Provincetown International Film Festival 2009

-Sponsored by WGBH Director Gerald Perry will be in attendance. For a hundred years (virtually the history of American movies) film critics have championed this medium they so unabashedly love. They advise audiences in deciding what movies to see, and why. Better, their reviews illuminate the film-going experience, suggesting paths for readers to enter cinema more deeply, thoughtfully and appreciatively. With its entertaining, humorous and personal approach, FOR THE LOVE OF MOVIES is the first documentary to dramatize the rich saga of American movie reviewing. Directed by Boston Phoenix critic, Gerald Peary, FOR THE LOVE OF MOVIES offers an insider's view of the critics' profession, with commentary from America's best-regarded reviewers, Roger Ebert (The Chicago Sun-Times), A.O. Scott (The New York Times), Lisa Schwarzbaum (Entertainment Weekly), Kenneth Turan (The Los Angeles Times). We also hear from young, articulate, Internet voices, including Harry Knowles (ainitcoolnews.com) and Karina Longworth (spout.com). From the raw beginnings of criticism before THE BIRTH OF A NATION to the incendiary Pauline Kael-Andrew Sarris debates of the 1960s and 70s to the battle today between youthful on-liners and the print establishment, FOR THE LOVE OF MOVIES motivates audiences to consider reviews by the best American critics as a key component in watching movies in a deeper, more thoughtful, way. Narrated by Academy Award nominee Patricia Clarkson (PIECES OF APRIL). Print Source: AG Films

Producer Matthew Lavine will be in attendance. FOUR SEASONS LODGE follows a group of Holocaust survivors who have spent 25 years summering together at an isolated rural compound in the Catskill Mountains of New York. Among them are a couple who met in a Nazi concentration camp but only recently became lovers; two women whose 65-year-long friendship is alternately caustic, tender and revealing; the colony's president, who struggles to keep 100 demanding residents content while tending his ailing wife; and the vice president, who is the colony poet, beloved jokester and a moody misanthrope who refuses to reveal his war-time past. They come for the raucous poker games, the dancing that goes on till dawn, and the long summer days spent with others who understand their pasts - and their unfathomable pain. Over the course of a summer that may be the colony's last, age-old rivalries are settled and cherished relationships come apart. As the summer draws to a close, the lodgers throw one last party - the fate of their colony undetermined, but their spirits unbowed. A subtle exploration of aging and death, the power of memory and the ability of human beings to celebrate life despite numbing loss, FOUR SEASONS LODGE is also a counterintuitive film about the Holocaust: a verité, uplifting and insightful portrait of people who embrace their dark pasts with striking openness and, at times, dark humor. Print Source: First Run Features

Join shorts filmmakers Tom Gustafson (Revelations, Were the World Mine) and Jane Clark (Beyond Words) and moderator Basil Tsiokos (NewFest and Sundance Film Festivals) and others as they discuss the joys and challenges of producing gay and lesbian-themed short films, and the exhibition and screening options available in the festival circuit and beyond.

Director Paulo Marinou-Blanco will be in attendance. For Alex and Bruno, it could be any other time or place. An old and solitary failed English actor, Alex records voice-overs for cheap travel videos, and drinks himself to sleep. Bruno, a reclusive young locksmith, devotes himself to his obsession: fighting the passage of time, by breaking into people's homes to make a "record" of their lives, which he keeps in an archive at the back of his shop. They share an obsession for Irene, an attractive local painter, who has all the joy and passion for life that they lack. Then one day, Irene disappears, without a trace... Although initially hostile to each other, Alex and Bruno join forces to discover what happened to her. As they search Irene's apartment for clues, they slowly move in, and a trusting friendship begins to develop between these two loners. When they discover Irene might be in Spain, and in danger, these two unlikely heroes decide to rescue her. The journey might turn out to be pointless, but they'll make it together - as friends. GOODNIGHT IRENE won the Best Feature Award at the 2008 New Orleans Film Festival. In English and Portuguese with English subtitles Print Source: Filmes de Tejo

While driving home one night, a middle-aged, bourgeois woman accidentally hits something…or somebody. She doesn’t know whether the victim was an animal, man, woman or, perhaps most chilling, a child. In the aftermath, the woman spends several disorienting days trying to retreat from her own severely warped mind and to acclimate back to high society. Lovers, family and friends do their best to console and convince her that she only hit a dog. But she remains unconvinced, horrified by the prospect it may have been a young boy. Argetinian director Lucretia Martel’s third feature subtly locks us into lead actress Maria Onetto’s head, only letting us out once when we have pieced together some clues to her personal mystery. Touching on both psychological and social themes in a noir-like fashion, Martel has created a chilling film about guilt and class that requires thought, discussion, and analysis. Yet these requirements don’t make the film inaccessible — on the contrary, they make it all the more sweet, regardless of the viewer’s ultimate interpretation.

