Fresno Famous

The 2008 Fresno Film Festival will feature 29 films from nine different countries, including six feature-length films and 23 shorts. The fourth annual festival, which runs April 18-20 at the historic Tower Theatre, is presented by Fresno Filmworks, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing first-run independent, experimental, and international movies to the central San Joaquin Valley. Following is the full festival schedule.

FRIDAY, APRIL 18, AT 7 p.m.
Feature film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Director: Julian Schnabel. France (2007). 112 minutes. Rated PG-13.
The remarkable true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), the successful and charismatic editor of French Elle, who believes he is living his life to its fullest when a sudden stroke leaves him in a life-altered state. While the physical challenges of Bauby's fate leave him with little hope for the future, he begins to discover how his life's passions, his memories and his newfound imagination can help him achieve a life without boundaries. (In French, with English subtitles.)

With short film: Light Years
Director: Richard Martin. USA. 15 minutes.
Four relationships spanning the four corners of the globe are put to the ultimate test when these people learn the world may end in eight minutes -- the duration of time it takes light to travel from the sun to the Earth.

Opening night reception
At the conclusion of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, join the Fresno Filmworks board in welcoming visiting filmmakers and the public to the fourth annual Fresno Film Festival. Admission to the reception is included with admission to the opening film. The reception will include a Mediterranean feast, champagne, and dessert, catered by Whole Foods Market. The local swing band Scats On The Sly will provide entertainment.

SATURDAY, APRIL 19, AT 11 a.m.
Feature film: Modern Times
Director: Charlie Chaplin. USA (1936). 87 minutes. No rating.
A Depression masterpiece has been newly restored in this revival film for all ages. Playing a tramp struggling to survive in a modern industrial society, Charlie Chaplin created in this film one of the most elaborate cinematic critiques of the effects of mass production on 20th Century life. With his usual charm and bad luck, Chaplin's most famous character, The Tramp, executes some of his most famous slapstick routines around massive and glorified machines, he accidentally ends up in the middle of a Communist rally, and he falls in love with a street waif played by Chaplin's then real-life partner Paulette Goddard.

With short film: Simulacra
Director: Tatchapon Lertwirojkul. USA. 4 minutes.
In the vast universe, there is a robot planet on which everything is machine and robot. One day, a robot finds there is one organic life existing on his world. He decides to get that piece for himself.

SATURDAY, APRIL 19, AT 1:30 p.m.
SHORTS PROGRAM NO.1
Fresno Film Festival short film category

The Cave: An Adaptation of Plato's Allegory in Clay
Director: Michael Ramsay. USA. 3 minutes.
An excerpt from Plato's Republic, the "Allegory of the Cave" is a classic commentary on the human condition. The story is adapted and brought to life by shooting more than 4,000 still photographs of John Grigsby's claymation.

Lullaby
Director: Kevin Markwick. UK. 15 minutes.
The story of a mother's love for an unborn child and how the time has come to leave the memories safely behind and move on.

Underpass
Director: Rain Breaw. USA. 15 minutes.
It's San Diego, 1992. Sann, who survived Cambodia's Khmer Rouge as a boy, is still tormented by his memories of the killing fields. He copes with his anger and confusion by painting elaborate and violent graffiti murals on a city underpass.

PK-Granny
Director: Jo Meuris. USA. 2 minutes.
A man on a bicycle mugs a little old lady. When the lady realizes that there is no one around to help her, she takes matters into her own hands. It's a good thing Granny knows parkour!

Agnieszka 2039
Director: Martin Gauvreau. UK. 12 minutes.
Joy and pain go hand in hand when an angelic being is delivered the box of eternity and is subjected to the fateful decision of the gods.

Yasin
Director: Betty Lee Kim. USA. 13 minutes.
Until 9/11, Yasin Zaki, 10, lived an ordinary life with his Jordanian-born parents in Southern California. After the attack, Yasin's life is turned upside down when the FBI arrests his father in a terrifying early morning raid. Yasin's misfortunes are compounded when he is tormented at school.

