A behind the scenes film about Vermont filmmaker David Giancola’s doomed attempt at making a science fiction film starring Anna Nicole Smith. Anna Nicole died of an over-dose midst filming. With Vermont locations and non-professional actors, you will enjoy playing spot the person or place. Filmmakers Giancola and producer John James will attend the screening.

Credited as being the first Black punk band, Death was formed in the early 1970’s in Detroit. Through a combination of personal interviews, archival audio, family photos and footage, Vermont filmmakers Covino and Howlett reveal the Hackney Brothers’ story. “Equal parts electrifying rockumentary and epic family chronicle…” Indiewire. Filmmakers will be present at the Essex cinemas screening and the Band will perform.

National Geographic photographer Balog goes to the mental, physical and technical extreme to deliver images of glacial events rarely seen by humans in one of the most important films about climate change since An Inconvenient Truth. From the producer of Academy-Award winner The Cove. Screening followed by a reception to launch our Films on the Environment Series.

A fascinating film about army cooks and how the everyday needs of thousands of armed stomachs affect the victories and defeats of statesmen. It reveals the field kitchen as a model of a world where food preparation becomes a military strategy. “A hungry soldier doesn’t feel safe,” explains a sausage-wielding Army cook.

Frederick Wiseman, masterful film director of American social institutions, provides a dazzling and meticulous look inside Paris’s legendary cabaret. Wiseman brings to life “the place where naked ladies dance.” Closing Night Film followed by reception and announcement of Audience Award. Closing Night Film

With its vivid, painterly palette and haunting score, Detropia sculpts a dreamlike collage of a grand city teetering on the brink of dissolution. Seen through the eyes of well-chosen and stubborn residents, their grit and pluck embody the spirit of the Motor City as it struggles to survive postindustrial America.

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Mark Kitchell offers the first big-picture exploration of environmental activism. The film is not merely a history lesson, but an illustration about how individuals have made, and will continue to make, a difference to our planet’s survival. Film introduced by Kathryn Blume, Creative Climate Activist. -S.G.

Shown at VTIFF 2012’s Church Street open air screening, this powerful and award-winning film deserves to be seen as widely as possible for its beauty and for the cinematic way it communicates its message. With no narration – only masterful editing of images and sounds – it chronicles the last days of a wild orangutan named Green in the once lush forests of Borneo.
Warning: Not recommended for under 12s or the faint of heart.
Shown with new shorts produced by the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center

I Am Eleven focuses on eleven year olds from 15 countries, each speaking directly to the camera about their thoughts on issues such as love, war, global warming, music, terrorism, culture, family, happiness, religion and the future. It captures the essence of the worlds children at a pivotal moment in their lives and in the future of the world.

Today, more than half of all Americans eat some type of organic food. Yet most people don’t have a clue what it means. When “organic” became a brand, everything changed – the movement and the label grew apart. This eye-opening film takes a first-hand look at the organic food industry and reveals its shortcomings.

Academy and Emmy award winning director Kirby Dick partnered with producer Amy Ziering to dig into the U.S. military’s most closely guarded secret: the epidemic of rape inside the one of the most powerful institutions in the world. Since it’s Sundance premiere, the film has been circulating through the highest levels of the Pentagon and the administration.
Introduced by Adrienne Kinney, ex-army reservist, current activist.

Filmmaker Mohammad Shirvani steps into the no-man‘s land of Iranian households – the kitchen. Seven housewives talk to him as they prepare the delicious foods of Ramadan. Shirvani notes, “The kitchen is a place my mother spent over 30 years in and I never really noticed its details.” A subtle and humorous take on a women’s realm.

An engaging, whimsical documentary about British direct action climate activists called Just Do It — A Tale of Modern-Day Outlaws. The film’s award-winning director spent over a year embedded in activist groups such as Climate Camp and Plane Stupid to document their clandestine activities. This is a story of people standing up for what they believe in and making themselves heard.

Knuckleball! is an inspiring and accessible film for both die-hard baseball fans and casual observers alike: An unprecedented documentary which focuses on one of baseball’s most obscure aspects, the knuckleball. It chronicles the careers of the two most popular modern knuckleball pitchers, Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey, as they deal with the unpredictability of the pitch upon which their careers rely.-K.M.

