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The
Greening of Southie Sunday, April
20th Wachovia
Playhouse/Imaginon
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This documentary goes behind the scenes and onto the scaffolds to follow the construction of Boston’s first green residential building, a luxury condominium complex called the Macallan. . Moving between the idealistic young development team, a wide range of suppliers, and the seasoned union construction crew, The Greening of Southie maps each step – and occasional misstep -- on the Macallan’s road to LEED certification and move-in day.
Director Ian Cheney will be joining us for this special Sundance Channel presentation and the film will also follow up with a panel discussion on "Modeling Green Building in Charlotte".
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Fourth Annual Festival |
The Light Factory is a continuing sponsor of the festival and presents the following film for your enjoyment!
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39
Pounds of Love Wednesday,
March 5th 39 POUNDS OF LOVE is the inspirational and humorous story of Ami Ankilewitz, a 3-D animator in Israel whose bodily motion is limited to a single finger on his left hand. At birth, Ami was diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy, later diagnosed as Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), and was predicted to survive only to the age of 6. Now, thirty years later, he leaves the woman he loves and returns to the United States to confront the childhood doctor who predicted his early demise. Along the way, he comes to terms with a major incident from his past and pursues a lifelong dream: to ride a Harley Davidson. 39 POUNDS OF LOVE is an emotional roller coaster, a fascinating, humorous and truly inspirational ride through life with someone who embodies the very term, carpe diem (Seize the day). |
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The 2007-2008 Southern Circuit is a program of the Southern
Arts Federation
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Unoccupied
Zone: Tuesday, Knight
Gallery |
Simone Weil was one of the most compelling and contradictory spiritual thinkers of our times. A pacifist who fought in the Spanish Civil War, a former Marxist who discovered the value in religion, a Jew and a Christian who refused to be baptized. Cathy Crane's Unoccupied Zone: The Impossible Life of Simone Weil explores these contradictions through an experimental documentary style, blending elements of dramatic reenactment, historical footage, and spoken word excerpts of Weil’s work into a filmic collage.
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Guerilla
Radio: Tuesday, Knight
Gallery |
Journey through a Cuba that few Americans know exists. Hundreds of hip-hop groups are forming across the island, inspired entirely by love of the music. Unlike hip-hop in the United States, there's no promise of a better life if Cuban rappers produce a hit. They work against a stark backdrop of prostitution, black-market capitalism and poverty, in part because the typical Cuban makes only $15 a month. Complicating matters is a police force that tosses the rappers in jail if their songs criticize Fidel Castro or his communist government.
Even if you don't care for hip-hop, you will be fascinated by the struggle
of the Cuban people and what they’re doing to survive.
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New
Year Baby Tuesday, Duke Power
theater |
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Variety review:
"..This fine first feature is a disarming personal docu that turns
into a very moving consideration of historical genocide and individual
heroism. Winner of a well-deserved jury prize at the San Francisco Asian-American
Film Festival, it merits further exposure..." - Dennis Harvey
When Socheata learns of her father's astounding heroism and her family's 25-year-old secret, she returns to Cambodia to discover the rest of their story and re-trace their journey to America.
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Love
Lived on Death Row Tuesday, Duke Power
theater
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The documentary chronicles former Charlotte family, the Syriani's, as they journey from hate and anger to love and forgiveness for their father Elias who was sentenced to die for the 1990 stabbing murder of their mother and the unlikely friendship that began with letters between Elias Syriani and Meg Eggleston. While forming a strong bond, the four Syriani children lived with hate, anger and confusion as the man they could only refer to as "Him" lived on death row. But in 2004 they collectively decided to visit their father in prison, seeking answers so they could move on with their adult lives. What transpired that day was a miracle of forgiveness followed by a journey of healing and then a battle for his clemency. The Syriani’s public campaign led to appearances on Good Morning America and the Larry King Show and culminated in a face-to-face meeting with North Carolina’s Governor Easley.
