Adam Stein (Jeff Goldblum) was a top Jewish entertainer in pre World War II Berlin - cabaret impresario, circus owner, magician, musician--loved by audiences of all backgrounds - until he finds himself in a concentration camp, run by Commandant Klein. Adam survives the camp by becoming the Commandant's "dog", entertaining him while his own wife and daughter are sent off to die. Years later Adam is in a mental institution for survivors of Holocaust. One day, Adam smells something, hears a sound. "Who brought a dog in here?" he asks Dr. Gross. Gross denies there is a dog but Adam finds him--a young boy raised in a basement on a chain. Adam and the boy see and recognize each other as dogs--and their journey begins. Adam Resurrected is the story of a man who once was a dog who meets a dog who once was a boy.

Preceded by: Lessons from a Tailor (Galen Summer, 2009, 8 minutes) The story of how one man survived the Holocaust and then the fashion

At the center of 24-year-old director Antonio Campos's debut feature, Afterschool, is the 21st Century media technology. With the advent of You Tube and cell-phone video cameras, everything from giggling babies to impromptu acts of violence has become internet entertainment. In such a world, can young people engage in reality without the distance the screen creates? Robert is a sophomore at an east coast prep school, assigned to capture stock footage for the video yearbook. When his assignment leads him to inadvertently filming the gruesome deaths of two of his classmates, Robert's world is altered forever. Campos manages to keep the social criticism to a minimum (though that criticism sears), instead he focuses on storytelling ? the ever-shifting allegiances of high school, the generational misunderstandings, and the difficulties of growing up. As a result, Afterschool is one of the most assured debut features in some time.

'Had these Boston bad boys stuck it out beyond their 1966 debut, we might today be calling them--and not the Stones--the World's Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band. As it is, The Remains most certainly are America's greatest lost band,' - Mark Kemp, June 2007 Paste Magazine.

The Remains appeared on Ed Sullivan, opened for the Beatles, and then broke up just on the brink of fame. America's Lost Band is a documentary of The Remains' return to Los Angeles for the first time in 40 years - since opening for the Beatles - a film that follows a group of 60-year-old musicians back together pursuing their passion. It's the story of what happens when a band reaches the cusp of rock greatness, but doesn't make it over the final hurdle ? and what happens when they put the past aside to renew the pursuit for greatness.

Preceded by: Electric Revolution, (Mark Moorman, 11 minutes, USA) which documents Gage Brewer's world premiere performan

Every year thousands compete in the world's greatest singing competition ... that you've never heard of. American Harmony journeys deep into the obsessive, zany, heartfelt world of competitive barbershop singing, where passion is equaled only by talent, and the reward is not fame or fortune, but simply victory. The film focuses on four quartets vying to win the International Championships of Barbershop Singing, in what turns out to be the closest and most controversial victory in its 70 year history. Max Q is the heavy favorite - a superstar quartet comprised of former Champions. Looking to upset them is OC Times (The Heart-Throbs), Vocal Spectrum (The Rookies) and Reveille, an aging foursome who that has been together for 30 years.

Preceded by: Pickin' & Trimmin' (Matt Morris, 2008, 11 minutes, USA) drops by The Barbershop in Drexel, North Carolina, where the atmosphere is laid back and the music is a cut above the rest.

Eddie Adams photographed 13 wars, six American Presidents, and every major film star of the last 50 years. History would be changed through his lens. But the person Eddie found hardest to impress was himself. In 1968, in 1/500th of a second Eddie Adams photographed a Saigon police chief, General Nygoc Loan, shooting a Vietcong guerilla point black. Some say that photograph ended the Vietnam War. The photo brought Eddie fame and a Pulitzer, but he was haunted by the man he had vilified. He would say, 'Two lives were destroyed that day, the victim's and the general.' Others would say three lives were destroyed. Featuring narration by Kiefer Sutherland and a score by Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens (Letters from Iwo Jima).

