AIFF2017 Day 3
IN THIS ISSUE:
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Today only!
All donations to the Ashland Independent Film Festival will be matched!
Text AIFF $Pledge Amount First Name Last Name to 56512 or visit ashlandfilm.org/donate.
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Your support enables AIFF to keep its doors open throughout the year presenting our three core programs: Special Screenings, Varsity World Film Week, and the Ashland Independent Film Festival.
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Hermia and Helena
Feature | 86 minutes | Director: Matias Pineiro
Sat 9:40 pm, Sun 3:40 pm, Mon 3:40 pm
The latest Shakespeare-inspired lm from Matías Piñeiro finds Camila, an Argentine theater director, beginning an artistic residency in New York City in order to complete her Spanish translation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Amidst changeable romances, far-flung friendships, and long-lost connections, this playful, inventive narrative accompanies her on a wistful journey that shifts back and forth in time and geography from Buenos Aries to NYC and beyond. Piñeiro’s first English-language film showcases his favorite ensemble of actors from Argentina’s theater world, a score by Scott Joplin, and luxurious shots of New York by longtime collaborator and cinematographer Fernando Lockett. Subtitles
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500 Years
Sat 3:30 pm
Historic Ashland Armory
Documentary | 108 minutes | Director: Pamela Yates | Oregon Premiere
500 Years tells the courageous story of Guatemala’s indigenous majority population as they rise from the ashes of 30 years of injustice and oppression to convict a genocidal general and topple a corrupt president. Focusing on universal themes of justice, racism, power, and corruption, the Mayan people recount their three-year struggle to rise up, empowered by the growing outcry of public sentiment. As witness to this heroic moment in Guatemalan history, 500 Years documents the beginning of the end of an unaccountable rule of law and a society where change finally seems possible. Subtitles
This is the final film in Pamela Yates and Skylight’s Resistance Saga, which also includes When the Mountains Tremble and Granito: How to Nail a Dictator
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What Lies Upstream
Sat 6:00 pm, Sun 09:30 am
Varsity Theatre
Documentary | 89 minutes | Director: Cullen Hoback | Oregon Premiere
In this documentary “whodunit,” investigative filmmaker Cullen Hoback travels to West Virginia to study the unprecedented loss of clean water for over 300,000 residents, nearly half the population of the state. In 2014, a mysterious chemical leaked into the Elk River, contaminating the drinking water. Hoback discovers a shocking failure of regulatory framework from both state and federal agencies and a wrecked political system. While he’s in West Virginia, a similar water crisis strikes Flint, Michigan supporting the case that the entire system to protect drinking water in America is fundamentally broken. Trying to get answers about what happened, he descends into a rabbit hole of government laziness, chemical corporation collusion, and a nightmare conclusion about what might lie upstream. Subtitles
Sponsored by Ashland Food Co-op
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LAUNCH Awards
Ashland Street Cinema
1644 Ashland Street
10:10 am
FREE (ticket required)
90 minutes
Celebrate our local emerging talents. Students from kindergartners to college undergraduates who submitted winning films will receive their awards and take questions about their work and process.These films will play with
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Filmmaker TalkBack: Indie Documentary Journalism
Ashland Springs Hotel
212 E Main Street
10:00 to 11:30 am
FREE (ticket required)
90 minutes
Investigative cinematic journalism is capable of telling the most pressing stories of our time. But with the media under fire, how can indie filmmakers hold the powerful accountable and speak to audiences across the political spectrum? We will hear from documentarians who’ve been doing just that. AIFF2017 directors Cullen Hoback (What Lies Upstream) and Brian Knappenberger (Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press) are joined by AIFF alum Kirby Dick (The Hunting Ground–AIFF2015, The Invisible War–AIFF2012) and Sonya Childress.
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Virtual Reality Hands-on Gallery and Docs
ScienceWorks Hands-on Museum
1500 E Main St
1-5 pm
FREE (no ticket required)
1-2pm & 4-5pm VR Gallery: Experience a sampling of innovative animations created expressly for VR. Available for viewing on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Samsung Gear headsets and suitable for ages 12 and older.