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Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox Tuesday, Duke Power
theater |
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German-born Dr. Emanuel H. Bronner was a master soapmaker,
chemist, self-proclaimed rabbi, and, allegedly, Albert Einstein's nephew.
In 1948, after escaping from a mental institution and hitchhiking to California,
he invented Dr. Bronner's
Magic Soap, a peppermint-infused, all-natural, multi-purpose liquid—now
the #1 selling certified organic soap in North America and Japan. To each
bottle, Bronner attached an ever-evolving set of teachings he called ‘The
Moral ABC,’ over 30,000
words that he designed 'TO UNITE ALL MANKIND AND SPACESHIP EARTH!'.
With a background in multi-media performance art and documentary, director Sara Lamm finds the bittersweet upside of a complicated, sometimes painful, family story. Moving back-and-forth between archival 16mm film of Dr. Bronner and contemporary footage of his son Ralph Bronner (AKA The Son of “The Pope of Soap”), the film captures four generations of soapmakers and the inspiring legacy of the counterculture’s favorite cleaning product.
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Blumenthal
Tickets: $5/adults-$3/children |
Partnering with the Charlotte Film Festival, we are delighted to bring you a day full of wonder and surprises with short films and features for the young and young-at-heart. Come in and sample with your favorite short person. We have dinosaurs, ants, dogs, cats and an entire barnyard. We will even feature a kazoo parade and there's free pizza and snacks!
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Charlotte Premiere Great World
of Sound 7:30PM Public
Screening Tickets-
$10 at door includes music |
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Shot in and around Charlotte, this 2007 Sundance favorite
is having it's local premiere. It's a story about song-sharking, which
is a pervasive music industry scam where a fly-by-night company places
ads in newspapers luring aspiring musicians to an audition. At the audition,
the song shark tries to sign the musician whether they're good or bad.
Then he skips town with the money leaving the musician with little or
nothing in return. Interweaving a traditional narrative with reality based
filming, the story examines the trend of easy shortcuts ot fame.
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Charles Burnett is the most gifted and important black
filmmaker this country has ever had. But there's a fair chance you've
never heard of him.
—Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
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Special Charlotte Premiere Friday, August 24th, 8PM
"Killer of Sheep
caught the lives of the children with a fidelity to how kids really
do fight, play, and cry — and how they can sometimes be cruel
simply because they're so scared." |
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KILLER OF SHEEP (www.killerofsheep.com), a landmark feature film shot in South Central LA by director Charles Burnett (To Sleep with Anger, The Glass Shield), has long been praised as one of the most moving and authentic depictions of African American life. Declaring it a national treasure, the Library of Congress placed it among the first 50 films entered in the National Film Registry and the National Society of Film Critics selected KILLER OF SHEEP as one of the 100 Essential Films of all time. But for the past 30 years it has only shown on poor quality 16mm prints at a handful of colleges around the United States and in scattered European film festivals. It is now ready to premiere this spring and summer around the country in glistening new 35mm prints.
Student/Filmmaker Forum with Mr. Burnett
free to students - presented by Black
Filmmakers Alliance at the Afro-American Cultural Center
Charles Burnett has spent 30 years in the film industry, making movies
that are true to human experience. It hasn’t been easy or glamorous,
but he’s managed to do it without “selling out.” Burnett
will share what it takes to be an independent filmmaker, how he selects
scripts and visualizes them. Learn what goes into making a masterpiece
like Killer of Sheep or To Sleep with Anger, and what’s next for
one of the most talented and underestimated minds in filmmaking
Thanks to our sponsors:
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Knight
Gallery |
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Margaret, a freelance photographer on her first big job uses the latest government supplied technology to survey environmental disaster areas. Jay, her unemployed ex-boyfriend is along for the ride. When the trip goes off course, the couple is forced to confront their relationships to the environment, the world at large and to each other. Starring Catherine Kellner and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.
