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Venue
Programming is held at 7:30 PM
RHIFF
VENUE PROGRAM
SOUTHERN ACCENT
Cajun, Creole & Soul Restaurant
595 Markham Street
[1 Block West of Honest Ed’s]
Toronto, ON M6G 2L7 |
Get
your "RHIFF Day" or "REEL Days" Wristbands Online
now!
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Danielson:
A Family Movie
Official Venue Opener
JL Aronson
FD/MR 01:45:00
Brooklyn, U S A |
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| 'Danielson:
a Family Movie' is a documentary about unbridled
creativity vs. accessibility, Christian faith
vs. popular culture, underground music vs. survival,
and family vs. individuality. The film follows
eccentric musician and visual artist Daniel Smith
as he leads his four siblings and best friend
to indie rock stardom. Along the way he mentors
an unknown singer-songwriter named Sufjan Stevens
whose subsequent success stands in stark contrast
to the music world's uneasy reception of Danielson
just a few years prior. |
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Riverside Canadian
Premiere
Todd Tinkham
SF 00:11:40
Chapel Hill, NC USA
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| On
a warm summer day, while having fun with her
friends, one young woman finds out what it means
to have her life flash before her. After accidentally
diving into a rock at her favorite swimming hole,
we follow Greta on a flash-forward journey through
her existence as she searches for meaning in
the last few moments of her short, bittersweet
life… |
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In
Memory Of Me Canadian Premiere
Samantha Lavin
SF 00:24:27
Los Angeles, USA
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| After
eight years, a young successful lawyer reluctantly
goes back to her small hometown for her best
friend’s wedding and the memories of a
love affair she had with another girl during
high school start to resurface. When she finally
tries to make peace with her past, she realizes
that underneath the foundation of her new life,
lives a world of regret for things left unsaid… |
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Mending
Spirits Canadian Premiere
Programmers Pick
Monica Plunkett
LD 00:58:16
Cleveland Heights, U S A |
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| An
often-neglected aspect of domestic violence,
this documentary is an artistic presentation
of healing that conveys both pain and celebration,
featuring three northeast Ohio women who share
their personal experiences. Their stories are
echoed from across the country and around the
globe. The courage to leave is tremendous, but
the courage needed to face the many days and
nights after a woman closes that door on abuse
is different. 'Mending Spirits' is about that
different, daily bravery. |
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Welcome
to My World
Jiri Bakala
SD 00:28:13
Kelowna, BC, Canada |
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| Director
Jiri Bakala mixes a combination of powerful interviews
from a group of brave women, who share their
harrowing experiences of violence perpetrated
upon them by their partners with a stylized dramatization
in the style of a music video performed by a
survivor of domestic violence, Natasha Williams… |
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By
The Wayside Canadian Premiere
Soozie Eastman
LD 00:57:37
Los Angeles, U S A |
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| Every
night in America, 600,000 men, women and children
go to sleep homeless. The man who calls an abandoned
house his home. The choir of recovering addicts
who use the power of their music to maintain
sobriety. Every one has hope in their fight for
a better life. Follow their stories, and others,
on a journey as they struggle to rebuild lives
that have fallen by the wayside. |
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Pillow
Girl Canadian Premiere
Ronnie
Cramer
00:08:00
Denver,
U S A |
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| Pillow
Girl was originally a sound-art work created
for the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. Musician/Artist
Ronnie Cramer scanned the covers and inside pages
of a number of lurid, vintage paperbacks, then
ran the collected image and text data through
a variety of synthesizers. The resulting sound
files were then processed and remixed into a
collection of electronic sound-scapes called “Pillow
Girl and Other Songs of Romance”. The recently
completed visual portion of the film makes use
of 150 covers, with one morphing into the next
every two seconds. |
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Post
No Bills (1992)
Invite
Clay Walker
LF 00:57:00
Atlanta, USA
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| Political
heavy-weights from the 90’s such as Daryl
Gates, Ronald Reagan, Oliver North and actor
Tim Robbins populate this urgent and humorous
documentary on the detonative mix of art and
politics as embodied in the work of infamous "guerilla" poster
artist Robbie Conal, a professional painter who
estimates that hundreds of thousands of his caricatured
paintings-as-posters have been splattered across
the United States' urban streets, militantly
affixed by himself and his cult following of
urban guerilla volunteers to construction sites,
traffic light switching boxes and any other surface
area large enough to house one of these satirical
images. |
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Plip & Plop
North American Premiere
Christiane Doering
AN 00:06:10
Weissenhorn, Germany |
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| A
little girl is brushing her teeth, while the
water keeps on running. Suddenly, two water drops
jump out of the running water. They take the
kid on a journey around the world, to show her
the problems of water in the world. Eventually,
the child discovers how important and precious
every drop of water is to the planet Earth. |
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The
Unbroken Circle
Canadian Premiere [wip]
John C. Ludwig
SF 00:27:57
Irvine, U S A |
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| The
Unbroken Circle tells the “true to life” story
of an Israeli family and a Palestinian family
in Israel. Their young sons, hospitalized from
injuries in the ongoing Israeli Palestinian conflict,
are the catalyst for an unexpected bond. Despite
each family’s pledge to foster peace among
their people, there is a poignant and gut-wrenching
twist to the story that is reflective of the
real struggles endured in their daily lives.
