Bahamas Film Festival - Films

Films to be screened at the Third Annual Bahamas International Film Festival - 2006

Spirit Of Freedom Category - narrative competition

Jurors: film publicist Mickey Cottrell, actor Rick Fox, producer Molly Mayeaux.

Each cinema artist explores the potential of the human spirit and how freedom pervades our lives. With a combination of narrative and documentary features, this showcase provides insight into the mosaic cultures that make up our world.

CHRONICLES OF AN ESCAPE [Cronica de una fuga]
(2006, Argentina)
Director: Israel Adrian Caetano.
Starring: Rodrigo De la Serna, Pablo Echarrri Nazareno Casero.
The goalkeeper of a little known soccer team is kidnapped by an Argentinean government squad and sent to a detention centre.

JANUARY 2ND
(2006, UK)
Director: Matt Winn.
Starring: Simon Kunz, Ruth Gemmell, Rachel Fielding.
A couple move to the middle of Wales to escape the problems in their marriage but when they invite their oldest friends to a party, ancient jealousies and long held crushes raise their heads. (Malt Winn will attend BIFF).

LIUBI
(2005, Greece)
Director: Layia Yiourgou.
Starring: Alexis Georgoulis, Eugenia Kaplan, Lena Kitsopoulou, Nikos Georgakis, Olga Damani.
Tells the story of a beautiful young Russian woman who gets caught up in the pettiness and opportunism of a typical lower-middle-class Greek family. (Layia Yiourgou will attend BIFF).

THE NAKED APE
(2006, US)
Director: Daniel Mellitz.
Starring: Josh Wise, Chelsea Swain, Sean Shanks, Amanda Macllonald, Corbin Bernsen and Michael Jackson.
A bitter sweet dramatic comedy about friendships, insecurities, rights of passage, the death of idealism. (Daniel Mellitz will attend)

TEN CANOES
(2006, Australia)
Directed by: Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr.
Starring: Richard Birrinbirrin, Johnny Buniyira, Peter Djigirr, Frances Djulibing, David Gulpilil, Jamie Gulpilil, Crusoe Kurddal.
A man teaches his younger brother an important lesson through an ancient fable in this period comedy-drama shot in Australia, and the first feature film made in the Aboriginal language of Ganalbingu.

WHO LOVES THE SUN
(2006, Canada)
Director: Matt Bissonnette.
Starring: Adam Scott, Lukas Haas, Molly Parker.
Will Morrison (Haas) and Daniel Bloom (Scott) were the best of friends. Daniel was Will's best man at his wedding. Then one day Will disappeared without a word. Half a decade later he re-surfaces and sets off a tsunami of unforeseeable events. (Producer Corey Marr will attend)

Spirit Of Freedom Category - narrative competition

Jurors: human rights activist Clint Kemp, Hamptons Film Festival artistic director Rajendra Roy, co-president of Zeitgeist Films Emily Russo.

ENCOUNTER POINT
(2006, Israel/Palestine)
Directors: Ronit Avni and Julia Bacha.
Starring: Ali Abu Awward. Sami Al Jundi, Robin Damelin, Shlomo Zagman.
Moves beyond sensational images to tell the story of an Israeli settler, a Palestinian ex-prisoner, a bereaved Israeli mother and a wounded Palestinian brother who sacrifice their public standing and homes in order to press for a grassroots movement for non-violence and peace. (Ronit Avni wi11 attend)

FREEDOM'S FURY
(2005, US/Hungary/Russia)
Directors: Colin Gray and Megan Raney.
Starring: Viktor Ageyev. Antal Bolvari, Janos Buk, Sandor Csoori, James Green, Dez so Gyarmati.
Documentary on the 1956 Olympic semifinal water polo match between Hungary and Russia, held in Australia as Russian forces were in Budapest stomping out a popular revolt. (Colin Gray and producer Steven Beer will attend)

GITMO - The New Rules
(2005, Sweden)
Directors: Erik Gandini and Tarik Saleh.
Concerned about the treatment of Medhi, a Swedish citizen held at the US Army base, Gandini and Saleh travel to the pseudo-paradise of Guantanamo Bay to find out what's really going on there. (Erik Gandini and Tarik Saleh will attend)

HOW TO EAT A WATERMELON IN WHITE COMPANY
(2005, USA)
Director: Joe Angio.
A feature length documentary on renegade filmmaker, novelist, musician, and theater impressario Melvin Van Peebles. (Joe Angio will attend)

JESUS CAMP
(2006, USA)
Directed by: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady.
Starring Mike Papantonio.
Becky Fisher is a children's pastor who runs "Kids on Fire," a summer camp for evangelical Christian children in North Dakota. (Rachel Grady will attend)

New Visions Award

For first and second time directors.
Jurors: filmmaker/actress Sara Driver; Moving Pictures editor Elliot Kotek; president of Shoreline Entertainment Morris Ruskin.

