses is shattered by a stroboscopic effect that plunges and looses us into the dizzying vertigo of the embrace where, as often in Provost's cinema, love becomes a passionate battle in which monsters are finally unmasked.
Drake
Director: Christoph Rainer ~ 5 minutes ~ Austria ~ Cast: Tom Hanslmaier, Elke Hagen, Benedikt Bittner
The sky is on fire. The sun faints off the image. On the sooty, black ground masses of cycades roll around in lust. A male silhouette tries to light this world for one moment of beauty. He does not succeed.
Call it Home
Director: Bill Chayes [In Person] ~ 57 minutes ~ Narrated by Robin Wright Penn ~ Documentary ~ 2008/US
Bill Chayes As producer/director of numerous documentary,, experimental and educational films and videotapes, Chayes has won many national and international awards. Jews and Buddhism: Belief Amended, Faith Revealed, was named "one of the outstanding documentaries of the year (1999)" by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is in over 50 major university libraries. Birth of a Community: Jews and the Gold Rush is a standard in California public and Jewish schools. Los Romeros: The Royal Family of the Guitar, had national PBS prime time broadcasts and was nominated for an EMMY. His last five films have many festivals worldwide. His 20 year university teaching career began at Tufts and Clark Universities in Massachusetts and culminated at San Francisco State University where he was senior lecturer in film production.In addition, for many years Chayes served Berkeley, Calif.'s Magnes Museum as its Exhibition Designer and Curator of Film, Video, Photography, Music and Digital Art. He nowdesigns exhibitions for the African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO).
Call it Home: Searching for Truth on Bolinas Lagoon celebrates the beauty and importance of the world famous Bolinas Lagoon, explores the issues behind a decades-long community debate to understand the forces affecting its future, and seeks to inspire people everywhere to love and respect nature.
The Sandals - Summers, Songs and Sidebars
Director: Steve Gatlin [in Person] ~ 43 minutes ~ 2009 /US ~ Cast: Walter Georis, Gaston Georis, John Blakeley, Danny Brawner, Bruce Brown, Robert "Wingnut" Weaver
In the summer of 1959, two teenage boys in Southern California met for the first time. They shared common interests in guitars and music. This friendship was the beginning of 'The Sandals.' Over the next few years, their music would help define a new genre of instrumental music now known as 'Surf Rock.' Now some of the original members of 'The Sandals' have come together again, and these are their stories.
My Heart, My Dream (Mi Corazon, Mi Sueno)
Director: Steve Gatlin [In Person] ~ 30 minutes ~ Documentary ~ Nicaragua/US ~ Narrator: Jessica Aguirre
In the Spring of 2009, several students, teachers and community members from Marin County California went on a journey to Nicaragua. They traveled with members from the Non-Profit Organization "El Hogar de los Ninos," to work with children in a neighborhood commonly referred to as "the most dangerous in Managua." The people they met and messages they shared have changed all of their lives forever. This film is their story.
Steve Gatlin
Steve Gatlin is a photographer in every sense of the word. Since the age of nine, he has seen the world through a camera lens. He has documented everything from his personal travels and adventures, to weddings and portraits, to covering stories as a Combat Correspondent in the United States Marines Corps. In November of 2003, Gatlin took a photograph that has since started frenzy for his work. It is encompassed in “The Beauty Project,” a series of nudes taken at night in public places. The entire project is shot, processed and printed from film by Gatlin in his own studio, where he has honed his craft for more than 20 years. In April of 2005, Gatlin co-produced a short documentary about “The Beauty Project”, which went on to play in numerous film festivals around the world. It was this film that inspired Gatlin to create his next project, “Beauty 24.” Gatlin has now branched out into other areas of filmmaking. He has produced video segments for the George Lucas Educational Foundation, the San Francisco Giants, San Francisco SAFE, as well as numerous short and feature films, instructional and music videos. The artist feels as though he is just scratching the surface with “Beauty,” and is setting his sights on revealing it to the world.
