Review

Rapp Sheet — 10-1-10: Social justice, animation and high-profile narratives are on the menu at the 10th annual Kansas International Film Festival

Still from "The Five Cardinal Points," directed by Fridolin Schönwiese, who will be in attendance for the Kansas International Film Festival. The film was shot in Kansas City, Kansas, and presents a look at immigration. Image: courtesy of Mischief Films

"It's okay to think while watching movies," Stan Brakhage once said, a man who is considered one of the best experimental filmmakers of all time, and who, appropriately, hails from Kansas City. The phrase has become the motto for the Kansas International Film Festival, which is making a name for itself as the place to see perhaps some of the most important films in existence about what is really going on in our world.

The Kansas International Film Festival (KIFF) celebrates a full decade this year, running October 1 through 7, with an offering of 51 full-length films and 15 animated shorts at the Glenwood Arts Theatre in Overland Park, Kansas. The festival has been steadily growing into a true national contender, with Movie Maker Magazine dubbing it, "one of the top 25 film festivals worthy of its entry fee." So far, 23 filmmakers are scheduled to attend the festival and be available for a Q&A after their works screen.

The Kansas International Film Festival was founded in 2001 as a Kansas-based non-profit organization dedicated to the exhibition and preservation of independent and classic cinema. The festival attracts local, regional, and national work and traditionally honors filmmakers and screen personalities.

"Before founding the festival, I had been working with another local festival when the idea came up to expand to serve the greater metropolitan area," says director Ben Meade. "The Mossman brothers (Ben and Brian) and I decided to start another festival in under-served Johnson County with an emphasis on filmmakers, offering something for everyone."

Celebrating the power that film has to convey modern information, KIFF also established THINK!, the documentary side of the competition division. THINK! is dedicated to showcasing socially conscious documentaries, offering a platform for filmmakers who bring socially, culturally, and politically thought-provoking themes and ideas to the screen. In 2010 the festival features independent documentary films about water privitization, plastic pollution, slavery in the Sahara, airport security, workplace violence, genetically modified foods, and immigration.

"Each year our social justice documentary films get stronger, covering diverse subject matter from environmental issues to human rights," says KIFF programming head, Dr. Dotty Hamilton. "It seems to me that the films are more polished and artistically crafted, which adds impact to the importance of the subject matter. The THINK! series has grown in popularity — as we see strong attendance and pre-sales for the social justice films. I think people want to see intelligent discussion of social issues, not slogans. They want to see the impact that public policies have on real peoples lives, even when the results are often frightening and tragic. But our audience wants to learn about the world, not as a tourist learns about the world, but as a global citizen would, with an eye to increasing our understanding and empathy of other cultures. "

Some highlights from this year's THINK! category include:

Please Remove Your Shoes is a startling look into the modern age of airport security. This revealing documentary examines a very broken government process, and the whistle-blowers who tried to stop it. The security process has become a hotbed of civil rights issues, and it is explored in this thoughtful study. Warning: You may not want to get on an airplane again.

Burma: An Indictment presents devastating footage showing the inhumane conditions the Burmese people suffer every day; and it exposes a wealthy country whose people are starving in the streets helpless at the hands of a brutal military dictatorship. Director Jeremy Taylor will attend.

Holy Wars depicts two religious fundamentalists — one Christian, one Muslim — and their opposing beliefs. The film travels through four hotbeds of fundamentalism, Pakistan, Lebanon, the UK, and American heartland, to go behind the scenes of the 1,400-year-old conflict between followers of Islam and Christianity. Director Stephen Marshall will attend.

Scientists Under Attack is a dual story about scientists who can't release unpopular findings without being ruined and about genetically modified foods. The subjects made important discoveries but suffer the fate of those who criticize the powerful vested interests. Very important and deeply unsettling.

The Five Cardinal Points exposes immigration issues in a look at both the American and Mexican sides of the border, depicting an apparently never-ending spiral of hope and disappointment, as the immigrants move back and forwards between two countries and two cultures, legally or illegally. Director Fridolin Schonwiese will attend. The documentary was filmed in Kansas City, Kansas, and Mexico — by a filmmaker from Vienna.

Other highlights for 2010 include the social commentaries, Daddy I Do and Cash & Marry, along with consumer-focused documentaries such as Addicted to Plastic and Tapped, and this year the Kansas International Film Festival includes an animation category. Fifteen animated shorts will be shown in addition to the festival’s scheduled 20 narratives and 30 documentaries.

The year 2010 also marks the inclusion of two new awards: one jury award for best social justice documentary and one for best narrative join the festival’s long-standing best of the festival winner category. Each jury award winning film receives a week-long run at The Glenwood Arts Theatre.

Brian Mossman explains that, “The board had been discussing the possibility of adding category awards to the festival for some time. Given the caliber of films submitted this year, we wanted the opportunity to recognize and showcase additional talent and give moviegoers multiple viewing opportunities."

