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WEST
VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
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19th ANNUAL SPRING FILM FESTIVAL April 29 - May 2, 2004 WVSC
Capitol Center Theater GENERAL
CONTACT INFORMATION ADMISSION
PRICES Festival
Package and Six-Ticket Package go on sale April 26. TO PURCHASE ADVANCE TICKETS: You may purchase in advance only the Festival Package and Six-Ticket Package by stopping by the Theater Box Office (123 Summers Street, telephone 304-342-6522) during regular business hours on or after April 26. NOTE, you should call the theater prior to arrival to confirm personnel is on site. We accept checks as well as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, and Diner's Club.
NOTE: Film schedule, times may change without notice. WVIFF reserves the right to hold an event which may require purchase of a separate ticket. WVIFF reserves the right to screen short films before feature films, which will be included with the price of admission to the subsequent feature film.
ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION: Wheelchair seating, accessible restroom, and water fountain available on first level of theater. For speech/hearing impaired, call WV Relay, 711-342-6522. Upon 4 days' advance notice, the WVIFF can make available the following special needs and services requests: large-print program and/or audio description of each film program and interpreter and/or device for hearing and visually impaired patrons.
PDf File of the Flyer PDF Accessible Text File for visual impairment HTML Text Version
FILM SCHEDULE Thursday, Apr. 29
6:30
p.m. Featuring
Director Van Flesher Comedy
(USA) Max is a college student whose universe is defined by the "cautionary tale" of Annie Hall, a guy who only reaches out to the world through a radio show that he prays nobody listens to. "Burning Annie" is a humorous slice of college life, filled with authentic characters and moments sure to strike a chord. It is an up-close look at the fallout of our media-saturated society, a love story for the post-existential generations, and a wise-beyond-its-hero's-years study of human interaction that delivers poignancy and laughs to spare.
9:00
p.m.
Documentary expert Errol Morris directs "The Fog of War", a captivating look at Robert S. McNamara, who servedas the Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The movie does not exclusively focus on this part of McNamara's career, however, and instead gives a broad overview of the man he was, his multitude of roles -- a Harvard Business School graduate, a Colonel in the Air Force during WWII, president of Ford Motor Company -- and his opinions on a variety of historical topics. Inspired by two books written by McNamara, Morris gives McNamara a forum to talk about the decisions he made and the influence he had during his career.
Friday, Apr. 30
6:30
p.m.
In contemporary Russia young brothers Vanya and Andrey have grown a deep attachment to each other to make up for their fatherless childhood. Running home after a fight with neighborhood kids the boys are shocked to discover their father has returned after a 12-year absence. With their mother's uneasy blessing Vanya and Andrey set out on what they believe will be a fishing vacation with their taciturn father.
8:30
p.m. Oscar
Winner for Foreign Language Film
Denys Arcand's "The Barbarian Invasions" is a story about the humor, hope and unspoken bonds that hold family and friends together against the onslaughts of life in our contemporary times. Winner of two major awards at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, the film merges Arcand's alternately witty and tender storytelling style with his most deeply emotional tale to date: that of a father and son who think they have nothing left in common until -- hit with a major crisis --they learn to share an insatiable appetite for life.
10:30
p.m.
Left alone in Paris whilst their parents are on holiday, Isabelle (Eva Green) and her brother Theo (Louis Garrel) invite Matthew (Michael Pitt), a young American student, to stay at their apartment. Here they make their own rules as they experiment with their emotions and sexuality while playing a series of increasingly demanding mind games. Set against the turbulent political backdrop of France in the spring of 1968 when the voice of youth was reverberating around Europe, Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Dreamers" is a story of self-discovery as the three students test each other to see just how far they will go.
Saturday, May 1
3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. Winner of three Oscar nominations
Drama (Canada)
Delft, Holland, 1665. After her father, a tile painter, is blinded in a kiln explosion, seventeen-year-old Griet must work to support her family. She becomes a maid in the house of Johannes Vermeer and gradually attracts the master painter's attention. Though worlds apart in upbringing, education and social standing, Vermeer recognizes Griet's intuitive understanding of color and light and slowly draws her into the mysterious world of his paintings. Alone and unprotected, Griet also contends with the attentions of Pieter, a local butcher boy, and Vermeer's patron, the wealthy and lascivious Master van Ruijven, who is frustrated that his money does not buy him control over the artist. While Griet falls increasingly under Vermeer's spell, she cannot be sure of his feelings for her.
