Filmfest DC turns 25!

 

Filmfest DC, the Washington, DC International Film Festival, marks its Silver Anniversary this year. Slated for April 7 – 17, 2011, the Festival will celebrate 25 years of presenting the best in new international cinema in the nation’s capital.

 

Ticket information and the complete festival catalog are available on www.filmfestdc.org

 

“Justice Matters” Series

 “Justice Matters” features documentaries and films that thematically bring into focus human and civil rights issues calling for humanitarian intervention and a more informed and engaged social advocacy.  Download a “Justice Matters” series media release from this link.

 

CRIME AFTER CRIME

Yoav Potash (attending)

USA, 2011, 93 minutes, digital, color

Saturday, April 9, 4:00 p.m., Landmark’s E Street Cinema

An inspiring and bittersweet look at the American justice system, this documentary considers the plight of Deborah Peagler, who received a 25-years-to-life prison sentence

for her alleged role in the killing of the boyfriend who had abused her and forced her into prostitution.   More.

 

 

THE GREEN WAVE

Ali Samadi Ahadi (attending)

Germany, 2011, 80 minutes, digital, color

In Persian and English with English subtitles

In early 2009, a new generation of Iranians hoped for change through the upcoming presidential elections. Fueled by youthful exuberance and media technology, a groundswell—the so-called Green Wave—emerged to challenge the status quo and caused a seismic shift in the political climate.  More.

Friday, April 15, 6:30 p.m., Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Saturday, April 16, 8:15 p.m., Landmark’s E Street Cinema

 

I AM SLAVE

Gabriel Range

UK, 2010, 82 minutes, 35mm, color

From the award-winning team that produced Death of a President and The Last King of Scotland, I Am Slave is a controversial thriller about the slave trade in present-day London and one woman’s fight for freedom. More.

Monday, April 11, 6:30 p.m., Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Tuesday, April 12, 6:30 p.m., Landmark’s E Street Cinema

 

NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT

Patricio Guzman

France/Germany/Chile, 2010, 90 minutes, 35mm, color

Chile’s isolated Atacama Desert offers an excellent vantage point on the past. The dark sky attracts astronomers, who have built some of the world’s most sophisticated observatories in a quest for information about the universe’s origins. But the region also holds memories that are more recent and more raw: This is where Pinochet’s regime built its largest concentration camp and buried many victims of summary executions.  More.

Wednesday, April 13, 6:45 p.m., Landmark’s E Street Cinema

 

TEARS OF GAZA (Gazas tårer)

Vibeke Lokkeberg (attending)

In Arabic with English subtitles

Norway, 2010, 81 minutes, digital, color

“Few antiwar films register with the disturbing immediacy and visceral terror of Tears of Gaza, Vibeke Lokkeberg’s extraordinary documentary set amid the 2008–09 Israeli bombing of Gaza. Almost purely observational, the film doesn’t take sides as much as obliterate politics: the wounded parents carrying maimed children are not in uniform, and the bullet holes in the 2-year-olds did not arrive by accident.” —John Anderson, Variety  More

Friday, April 8, 8:30 p.m., Goethe-Institut

Saturday, April 9, 9:00 p.m., Goethe-Institut