Preceded by: Summer '79 (Rodrigo Oviedo, 2007, 19 minutes, Mexico). Rogelio and Chepo, are best friends with different interests. Yet something unexpected happens when they are reunited as adults with a score

"Any Day Now is an enlightening performance documentary that tracks the 'Ten out of Tenn' tour in the summer of 2008. Not unlike the 'cinema verité' style of the 60's, the ten singer/songwriters allow us a brief glimpse into the lives of musicians today. While traveling on Willie Nelson's old beat up 1984 tour bus, the musicians leave their mark on every city both literally and figuratively. Together the musicians reveal an era of music and define the age of their time while savoring the experience and sense of family that was created.
Performances by: Andy Davis, Butterfly Boucher, Erin McCarley, Griffin House, Jeremy Lister, KS Rhoads, Katie Herzig, Matthew Perryman Jones, Trent Dabbs, Tyler James, and Will Sayles."


Preceded by Fingers (Danny Mooney, 2008, 22 minutes, USA) Why do you do what you do?

Based on actual events, April Showers is about picking up the pieces in the direct aftermath of school violence. Set in a middle class suburban neighborhood, April Showers focuses on the lives of a handful of teachers and students as they attempt to make sense of a world that has just been turned upside down by one of their own. With the community and an entire nation caught up in the 'story', the students of Jefferson High must turn to one another for answers. In the wake atrocity, the rifts caused by misinformation and a frenzied media prove difficult to overcome. Lost and lonely under the international spotlight, one young man navigates his way through his almost indiscernible home. From quaint suburban town to battlefield turned media circus, Jefferson High provides the backdrop for Sean's struggle to cope with the loss of his friend April.

The great band Wilco have 8 HD cameras and 42 channels of Pro Tools follow them around the south while they play small historic venues to rabid crowds, while allowing us to view the south through these veteran travelers eyes. Beautifully shot, edited and mixed, this film is proof that they are the most inventive group of musicians since The Band.

Don't Ask Don't Tell remains one of the most blatant forms of government discrimination existing as law. Director Johnny Symons' Ask Not is a rare and compelling exploration of the effects of the US military's policy against openly gay service members. A provocative portrait of bravery amidst exclusion, the film reveals the personal stories of Americans willing to risk their lives for a country that criminalizes the act of coming out of the closet. Current and veteran gay soldiers reveal how 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' affects them and their loved ones during their tours of duty, as they struggle to maintain a life of required secrecy, and powerfully provokes thoughtful dialogue about the merits of banning those who are honest about their identities from serving their country.

Preceded by: Appassionata (Mirko Echghi-Ghamasari, 2008, 16 minutes, Germany) A German soldier awaiting his doom spots a piano in the no-man's land between

When it's not autism, what is it? The diagnosis of autism has become synonymous with controversy. Autistic-Like: Graham's Story, a tender personal documentary capturing one couple's ardent journey to help their son, does little to quell the various disputes about the neurological disorder. The film questions the CDC's 1 in 150's estimates and suggests many diagnoses may not be autism. Ruffling the feathers of some of the autism community's myriad of factions, the couple dive into the Applied Behavior Analysis method, merge into the once highly controversial Options program, and find harmony with the relational model of Floor Time. Though disturbing to many within the autism community for its bold assertions, the film is a stereotype-stretching, heart-connecting and accurate portrayal of the many facets of the enigmatic diagnosis: how developmental disability demands the time, patience and resources of a family, complicated by the madde

Baghdad Diary is a documentary on the Iraq War and its aftermath told from two unique perspectives. Beginning in March 2003, Iraqi taxi driver Fadil Kadom's video diary includes his family's preparations for war, the days of bombs and missiles and Baghdad's fall. Kadom's camera unmasks the horrors of Saddam's torture houses and mass graves, celebrates the return of religious freedom in Karbala, and reveals the mounting fear as Iraqi streets turn increasingly deadly with the horrific explosion of insurgent and sectarian violence. NBC News cameraman Craig White, embedded with the US Army, brings the war into American living rooms. In nine dangerous trips to Iraq, White's camera chronicles everything ? from the disintergration of Iraqi civil society to the death of his colleague, correspondent David Bloom. Baghdad Diary is a cautionary tale of war's human toll.

