Richie Ashburn: A Baseball Life
Documentary / Official Selection / Thurs. Oct 2. , 8pm
Directed by Dan Stephenson
2007 | 95 min | USA
Richie Ashburn is arguably the most beloved figure in the long and storied history of Philadelphia sports. His Midwestern wit and dry sense of humor seemed to be in sharp contrast to the gritty atmosphere of East Coast baseball, but “Whitey” won over this tough town with his straightforward approach and playful charm. Richie Ashburn: A Baseball Life chronicles an amazing journey that takes us from his humble beginnings in Nebraska all the way to his enshrinement in the halls of baseball immortality in Cooperstown, New York. There will be a discussion with the Richie’s daughter and son, Jean and Richard Ashburn following the film.

The Greening of Southie
Documentary / Official Selection / Thurs. Oct. 2, 8pm
Directed by Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney
2008 | 72 min | USA | www.greeningofsouthie.com
What happens when you’re asked to build the city of tomorrow… today? Set on the storied streets of South Boston, The Greening of Southie is a feature documentary about Boston’s first residential green building, and the skeptical workers who are asked to build it. From wheatboard cabinetry to recycled steel, bamboo flooring to dual-flush toilets, The Macallen Building is something different––a leader in the emerging field of environmentally friendly design. But Boston’s steel-toed union workers aren’t sure they like it. And when things on the building start to go wrong, the young developer has to keep the project from unraveling. Sponsored by The Berks County Community Foundation.

Amal
Drama / Official Selection / Thurs. Oct. 2, 9:30pm
Directed by Richie Mehta
2007 | 103 min | Canada | www.sevillepictures.com
Amal is an emotionally evocative story about an auto-rickshaw driver in New Delhi who is content with his small, but vital role in life. One day he drives an eccentric billionaire who, disguised as a vagabond, is searching the streets for the last morsel of humanity and someone he can leave all his money to, and Amal’s life may change forever. Filmed on location in New Delhi, India, this modern day fable asks the important question of what success means to each individual, and ultimately reveals to audiences that the poorest of men are sometimes the richest.

Otto; or Up with Dead People
Horror-Comedy / Official Selection / Thurs., Oct. 2, 11pm
Directed by Bruce La Bruce
2008 | 95 min | Germany-Canada | www.ottothezombie.de
Otto is a handsome, sensitive, neo-Goth zombie with an identity crisis. He looks and smells like a zombie but isn’t certain that he is one. He has no idea where he came from or where he is going. He is discovered by underground filmmaker Medea Yarn, who begins to make a documentary about him with the support of her girlfriend, Hella, and her brother Adolf. Meanwhile, Medea is trying to finish "Up with Dead People," the epic political-porno-zombie movie that she has been working on for years. Otto discovers that there is a wallet in his back pocket that contains information about his past, before he was dead; he begins to remember a few details, including memories of his ex-boyfriend, Rudolf. He arranges to meet him at the schoolyard where they met, with devastating results. Film not for young audiences.

Friday October 3rd

Guest of Cindy Sherman
Documentary / Official Selection / Fri. Oct. 3, 5pm
Directed by Paul Hasegawa-Overacker and Tom Donahue
2008 | 88 min | USA | www.guestofcindysherman.com
Guest of Cindy Sherman is about Paul H-O, a public access show host and his relationship with the press-shy art superstar, Cindy Sherman. Their bliss is somewhat short-lived, however, as Paul finds himself wracked with anxiety about his own personality becoming subsumed by his role as Cindy's "plus one" at the celebrity-studded art openings and dinners she regularly attends. Filmed over the course of 15 years and including interviews with a veritable who's who of the art and entertainment world. The film paints a vivid picture of a New York art scene increasingly driven by money and fame.

Lucio
Documentary / Official Selection / Fri. Oct 3., 5pm
Directed by Aitor Arregi and Jose Maria Goenaga
2007 | 93 min | Spain | www.lucio.com.es
There are plenty of anarchists in the world. Many have committed robbery or smuggling for their cause. Fewer have discussed strategies with Che Guevara or saved the skin of Eldridge Cleaver – the leader of the Black Panthers. There is only one who has done all that, and also brought to its knees the most powerful bank on the planet by forging travelers checks, without missing a single day of work in his construction job. He is Lucio Urtubia, from a tiny village in Navarra in North of Spain. Lucio has been protagonist and witness to many of the historic events of the second half of the 20th century. The press called him “the good bandit,” or the “Basque Zorro.” He managed to swindle 25 million dollars from the First National Bank (now Citibank), to later invest the money in causes he believed in. Miraculously, he spent no more than a few months in jail throughout his “career.”

