Rhode Island International Film Festival 2009

Claudius Gentinetta, Frank Braun, Directors An old man travels to an unknown mountain destination inside a tiny, weathered and rusty cable car. During the ride, the old man treats himself to a good portion of snuff. When he sneezes heartily, the old gondola swings precariously. Later, the rhythmic sound of the wheels transporting the gondola upwards lulls the old man into slumber. But soon after, there is a new tickle in his nose, and he puts some more snuff on the back of his hand. One sneeze attack follows the other, and soon, the cabin’s once solid walls start falling apart, more with every attack. Now the rump of the cable car ascends to dizzying hights, mercilessly exposed to onslaughts of rain and snow. The old man, however, is far from inclined to accept such fate. Rather, he is quick to devise a new kind of cabin with his roll of sticky tape.

California is the world's 6th largest economy. Cash Crop is a road movie; an epic West Coast adventure to the heart of the American dream.UNDERCOVER for a year and a half, MUSICIAN and AWARD WINNING FILM MAKER, ADAM ROSS, follows the historic Spanish Camino Real up the California Coast to the heart of the EMERALD TRIANGLE, humanizing the voyage and characters, giving the viewer unique inside-access to the LARGEST CASH CROP in CALIFORNIA: MARIJUANA. Estimated in December 2006 by the LA Times as a $35 BILLION DOLLAR A YEAR INDUSTRY-MARIJUANA is the U.S.'s largest cash crop-number one in 12 States, in the top three in 30. GROWERS, PATIENTS, lawmakers and law enforcement wrestle with issues of SUSTAINABILITY, FREEDOM, SELF GOVERNMENT, ENTREPRENEURSHIP and GREED in the GOLDEN STATE GONE GREEN.The feel good movie of the year.The film crosses the Mexican border up to Eureka through San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and lingers in the counties of Sonoma, Butte, Lake, Mendocino, and Humboldt, exploring a rich quintessentially American culture.Ranchers, vintners, brewers, growers and law enforcement provide a rich tapestry of Americans going it alone beyond the last mission outpost carving out a way of life that reinforces aspects of American culture and values.Cash Crop is filmed in high definition with an original soundtrack by musician/director Adam Ross.Small vs. corporate, local vs. Federal legal and medical issues, Californians seek sustainability during these difficult economic times.

'[Morgenstern weaves a] cohesive narrative around these three players, tracking them to meetings, interviewing them behind the scenes, and milking other students for quotes so gem-like they sparkle.'-Ivy Gate BlogZac Townsend knows the Undergraduate Council of Students' constitution by heart.John Gillis has a hard time thinking of anything he's really done in two years on UCS.And Arthur Kim has never been to a meeting - he's too busy playing with his band!Watch as the three candidates, cheered on by a crazy crew of characters, fight for the hearts and minds of a student body that just doesn't care. Arthur campaigns like a madman, Zac gets aggressive, Jon wears a t-shirt and joins the parties. And to make things more confusing, the election is held at the same time as Brown's biggest party, Spring Weekend.Will the partygoers even remember to vote? Can they rally their supporters? The film is as much about these three characters as it is about anyone who has tried to gain support for a cause, and speaks to universal human themes.In the race to the top, anything is fair game!

Kath has been looking for love in all the wrong places. Then, she finds herself in Chinatown. In the middle of a less than successful blind date, she overhears the soulful Cantonese singing of kitchen-hand, Ah Gong. Kath is intrigued. But is there more to Ah Gong than meets the eye? "Celestial Avenue" is an offbeat tale - part karaoke video, part cross-cultural comedy - about love, music and personal reinvention. World Premiere Screening. Grand Prize Winner for Best Short Film at RIIFF 2009.

Khadija boards a bus which offers no extra seats,except for a last space next to someone whom she wrongly - she thinks - identifies as a peer,whilst Mary realizes her compassion does not stretch as far as she thought.Slowly and silently,they become aware of thoughts and opinions buried just beneath the socially acceptable; their short journey seems to mirror what nearly every other passenger is going through,as the rush hour traffic grinds to a halt.