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Best
of Full Frame Documentary Film Festival June 7-8, 2007 |
Recognized as the premier documentary film festival in the United States
by both The New York Times and indieWIRE, the Full Frame Documentary Film
Festival celebrates the power and artistry of documentary film. The festival,
is an international home for documentary filmmakers. It embraces the documentary
as an essential art and champions the documentary filmmaker as an important
witness to society. In our 6th year as screening partners, The Light Factory
brings to Charlotte two nights of great ‘Full Frame’ features.
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Urban sprawl is eating the planet.
Across the continent the landscape is being levelled - blasted clean of
distinctive features and overlaid with zombie monoculture. Politicians
call it growth. Developers call it business. The Moss family call it home.
Directors Burns and Brown rummage through a toybox of cultural references,
from Jane Jacobs to The Sopranos, to create a provocative reflection on
why we live the way we do. Riffing off sitcoms and reality TV, they play
fast and loose with a range of cinematic devices to consider what happens
when cities get sick and mutate.
Moving Midway by Godfrey Cheshire
In this personal documentary, film critic Godfrey Cheshire
explores his – and the world’s – fascination with the
Southern plantation. While observing the dramatic relocation of his family’s
historic Midway Plantation near Raleigh, N.C., Cheshire investigates the
myth of the Southern plantation, from 19th century novels through such
cinematic incarnations as D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation,
Gone with the Wind and TV’s Roots. Cheshire listens
to Southerners reflect on the changing South and the plantation’s
contested image in American culture.
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Thursday,
May 17th
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An evening of the best short films in the 2-state area;
narrative shorts, documentaries, animation, experimental and student work.
Don’t miss one of our most diverse and popular nights of film during
the year. This year's films and filmmakers include
| The Drill Solid State Metacarpus Single Pumpkin wall The end of the world Cold? OPUS Blue Corner Salud Nasuh Blackrock |
Joel R. Davenport Christopher Holmes Nicole Triche Cara Marisa Deleon Michael Kahn Francesca Talenti Norwood Cheek Mary Helena Clark Jack Schram Jesse Pilkes Anya Belkina Andrew Young |
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Thursday, April 19th
"Films By and About Women"
Knight Gallery
2PM Matinee Showing & 7:00PM
(free treats at matinee)
Feature Film: "All I've Got"
Written & Directed by: Keren Margalit
Israeli with English Subtitles
A 72-year-old grandmother dies and finds herself on a ferry which will
take her across the river to the hereafter. On the ferryboat she meets
her first love, who was killed in a road accident in which they were both
involved when they were young. She is presented with a fateful choice:
to start life afresh as a 22-year-old - her age at the time of the accident
- and to relinquish all her memories of the life she has lived with her
husband and children; or to remain a 72-year-old woman with all her life’s
memories intact. If she chooses the second alternative she will get off
the boat when it reaches its destination and will never be truly reunited
with her beloved, who has been waiting for her on the ferryboat for fifty
long years.
Short Film: "A Good Uplift"
Produced/Directed by: Faye Lederman, Cheryl Furjanic, Eve Lederman
A light-hearted documentary about a Lower East Side lingerie shop, where
owner and Jewish grandmother Magda, will size you up, hook you in, and
set you free in the perfect bra. With the wink of an eye and quick tug
of a strap, Magda supports her customers’ self-esteem and bustlines,
embracing and enhancing women of all shapes and sizes.
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"El Silencio de Neto" |
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Thursday, April
5th, 2007
7:00PM
Knight Gallery
free of charge
Official Selection of Sundance Film Fest/Winner of NY Latino Film Festival
Mixing magic-realism and historical events, "The Silence of Neto" is the first internationally acclaimed, award winning film produced entirely in Guatemala. It tells the politically-charged story of a young boy striving to follow his dreams while his country struggles to preserve democracy amidst CIA cold-war propoganda. Through the eyes of young Neto, we are given an authentic insider's look at the diverse people of Guatemala and the historical events that have shaped their destiny.
