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Media That Matters Film Festival Retrospective

November 10 and 11, 2006

Independence Hall, University of Arkansas Community College-Batesville

Fourth Annual Media That Matters Touring Program

Friday, November 10, 7 PM

Admission: $6 / $4 Students All Ages and Adults Age 55 & Over ($10 All Three Screenings)

I Promise Africa
Directed by: Jerry Henry | USA | 2004| 2:40 minutes | Public Service Announcement | English
When Jerry Henry set off to Kenya to make a documentary about orphans he didn't realize that he would be preserving on tape the voices of a generation that would soon be silenced.

iThemba
Directed by: Keefe Murren and Nelson Walker III| USA | 2004| 5:19 minutes | Documentary | English
Through the mesmerizing melding of their voices, the Sinikithemba Choir turns stage into a soapbox, singing and speaking for the 5 million HIV+ South Africans in desperate need of medication and support.

Seeds of Hope: South Africa
Directed by: Sarah Hesterman | USA | 2004 | 6:12 minutes | Documentary | English
Solutions to poverty and malnutrition require resourcefulness and dedication. A group of women in a South African township learn how to sustain themselves and their children.

The Meatrix
Directed by: Free Range Graphics | USA | 2004| 3:47 minutes | Flash Animation| English
Will Leo the pig take the blue pill and remain in a fantasy land where quaint family farms produce food for our tables, or will be take the red pill and get a cruel welcome to the real world?

Laugh at the Fat Kid
Directed by: Kristina Schoentag | USA | 2004| Narrative Short | English
Whimsical and visually creative, "Laugh at the Fat Kid" intimately portrays a young boy caught in a cycle of ridicule and overeating, forcing the viewer to ask "What's wrong with this picture?"

Books Not Bars
Directed by: Mark Landsman/WITNESS | USA | 2004 |3:44 minutes | Campaign Portrait | English
A growing number of youth are questioning the way their state governments spend money. The teens of the Books Not Bars movement demand that education, not incarceration, be the priority, now and in the future.

The Children of Birmingham
Directed by: Rebecca Yenawine | USA | 2004 |6:17 minutes | Animation | English
Through stirring narration and beautiful illustrations, Baltimore middle - school students tell the story of their 1960's counterparts who fought for their civil rights.

Day of Rememberance
Directed by: Cynthia Fujikawa | USA | 2004 | 8 minutes | Political Documentary | English
The legislators behind the Patriot Act claim to have made America safer, but in the process they have destroyed the lives of thousands of innocent Arab and Muslim Americans. "Day of Rememberance" calls attention to this tragic phenomenon and reminds us that American History has a tendency to repeat itself.

Dedicated to My Family
Directed by: Nicole Sobottke | USA | 2004 | 3.51 minutes | Personal Documentary | English
Nicole dreams of a perfect family. Living in a teen shelter, she has learned that family is where the heart is.

Struggling to Survive
Directed by: Dana Hall| USA | 2004 | 7:37 minutes |Youth Documentary | English
Having a job doesn't mean you make enough to get by. Teenagers in eastern Kentucky turn their cameras on the living wage crisis in their community.

The Sixth Section
Directed by: Alex Rivera | USA | 2004 | 8 minutes | Documentary | English
Sometimes the "American Dream" is realized on foriegn soil. During the cold winters of Upstate New York, a group of immigrants work together to give a baseball field, an ambulance and whatever else they can manage to their hometown of Boqueron, Mexico.

Novela, Novela
Directed by: Elizabeth Miller | USA | 2004 | 7:20 minutes | Documentary | English
Every afternoon, millions of Nicaraguans gather around their TV sets to watch their favorite imported novela (soap opera.) What would happen if a group of activists produced a homegrown novela about real issues like safe sex and domestic abuse?

Bush for Peace
Directed by: Sarah Christman, Jen Simmons | USA | 2004 | 1:56 minutes | Satirical Short | English
It's Dubbya like you've never heard him before n a remix of U.S. foreign policy created from the Commander in Chief's "Moment of Truth" speech. "Bush for Peace" is all at once a fantasy, a satire, and an earnest plea to stop the violence.

Spring in Awe
Directed by: Martina Radwan | USA | 2004 | 4 minutes | Experimental Short | English
The overpowering displays of Times Square put a spell on the world in a disturbing lullaby of global capitalism.

POPaganda: The Art & Subversion of Ron English
Directed by: Pedro Carvajal | USA | 2004 | 8.24 minutes | Documentary Video Portrait| English
A modern-day Robin Hood of Madison Avenue, artist and satirist Ron English reclaims corporate billboards with uncanny canvasses that force the man on the street to look twice... or maybe three times.