Embark on a global journey in 3D to discover the parallels between life under the sea and on land in this visually stunning and rhythmically explosive giant-screen film. The Last Reef, the first film ever shot at the macro level in 3D, will take you to destinations near and far to explore the world’s coral reef habitat, a territory that is quickly vanishing.

This humorous trip through the world of backyard chickendom should leave audiences with the urge to go out and get their own coop ASAP! Mixing archival footage, animation and interviews, we get a look at how one area of the slow food/localvore movement is progressing.

Considered one of the seminal artists of our time, Abramovic had her first major retrospective in the U.S. in 2010 at the Museum of Modern Art in NY. The mounting of this retrospective and its three-month-long run is the fascinating narrative spine of this film with scenes of the artist at home, in the studio and even in the bathtub, basking in her formidable aura.

A true detective story that relies on recently declassified U.S. government documents, heartbreaking survivor testimony and previously unseen archival footage. The film tells the story of nuclear tests conducted by the USA in the Marshall Islands during the Cold War and their effect on the local population. Q&A w/ director Adam Horowitz.

Writer/Director Andrea Blaugrund Nevins provides a thoughtful take on modern parenthood, showcasing the experiences of some of the most influential figures of the punk rock movement of the 1980s and ‘90s. Often funny and emotionally gripping throughout, this film is a treat for music lovers and a stunning presentation of what “family” means in the 21st century.-K.M.

Acclaimed filmmaker Léa Pool produced this brilliant film about the commercialization of the pink ribbon. Recommended viewing for the healthy and the sick alike, this is one of the more thought-provoking films in our line-up and a wake-up call for all who are affected in some way by breast cancer.

A gorgeously photographed ethnographic whirlwind tour of the Taiwan’s coastal regions. The cooking segments are so lush we can smell the spices and almost feel the heat on our faces from a tantalizing stir-fry. This film will also be of interest to many Vermonters through our concerns with a locally produced sustainable food system.

An uplifting film about a women’s basketball team in the American University of Iraq made up of all ethnicities: Arab, Kurd, Christian, Sunni and Shiite. They came from all over Iraq, but can’t tell their families. The story is told through the filmmaker’s camera and by the personal video diaries made by the young women themselves.

The story of veterans who have opposed war and includes interviews and footage spanning over four decades and three separate wars.. Intended as a counter narrative to traditional media coverage, the film charts the formation of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and explores their evolution into passionate critics against war.

Three-Michelin-stars French chef Michel Bras decides to hand his restaurant over to his son, who has been working with him for 15 years. This is the story of extraordinary dishes prepared by a father and a son, in the hilly landscape of Aubrac region. We follow this gastronomic transmission, and enter intimately in their family ties.

Sushi, formerly found only in Japan, has become an international industry. You can get sushi at football games in Texas. The film shows sushi masters at work through some fabulous footage – the sequence on knife sharpening alone is worth a trip to the cinema. But its popularity has led to the depletion of tuna, potentially upsetting the ecological balance of oceans.

This clandestine documentary, shot partially on an iPhone and smuggled into France in a cake for a last-minute submission to Cannes, depicts the day-to-day life of acclaimed director Jafar Panahi (Offside), one of Iran’s leading filmmakers who was banned from making films and confined to his apartment. Panahi turns this restriction on its head with a highly charged historical narrative and a twist at the end.

Shot by two Israeli filmmakers during Operation Cast Lead, a three-week bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip in 2009 by Israel, this powerful film explores the absurd relationship between war and tourism by juxtaposing bombing footage with blunt commentary by the “gawkers” – people cheering on the spectacle as if in a corrida.

Welcome to Vermont takes us inside the daily lives of four families from Bosnia, Somalia, Iraq, and Rwanda who have recently resettled here and raises questions about adaptation, identity and diversity.

This film tells the story of the case of the Cuban Five, Cuban intelligence agents sent to penetrate exile terrorist groups in Miami and now serving long prison sentences in the U.S. It highlights decades of assassinations and sabotage at first backed by Washington and then ignored by the very government that launched a “war against terrorism.” With Danny Glover. Director Saul Landau will attend the screening.

Sure to be one of VTIFF’s most talked-about films The World Before Her dramatizes the tension between traditional and modern views of Indian women as they clash in two very different realms: the Miss India pageant and Durga Vahini, the women’s wing of the fundamentalist Hindu movement.