7 MUST SEE MOVIES: 4/14 Sarasota Film Festival

If a film is marked "Artist in Attendance" that means you are in for an incredible experience. One or more of the filmmakers (director/producer/writer/etc.) will be in the theater to do a Q&A with the audience after the movie. Actors sometimes appear as well.NEXT YEAR JERUSALEM 

Artist in Attendance

NEXT YEAR JERUSALEM is director David Gaynes’ touching portrait of a group of senior citizens who together embark on a journey of discovery and reflection as they visit the land of Israel. Eight nursing home residents are given one last great adventure and they do not hesitate to enjoy every moment. This poignant film documents the intricate planning through the journey itself, a physical and emotional challenge and ultimately, a transformational life experience. NEXT YEAR JERUSALEM is a poetic journey to the roots of faith and life, at once metaphorical and literal.

Sun, 4/14 1:30 PM

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COMPUTER CHESS

Artist in Attendance

Andrew Bujalski’s COMPUTER CHESS is a film like nothing you’ve ever seen. The comic story of early 1980’s computer programmers organizing and competing in an electronic chess tournament pitting machine vs machine, the film is rich with period detail and a knowing understanding of the early days of coding. But the film transcends through its formally daring approach to filmmaking; shot on period video equipment in black and white, the film completely reinvents the immediacy of video filmmaking by fully integrating it into the structure of the storytelling. Winner of the SFF’s 2013 Terry Porter Visionary Award.

Sun, 4/14 12:30 PM

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MY NAME IS FAITH

Artist in Attendance

The bonding that takes place in the early years of a child’s life is crucial for developing the ability to express emotion and establish relationships. In the US, it’s estimated that five children a day die from neglect—but what about those who endure neglect and survive? Meet Faith, a 13-year-old girl who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and what’s called Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). MY NAME AS FAITH follows this brave young girl as she attempts to heal from the trauma of her past and her struggle to find her place in a new adoptive family.

Sun, 4/14 4:00 PM

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PERSISTANCE OF VISION

Artist in Attendance

In the 1960’s, riding a wave of successful commercial and theatrical work, the Canadian animator Richard Williams opened his own, independent animation studio in London. After falling in love with a series of classic Persian stories, Williams set out to make an animated feature from these tales called THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER. With each frame painstakingly hand drawn in incredible detail by an army of animators, Williams’ dream to complete the film would become a personal odyssey spanning three decades, decades which not only cost the studio tremendous amounts of money, but which saw a revolution in animation.

Sun, 4/14 4:45 PM

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THE LIST

Artist in Attendance

THE LIST tells the story of Kirk Johnson, an American is fighting to save Iraqis whose lives are in danger because they worked for the U.S. government to help rebuild Iraq. After leading reconstruction teams in Baghdad and Fallujah, Kirk discovers that many of his Iraqi friends and colleagues are being targeted as “collaborators with the enemy.” Perceived as traitors, their fates are sealed, and they are systematically hunted—killed, kidnapped, and forced into lives on the run. Bound by a sense of moral responsibility and honor, Kirk sets out to redeem a nation that has largely betrayed its Iraqi allies.

Sun, 4/14 2:45 PM

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LA SIRGA

LA SIRGA tells the story of with Alicia, a young woman breathlessly walking away from the Colombian mountains toward lake Concha. She is running away from a nightmare; her family has been decimated and she walks toward her last living family member, her uncle Oscar, who operates a B&B along Lake Concha’s shores. Director William Vega handles their relationship with grace, as Alicia readies the house for tourists who will never come. The hauntingly bewitching landscape plays an important part in setting the mood and suspending the passage of time.

Sun, 4/14 8:15 PM

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SOMETHING IN THE AIR

French filmmaker Olivier Assayas addresses the post-1968 world of radical French political life in his autobiographical new film SOMETHING IN THE AIR. Set in the early 1970’s among a group of high school students searching for a way to rebel against the established order, Asssyas’ film is a note perfect rendering of the era; free love, protest and an impending sense of compromise that left a generation of young people looking for new ideas. But when Gilles (Clément Métayer) comes out the other side of his radical experiment, he discovers the cinema, and sets a course toward becoming an artist.

Sun, 4/14 1:00 PM

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