Flying on One Engine
Documentary / Official Selection / Fri. Oct. 3, 6:45pm
Directed by Joshua Weinstein
2008 | 84 min | USA | www.flyingononeengine.com
Wheelchair bound, without a larynx, and diagnosed with a life-threatening aortic aneurysm, Dr. Sharadkumar Dicksheet now lives only (and barely) so he can travel to India to perform free operations in marathon-like surgery sessions where up to 700 children receive treatment for their cleft lips and other deformities. Although Dicksheet survives off of social security while living in his Brooklyn apartment, his life is drastically different in India where the eight-time Nobel Prize nominee is treated like a living god. Flying on One Engine shows how this quirky, funny, and sometimes difficult character overcomes his own ailments by curing others.

Yesterday Was a Lie
Drama / Second Place Competition Feature Film / Fri. Oct. 3, 6:45pm
Directed by James Kerwin
2007 | 89 min | USA – Hollywood, CA
Hoyle, a girl with a sharp mind and a weakness for bourbon, finds herself on the trail of a reclusive genius. But her work takes a series of unforeseen twists as events around her grow increasingly fragmented... disconnected... surreal. With a sexy lounge singer and a loyal partner as her only allies, Hoyle is plunged into a dark world of intrigue and earth-shattering cosmological secrets. Haunted by an ever-present shadow whom she is destined to face, Hoyle discovers that the most powerful force in the universe -- the power to bend reality, the power to know the truth -- lies within the depths of the human heart. Film Competition sponsored by Comcast.

All Along
Comedy / Third Place Competition Feature Film / Fri. Oct. 3, 8:30pm
Directed by Robert Angelo Masciantonio
2007 | 75 min | USA | www.allalongfilm.com
Richard Harrison has a loving wife, a reliable job and two typically rambunctious teenagers. He is currently experiencing a midlife crisis. He's hit the big 4-0 and his life has drastically changed. While every midlife working stiff descends into daydreams in order to escape their mundane reality, Richard doesn't merely scratch the surface of his fantasies. He physically enters them for moments at a time, until he's forced to snap back into reality with hilarious results. It’s clearly evident that Richard has a problem that needs to be solved in order to regain the trust of his loving family. Film Competition sponsored by Comcast.

Rockin America: The Magical Misery Tour
Documentary / Official Selection / Fri. Oct 3, 8:30pm
Directed by Victor Colicchio
2008 | 120 min | USA
A new film by producers Jeri Carroll (Summer of Sam) and Dave Pederson (Supersize Me) and directed by actor/writer Victor Colicchio (Summer of Sam, Inside Man.) Twenty-six European musicians are left stranded in America by their concert promoter. With no maps, money, or itinerary, the young musicians work together and reschedule the tour themselves, with stops at America's most historical Rock N Roll landmarks, Graceland, CBGB’s, Woodstock, Strawberry Fields, and the Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame. This film follows the six bands who survived the longest on this Magical Misery Tour. Filmed on locations across the USA, with stops in Nashville, Cleveland and Kutztown, Pennsylvania. This film is a work in progress. There will be a discussion with director, Victor Colicchio and the producer Jeri Carroll following the film.

Nobody
Thriller / Official Selection / Fri. Oct. 3, 11pm
Directed by Shawn Linden
2007 | 84 min | Canada | www.nobodymovie.com
Part myth, part mystery, Nobody is a film noir nightmare set in the 1950s on a cold winter night that never seems to end. A black-faced assassin is consigned to commit a murder at the behest of a mob boss. The assassin returns to him claiming success, but the paranoid mobster needs more proof than the killer can provide. The assassin returns to the scene of the crime, a deep grave nestled in a snowy park. The grave is empty. From this moment, time folds in on itself. He unwittingly commits murders he himself had discovered only hours ago. He chases his own Double, anticipating the moves he once made, foiled at the last moment by a rhyme-spitting crone. As the two ends of the circle close in, the assassin gears up for a fateful confrontation with himself, and his fate is revealed with the answer to the old crone’s riddle: To those who see, I cease to be. Who am I?