Preceded by Crew 54 (Nedelcho Bogdanov, 2008, 15 minutes, Bulgaria) is

Reminiscent of the fantastic Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, Marie-Helene Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu's debut feature, Before Tomorrow represents another great stride forward in Inuit filmmaking. Ningiuq and Kutuujuk are elders of a 19th-century Inuit family. In the summer season, they join with neighboring families to share stories, celebrate, dine, and inter-marry. This year, however, the stories are about the impending advance of foreigners. After a bountiful catch, Ningiuq, her grandson Maniq, and Kutuujuk volunteer to stay behind and dry the fish for the upcoming winter. When Kutuujuk falls ill and no one from the family arrives to take them home, Ningiuk fears the worst. When they must begin the treacherous journey home on their own ? they discover that their fears may have been an underestimation. Before Tomorrow is proof that the tradition of the indigenous storyteller has been passed down to new generations in cinematic fo

Recent Japanese cinema has certainly seen its share of oddities, but none quite as odd as Big Man Japan. Dai Soto is a strangely-dressed, oddly obsessive, 40-something who complains that he doesn't get to see enough of his daughter. There seems to be little remarkable about him. So why is a TV crew interviewing him at the outset of Hitosi Matumoto's head trip of a movie? Oh, that's because when the Defense Department calls, he expands (through some great CGI) to a skyscraper tall giant in purple underpants who fights off the many monsters that attack Japan (don't they always?). The film is a series of clashes ? each more outrageous than the previous ? with a finale evoking the six-nation negotiations to disarm North Korea. What could have been repetitive remains constantly fresh (and hilarious) thanks to Matumoto's seemingly endless imagination. Sure to become a cult classic!

Michael Phelps set the world on fire this past summer with his speed and dominance at the Olympics, but there's another swimmer who holds some might impressive records ? and he drinks two bottles of wine day and swims the lengths of the world's longest rivers. His name is Marin Strel, a Slovenian endurance swimmer who has conquered the Mississippi, the Danube, and the Yangtze ? highlighting pollution in the world. Now in his fifties, he attempts his greatest feat yet ? the Amazon. Part sports documentary, part environmental documentary (Strel is highlighting the deforestation of the Amazon River basin), and part quirky character study, John Maringouin's Big River Man is roller coaster of emotions that highlights man's relationship to the natural world around him. Produced in part by Nashville native Kevin Ragsdale with a score from his brother, Rich Ragsdale, Big River Man is a documentary experience not to be missed. Big River Man

Three short films that paint a picture of the diverse journeys in Black American life.

Ink (Marianne Jean-Baptiste, 2009, 21 minutes, USA) is the tale of a talented tattoo artist and single mother dying of AIDS and determined to do so with grace.
Redemption Stone ? The Life and Times of Tom Lewis (Tom Dziedzic, 2008, 30 minutes, USA) is the journey of one African-American storyteller who, after a life as a soldier and riot cop, opens The Fishing School where he helps young DC children turn hardship into hope.
In Witness ? From the Balcony of Room 306 (Adam Petrofsky, 2008, 32 minutes, USA) we meet the Reverend Samuel Kyles ? who stood next to Dr. Martin Luthur King Jr. on that terrible day in 1968 when a murderer's bullet took him from this earth.

Winner of the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Film and Best Actor prizes at the Sarajevo Film Festival, Buick Rivera is the story of two men from the ex-Yugoslavian nation of Bosnia - one a muslim and the other an Orthodox Christian. Both have emigrated to America and on one fateful night they meet and change each other's lives forever in the middle of the snow-covered plains. Part road movie, part psychological drama, Buick Riviera is an examination of the loneliness two men face in the process of adjusting to new lives in a foreign country, and the question if such a process could erase the inevitable nostalgia for home. It's also an examination of whether the move to a new nation can eliminate the differences created by a war a continent away.