Pollen Nation
Directors: Singeli Agnew and Joshua Fisher. USA. 26 minutes.
This film follows the journey of one commercial beekeeper -- third-generation beekeeper Jeff Anderson -- from the honey harvest on the High Plains to the warm winter-feeding grounds of California. It also explores the history of human interaction with bees, a story that reflects the development of agriculture. In ancient Egypt, beekeepers floated their clay hives down the Nile to some of the first irrigated fields; in the 21st Century, professional bee brokers balance the rising costs of maintaining hives with big demand from big agriculture.

SATURDAY, APRIL 19, AT 4:30 p.m.
Feature film: The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Directors: Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath. USA (2008). 87 minutes. No rating.
A Lao prophecy says, "A time will come when the universe will break . . . piece by piece . . . the world will change beyond what we know." That time came for the small country of Laos with the clandestine involvement of the United States during the Vietnam War. In a remarkable collaboration spanning more than 20 years, Kuras and Laotian co-director Phrasavath, the main subject of the film, tell the story of Phrasavath's youth, his escape from persecution and arrest in Laos, his family's reunion and their journey as immigrants to America, and the second war they had to fight on the streets of New York City. (In English and Lao, with English subtitles.)

With short film: Papiroflexia
Director: Joaquin Baldwin. USA. 3 minutes.
Papiroflexia, which in Spanish means "origami," is the animated tale of Fred, a skillful paper folder who could shape the world with his hands.

SATURDAY, APRIL 19, AT 8 p.m.
A NIGHT AT THE OSCARS
Academy Award-nominated Shorts

Even Pigeons Go To Heaven
Directors: Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse. France. 9 minutes.
A priest tries to sell an old man a machine that he promises will transport him to heaven. (In French, with English subtitles.)

Tanghi Argentini
Directors: Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans. Belgium. 13 minutes.
A man who must learn to dance the tango in two weeks asks an office colleague for help. (In French, with English subtitles.)

Peter & The Wolf
Directors: Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman. UK and Poland. 27 minutes.
A young boy and his animal friends face a hungry wolf in Prokofiev's classic musical piece. (Silent film.)

Il Supplente (The Substitute)
Director: Andrea Jublin. Italy. 17 minutes.
The arrival of an unusual newcomer galvanizes the students in a high school classroom. (In Italian, with English subtitles.)

I Met the Walrus
Director: Josh Raskin. Canada. 5 minutes.
In 1969, 14-year-old Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's hotel room with his tape recorder and persuaded him to do an interview.

Le Mozart des Pickpockets
Director: Philippe Pollet-Villard. France. 31 minutes.
A pair of unlucky thieves finds that their fortunes have changed when they take in a deaf homeless boy. (In French, with English subtitles.)

SUNDAY, APRIL 20, AT NOON
Feature film: Jellyfish
Directors: Etgar Kerret and Shira Geffen. Israel and France (2007). 78 minutes. No rating.
Poignant, often witty and exceedingly cinematic, the film tells the story of three very different Tel Aviv women whose intersecting stories weave an unlikely portrait of modern Israeli life. Batya, a catering waitress, takes in a child apparently abandoned at a local beach. Batya is one of the servers at the wedding reception of Keren, a bride who breaks her leg escaping a locked toilet stall, ruining her chance at a dream Caribbean honeymoon. And attending the event with an employer is Joy, a non Hebrew-speaking domestic worker who has guiltily left her son behind in her native Philippines. As this distaff trio separately wends their way through Israel's most cosmopolitan city, they struggle with issues of communication, affection and destiny -- but at times find uneasy refuge in its tranquil seas. The film won the Camera d'Or Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. (In Hebrew, with English subtitles.)

With short film: Carnival Daring-Do
Director: Carla Poindexter. USA. 9 minutes.
In this animated short, inevitably propelled characters journey into fields of energized micro and macro space, in a mind-expanding reverie touching on current philosophic preoccupations, cosmic homesickness, and lyrical emotions.

