PROGRAM A * FREE SCREENING * - RSVP

MANDELA
(Winner--1997 IDA/Pare Lorentz Award)

Directors: Jo Menell, Angus Gibson
Producers: Jonathan Demme, Edward Saxon,
Jo Menell
Palm World Voices
120 min.

This film traces the life of Nelson Mandela, from his childhood in the Xhosa tribe through the solitude and sacrifices of his early activism, revolutionary leadership and political imprisonment, to his ultimate victory as leader of a new racially unified South Africa.

PROGRAM B

NACH SAISON (OFF SEASON)
(Winner--1998 IDA/Pare Lorentz Award)

Directors: Mirjam Quinte, Pepe Danquart
ARTE, Quinte Filmproduktion, Blueberry Films, Goethe Institut, Ventura Film
125 min.

It is the summer of 1994, and the Yugoslavian civil war has destroyed the town of Mostar, dividing it into two halves-- the Muslims in the east and the Croats in the west. The film follows the efforts of Hans Koschnick, appointed as administrator by the European Union, to reconcile the inhabitants and rebuild the battered town. For two years, the efforts continue against the devastating consequences of the war.

PROGRAM C

WHERE THE SKY MEETS THE LAND
(Winner--1999 IDA/Pare Lorentz Award)

Director/Producer: Frank Müller
Salzgeber & Company Medien GmbH
85 min.

In the barren, mountainous region of the Central Asian Republic, up to 3,000 meters above sea level, lies the country of Kigizstan--where the sky meets the land. Here, the local tribespeople undertake their ancient battle for survival against the wolves, the elements and a new enemy--a modern, massive, Canadian-owned gold mine.

PROGRAM D

THE RIVER (1938)

Director: Pare Lorentz
Producer: Farm Security Administration/US Department of Agriculture
31 min.

In The River, Pare Lorentz wanted to show that only through the building of dams could the country hope to control the Mississippi River and put it to use in helping the American people, instead of allowing its flood waters to wreck havoc, destroying crops and property. While he attempted to show the ways in which the rivers had been misused, the film also stands as a paean to the American natural landscape and the rich history with which it is imbued. Through wonderful images, a poetic, Pulitzer Prize-nominated script and a score by Virgil Thomson, Lorentz describes the problems of flood control on the Mississippi River and the efforts to correct it, all with a strong sense of history and pride.
Source of synopsis: University of Virginia

THE PLOW THAT BROKE THE PLAINS (1936)

Director: Pare Lorentz
Producer: Farm Security Administration/US Department of Agriculture
25 min.

Widely praised for illuminating a problem of national importance, The Plow That Broke the Plains was Pare Lorentz's first film and also the first US Government-sponsored documentary. It presents the problems of wheat production and cattle ranching in the Great Plains and culminates in the record drought that produced the dust bowl. The plight of the people who live there--"blown out, baked and broke"--is mediated through a heavily symbolic montage and a dramatic score by Virgil Thomson.
Source of synopsis: British Film Institute

ISLAND OUT OF TIME
(Winner--2001 IDA/Pare Lorentz Award)

Director/Producer: Hugh Drescher
Drescher Films, Inc., PBS
30 min.

Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay is home to just over 400 people who have made their living from the water for more than a century. But now the island and its culture are under assault by sea-level rise and erosion, population loss, and a decline in the oysters and crabs its people depend on. The film shows how islanders are fighting to survive and struggling with change and loss. It is a story told by a quirky cast of islanders: watermen, preachers, crab-pickers, lawmen and environmentalists. "We're so stubborn," says one waterman, "they're going to have to drag us off of here kicking and screaming."

PROGRAM E

IN MEMORIAM: NEW YORK CITY, 9/11/01
(Winner--2002 IDA/Pare Lorentz Award)

Executive Producers: Brad Grey and
Peter Kunhardt
Produced by Sheila Nevins
Producer: John Hoffman
HBO Documentary Films, Brad Grey Pictures
61 min.

On September 11, 2001, New York City would be jolted into its worst nightmare as a chain of tragic events unfolded, changing the life of New Yorkers and America forever. In Memoriam: 9/11/01, New York City is a panoramic record of the events of that day, as seen through a uniquely personal collection of video and still photography, most of which comes from amateur sources. With the Hon. Rudolph W. Giuliani and his staff as guides and storytellers, the documentary follows the mayor's entourage from their first realization of what had occurred, through smoke and fire, and ultimately through rescue and recovery. The film serves as a tribute to the strength and spirit of a city facing its greatest challenge.

PROGRAM F

SUGIHARA CONSPIRACY OF KINDNESS
(Winner--2000 IDA/Pare Lorentz Award)

Director: Robert Kirk
Producer: diane estelle Vicari
Dentsu Inc., David Rubinson, Creative Production Group LLC, WGBH International, PBS
83 min.

This documentary tells the remarkable story of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who, in the face of Nazi onslaught in Europe, made a decision that would change his life and thousands of others. With no possible hope for reward and at great risk to his career and life, Sugihara acted on his inner-most beliefs and used his diplomatic power to rescue fleeing Jewish refugees. More than 2,000 Sugihara visas allowed hundreds of families to flee Europe through Russia to Japan and safe havens abroad.

PROGRAM G

BERGA: SOLDIERS OF ANOTHER WAR
(Winner--2003 IDA/Pare Lorentz Award)

Director: Charles Guggenheim
Producer: Grace Guggenheim
Guggenheim Productions Inc., Washington, DC; and Thirteen/WNET New York
86 min.