Les Blank came to Sinking Creek often over the years bringing his iconic films with him. In 1983, he premiered Burden of Dreams and told the audience, 'I thought I was in the hands of a madman.' After seeing this benchmark film - marking a high point in the 'making-of' genre, you'll see why. For nearly five years, Werner Herzog struggled against all odds to complete his most ambitious project: Fitzcarraldo, the story of one man's attempt to build an opera house in the Amazon jungle. Blank captured the unfolding and unraveling of the overzealous filmmaker and his project. Named one of the 100 best films of the 20th Century, Burden of Dreams remains an extraordinary document of the filmmaking process and provides a unique look into the single-minded mission of one of cinema's most fearless directors.


Preceded by: Frank Film (Frank Mouris, 1973, 9 minutes, USA) Premiering at Sinking Creek in 1973, this Academy Award-winning

To make Capturing Reality, director Pepita Ferrari interviewed a number of prominent documentary filmmakers - Werner Herzog, Kim Longinotto, Albert Maysles, and Errol Morris to name a few. Ferrari's goal was to find out where they get their inspiration and what their view is on their profession. The interviews are spliced with short excerpts that illustrate their arguments and beliefs. The entire process of documentary filmmaking is addressed, from the planning and research to the final edit. Some directors attach a great deal of importance to solid preparation through research; others prefer to be surprised by locations and subjects. Some argue for more attention to visuals; others follow their subjects with small digital cameras, making concessions in cinematic quality in favor of the story. But the primary topic is the filmmaker, and ultimately for fans of documentary cinema, Capturing Reality becomes a celebration of the truth.

Yes, they are animated. No, they are not for children.

A toon hating executive has a hare raising experience when he meets an out of work toon rabbit in Animated America (James Baker, Joe Haidar, 2008, 15 minutes, USA)

These cutecutecute (Clemens Kogler, 2008, 2 minutes, Austria) little critters will give you guidance to navigate this #*%ed up world.

A dog...An electric collar...And plenty to bark at...Sparks will fly in Dog with Electric Collar (Steve Baker, 2008, 5 minutes, Australia)!

Two asymmetric men compete for a woman's attention through shameless and shameful acts in E1even Roses (Pedram Goshtasbpour, 2008, 5 minutes, USA).

Dark family secrets cast a shadow over Bill's recovery, in I Am So Proud of You (Don Hertzfeldt, 2009, 22 minutes, USA), the sequel to Don Hertzfeldt's Everything Will be OK.

In Sebastian's Voodoo (Joaquin Baldwin, 2008, 5 minutes, USA) a voodoo doll must find the courage...

The American Dream is both a blessing and a curse in Tze Chun's Children of Invention. Single mother Elaine Cheng struggles to support her two children ? Raymond and Tina - by juggling various jobs and selling various products freelance. When one too many of these products turns out to be nothing more than a pyramid scheme, the family finds itself homeless, and Elaine ? in the US illegally ? finds herself at risk of deportation. Meanwhile, Raymond dreams of various inventions hoping that, one day, one of them will make him rich enough to care for the whole family. Chun (whose short film Windowbreaker played NaFF in 2007) weaves a gentle tale of lives on the brink, but by telling it largely from the point of view of the children gives the audience a sense of wonder and hope. And isn't that what the American Dream is truly about?