Unvarnished, unplugged and unadvertised: Join us as we have an intimate conversation with film composer Klaus Badelt (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl) who will share with us what it’s like compose music for some of Hollywood’s most successful films and the importance of film music as a collaborative art form. Hollywood Producer (Space Jam, Everyone’s Hero) Ron Tippe will lead the conversation.

In 1982, an athletic group tries to hold a "Gay Olympics," instigating what will ultimately become a battle at the U.S. Supreme Court and a challenge over the place of gays and lesbians in American society.The Supreme Court is widely viewed as the country's chief defender of civil rights. Yet its long-hidden struggle with demands for gay equality points to a more complicated reality. The inner workings of the Court are exposed, revealing an institution and individual justices — real people with human emotions and deeply felt assumptions — divided and in conflict. The Court takes a surprising journey as it confronts the call for gay equality.The story begins in San Francisco in the early 1980s, when former Olympian Dr. Tom Waddell founds an international sporting event he calls the Gay Olympic Games. Open to men and women of all ages, abilities and sexual orientations, the Gay Olympics is Waddell's way to nurture a healthy self-image for gays and lesbians while publicly affirming positive examples of homosexuality. The U.S. Olympic Committee, however, doesn't want the words "gay" and "Olympics" combined. Despite a long history of disparate groups adopting the Olympic moniker — from Special Olympics and Police Olympics to the Xerox Olympics, Crab Cooking Olympics and even the Rat Olympics — the USOC chooses for the first time to take an amateur, nonprofit event to court. The gay group, led by attorney Mary Dunlap, fight through losses at every level of the judiciary until turning to the high court is the last option. By the time the Gay Olympics case arrives, the Court is in deep turmoil over its direction on gay rights issues. Through rarely seen internal documents and insider access to the Court, the film goes behind the scenes and explores how individual justices — real people with human emotions and deeply felt assumptions — are divided and in conflict.The remarkable journey of Justice Harry Blackmun stands out. Despite strong religious and personal feelings otherwise, he finds himself in the unlikely role of gay rights defender. Linda Greenhouse, Blackmun biographer and 30-year Supreme Court correspondent for the New York Times, describes the justice's unexpected evolution from conservative Nixon appointee to champion of progressive stances on such controversial issues as abortion and the death penalty. Chai Feldblum, privileged to be in the justice's closed circle of law clerks during the Gay Olympics case, offers a behind-the-scenes account of the Court and its personalities during this period. She recounts her struggle over whether to come out as a lesbian to a justice whose personal beliefs don't always match his liberal legal rulings.Reagan judicial appointee Alex Kozinski, today Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, explains why he forcefully sided with the Gay Olympics organizers, causing an uproar in the news media and signaling the Supreme Court to take up the case. Constitutional law scholar and Georgetown professor Nan Hunter and Washington, D.C., journalist Lisa Keen place the case within the larger arc of the modern gay rights struggle.Gay Olympics organizers and participants provide vivid eyewitness accounts of the birth of the games, the shock of being dragged into court by the USOC and, despite the real possibility of a loss with steep consequences, the determination to fight and claim the title of Olympics. Gay Games II Executive Director Shawn Kelly, Olympic swimmer Susan McGreivy and attorney Maureen Mason bring to life this overlooked but and important moment in history.The fight over Gay Olympics turns out to be the opening salvo in the next decade's major gay rights battles at the Supreme Court — and a preview of a conflict that continues to split society to this day.

After this powerful series of short films the Bell Street Chapel will host a discussion on coming out issues. Our panel will include filmmakers, James Robinson, Executive Director of Youth Pride, Inc. (YPI), and youth from YPI. YPI provides support, advocacy, and education for youth and young adults throughout Rhode Island who are impacted by sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.