Charles Guggenheim dedicated the last six months of his life completing a film about his fellow American infantrymen, who were captured during the Battle of the Bulge, and then died in a Nazi slave labor camp. Berga: Soldiers of Another War is the story of American prisoners of war caught in the tragedy of the Holocaust. Until now, the story has remained untold, lost in trauma of World War II.

PROGRAM H

AMERICA'S LOST LANDSCAPE: THE TALLGRASS PRAIRIE
(Winner--2005 IDA/Pare Lorentz Award)

Director/Producer: David O'Shields
Producer/Executive Producer: Daryl Smith
New Light Media, PBS
58 min.

America's Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie tells the rich and complex story of one of the most astonishing alterations of nature in human history. America's Lost Landscape examines the record of human struggle, triumph and defeat that prairie history exemplifies, including the history and culture of America's aboriginal inhabitants. The story of how and why the prairie was changed by Euro-American settlement is thoughtfully nuanced. The film also highlights prairie preservation efforts and explores how the tallgrass prairie ecosystem may serve as a model for a sustainable agriculture of the future.

OIL ON ICE
(Winner--2004 IDA/Pare Lorentz Award)

Directors/Producers: Bo Boudart, Dale Djerassi
Executive Producer: Steve Michelson
Oil on Ice Partners, Bullfrog Films
57 min.

Oil on Ice is a one-hour documentary/website/DVD that examines the battle over oil development within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This is a classic struggle in a stunning place, featuring the dramatic wildlife that adapted to this environment and the cultures of the Gwich'in Athabascan Indians and Inupiat Eskimos who rely on this wildlife for their subsistence.

PROGRAM I

THE FIGHT FOR LIFE (1941)

Director: Pare Lorentz
Producers: US Film Service, US Public Health Service
69 min.

This short feature, based on a book by Paul De Kruit, is a staged re-enactment of an emergency child birth operation in an urban hospital made in 1940. The story revolves around the difficult delivery of the mother and the post-delivery death of the mother after a valiant effort by the doctors. The story concentrates significantly on the crisis of health and pre-natal care among the urban poor of the period. The film also graphically explores the impoverished lives of the working poor of the cities, those who live in the slums and tenements who are more sub ject to suffering from the disabling diseases endemic in such environments.
Source of synopsis: University of North Carolina

PROGRAM J

NUREMBERG (1946)

Director: Pare Lorentz
Producer: US Army Film Department
75 min.

Nuremberg is a grim, unflinching account of the Nuremberg trials, told almost entirely without editorial comment. During the trials, the courtroom was dominated by a large motion picture screen upon which the prosecution showed films of Nazi atrocities. Much of this footage was confiscated from the private libraries of high Nazi officials and, ironically, proved to be the most damning evidence against them. Working with more than a million feet of film, and intercutting excerpts from these films with sequences from the trial, Pare Lorentz and his staff edited this material into an absorbing historical narrative showing the rise of Hitler, the subjugation of most of Europe--and the systematic murder of millions of innocent people.
Source of synopsis: VCI Entertainment

PROGRAM K

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
(Winner--2006 IDA/Pare Lorentz Award)

Director/Executive Producer: Davis Guggenheim
Producers: Laurie David, Lawrence Bender, Scott Z. Burns
Executive Producers: Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, Ricky Strauss, Jeff Ivers
A Lawrence Bender/Laurie David Production, Paramount Classics, Participant Productions
100 min.

An Inconvenient Truth offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man's commitment to expose the myths and misconceptions that surround global warming, and inspire actions to prevent it. That man is former US Vice President Al Gore, who, in the wake of defeat in the 2000 election, re-set the course of his life to focus on an all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocable change. In this eye-opening and poignant portrait of Gore and his "traveling global warming show," he is funny, engaging, open and down-right on fire about getting the surprisingly stirring truth about what he calls our "planetary emergency" out to ordinary citizens before it's too late.

PROGRAM L

WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS

Director/Producer: Spike Lee
Producers: Samuel D. Pollard, Jacqueline Glover
Executive Producer: Sheila Nevins
40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks/HBO Documentary Films
255 min.

As the world watched in horror, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005. Like many who watched the unfolding drama on television news, director Spike Lee was shocked not only by the scale of the disaster, but by the slow, inept and disorganized response of the emergency and recovery effort. Lee was moved to document this modern American tragedy, a morality play witnessed by people all around the world. When the Levees Broke is structured in four acts, each dealing with a different aspect of the events that preceded and followed Katrina's catastrophic passage through New Orleans.

PROGRAM M

DARFUR NOW (2007)

Director: Ted Braun
Producers: Don Cheadle, Mark Jonathan Harris, Cathy Schulman
Participant Productions, Warner Independent Pictures
98 min.

Darfur Now is a story of hope in the midst of one of humanity's darkest hours--a call to action for people everywhere to help end the catastrophe unfolding in Darfur, Sudan. In this documentary, the struggles and achievements of six different individuals from inside Darfur and around the world bring to light the tragedy in Sudan and show how the actions of one person can make a difference to millions.

PROGRAM N * FREE SCREENING * - RSVP

THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940)

Director: John Ford
Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck
20th Century Fox Entertainment, Criterion Pictures USA, Inc

The adaptation of Nobel Laureate John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of an Oklahoma family, the Joads, who, after losing their farm during the Great Depression, embark on an arduous cross-country journey to California, where they become migrant workers. In researching his book, Steinbeck worked with his friend Pare Lorentz on The Plow That Broke the Plains; John Ford returned the favor by incorporating shots from that film into The Grapes of Wrath.
Source of synopsis: Wikipedia