HALF NELSON
(2006, US)
Director: Ryan Fleck.
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Stephanie Bast.
An inner-city junior high-school teacher with a drug habit forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students.

JOHNNY MONTANA
(2006, USA)
Director: John Daniel Gavin.
Starring: Nick Addeo, Mona Albert, David Anquelo.
Johnny Montana is frustrated and trapped in blue-collar Brooklyn. The one bright star in his sky is Laura, but her disapproving brother keeps them apart. Luck lands Johnny a a break and he gets an upscale job. Soon, he is seeling his soul to the world where money trumps all. Johnny stands at a crossroad. "Love or money?" He has to choose. (John Daniel Gavin will attend)

JOHNNY WAS
(2006, UK)
Director: mark Hammond.
Starring: Eriq LaSalle, Lennox Lewis, Roger Daltry, Patrick Bergin. 
Johnny (Vinnie) Jones) trying to escape a violent past in Ireland, hides out in Brixton, London, in the world's least safe safe-house. sandwiched between a drug den run by a Jamaican gangster (Eriq LaSalle) and a pirate radio station belonging to a Rasta DJ (Lennox Lewis). (Producer Ben Katz will attend BIFF)

LOVE PHOBIA [Domabaem]
(2006, South Korea)
Director: Kang Ji-eun.
Starring: Cho Seung-woo, Kang Hye-jeong, Byeon Ju-yeon.
A couple who knew each other when they were younger are reunited, but the woman seems to keep avoiding a romantic relationship. (Kang Ji-eun will attend)

PREMIUM
(2006, US)
Director: Pete Chatmon.
Starring Zoe Saldana. Dorian Missick, Hill Harper.
Reginald "Cool" Coolidge is a struggling actor, fed up with taking stereotypical African-American roles. One day, his ex-fiancee - and one true love - reappears after three years of silence. (Pete Chatmon will attend)

RETURN TO RAJAPUR
(2005, US/lndia)
Director: Nanda Anand.
Starring: Manoj Bajpai, Lynn Collins, Kelli Garner, Frank Langella.
In an 11th century town in the middle of the Thar desert, two women's lives are changed forever when they set out for adventure and discover this enchanted land, Rajapur, and an enchanting man, Jai Singh. (Nanda Anand will attend)

Panorama World Cinema Category

10 QUESTIONS FOR THE DALAI LAMA
(2006, India)
Featuring His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Film examines some of the fundamental questions of our time.

BETWEEN THE LINES
(2006, India)
Documents the effort of photographer Anita Khemka to capture the life of the eunuchs of India - the Hijras - living as outcasts on the edge of society.

THE BREAST CANCER DIARIES
(2006, US)
The year that changed one woman's life.

CANDY
(2006, Australia)
Starring: Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish. A brutally honest depiction of life as a junkie.

THE HIP HOP PROJECT
(2006, US/Bahamas)
The story of a group of New York City teenagers who transform their life stories into powerful works of art, using hip hop as a vehicle for self-development and personal discovery.

KAMATAKI
(2005, Canada/Japan)
Ken, a 23-year-old, is devastated at the death of his father. He decides to commit suicide by jumping into the near-freezing river, but somehow miraculously survived.

LOVERBOY
(2005, US)
Directed by Kevin Bacon. A neglected daughter becomes a possessive mother in an emotional journey into the heart and mind of a woman who loved too much.

THE REFUGEE ALL STARS
(2005, USA)
In Guinea, a group of talented Sierra Leonean refugees, constantly relocated from one miserable camp to another, decide to form a band to bring entertainment and a ray of sunshine.

SILK [Guisi]
(2006, Taiwan)
A team of scientists has managed to capture the energy of a ghost child, thanks to their newly invented device called Menger Sponge.