SUNDAY, APRIL 20, AT 2 p.m.
SHORTS PROGRAM NO.2
Fresno Film Festival short film category

Parachute
Directors: Lucas Fleischer and Paul Grellong. USA. 12 minutes.
A precocious young boy plays with toy paratroopers in his yard and witnesses a man and woman engaged in an extramarital affair. He confronts the man and after an awkward beginning -- and a little adventure -- they develop an unlikely friendship.

Papiroflexia
Director: Joaquin Baldwin. USA. 3 minutes.
Papiroflexia, which in Spanish means "origami," is the animated tale of Fred, a skillful paper folder who could shape the world with his hands.

Patience
Director: Robert Hackett. UK. 7 minutes.
In beds next to each other but separated by a screen, Constance has a view of a park and Vera listens to descriptions of what is happening outside. Although entertained, Vera is envious of this view of the outside world and eventually the desire for her own window becomes overwhelming.

Waiting On Fountain
Director: Evan Wasserstrom. USA. 4 minutes.
While a little kid waits for the bus on the first day of camp, an old woman sits with the kid, discussing her experiences from what seem to be her camp days.

Chiles
Director: Tyrone Huff. USA. 15 minutes.
The dinner table is set as Randal, a young Black man, attempts to impress his future Mexican in-laws. Add a side of language barriers, a helping of cultural difference, and a bowl of Chiles, and this table heats up.

Hotel Fresno
Director: Teresa Flores. USA. 4 minutes.
Once an upscale hotel -- and in its latter days a refuge for transients -- the Hotel Fresno is explored in an elevator ride through the city, down Motel Drive, and boarding the bus, as the sun sets in a poetic meditation by Dixie Salazar that explores the lives of the overlooked in the city.

Carissa
Director: David Sauvage. USA. 21 minutes.
Today, Carissa Phelps is earning a law degree and an MBA from UCLA. But when she was 12, she was homeless and forced into prostitution in Fresno.

SUNDAY, APRIL 20, AT 4:30 p.m.
Feature film: Kenny
Director: Clayton Jacobson. Australia (2006). 103 minutes. No rating.
From the biggest festival to the smallest church social, Kenny Smyth delivers porta-loos to them all. Ignored and unappreciated, he is one of the cogs in society's machinery: a knight in shining overalls taking care of business with his faithful "Splashdown" crew. Follow Kenny as he tackles every septic challenge that comes his way, culminating in a pilgrimage to the International Pumper and Cleaner Expo in Nashville, Tenn. -- or as Kenny affectionately calls it, "Poo HQ."

With short film: PK-Granny
Director: Jo Meuris. USA. 2 minutes.
A man on a bicycle mugs a little old lady. When the lady realizes that there is no one around to help her, she takes matters into her own hands. It's a good thing Granny knows parkour!

SUNDAY, APRIL 20, AT 7:30 p.m.
Feature film: Starting Out in the Evening
Director: Andrew Wagner. USA (2007). 111 minutes. Rated PG-13.
Though he has spent most of his career as a character actor in supporting roles, Frank Langella gives the lead performance of a lifetime in this adaptation the novel by Brian Morton. Flanked by actresses Lili Taylor and Lauren Ambrose, Langella is the central piece in a film that focuses on its characters. The film begins with aging writer Leonard Schiller, a man who feels as obsolete as the typewriter he is pounding away at. Though he has four novels to his credit, he has been working on his fifth for a decade.

TICKET PRICES
$45 for a festival pass.
$15 for the opening night film program and reception.
$10 general and $8 students/seniors for all other individual programs.

TICKET LOCATIONS
Tower Theatre box office, 815 E. Olive Ave.
JA Photography, 2003 N. Van Ness Ave.
Via PayPal at FresnoFilmworks.org

For more details, visit FresnoFilmworks.org or call (559) 221-0755. Click here for an interview with Filmworks president, John Moses.