An Afternoon of BullFrog Films

On the Assassination of the President
Short / Official Selection / Sat . Oct 4, 12:30pm
Directed by Adam Keker
2008 | 6 min | USA
A top-secret government file, to be viewed only in the event of the president's death by assassination, gives specific instructions on what should be done, and presents dossiers on the three most likely suspects.

Secrecy
Documentary / Official Selection / Sat . Oct 4, approx. 12:40pm
Directed by Peter Galison
2008 | 85 min | USA | www.secrecyfilm.com
The “classification universe” is invisible to most of us, yet the production of governmental classified secret documents involves millions of people. And government secrecy is growing, vastly outpacing the circulation of open information. The statistics, as much as can be gathered, are staggering. Now, 70 years after the builders of the bomb created a national information security system and just a few years after 9/11, a government secrecy crisis is looming. Secrecy explores the hidden world of national security policy by examining the many implications of secrecy, both for government and individuals. The film takes us inside the inverted world of government secrecy as we share the experiences of lawyers, CIA analysts, and the ordinary people for whom secrecy becomes a matter of life and death.

The Water Front
Documentary / Official Selection / Sat . Oct 4, approx. 2:10pm
Directed by Liz Miller
2007 | 53 min | USA | www.waterfrontmovie.com
The Water Front is the story of an American city in crisis but it is not just about water. The story touches on the very essence of our democratic system and is an unnerving indication of what is in store for residents around the world facing their own water struggles. With a shrinking population, the post-industrial city of Highland Park, Michigan is on the verge of financial collapse. The state of Michigan has appointed an Emergency Financial Manager who sees the water plant as key to economic recovery. She has raised water rates and has implemented severe measures to collect on bills. As a result, Highland Park residents have received water bills as high as $10,000, they have had their water turned off, their homes foreclosed, and are struggling to keep water, a basic human right, from becoming privatized.

An Afternoon of BullFrog Films is sponsored by BullFrog Films.

Family Showcase

For A Few Marbles More
Children’s Short / Official Selection / Sat . Oct 4, 12:30pm
Directed by Jelmar Hufen
2006 | 11 min | Netherlands | www.myspace.com/forafewmarblesmore
Four ten–year-olds are kicked out of their favorite playground by two aggressive drunkards. When they realize their parents are not going to help them, there’s only one solution. They have to find a way to get the toughest boy in the neighborhood to help them. The Family Showcase is sponsored by Quadrant.

Beginning Filmmaking
Documentary Short / Official Selection / Sat . Oct 4, approx. 12:45pm
Directed by Jay Rosenblatt
2008 | 23 min | USA | www.jayrosenblattfilms.com
It has been two and a half years since Ella said she wanted to be a filmmaker. For her fourth birthday, her filmmaker father Jay Rosenblatt surprises her with a video camera. Beginning Filmmaking takes us through one year of trying to teach a preschooler how to make a film, demonstrating both the joys and frustrations of being a parent and of being a child, and that old or young, you really do have to be careful what you wish for.

The Hollow Tree
Children’s Fantasy / Official Selection / Sat . Oct 4, approx. 1:05pm
Directed by Patrick Steward
2008 | 23 min | USA | www.the-hollow-tree.com
A deal is struck. Timmy is allowed to hide from his mother in the bookshop, and in return, Wolfincrass tells him a story. The only story meant for Timothy; for only one book, one story, Wolfincrass goes on to explain, is truly meant for one person. The story is "The Hollow Tree," and Timothy falls completely into another world. There will be a discussion with the director and selected cast and crew following the film.

The Family Showcase is sponsored by Quadrant.

Berks Movie Madness Competition Shorts - 180 Minutes
All Genres/ Competition Winners/ Sat . Oct 4, 3:15pm
Competition sponsored by Comcast

Foreign Filmmaking Showcase

La Corona
Documentary Short / Official Selection / Sat . Oct 4, 3:15pm
Directed by Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega
2008 | 40 min | USA
La Corona captures the days leading up to a beauty pageant whose contestants include murderers, guerrillas, and thieves. The contestants are inmates of the largest women's prison in Bogota, Colombia. The winner will be crowned Queen, but she won't be invited on a press tour as a role model for young girls. Instead, she will be escorted back to her cell.