Preceded by: 3 Wheels (Tony Wei, 2009, 16 minutes, USA / China) A rickshaw driver and an America

The sprawling and humanistic Citizen Juling opens as the filmmakers ask celebrants of the 60th anniversary of King Bhumibol's corination, 'Why do you love the king?' Most respond with trepidation. A good Thai does not question the sacred ideological pillars of 'Nation, Religion, King.' Thus begins a powerful exploration of the issues surrounding the Islamic insurgency in the south of Thailand, a nation whose democracy seems constantly at risk. Since the 2004 beginnings of the separatist movement, more than 50 Buddhist educators have been brutally murdered. One of those victims was Juling Pongkunmul whose murder, just prior to the kings's coronation celebration, unified the Buddhist north against the separatists. Citizen Juling follows activist and parliamentarian Kraisak Choonhavan as he travels through the Muslim south seeking the root causes of the violence and mistrust between Thai Buddhists and Muslims who had for centuries

Kevin Smith made a rare appearance at Sinking Creek in 1994. Students from across the region flocked to catch a glimpse of this rising, shockingly young auteur. He was only 23 when he made Clerks and it still remains the ultimate cinematic tribute to slackers. Depicting a day in the life of two convenience store clerks as they annoy customers, discuss movies, and play hockey on the store roof, Smith's film is not only surprisingly charming, but remarkably cinematic. A breakout success, Clerks paved the way for future films and has influenced an entirely new generation of filmmakers. Don't miss your chance to see it on the big screen ? and don't be surprised if you spot recognizable faces in the crowd.

Preceded by: Bambi Meets Godzilla (Mary Redmond, 1969, 2 minutes, USA) Regarded as a classic of animation, this film was voted #38 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time.

It's been eight days filled with fabulous films and special events and now it's time to celebrate. Starting with The Remains and followed by Bill Lloyd and the Long Players, we couldn't imagine a better ending to celebrate 1969 and the beginning of our 40 years. Catering by Whole Foods. Admission: Laminate Holders and party ticket holders.

Directed by critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker Stacy Peralta and Executive Produced by NBA star Baron Davis and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Stephen Luczo, Crips and Bloods: Made in America tells the story of the Crips and Bloods, Los Angeles' most infamous African-American gangs. From the genesis of LA's gang culture to the shocking reality of daily life in the South L.A., the film chronicles the rise of the Crips and Bloods, tracing the origins of their bloody four-decades-long feud. Contemporary and former gang members offer their street-level testimony that provides the film with a stark portrait of modern-day gang life: the territorialism, the inter-gang hierarchy, the rules of behavior, the culture of guns, death and dishonor, and ultimately their enduring dream for a better life. They provide Made in America with its ultimate statement: a message of hope and a cautionary tale of redemption aimed at saving the lives of a

A collection of shorts for an ever-shrinking international community and the difficulty of getting through it safely.
In Cargo (Jennifer Harrington, 2008, 14 minutes, USA) a Colombian woman's efforts to make it into the US takes a frightening turn.
When his visa is denied, a young man faces deportation and a misunderstanding with the Mexican girl he's attracted to in The Loneliness of the Short Order Cook (Marcel Sawicki, 2008, 22 minutes, Poland/USA).
A Chinese man comes to America for the first time to visit his son, but his trip goes awry when he finds his son has been arrested in No Wind, No Waves (Julian Anthony Higgins, 2008, 22 minutes, USA).
Stereotypes are put to the test under the reality of living in the midst of war and terror On the Road to Tel-Aviv (Khen Shalem, 2008, 15 minutes, Israel).
In Pokerface (Denize Karabuda, 2008, 15 minutes, Sweden) an Iranian mail-order bride learns to play internet poker ? and

Three years in the making, this cin?ma-v?rit? feature from acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Brother's Keeper, Paradise Lost ? screening in the Sinking Creek retrospective ? and , Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) is the epic story of one of the largest and most controversial legal cases on the planet. An inside look at the infamous $27 billion 'Amazon Chernobyl' case, Crude is a real-life high stakes legal drama set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures. Presenting a complex situation from multiple viewpoints, the film subverts the conventions of advocacy filmmaking as it examines a complicated situation from all angles while bringing an important story of environmental peril and human suffering into focus. Crude is a nominee for the Al Gore REEL Current Award.