Best Feature Film
Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame

Fresh, funny and original
-Variety

This visually powerful film combines wit and drama as it explores a young black woman's journey towards accepting the body she once despised. Cicely, who just lost 57 pounds, has been cast in her first film role. But her director/boyfriend has failed to mention that her part includes a nude scene. Cicely tries desperately to keep both her role and her clothes. It doesn't work, and by the film's hauntingly emotional climax, Cicely must reveal a secret that she once hid safely amidst her physical girth - a revelation that explains why emotional nakedness is far more challenging than nudity could ever be.

Bridgett M. Davis is an independent filmmaker and Associate Professor of English at City University in New York. Ms. Davis will be at the screening to discuss her work as it relates to feminism, body politics and blaxploitation films of the 70's.

Alan Berliner illustrates the power of fine
art to transform life.
- The New York Times

A film of unusual charms and
stylistic verve... affecting and
revealing.
-Variety

Brilliantly funny and pieringly real.
- USA Today

Director Alan Berliner takes on his reclusive father as the reluctant subject of this poignant and graceful study of family history and memory. What emerges is a uniquely cinematic biography that finds both humor and pathos in the swirl of conflicts and affections that bind father and son. Ultimately this complex portrait is a meeting of the minds - where the past meets the present, where generations collide, and where the boundaries of family life are pushed, pulled stretched, torn and surprisingly, also healed.

Nobody's Business has won numerous awards and screened at festivals worldwide including: The International Film Critics Association Prize - Berlin Internationl Film Festival, Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature - Florida Film Festiva, and the Grand Prize - Visions Du Reel Internation Documentary Film Festival in Switzerland.

Karen's short documentary captures the 65 year romance between her paternal parents. The work received an Honoarble Mention in the personal documentary category of the 1996 Jewish Video Competition.

This documentary focuses on the humorous, sometimes explosive, but undeniably loving relationship between Sy and Marty Weissman, two middle aged New York brothers. Despite their open antagonism towards one another, Sy and Marty refuse to destroy the bonds between them. Artist will be in attendance.

This delightful animated short tells the tale of a new kid on the block as he befriends his Hasidic neighbor and learns a valuable lesson in tolerance and friendship.

In Rich Maldonado's fantasy world he fancies himself as a suave Latino Cassanova who dabbles in high stakes gambling and occasionally takes on Micheal Jordan for a little one on one. When he calls a phone sex line, his dreams turn into nightmares.

Beth is an embittered woman who has sacrificed her career, her friends and her self-esteem in order to care for her mentally disturbed husband, Vic. One day, after a series of frustrating events, she decides to change her life and her fate.

Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, Vertigo is about two young women who arrive at a funeral home to pay homage to a high school friend who has died in a strange accident. They each carry a secret burden, cruel childhood betrayals of the dead girl. But how can one receive redemption from the dead?

Richard Nickels is frustrated with his failing acting career and part time gig dealing black market guns. Opportunity knocks when his look alike neighbor, a traveling salesman, drops dead of a heart attack. When Nickels trades identities with the dead man he discovers that his new suitcase of wares contains more than just ceramic buddhas.

12:00am
Awry (77 min)
Kerry Lee Perry - Bremerton
Strange circumstances surround the murder of a teenage girl in a small town. The main suspects is a disc jockey who is known for his outlandish commentaries on guns, police and drugs. Described as "Slacker meets Twin Peaks" Awry includes music from local bands The Jack Trippers, Woodrot and El Topo.