Burundi Film Center – Five Short Films
Drama / Official Selection / Sat . Oct 4, approx. 3:55pm
2007 | 50 min | Burundi | www.burundifilmcenter.org
Burundi Film Center presents five short dramatic films with themes of love, AIDS, poverty, triumph, abuse, sacrifice and reconciliation - straight from the heart of Africa. Burundian youth aged 18-25 were taught the basics of film theory and production in the summer of 2007 by international filmmakers through this media development pilot-project with no outside funding or resources. The results are stories both universal to the human condition and unique to the tiny, war ravaged East African nation of Burundi. Experience the first productions from an organization under the simple mandate to 'Inspire. Educate. Entertain.'

Welcome to Nollywood
Documentary / Official Selection / Sat . Oct 4, approx. 4:45pm
Directed by Jamie Meltzer
2007 | 58 min | USA | www.welcometonollywood.com
Welcome to Nollywood tells the story of the Nigerian film industry, known as Nollywood, which has exploded in the last ten years. The sheer volume of Nigerian video films is staggering: one estimate has a film being produced for each day of the year. Nollywood is now the third-largest film industry in the world and yet this vibrant, profitable industry is virtually unknown outside of Africa. Director Jamie Meltzer has created a fascinating look into this newly emerging film industry, exploring its peculiar inner workings, economic challenges, and diverse array of colorful films. The film tells the stories of three directors and their latest productions using interviews with scholars, actors, and journalists who celebrate the industry in insightful and often humorous ways.

Monster Camp
Documentary / Official Selection / Sat . Oct 4, 7:15pm
Directed by Cullen Hoback
2007 | 81 min | USA | www.monstercampthemovie.com
Monster Camp meticulously examines the lives of die-hard gamers at NERO Seattle, one of 50 franchises worldwide that abides by similar principles, rules, and ideologies. For 48 consecutive hours, participants immerse themselves in a world completely unlike our own. Software engineers, department store managers, and high school students by day, for one weekend each month these players transform themselves into warriors, sorcerers, dwarves, and lizard people. It is a place where people can be anything, dress any ways, and have almost any power. Where players inhabit a world of fantasy, chivalry, and imagination. A world of their own creation. If only for one weekend a month.

The Linguists
Documentary / Official Selection / Sat . Oct 4, 7:15pm
Directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel Miller and Jeremy Newberger
2008 | 65 min | USA | www.thelinguists.com
Like modern-day explorers, two professors, David Harrison and Gregory Anderson travel to forgotten places around the globe to unearth rare treasures—in this case, endangered languages. On a shoestring budget, they navigate difficult terrain, searching for speakers of these forgotten and mostly hidden languages. Language diversity is shrinking as colonialism and economic unrest destroy traditional tribal tongues. These humble ethnographers are in a race against time to preserve the increasingly rare words, which are intricately linked to the vanishing traditions and heritage of Indigenous populations. Well-paced and laced with humor, the film serves as an insightful, contemporary adventure film with a strong emphasis on cultural history.

Alexandra
Drama / Official Selection / Sat . Oct 4, 9pm
Directed by Aleksandr Sokurov
2007 | 95 min | Russia | www.cinemaguild.com/alexandra
In a desolate, sun-scorched corner of the world, an elderly woman has come to see her beloved grandson, a young officer stationed at a remote military outpost. With the enemy just beyond the compound, she wanders the barracks, observing the routines of military life, before making a sudden trip into the outlying countryside. Featuring a mesmerizing performance by Russian opera legend Galina Vishnevskaya, Alexandra is a viscerally powerful new film from the great Alexander Sokurov.

Pretty Ugly People
Drama - Comedy / First Place Competition Feature Film / Sat . Oct 4, 9pm
Directed by Tate Taylor
2008 | 88 min | USA | www.prettyuglypeople.com
A dying woman’s wish brings six estranged friends together in the Montana wilderness. Lucy has battled obesity her entire life and with the “little time she has left”, she wants to spend a final weekend together with her college friends like once remembered. Upon arriving, Lucy’s friends soon discover the reality of the situation isn’t what they had expected. On the flip side, Lucy soon realizes her friends are a far cry from whom she remembered and that her final wish wasn’t the best of ideas after all. Pretty Ugly People stars Missi Pyle (Charlie and The Chocolate Factory,) Allison Janney (The West Wing,) Melissa McCarthy (Gilmore Girls,) and Josh Hopkins (Swingtown.). Film Competition sponsored by Comcast.