Ripley Under Ground
Director: Roger Spottiswoode ~ 101 minutes ~ US/Germany Cast: Barry Pepper, Willem Dafoe, Tom Wilkinson, Jacinda Barrett, Alan Cumming, Ian Hart
After his friend, a hot young artist, is killed, a resourceful American man living in London covers up the crime and tries to keep the friend's name alive in order to exploit his legacy and reap millions in the process. Set in the contemporary art world in London, Tom Ripley, is now at the forefront of a forgery ring that produces art attributed to a dead painter who the world believes is still alive. When an aficionado discovers some of the forgeries and threatens to expose the ring, Ripley stages a news conference disguised as the dead painter to prove that the art is real. When the man remains unconvinced, Ripley invites him to his estate where he to murders him. Things get complicated for Ripley when a wily detective starts looking for the missing man.
Roger Spottiswoode
A native of England and Canada, Spottiswoode began his career as an editor. He came to America in the early ‘70’s, where he worked with director Sam Peckinpah on “Straw Dogs,” “The Getaway” starring Steven McQueen and “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid”. His other editing credits include “The Gambler” and “Hard Times”.Making the transition from the editing room to behind the camera, Spottiswoode wrote the 1982 film, “48 Hrs” starring Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy and made his directorial debut with “Terror Train,” starring Jamie Lee Curtis. Since then he has directed films such as “The Best of Times,” “Shoot to Kill,” “Turner and Hooch,” and “Air America.” “The 6th Day” and the James Bond thriller, “Tomorrow Never Dies” “Ripley Under Ground,” “The Children of Huang Shi.” His main focus continues to be on more political films, both theatrical and made for TV, which have collected numerous nominations and awards, including, “Under Fire,” “And The Band Played On”, “Hiroshima,” “Noriega: God’s Favorite” “Spinning Boris,” “Shake Hands with the Devil.” He is currently making a documentary on Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Justice centered on Rwanda, 9/11 and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Through the Lens
Photographer Lisa Kristine In Person ~ Producer: MediaStorm ~ 18 minutes ~ Documentary ~ US
Through the Lens is a wonderful, evocative documentary on humanitarian photographer, Lisa Kristine, a woman who intimately photographs the spirit and dignity of our world. Gain an insight into the artistic process of Lisa Krisine’s work as she reveals what goes on behind the making of a great image.
Lisa Kristine
Lisa Kristine is a San Francisco based photographer specializing in images of remote indigenous peoples. Initially spending nearly five years in Asia, she immersed herself in world philosophies and religions. Upon her return in 1988, she showed her first body of photographic work. For over 23 years, Lisa has documented in over 60 countries on six continents throughout the world and has been active in publications, galleries, foundations, museums and educational venues. As haunting as the images are thought provoking, the artist wishes to open a dialogue about the diversity, beauty and hardship of our interlocking world.
Behind the Glass
Director: Zrinko Ogresta ~ 80 minutes ~ 2008/Croatia ~ Cast: Leon Lucev, Jadranka Djokic, Daria Lorenci
Successful thirty-something architect Nikola can feel the walls closing in. Already stressed at the office due to a coworker’s breach of professional ethics, he goes home to a life with a wife, Maja, and young daughter that offers no respite. Maja can barely contain her pain and anger over her awareness that Nikola is having an affair. Ana, his colleague and mistress of six years, is near a meltdown of her own, as his endless promises to leave Maja continue to ring hollow. Something’s got to give—and so it does when Maja drops a bomb on a family gathering and Nikola loses his precarious balance as his life spins out of control. Unable to take actions or even make decisions to reverse the havoc he has wreaked, Nikola finally learns all too well the meaning of the old axiom “he who hesitates is lost” in the midst of unexpectedly tragic consequences.