Fifth Annual Media That Matters Touring Program

Saturday, November 11, 2 PM

Admission: $6 / $4 Students All Ages and Adults Age 55 & Over ($10 All Three Screenings)

Battleground Minnesota
Directed by: Gabriel Cheifetz | USA | 2005 | 8 minutes | Youth Documentary | English
Hip-Hop activist Shakademic proves that if Walter Mondale can learn how to scratch, young voters can get schooled in election politics.

All That I Can Be
Directed by: Educational Video Center | USA | 2005 | 8:30 minutes | Documentary | English
William, like many young Americans, feels that joining the military is the only way out of a dead-end job and a rough life.

Pizza Surveilance Feature
Directed by: Michal Laaker | USA | 2005 | 2:20 minutes | Public Service Announcement | English
Solutions to poverty and malnutrition require resourcefulness and dedication. A group of women in a South African township learn how to sustain themselves and their children.

The News Is What We Make It
Directed by: Nickey Robare | USA | 2005 | 8:21 minutes | Animation| English
When the same company owns all the TV stations in town, where can you turn for an alternative perspective? A high schooler gets burned and turns insult into action.

Laptop
Directed by: Larry Frye | USA | 2005 | 0:30 minutes | Public Service Announcement | English
A computer is only as advanced as the person behind the keyboard. Laptop reminds us that the digital divide still resides within our borders.

A Girl Named Kai
Directed by: Kai Ling Xue | USA | 2005 | 8 minutes | Experimental | English
Through a stirring poetic mix of video and sound, Kai appeals to her traditional Taiwanese parents for acceptance in spite of her untraditional take on life and love.

Homecoming
Directed by: Brian Schirber, Kirstin Nelson | USA | 2005 | 5:30 minutes | Youth Documentary | English
When coming out makes Ron a target for attack, he finds a school where respect and acceptance are taught, alongside Math and English.

Bad Choices
Directed by: Aderian Fair| USA | 2005 | 3 minutes | Digital Story | English

Without a support system, it's hard for a teenager to stay out of trouble. Aderian reflects on the lessons he has learned from his bad choices.

Happy Ending
Directed by: Chris Irrizarry | USA | 2005 | 8 minutes | Personal Documentary | English
Drugs have taken Chris's mom out of his life but not out of his heart. In this personal travelogue, he goes to Philadelphia in search of a happy ending.

System Failure
Directed by: WITNESS | USA | 2005 | 8 minutes | Documentary | English
Physical abuse, sexual harassment, inadequate education for incarcerated youth - if a society can be graded by how it treats its prisoners, then the state of California gets an "F."

Fast and Reliable
Directed by: Tom Soper | USA | 2005 | 8 minutes | Documentary | English
Nothing can stop Dexter the bike messenger - not homelessness, or even a close encounter with a ten-ton truck.

Neglected Sky
Directed by: John Cooney with Citizens for Global Solutions | USA | 2005 | 1:36 minutes | Animation | English
In this fast-paced animation, youth-producer John Cooney shows us that a little effort can go a long way in reversing global warming.

Young Agrarians
Directed by: Johanna Divine | USA | 2005 | 8 minutes | Documentary | English
Young people plant the seeds for a sustainable future in this portrait of organic farming in California.

World on Fire
Directed by: Sophie Muller | USA | 2005 | 4:20 minutes | Music Video | English
$5,000 could cover the cost of hair and makeup for one day on set in LA, or pay for one year's schooling for 145 girls in Afghanistan. Sarah McLachlan does the math and encourages you to join her.

The Luckiest Nut in the World
Directed by: Emily James | USA | 2005 | 8 minutes | Musical | English
A singing peanut and his gang of shelled friends explain that sometimes free trade is just nuts.

Something Other than Other
Directed by: Jerry A Henry and Andrea J. Chia| USA | 2005 | 7:05 minutes | Experimental | English
New parents Jerry and Andrea have endured their own share of discrimination growing up. They hope their newborn son can grow up identifying as something other than "other."

Sixth Annual Media That Matters Touring Program

Saturday, November 11, 7 PM

Admission: $6 / $4 Students All Ages and Adults Age 55 & Over ($10 All Three Screenings)

Slip of the Tongue

4:06 minutes
“What’s your ethnic make up?” A young man makes a pass at a beautiful stranger and gets an eye-opening schooling on race and gender.