Public Interest
Comedy / Selected Competition Feature / Sat . Oct 4, 11pm
Directed by Brad Robinson
2008 | 85 min | USA | www.publicinterestmovie.com
A biting satire on how obsessed our culture has become with reality television, Public Interest delves into the minds and actions of those who put these programs on the air, those who aspire to be on them, and ultimately, the American culture that has become obsessed with them. Looking not only at how crazy the phenomenon has become, but also how outrageous it could easily get, Public Interest is a 'must see' for anyone who loves OR hates reality television. Film Competition sponsored by Comcast.

Doctor Infierno
Horror-Comedy / Selected Competition Feature / Sat . Oct 4, 11pm
Directed by Paco Limon
2007 | 84 min | Spain | www.melanomafilms.net
Doc Hell, famous gynecologist, wants to control the entire world. His plan: to heal humanity using a miraculous medicine, in exchange for its complete submission. But his goals are compromised by an unexpected detail, Nurse García seeks revenge. When the killer sent to eliminate her fails, the nurse, her would be killer, a neighbor’s boyfriend, her building manager, and a handful of other nasty people all become involved in a crazy madness under the secret bunker of the Doctor Hell. Film not for young audiences. Film Competition sponsored by Comcast.

La Capture
Drama / Official Selection / Sun. Oct. 5, 1:15pm
Directed by Carole Laure
2007 | 92 min | French (Canada)| www.sevillepictures.com
Rose posses a natural elegance and candor beyond her years. But beneath the gloss, Rose hides a dark secret that neither her friends nor her lover know about; her childhood in a violent family household. Two years after leaving Montreal Rose returns to visit her mother and her brother, Felix, in their suburban home. Nothing has changed; her mother's resignation, her brother's victimization, and her father's abusiveness. Rose decides it's time to act. She kidnaps and sequesters her father in an attempt to change the course of her family's life. Little by little, she assumes the role of head of the family, but her determination is countered by her father's resistance. Captured, will he capitulate? Will Rose and her family be able to recover and rebuild a decent life? Film not for young audiences.

Berks Movie Madness Selected Competition Shorts - 64 Minutes
All Genres/ Competition/ Sun. Oct. 5, 1:15pm
Competition sponsored by Comcast

Flying Pumpkins, The Legend of Pumpkin Chunkin
Documentary / Selected Competition Feature / Sun. Oct. 5, 3:30pm
Directed by Costa Mantis
2008 | 88 min | USA | www.flyingpumpkinsthemovie.com
What makes people tick? Is fun important? Is stress over-rated? Come along and have some fun with an unlikely assortment of men, women and children who share a common passion - making pumpkins fly! Did you know that the current world record for a flying pumpkin is 4,428.34 feet? Do you dare indulge yourself in pure, silly, unadulterated fun? These folks do - and you should see the fun they have doing it! Flying Pumpkins, The Legend of Punkin Chunkin chronicles their shared passions and the fun they have making pumpkins fly. Film Competition sponsored by Comcast.

The Universe of Keith Haring
Documentary / Official Selection / Sun. Oct. 5, 3pm
Directed by Christina Clausen
2008 | 90 min | France – Italy | www.arthousefilmsonline.com
The creator of some of the most popular, enduring images of late 20th-century art, Berks County native Keith Haring was also an iconic figure of the downtown New York scene in the '80s. This documentary offers an affectionate, deeply personal glimpse into Haring's life. Haring's family and childhood friends offer anecdotes about the artist's early years, when he basked in '60s pop culture and developed a penchant for drawing, but it is the recollections of the '70's and '80s New York art scene that form the heart and soul of this documentary. The film also examines Haring's oft-repeated maxim that "art is for everyone," his then-controversial decision to open Pop Shop and his openness about his AIDS diagnosis at time when few were willing to discuss the disease publicly. The Universe of Keith Haring does not, however, dwell on Haring's untimely death at the age of 31-rather; it celebrates the spirit of his life and his art, which continue to have a lasting influence.

There will be a discussion after the film with Keith’s family, friends, and fellow artists.