Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival 2014

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D: Mahdi Fleifel  United Kingdom, Greece | 12 min

A bleak tale of lost Lebanese souls in Greece unfolds over the course of a telephone conversation between friends. Stranded in a country gripped by economic catastrophe, refugees have resorted to desperate measures to buy hard drugs for fleeting solace.

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Smile and the World Will Smile Back

D: Al-Haddad Family, Ehab Tarabieh, Yoav Gross | Israel, Palestine | 20 min

One cold December night, Israeli soldiers come up to the al-Haddad family home in a Palestinian neighborhood of Hebron and knock on the door. They've come to search the house. Diaa, the teenage son, reaches for the family’s video camera. As the search unfolds, a strange power struggle evolves, pitting gun against camera. The night grows colder, and the soldiers take Diaa outside and order him to face the wall. They won’t leave until he stops smiling.

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Rehearsal

D: Tom Rosenberg | USA | 11 min

A surreal study of a simulated terrorist attack in middle America. Composed frames observe the meticulous care taken to stage a hyperreal terrorist event. Once the bomb goes off, hundreds of volunteers deliver a convincing performance as stunned and mutilated blast victims.

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One Way Ticket

D: Joao Maia | USA | 22 min

The documentary One-Way Ticket tells the story of a young man and a woman, abused and persecuted due to their sexuality, who abandon their home countries in order to apply for asylum in the United States. The film portrays all the drama that surrounds the characters decisions and the reason their choices are made in the first place.

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In Guns We Trust

Nicolas Lévesque | Canada | 12 min

In Kennesaw, a small American town in the state of Georgia, a good citizen is an armed citizen. By law, since 1982, each head of household must own at least one working firearm with ammunition.

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City of the Damned

D: Mor Albanak, Matt Rogers, Nate Skeen | USA | 15 min

City of the Damned focuses on LGBT rights in the face of the brutal anti-homosexuality bill before the Ugandan Parliament. Although the death penalty has been withdrawn from the bill due heavily to international pressure, punishments are harsh and public opinion remains the biggest threat to the Ugandan LGBT community. The daring non-governmental organization Youth on Rock Foundation is fighting against this stigma by promoting economic empowerment among its members. Najib, YRF's treasurer, sells clothes in Uganda's largest market. He wants to prove that his sexuality does not define him; it's his respect for life, his determination for equality, and his aspirations to become a lawyer and self-respecting Ugandan citizen.

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Tyres

D: Kyaw Myo Lwin | Asia | 33 min

A tyre recycling workshop in South Okkalapa in Myanmar’s former capital of Yangon is a site of multiple uses and multiple deaths, for this is the place where defunct tyres are transformed from their original shape and use, and are reborn into new and completely different lives. Filmed almost entirely in black-and-white, this observational documentary gently explores a community of tyre cutters and recyclers, young and old, male and female, as they create with their super-sharp blades, careful eyes and skilful strokes, buckets, brushes and slippers from discarded rubber tyres. And, from time to time, in fleeting yet visceral moments in between their movements, snatched conversation and song, something lyrical, even philosophical emerges, and we are gently reminded of how every death gives way to a birth.

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The Supreme

D: Katarzyna Gondek | Poland | 20 min

Perched atop a mountain, in a park of sacred miniatures, stands the world’s largest statue of Pope John Paul II. Constructed entirely of Styrofoam and fiberglass, the statue stands an impressive 14 metres high and overlooks a rural Polish town. Filled with stunning visuals and surreal scenes, The Supreme is a humorous portrait of the irony and spectacle of religion.

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Overpass Light Brigade

D: Dusan Harminc, Matt Mullins | USA | 6 min

Overpass Light Brigade is a short film that tells the story behind Wisconsin's Holders of the Lights using innovative time-lapse photography and interviews with founding members and other activists. The film showcases OLB's simple, beautiful approach to performance art and action that beckons any who want to creatively join public discourse and voice concerns an elitist political system clamors to quiet.

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Los Olvidados

D: David Feldman | USA | 13 min

A young Latino street artist pays homage to unseen, forgotten domestic laborers through an art installation in the Sonoran Desert, in tribute to his immigrant roots.

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Gun Porn

D: Brahm Rosensweig | USA | 10 min

A band of scruffy types mill blithely about, shotguns and semi-automatics in hand. Moments later, a school bus, dignified in its yellow lustre, is wheeled unceremoniously onto the open grass field. Six thousand rounds later, the bus has been transformed by artist Viktor Mitic into a counter-intuitive mash-up of violence, politics and art.

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Flotsam & Jetsam

D: Jan Bednarz | USA | 7 min

On an island steeped with a history of Shipwrecking and Smuggling, there is evidence that the influence of pirate ancestry is still alive today. A descendant of the original settlers in Bimini, Ashley Saunders has spent the last 20 years scavenging the land, and combing beaches, to gather materials for his home. Built entirely from found items, Ashley's home is now an important landmark on the island, and is a modern reminder of the resourcefulness of people who look to the sea for survival.

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David Hockney in the Now

D: Lucy Walker | USA | 6 min

The sexy story of the iconic British artist David Hockney, who is adamant about living life in the now.

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On Beauty

D: Joanna Rudnick | USA | 32 min

Sarah Kanney races motocross, hiding a port wine birthmark under her helmet. Jayne Waithera's mother abandoned her over a genetic condition that makes her a pariah. Enter Rick Guidotti, a top fashion photographer, who will transform the way both women see themselves, irrefutably turning the convention of fashion photography on its head.

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Of Many

D: Linda G. Mills, Chelsea Clinton | USA | 34 min

Set against the dramatic backdrop of 9/11, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the tension between Jewish and Muslim students on college campuses, Of Many focuses on the surprising and transformative relationship between an orthodox rabbi and imam, who serve as university chaplains in New York City. Through a series of voyages to communities struck by catastrophe, we witness young religious Jews and Muslims working together and overcoming long-standing divides. Timely and funny, this short documentary offers an inspiring and hopeful narrative of friendship and cooperation between faiths.

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True Athlete

Wednesday 10/15- C2 @5:00PM

D: Tyler Williams | USA | 9 min

Henry Hawk recently celebrated his 77th birthday. As one of Arkansas most decorated track and field runners, Henry's life has largely been one of solitary, personal achievement. That is, until he heard of Robert Robinson's near total physical incapacity from a recent accident. Conventional medical wisdom said Robert would likely never as much as blink again.

Henry decided to lace up his inner running shoes and help Robert beat the odds. So began a life-affirming relationship between two, onethat unblinkingly confronts tragedy head-on, with eyes wide open and undaunted by the obstacles.

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The Game Changer

D: Indrani Kopal | USA | 17 min

Every Sunday afternoon for the last seven years, Susan Slotnick has driven an hour up the mountains to the Woodbourne Correctional Facility, a medium security prison for men, to teach modern dance. The lives of men whom she touched have never been the same since. This is her story…