The Unbroken Circle is a story of the times.
The Unbroken Circle is a tri-lingual film (English,
Arabic, and Hebrew) and was shot using native
language speakers. |
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YOU
BE THE SKY...Canadian Premiere
LAVLIN THADANI
LD 00:54:20
New Delhi, India |
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| The
desire to empower human mind with positive thinking
motivated Dr. Kiran Bedi, to try to reform the
criminal mind of the diehard criminals by way
of Vipassana meditation. Vipassana performs deep-rooted
surgical operation on human mind, which causes
the student to gradually rid oneself of aberrations
that invade human mind. |
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Elephant
Cemetery World Premiere
Mehran Vaziri
FD 01:23:00
Iran/ Wayne, NJ U S A |
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| A
young Iranian film student arrives in the U.S.
with the dream of becoming a movie director.
Life then takes a sudden detour when he falls
in love and marries a Jewish American girl. Documenting
an odyssey of love, hope, tragedy and redemption
for two extended families from conflicting cultures
who discover the universal truths that binds
us all. Spanning three generations, Elephant
Cemetery is a jubilant celebration of life, and
a tender and intimate study of aging and death. |
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Banou
Hoshech Legaresh
Canadian Premiere
Ziva Postec
FD 01:30:00
Jaffa, Israel |
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| An
experimental workshop of educators from different
ethnic groups in Israel gathers in order to eventually
write a 'different' educational book on common
citizenship for all communities without ethnic,
religious, and communal differences. But reality
is stronger than ideology, and the stage is occupied
by one drama: 'the Jewish-Palestinian conflict',
seen through the eyes of the Arab tragedy; the
Naquba, and the Jewish tragedy; Shoah… |
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Variatzyot
al noseh: Liiyot Israelite Featuring
LEA
Canadian Premiere
Ziva Postec
FD 01:02:00
Jaffa, Israel |
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| A
saga about Israeli society from five feminine
points of view: We focus on Lea, a settler born
in Israel. The film examines the meaning of identity
in a land of immigrants like Israel; in the search
for roots, the tension between tradition and
modernity, between past and present, between
Israeli identity and Jewish identity, as well
as in the difficulties faced by other ethnic
identities. |
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Mary's
Garden World Premiere
Sam Hampton
SD 00:28:00
Alexandria, VA U S A |
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| In
the summer of 2005, filmmakers Sam Hampton and
Sumit Ghose spent some time with glassblowers
Paul Willsea and Carol O'Brien at their shop
and home in Upstate NY. Through sharing of their
time and space, we learn about Paul and Carol
as husband and wife, working artists, parents,
friends and partners. While the art is far-reaching
and complex, Carol and Paul maintain a lifestyle
in the hills of Upstate, New York, which is dedicated
to family, friends and simplicity. |
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Vanishing
Cultures: Bushmen of the Kalahari World
Premiere
Programmers Pick
Paula Ely
LD 00:55:00
Sherman Oaks, U S A |
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| The
San people, more commonly known as Bushmen, are
believed to be the earliest inhabitants of southern
Africa. They have lived for 80,000 years as hunter-gatherers
in the Kalahari Desert, and are well known for
their expert survival skills in a harsh environment.
Their unique clicking languages and their astonishing
method of healing through trance dancing have
made them a source of worldwide fascination.
Vanishing Cultures: Bushmen of the Kalahari takes
a never-before-seen look at the fascinating history,
the brutal struggles, and the seemingly impossible
challenges of the Bushmen of the Kalahari. |
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How
Come You Walk Funny?
