ReelHeART International Film Festival

Theater 222,  Innis College,
2 Sussex Street, U of T Campus, Toronto, M5S 1J5
(1 block south of St. George Subway)

During the Afrobasket celebration, Pau Gasol, the NBA player for Lakers travels up to Angola like Good Will Ambassador of UNICEF and meet Ezio a young Angolan.
“Mensajero del Sur”- “South’s Messenger” is the meeting of two worlds where the struggle for the overcoming of Ezio, a young Angolan, and the commitment of Pau Gasol become great allied to conquer the problems that hurry up the people of Angola: The AIDS, the absence of education, the scarcity of infantile attention centres, etc.

While most sports films celebrate the quest for a championship, “Quantum Hoops” follows a team of math geniuses that is searching for a single win. The documentary chronicles the final week of the 2006 Caltech basketball season as the team is currently in the midst of a 21 year losing streak – over 240 consecutive conference losses. The final home game of the year would give the 5 seniors one last shot at that elusive win and an entry into the history books of college athletics. Narrated by (Californication, X-Files) David Duchovny.

Programmers’ Notes: It’s like “Hoop Dreams” with a little quantum physics thrown in. An incredible and touchingly funny film, serving as a ‘Wizard of Oz’ metaphor on the basketball floor…

Jocasta is structured as a play within the play. Marty New (Jocasta) and Michael Potts (Oedipus) question their own characters motivations. A modern Euripides (Potts), struggles to find an ending and decides that the traditional version of the story must be reversed, that Oedipus, Jocasta and Antigone will be reunited. Eventually, the proscenium falls and the cast and crew are revealed for who they really are behind the scene: mothers, sisters, sons, friends.