SOUND OF THE SOUL
(2005, US)
Presents unforgettable performances from groups from Morocco, Ireland, Russia. Afghanistan, Mauritania, the USA. Portugal and France, which carry viewers into what film's Moroccan Sufi guide calls 'the hearing of the heart' - the essential oneness at the core of all religions and faiths.

THE TSUNAMI GENERATION
(2006, Germany/Indonesia)
The untold story of the Aceh province in the wake of the Tsunami disaster.

East Meets West Category

Return to Rajapur
(2005) India
Directed by: Nanda Anand.
Starring: Manoj Bajpai, Lyny Collins, Kelli Garner, Bhanu Goswami, Rta Joshi.
There is an 11th century town in the middle of the Thar desert where sand ripples like waves from the ocean and a sandstone fortress gleams like gold. Two women's lives are changed forever when they set out for adventure and discover this enchanted land, Rajapur, and an enchanting man, Jai Singh.

Caribbean Spotlight Category

presented by Tempo MTV

ELEUTHERAN ADVENTURE
(2006, Bahamas)
A documentary that involves the director and a cameraman hitchhiking from Spanish Wells to the Southernmost point on the island of Eleuthera with only $150 in hand.

EYE OF THE DOLPHIN
(2006, US/Bahamas)
A young girl discovers she can communicate with dolphins. Shot in Freeport. Grand Bahama.

FROM BARBADOS WITH LOVE
(2006, Barbados)
The director returns to Barbados as his uncle, the greatest Barbadian monkey hunter, stalks the monkey Chango.

KIDNAPPINGS
(2005, Haiti)
A docu-drama that explores the acts people are willing to commit to assure socio-economic stability. It explores the terrorizing issues plaguing Haiti, and the efforts towards rebuilding.

LAST DAYS OF LEFT EYE
Starring Lisa "Left Eye"

Lopez, the hip-hop voice of TLC. Lisa decided to document her life. She filmed at a mysterious spiritual retreat deep in the jungles of Honduras. Twenty-six days later she was dead. Her unedited tapes were left behind, revealing private moments and intimate insights.

NATHAN STONE: ROAD TO STARDOM
(2006, Bahamas)
A rockumentary of the Bahamian singer's journey to become a Pop Star.

SHOW ME YOUR MOTION: THE RINGPLAY GAMES OF THE BAHAMAS
(2006, Bahamas)
Ian Strachan takes his cameras throughout the schoolyards of his country, and even travels as far south as St Lucia and Trinidad to record Ringplay, the joyous, often bawdy songs, dances and clapping games of children.

VERS LE SUD
(2005, Haiti)
Haiti, late 1970's. Ellen, Brenda and Sue, three North American ladies, on the wrong side of forty or fifty-odd, going through an enchanted interlude, indulging in carnal exultation without shame, thanks to handsome young local men they pay a few dollars to.

BUY THE TICKET, TAKE THE RIDE: HUNTER S THOMPSON ON FILM
A personal, intimate look at Thompson with a special emphasis on his Hollywood relationships.

Short World Films

CORPSE
The story a lighting 'tecchie' brought down from the rafters to take his turn in front of the footlights.

FIRST FLIGHT
(2006, USA)
The story of a fastidiously organized businessman, whose perspective on life is forever changed through an unexpected encounter with a tiny fledgling bird.

IN THE MOOD
(2006, UK)
London 1944. The war hangs in the balance. Madame Smith, dance instructor and undercover German spy, receives advance details of the D-Day landings. But her critical transmission home is jeopardised when neighbours take delivery of the very latest swing record ...

KARMA CAFE
(2006)
A coffee shop cashier instills confidence in a lonely, young man seeking love.

LUCKY
(2005, South Africa)
An orphaned boy from Zululand finds himself homeless on the streets of Durbin where his run-in with a racist old Indian woman turns into a bond as an unlikely mother and son.

MY FIRST KISS
(2006, US)
Danny might be 11-years-old, but he has the problems of a grown man. When he's cast in Tommy's student movie, he is called upon to have his first kiss be put up on screen.

NOW YOU SEE ME, NOW YOU DON'T [Most Latsom, Most Nem Latszom]
(2005, Hungary)
It seemed like an ordinary day. Dad is experimenting in the lab, Mom is at home boiling water, while their six year old son, Alex is playing around her. But this day is different. This day Dad brings something home from the lab. And the next morning... Alex becomes invisible.