Tina Hahn
FD 01:19:12
Toronto, Canada |
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| This
documentary takes us inside a unique experiment
in early childhood education, following nine
physically challenged kids as they are joined
by twelve able-bodied kids who come to live and
learn on their ‘turf’ – in
their adapted kindergarten classroom. Committed
parents and dedicated teachers make sure that
academic exploration and self discovery go hand
in hand throughout a program designed to make
physical ability take a backseat to social and
academic achievement. Question: Will this integration
extend beyond the classroom…? |
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Children
of Fate
Nastasha Baron
SF 00:11:38
Richmond Hill, Ontario |
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| Based
on a factual family event: After the Soviet Army
enters Hungary in the dead of winter 1945, and
destroys most of Budapest, Anna, her critically
injured husband and their two children find refuge
in a barn with a kind country family. While stealing
salt from a broken down Soviet supply truck,
Anna is met face to face with a Russian soldier
and has to defend her life and the lives of her
children.
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Pawns
of Paradise: Inside the Brutal Kashmir Conflict World
Premiere
Zoltan Istvan
LD 00:54:30
Brookings, OR U S A |
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| Few
other territories pose so much danger to world
peace. With non-stop fighting since 1949, it’s
the longest ongoing conflict in the world today.
India and Pakistan--both nuke-ready heavyweights--lay
fierce claim to the territory. Between them over
one million soldiers straddle the Line of Control.
Zoltan Istvan, a regular contributor to the National
Geographic Channel and New York Times Syndicate,
is traveling alone in the region, trying to capture
the story of the 12 million Kashmiris who forge
their lives in a land beset by fifty years of
war and terrorism. |
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PLEASE
KILL MR KINSKI
Invite
David Schmoeller
SF 00:09:00
Las Vegas, USA |
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| Filmmaker
David Schmoeller gives an amusing, first hand
account of what it was like directing enfant
terrible Klaus Kinski in a movie shot in Rome,
Italy. Featuring behind-the-scenes footage of
Kinski ranting against directors in particular
and everything else in general, Schmoeller produces
a funny but poignant portrait of a great actor. |
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The
Absolute Truth About Pro Wrestling Canadian
Premiere
Mark Ezovski
FD 02:00:00
Brooklyn, U S A |
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| For
six years, Mark Ezovski followed three individuals
to explore the strange, fascinating and secretive
world of professional wrestling. “Luscious
Johnny Valiant”, a WWE hall of famer, and
thirty year veteran of the mat wars; “Empress
Asia”, Sky Hosoya, a former body builder,
Golden Gloves boxing champion, world renowned
dominatrix and of course, a professional wrestler
and, “Professor Larry Brisco”, who
is really, Larry DeGaris Ph. D: college professor
by day, wrestling villain by night. The Absolute
Truth About Pro is a funny, sad and ultimately
uplifting portrait of life outside of the squared
circle. |
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Irritation:
A Radio Saga
Sam
Baharvar Canadian
Premiere
SF 00:36:28
New York, U S A
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| Sam Baharvar, a graduate of Cornell
University and Brooklyn Law school has a second
career as a filmmaker and brings us the in-your-face
documentary on Dead Air Dave, irritated New York
radio personality at the soon-to-be defunct 92.3
k-rock and in-house censor at the Howard Stern
show prior to its anticipated departure for Sirius
satellite radio. |
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| The
World's Greatest Fair
Sponsored by Kernels Popcorn
Bob Miano
Scott Huegerich
Canadian Premiere
FD 01:59:00
St. Louis, U S A
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| Some
might remember the song by Judy Garland, “Meet
Me In St. Louie, Louie”. This feature-length
documentary, co-directed by first-time documentary
filmmakers, Bob Miano and Scott Huegerich is
about that fair, the 1904 St. Louis World’s
Fair. Some 150 volunteers, including 18 writers,
worked for more than a year and a half on this
engaging documentary made up of 16 topics with
hundreds of detailed images, originally shot
on 8 x10 glass negatives, along with footage
from the earliest days of motion pictures, bringing
this spectacular world’s fair back to life. |
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BIG
ENOUGH Canadian Premiere
Jan Krawitz
FD 00:53:00
Stanford, USA
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| In
this intimate portrait, several dwarfs who appeared
in Jan Krawitz and Thomas Ott's 1982 film “Little
People” welcome the camera back into their
lives once again. Through a prism of "then
and now," the characters confront physical,
emotional and lifestyle challenges with humor,
grace, and often, frustration. Big Enough provides
a unique perspective on a proud and active community
that many people know only from cultural stereotypes. |
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Arborian
Andre Kocsis
SF 00:12:40
Willowdale, Canada |
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| The
marketing company that employs Bruce (played
by Damien Atkins) decides to launch a new religion
rooted in convenience and targeted toward the
stupidity of its followers. More than a little
disenchanted with his employer’s agenda,
Bruce embarks on a very personal spiritual journey… |
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SUCCESS Canadian
Premiere
Glynn Beard
Lunch n’ Learn
Spotlight, | | |