In the early 1960s, when very little attention was paid to Minimalist and Conceptual Art, an ordinary couple of modest means, Herb and Dorothy, quietly began purchasing the works of unknown artists. Devoting all of Herb's postal clerk salary to buy art, and living on Dorothy's librarian paycheck alone, they continued collecting artwork guided by two rules: the piece had to be affordable, and small enough to fit in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Within these limits, they proved themselves curatorial visionaries of contemporary art; most of those they supported and befriended went on to become world-renowned artists. Their circle includes: Sol LeWitt, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Richard Tuttle, Chuck Close, Robert and Sylvia Mangold, Lynda Benglis, Pat Steir, Robert Barry, Lucio Pozzi and Lawrence Weiner. Thirty years on, the Vogels had managed to accumulate over 4,000 pieces, filling every corner of their living space from the bathroom to the kitchen. In 1992, the Vogels made headlines that shocked the art world: their entire collection was moved to the National Gallery of Art, the vast majority of it as an outright gift to the institution. Many of the works they acquired at modest prices appreciated so significantly that their collection became worth several million dollars, yet the Vogels never sold a single piece. Print Source: Arthouse Films

THE HORSE BOY explores one family's unforgettable journey as they travel halfway across the world in search of a miracle to heal their autistic son. This sweeping and emotionally charged story embodies the openness and faith the Isaacson family places in the possibility of trying something extraordinary. Rowan was born in 2001. His father, Rupert, a British journalist and human-rights activist, and his mother, Kristin, a psychology professor from suburban California, felt the world was their oyster. After their son was diagnosed with autism in 2004, their perfect life began to fall apart. They tried conventional therapies, diets and medication, all to no avail. Rupert had witnessed the potency of traditional healing and discovered that his son had a special bond with horses. He researched and found a place that combined horseback riding and shamanic healing--Mongolia. The next step was convincing his wife they should take their son to Ulaanbaatar and travel on horseback, searching for the elusive reindeer herders and the most powerful shaman in the country. Accompanied by Rupert's honest narration, this rich film blends footage from the family's adventure through the Mongolian countryside with scenes from their life at home in Texas. Bolstered by testimony from autism experts, including Dr. Temple Grandin, this compelling film exquisitely captures an astonishing physical and spiritual journey.--Lisa Viola, Sundance Film Festival Print Source: Zeitgeist

It's been a decade since Ben and Andrew were the bad boys of their college campus. Ben has settled down and found a job, wife and home. Andrew took the alternate route, skipping the globe from Chiapas to Cambodia. When Andrew shows up, unannounced, on Ben's doorstep, they easily fall back into their old dynamic of heterosexual one-upsmanship. After a night of perfunctory carousing, the two find themselves locked in a mutual dare: to enter an amateur porn contest. But what kind of boundary-breaking porn can two dudes make? After the booze and "big talk" run out, only one idea remains - they will have sex together... on camera. It's not gay; it's beyond gay. It's not porn; it's an art project. But how will it work? And more important, who will tell Anna, Ben's wife? Judging by writer and director Lynn Shelton, it takes a talented woman to unearth the biggest ironies in the male ego. HUMPDAY is a buddy movie gone wild. Shelton expertly mines this clever construct for every possible comedic and irreverent moment. Shelton's command of her craft shines brightest when our two gentlemen finally get down to the task at hand: creating a classic "wriggle in your seat" moment of truth. -John Cooper, Sundance Film Festival Award winner at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Print Source: Magnolia Pictures

Director Adam Low and Writer Philip Hoare will be in attendance. Herman Melville's timeless novel, Moby-Dick, still raises the hairs on the neck of our collective conscious even 157 years after it first was published. In this daring and unusual feature-length adventure documentary, the lore and legend of the novel is opened up to new interpretations by an exquisite examination of the novel's mythical main character, the whale. Four years in the making and filmed from England to the US to the Azores, acclaimed writer and authority on whales, Philip Hoare, reveals the importance of the whale in western culture with intricate research and a heady passion behind the camera. He also brings startling new focus to a 19th century novel that resounds with 21st century relevance, drawing parallels between Captain Ahab's obsessive pursuit of the great White Whale on the high seas, and the current 'war on terror', from 9/11 to Iraq. THE HUNT FOR MOBY DICK is an engaging and beautifully produced rethinking of the literal and cultural place of the world's greatest mammal, and one of the world's greatest reads, and a must for literary devotees. Hoare embarks on an epic journey in the footsteps of Ishmael himself, and through it discovers what the same whale means to the modern world. Print Source: Filmmaker