THE PATH OF MOST RESISTANCE
(2006, US)
New Year's Eve and Tom McKenna is lonely. Then again, solitude is an essential part of Tom's secretive profession - a profession he guards even at the expense of love, even on New Year's Eve. But this New Year's Eve, which promises to be the most lucrative night of his life, Tom is presented with a choice that could change his life ...

ROSE
(2005, New Zealand)
The story of a young single woman who works in a flower shop on the worst day of the year to be dateless ... Valentines Day.

THE SHOWDOWN
(2006, US)
Action/drama film, about the confrontation between a pitcher and batter in the bottom of the ninth inning of a one-run baseball game, juxtaposed against a deadly duel between two gunfighters in the Old West.

US
(2005, New Zealand)
Explores the nature of trust and intimacy and shows us how fragile these things are; how easily they can be broken.

Family Series

A CHRISTMAS CAROL
(2006, UK)
Based on Charles Dickens' classic story.

HIP HOP KIDZ - IT'S A BEAUTIFUL THING
(2006, USA)
The Hip Hop Kidz have two weeks to pull together to make the best hip hop video they can. Does Lauren, the daughter of a conservative business man, dare to defy her father and take part?

LASSIE
(2005, UK)
A family in financial crisis is, forced to sell Lassie, their beloved dog. Hundreds of miles away from her true family, Lassie escapes and sets out on a journey home.

THE PEACE TREE
Two girls create a 'peace tree' because they can't celebrate Christmas (they celebrate another holiday). When the parents find out what they made, they try to prevent them from having it.

Special Screenings

Opening Night Gala Film

AFTER THE WEDDING [Efter brylluppet]
(2006, Denmark)
Directed by: Susanne Bier
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Rolf Lassgard.
Jacob Petersen has dedicated his life to helping street children in India. When the orphanage he heads is threatened, he receives an unusual offer. A Danish businessman, Jorgen, offers him a donation of $4 million dollars. There are, however, certain conditions - Not only must Jacob return to Denmark. he must also take part in the wedding of Jorgen's daughter. "The wedding proves to be a critical juncture between the past and the future, and catapults Jacob into the most intense dilemma of his life. (Writer Anders Thomas Jensen will attend BIFF)

JOHNNY SLADE'S GREATEST HITS
(2006, USA)
Directed by: Larry Blamire
Starring: John Fiore, Vincent Curatola, Robert Giardina.
Down-and-out lounge singer Johnny Slade is hired by a mystery man to open a hot new club, the catch being he's given a new - and terrible - song to sing each night. Noticing that whenever he sings one a new crime is committed. Johnny gradually realises his songwriter-benefactor is a powerful mob boss in hiding and his "Greatest Hits" are the only way the man can give orders to his crew. (Star John Fiore will attend)

THE ORIGINS OF AIDS [Les Origines du SIDA]
(2003, Canada/France)
Directed by: Catherine Peix and Peter Chappell.
More than 20 years after the AIDS epidemic started, we still do not know its origins. We know for sure that AIDS was born from contact between humans and chimpanzees infected by the Simian Immunedeficiency (SIV), a virus very similar to HIV. But where, when and how did this devastating contact occur? Many believe that the answer is hidden in the research undertaken by scientist Hilary Koprowski to find a cure for the polio epidemic. Between 1957 and 1960, Koprowski injected his experimental vaccine into almost one million Africans. Evidence shows that Koprowski used chimpanzees to manufacture his vaccine. The scientific community is wrought with dissension surrounding this controversy. As the scientific community's ethical responsibilities are called into question, the debate over the origin of AIDS continues to rage on.

BIFF Panels

Film Animation: with Dreamwork's First Flight co-directors Cameron Hood and Kyle Jefferson; The Art of Collaboration: directors, actors and the creative process; Film Financing and Producing; Marketing, Distributing and Festivals; Filmmaking in the Bahamas; Music and Film. The panels are open to the community.

AIDS Panel: Discussing the scourge that has devastated our industry and overwhelms our country of the Bahamas. With Anchu Castro of Havard University; Dr Perry Gomez; Dr Percy McNeil; Claus Mueller.

Kids Workshop: A workshop presented every day of the festival for local students and children to learn about the process of filmmaking. Participants will have the opportunity to produce their very own feature film, digitally edit it, adding transitions, special effects and titles, compose their own soundtrack, and author and burn their own DVD.

Films shown at the 2005 Bahamas International Film Festival

Films shown at the 2004 Bahamas International Film Festival