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"Perversion
of Justice"
by Melissa Mummert
February 9, 2007
7:00P Screening #1
7:30P Guest panel
8:30P Screening #2
Knight Gallery
$7 at the door
Thousands of Americans are serving outlandishly excessive
prison sentences for federal drug conspiracy offenses. Perversion of Justice
shows how one tiny component of the war on drugs has had a major impact
on families. Melissa Mummert documented Hamedah Hasan who was sentenced
to two life sentences for a drug conspiracy. Hamedah Hamedah’s three
daughters, Kasaundra, Ayesha and Kamyra, have struggled since their mother’s
arrest to make their way in the world without her presence. Shot over
the course of five years, the film follows Hamedah through her efforts
to obtain release from prison and tracks the effects of her incarceration
upon her daughters.
This event will feature a panel in-between the screenings
featuring Eric Sterling, President of the Criminal
Justice Policy Foundation that works on sentencing reform and Federal
Judge Graham Mullen
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From
Smoke Signals to SKINS: An evening with Chris Eyre
November 16, 2006
7:30 PM
Duke Power Theater
$20 ticket
in advance
People Magazine called Chris Eyre "...the preeminent Native American filmmaker of his time"
Chris Eyre, director of the cult indie film "Smoke Signals"is coming to Charlotte for the first time ever for a special Light Factory guest event. Eyre brings an exciting and fresh perspective to the portrayal of American Indians in mainstream Hollywood films. In 1996, the Sundance Film Festival named him the U.S. Winner of the Cinema 100/Sundance International Award, which honors the next generation of visionaries in film. Smoke Signals went on to win the Audience Award and Filmmaker's Trophy at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Eyre continues to make award-winning films including Skins, Edge of America, Thief of Time and A Thousand Roads.
Please join us for a screening
of the award winning "Smoke Signals" followed by a lecture and
Q&A session with writer/director Chris
Eyre.
Sponsored by: |
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Chris Eyre Filmography
IMPRINT 2007 (Producer)
ARTIC SON 2006 (Consulting Producer)
WANDERLUST 2005 (Himself)
TAMING THE WILD WEST: 2005 (Co-Producer)
THE LEGEND OF JEDEDIAH SMITH
A THOUSAND ROADS 2005 (Director)
THIEF OF TIME 2004 (Director)
EDGE OF AMERICA 2003 (Director/Producer)
IMAGES OF INDIANS: 2003 (Himself)
HOW HOLLYWOOD STEREOTYPED
THE NATIVE AMERICAN
SKINWALKERS 2002 (Director/Actor)
SKINS 2002 (Director/Actor/Co-Producer)
DOE BOY 2001 (Producer)
SMOKE SIGNALS 1998 (Director/Co-producer)
THINGS WE DO 1998 (Director/Producer)
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Richard Avedon
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Renowned film financier and
producer (Scorsese’s "The Last Waltz" and "Mean
Streets") |
Taplin’s career began as a tour manager for Bob Dylan and The Band. In 1973 he was producer of Martin Scorsese’s first feature film, Mean Streets, which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival.
Taplin has played several roles in the entertainment/digital media industry. In 1984 he acted as the investment advisor to the Bass Brothers in their successful attempt to save Walt Disney Studios from a corporate raid. This experience brought him to Merrill Lynch, where he served with a focus on media mergers and acquisitions. In this role, he helped re-engineer the media landscape on transactions such as the leveraged buyout of Viacom. Since June 1996, Taplin has served as Chairman and CEO of Intertainer, a company he helped establish. Intertainer was the pioneer video-on-demand company for both cable and broadband Internet markets. Taplin holds two patents for video-on-demand technologies.
For this and other remarkable contributions to contemporary filmmaking, The Light Factory will award Taplin the 2006 Power of Image Award. For more information on the Award and the presentation celebration in October, call The Light Factory.