Under the Snow
Director: Candela Figueira & Maitena Muruzabal ~ 99 mintes ~ Fiction ~ 2008/Spain ~ Cast: Asun Aguinaco, Gabriel Latorre, Laura De Pedro, Xabi Yarnoz
The winter season is almost here. In the snow chain packing section of a factory, the orders are piling up. Javier, the supervisor, asks upper management for additional personnel. Jairo is sent from another section while Karmentxu and Angela are hired through a temporary work agency, for two weeks. From 6am to 2pm, the four of them pack snow chains in silence, each of them at their own workstation. The meteorology announces a cold spell thus prolonging their stay at the factory. Almost without noticing, Angela starts breaking the work rules and little by little, the rules start changing. The work becomes a game and that cold and gray building the place to play. Nobody can imagine what is going on behind that iron gate. It is a secret shared just for the four of them. A world that survives thanks to the continuous snow. What is going to happen when the snow ceases to fall?
Because There Are Things You Never Forget
Director: Lucas Figueroa ~ 13 minutes ~ Comedy ~ 2008/Spain ~ Cast: Fabio Cannavaro, Amadeo Carboni, Giulio Baldari, Tiziano Scarponi
Naples (Italy), 1950. Four friends are playing soccer out on the street when their ball is accidentally kicked into the evil old lady's yard. They'll never play with their ball again … and for that the revenge will be deadly.
Lucas Figueroa
Lucas Figueroa earned a degree in Image and Sound from the Unvisersity of Buenos Aires. He has worked on television projects in collaboration with Alexander Barynin (Assistant to Andrei Tarkovsky). He has worked as a multimedia editor for the Telefónica Media goup. Lucas Figueroa has published two books, one of which received an honorable mention from the Argentina Ministry of Culture. He has created a documentary that was filmed in 18 countries. He directs videos and publicity spots for television and film. He works for Universal Studios, Fox, Disney Channel, Canal Hollywood, and Histoy Channel. He founded LMF Films, a film production company, Located in Madrid. In 2005 he received more than 30 awards for best screenplay and direction. His first short film was selected in more than 150 international festivals. Currently he resides in Spain.
Henry Kissinger - Secrets of a Superpower
Director: Stephan Lamby ~ 90 minutes ~ 2008/Germany/US ~ Cast: George W. Bush, Alexander Haig, James Schlesinger, Richard Perle, Lawrence Eagleburger, Brent Scowcroft, Helmut Schmidt, Norman Mailer, Carl Bernstein
Though Henry Kissinger is often giving short statements to the media, he refuses detailed interviews about his own life. Now he agreed to answer questions about his person in an extensive documentary. A rare chance. The life of Henry Kissinger provides a lot of material for a fascinating and historically relevant film. In his life important stages of the last century become unveiled: youth in the Third Reich, exodus of Europeans to the USA, the Cold War (secret travels to Beijing and Moscow), wars in Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, East-Timor), coup d’etats (Chile), crises in the Middle East. He has been on the margins of the biggest scandal of the USA in domestic affairs (Watergate). Nevertheless, Kissinger witnessed the downfall of President Nixon at close range. Like only a few living personalities Kissinger is both, a historical witness and a political decision maker of the 20th century.
Stephan Lamby
Stephan Lamby is a reward winning director of many high-quality documentaries on personalities such as Fidel Castro, Helmut Kohl, Oliver Stone, Angela Merkel. Stephan Lamby won the renowned "Robert Geisendörfer Preis" and “Hans-Klein- Medienpreis” and was nominated for the “Deutscher Fernsehpreis.” Stephan Lamby was born in Bonn in 1959 and studied German and English literature in Marburg and Hamburg. He worked as a freelance journalist in New York and later became deputy chief editor at Radio 107 in Hamburg. His subsequent occupations include being editor and presenter at RTL television and presenter of the ARD interview program "talk taeglich." In 1992, Stephan Lamby became deputy head and presenter, and later head of DIE ZEIT TV-Magazine (VOX). Since 1997 he is general manager of ECO Media TV-Produktion.