The festival launches with a pronounced bang with Swedish filmmaker Stieg Larsson’s adaptation of The New York Times best-selling novel, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. Mossman says that this film was the top choice for the opening selection because of the popularity of its prequels and the pace by which its book counterpart is flying off of the shelves.

The final installment of the smash Millennium Trilogy (which began with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire), The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest re-introduces us to the tough and sexy title character, played by Lisbeth Salander, picking up where the last chapter left off. This franchise has set action cinema on its head and become a worldwide phenomenon. Local audiences will be getting a first peek at the last (or is it?) of this series.

KIFF also maintains a particular soft-spot for area filmmakers, playing the much-lauded Lawrence-shot feature Earthwork by Chris Ordal (Rapp Sheet 9-8-10), an exploration of crime in the Midtown area in Kansas City Murder Factory, and Ben Meade's quirky musical documentary, Woke Up This Morning in the Arkansas Delta.

Speaking of sound, there is plenty for the ears to enjoy, as the eyes and brain are soaking the rest up from the silver screen. Here are a few music-based offerings this year at KIFF:

In Everyday Sunshine, University of Kansas graduate Chris Metzler takes us through a breezy history of Fishbone, one of America's most original bands that has enjoyed a steady career for 25 years. Laurence Fishburne (appropriately!) narrates this depiction of a band who has kept rolling with their work, out of pride, desperation, and love for their art.

The documentary, Sounds of Beirut, was filmed weeks after a major armed conflict nearly cast the country back into civil war. The film examines how ongoing tensions have influenced local artists to create music, with genres ranging from pop, hip-hop, opera, classical, traditional Arabic, acoustic, and rock. Director Seth Koury will attend the screening at KIFF.

Last, but certainly not least, the Kansas International Film Festival continues to bring top-drawer independent films to appreciative viewers, with first looks at some promising narratives:

Conviction explores the devoted relationship between Hilary Swank and her brother, played by Sam Rockwell. Betty Anne (Swank), a Massachusetts wife and mother of two, dedicates her life to overturning her sibling's murder conviction, convinced that he is innocent. With the help of best friend, Abra Rice (Academy Award nominee Minnie Driver), Betty Anne pours through suspicious evidence mounted by small town cop, Nancy Taylor (Academy Award nominee Melissa Leo).

Still from "Everyday Sunshine," directed by KU-graduate Chris Metzler showing two of the founders of the funk band Fishbone that the documentary follows, Angelo Moore and Norwood Fisher. Image: Christian Pitot, photo, courtesy of the directors

No one quite nails pathos like Philip Seymour Hoffman, and he is here doing what he does best. He remains one of our most courageous and truthful actors, not afraid to show the unpleasantness of his mental state or the world going on around him. His directorial debut, Jack Goes Boating, is a turgid New York tale that explores new-found discovery of love, strength of friendship, and learning whom can be trusted.

Nowhere Boy, directed by Sam Taylor Wood, depicts the formative years of John Lennon as a misguided youth growing up in Liverpool, surrounded by strong female energy on all sides, including a pair of sisters who squabble for him, his aunt Mimi, played by Kristin Scott Thomas and his mother, Julia, who became immortalized in a Lennon song as the mother who let him go. Oh, yes, there's also John's dabbling with an obscure group of musicians …

Black Swan, which ends up being the talk of most every festival it has played, is Darron Aronovsky's follow-up to The Wrestler. The psychological thriller stars Natalie Portman as a preeminent ballet dancer in a tangled web of competition with a recent arrival in the dance company. The tautly-paced whirlwind of a film is perhaps the best performance by Portman in a film to date and will likely be well considered for an Oscar.

In 1968, several female factory workers walked a very fine line against sexual harassment in a Ford assembly plant outside London. These working-class women eventually walked out in protest. Made in Dagenham finely dramatizes this true story. The piece stars Bob Hoskins, Sally Hawkins, and Miranda Richardson.

The festival closes with 127 Hours from director Danny Boyle. Boyle, who enraptured us with Slumdog Millionaire, focuses this time on performance with an intense and grueling depiction of Aran Ralston, the man who got trapped between boulders in an isolated canyon in Moab, Utah. Documenting his five-day struggle, descent into madness, and ultimate sacrifice of his body to survive, the film stars James Franco as Ralston. Boyle is as restrained here as he was active in Slumdog, and the film is being touted as a strong Oscar contender.

Meade and his staff particularly savor the fact that the festival seeks diverse programming that will entertain and inform a savvy movie-going audience that may not otherwise get a chance to play in this area.

"Who would have imagined sell-out crowds at screenings of socially conscious documentaries?" ponders Meade. "Going into this, we probably underestimated what Kansas City wanted. Well, that's no longer happening. We have answered the demand and given more for people to think about — while also entertaining them."

For full schedule, ticket/festival pass information, and great tips on planning what to see, please visit the www.kansasfilm.com site.

-re-

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