Additional Programming:
Jonathan Taplin – Charlotte City Club Presentation
“Crouching Tigers: Emerging Challenges to U.S. Entertainment Supremacy".
Wednesday, October 25
11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Charlotte City Club
Tickets are $100 and must be reserved in advance.
For more information, call The Light Factory at 704-333-9755
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A
Filmmaker's Odyssey: Tribute to Filmmaker Steve Crump
Movie event only: $10 ticket/ call
704-333-9755 |
An evening devoted to local Emmy award winning reporter/producer and filmmaker, Steve Crump. Highlights include clips from his films and tribute commentary from special guests.
Steve is a native of Louisville, Kentucky and attended Eastern Kentucky
University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in communications.
He has worked for stations in Savannah, Orlando, Lexington, and Detroit.
For more than 20 years he has been a news reporter in Charlotte, N.C.
at WBTV and has completed more than 15 documentaries for WTVI Charlotte
Mecklenburg Public Television.
Among his honors are several regional Emmy Awards for stories ranging
from Apartheid in South Africa to civil rights in America’s South.
He also has earned a number of well respected accolades, including four
National Headliner awards; the Gabriel Award; and more than a dozen first-place
honors from the National Association of Black Journalists, as well as
organizations like Sigma Delta Chi and Sister Cities International.
His work has received attention at film festivals, the Library of Congress,
the Smithsonian, The National Gallery of Art, the North Carolina Historical
Archives, Chicago’s Museum of Broadcast Communications and the Congressional
Black Caucus Foundation.
Sponsors
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FULL FRAME Thursday, June 8th, 2006 Friday, June 9th, 2006 7:00 pm Knight Gallery Admission: $7.00 |
Best of "Full Frame Documentary Film Festival"
The Light Factory showcases two of the winners from our nation's most critically acclaimed documentary film festival, Full Frame. A screening partner with Full Frame for the fourth year, these two films will be announced from the Winner's circle after the Festival takes place in April, 2006 in Durham, NC. Always thought provoking, always entertaining; don't miss this exceptional showing of documentary winners.
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The Photographer,
His Wife, Her Lover |
UK — 2005, 80 min.
Directed by Paul Yule. Produced by Paul Yule and Jonathan Stack.
Did Conchita defraud her aging husband, renowned steam train photographer O. Winston Link? Or, did he exploit her for her business acumen? This convoluted tale of art world profit, deception and crime is framed by excerpts from biographical film director, Paul Yule made with the protagonists 15 years earlier. Whatever happened, the images—striking night-time photos dramatizing the 1950s decline of steam railroads—are worth more because of the scandal. The subjects of the film look into the camera lens and either lie or tell the truth, leaving it to the viewer to untangle the sordid mess of lust, greed and fine art photography.
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Short
Film (prior to feature): |
Placed in New York City on the final night of the 2004 Republican National Convention. Amid a sea of protestors and police awaiting the acceptance speech of President Bush, a young worker prepares for the launch of a new Diesel clothing store.
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The Refugee All
Stars
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USA — 2005, 80 min.
Directed by Zach Niles and Banker White. Produced by Zach Niles and Banker
White.
The civil war in the West African nation of Sierra Leone displaced hundreds of thousands of people from 1991 to 2002. Most found themselves in refugee camps in neighboring Guinea, many without any knowledge of the fates of their families and friends. Seeking a way to rebuild relationships and express the varied emotions engendered by the war and devastation, several Sierra Leoneans form an Afro-pop band called the Refugee All-Stars. Their songs of hope and loss bring solace to their countrymen. Their music may pave a way for the band members to survive in the post-civil war landscape of their homeland. An infectious score and compelling personal stories suffuse this look at a band of survivors determined to use music to establish a new community.