3-4pm Docs on VR: AIFF2017 filmmakers Drea Cooper and Zack Canepari will answer questions and discuss the shooting of their VR doc, Policing Flint, and guide viewers through some of their favorite online VR doc experiences.
POLICING FLINT (17min)
Directed by Zackary Canepari and Drea Cooper
POLICING FLINT draws a complex portrait of a police department under immense strain. It’s a police force that reflects the city. Flint has been hit by major budget cuts and staffing shortages amid the backdrop of a crippling water crisis, and yet the police force is still expected to keep the citizens safe in one of the most violent cities in America.
Don’t forget to bring your IOS or Android smartphones and earbuds/ headphones so we can provide you with VR headsets and help you set up VR apps.
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Live Performance:
Lost Landscapes of Los Angeles
Varsity Theatre
3:40 pm
A truly experimental documentary that visually traces the changing city of Los Angeles from the 1920s through the 1960s, showing how its landscape expresses an almost infinite collection of mythologies. Made from home movies and studio-produced “process plates”—background images of the city shot by studio cinematographers for rear projection in feature films—the film depicts places, people, work, and daily life during a period of rapid urban development. Audience members are encouraged to share observations and memories during the screening of this silent film and contemplate the life and growth of America’s preeminent Western metropolis as the sum of countless individual acts.
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Elks Club
255 E. Main St. (2nd Street & Lithia Way - please enter through alley)
5:15 to 6:45 pm
FREE (no ticket required)
Join expert discussion facilitators Marla Estes and Kay Sandberg and special guests for in-depth conversations about how three provocative films affected you and other attendees. Your personal responses to the films’ revelations and possible social action points will be the springboard for discussion.
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Live Performance: Hope and Prey
and the Medusa Smack with
Vanessa Renwick & Tara Jane O'Neil
Schneider Museum of Art
Corner of Siskiyou Boulevard and Indiana Street
7 pm
Renowned Portland artist and experimental filmmaker Vanessa Renwick and musician Tara Jane O’Neil will perform the score of Medusa Smack live followed by Vanessa’s three-screen projection piece, Hope and Prey, which features stunning cinematography of wolves in the wild.
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Wine Tasting
Ashland Wine Cellars
38 Lithia Way
Noon to 6 pm | $1 Glass Discount
Join us for a tasting of the AIFF 2014 Cabernet Franc at Ashland Wine Cellars. This wine will also be available for purchase by the bottle ($35) or by the glass ($10). All proceeds benefit AIFF.
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Live Performance: Slanty Eyed Mama
Immediatley following the screening of
Happy Lucky Golden Tofu Panda Dragon Good Time Fun Fun Show
Historic Ashland Armory
9:30 pm
East meets West in this live stand-up comedy, sketch, and rock ‘n’ roll/ spoken word concert film focused on Asian American themes including bowl cuts, math nerds—and Hello Kitty everything! The film is anchored in a live show by Slanty Eyed Mama: two good Asian girls gone bad-assed. Virtuoso violinist Lyris Hung and comedian/actor Kate Rigg take on some of the biggest issues and cultural tropes of the Asian immigrant experience with humor and musical “medit-asians” on contemporary culture. Directed by Emmy Award-winning actor Carrie Preston (True Blood and The Good Wife).
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AfterLounge
Brickroom (Karaoke Night!)
34 N. Main St., Ashland
5 pm to 1 am
Mingle with filmmakers and friends at this no-host gathering that starts around 5 p.m. No cover charge. No host bar. No ticket required. (Usually you must be 21 or older to hang out at a bar in Oregon.)
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Thank you to our Supporting Sponsors!
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Show us how you fest! Share on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram your favorite AIFF2017 moments, photos and films. Don't forget to tag us @ashlandfilm and use our official hashtag #AIFF2017.
Caught on camera?
Find your photos on Flickr at flickr.com/ashlandindependentfilmfestival.
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