Gimme A Hug
Director: Geert Droppers ~ 14 minutes ~ Documentary ~ 2008/Netherlands/Bahamas
Sharks are one of the most important top-predators in our oceans and there is still a lot we don’t understand, or even know, about this fascinating animal. This short documentary shows one of the most mysterious phenomena in the animal world; amazing animals, showing a totally different behavior than most people would expect.
Geert Droppers
Geert Droppers, a Dutch diver, started filming in 2003. His drive: a passion for sharks. He has been diving with many shark species and collected shark footage from all over the world. His documentaries show not only how beautiful and graceful those animals are, but also reveal surprising insights into their behaviour, which is often quite different from what most people expect. As a filmmaker, he wants to give the viewer a more genuine picture of an animal that, naturally, must be handled with care and respect, but that is certainly not the monstrous 'killing-machine' that so many people think it is.
The Job
Director: Jonathan Browning ~ 4 minutes ~ Comedy ~ US ~ Cast: Adam LeBow, Alex Castillo, Bernard Thurman
The immigration debate just got a little funnier!
Jonathan Browning
Victor Gazone
Director: Patrick Gaze ~ 11 minutes ~ Canada/2008 ~ Cast: Claudel Poirier
Victor Gazon, a 4th grade student, chooses to do his final presentation on suicide. Because he doesn’t like oral presentation, he is allowed to present a short video instead. In his film, Victor makes a list comparing things he likes and things he doesn’t like to figure out if life is worth it or if it is better off committing suicide.
Patrick Gaze
Montreal-born Patrick Gaze has been involved in the film industry for more than fifteen years. In 1996, he graduated with honors in Film Production at Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School, where he directed the short film «L’absurde aventure de …». He then worked in the advertising and music video milieu, directing and editing hundreds of projects. In 2005, he came back to fiction with «Exit», which has had a great career on the national and international film festival circuit. He then completed Victor Gazon, a witty dramedy renowned for its unique format and approach.
Ninety
Director: John Christopher [In Person] ~ 30 minutes ~ US ~ Cast: Paul Fredrick Pickmann [In Person]
“Ninety” chronicles the life of Paul Fredrick Pickmann, a modern day renaissance man. Through light hearted recollections, Mr. Fredrick celebrates his ninety years of life and reveals his first-hand experience as a prison camp survivor, actor, artist, author and teacher.
John Christopher
Director John Christopher was born and raised in San Francisco, John has had an interest in filmmaking since the age of ten when he began shooting 8mm films with the kids in his neighborhood. He excelled in TV production in high school and pursued film studies at Skyline College in San Bruno, CA. Currently employed as Marketing Manager at DriveSavers Data Recovery, John frequently shoots and assembles training videos, virtual tours and customer testimonials for DriveSavers. He has been active as an independent filmmaker shooting everything from documentaries to dog toy commercials.
Shattered Allegiance
Director: Paul Winston [In Person] ~ 29 minutes ~ 2009/US ~ Drama ~ Cast: Paul Winston, Eric Egan, Lia Marie Johnson, Marques Pardue
Shattered Allegiance is a gripping short story about a young man who is bounded by brotherhood, blinded by hate and compelled by tragedy.
Paul Winston
Born in 1982. American actor, model, writer, director and producer. Paul Winston was born and raised in Petaluma, California while spending most of his youth in adjacent Rohnert Park, California. Paul attended Rancho Cotati High School graduating in 2001. Being a huge fan of movies and performing, while in attendance at Rancho, Paul took his first drama class in his junior year and fell in love with acting. Motivated and in awe of Vin Diesel's short film Multi-Facial, Paul began writing Shattered Allegiance in late 2007 and wrote the most challenging role for himself. Paul resides in Los Angeles and is currently in the process of seeking theatrical representation to continue his quest at becoming a Hollywood leading man.
“Petaluma International Film Festival is an annual event showcasing the independent feature and short films from around the world.”
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