ANNUAL CAROLINAS' FILMMAKERS SHOWCASE
Thursday, June 1st, 2006Knight Gallery
Admission: $7.00
The best short films that the North Carolina and South Carolina region has to offer! Short narratives, doc's, experimental, animated pieces, award winners and student work. Don't miss this eclectic screening that grows in popularity with every passing year. Some of this year's highlights:
"lost souls” by Stephen Van Vuuren
One woman dedicates her life to solving the mystery of shoes that hang
from power lines or lie scattered on a lonely stretch of highway. The
surprising secret is revealed in the the visually stylish subtle satire
of 'lost souls'.
"Dhyaas" bySukhada Gokhale Bhonde
A story of an orphaned pickpocket Babu who searches for human connection
in a city filled with people. When he has a fight with his only friend
and boss Dada, Babu sets on a journey to find himself a family and friend.
"The Super 8 Bunch" by Steve Daniels
With more than a huge nod to Sam Peckinpah's classic western "The
Wild
Bunch", this film transposes the old west cowboys to post modern
pranksters with super 8 cameras. This is the extended :60 sec "blazing
super 8 fury" version.
“The W Code” by Jeff Tolly/Providence High
Maybe George Washington isn’t the man we’ve known him to be.
Maybe the foundations of this country will be questioned.
Maybe Dan Brown isn’t the only one who can re-write history.
“Gray Days” by Katherine Leggett
A graying American population and a record number of people incarcerated
present an alarming trend: a dramatic increase of elderly in our state
prisons. Built around the compelling stories of two elderly inmates in
two North Carolina prisons, this film confronts the lives of an often-ignored
population within our criminal justice system.
"Booth" by Mark Freiburger
Set in the immediate post-civil war era, John Wilkes Booth and his conspirators:
Dutch, Paine and Herald, plan the simultaneous assassination of President
Abraham Lincoln, the Vice President, and the Secretary of State.
"Deep End" by Kwong Hiu Yan “Emily”
A little girl finds herself being haunted by nightmares of a boy. When
the line between dream and waking start to blur, she finds out a horrible
truth about her past that she never expected.
"Dear, Sweet Emma" by Out of our minds Studios
As the search is given up for Emma's latest husband, Tucker, a private
look reveals that Emma has a secret and uncontrollable dark side. The
sweetest angel and favorite citizen of Fishtickle would indeed pose an
uncomfortable dilemma for all if her problem were ever found out. Modeling
and animation was produced in Lightwave 3d. After Effects was used for
compositing. Editing was done on a Video Toaster System. Out of Our Minds
Images produced the piece from concept to final in the course of two months
with a six person staff.
6th Annual Carolinas Filmmakers Showcase Entry Form (pdf)
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FIND LOVE
Friday, April 28th, 2006 |
Find Love is the story of two people who aren't looking for love but find it anyway. It's a twenty-four hour romance ride that truthfully captures that inexplicable first feeling of falling for someone. They meet on a delayed flight to Wilmington NC . She's going there for an interview. He's going home. She's momentarily escaping an unhappy marriage. He's in shock as his girlfriend has just told him that they are pregnant. The two strangers are instantly captivated by each other and readily exported from their own realities into a fragmented realm of new emotions.
erica dunton – writer/producer/director British writer/director Erica Dunton is the daughter of celebrated cinematographer and camera technician Joe Dunton BSC MBE. She graduated from Durham University with a Law degree and then applied to The National Film and Television school in Beaconsfield in the UK. At the age of 21 she was one of the youngest people to have ever been accepted by the school. On graduation Erica pursued a freelance career in advertising and has made films in London, Kenya, NY, China, Moscow and India. Her travelling also allowed her passion for still photography to advance.
alan newcomb – director of photography - Alan is from Charlotte, North Carolina. He graduated from Bard College having studied still photograpy and studio art. Alan’s feature credits as cinematographer include OUTER DARK, THE FEEDING and THE BUTTERFLY CATCHER.
Spirit Square, Suite 211
345 North College Street
Charlotte, NC 28202
info@lightfactory.org
704.333.9755