5:00 p.m. Oscar nominee for Best
Animated Feature
In this animated French film, a boy named Champion trains relentlessly for the Tour de France, with the help of his loyal grandmother and overweight dog, Bruno (who loves to bark at passing trains). When the big race comes, Champion and a few of his fellow racers are kidnapped by some box-shouldered thugs who spirit them off to Belleville (a surreal impression of 1930s-1950s Manhattan) where they are forced to pedal as part of a clandestine gambling operation. Bruno and grandma set out across the sea in a paddle boat to rescue their boy, but once ashore they soon become lost, hungry and penniless, that is until the frog-eating Triplets of Belleville, former scat singing jazz prodigies turned experimental musicians, come to their rescue. Filled with inspired, twisted imagery, this nearly dialogue-free film is a crowd-pleaser of unusual power, with the strange, measured pacing of a dream, and a great soundtrack of bizarre alternate-reality '30s jazz. It also offers a touching and believable evocation of a dog's life.
7:00
p.m.
Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock hit the road and interviewed experts in 20 U.S. cities, including Houston, the "Fattest City" in America. From Surgeon Generals to gym teachers, cooks to kids, lawmakers to legislators, these authorities shared their research, opinions and "gut feelings" on our ever-expanding girth. During the journey, Spurlock also put his own body on the line, living on nothing but McDonald's for an entire month with three simple rules: 1) No options: he could only eat what was available over the counter (water included!) 2) No supersizing unless offered 3) No excuses: he had to eat every item on the menu at least once It all adds up to a fat food bill, harrowing visits to the doctor, and compelling viewing for anyone who's ever wondered if man could live on fast food alone. "Super Size Me" is a satirical jab in the stomach, overstuffed with fat and facts about the billion-dollar industry besieged by doctors, lawyers and nutritionists alike. "Would you like fries with that?" will never sound the same!
9:30 p.m. Starring:
John Robinson, Elias McConnell, Alex Frost, Eric Deulen
Winner of the Palme d'Or and Best Director prizes at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, Gus Van Sant's Elephant takes us inside an American high school on what appears to be an ordinary day. With "Elephant," Van Sant works with actual high school students to create a portrait of teenagers in today's volatile world. "Elephant" unfolds on an ordinary day, filled with class work, football, gossip and socializing. The film observes the comings and goings of its characters from a gentle remove, allowing us to see them as they are. For each of the students we meet, high school is a different experience: stimulating, friendly, traumatic, lonely, hard. Beautiful and poetic -- yet deeply disturbing -- "Elephant" shows high school life as a complex landscape where the vitality and incandescent beauty of young lives can shift from light to darkness with surreal speed. An ordinary high school day. Except that it's not.
Sunday,
May 2 Student
films
Division III – college
5:00 p.m. A grieving young man learns to deal with his father's death by remembering his father's story of Wiener, a brilliant professor with an unusual problem. This short drama, filmed in black-and-white, was written and directed by Wheeling native Preston DeFrancis as part of the MFA program at the University of Southern California. Hungry
Hearts http://imdb.com/title/tt0294631/ The story focuses on a young, up-and-coming chef, Miles (S. Greg Gardner), who caters a party at the home of Hollywood socialite (Susan Blakely) for four mysterious women only to discover they have a shocking surprise in store for him. As the twisted tale unfolds, Miles begins to get closer to each of the guests and begins to relate to their problems. 7:00 p.m.
"The Company" is an opportunity for iconic Director Robert Altman to bring his fluid, masterful camera-work to the world of dance. Altman's vision for the film is an extremely intimate one: we will see the difficult daily work, the intense pressures of performance, the richly textured behaviors of the dancers -- whose professional and personal lives grow impossibly close -- and of course the sheer beauty of dance: exhilarating, kinetic, and thrillingly observed. The authenticity and richness of "The Company" is rooted in the unprecedented way in which Altman will shoot the film: with the complete cooperation of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. The only actor who worked as part of the Joffrey corps is Neve Campbell ("Scream"). Campbell, an accomplished dancer, studied with The National Ballet of Canada before becoming an actress. She originated "The Company," the culmination of a long-held dream to create a nuanced and realistic film about a world for which she has deep and abiding affection.
9 p.m. www.zeitgeistfilms/current/dracula/dracula.html Maverick filmmaker Guy Maddin used a commission by the CBC to transform a ballet by the Royal Winnepeg Ballet (music from Gustav Mahler Symphonies 1 & 2) into a witty, provocative film, widely hailed as one of the best and strangest Draculas ever. This delightfully demented bodice-ripper in black and white and red welds silent-film technique, sensual music, seductive dancing and avant- garde imagery into a hallucinatory masterpiece full of cultural digs and unforgettable images.
SPRING
2004 STUDENT FILMMAKING WINNERS Click Here
Spring
2001 Film Festival  |
http://sonyclassics.com/fogofwar/
http://kino.com/thereturn/mainframe.html
http://www.miramax.com/thebarbarianinvasions/index.html
http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/thedreamers/
www.girlwithapearlearringmovie.com/
http://sonyclassics.com/triplets/
http://supersizeme.com/
http://www.elephantmovie.com/
http://www.sonyclassics.com/thecompany/